Travis stood up slowly. “Yeah. I do. ” He kissed Katie and she wiped his tears away. He regretted pushing her hand away and stroked her cheek softly, begging for forgiveness with his eyes. “Let me know if anything changes. ”
Katie nodded, her eyes full of love and desperation. “Of course. ” She sat back down, Jack at her side.
Travis walked out of the room feeling the fear and anxiety in that room still clinging to him.
2. The Broken World
Maybe it was the way she spit out a tooth onto the table or the way she kept laughing at them, but Travis could not see Blanche as human anymore. The longer they questioned her, the more insanely confident she seemed in her lying tales. She barely looked like herself with her swollen and bruised face. Jenni had done a real number on her and Travis was glad for it.
“Look, she attacked me and killed my husband! She’s a crazy spic,”
Blanche shouted at them. “I just want to go home! Give me my Hummer and let me go home!”
“Blanche, we know that isn’t true. You took Jenni hostage. We know the truth. ” Bill’s voice was even and very calm.
“Do you really? Do you? You know, I think you’re too stupid to know the truth. ”
Despite Bill’s quiet persistence, it soon became evident that Blanche was not about to divulge anything but her version of the story.
“Blanche, we know you had this set up. We know you have been doling out your own special justice,” Bill said shortly, finally close to being angry.
She just laughed in his face. “You stupid fucks. You have no freaking clue what is going on. You think you’re so smart, but you’re all just a bunch of dumb rednecks. I don’t know how I ever let Stephen drag me out here with you morons. ”
“Is that why you decided to kill off a few of us undesirables before striking out to your own promised land?” Travis could feel his temper rising. He wanted to smash her arrogant face into the table.
Blanche smirked. “Do you even realize who I am? You are all so beneath me I shouldn’t even waste my time talking to you. You can’t even see how dangerous that stupid spic is. Look what she did to my face!”
“What did you do to Calhoun? He’s missing. ” Bill glowered at Blanche, his doughy face flushed red with anger.
“Really?” Her bloody, swollen face was a terrible parody of a clown.
“Well, that’s a bit of good news. ”
“Is this really all about the Hummer? Is that damn car why you killed two people, including your own husband?”
Blanche stared at Bill, slightly smiling. “Exile me. Send me home. In my Hummer. ”
Travis shook his head and walked into the corridor. Bill followed in silence. Travis looked grim and pale and Bill just looked tired.
“What do we do?” Bill asked aloud.
Travis shrugged. “Send her home. Let the bitch go rot in her mansion. ”
Bill nodded. “Okay. Let her rot. ”
Travis set his jaw grimly. “And not in the Hummer. Fuck her and that car. ”
“I’ll send Curtis and Katarina out with her then. ”
“Good. I don’t have time to deal with her. We’ve wasted enough time on her. We need to get hospital supplies to save Juan’s life. ”
Bill arched his eyebrows and adjusted his belt nervously. “Really? A hospital?”
“I know. I know they’re death traps, but. . . ” Travis faltered. “I gotta do something. ”
“I’m in. I’ll go. ” Bill shrugged slightly. “We need more supplies anyway. ”
“Thanks, Bill. ”