"Beautiful Death"

The car does her best to protect me.  Her once beautiful skin now peppered with holes.  I'm glad I got her upgraded, or some of the holes that
now run down her left side on to her back may have gone through me.  The curves of the winding road are still nothing to her, and I'm glad for that...  

"I think I've lost them."  I say to those on the other end of the speakerphone.  "I haven't seen anyone for a while now."  
A soft, calm voice answers me, "You're not far from here.  I've sent them out with a trailer to pick you and the wagon up."  She pauses.  "We don't want anyone seeing the car like that now right?"...  
I laugh "I guess your right...  It's kind of quiet here though."  

Even bends in the road take on a gentler tone, as the road straitens out... The kind of calm that never lasts...  

I hear the shot at the same time the massive bullet tears a hole in my car.  Though the hood, into the right wheel-well, shredding the tire, and maybe the wheel its self.  It doesn't matter, the effect is the same regardless.  

Loss of control.  

The car jerks to the right. Trying to put her nose into the shear rock wall, that had been an afterthought moments before. I counter-steer, trying to correct.  Now I'm glad the road is empty.  As my screeching brakes, and failing steering send the car into the center of the narrow two lane road...  

The car stops...  

The road maybe empty, but I am not alone... 

---

"What was that?!"  says that once wonderfully calm voice.  "Company."  Is all I answer, for I'm busy readying a greeting...  

This is not the first time this has happened, and those upgrades to the car included some surprises should it happen again...  

A rock tumbles down the cliff.  When I look up, I see, a shadow against the light gray of a cloudy noon sky.  A memory gliding down a wire, to meet me...  

She pauses, floats for a moment, before she touches the ground.  Her dark hair, the fabric of her brown and gray pleated skirt, seem to flutter around her...  

---

Almost delicate, though I know better...  From over her shoulder swings a massive gun.  At five feet long, nearly as tall and half as big as she.  She's so close, I can see acknowledgement in her eyes before she raises the gun.  A fifty caliber ender of worlds, topped with an unflinching eagle's eye...  

Standing a car length away, in the middle of the road.  Gun aimed at my head. Her eyes are a mixture of calculation, fury, and sorrow...  
 

---

All my questions are answered in an instant... 

Over my shoulder, a flash of steel.  Then a shower of glass and crimson.  My heart pounds inside my chest.  My ears ring from the blast of the massive bullet thru the windshield...

Someone's blood runs down my face, my windshield.  Someone else's blood... 

My left hand releases the gun under my right shoulder. 

A reflex.

One I've learned since I first met the woman in the road...  Its not the first knife I've had held to my throat.  And, I doubt the last... 

 The price of knowing Death I suppose... 

As I place my hand on the wheel, she reloads.  A gleaming hunk of brass, a shell as big as my finger falls.  Clinking to the ground as a fresh round takes its place... 

Her eyes lock with mine, and I can see the fury fade as she lowers the gun...  
The fury, but not the sorrow... 

I take a paper towel from one of my pockets, and wipe the blood from my face.  The tip of her gun rests on the road by her brown and gray hiking boots.  I'm still amazed she can wield it.  Probably broke her shoulder with the first shot. Still, that first shell never hit the ground.  Caught in mid air while hanging off a cliff.  The gun reloaded before her feet hit touched the ground... 

Her gun... 

No need to aim at this range unless there's something she wants to be sure and miss... 

Like me... 

As the ringing in my ears begins to fade, I finally, look at her... 

Brown shoes and socks, gray leggings, brown and gray pleated skirt, brown jacket with crest over a gray blouse...  Camouflage to anyone but me... 

"Still the little, lost schoolgirl, I see..." 

For a moment a smile flickers in her bronze eyes... 

I loved her once. 

---

"...are you there!?  Answer me!  Are you alright?!?"  The urgency in her voice breaks through the ringing and the daze.  Her worry, makes my heart ache... 
 
"I'm alright,...  I'm ok..."  I say softly, as my eyes glance to the source of her voice... 

Somewhere far away... 

"What happened?"  Her voice is somewhat calmer now... 

"Apparently, I had a passenger."  I look up at the now empty road ahead through the shattered glass.  "An, old friend took care of it..." 

I can hear her thinking as the others scramble behind her.  I know her question.  She knows, and doesn't want, my answer... 

"Was it her?..." 

"Yes..." 

"...And your passenger?" 

"It's messy"  I say without even looking. 

In the distance, a familiar truck makes its way down the road.  "My ride's here..."  I pause and look at the otherwise empty road.  "Make sure we have an extra place for dinner." 

"You think she'll show?..." 

I stare at the road.  Everything, the shell, the wire, every trace of her is gone... 

"Yes..." 

"Alright,..."  She pauses "I'll see you soon..." 

"See you soon, My Love..."