Savages

zero?
Nothing.
Empty
No
    hope, no
    faith, no
    values, no
    future, no
    past.
    Nothingness.

270
     
    The e-mail arrived after they took O from the compound, so she didn’t read:
    My darling girl
,
I am so sorry that I’ve been out of touch. It is from no lack of love for you, my darling darling, but for the love of the Lord. I have been on a retreat to contemplate the state of my soul, and we were allowed no communications with the outside world.
This world is corrupt, Ophelia. The flesh is weak.
Only the soul survives.
Ophelia, I have met a man!
I know you have heard this before—too many times—but this time it’s the real thing. John knows and loves the Lord, too, and now that we are back from the retreat we intend to marry and start a jewelry business—bracelets and necklaces that will proclaim the wearer’s faith. With my sense of style and John’s business acumen—he’s a self-made real estate multimillionaire—I know it will be a big success. The Lord wants His people to live abundantly.
I will miss you, but Indiana isn’t that far away, and that’s why the Lord made airplanes.
    Your loving, mother
,
    “Paqu”

271
     
    We had for a brief time a civilization that clung to a thin strip of land between the ocean and the desert.
    Water was our problem, too much of it on one side, too little on the other, but it didn’t stop us. We built houses, highways, hotels, shopping malls, condo complexes, parking lots, parking structures, schools, and stadiums.
    We proclaimed the freedom of the individual, bought and drove millions of cars to prove it, built more roads for the cars to drive on so we could go the everywhere that was nowhere. We watered our lawns, we washed our cars, we gulped plastic bottles of water to stay hydrated in our dehydrated land, we put up water parks.
    We built temples to our fantasies—film studios, amusement parks, crystal cathedrals, megachurches—and flocked to them.
    We went to the beach, rode the waves, and poured our waste into the water we said we loved.
    We reinvented ourselves every day, remade our culture, locked ourselves in gated communities, we ate healthy food, we gave up smoking, we lifted our faces while avoiding the sun, we had our skin peeled, our lines removed, our fat sucked away like our unwanted babies, we defied aging and death.
    We made gods of wealth and health.
    A religion of narcissism.
    In the end, we worshipped only ourselves.
    In the end, it wasn’t enough.

272
     
    A crossroads out in the desert.
    Because why not?
    There’s a convenient pullover where the cars can pull up and make the trade.
    And Elena’s troops can gun them all down and be gone long before the sheriffs or the INS can get there.
    They all know this.
    Lado knows it.
    His men sure as hell know it.
    Any reader of Western fiction or fan of Western movies knows it.
    Ben and Chon know it.
    And go anyway.
    Because it has to happen.

273
     
    They take the pony, of course.
    Loaded with two shotguns, two pistols, and two AR-15s.
    If they’re going out, they’re going out blazing.
    Shoot Magdalena up with just enough junk to keep her docile and walk her out of her motel arm-in-arm-in-arm. Put her in the backseat, tape her mouth shut and her wrists in front of her.
    Long quiet drive out to the desert.
    What’s there to talk about and what do you put on the radio as a soundtrack to kidnapping and killing?
    Silence is better.
    Nothing to say anyway.

274
     
    For the first time in her life, Elena feels sheer terror.
    A nausea deep in her stomach.
    And the time just … will … not … pass.
    She jumps at the knock on her bedroom door.
    Lado’s wife, Delores.
    She’s on the verge of tears and Elena is strangely touched by her simpatico.
    “Elena,” she says. “I know you have … so much … on your mind, but—”
    Her voice quivers and then she starts to cry.
    “My dear friend,” Elena says. “Whatever is so wrong?”
    She puts her arm around the woman’s shoulder, leads her into the room, and shuts the door behind them.
    Delores tells Elena all about her husband, what he did, what he’s done.

275
     
    Short ride for O.
    She’s out for most of it on Ambien.
    Pharmaceutical duct tape.
    Wakes up shivering in the cold desert night.
    “We’re close,” Lado says.
    So close, he thinks, to winning it all.
    His men left an hour early and are in position around the pull-off.

276
     
    Delores sobs and sobs.
    Elena understands but tires of it quickly.
    She pats her hand one more