Truck Drivin’ Hero Read online

  Hero didn’t know how to respond, but then she looked past him. Her expression immediately softened.

  “Hey, girl!” she said, running up to Speedy and giving her a big hug, like nothing else had happened. That was Sunshine, though. She could flip her emotions on a dime and pretend like it was completely normal.

  “Hey!” Speedy said, returning the hug. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “Oh, they’re just finalizing the plans for the trip to Colorado.” She looked back at Hero, then at the man at the front of the room. “Wait, don’t tell me…”

  The man at the front of the room cleared his throat. “I see you’ve met our truck driver, Mr. Bill Reynolds.”

  “This guy? You couldn’t get anyone to drive a semi truck other than this guy?” Sunshine asked, angrily crossing her arms under her breasts.

  “Tim said that Mr. Reynolds here would be sympathetic to the cause, and that his truck was impeccably maintained,” the man replied. “Is all that true?”

  “The truck’s in great shape. And I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t sympathetic. Your welcome committee leaves something to be desired, though.” Hero turned to the girl in the yellow safety vest. “Not you, you did fine.”

  The woman in the vest saluted and walked out the door. She stood directly outside.

  “I’m glad you’re here then.” The man crossed the room and shook Hero's hand. “My name is Maxwell Jackson. Call me Max. I run this little base. As for Victoria’s welcome… Well, I wasn’t aware that you two had a history.” He shot Sunshine a sidelong glare.

  “Mr. Reynolds and I used to be lovers,” Sunshine said. It was a little forward, but Sunshine never had been afraid to tell people much more salacious details than that.

  “Is this going to be a problem?” Max asked.

  “That we had a relationship? No, that’s totally fine. But there is something you should know about him. He's a fucking coward.” Hero almost found it funny that she repeated the very phrase that Speedy said she used about him. Sunshine continued. “When given the opportunity to stay and fight in The Battle of Los Angeles, he fled. Not only that, he dragged me out as well. He’s no revolutionary.”

  “I see.” Max turned to Hero. “Mr. Reynolds, were you brought here as a revolutionary?”

  “No, sir. I was brought here to drive a truck and get paid,” Hero said.

  “Are you prepared to fight to complete this mission?”

  “Hutch- Tim Hutchinson told me to be prepared for that possibility. I’m only lightly armed but I’m willing to do whatever it takes.” Hero looked directly at Sunshine. “I have no love for the Greys.”

  “Is it clear to you that this is a contract job? At the end of this mission, you’re free to stay with us or to walk away.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then I don't think we will have a problem. One last thing you should be aware of, though. If you start this mission and don’t complete it, we’ll come after you. Not only that, we’ll send information to the Greys that implicates you in some past crime. You won’t be safe among humans or aliens. Is all that clear?”

  Hero gulped. That was a helluva thing to do to somebody. “Look, sir. I’m not a coward, no matter what Victoria here says. I left California weeks after the battle was already over. Hell, the battle for Earth was already over. And yeah, I dragged Victoria out of there. I cared about her, and I didn’t want to see her die for nothing. It looks like she’s made something of herself here, so everything worked out for the best.”

  Max shrugged. “That’s good enough for me. Victoria, is it good enough for you?”

  Sunshine plopped back down in a chair. “Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. Speedy sat down next to her.

  “Anyone else have a problem with that?” Max asked. Hero looked around the room. There was a mix of men and women. They included a few soldiers in fatigues, a few scientists in lab coats, and one man in a suit. None of them seemed like they had a problem with his story.

  “We’re going to go over Mr. Reynolds’ part of the plan again. As every other aspect of this mission is on a need-to-know basis, he’ll leave the room as soon as that’s over. Ms. Llena there will escort you anywhere you need to go in the base. She’ll show you to Tim’s quarters, which have been free ever since last month’s mission.”

  “Oh no, I couldn’t take Hutch’s room,” Hero said. “I’ll just stay in my truck’s sleeper.”

  “This isn’t a request. Make no mistake about it, you aren’t going anywhere until this mission is over. You’ll be allowed outside only for special circumstances, such as the modification of your truck. Are we clear?”

  Hero thought about how suspicious it would look for soldiers and scientists to be walking in and out of this old facility day and night. He realized that they all had to deal with that restriction. “Yeah. Clear,” Hero said.

  “Good. Consider yourself lucky. You’re one of only a few people who have a private room in this facility,” Max said.

  All the scientists nodded as he said that, along with Speedy and Sunshine. Bet they would love a private room, Hero thought.

  “Okay, let’s begin the briefing.”

  There was barely anything in the briefing that Hutch hadn't already told him. Hero would drive the truck containing the fusion reactor, and Speedy would drive the blocker car. There would be at least one soldier with them, riding in the Mustang with Speedy. Hero had a feeling that they had assumed Sunshine would be going, but were thinking about switching her out now that they knew about her history with him.

  They were pleased to find out that Alexandria had both a CB radio and a HAM radio installed. A CB radio had already been installed in Speedy’s Mustang so that they could communicate. They had a HAM radio there at the base that they could use to contact him if any information had to be conveyed.

  They would have at least sixteen hours notice before the solar storm started. They expected the solar storm to last three days, but the caveat was added that it could be shorter. “We’ve never dealt with a solar storm like this in the modern age, so we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen” Max explained. They could only be sure that the alien ships couldn’t operate during the daytime, so nighttime driving was out. The trip was relatively straightforward; Teaneck, New Jersey to Boulder, Colorado. The route and schedule were left to Hero’s discretion. In fact, Hero would be in charge of most aspects of the trip once they were out on the road.

  “One last thing before you leave, Mr. Reynolds,” Max said. “Both Sally and the soldier assigned to this mission will have orders to kill you and continue driving your truck if you seem like you’re fleeing or surrendering.”

  “Got it, boss,” Hero said. Victoria gave him an evil grin that made him just a little bit worried about his safety, even if he had no plans to surrender or run.

  Ms. Llena was gracious enough to let Hero grab his toiletry kit and overnight bag from the truck before escorting him to Tim’s room. Then she gave Hero the rest of the tour. There wasn’t much to it, just the indoor gym and the attached shower, which was the only shower in the entire facility. She also made it clear that she was authorized to go in there to yank him out of there if he was taking too much shower time.

  Most of Ms. Llena’s answers were one word, and she didn’t seem like much for conversation. “Come on, kid. Are you allowed to talk to me, or is it something else?”

  With a stoic face, she said, “I heard what Victoria said about you in there.”

  Great, Hero thought. Sunshine and this girl are going to tell the base that I’m the best buddy of the Greys, and I’ll be ostracized at any opportunity. Better to get ahead of it now.

  He chuckled. “You heard half the story, sure. Has Victoria ever told you how many Greys we killed?”

  She shook her head.

  “I got nineteen. She got seventeen. All armed, unlike the aliens in that fireworks factory you guys blew up last month,” Hero said.

  “There are no innocent Greys,” she sa
id.

  “Right, right. I heard your buddy Tim Hutchinson say the same thing on the way over here. We also downed a flying saucer. Lucky shot with an AT-4. You ever done that, kid?”

  She shook her head.

  “Victoria and I had a falling out, sure. She wanted to go out in a blaze of glory and I didn't want to die for nothing. I'm sure you've seen pictures of LA since the battle. There's nothing left. There was no victory to be had there. It wasn't running. It was being smart.”

  He watched Ms. Llena's face grow thoughtful.

  “You're not going to run this time, though?”

  “Not this time,” he agreed. “So how about you lighten up about my past? I mean, it sounds like we’re gonna be best friends for the next few days. What do you say?” He held out his hand.

  The woman in the Foodmart vest lightened up and shook his hand. “Okay. You can call me Luna.”

  “Good. Luna. Luna Llena... Like-”

  “Like Spanish for full moon, yes,” she said.

  “Cute,” Hero said. Luna scowled at him. “Well, you’ll hear the gals call me Hero.”

  “Hero?”

  “You never get to pick your nickname. Hutch actually gave me that nickname back in Kandahar.” He thought about those old times, then snapped back to reality. “I can tell you some stories about him if you want, but I'm starving. What do you say we go to the mess?”

  Hero should have realized after seeing the wall of canned vegetables that the food selection would be pretty much limited to that. At least they'd used real Dinty Moore beef stew to start the soup, even if it had been diluted with several times more canned carrots and canned green beans. Still, Hero did find one piece of meat in his bowl, and he was grateful for it.

  Luna said she had already eaten, but she still sat down across from Hero. She started by telling him about her job here, as a grocery store employee by day and a hacker-in-training by night. Then, she asked a bunch of questions about his truck, even though it was clear she didn’t really know anything about trucks. Still, Hero humored her. It was better than sitting alone.

  During their conversation, he got to check her out a little more. She was pretty short, only about 5’2″. She was small all around without being skinny, and her face still had some baby fat on it. She even had a little bit of a double chin, but it just made her even more adorable. Her hair was jet black and went all the way down to her ass. She was busty, but it was impossible to tell how busty while she was wearing her loose warehouse uniform. Her whole appearance was a little strange for a Resistance member, but she probably looked that way to keep up the appearance of this being a grocery store operation.

  When he was almost done eating, Speedy plopped down next to him. “Hey, Luna. Can I have a moment alone with Hero?”

  “Sure, Sally,” Luna said with a smile.

  Speedy watched her go, then leaned in. She spoke so softly that Hero could barely hear her, forcing him to lean in a little further himself. “Sorry about Victoria’s reaction in there.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for. She’s her own woman. And hell hath no fury…” Hero trailed off.

  “Yeah. I felt pretty scorned until last night, so maybe I need to take some lessons from her,” she said. Hero looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “I’m kidding!” she added.

  “Well I’m glad you’ve forgiven me, at least in part,” he said.

  “I want Victoria to come with us on this mission. There’s no gun on this base that I trust more. And she wants to come with me, but I’ll need you to talk to her. She needs to know that you aren’t going to force her to kill you,” Speedy said.

  “That’s a funny thing to say. Obviously I don’t want her to kill me. You sure she wouldn’t kill me anyway, just because of our past?”

  Speedy shrugged. “You know Victoria as well as I do.”

  “Definitely,” Hero said.

  “Not like that!” she said, blushing. “I mean, personally. Emotionally. She wears her thoughts on her sleeves, and she is really bad about hiding them or lying about them. When she said that your prior relationship wasn’t a problem, I’m sure she meant it.”

  “So the problem is that she really thinks that I came all this way to... what? Just to steal your fusion reactor, which I didn’t even know about until yesterday?” he asked.

  “Yeah, something like that. Maybe you pointing out how absurd that sounds would help,” she said.

  “I’ll do whatever I can. I really do feel bad about how we ended things, and I’d like to patch things up,” he said.

  “Like you patched things up with me?” she asked.

  He wasn’t sure how to answer that. Sunshine was still gorgeous, but there was clearly a lot more anger to work through. And there was something else. He shook his head. “No. Now that I know you two are together, I couldn’t possibly come between you two. I don’t regret last night, even though I probably should, but I won’t mess with either of you again.”

  For a moment, Speedy’s smile faded. Then she perked right back up and stuck out her tongue. “I was just kidding. Of course I knew that you weren’t gonna try and sleep with her.”

  Another woman’s voice broke into their bubble. “What are you two talking about?” Sunshine asked as she sat down at the table across from them.

  Both Speedy and Hero moved apart from each other, as if they had just been caught in a conspiracy. “Nothing,” they both said at once.

  Sunshine narrowed her eyes at Hero. “The boss says I need to talk to you, Bill. So let’s talk.”

  “Sure,” said Hero. He wasn’t surprised that she called him by his real name, but he had gotten used to ‘Hero’ over the past day. “Um, first of all I want to apologize about the way you’ve felt these past three years.”

  “The way I’ve felt, huh? Not your actions?” Sunshine asked, her voice already rising. A couple of the soldiers at the next table over had already started looking at them.

  “Look, can we talk about this somewhere else? People are listening in. I guess I have the only private room on the base, so we can all go there,” Hero offered.

  Sunshine laughed. “You always wanted me to be more quiet, Bill. To your trucker buddies. To our fellow soldiers in LA. Even sometimes in bed. But I’ve changed. I don’t need to filter anything. I-”

  “Victoria, please,” Speedy said, interrupting Sunshine. “I know Hero has some things he wants to say, and then I have to talk to you about this mission, too. Can we please just go to his room and talk there?”

  Sunshine looked like she was going to answer back loudly, but then looked confused. “Wait. Why did you just call him Hero?”

  Speedy and Hero looked at each other, then Hero turned back to Sunshine. “Let’s just go to my room for now.”

  The door closed with Luna standing on the other side. Hero just hoped she wouldn’t hear everything they were about to talk about.

  “I’ll continue,” Hero said as Speedy and Sunshine sat down on his bed. He sat down on the chair in front of his desk. He was slightly elevated from where Sunshine was and her cleavage spilled out of the front of her tank top, tempting him. He had to force himself not to look, but he did force himself. “I am sorry about the way things turned out in LA. I wish we won the battle. We did not. We could not have.”

  “We could have done some more damage,” Sunshine said stubbornly.

  “Sunshine, I want you to be serious,” Hero said, finally using her nickname. “We could not have won the battle. We would have thrown our lives away. Think of all the damage you’ve done to the Greys since then. I did the world a favor by saving your life back then.”

  “And what have you done since then?” Sunshine shot back. “We could have gone to Houston, or Denver, or any of the other major cities that were still fighting. Instead, you tucked your tail between your legs and ran to Des Moines, where you opened up a car dealership-”

  “Auto repair shop,” Hero corrected.

  “WHATEVER!” Sunshine yelled, her voice echoing of
f the cement walls. Hero was glad that he managed to get her out of the mess hall. “And you sat there, fiddling with cars while the world burned.”

  Hero had had this conversation with Hutch on the way in here, but it felt more factual now that it was being yelled at him. “You ain’t wrong,” he said softly. “You’re certainly braver than I am.”

  Sunshine let out a frustrated screech. “This isn’t about me. This is about humanity. I get that, but I don’t think you do. And now, you come waltzing in here, getting paid a lot of money because you own what is apparently one of a dozen trucks in America without a god damn computer in it, and I’m supposed to put my faith in you.”

  There was a long silence, but Hero eventually broke it. “I don’t know what to say that will convince you that I’m here to do this job. Hutch didn’t force me to come. Until I sat through that meeting, I could have left anytime I wanted to. I’m aware of what’s coming, and I’m ready to do my part.”

  Sunshine crossed her arms under her chest, and Hero had to force himself again not to look at her breasts. “I’m not convinced.”

  “Fine then. If you won’t do it for me, do it for Speedy,” Hero said.

  Sunshine looked confused. “Who?”

  Hero cursed himself. He thought back to that first conversation that he and Speedy had in the dusty parking lot of his auto repair shop. Well, nobody’s called me Speedy in a long time either, she had said.

  “Uh, maybe you should take over from here, Sally,” Hero said.

  “Sure. Um, remember on that mission in Montreal, how I told you I learned everything I knew about driving from an ex-boyfriend?” Speedy started.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. This is the guy who taught you how to drive?” She looked up at Hero, then back at Speedy. “Small world, I guess.”

  “This is the guy.” Speedy motioned toward Hero with a small smile. “He called me Speedy, and I called him Hero.”