The truck stop was at the edge of town. Truckers sometimes used the lot to sleep overnight. Trailers could be left temporarily for a daily fee. Too many days without payment and the trailer then belonged to the truck stop. Tonight there were only a few scattered trailers in the lot. There was one parked all the way in the back by itself. Ximena walked slowly through the lot. The crow swooped over her, cawing. It landed on the solitary trailer in the back and tapped on it. As she approached the trailer she felt a dread come over her. She could feel what the crow knew what was inside. She lightened her steps, so not to disturb the people inside. As if she could. Ximena stared at the back of the trailer for a minute before unlatching it. When she pulled the door open a body half fell out. The woman must have been sitting with her back to the door. She hung off the end of the trailer and her lifeless eyes stared at Ximena. Just then a semi-truck pulled into the parking lot. It stopped next to a couple of trailers near the front of the lot.
“Which one is it?” asked the driver.
“Dice que... it's somewhere in the back. Esta para allá,” said the passenger, waving driver to go to the back of the lot.
Slowly the semi rolled to the rear of the lot. It stopped hard when the headlights fell on the dead women hanging from the open door.
“Oh fuck!” said the driver.
Both men jumped out of the truck and ran up to the trailer. Both were wearing gold chains with a grim pendant attached. The pendants were of Santa Muerte, resembling the Virgin of Guadalupe except for a black cloak and a skull for the face.
“How long has this been out here?” asked the driver, covering his face with a handkerchief.
The smell was bad. There was a mix of body odors, sweat, and what happens when people lose control of bowl and bladder. It didn’t yet smell like death, but it was getting close. Both men desperately tried not to gag.
“I don’t know. Sabes… a couple days.” said the passenger.
The crow flew over their heads cawing. As it was the least exciting thing to happen that night, both men ignored it.
“Who the hell left it out here?” asked the driver.
“One of los pinche new guys I think,” said the passenger.
“La Muerte is going to have to have his ass,” said the driver.
“She’ll have our asses if we don’t get this out of here,” said the passenger.
“No shit, pendejo. Fuck. At least no one found it yet,” said the driver.
“Somebody probably broke in to steal somethin and ran. Maybe they called the cops,” said the passenger.
“If the cops knew, they be here already. Let’s just hook it up and get the hell out of here. Help me get the body back in the trailer,” said the driver.
As they stepped up to the body, they heard a loud thump come from the top of the trailer. They looked up to see a skull faced woman staring down at them.
“Como estas?” asked Ximena.
Both men reached for their guns, looking down only for a second. When they looked back up Ximena was gone.
“Where did she go?” asked the passenger.
Ximena attacked them from behind. She landed a side kick that impacted between the shoulder blades of the semi driver, launching him into the rear of the trailer. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. The passenger tried to turn towards Ximena with his gun but she had already begun her next move, spinning her body counter clockwise and extending her leg, low. The sweep took the man’s legs out from under him. When he hit the ground his gun bounced out of his hand and disappeared into the dark. Ximena grabbed his chain and ripped it off his neck. When she touched the pendant she flashed back into memory. The men holding her down in Rogelio’s home were wearing the same pendant on similar chains.
The passenger scrambled to his feet and pulled a knife. Ximena was just standing there, with her eyes closed, reliving her murder. It looked like her eyes were moving rapidly. Not wasting his chance, he quickly stepped forward and stabbed Ximena in the stomach. She calmly opened her eyes and grabbed him by the throat. He uselessly tried to pry her hand away, while she pulled the knife out. Still holding the blade, she pulled up her jacket and shirt, exposing the wound.
“Watch this,” she said.
His struggle slowed when he saw the wound on her stomach heal. She lifted him by his neck, pushed him against the back of the trailer, and jammed the knife into the door, next to his head.
“For the record, that still hurt. A lot,” said Ximena.
It was a quiet night at the border crossing. It was technically morning, but night was still hanging on to the sky. Right now, only two lanes were open, one in and one out. The tall border fence of concrete and steel extended for miles on both sides of the passage between countries. Only a few cars waited to enter the U.S. and there was no one crossing from the American side. It had been a slow night. Two Border Patrol Agents stood out on the street away from the harsh florescent lights. The senior of the two needed to stretch her legs a bit and she brought along the rookie for some company.
“How are you liking it so far?” asked the senior Agent.
“It’s alright. I'm getting the hang of it,” said the rookie.
He was just out of the academy.
“Well your lucky you’re starting on a slow night,” she told the rookie.
She had been doing this for ten years and sometimes the job still managed to surprise her.
“Right,” he said and laughed nervously. “So anything crazy ever go on at this location?”
They turned around and began slowly walking back to the front of the crossing.
“Not too much. Not at night anyway. The bigger crossings get the heavier traffic and usually the bigger surprises,” she said.
“You don't get worried about the guys on the other side?” asked the rookie.
He didn’t specify that he was talking about the Mexican police on the other side, but she knew who he meant.
“Not really. They’re just doing their job like we are,” she replied.
The crow landed in front of the Agents, blocking their path back. The Border Agents paused for a second at the surprise. The bird cawed loudly at them.
“Just walk around it,” said the senior agent.
They tried to walk past but it spread it wings and cawed again, stepping in their way and stopping their advance. Then it just stared at them.
“That's weird. Something like this ever happen?” asked the rookie.
The senior Agent scratched her head.
“No, this is a new one. They usually hang out on the roofs or just fly by,” she said
She tried to shoo the crow away but it just cawed back.
“Go on! Get out of here!” she yelled at it and kicked out her foot, trying to scare it away.
The bird did not budge. They tried to walk around it again, one on either side, but the crow just kept walking and hopping out in front of them trying to block their path.
“This thing is beginning to creep me out,” said the rookie.
“You guys got a new friend?” called out an agent standing in front of the crossing.
“Shut up, Gary,” said the senior agent.
Other Border Patrol Agents began to walk up to see what was going. The crow just turned around to get a look at everyone. Then it flew away. All the agents looked as it flew off. No one said anything. For a moment the only sound was the river flowing under the bridge.
“Alright. Shows over,” said the senior agent.
The walk back to their posts was interrupted by the hard revving sound of a semi truck's engine out in the distance. It clearly came from the American side, but the road wasn’t lit and there were no headlights to be seen.
“Sounds like a semi,” said the rookie.
Up the road, the semi’s lights turned on. It was facing the border crossing and it was not moving.
“Don't they usually go to the bigger crossings,” asked the rookie.
“Not all the time. Depends on the cargo and destination,” said the senior Agent, calmly.
But she wasn’t feeling calm. Semis did use this crossing. It was nothing out of the ordinary. But something was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“Everyone back to your posts,” she commanded.
Then the semi’s high beams kicked on and it sounded like it shifted into gear, and the air braked hissed.
“Heads up, we might have a situation,” she called out.
The truck started moving forward, slowly at first. Then the engine revved harder and the pitch of the engine’s whine changed rapidly as the gears shifted higher and higher. An agent called out to his counterparts on the Mexican side to turn cars around. Others hurried to their positions. The semi kept speeding up and it sounded its horn.
An Agent got on the public address system and called out, “Stop your vehicle!”
The truck continued its approach.
“Halt or you will be fired upon,” called out from the PA speakers.
The voice repeated the warning in Spanish just in case. But the truck kept coming.
“Stop your vehicle!” once again from the PA.
But there was no stopping.
“Open fire!” called out the senior agent.
Pistols and rifles began to unload in the direction of the truck. The windshield shattered and couple of the lights went out, but it kept coming. Inside the truck, the rounds passed through the glass and into the empty seats. Belts tied to the steering wheel kept it in place, aiming the truck for the crossing. A cinder block sat on the gas pedal. On the roof of the trailer, Ximena crouched low and steadied herself. The Border Agents continued their assault to little effect. Then a lucky ricochet caught the edge of one of the belts tied to the steering wheel. The belts began to loosen, and the steering wheel began to turn.
“Take cover!” yelled the senior agent, before the truck started to veer off.
It charged off the road, into the dirt and then into the border fence. The concrete and steel section of fence was nearly destroyed, but it stopped the truck dead. Before the collision, Ximena had moved to the back of the trailer. She ran the length of the trailer, and jumped on impact. The extra boost of energy she got from the semi carried her over the fence and then clear over the river. She landed in a roll into the shrubbery of the Mexican side, completely unseen.
The senior agent approached the truck carefully, flanked by the rookie and several other agents. The dead and broken engine hissed and steamed. Through a small window on the lower part of the driver’s side door she could see that no one was in the driver’s or passenger seat. Carefully she reached for the door handle and opened the door.
“Whoever is in there, show me your hands!” she yelled.
The only sound was a muffled groan of someone who sounded like they were in pain. She slung her rifle and pulled her side arm. With her pistol in hand, she climbed into the cab and carefully opened the curtain of the sleeper section. The driver and passenger were tied up and gagged in the back.
“We got two guys tied up back here,” she called out
Another agent called out from the rear of the trailer.
“Someone better get a look at this!” he shouted.
The senior agent walked to the back of the truck.
“What is it?” she asked as she got there.
The agent was bent over, retching.
“Oh my God,” she said, seeing inside the trailer with her flashlight.
On the Mexican side of the river, Ximena watched from the shadows. The crow landed on her shoulder and cawed.
“You were right. No one got hurt,” she said to it.
The crow flew off and she turned around. Both disappeared into the darkness.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYghUnUKoT
