None of the Power Wagon occupants knew the fate of Master Sergeant Naylor. However, watching a man willing to consign himself to a fate worse than death with nothing more than a salute... had upset Joplin... in a righteously, pissed off kind of way. As the Power Wagon neared Grand Junction, survivors were scrambling in terror away from the city. "Tell them to get low and hold the fuck on, Jax." Joplin growled to Jax, who'd never seen what Joplin was like pissed off. "GET LOW AND HANG THE FUCK ON!" Yelled Jax to the bedriding occupants. Having stopped to consider going around, Joplin had shut off the truck. However, as she turned the key, it was as if the truck could feel her rage.
Jax's eyes widened as the engine he'd heard crack over earlier, now seemed to be reflecting Joplin's levels of anger. "Yep," he thought to himself, "the truck was just as pissed off as she was." The truck didn't rumble to life, its V8 declared war as it came to life with a catless, dual x-pipe exhaust back fire that sounded like an angel of death had just woken up. "Joplin... how are we getting through the Zetas? Think this through..." Said Maddox, who was promptly met by the glare many former "breeding mates" had seen just before becoming mangled, broken, and bruised living-corpses (brain-dead). "This ole girl has one hell of a cattleguard for a bumper. I intend to use it... liberally... HOLD... THE... FUCK... ON!" She yelled as she launched the truck as if it was an iron steed in a jousting battle. As the Chrysler 360 V8 declared war as it thundered toward the city, survivors and soldiers watched as the Power Wagon gained speed. A police officer who'd managed to survive, hit the truck with his radar gun. "one-ten... one-twenty..." the officer muttered under his breath.
As the city came into view, so too did the third type of Zeta... Harvester-Zetas. These Harvester-Zetas were like your average zombie movie zombies. They were slow, shuffle-stepped, and appeared in massive hordes. Joplin stomped her left foot onto the floor-mounted hi-beam button, then quickly shifted into fifth-high. Harvester-Zeta were blinded by the hi-beams from the Power Wagon's halogens as the truck reached a maximum speed of one-hundred-forty-five miles-per-hour, Everyone held on for dear life, everyone except for Joplin. As Jax looked over, he'd never seen a more angry woman... but this wasn't anger from a place of justified hate... this came from something deeper that Joplin hadn't told him. However, putting Naylor's sacrifice and her early comment of "gal with no parents" together, it became a bit more clear. He recalled a news story he'd seen as a kind of two U.S. Soldiers being hailed as heroes after they were both executed by terrorists after sacrificing themselves to hold a base in the Middle East so soldiers and civilians could escape. The link to Joplin... was that both soldiers shared the last name Durant... Joplin was this upset because her parents were the two soldiers who were executed by terrorists after sacrificing themselves to hold a base in the Middle East so soldiers and civilians could escape... and Naylor had just committed the same style of sacrifice.
She slammed the Power Wagon's cattleguard into the horde of Harvester-Zetas without mercy. Sure, the truck slowed down... after making it three-forths of the way through Grand Junction. There, she and the Power Wagon were locked into a sumo-battle with a Charger-Zeta. Jax fired off several rounds, killing five harvester-zetas, sinking two rounds into the charger's leg joint, and surprising Joplin. "C'mon, Sweetheart. Show them the way to hell. I've got us covered." Joplin's heart throbbed, finally hearing the words of support she'd never heard growing up. She shifted the Power Wagon into first-gear granny-low and the Charger-Zeta roared, no longer pushing the truck. As Joplin yelled, she held the pedal to the floor as the truck's tire broke chunks of asphalt loose with that granny-low torque. At a slow and steady ten-miles-per-hour, the Power Wagon shoved the Charger-Zeta back further and further.
The police officer from earlier had followed the pickup back into the city. It was there he saw an opportunity to help. Hopping into the operator seat of a beat up industrial skidsteer, he fired it up and lined up the skidforks like dull, much-thicker bayonets. As he sped up, the forks impaled the Charger-Zeta, killing it. Seeing the biggest threat dead, the citizens and soldiers returned and reclaimed their city. Joplin pulled the Power Wagon over and parked it. Everyone got out, stretched their legs or assisted the locals. Everyone except Jax, who found Joplin sitting alone, head in her hands. "You saved these people, Joplin." He said sitting down. As he sat, the unmistakable sound of sobbing made his expression soften and pull her into a hug. He didn't say anything, just let her sob in his arms. From what he could make of her semi-coherent sobs, his theory about her parents was right. She was crying now for two reasons, (A) She'd endangered everyone in the truck and (B), the painful realtime memory came to life with Naylor's sacrifice.
However, Jax rocked her slowly. "I am not an expert on God, or Heaven... but knowing myself, and getting to know you more, I'm fairly certain your folks are proud of the woman you've become, even in plowing through hordes of Zetas... you...", Jax is cut off by the police officer coming over to them. "Forgive my intrusion, but Miss... I'm Officer Jenkins. May I say this on behalf of the other citizens and soldiers... You inspired all of us. We'd given up, ready to either run or die, when some red truck plowed a hole into our city... and was holding the big one at bay. I knew I had to help, so I impaled it. But none of that could've happened without, so thank you from myself and those of us in Grand Junction." Joplin looked up and dried her tears. Jax nodded and helped her up as others stopped by and shook her hand. From being a girl always left out... to someone people came and thanked... with Jax's arms around her waist. The citizens put up the traveller in a diner for the night, a night of rest they'd all earned...