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Capable has witnessed a lot of things.
Nux lives, he dies; he lives again.
War Boys, high on chrome spray, screaming as they jumped from their polecars. Going out in a blaze that would let them ride eternal in Valhalla.
Is this Valhalla? Is the eternal road just pain? Nux can’t move his legs.
These things were not chrome, not shiny, no matter what Immortan Joe said.
He smells guzzoline. The rig is on fire.
The night fevers were witnessed when the oldest of the War Boys died from the withdrawal of the chrome.
Anyone? Anyone? The rig is on fire, the rig is on fire, the rig is on fire the rig is on firefirefirefire!
On the fifth day, a party of War Boys came streaking out of the west, dragging the wreck of the war rig for parts. The entire cab had been dented and crushed in, the whole thing charred.
By the Road, he’d done it. Pulled himself out. Didn’t look down.
There was no way, Capable thought, that Nux had made it out. He was smart; he had known that a witness was only done at the last moments. She’d seen it before.
He was alone in a wreck with nothing but the night terrors and his mates.
There was yelling from the War Boys now, bouncing off the rock of the Citadel. They spoke of trucks, ruin, a fire and a body, a body found. Her feet are moving before she knows it.
If this is Valhalla then Nux knows he wants no part of it. In the world there’d been purpose, to follow Immortan Joe and – Capable. He misses her.
In the hours that follow, Capable shows that her temper is as bright as her hair as she argues with Furiosa, that she has to know, schlangit, she has to know –
He misses the warmth of the sun and of lying quietly at night with a fire. He cannot feel his legs.
There is a body on one of the ledges, a body half covered in bandages and hooked up to Max – he’s back, Furiosa must be pleased – a body that looks a lot like “Nux.”
It’s getting quiet. Breathing hurts for Nux. There is a light coming from far off, maybe this is the first car on the eternal road. Maybe they will not consider him mediocre.
She’s not to touch him, as fragile as he is and burns adding to the brand of the engine on his chest. The War Boy who found him says he had pulled himself out somehow, which is real shine of him; both of his legs are broken.
The Many Mothers are expecting the night terrors to set in.
It’s more bright and quiet than ever, lying there on the road. Nux wonders when the spike bikers will come for him. Then there are hands on him and the bright lights and the smell of guzzoline blind him.
Capable knows he is not addicted to chrome like the older War Boys, the ones who are late late into their half lives and have followed Immortan Joe since the first days. But he is weak, and Larry and Barry press into his windpipe. They have to angle his head back, careful of his spine, so he can breathe.
He doesn’t remember ending up here. Is this Valhalla? Is Valhalla even a truth?
Dag and Toast bring her water and a cloth and then disappear back into the Citadel. Max melts away too, and she is alone. She sits and waits. She can be patient.
The next morning she is allowed to clean his face and body of the skull paint. One of the Mothers says there is something in the paint called lead, a poison.
His body feels light. No weight of paint or sand on his limbs. He’s been sent out, then, scrubbed of his status with wire and sent out into the wastelands. There are hands on him again – wait. Only one set this time, slow and cool and…wet?
Her only warning is the slow, groaning breath from his lungs and the next thing Capable knows is that Nux is sitting up as much as he can, eyes blown wide in daylight. She collects the water bowl from where it had fallen and sets it back up.
She is here. I live. It hurts but I live.
Capable has witnessed a lot of things. And she swears that she will witness Nux heal.