Part 38: I follow the Wild Geese

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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.

To Be Continued
The Next Episode is
Part 39: Quinto and beyond…
The Previous episode was
Part 37:Escort
the first episode was
Part 1 : Winter Storm

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@everittdmickey
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