It was the witching hour. Halloween was over and the quiet of the night would have been pierced by the tolls of church bells, but the ropes had rotted away long ago. The Rio Blanca streets were mostly empty this time of night, though the occasional person walking about was not uncommon. No one took much notice of the two men, drunkenly hanging on each other, singing badly, and forcing their voices into the silence.
“Y volver, volver, volveeeeeeeer!” they sung loudly into the quiet night.
No one would approach these men or chastise them for disturbing the evening because they were servants of La Muerte. It would have been a quiet night for them too if not for turning the wrong corner. On every block, there was an idol of Santa Muerte, an image of death made up in the same manner of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Her skull face looked out though the black robes. Every servant of La Muerte wore a pendant of this image. The men would normally just walk by one of these idols to their mistress, and maybe pour out a bit of what they were drinking at her feet as a sign of their respect and reverence. They would normally do this but this idol was on fire.
“What the... La Señora... La Muerte… She… She’s gonna be pissed,” said one, staggering backwards a step.
“Yeah,” said the other, unsure of what to do.
Ximena appeared behind them.
“That's the point,” she said.
The men were surprised but slow in their current state. Sluggishly they turned around in time for both of them be met with a reverse roundhouse kick. Ximena spun, extending her leg backwards, and used her heel to hammer the heads of both men in one sweep, making both of them unconscious for the rest of the night. Ximena crouched over one of them and reached out to touch his head just as a van pulled up. Armed men streamed out from the side of the van including the Jeep Driver.
“Hey puta. You stole my jeep,” said the Jeep driver.
Ximena calmly stood up and turned to face her adversaries.
“And?” she asked.
“Shoot her!” yelled the Jeep Driver.
All the men drew their guns and begin firing. Clips were emptied, forcing Ximena to fall to her knees. Her clothing had become sufficiently tattered to see bullet holes scattered throughout her body. Then she got back on her feet as if uninjured and her wounds began closing up. She charged the men before they reloaded and in the melee took down several with punches and kicks. Some got back up before she could finish with the others so she kept fighting. A smile began to creep over Ximena’s face.
“You guys gotta cut this out, I'm beginning to like it,” she said.
Knives were employed when guns ran out of ammo. Some of the men managed to reload and resume their gunfire. None of it worked. Some accidentally killed each other. The rest begin to run away. She reached behind her back to remove a knife that was stuck in one of her ribs and dropped it on the ground.
“Fuck. That one really hurt,” said Ximena.
The jeep driver, reloaded his gun again and limped backwards, firing at Ximena.
“Will you just die!” he shouted at her.
His last bullets were spent as Ximena closed the distance and grabbed his gun. She took it out of his hand and tossed it down the street. Then she jammed her knee into his stomach.
“I tried already. It didn't quite take,” she said.
He pulled another gun from behind his back but Ximena grabbed it before he could point it. Another gunman approached Ximena from behind and emptied an assault rifle in her back. Some of the rounds passed through her and into the Jeep driver. She dropped him, turned around, and shot the rifleman in the head. She turned back to the Jeep Driver who was bleeding out on the ground.
“Get. Get away... from me,” he said weakly.
Ximena took a knee next to him and touched his head. She could see him in his home, arguing with his wife, who was holding a baby. They spoke in Spanish but she could understand.
“Why can't you quit?” his wife begged.
“Because I can't quit. They'll kill me,” he replied.
“You should have stayed a cop. But no, you wanted more money!” she told him.
“We needed more money, and if I was still cop I would be dead anyway,” he replied.
Ximena broke contact and looked down at him. She didn’t know all the circumstances that led him here, but now it was not so easy to see him as just a thug.
“I'm sorry,” she said.
“You... go to hell,” he told her.
He pulled a knife and stabbed it into her side. It hurt. Everything still hurt. But less and less, Ximena reacted to pain. She calmly stood and stared at him as he passed away. She pulled the knife out of her side and dropped it. The pity she felt vanished as quickly as the pain.
“I really wanted to feel sorry for you but you had to go and ruin it,” she said.
Ximena walked back to the still passed out drunk men to read their thoughts.
She got images of a semi waiting in a warehouse in the next town over. It was going to come to Rio Blanca. Ximena quickly planned her next move.
Ojo closed his cell phone and smiled.
“Her again?” asked La Muerte, as she mounted a skull on her wall.
“Yeah,” said Ojo.
“Anyone survive?” she asked.
“A few,” he replied.
“Good help is so hard to find these days,” she said.
She took the skull of the wall and mounted it in a different spot.
“Are you sure they knew about the truck?” she asked.
“Yes, my Lady. They were the last two of Lozano’s men in our ranks. Their whole purpose was to let the old man’s trucks get though our territory without us knowing,” he said.
She considered the skulls position on the wall among the many others. She listened to Ojo and marveled at his ability to get information. But she would never show a servant admiration.
“Perfect,” she said with a smile, looking at the skull. “Take some men into town. Let’s see what she does next.”
“Yes, my Lady,” said Ojo.
“Where is our inside man right now?” asked Señora Ecsed.
“Last I heard, con las migras at the border,” said Ojo.
“Call in a tip about the truck,” she said.
The semi raced down the dark road to Rio Blanca. Up ahead two headlights approached.
“That a car?” wondered the driver.
Ximena floored the gas of the jeep and turned on the high beams. The driver tried to swerve out of the way but Ximena kept her aim. She stood on the seat and used the top of the windshield to vault over the wreck just before impact. Her momentum carried her through the semi's windshield and all the way into the sleeper section of the cab. The semi driver nearly lost control when the jeep smashed into the truck. He managed screech his rig to a halt. He looked back into the sleeper to see what hit his truck. Ximena popped out.
“Boo,” she told him.
He was frozen in shock.
“I need your truck,” she said.
The driver opened the door and ran away. Ximena jumped in the driver’s seat and floored the gas. When she got the truck a few miles down the road, Ximena pulled over to the shoulder. She got out and ran to the back of the trailer with a flashlight.
“No te preocupes! Soy una amiga!” she shouted.
Ximena popped the latch and opened the doors. No one was in there. She found herself staring at boxes. She climbed into the trailer and tried to look past all the boxes but saw that they went all the way to the front. She ripped open the side of one of the boxes and saw what looked like large bricks wrapped in trash bags and duct tape.
“Fantastic,” she said to herself.
The crow landed on the trailer door and cawed.
“Any other bright ideas?” she asked it.
It cawed again. At the Border, an Agent walked into the office where Ranger Paulson and Agent Elizondo were talking.
“Sorry for interrupting,” he said. “We just got a van full of college kids roll in. They’re all in rough shape. They said they were kidnapped and a woman in black with a painted face rescued them. We also got a call about a semi carrying drugs being jacked and heading for Rio Blanca.”
“Here we go,” said Elizondo.
Ojo stood in the dim beams of the street lights. Several armed men and trucks line the streets. One of the men approached Ojo.
“A truck's coming,” he said.
“Good. Keep her busy,” said Ojo.
Ojo got into his own truck and left, leaving the men to walk around nervously. The sound of the semi-truck in the distance broke through the silence. When it got close enough the men began firing at the semi. Inside, Ximena did her best to duck the bullets. She needed to keep her course. The semi sped through the street forcing gunmen to jump out of the way. It slammed into the line of trucks that brought the gunmen into town. The last truck in line caught a telephone pole forcing the semi to vault over the wrecks and jackknife onto its side. The men ran up to it and fired point blank into the cab. When they stopped to reload, the crow landed on the semi and cawed. Ximena kicked out the remnants of the windshield and stepped out. She reached into a hole on the side of her jaw and pulled a smashed bullet out. She tossed to the ground and the stunned gunmen watched as the hole closed up. Her other multiple wounds also began to heal.
“You guys sure know how to make a girl feel welcome,” she said.
They just stared at her blankly. Ximena grabbed the barrel of the nearest rifle. She yanked the man towards her and clotheslined him, flipping him to the ground. She ripped the gun from his hand and shot him. She shot and killed two more of the gunmen before the rest ran away into the darkness.
“Aw, come on guys. We were having so much fun,” said Ximena.
The street was silent again.
“That's all the action I get? I didn't return from the dead for nothing!” shouted Ximena.
Ximena aimed at a Santa Muerte idol on the sidewalk and emptied the rest of the clip. The idol split in half and collapsed.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZsp1ZKKAqD
