Ready Player None

Chapter 12.1 - Alex "I Can't Drive 55"

The sight of a viewscreen filled with red-gray sky was terrifying. The sickening loss of gravity as we arced out over the edge of the precipice was all the more so. I may have lost my sense of time, and I know at one point I blacked out after the first impact, but the bouncing fall down the side of the mountain seemed to take forever. Most of the time, we fell backwards while being shaken like a mouse in the jaws of a cat, unable to see what exactly we were falling toward. But we made it.

The Trak did its best to protect us. I doubted it would ever move again.

Three of the 8 wheeled legs were broken, and one of the others wasn't spinning. If I couldn't figure out how to get us moving again, using anything we had, we were on foot from here on out. Trying to accelerate with only the left wheels made the entire vehicle spin slowly in a circle, taking us in a full 360 degree loop back to the same position. I tried lifting the main section higher, hoping that the wheels that could still fully extend could keep us balanced while the broken legs dangled, but no go. It immediately tilted toward the damaged side, and would have toppled over if I hadn't quickly lowered it.

The main compartment was still perfectly solid, though. It was built to survive massive damage, and protect the passengers at the expense of the rest of the vehicle. I think the entire mountain could have fallen on the Trak's center section, and we would have been just fine.. until the air ran out, of course. These were all thoughts I didn't want to share with Kate.

I'm pretty sure the noise of the rock slide carried far enough to make anyone within a few miles come and see what had happened. If those folks had evil intentions, as almost everyone outside a Community did, we would need the protection of the Trak just to survive. Unless there were enough people to carry it, and us, away.

More thoughts not to share. Duly noted.

"Okay, looks like we're not going anywhere with this guy," Kate said. "I've got everything in backpacks and bags in the storage compartment. If we both load up, and follow the road as best we can from down here, we should be able to reach the next Community before daylight. But we're going to have to hurry."

I wanted to keep trying to find a balance that would let the Trak carry us, but Kate was already unlocking her door from the inside. She's probably right. We don't have time to waste with a broken vehicle. Our feet would at least get us going in the right direction.

"The stuff on the outside are things we'll definitely need. Protection, cover, first aid, and water. How about I start loading you up, and you tell me when we need to stop?" she asked.

Dad, I promise, I will keep her safe, and we will be fine.

"Sure, Kate. Let's hurry."

She began rummaging through the compartment, pulling out a fairly large backpack with two straps. This would be the main weight I would have to deal with. She struggled to drag it out, and then dropped it.

I started to go help her pick it up, then realized that she didn't drop it by accident.

We had company.

The man was behind me, twenty feet away from the front of the broken Trak. I'm honestly not sure what gender we were dealing with, but I'm going with 'he' as it really didn't matter. He had a long pitchfork as a weapon, and his face was wrapped in strips of fabric as protection from the sun, or perhaps hiding some grotesquerie underneath. His eyes were hidden behind circles of darkened plastic, and he said nothing as he edged closer, pitchfork aimed at my chest, trying to see if we were going to defend ourselves. I need to hear what he wanted from us, he was capable of making his intent clear, as he stabbed the pitchfork forward in between hesitant steps.

The Trak was our safety spot, but we both needed to be inside before I closed the shell. I needed to let Kate know my intentions, without alerting the farmer-mummy with the pitchfork that he should really hurry up and stab us. We won't be able to get away, but he wouldn't be able to touch us, and the vehicle had some defensive surprises that I don't think he'll be expecting.

Behind my back, I showed three fingers, thumbed towards the Trak passenger compartment, then 2 fingers.. 1..

I dove inside, starting to turn to see if Kate had followed, she hadn't, she was still outside, although I couldn't see where. I stuck my head out and started to yell for her when the sound of the entire Earth exploding into a trillion pieces hit my ear and things went black.