TWENTY FOUR

Jodie answered the door; it was Rob.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been alone all day thanks to you."

"Zben glohct pestuign gggm." said Rob. Hist eyes were sewn shut and hair buzzed off. Sloppy suchers zig-zagged between his temples.

"What the hell?" replied Jodie, almost to herself.

Rob reached out his arms towards her with limp wrists, his fingernails fell off in slow motion.

After what felt like (and was) ten minutes the last fingernail hit the floor.

"AHHHHGGHGHCH!" they both screamed.

Jodie sprinted straight past Rob, hitting him with her enormous female hip and knocking him over, and never looked back.

Rob's expression, though hard to read, was sad. It wasn't his fault, really, that someone had kidnapped and horribly mangled him. His language functions had been severely damaged in the poorly thought out experiment. The only memories he had managed to hold onto were those of Jodie, and how much he loved her. He had drawn her face on his left fist, using his thumb as her mouth, and his first knuckle as her beautiful hazel eyes. He tried to look at the crude drawing as he laid helplessly on the porch, but could only make out faint light through his stitched lids. This was so frustrating!

He tried ripping the stiches out, but it hurt like hell.

"BAHGSTASAAAHHhh!" he said.

All hell broke loose in his emotions now, and Rob began to cry like a baby. "WAHH WAHH WAHH" he cried.

But.. surprisingly... no tears... how strange...

But the more he cried the more he hurt! Inside, yes, but mainly hist head. Oh the pain! his eyes were being pushed into his brain by pressure of his tears, that he couldn't stop! So much emotional and physical pain! Oh, who wouldn't cry, really?

This nonsense continued for twenty minutes before his eyelids burst, showering his face in salty bloody tears! Rob smiled like a two month year old baby with gums and no teeth (removed in the surgery no doubt), and smiled at his hand that looked nothing like Jodie, but still comforted him. He moved his hand closer, and closer, and...

They kiss.

23

Jodie answered the door; it was Rob.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been alone all day thanks to you."
"Are you ready yet? I've had the truck idling for fifteen minutes and the engine's starting to catch." Rob pushed his way past Jodie, squeezing her arm as he did. "You just got here, you gigantic liar." Jodie laughed; "I'll just be a few; help yourself to the cookies and lemonade in the kitchen." She stomped up the stairs, her metal legs clanging on each step. Rob's cybertronic eye gazed through the wall and saw the cookies that Jodie had referred him to. His mandibles ground together in anticipation, creating a sad, slow song that reverberated through the whole house. He stepped into the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet above the sink. He poured a glass of lemonade for himself and grabbed several cookies, his eyes bulging.
Meanwhile, Jodie had shed her skin and was sitting in the blast furnace, shuddering in delight as the heat hardened her tender underskin into a tough carapace. She certainly didn't want to flake, not tonight, when everything else was going to be so perfect. She stepped out of the furnace, and began buffing her newly formed armor. It caught the setting sun through the window in her bedroom and made it glow a deep, burnished vermilion. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and sighed in contentment. This was going to be wonderful.
Rob had finished off the cookies and was now sitting at the kitchen table, gargling the lemonade in his pincers. The lemonade tickled his mouth to the extent that he began laughing, choked, and sprayed lemonade all over the wall. Great. he thought as he grabbed a towel in one tentacle and his partially full lemonade glass in the other. He had just finished cleaning up when he heard Jodie thunder down the stairs and into the kitchen. She looked magnificent. He stood up, and finished the lemonade in one swift gulp. She moved to him.
They kiss.

22.

Jodie answered the door; it was Rob.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been alone all day thanks to you."
Rob shifted his weight to the left and wiped some un-clotted blood off of his chin with the inside of his right wrist.
"I had to complete another mission for Tom." said Rob. He gave Jodie a 'I'm sorry but you know I had too look.'
It was dark outside and Rob was shivering.
"You're shivering, come inside it's dark out." said Jodie.
Rob limped inside and sat/fell on the couch. Jodie immediately went to the kitchen and soaked a wash cloth with warm water.
Rob began to speak again from the living room.
"What's that hun?!" jodie called from the kitchen, then turned the water off as to better hear him.
"I said 'I had to kill three people, you know.. it was disgusting." -Rob

--------------

Jodie walked back in from the kitchen and began wiping Rob's face with the warm wet cloth.
"That really is disgusting." said Jodie.
They kiss.

21

Jodie answered the door; it was Rob.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been alone all day thanks to you."
Jodie looked absolutely stunning in the doorway. It was dusk, and she was squinting her eyes with a hand on her brow trying to block setting sun's rays. Rob was a dark silhouette as far as she could see.
"I'm really sorry! I ran into John down at the music store, he's just returned from the military." Rob reached Jodie and risked a kiss; she didn't refuse. "I would have called you but my phone died."
Jodie let her hand fall to her side. "Well, it's still frustrating.." Her expression was sympathetic and disappointed.
She moved to the side as Rob passed her by and disappeared into their small cabin. Closing the door behind her, Jodie sighed and moved out to the edge of the porch, where she stood and stared into the sunny tree line with hands on her hips. A tired white t-shirt and old worn jeans were the only thing she'd been wearing this past week. But it wasn't important to her. Life had become simpler since she and Rob had been living together for over five years. The routine wasn't that bothersome, because it was carefree and, if she was completely honest with herself, it was exactly what she had needed all her life.
After 28 years of living in fear of what people thought when she spoke, how their faces smirked when she tried a joke, or how employment seemed an endless battle between her soul and a tired grindstone of a boss; Jodie finally could look outside into the sky and breathe free.
A car was driving up the dirt rode, out of the valley. It was a couple who frequently drove to the library right before it closed at night. Their 95 Honda rolled up to the stop sign in front of Rob and Jodie's home and quietly slowed to a stop. The car stayed motionless. The husbands hands were loose on the steering wheel, and his eyes were looking up, admiring the same sunset at Jodie. He smiled when he put his arm around his wife's delicate shoulders. Through the windshield, his words were visible to anyone who read his lips.
"Not as good as you." he said with a broad grin. His wife shook her head and smiled back. Her husband was still as much a boy today as the day she had married him.
They kiss.

In The Valley 20

Jodie answered the door; it was Rob.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been alone all day thanks to you."
Rob slumped past her, his head down, his eyes cast on the floor.
"Did you tell Chris about my idea? Did you tell him the idea I had? Rob?" Jodie followed him into the kitchen, and talked into his ear as he went from the fridge to the sink. "I knew it, you wouldn't stand up to Chris; he's your supervisor for Christ's sake. Why can't you man up and tell him that you want a raise? Don't you want to provide for this family?" Rob turned to her. He looked her in the eye and told her that two people hardly made a family. Rob opened the milk carton he had fetched and smelled its contents. He paused, shrugged, and poured it down the drain.
"Milk's bad." He sighed, and returned to the fridge. He scanned the inside, looking for something to drink; he'd been drinking tap water far too long. He felt he deserved better than tap water after a day of work.
"I'm so tired of this shit!" Jodie yelled, rummaging through the cupboards. "All I wanted was a nice home in a nice neighborhood with nice neighbors and a good school for my children and a neighborhood watch program so they could be safe and grow up and live normal lives. Instead; I'm out here in The Valley, watching my uterus dry up and my furniture fall apart while my loving husband works all day and comes home to ignore me and watch t.v." Tears were in her eyes, and her voice broke on the last sentence. Rob turned away, loosening his tie. He sat down on the couch. Jodie sat next to him, then leaned over till she balled up and lay her head on his lap. He ran his fingers through her hair as they sat and stared at the blank television before them.
"Sorry I'm not what you wanted." Rob sighed.
They kiss.

In The Valley Nineteen

Jodie answered the door; it was Rob.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL DAY? I'VE BEEN ALONE AND BLEEDING LIKE THE WITCHES' CRACKED HEART OF STOOOOONE" Jodie growled.
Rob headbutted the door into splinters, splitting his skull wide open to reveal a metal brain. Blood seeped from his eyes like tears.
"I WAS RUNNING FROM DEATH AS THE DARK LORD WAS BOILED IN THE ROTTING SUN." Rob yelled into Jodie's face. he pulled a knife from his cloak and slid it across her belly. Blood gushed from her wound.
"DID THE BLOOD RED MOON SHINE DOWN ON YOUR HORRID PASSAGE?" Jodie gargled around a mouthful of maggots.
"IT DID INDEED MY FEARFUL VOYAGE WAS A LITANY OF TORRID SUCCESSES." Rob coughed up bile as he spoke.
Tapeworms began plopping out of Jodie's open torso.
"WHAT WAS RETRIEVED FROM THE GOBLIN'S CASKET AS THE CATTLE WERE SLAUGHTERED?" Jodie inquired.
"I GOT MILK."
"FUCKING METAL."
They kiss

In The Valley - 18 PART TWO (read part one FIRST)(duh, right? right...)

Jodie answered the door; it was Rob.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been alone all day thanks to you."
Jodie was holding a white rag that had two safety pins attached.
Rob rushed into the door with his hands up by his face, they were covered in a mixture of shining red and dirt. He found the bathroom and slammed the door shut. The sink blasted.
Jodie didn't look surprised, "Wash your hands well. The last thing I need is blood everywhere."
A loud scream came out of the bedroom.
"Oh my GOD! I'm coming already!"
Jodie stomped down the hall.
-------
(Back in The Valley. Three days ago.)
-------
"Yeah, we can go now."
Jodie grabbed a kiss from Rob before they walked, crouching, through the woods surrounding the cabin. If this were a war, then I would tell you that they were flanking the house. Because, well, they were.
The sun was almost gone from the horizon. A gray mist hung in the atmosphere and the light was almost completely gone from the valley. There was a light on in the cabin. Only one. The rest of the windows were black.
Rob led the way. They walked slow, but not too slow, to the back door of the cabin. It was a screen door (because this was a modern cabin). The glass behind the screen was gone, the only thing keeping them out of the house was a thin sheet with holes. Sounds so simple, but it was nerve wrecking.
"We don't have to do this." Rob said in a whisper. He put his hand on Jodie's shoulder.
"I know. But you know how badly I want this. And besides, you owe me."
"Yes I do."
Jodie walked forward, upright now, and slid the screen aside as if she lived there. Rob waited in the yard and saw her disappear into the dark home.
A crash.
A yell.
Another crash.
Then Jodie burst outside, sprinting, with a small bundle in her arms, held close to her face over her shoulder.
Running up hill is exhausting. But with that kind of adrenaline, the time flies.
-------
(back at their home, three days later.)
Rob was falling asleep on the gun stock of a hunting rifle in the window.
Jodie woke him when she walked into the room.
"Anything" She asked.
Rob blinked and stretched his face. "No, no. Nothing for hours."
"Ok, well I made macaroni if you want some. That damn baby wouldn't shut up until I fed it something.
"Alright I-" Rob was started by a red hoody moving through the trees. "There he is." His face settled on the gun and he let of three shots. The figure fell. Then there was another man in a red hoody coming from the left out of the woods. Two more shots from the rifle. Two men dead on the ground.
There was a wiz and soft thump as a bullet entered the home and planted itself in the wall behind Rob and Jodie.
"Dammit, I have to got out there." Said Rob. "They've got a sniper int he hill and I can't find him from this angle."
They rushed to the back door of their home. Rob opened the door.
"Becareful. Don't let them take my baby."
"I won't Jode. You know I never lose."
"I know."
They Kiss.