Marciano nodded, pulled out his phone, and went to dial. He put the phone to his ear. His eyes met mine and he shook his head.
“No service.”
“Didn’t think there would be any. I haven’t been out this way in a while, as you can see why.” Jack waved a hand toward the tanks. He looked at one of the baskets and shivered. “Dens. Something about that just don’t sit right with me. Like they’re all cozied up, warming each other, their rattlers moving in pleasure.Ach.” He rubbed his arms. “So damn sinister.” He made the sign of the cross, and so did Marciano. “I’d never go out of my way to hurt one, but put one in front of me… Like I was sayin’. Too farout for service. Even with the new reach we suddenly developed when you men came to town.”
A cold hand seemed to seize my throat. My breath was cut off. The line to my wife.
“We’ll call him as soon as service is restored,” I said. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
In the span of a breath, Jack’s tan leathered face turned white, before he lifted the gun and pointed it at me. I moved a breath before the gun rose and blasted over my head. The tanks were stacked in rows, two high with some space between. We had to bend down to see the bottom tank, the others were mostly eye level.
One of the snakes must have gotten loose and was right behind my head. I got a glimpse of it before Jack blew it to smithereens. In doing so, though, the other tanks were compromised too.
“Snakes on the loose!” Jack roared. His hearing had been impaired by the blast.
My ears were ringing like I’d been caught off guard by one of Marciano’s fists.
“Oh, fuck no!” Marciano roared.
Jack was the first out, followed by Marciano, Angelo, and me. I shut the door to the barn so most of them could be contained. At that fucking point, the entire place should be torched. Some of these snakes didn’t belong in Wyoming, but other parts of the world.
Dolly stuck her head out of the truck cab, flapping her ears and still hollering. Or I fucking thought she was. I could barely hear. Jack refusing to allow her to get out when we’d first arrived was a good fucking call.
Jack jumped in his truck a second before my crew loaded up in mine. Marciano was patting himself down, like he was looking for holes, and not of the bullet variety. We all did. I started thetruck once we all found ourselves whole and pulled up next to Jack. Dolly was looking at me as if to say,what now?
“I’ll follow you!” I screamed toward him.
He nodded and took off as if the devil was chasing him. Rocks and debris hit the windshield, and a dust cloud swallowed the truck whole.
“What’s that smell?” Marciano set his nose in the air, sniffing.
“It smells like roasting meat,” Angelo said, doing the same thing with his nose.
I slammed on the brakes when Jack’s truck suddenly stalled out. He punched the side of his truck and then looked at me through the rearview mirror. We both seemed to step out at the same time. We looked over his truck, and it was quickly lowering.
“My tires,” he said, squinting at them.
“Nails,” I said.
“Mariano,” Angelo called. “Looks like we have hit nails too.”
“Fuck,” I said. “We’ll just ride on the rims until we reach town.”
“My truck is stalled,” Jack said. “It won’t go any further.”
“You’ll load Dolly up and ride with us,” I said.
“All right.” He nodded. “I’m going to carry her, though.” His eyes searched the land, but it was vast and wide open.
“Get in the truck, Jack,” I said. “I’ll get her.”
Dolly was whining at me when I reached the truck, her tail wagging as if I saved her life. I picked her up, and she let out a humungous fart. It smelled like fucking regurgitated chili.
Jack gave me an apologetic smile. “She’s an older lady. She don’t care about social etiquette no more.” Dolly licked him all over the face when he took her in his arms and cradled her, almost like a baby. “That’s my good Dolly. Good girl. Oh, my good girl.” Her tail thumped against Angelo’s face.
“Where are you going, Mariano?” Marciano asked as I started back for Jack’s truck.
I lifted a hand. “To grab Jack’s keys.” And to find out what that smell was coming from Jack’s truck before Dolly almost knocked me unconscious with that foul miasma from her ass. I grabbed Jack’s keys and sniffed inside of his truck.
