Truck Drivin’ Hero Read online

  “No. I met her on my first mission with the Resistance, about a year ago. She told me a similar story, only her story had a lot more detail,” she said. “A lot more detail. I wish I had known she was talking about you.”

  Hero chuckled, remember how Victoria loved talking about their love life in sordid detail to anyone who would listen. “I bet she told you everything.” He thought for a minute before asking the obvious. “Is she still alive?”

  “Yes. In fact, you might get the chance to see her. She's at our Teaneck base right now,” Speedy said.

  Simultaneously, the two men had very different reactions.

  “Teaneck, huh?” asked Hero, eyebrows raised and nodding.

  “Now who has a problem with OPSEC?” asked Hutch, his brow drawn and angry.

  When she realized what she had done, Speedy blushed a deep red. “Oops.”

  “Teaneck, New Jersey. It's a logical base of operations,” said Hero. “The junction of I-80 and I-95, two major roads. Nothing else is there that I know of.”

  Hutch sighed. “You done with your burrito? Speedy only ate half of hers, but she looks done. We really ought to hit the road.”

  “You got it, boss,” Hero said, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

  “I gotta hit the head, I'll be back in a minute,” Hutch told him.

  As soon as he was gone, Hero mouthed the word “sorry” to Speedy.

  Speedy blushed again and smiled. “Don't be sorry, it was my fault. I forgot how comfortable I am around you.” She stopped smiling, her eyes going cold and distant as she pulled away from him. “That should make this mission easier for us to complete. Hopefully it goes fast.”

  “Aw, don't do that, darlin'” Hero said.

  “Do what?”

  “Don't turn off that beautiful smile. Look, we're here to do a mission. Whatever happened between the two of us was my fault, and I understand that now. I'd like us to be friends, even after this job is over. You don't have to forgive me, but we'll have a lot more fun if you can let your guard down a little.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

  “Aw, that's not enough. Come on! We can be a team, like Thelma and Louise.”

  “Don't they die at the end?” she asked, crossing her arms.

  “That's not important, the important part is that they were together until the end. How about Lewis and Clark?” Hero asked.

  She nodded thoughtfully, the smile slowly coming back to her face. “I like that. Or how about Batman and Robin?”

  “There you go!” he agreed, his smile getting broad. “Laverne and Shirley!”

  “Um, Rocky and Bullwinkle,” she said, grinning at him.

  “Bonnie and Clyde!” he said immediately.

  “Um. Er. Uh. Smokey and the Bandit,” Speedy said.

  “Smokey and the... Smokey and the... what?” Hero asked.

  “Smokey and the Bandit. Like the movie,” Speedy repeated.

  “I know what Smokey and the Bandit is. I've seen the movie. Have you?”

  “I think so? They used to play it on Spike TV all the time,” she said.

  “'Smokey' were the cops in that movie. Smokey and the Bandit were enemies,” Hero said, looking a little exasperated.

  “Ohhhhh. I thought Smokey was the semi truck driver,” she said.

  “That was Cledus, AKA Snowman,” he said.

  “Ohhhhh.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Are you sure?” That smile that made Hero's heart sing was stretched wide across her face. He wasn't sure if she was kidding with him or not.

  He shook his head, unable to stop from laughing. “Let's get to the car,” he said. As she stood up, he couldn't help but notice how her body moved. He couldn't help but stare a little at that cute little ass in those tight jean shorts. It reminded him of better days. She looked back at him and caught him staring, and she bit her lip while smiling. He gave her ass a little pat and said, “Get moving, darlin'.” She squealed a little bit and skipped toward the door.

  She got right in her Mustang. Hero motioned for her to roll down her window. “Whether you're foolin' with me or not, we're going to have to watch Smokey together before this is all over,” he said.

  “Count on it,” she replied with a grin.

  4

  Back eastbound on I-80, Hero felt the food settle in his stomach. It had been awhile since he had done a cross-country trip in the big rig, and he knew he'd need to spend a little extra time on the elliptical to make up for the fast food and sedentary lifestyle.

  “Obviously there's more history between you and Sally than I was aware of,” Hutch said as soon as they were back on the highway.

  “Would it have stopped you from looking me up if you had known?” Hero asked.

  “No, but I'd like to hear the whole story.”

  “Yeah, that's fair,” Hero said. “The whole story basically begins the last time I saw you. You remember when I got out of the Army, right?”

  “Of course I remember. We lost a helluva gunner that day. Miller wouldn't stop crying that you'd left,” Hutch said.

  Hero smiled, remembering the young man with dark eyes and a crooked smile. “Miller. I remember that kid. What happened to him?”

  “Dead. Killed by the Greys in Washington, D.C.”

  Hero's smile faded quickly. “So many did. Anyway, when I got out, the aliens hadn't landed yet, of course. The Army gave me a plane ticket to Las Vegas and sent me on my way. I spent a couple months trying to become a professional poker player before blowing a huge chunk of my bankroll on the World Series of Poker.”

  “You were always so good at poker, though.”

  “I am good, but not compared to the professionals of the world. My luck wasn't great, either. I learned a lot about myself from that time, and the biggest thing was that I didn't have the patience to sit in a seat and play cards for minimum wage.”

  “So, you wised up.”

  “Well, I was given a little nudge in the right direction. At a home game I was at, a man bet his truck on a poker hand and lost.”

  “You won Alexandria at a poker game, just like Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon.”

  “Not exactly. It happened at the table next to mine. I was up a few grand for the night, so when the winner started complaining loudly about what he was going to do with a truck, I offered to buy it for half the value of the money in the pot. He accepted and I left Las Vegas that night.”

  “And thus, the legend of the truck drivin' hero was born,” Hutch said dramatically.

  “Something like that. Anyway, I fixed her up, got some jobs hauling goods across the United States, but then I met a girl.”

  “Sally.”

  “A jet black Ford Probe passed me one night on I-75 near Atlanta, one headlight popped way up because she got in a minor fender bender. She passed me on the highway going about a hundred miles an hour and pulled off the highway, into a gas station. I didn't need gas then, but I'm glad I pulled off,” Hero said.

  “So you stalked her.”

  “Yeah, a little. I offered to fix that headlight for her and offered her a few driving tips, and she spent the night with me in my sleeper. For the next couple months, I called her up every time I ended up near Atlanta.”

  “Hoes in different area codes.”

  Hero glared at Hutch. “Speedy was no ho, and I had nobody else. Eventually, she started traveling with me. She'd drive ahead of me, then drop back behind me, kind of like she was a blocker car. But there was no real law-breaking happening, she just loved to drive, and I knew that she was really doing all that stuff just to impress me. We'd go out at night to whatever local bar had live music, and then fuck in my truck until we passed out.”

  “Sounds like a great arrangement. What happened?”

  Hero sighed. “One night, when we went out in Detroit, we ran into a group doing street racing. Did you know she has seen all of the Fast and the Furious movies? Anyway, she insisted that she drive her Probe against these tricked out Honda Civics and Dodge Charger
s. I told her that she shouldn't, but I figured that doing it once might get it out of her system.”

  “Famous last words.”

  “Yeah. She fell behind immediately, but obviously had a blast. She finished third out of four racers, and the fact that she didn't finish dead last was enough for her. After that, it was all about what racing tires to buy, what kind of NOS system she should have, what engine upgrades were the best for her frame. She expected me to bankroll all of this, of course.”

  “Of course,” Hutch repeated.

  “She was becoming an adrenaline junkie, and she needed a bigger and bigger fix. In her second race, she clipped a car, causing him to spin out. She swore that she didn't do it on purpose, but I know she did, the other driver knew she did, everyone knew. There was no real damage to either car, but I had to get her out of there in a hurry.”

  “And that was the beginning of the end,” Hutch said.

  Hero nodded. “I told her that she had to have a more healthy outlet for her need for speed. She told me that racing was who she was. I told her it was me or racing.” Hero paused for a moment. “She said she wanted both, that she would only leave if I forced her to. I told her that I was a bad influence on her, and that maybe she should think about getting some good influences in her life. Then I told her to sleep on it in her own car, effectively locking her out of my life, at least for the night. In the morning, she and that Probe were gone.”

  “So you did break up with her.”

  “I couldn't handle seeing her risk her life like that. For what? For the respect of some asshole teenagers with way too much money to spend on upgrading their car? For the thrill of going a hundred miles an hour down some residential street? It was too much.”

  “I see,” Hutch said. They drove in silence for a while. “So why are you willing to work with her now?”

  Hero couldn't answer that to Hutch. He had failed to pull Speedy from a dangerous life years ago, but he wanted to try to do it again, and Hutch couldn't know that. “The circumstances are different. She's driving for a cause, rather than just to drive. I guess I hope she's grown up a little bit.”

  Hutch nodded. “It is a noble cause, indeed.”

  “About that cause,” Hero said, trying to change the subject. “You still haven't told me exactly what we're doing. I got that the sun is gonna get mad in a few days and throw a fireball at us, and all the cars but mine and Speedy's are gonna be off the road. What are you hauling during this time that needs a rig?”

  “Did you hear about the big fire in Hackensack last month?” Hutch asked.

  “Yeah, a fireworks factory exploded or something, right? They said that a firefighting flying saucer got too hot and crashed too. Didn't think those things could melt.”

  “That was the cover story. And they made it look good, too. Plenty of video of fireworks going off in between the explosions. The truth is, they were hiding two fusion reactors in that wearhouse,” Hutch said.

  Hero frowned. “Why Hackensack?”

  “Beats me,” Hutch said. “We speculated that they were going to move them to Manhattan or Washington D.C. at some point, but were stopped by something. Our mole didn't know either.”

  “Your mole? You have spies in the alien organization?” Hero asked.

  “Sure. They don't let humans get very high in their hierarchy, but they need worker drones. Dock workers, forklift drivers, crane operators, those kinds of jobs. And it doesn't take a genius to figure out some of this stuff even at their low level.”

  “So you blew everything up,” Hero said.

  “I blew up the facility, yes. It was my operation,” Hutch said.

  “I saw the news report. They said it was arson, or maybe even a terrorist attack,” Hero said.

  “The news often blows things out of proportion, but that's basically true. Why do you think I moved to the top of the FBI Most Wanted list?”

  “They said 180 people died,” Hero said softly. He looked over at his friend from the past, wondering just how far he had gone.

  “The only casualties were inside the facility. There were perhaps a dozen humans there. Although they were working with the Greys, I regret their deaths. The rest were Greys, and there are no innocent Greys.”

  Hero couldn't really argue with that, but the sheer number was a little staggering.

  Hutch's eyes had gone dark and serious before he continued. “We blew up the facility with the Greys' own Composition Z-4 explosive that they had on site, instead of using our own C-4. We think we might have used too much, and we definitely would have used less if we had known that they had a storage facility full of fireworks in there somewhere.”

  “Well, you made it out in one piece. And you blew up their fancy generators. Mission accomplished, let's all go home,” Hero said, clapping his hands in a job-well-done gesture.

  “We took a souvenir. One of the fusion reactors,” Hutch said.

  Hero laughed. “And what do you need a fusion reactor for?”

  “That's... on a need-to-know basis. The important part is that we were able to drive it the five miles from their facility to our base without being detected,” Hutch said. “We got lucky.”

  “Didn't they have birds and drones in the air?” Hero asked.

  “No, and not only that, their ground-based sensors weren't working.”

  “They have ground-based sensors?”

  “Ever wonder what those little black boxes that they added to the mile marker signs are?” Hutch asked.

  Hero hadn't driven on the highway in a long time, but now that Hutch mentioned it, there was a little black box on top of every one of the mile markers and speed limit signs that they passed.

  “Huh. So their sensors weren't working. And they didn't take any UFOs from New York City to try and stop you,” Hero said.

  “No, they did. Plenty of drones, too. The drones started falling out of the sky, all on their own. They even sent some Greys in black SUVs. The SUVs turned back as soon as the first flying saucer fell.” Hutch finally had a grin on his face. “They're weak against something in that explosion.”

  “Weak? To what?”

  “Some form of radiation. We've detected small bursts of all sorts of exotic radiation from our base in Teaneck. Gamma rays, X-rays, UV, and a couple others we can't identify. Once we do, we're going to use it.”

  “Their technology is more susceptible to whatever the radiation was, and you suspect that that SUV turned back because their bodies are too,” Hero said.

  “It's the only thing that makes sense. They didn't go near it until human firefighters had taken care of the blaze and blanketed the area with some kind of special foam.”

  “The firefighters are okay, then? You're okay?” There was no response. “You got irradiated, didn't you?” Hero said.

  “Well, my skin hasn't melted off yet,” Hutch said with a laugh. “But I'm on an iodine pill regimen, and the doctors say I have a significantly increased risk of cancer before I turn fifty. It could be worse.”

  “And Speedy?”

  “Sally was on another mission, out-of-state. She was with your other ex, Victoria. I appreciate your concern for my well-being, though.”

  Hero thought Hutch might be offended again, but he really didn't care. “That generator can't stay in Teaneck, can it?”

  “Nope. We think that the explosion probably turned that other generator into slag that was so mangled that they can't tell that it was only one and not two, but we can't be sure. We have it in a lead box underground, but they'll find it eventually.”

  “Is it safe to move? Am I going to get cancer from it?” Hero asked.

  “The scientists are pretty sure that it's completely safe and that the radiation only leaked from the other one because of the explosion. But I can't tell you for sure,” Hutch said.

  “I appreciate your honesty,” Hero said.

  “That same uncertainty means that we can't tell whether the ground-based sensors will pick it up or not, or we would have already mo
ved it.”

  The pieces finally fit together. “The solar storm,” Hero said.

  “The solar storm. It'll produce the same general type of radiation that the fusion reactor produced when it exploded. The same type of radiation that crashed all their ships and drones, knocked out all their sensors, and made them turn back an SUV full of living beings. Meanwhile, our semi truck worked just fine, and it was closer to the explosion than any of the alien beings or machines,” Hutch said.

  “So you don't think they will be able to detect it at all during the solar storm. But if they do manage to detect the generator with their sensors, they won't be able to get a bird in the air. They won't be able to send drones after me. They can't track me via satellite. And you think they won't be able to chase me in a car, even if they find one that runs, because they can't go outside,” Hero said, a little impressed. It was the perfect opportunity for the Resistance.

  “That about sums it up,” Hutch said.

  “What about local cops? Human cops?” Hero asked, remembering Hutch's reaction to the police car lights earlier.

  Hutch looked a little embarrassed. “There are several members of several police departments who have joined us. Some others, we've bought off just for this run. As long as you don't attract any serious attention, you should be fine.”

  “Sounds like you've got it all planned out, then,” Hero said.

  Hutch nodded. “This could be a milk run, but if it comes down to it, I expect you to use violence. You defended the unit with valor in Kandahar. You participated in The Battle of Los Angeles. I know you can do it again for all of mankind.”

  Hero looked at the Mustang in front of them and thought of the smiling face of Speedy. He knew that he shouldn't be mixed up in organizations stealing forbidden alien technology and killing hundreds. He had to get her out of this.

  He nodded, and Hutch turned back toward the road. But Hero knew he wasn't doing this for all of mankind. He was doing this for her.