Trip of a Century

Part 1 Chapter 3

Outlaws

After a few minutes of driving, Aiden was fidgeting. He reached for his hand-held, then remembered it was gone. He started examining his guns. When he was done with that he looked at the clock. They had been on the road for less than 20 minutes. He reached for his hand-held again. “Bloody cunt nuggets,” he swore.

“What?” Gain replied.

“Jimmy has my phone.”

“Who?”

“Skinny prick. Leather jacket. Lots of glass in his face. Smells like vinegar.”

“Oh, that guy.”

“I’m so feckin’ bored. I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“Oh have a cry, why don’t ya. You can sit with your thoughts for a couple of hours. Or maybe that’s a bad thing. Is it your thoughts or your lack of thoughts that have us fleeing to save your balls from a cricket bat?”

“It’s baseball, ya feckin’ spanner.” Aiden then proceeded to go on a long monologue about the differences between cricket and baseball. Gain sighed and tuned him out. “At least Aiden isn’t bored anymore,” he thought. After a few minutes, Aiden stopped talking and stared out the window at the darkness that was dotted with the lights of country farmhouses, multi-storied megafarms, and massive farming robots.

After a couple of hours, Gain turned south and then after a bit of driving through country roads, arrived in a city called Sterling Rock. Aiden’s drooping eyelids opened and he sat up. “What’re we doing, Gain?”

Gain replied, “I’m hungry.” 

As they drove into the city of Sterling Rock at around midnight, the roads were mostly empty. “Hal, where’s the nearest open restaurant,” Gain asked his digital assistant.

The truck’s speakers beeped and then a masculine-sounding robotic voice replied, “Jimmy’s Bar and Grill on Freeport Road is open and serves traditional American food. Would you like directions?”

“Yes.”

The automated navigator proceeded to direct Gain to the restaurant.

Gain pulled the truck into the parking lot of a gray building that had probably had a facelift within the last decade. It had a neon sign that said “Jimmy’s” in a big, red, cursive font. Under that in yellow block letters it said “Bar & Grill”. Four windows on the front showed lights on inside the mostly empty restaurant.

There were five other vehicles in the parking lot. Gain parked next to a really big green pickup truck with old collision damage on the passenger side that had started rusting. They both took off their armor before exiting the truck but Gain kept a pistol under his coat and Aiden kept two. They walked in through two sets of heavy wooden doors. The lighting inside was dim. There was a black host stand with a sign on it that read in big red impact font “Seat yourself…” so the brothers walked across the laminate wood floor to an empty, faux wood table where they had a clear view of the front and the bar, pulled out two brown chairs with green cushions and sat across from each other and looked around the restaurant. 

Sitting at a table with half a glass of beer and a half-eaten plate of nachos was a sapiens man in his early 20s, wearing a backward ball cap and a black hoodie with the sleeves ripped off. He looked like he probably had some muscle under a layer of fat that made him look soft. Maybe an ex-athlete who still ate like one.

At the bar, a male lata-brevis sat with a female sapiens with dwarfism. Since The Event, sapiens with dwarfism had given up on getting people to call them dwarfs. Most accepted that “dwarf” referred to the stocky human subrace and it just wasn’t worth the fight. “Little person” was sometimes used but it caused confusion. The community of little sapiens in general seemed to have accepted and appropriated the once-offensive “midget” as their own word although nobody else was allowed to use it. Three terms were currently in use that society as a whole had not yet determined whether they were offensive or not—halfling, sap, and sapling. Halfling was popular because its origins in fantasy was a perfect fit with the common names of the new subraces—dwarf, elf, ork, and ogre. But at the same time, the connotations that came along with “half” were considered undesirable. The rise of “sap” wasn’t an imaginative one and the implication of gullibility or being a drain could be insulting. It was fast on its way to becoming a pejorative. Sapling was probably on par with halfling as an acceptable name. Aiden and Gain were both of a mind that “hey you” and “the short one” were always acceptable references and they kept from getting accused of anything that way. 

At least with some orks and ogres having skin tones that ranged through shades of gray and green, people were less concerned about light skin versus dark skin these days but that didn’t stop some people from having issues with “greenskins”–which included the gamut of gray as well as green–or “pinkskins”–which included every shade of brown from black to white.

Aiden and Gain picked up the laminated menus from the caddy on the table and began looking at them. While they were looking at the menus, a shadow was cast across the table, blocking most of the light from the rest of the restaurant. Aiden and Gain looked up, and then leaned back, to look at the face of a very broad, 8-foot-tall gentleman with stoney gray skin. Not stoney like a shade of gray, but stoney like there were thick deposits of keratin all over his skin that made it look like actual stone. The actual gray color of his skin just added to the effect. He had a pair of tusks that jutted more-or-less straight up over his upper lip, ending about in line with the bottom of his nose. He had tufts of wavy black hair that jutted out between a pair of horns that swept backward over his head. The hair was kept short enough that it didn’t cover his too-little, sharply pointed ears. His arm, without need of bending or leaning, reached across the length of the table and picked up the roll of paper towels. The other hand pulled a pen out of the left breast pocket of his plaid button-up shirt that bore a name tag that said “Josh”. Josh adjusted his black-framed glasses, held the pen to the paper towels, and said in a voice that reminded Aiden of a Texas auctioneer that he saw in a video online once, “What are you fellas drinkin’ tonight?” They both ordered water and then Josh asked, “You boys know what you want yet?” 

Gain replied, “Yeah, I just want a cheeseburger and fries.” 

“You want the nearburger or the beef,” Josh asked.

Gain said, “Nearburger.”

Josh looked at Aiden and Aiden asked, “Do you have any specials? What’s popular here?”

Josh said, “Oh I highly recommend the sirloin. All our meat is grown in-house so you get the perfect amount of marbling in it. And the nutrient bath for the sirloin is pre-seasoned so even before it goes on the grill, it has a hint of black pepper and a touch of vinegar taste throughout. Jimmy is like a meat growing artist. Cooked on the wood-fire grill with a sprinkle of sea salt, and it don’t get better’n’at.”

“I’ll do that. Medium. With corn and mashed potatoes,” Aiden replied.

Josh wrote that on the paper towel roll, ripped it off, put the paper towels back on the table, and said he’d put that in and be back with their water.

Gain made eye contact with Aiden, who was smiling and trying to hold back laughter. Gain tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow. Snickering, Aiden said, “Jimmy’s meat is peppered and vinegary. Doesn’t sound familiar to you?”

Suddenly Gain made the connection between the name of the restaurant and the guy whose face he peppered with a shattered bottle of vinegar and the ridiculousness of it caught up with him and he started laughing. They were both catching their breath and crying a little when Josh put their water down on the table. 

He looked quizzically at the brothers and Aiden just said, “You had to be there.”

Josh shrugged his huge shoulders and minded his own business while he went back to tend the bar.

A nearby digital display streamed a newscast. The wall next to the table had a speaker with two dials. Gain turned one dial and then they could hear the sports channel from one of the other displays. Gain turned the other dial and it switched to the display showing news.

It was showing an image of an enormous craft and the talking head was saying “…carry fourteen thousand people to Janus. People from all over the world have joined this expedition. It is scheduled to take off in a little over two weeks and will be the first expedition of its kind. This project was about eighty percent funded by donations of hundreds of billions of dollars from five of the world’s wealthiest people–Amy Bezos, Linda Swift, George Buffet, Sebastian Ortega, and Sam Zuckerberg. The other twenty percent was from advertising deals made with some of the wealthiest global corporations on Earth; including ABC, HT Travel Group, Apple, and Ford Travel Company. Joining us here to talk about it today is—”, Aiden switched the speaker back to the sports display where it was giving a recap of recent football (soccer, as they called it over here in North America) matches. They started discussing players faking injuries and Gain just tuned it out while he watched a tour of the spaceship. It looked like everyone was assigned a pod and a small storage space. Gain pulled his phone out and looked up how far away Janus was from Earth; 11.81 light years, it said. With the new Mobius I engine on that ship, it would still take nearly 300 years to reach Janus. Gain figured someone would have interplanetary teleportation figured out before the ship ever landed and there might already be colonists there before the first ones arrived.

Their food arrived and the brothers ate without saying much. They both agreed that the food was really good. They had another giggle over Aiden putting Jimmy’s peppered meat in his mouth. When they were done, Josh came to the table and pulled a tablet out of his pocket. He used a stylus to interact with the screen and then set it down on the table and bid the brothers a good night. Gain pulled a stick out of his pocket that was about the size of a stick of gum, but narrower at one end. He touched a green “pay” button on the tablet screen, selected “cred stick” from the options, and touched the narrow end of the stick to the tablet. It accepted his payment, he confirmed the receipt notification on his watch, and they left the restaurant. The temperature had dropped and a light snow had started falling. Not enough to stick to anything. Just enough to make things a little wet.

The little sprinkle of snow seemed to follow them all the way to Iowa City. It was about 2am and Gain was tired and annoyed at having to turn his wipers on and off every couple of minutes because the snowfall was too slow to leave it on but water would accumulate enough eventually that it would obstruct his vision. He pulled off the highway, into the city, and said, “Hal, take us to the closest, cheap hotel.”

The robotic voice replied, “There is a motel six about half a kilometer away with rooms available for eighty two credits per night. Will that do?”

“Yes.”

Following the automated directions, they arrived in the parking lot after a few minutes.

After backing into a parking spot, the brothers collected their bags and went inside together. Gain asked if it was possible to get a room without any other tenants adjacent. The clerk, a sapiens man of about twenty years, confirmed that the motel was pretty empty tonight and that wouldn’t be a problem. He then asked if they would prefer to link their watches to the door lock or be issued a key card. There was an extra ten percent charge for the key card. Gain glared at his brother and said, key cards, please. Gain paid and the clerk handed him a small envelope that included the two key cards and the password for the wifi and wigl. The brothers headed to their room. It was at the opposite end of the motel from the office, but it was on the ground floor. 

Gain tapped the card on the electronic lock and opened the door when it clicked. He flipped the light switch to reveal a room with two queen-sized beds framed by an orange wall. The wooden bathroom door was open immediately to the right, revealing a white bathroom. The shower curtain had a thick orange stripe across the middle. Once inside, they tossed their bags on the faux-wood floor. It was clean with a light brown wood grain finish. Gain took off his jacket and hung it on the orange chair by the orange curtain that covered the window. Aiden tossed his duster across the foot of the closest bed. 

After using his hand-held to connect the truck to the wigl and confirm it was charging, Gain went to the bathroom and closed the door. Aiden checked the headboard and found what he was looking for on the edge by the shared nightstand. He pressed a button and the bed lowered about fifteen centimeters. Satisfied, he sat on the edge and pulled the tab on the rear top of his boots. The boots relaxed and he pulled them off. Relieved to have his toes free, he gave them a wiggle and then swung them up onto the bed and lay back. While he waited for Gain to get out of the bathroom, he looked around the room. He noted the door that adjoined theirs to the neighboring room. Then he read the welcome sign on the nightstand. In bold letters it said, “For front desk, press 1”. Below that it said “Welcome to” followed by the red, white, and blue Motel 6 logo. In small print at the bottom, it said “Managed by G6, a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group.”

The Blackstone Group tickled something in Aiden’s brain. He thought that should be important somehow but he couldn’t remember why. Gain came out of the bathroom holding his black leather belt in one hand and boots in the other. He set his belt on the chair with his jacket and set his combat boots on the floor in front of it. Then he peeled off his shirt, draped it over the arm of the chair, and lay down on his bed. Once comfortable, he said “Room.” Nothing happened so he said (pausing after each statement), “Motel six.” “Room assistant.” “Room controls.” “Lights off.”

With an annoyed sigh, Gain got out of bed, walked to the door and flipped the light switch down to turn the light off. The only light remaining in the room was the glowing blue digital clock display on the room’s phone that sat on the nightstand between the beds. Gain paused a second to let his eyes adjust and then returned to his bed. Gain relaxed and was drifting off to sleep when Aiden said, “Gaaain…”, drawing out his name and trailing off.

Letting his irritation dominate his tone, Gain replied, “What, Aiden?”

“What’s The Blackstone Group?”

When Gain didn’t immediately reply, Aiden said, “I feel like it’s important but I can’t remember why.”

“I want to say it’s part of JPMC but maybe not. Maybe RDS or Sin…o…pec…Why do you ask, Aiden?”

“Sign says the motel is a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group.”

“Hal, what is the parent corporation of The Blackstone Group?”

Gain’s watch booped and replied, “The Blackstone Group is a child company of Sinopec Group. Would you like to know more?”

“No.”

Aiden couldn’t see it, but Gain’s brow was furrowed while he mulled over the significance of that.

Aiden said, “That’s not good.”

Gain pulled out his cred stick and tapped it to his watch. It showed a balance of 0. “Shite.” Gain turned on the bedside light and rolled out of bed. “Get your kit.”

Aiden got up and started gathering his things. Gain got up and left the room. He walked to the entrance of the adjacent room and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. He went back to their room and knocked on the door that connected the two rooms. No answer. He jiggled the door handle but it was locked. Gain noted that it was an analog lock and he went to his bag, pulled out a pouch, and returned to the locked door. He pulled a couple of tools out of the pouch, stuck them in the lock, and after a moment of wiggling and twisting, he opened the door.

“In there,” Gain said to Aiden. 

They both carried their things into the adjoining room and suited back up. Aiden grabbed a pillow and propped himself up, sitting next to the suite door. Gain put his bag on a bed and dug out some parts and tools. In a couple of minutes, he had two devices made, one was essentially a syringe with a propeller attached and the other was a holy tin can with a fan at each end. Gain packed up his things, placing each device into a leather belt pouch. Aiden checked his magazine and chambered a round. The chambered round reminded Gain to prep his weapon. He looked around the room. His eyes settled on the two lamps between the queen beds and he pulled the light bulbs out. He then loaded the light bulbs into his launcher. The brothers made eye contact, nodded, and then closed their eyes.

A while later they were both awakened suddenly by the sound of suppressed gunfire in the room they had rented. The brothers got up quickly. Aiden grabbed the handle of the suite-door with his right hand and held a pistol in his left. Gain held the helicopter-syringe in his hand. He focused on it, said a quick incantation, and nodded at Aiden. Aiden opened the door. Gain threw his device into the room and it flew to the center and spun rapidly, spraying grease all over the room.

Two voices yelled and swore and there were two loud thumps and a clatter of metal on wood as the two goons slipped and fell on the suddenly slick floor. Aiden, gun held close to his chest, looked into the room and could see the Denim King lying on his back between Aiden and what was Aiden’s bed, suppressed 9mm pistol in hand, and Adam–now in a red track suit–on his belly, reaching under what was Gain’s bed.

Denim King made eye contact with Aiden and started swinging his weapon to point at Aiden but Aiden’s weapon was already aimed as Aiden squeezed the trigger, putting a bullet through the middle of his denim, button down shirt. Denim King dropped his gun, grabbed his chest, gasped and coughed blood. Aiden thought he heard Adam say “Gavno” as Adam scrambled under Gain’s bed. Aiden stepped back so that his legs wouldn’t be a target for Adam, and Gain aimed his weapon around the door frame toward the bed. 

Aiden said, “Slide the gun out, Adam, and come out hands first, and we won’t shoot you. Try anything and you’ll end up like Denim King.” Denim King was still coughing and gurgling as he choked on his own blood. Seconds later, Adam spat “Gavno” again and a pistol slid across the greasy floor to the suite doorway. Adam, on his back, slowly slid out seconds later. He stopped when he saw Gain’s weapon trained on his face. Aiden collected Adam’s pistol from the greasy and bloody floor, enabled the safety, and tossed it on one of the beds. He grimaced in disgust at his now-slimy hand and said, “Give me the other gun, too.”

Adam crawled over to his companion and gingerly pushed the other gun toward Aiden. Aiden, not wanting to touch the greasy, bloody weapon, used his foot to pull it back and kick it behind him. Then he said to Adam, “On your knees and empty your pockets.”

Adam complied, pulling two zip ties out of one pocket and a gravity knife out of the other. Aiden held out his hand and said, “Hand me the knife and zip your feet together, then zip your hands.” Adam followed directions. Gain collected their bags while Adam was restraining himself and handed Aiden his bag. As Adam was using his teeth to tighten the zip tie on his hands, the conjured grease that covered everything, even the grease on Aiden’s hand, disappeared as Gain’s conjuration expired. Denim King managed to roll himself onto his side but he was still gasping, gurgling, coughing, and choking. He was just doing it toward Adam now.

Aiden asked, “Jimmy outside?”

Adam nodded.

“Who else?”

Adam replied, “Izzo.”

“Where are they?”

“They’re waiting in black SUV right outside.”

Gain went to the window and peaked out behind the curtain. Aiden kicked his pillow to Adam and nodded at Denim King. “Put some pressure on that wound.”

Adam looked at the choking man bleeding out on the floor and then back at Aiden.

“Why?”

“Thought you might want to keep your boy alive.”

Adam shrugged. “Nah.”

Aiden wasn’t sure how to react to that. He looked at Gain. Gain held his tin can fan in one hand, his launcher still in the other. Gain went to the window and peaked out behind the curtain. “There’s a gray-skinned ork in the driver seat and Jimmy in the passenger seat. They’re watching the door.”

Gain motioned for Aiden to come to him and Aiden complied. Gain said, “Gonna make a fog. Be ready to run to the truck.” Aiden nodded and put one hand on the door handle. Gain went to the other room and put one hand on the door handle. He lifted the holy tin can to his mouth and blew into it. The fans started spinning and a thick mist came pouring out of the fans that rapidly spread outward. Gain opened the door to let the obscuring mist expand outside. It reached about 6 meters beyond the door. Far enough to cover the SUV outside with the two goons inside.

When Aiden saw the mist obscure the SUV, he sneaked out of the room and toward his brother’s truck. Gain moved quickly to the other room. On the way he almost tripped on Denim Guy and nearly fell as he slipped on fresh blood. He managed to catch himself on the door frame that connected the two rooms. 

The brothers heard the doors of the SUV open and shut and Jimmy’s voice called out, “Adam! Frankie! What’s goin’ on?”

Gain reached the exit of the second room. As he was sneaking out, he could hear Jimmy and Izzo entering the first. As he moved away from the building, he could hear some talking and then some loud swearing. At that point, Gain started sprinting and reached the truck at about the same time as Aiden.

As the brothers sped away in the rusty pickup, Aiden watched for signs of pursuit. He didn’t see anything come out of the mist and no sign of pursuit as they raced south on highway 40. 

After a few minutes Aiden said, “Pull over.”

Gain replied incredulously, “Now?”

“Now.”

Gain slammed on the brakes and pulled over. Aiden opened the door, practically fell out of the truck, landing on his knees, and then proceeded to vomit all over the side of the road. After emptying his guts and dry retching a couple of times he wiped his mouth with a shaking hand and got back into the truck.

Looking at Aiden, Gain said, “Better?”

Aiden nodded and took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

The brothers spent the next 12 hours traveling back roads down to Salina. They didn’t talk much, took turns napping, and only stopped twice. The first stop was to charge the battery, relieve themselves, and get snacks. Randell had apparently blocked them from their money so Gain (because he had the longer jacket) shoplifted drinks and snacks from the convenience store while Aiden distracted the lata brevis girl behind the counter. At 5 feet, Aiden was the tallest lata brevis the 3’8” young woman had ever seen so he was just naturally quite distracting up close while he asked about the area and flirted a little.Their next stop was at an independent restaurant where they dined on cheap meals and dashed on the bill before finally deciding it was safe to get on a major highway.

After a little over an hour on highway 70, the sun was getting low in the sky and a light mist was showing on the windshield. The truck dash sounded an electronic “boop” and then the robotic voice of Gain’s assistant said, “Gain. I found some news with your name in it. Would you like the details?”

Aiden said, “Shite.”

Gain said, “Yes, Hal.”

Hal booped again and then said, “Law enforcement are tracking two suspects involved in a shooting at a Motel 6 in Iowa City early this morning. They are also wanted for questioning by the ILINOH regional security in regards to several non-violent and violent crimes committed in Chicago. The suspects are brothers, a male sapiens called Gain, and a male lata brevis called Aiden. Both are described as tall for their subspecies. They were last seen headed South from Iowa City, but are believed to be headed toward Colorado. They are both heavily armed and should be considered dangerous. Contact ILINOH¹ regional security with any information…”

Gain interrupted, “Hal, that’s enough.”

The truck booped.

Gain pulled off at the next exit and pulled over on the side of the ramp. The brothers sat in silence for a moment. The mist stopped falling. Then they both started excitedly talking at once, shouting, waving hands, and pointing fingers. Then, just as suddenly, they both stopped talking and the cabin was silent again aside from their excited breathing.

Aiden broke the silence, “What about the UFN? We’re not far from the Oklahoma region. They couldn’t get us there, right?”

Gain replied, “There’s a few problems with that. One, we don’t have ID. Remember? We’re Uns. Shadow runners. They wouldn’t let us across the border. Two, Pfizer was our only source of money and you got us burned. Three, the money we did have has been frozen so we can’t get new ID or even try to bribe our way into First Nations territory. We have to go through Colorado, and they know it.”

After a short moment of silence, Aiden said, “Wait, how did they know where we were going?”

Gain said, “I donno, cameras? What’s it matter?”

“We’ve been in three different corp. territories. You think they’d be able to find us on cameras that fast?”

Gain thought for a moment. “No, it’s unlikely. That’s a lot of information and the corporations each have their own firewalls and don’t share freely. It’d be another day at least before they could get that…”

“So…you! They must be tracking you! Your phone. The truck.”

“But h…oh. I hitched the wi-fi at the hotel. They must’ve gotten my MAC and be tracking me through the cell towers or satellites. Bloody hell.”

Aiden pressed the button to roll his window down. Once it was down, he pulled a pistol and grabbed Gain’s hand-held. He tossed it out the window and with one pull of the trigger and a loud bang, the device shattered in the air.

Gain looked at Aiden with disbelief.

Aiden looked back and said, “What?”

His ears ringing, Gain shouted, “I can’t hear a feckin’ thing now ya gobshite! Why did you go and shoot my handy?”

“So they can’t track it,” Aiden shouted back.

“I could’ve just turned it off!”

Aiden shrugged. “Then you could turn it back on, too.”

“I still have my watch and the truck, though! You going to shoot those, too‽”   

Aiden shrugged and nodded and then pointed his gun at the truck’s digital display.

Gain cringed and covered his ears just before Aiden pulled the trigger, blasting a hole in the electronic console.

After giving Aiden a look that was a mix of disgust and disbelief Gain sighed and took off his watch. He held it out to Aiden. Aiden went to chuck it out the window but Gain grabbed his wrist.

“Quit firing your cannon in the bloody truck!” With a look of disbelief he followed up with, “Doesn’t that bother your ears‽”

Aiden replied with a shrug and a little head shake like he didn’t get what the big deal was but he opened his door and stepped out. He tossed the watch into the air and shot. He missed. It hit the ground, undamaged. He walked over to it and picked it up. Then he tossed it into the air again and shot. Once again it hit the ground, unscathed.

Gain shouted out the window of the truck, “What are you doing‽ Get it over with.”

Aiden sighed. He loved firearms, and would shoot back home when he could, but in the TDD it was illegal for the general populace to own a firearm that held more than one round. After he and his brother arrived in CRONA, one of his first purchases were his guns. He adored semi-automatics and he spent a lot of time at firing ranges over the last several months. He was a good marksman, too and the noise never bothered him. He thought, “Maybe that’s a dwarf thing. That, or my brother’s a bastūn.”

Aiden walked over to the watch and casually pointed the gun at it. One trigger pull and a bang and half of the watch band was disconnected but the device was still in good shape.

Aiden swore, aimed, and then pulled the trigger three more times. He confirmed that the job was done and then went back to the truck.

Gain looked at Aiden as if waiting for an explanation and then said, “Did it shoot back‽”

Aiden just popped the magazine out of his gun and started loading rounds in. Gain shook his head and started driving again. He didn’t know where to go once he reached Colorado but he knew as long as he headed west, he would get there. He turned south at Hays and took the less traveled back roads, hoping to avoid surprises from pursuers who would predict their path on highway 70. A few hours later, after the sun had set, and the truck’s battery was low, they stopped in Eads, Colorado at a brightly lit Love’s. 

Gain said to Aiden, “Get us some food. I’m going to see if I can find an atlas or something.”

Aiden looked confused and said, “A what?”

“An atlas. A bloody map book.”

Aiden quirked the corner of his mouth and raised an eyebrow as if unable to fathom what Gain was talking about and said, “This isn’t the bloody 1900s. The travel stop’s not gonna have a map, much less a whole book of maps. Somehow I doubt Eads Colorado has a book store either.” 

Gain walked away from his brother and grumbled something about mobile devices and maps that Aiden didn’t catch. He approached the glass doors of the travel stop and they opened automatically. Once inside, he waited behind a beach-ball-shaped sapiens woman and her cherubic ork child buying junk food at the counter. Gain noted the woman’s yellow sweatpants had a decal on her bum that looked like big red lips with a big red tongue that looked ready to lick anything that came near it. The back of her matching hoodie had what resembled a letter A with feathered wings. The child wore a shiny silver jacket, black pants, and shiny silver shoes. Meanwhile, Aiden went in and started collecting food and bottled water.

When it was Gain’s turn at the counter, he inquired about an atlas and the young man behind the counter, who was maybe a couple of years older than Gain, gave Gain a look very similar to the look his brother gave him, and asked, “A what?”

Gain sighed and said, “A map.”

The man replied, “You want me to show you how to use your app? Where is it? I’ll show you how the maps app works.”

Gain, struggling to keep his composure, said, “My phone broke.”

“Well, what about your car then? Don’t it have a GPS?”

Putting on a tired smile, Gain replied, “It’s broke, too.”

“Oh. Wow. That’s some bad luck. Look, we got some phones for sale over there,” the clerk pointed at a small shelf with mobile devices and cards on it, “that you can pre-pay data on and get a map that way.”

Having lost all of his patience, and noticing his brother come out of the restroom with his coat wadded up in his arms, Gain fell into the thickest, least intelligible Killarny accent that he’d ever heard and started berating the clerk, who couldn’t understand a word of it.

Another customer, a young sapiens woman of slight build, had approached the counter at this point and was looking on in confused fascination at the unintelligible rant. Aiden bumped into her and made a show of dropping all of the items that he had collected. While he was flailing, trying to catch things, he knocked her purse out of her hand. While frantically apologizing, he picked things up and dropped them and kicked her purse behind her, toward Gain. 

Gain quickly picked up the purse and “accidentally” turned it upside down, dumping the contents all over the floor. Gain and Aiden and the woman were all apologizing and picking things up and dropping things and looking all around. Gain found a cred stick in her things and picked it up while the woman was looking at her purse. He pulled a different cred stick from his pocket and, along with a tampon that he picked up off the floor, handed her that cred stick. She thanked him.

Gain then stood up and smiled at the cashier and said intelligibly and in a calm, friendly voice, “Lost my head for a moment, there. He held up his new cred stick and said, I’ll pay for her things, that fella’s things, and…” Gain quickly grabbed a prepaid phone and data card and tossed them on the counter, “…these.”

The clerk started ringing up the phone and Aiden said to Gain, “Tá eochair a charr agam.”

The woman looked at Aiden and said, “Pardon?”

Aiden replied, “What?”

Hearing that Aiden had her car key, Gain set the cred stick on the counter, grabbed the phone and card and a bottle of water and a bag of nuts that Aiden had put on the counter. He said to the woman, “Settle up for us here, dear, will ya? In a bit of a rush.”

Before the woman or the clerk could verbalize a word of protest, the brothers were outside. Gain quickly made his way to the truck and retrieved their things. Aiden pressed a button on the key fob he had stolen from the woman’s things and identified her vehicle by the flashing lights as a late model, black BMW Gran Coupe. He ran for it, got in the driver’s seat, and quickly pushed the button to turn it on. A moment later Gain hopped in and tossed their bags in the back while Aiden moved the console stick to the D. The locks clicked. He depressed the go pedal with his foot before Gain had his door closed. The car did not move and a feminine voice said, “Please close the passenger door before driving.” 

Aiden rolled his eyes and looked at Gain. Gain finished getting himself into the car and closed his door. Aiden depressed the pedal again and the car did not move. The voice came back on, and said, “All vehicle occupants must have safety belts fastened before driving.”  Aiden and Gain both grabbed their belts and buckled in. Immediately after the two clicked the buckles, the car’s voice said, “Hands free driving mode is enabled. Please state your destination, Miranda.”

Aiden said, “Shite.”

The car said, “The closest destination I was able to find is Shite Creek. It’s about six and a half kilometers north of Elk River in the IDMOUT region. Would you like to go there?” 

Aiden looked at Gain. Gain looked at the map on the display. They both jumped at a rapid banging sound on the driver’s side window. They both looked to see the well-lit face of the, rather upset, owner of the car hitting the window, jiggling the door handle, and yelling at them to get out of her car. 

Aiden grimaced with an apologetic expression and said, “Yes. Quickly.”

Gain noticed the woman’s mobile device in the cup holder and picked it up and waved it at her as the car’s electric engine whirred and they started moving. The woman was still banging on the window and trying to open the door as the car accelerated away from her and she tripped and fell as they drove away.

Gain proceeded to use the car’s display to plot a route to San Francisco that kept them out of UFN territory and off of major highways. It was a forty hour trip that would take them through Pueblo, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Burns before heading south on 395 and into Pacific Union territory.

Gain examined the stolen cred stick and determined that it wasn’t linked to a bank account so wouldn’t be frozen. There were only about fifty credits on it but if they were careful they could stretch it to get by over the next two to three days.

While Aiden drove, Gain spent some time typing messages on his new hand-held. After a while, Gain said, “I’ve got a way for us to get into the PU.”

Aiden, realizing he hadn’t thought that far ahead, replied, “Oh?”

“I told Paul what’s going on and he is going to meet us in Yuba City and smuggle us across the border into the PU.” 

“Who’s Paul?”

“The flow researcher at UC Berkeley I told you about.”

“Oh. Oh, that guy.”

“Yeah, he lives near Redwood Park, east of the university so it’s only like an hour, hour-and-a-half drive to the border for him. Said he has a van so he can hide us in the back.” 

“What if border guard decides to search the van?”

“He said he has that covered.”

“How’s that?”

“You can ask him when we meet him in Yuba City.”

To be continued…

1. Region that includes Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
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