Alpine

Gambit 2 - Thriller

"Just so we're on the same page, why are you being so quiet?" We were a few hours into highway 16 by the time I asked. He had been dead silent since the gas station. Even when we had stopped for lunch earlier, he only said enough to order his food.

He perked up. "I thought some space would do you good. Was I wrong?"

I fidgeted with the fresh bandage on my hand. Removing the old gauze had reopened the cut. Since then, it had been itching and driving me crazy. "No."

"If the silence is uncomfortable, then I'm more than happy to talk with you."

"You're going to do what you want to do regardless of how I feel."

He scoffed. "Honestly, must you be presumptuous? I've more than shown I know how to be polite and courteous of others."

"When you feel like it."

"I wish you would stop taking advantage of the fact that we're alone to be like this."

"It evens the playing field."

That caught him off-guard. I wondered if Switch was starting to get why my recharge time was so important. For him, I mean. For me, it meant feeling like my life was worth living. For his sake, though, I could only take so many hits before going numb. Before biting into everything with deadpan, nihilistic cynicism. A defense mechanism I thought I had trained out of myself.

My comment seemed to end the conversation. The roads were rough. He struggled to stay at speed on the wet snow. Concentrating on the bumps and slicks left him with little brain power leftover to harass me. In that moment, I was thankful he was driving. Navigating this tundra with him chattering in my ear would have been unbearable.

Eventually, he spoke up again. "I think we need to agree on something. If you're not going to be nice to me, then I have no reason to be nice to you. It's unfair to expect politeness but return none. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

I looked down. I understood the threat. Besides, being alone with him was no excuse to practice being an asshole. It was a losing situation for everyone in the long run. "Yeah. Sorry. You know this is hard on me." I bit back the words, It's the entire reason you planned it this way. Hope you like what you got!

He shook his head. "You need to get sleep tonight. Or maybe you could sleep now?"

"I've never been able sleep well on car rides."

"I feel that." He chuckled. "I've always found them so exciting."

"Is that why you wanted to drive Alpine yourself?"

"There was also the cost of chartering a private plane to get it securely to Alaska, but yes. I like driving. I think the thing I really want to do with my life is get... something. I haven't decided yet whether I want a motorcycle or a full RV. I like the idea of driving down highways with nothing blocking the wind. Nothing between me and the road but my ride's wheels. But it makes living comfortably a bit of a nightmare. RVs are ugly things, but having the convenience is tempting."

"Both is an option."

He slowly repeated my words. I think they sparked some grand epiphany in him, though he never told me the scope of it. "Anyway, I want to drive around. I don't know if there's anywhere specific I want to go or anything I want to see. I just like the feeling of going somewhere. I like driving."

A warning honk. Switch startled. The car jolted back into our lane. An 18-wheeler roared by our right, splashing us with a snow monsoon. The impact rammed the car into the far-left lane's pristine snowbank. We lost traction. He slammed the breaks like an idiot. We skidded and skied.