Two Psychos

Manny gnaws on the end of his toothpick, moving it back and forth in his mouth and side to side. It annoys the piss out of Jack, but he refuses to say anything about it ever since he saw the grizzled old syker use a toothpick to stab a biker to death in Junkyard. The more he thinks about it, the more things Jack realizes scare him about Manny. "He spent too much time on Banshee," thinks Jack. "Nobody came out of there with a right mind." It doesn't help Jack's nerves any that sykers can rip the bones right out of a man with just a thought. Fortunately for Jack Manny is sitting quietly, digging the remnants of his dinner out of the can of dog food the two had scavenged earlier in the day.

Maybe it's the way that Manny is so callous towards others, it occurs to Jack. Just last week they were outside of Provo, and Manny stabbed another syker to death in his sleep. The man had a large "A" on his forehead, and Manny kept calling him names, including something called an "Apostate". Said he was a damned traitor. To Jack he was just another human trying to make it in this screwed-up world.

Of course, to other sykers without the "A" on their head Manny is always polite and nice. That is, along as they were on Banshee. Manny says that Earth sykers have no idea what they had to go through "out there". Earth sykers maintained in return that fighting a bunch of primitives with stick was easy, and they should've seen the shit that went down on Earth. Of course, by that point, the sykers are usually duking it out, and Jack has to pull his 9mms and hope to not waste too many of his precious bullets. It occurs to him that there's been more then one occasion that he's wanted to plug Manny right in the back of his big, bald head and splatter his brains all over that fancy, military issue camouflage with the gaudy badges and medals from Banshee. "That'd learn the bastard," thinks Jack, "but I'd rather not waste a precious bullet. 'Sides, for a low-down dirty waster, Manny ain't all that bad."

Manny digs the last bit of food out of the can with his spoon, savoring the brown gravy. As he does so he looks out the corner of his eye and sees Jack staring at him, his cold, dark eyes trying to peer through his soul. Out of habit he starts to reach out telepathically to Jack, then remembers the man's distrust of sykokinetics. Instead, he looks Jack up and down, from his low-slung gunbelts holding twin 9mm automatic pistols to the large knife stuck into the top of his leather cowboy boots. If Manny replaced the 9mms with twin Colt Peacemakers Jack would fit in perfectly in the Old West.

Manny thinks about killing Jack. Jack is a scumbag, obviously, but he has his good points. Occasionally. They've gotten each other out of some scrapes, and it's always nice to have someone watch your back. It was the only way he'd made it out of the hell that was Banshee. Now he's wandering around the West, as wasted as it may be, with perhaps a psychopath as his only companion and the only thing keeping him alive is his fast guns and powerful brainblasts.

They are 2 weeks out of Provo now. Jack and Manny don't speak much as they trek across the deserted, blasted landscape. They almost killed each other two days ago when Jack finished the last of the water, but then they ran into the abandoned wreck of a junker's hovercar and found his water supplies.

As the hot sun beats down on their heads, Manny looks up and sees the wall of a town up ahead. Smoke pours up into the sky. He looks over at Jack and shakes his head.

"Who do you think it is this time?"

Jack looks up at the sun, then to the town, then over to Manny. "Black Hats, I 'spect."

Manny doesn't look convinced. "Really?"

"Let's find out."

The two men break out into a run towards the town.

* * *

Jack and Manny hit the wall running, vaulting over the remnants of the gate. They don't see Black Hats there, though - instead it's a large group of air pirates. They're busy gathering up the remaining townspeople, probably to sell into slavery. Jack and Manny decide not to give them that chance.

The first thing the air pirates here from Jack is a blast from his pistols. Two pirates are taken out right away, and the rest scatter while the townspeople run screaming for cover. Manny looks at another pirate funny and the pirate's head explodes, showering his compadres with gore.

Their surprise assault has left the pirates disorganized and on the run. A few of the townspeople, emboldened by this brave move, grab guns and start shooting for the pirates.

Jack chases down a couple of the pirates, shooting away as they try to reach their craft. One helicopter takes off and swoops around, looking to strafe the duo. Manny looks at it and sweats hard - slow burn takes care of the rest as the helicopter spirals out past the town walls and crashes hard into a saguro cactus. By this time, the rest of the pirates are simply running for their lives.

The townspeople share that evening what little they have left with Jack and Manny - a small meal, some bullets left behind. Jack and Manny take these things as a reward for the small bit of good they've done. They'd be hard-pressed to admit they did it out of pure altruism, after all. And while they eat, they look at each other, and think of why they don't kill each other.