Truck Drivin’ Hero Read online

  “We could take shelter in the sleeper,” he suggested.

  Sunshine laughed. “You’re ready to go again already? I don’t remember you having this kind of stamina three years ago.”

  “I hadn’t been thinking about it that way, but…” Sunshine’s light green tank top had soaked through in the short time she had been outside. The shirt clung to her, outlining her rack, and her nipples were poking out a bit. She’d definitely win any wet t-shirt contest she entered right now. Hero shook his head and cleared it. “Actually I just thought that we might be safer in there.”

  “If this thing lifts off from a tornado, we aren’t going to be any safer back there than we are up here.”

  “No, but if the windshield shatters from debris, we’ll at least be safe from the glass and hail.”

  Sunshine shrugged, then reached over and buckled her seat belt. “I think I’d rather see it coming, wouldn’t you?”

  He smiled. “We’ve gone through all this trouble to stay here, so we might as well.” He buckled his own seat belt.

  “Might as well,” she agreed. The downpour increased, as well as the amount of lightning in front of them. “Tell me something, Hero.”

  “Anything,” he said.

  “Why didn’t you ever join the Resistance?”

  “This old question? I told Speedy this the other day. There was no capital-R Resistance when we left California. I think you know I would have joined if there had been.”

  “I don’t mean right there in California. I mean since then. It’s been three years.”

  “I never would have guessed that in three years, there would have been people left to resist. The fact that there is a Resistance when they have the level of technology that they do is frankly baffling.”

  “So in three years, you never thought to seek us out?”

  “Seek who out? This might be difficult for you to believe, but the aliens don’t advertise the fact that an organized Resistance exists. I was only vaguely aware of it because of the high profile of Tim Hutchinson, but I had no idea you guys had facilities and went on actual missions. Every week I expected the aliens to resume their march inland, and every week they proved me wrong. I got comfortable. I had something to stick around for.”

  “And now?” Sunshine asked.

  “And now I’m aware of you. And now I have something that I want to stick around for more. I still haven’t made up my mind yet, but you guys are being awful tempting.”

  “So that’s the reason you’d join the Resistance? So you could keep getting threesomes from Speedy and I?”

  “Is that so wrong?”

  Sunshine smirked. “No, I suppose not. What if we were on a mission and you lost that incentive?”

  “Is that some roundabout way of asking what I’d do if you died?”

  “Yeah. Would you throw down your weapon and run away again if you lost your link to the Resistance?”

  Hero looked Sunshine in the eyes. “If any alien ever kills either you or Speedy, I’ll hunt every last one of them until either they’re all dead or I am.”

  Sunshine smiled. “That’s a good enough answer for me.” Her smile faded and she gestured. “There it is.”

  Hero followed her gaze, out the right side of the car. It was pitch black until lightning flashed, which it did frequently. There, about a mile to the northwest, a vortex formed and touched the ground. “Is it coming this way?” he asked.

  “Don’t know yet, but the wind is coming exactly this direction,” she said.

  “I’m no expert, but maybe that wind is just coming from the tornado?”

  “I don't know. Too bad we can’t Google it,” she said. “It’s definitely moving, but slower than I imagined it would.”

  A sudden gust of wind rocked the truck, especially the trailer. Even with all that weight, it felt like it could possibly tip. “If only-” he started, then cut himself off. He had never turned off the truck, so he put it in drive.

  “What are you doing?” Sunshine asked.

  “You’ll see.” He drove over to the left side of the road, as far as he could without hitting the guard-rail, then cut back to the right. The result was that he was now across both lanes, pointed directly at the tornado. Another gust of wind hit the truck, slamming against the windshield, but not moving the truck at all. “That trailer was one big surface for the wind to hit. Now that it doesn’t have that surface to hit, it’ll take a lot more to move us.”

  “Clever. But what if a car comes down the highway?”

  “If it’s driving fast enough that it can’t see us before stopping, we were probably dead anyway.”

  Every second, another lightning bolt lit up the sky. Sometimes, it was easy to make out the funnel. Sometimes, it seemed like it had expanded to fill the entire north side of the highway. Still, despite moving from west to east, it never got any closer to them from the north. Three minutes after moving the truck, it was to the northeast, behind them and moving away. Hero pulled his truck forward so that it no longer blocked both lanes of traffic.

  “Speedy, this is Hero, you got your ears on?” he asked through the CB?

  This time, there was real static on the line, but he still managed to get the message. “This is Speedy, what’s your twenty?” she asked, using the shorthand for 10-20, or location.

  “Still on the road, if that’s what you’re asking. I haven’t moved from where you last saw me. We’ll keep an eye on the tornado and let you know if anything changes, but I think you’re safe to come west on the highway.”

  “That’s a biiiiiig 10-4,” she said.

  “Hey, Sunshine. Thanks for hanging out with me,” Hero said.

  “Are you kidding me? I got the best show on Earth.”

  “Well, maybe. Or maybe you’re about to see it.” He pointed ahead of them, to a break in the clouds. The aurora was still going on, and it looked even bluer than it had before.

  “I could watch that all night,” Sunshine said.

  “Well, why don’t we? It’s not really safe for us to pull off for the rest of the night, and we’re still on a deadline.” He picked up the hand mic. “Speedy, when you get past us, I want you to keep driving and don’t stop ‘til we hit our destination.”

  “10-4.”

  Sheriff Zorflox watched as the tornado formed to the south-west of him. He didn't know much about the weather phenomenon, but he knew he couldn't afford to stop. He pressed onward.

  The hail got worse, and what started as a tiny chip in the windshield turned progressively more into a crack. He hoped it would make it the rest of the way to wherever Bill was.

  The tornado got closer, and the Grey slammed on the accelerator, determined to make it before the tornado made it impossible. A sudden gust of wind caught the car, lifting it onto two wheels. Zorflox hit the brakes and turned, forcing the car back down, before heading back on his way. His species was incapable of producing adrenaline, but if they could, he'd be absolutely saturated with it.

  He drove until he passed the tornado, passed the hail, passed the storm itself. His only stops were for gasoline, and even those were made reluctantly. The cursed sun began to rise behind him, growing larger as the morning went. It was when he was about to make yet another stop that he saw a sign that caused him a moment of panic.

  Welcome to Colorful Colorado

  They were expecting him at Fort Denver. If they passed there, he'd never be able to explain it. He didn't have much time.

  23

  Hero had been in good spirits ever since they entered Colorado, but he was feeling great now. Cars were back on the road, as most of the solar radiation was gone. Still, Max confirmed that their ground-based sensors were still inoperable. He was going to deliver his cargo on time and he was going to get paid. It felt like old times somehow, even with a new girl sitting beside him.

  Apple had switched back with Sunshine at the first stop for fuel after the tornado, and had been there ever since. She was now happily munching on a breakfast burrito, furi
ously writing in her notebook. She looked up for a moment. “How long do we have now?”

  “Well, we’re passing Watkins now. Pretty soon we’ll hit Peña Boulevard, the main road for Denver International Airport, which marks the outskirts of Denver. All told, we’re about forty-five minutes out. It’s nine thirty AM now, so we’ll make it in plenty of time. What are you writing now?” he asked. Speedy was passing a semi in front of him, so he turned his turned signal on to get into the left lane also.

  “Nothing,” she said, turning so he couldn’t see.

  “Is it a new invention?”

  “May-be,” she said in a childish voice.

  “Is it some theory about the fusion reactor?” He gave a wave to the semi driver next to him as he passed him.

  “May-be.”

  “Is it a sexy story?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Oh my God, that’s it, isn’t it?”

  “No it’s not!”

  “You got so hot and bothered last night that now you’re trying to write the next Fifty Shades, aren’t you?” She blushed and scowled at him. He adopted a falsetto voice and began to read from an imaginary book. “Despite her superior intellect, Apple found herself drawn to the big, dumb animal driving the truck. And as the brute ravished her again and again, she found herself unwilling to go back to the life in the laboratory that she was used to.”

  Apple laughed. “You’re too good at that. Have you been writing, too?”

  “I did some for beer money before I met Speedy or Sunshine. I’ve never shown it to anybody, though.”

  There was a pause, and then Apple said with a conspiratorial whisper, “If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.”

  “Now that’s the start of an erotic book,” he said.

  The CB radio crackled to life. “Breaker 1-9, this is Pacer. I’m looking for the driver of the truck who passed me about two minutes ago. Got a bee-yoo-tee-ful red seat cover with him.”

  “Pacer, this is Hero. I think that’s my truck and my girl you’re talking about. What can I do for you?” Apple smiled and squirmed at the mention that she was his girl.

  “Nothing, I was just letting you know that I got a Smokey coming up behind me fast, and that you might want to slow down.”

  “That’s a big 10-4, thank you kindly.” He began to slow down to the speed limit, and Speedy slowed to match him.

  “Hero, this is Pacer again,” the radio said about a minute later. “He’s passing me now and I’m not even sure he is a cop. His car is beat up bad, and his roof is just some kind of… tarp?” He didn’t sound like he believed it himself.

  Hero looked in his side mirror. Pacer was about a mile back, and he could see the vehicle passing him. It was coming up fast. “Speedy, Sunshine, get ready. I might need you to take the heat off me in a minute.”

  “10-4.”

  The cop pulled back over to the right lane, closing the distance between them quickly. As Pacer had said, the roof was completely gone, replaced with a tarp. That meant that his bubble lights were gone as well. When the cop turned on a red and blue light on the car’s dashboard, Hero could barely see it.

  “Yeah, Sunshine, it’s a real bear. He’s rollin’ discos on me, but I’m gonna pretend that I can’t see ‘em. How do you want to play this?”

  “Maybe he doesn’t even want you. Look again,” Sunshine’s voice said. Hero looked. The cop car was pulling in the left lane, intending to pass him. Hero slowed down as if he just saw him, doing him the courtesy of letting him pass quickly. He definitely didn’t expect a gunshot to ring out. He looked in his side mirror to see what was going on, and saw Sheriff Zorflox leaning out his window, gripping the steering wheel with his right hand while holding a gun with his left hand. The view didn’t last, because Zorflox’s next bullet took out his side mirror completely.

  “Hero, are you okay? What’s going on?” Sunshine asked.

  Hero keyed the mic. “It’s that sumbitch Grey!” he cried out, jerking the wheel to the left to try to run him off the road. Zorflox was quick, slamming on the brakes and letting Hero’s truck fishtail a bit.

  “Are you kidding me? Pull back over to the right, I’ll take care of this asshole once and for all.”

  Hero brought his car back over to the right lane. He watched as Speedy drove her car into the left lane, then slowed way down. Sunshine popped out of the window holding her AR-15. She was kneeling in the seat, facing backward as her ponytail whipped in the wind. She was firing left handed, but Hero knew she was a crack shot using either hand. She opened fire, raking a burst of bullets through the cracked windshield of Zorflox’s car, shattering it immediately.

  If Zorflox was hit, he didn’t show it. He acted quickly, pulling back behind Hero’s truck. His arm came straight out from where the windshield used to be, taking aim at Sunshine. He fired, the sound clearly audible. Hero didn’t know where it hit, but he knew it didn’t hit Sunshine, because she fired again, this time into the hood.

  Speedy dropped back even more, trying to do a PIT maneuver on him. At first, it looked like it would work. Zorflox’s back end started to slide, but then he corrected himself. Before Speedy could try again, Zorflox hit his own brakes. As Speedy passed him, Zorflox took another shot, this time taking out Speedy’s front passenger-side tire.

  Sunshine aimed directly at the alien, but just as she squeezed the trigger, Zorflox nudged the back of their car, sending her shot wide. Zorflox again aimed out where the windshield used to be and fired, taking out the Mustang's rear passenger-side tire as well.

  Speedy slammed on the gas to try to get away from him, but it was too late. Zorflox slammed the front driver side of his car into the rear passenger side of the Mustang. Without all four tires to provide her with traction, Speedy went sideways. Zorflox hit her so hard that he kept going, all the way off the left side of the road and onto the median. Speedy went off the right side of the road and immediately began to roll.

  Hero slammed on his brakes. He tried to see where the Mustang landed by looking at his right side mirror, but he couldn’t. This same thing had happened just about twenty-four hours ago, and Hero hadn’t slept since then. This time, though, he knew they were in trouble.

  “Where are Speedy and Sunshine? Are they okay?” Apple asked, clearly in a panic.

  “I don’t know,” Hero said. “Sunshine wasn’t wearing her seat belt.”

  The truck finally came to a stop and Apple had her door open before he could get his. He knew better than to tell her to stay in the truck this time. He’d need all the help he could get.

  Hero and Apple ran at a dead sprint down the side of the highway. He could see that, whether intentionally or not, Pacer had blocked both lanes when he stopped his truck. That meant that they had a little time to work before any other law enforcement could get there.

  Hero finally saw the Mustang, mercifully on its four tires. Smoke was pouring out of its engine compartment, so Hero knew he needed to hurry. “Apple, you get Speedy,” he said, knowing that Sunshine was going to need more help. He went to the far side of the car and saw smoke coming out of the window. The door opened, thankfully, and he looked inside. There was Sunshine, slumped in the chair, massaging her forehead. A spiderweb of cracks was on the inside of the windshield, indicating that she had bumped her head at least once.

  “I’m beginning to regret cutting out those airbags,” Sunshine said softly.

  “Aw, I bet those big melons of yours cushioned the blow just fine,” Hero said. He led her out of the car throwing her arm over his shoulder.

  She cupped one breast, and then the other, wincing. “Yep, those hurt too.”

  He walked her over to the other side of the car, intending to walk her all the way back to the semi, but Apple interrupted her. “Hero, Speedy’s just fine but we can’t get her seat belt off.”

  “Lay down here,” Hero said to Sunshine. He helped her to the ground, then faced the car. The smoke was getting heavier. He pulled his multitool off of his belt and pu
lled the strap cutter out.

  Speedy was sitting in the chair, looking fine physically but coughing. The smoke was coming through all the vents now, a sure sign that the engine was on fire. With two quick slashes, the seat belt was severed, and she was free.

  “Not another move,” he heard from behind him. “I’m here to bring you all to justice.”

  Speedy either didn’t hear him or ignored him, toppling out of the car and still coughing. Hero, on the other hand, slowly raised his hands. “Sheriff, we’ve gotta get away from this car. It’s on fire, and could explode at any moment.”

  “Not yet, you don’t. First, toss the knife away,” the Sheriff said. Hero tossed the multitool to the side, far away from himself. He knew he'd miss it, but he could buy another one. “Now, turn around.”

  Hero turned around. The first thing he noticed was the sheer size of the hand cannon being aimed at him. He had seen one before, but never quite like this. “That’s quite a gun you have there.”

  “That’s right. A revolver, just like the cowboys used to use.”

  “That’s right, but it’s not just any revolver. It’s a Smith & Wesson 500. Where’d you get it?” Hero asked.

  “A police officer gave it to me. She said it was the most powerful gun they had.”

  “She was right. She gave it to you loaded, didn’t she?”

  “Yes…” Zorflox said.

  “And you didn’t reload it, did you?” The alien said nothing. “You see, Sheriff, I can see most of the chambers of the gun, and I can see they’re all empty.”

  “You can’t see the chamber that counts, though,” the Sheriff said mockingly.

  “You’re right, but I did count bullets,” Hero said.

  “So did I,” Zorflox said.

  “Really? Let’s count them together.” Hero held up one finger. “There was one shot into my trailer, probably fired as a warning shot.” Zorflox nodded. He held up a second finger. “The shot that took out my mirror.” A third finger. “The shot you took at Sunshine.” He opened his hand. “And the other two were at the Mustang’s tires. Nice shooting, by the way.”