Ride The Lightning - Episode 26

Cuba
I fell into a pattern. Basically I’d drive until I couldn’t drive anymore…and then some. That wasn’t very far. The first day had been exceptional. I was still weak, tired and seemed to be getting worse. When I got so tired that Trog was just about driving himself I’d find a spot to pull the road train over…and take a nap. The bridge had a lot of rest areas…one every hundred miles….that was a good thing … I think I stopped in all of them. they were safe. ZAP was rigorously enforced in the rest areas. Sometimes I’d undress and get into bed. Sometimes not. More times than not, I’d take off my bionic legs. They had been bothering me lately.
Nine times out of ten, going to sleep, did NOT turn out well.
Too often, I’d wake up screaming, covered in sweat. Bad dreams…bad, bad dreams. I’d run out of BlackJack…time to get some more. Usually the dreams came with a headache.
The dreams varied. Many of the dreams were about something that happened to me earlier in my life…but there was always a feline twist at the end…that’s when I woke up.
A few of the dreams, the really, really disturbing ones, were from a different point of view. In those dreams I WAS the cat. A black cat. A black FEMALE cat. A cat whose fur was blacker than my skin. That’s pretty damn black if I’d been out in the sun a bit.
The feline entity was not from earth. She was very young….and she WANTED something. I had an overwhelming sense of WANTING…a craving..a hunger. I’d seen what happens cats want something…like a mouse. It ain’t pretty for the mouse.
I feared for my sanity. Then, on further consideration, I realized that sanity is overrated. “Cowboy up Austyn” I’d tell myself… ”Carry on.”
So I did.
Pretty soon, it only seemed like forever, I was out of Chile and driving through Peru. After a bit I was in Ecuador. I got a call from that broker about then.
“Say there Austyn” he said. I was using voice only...I didn’t feel like visuals right then. “I have something to run by you. There’s a couple of trailers in Quinto going to Havana.”
“Hmmmm.” I snorted…”that’s a bit out of the way isn’t it? I’m heading north..that’s kinda east.”
“Heh...that’s the beauty of it “ he smirked, I could see him even if he couldn’t see me. “I have multiply redundant reloads just sitting there screaming to go. You can add and subtract in Havana going to Mexico City.”
“Hmmm…” just to check my memory I brought up a hologram of a map. “yup...The bridge is complete on that route...they just grew the Cuba to Yucatan section a while back. Then it will converge with my intended route just a ways north and west of Mexico city. That’s not too much of a detour if the pay is right. Is the pay right?”
I swear he giggled
“Oooooh yeah “he said, and squirted me a pay schedule. I looked it over and ran it thru a verification check. Yeah..not half bad...What the hell…
“I suppose I can make an exception...I’ll do this as a favor to you. Just remember...you owe me one.” One must always play the game, when dealing with brokers. I wasn’t very good at it but I kept trying… I much, much rather deal with my people, my clan.
...and yet...I follow the wild geese.
I hooked onto those two trailers at Quito. I crossed the continent at the equator going east. It was sure pretty. One thing you gotta say about South America…it’s got some gorgeous country side. The Bifrost Bridge made it easy to be a rubberneck. At a great distance, the Burning Bridge looked no more substantial than a strand of shiny spider webs covered with dew. The shiny webs were strung between crystal towers and the strands soared across vast canyons, gorges, and plains. In many places it followed the path of rivers, in other places it crossed over jungles and deserts. The Bridge has almost zero environmental impact, less than trees.
From a distance the strands looked too insubstantial to carry any weight. Looks were deceptive. DiamondSmoke, sometimes called DiamondFog and other terms, was amazing stuff. My SmokePole was made from it and so was a large part of Trog. It was incredible.
I drove on.
I crossed the South American continent from west to east at the wide spot. It seemed rather fitting. I’d just finished crossing the larger part of it from South to North.
Upon reaching the shoreline the architectural strategy of the bridge changed. The bridge designers had faced two choices...either go over the water...or under it. There’s this inconvenient thing about large bodies of water...often times they have IceBergs in them. IceBergs crashing into bridge pylons are annoying. Underwater tubes are sometimes necessary.
IceBergs in the Caribbean…who’d a thunk.
Across a chain of islands including those formerly named Trinidad-Tobago, Barbados, Dominica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic/Haiti and finally to Cuba...we were sometimes above the water and sometimes under it. It depended. I’m not sure WHAT it depended on ..but it depended on something.
Near Havana we had a choice...either keep going north to Florida or go back West to the Yucatan. A little ways past the split I took a get-off ramp. It was but a short ways to the swap-yard.
I dropped those two trailers. The local guy would deliver them to their final destination. I hooked up to the train of six trailers waiting for me. I was just getting ready to go when I got a call.
It was my broker again.
“Have you left yet?” he asked.
“Getting ready to.” I told him.
“I have such a deal” he gushed “ If you can wait until tomorrow to leave you can drag two more trailers to Seattle. They pay triple the going rate.”
“Hmmmmm” I made a show of playing hard to get “I dunno…”
“Ok...you got me. I was holding out on you.” he said. “it pays four times the normal rate.”
It probably paid more than that...but why be too greedy?
“Ok...I’ll take em. But if they ain’t here tomorrow before Noon I’m outa here” I said.
“They will be” he promised “If I have to tube down there and crack a whip. They’ll be there before noon tomorrow.”
Yup...they paid a LOT more than what I was getting. But like I said...why be greedy?
So….now I had time on my hands. What to do? What to do? Here I was in the former Socialist Mecca built by Fidel and Raul Castro care of the betrayal at the Bay of Pigs by JFK.
Since the SHATTER the cubans had rebooted..but it would take a while for this poor place to get up to speed. They’d lost a generation or two due to Marxism. Perhaps Marxism is the wrong word? Maybe communism, progressivism, socialism...some kind of collectivist ‘ism’.
It damn sure wasn’t free market.
What to do? What to do? I was kinda stuck here in the lot if I stayed in Trog. She was much, much too big to travel on most of the surface streets.
Then again...I wasn’t actually stuck. I had some choices. One choice was a mono-wheel.
I thought about it. I could print out a small mono-wheel in an hour or so. I could probably find one in the catalog that was small enough to ride on sidewalks...and go inside buildings for that matter.
“ hmmmm...yeah..that sounds like a plan. Trog! “ I had decided. I’d get out and stretch my legs for a bit. Maybe I’d go to a bar or something .
“Yes master. How may I help you?” Trog is such a clown sometimes.
“Print me out a small mono-wheel please. I’m going to take a nap. Wake me when it’s ready?” I said.
“Yes Master. Your wish is my desire. Which one would you like?” he said. He was doing the ‘Dream of Genie’ imitation again. He sounded goofy when he tried to imitate a female.
“Pick one...you be the judge. I just want one bowling ball bag sized. No bigger. Black and Chrome would be nice…definitely NOT hello kitty pink!” there’s a story behind that.
“Yes master...I have just what you want already loaded into the printer. Have a nice nap. It will be a short one.” he replied.
“Short works..that’s all I need” I reclined the drivers chair and closed my eyes…
Naturally I dreamed..
Dammit..
To Be Continued
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trippy gif u got there