Blue Team

Posted on Sat Mar 23rd, 2024 @ 3:54pm by Ebenezer Winch & Glitch

1,003 words; about a 5 minute read

Breaker got in with Tremor behind him and held their copy of the map out for them to see. "We're taking old Route Forty to Sixty-Four to Chesterfield and then to New London. Odds are good there'll be bandits. Can anyone here no take care of themselves?"

Tremor gave a shake of her head. "I can take care of myself just fine."

"Same here," said Pulse, "I can take pretty good care of myself."

"Good," Breaker said as he fired up the land locomotive, the seats in the thing taken from various vehicles and wired or duct taped into place. A maze of pipes adorned the walls going from one section or another and he headed up into a small compartment up front.

After some banging, cursing and clanging, the machine started forward.

Tremor looked at Pulse and gave a slight smile as she settled into a seat. "I'm thinking walking may have been better."

Pulse had just raised back up from leaning over the seat he was sitting in. "Duct tape," said the big guy as he wiggled in the seat to see if it was steady. It wasn't. "Yeah, you're probably not too wrong there," he said to Tremor. He returned her slight smile with one of his own. "How's your seat? Lookin' good?"

"Oh, quite," she said, sounding like she'd rather be cleaning muck from the animal farms. "And yourself?"

"Eh, it's wiggly," he answered. "But nothing I can't deal with. Or fix for that matter. But it's tolerable." He shifted again and tried to get settled. But the overall condition of the ride would most likely prevent that.

"So what's your plan once we get there?" Tremor asked as she attempted to make herself more comfortable.

"Well I figure the big guy has a plan he want's us to follow once get there," said Ebenezer. "But we'll be out of the city and in the wastelands. And it sounded like the place we're going doesn't have that much law and order. So I reckon I plan to go along with him until the status quo changes. And make a few observations and metal checks of my own." He pause a second. "You?"

"That sounds about right to me," Tremor said with a slight smile. "I just wanted to get out of the Hometown for a while and maybe get a chance to really put my inhibitors to the test and see if Doctor Cipherous did them justice." She held up her two metal and gear encased arms.

"Well we're definitely out of the Hometown," Pulse said amidst the rumbles and clangs. He grinned and nodded toward the casings. "Those things look like they're made really good. Pushing them as hard as you can while not doing harm to yourself is a pretty good idea."

"Oh, I'm likely to hurt one way or the other," she said. "It's just a matter of hurting less."

"Well, sorry to hear that," he said. Their mode of transportation continued to bounce along the ground and make all sorts of clanging noises as it did. A particular pothole sent Pulse a couple of inches off his seat and resettled him with a jarring sensation up his spine. "The hell!" he exclaimed. "If those possible bandits he mentioned earlier show up, I almost think they'll be doing us a favor."

Celia laughed. "Maybe you could make the wheels a bit rounder, hey?" she said with a smile. "I'm used to jarring motions, but I prefer the ones that I'm making."

"Yeah, rounder wheels should help with the trip back," said Eb, as he laughed. "You'd have a little more control if you were making the jarring motions, though. But this thing...I just hope it stays together. I don't look forward to fixing a lot of things on this contraption when we get there."

"What I wonder is how something that's so valuable could be so close to a Hometown and no one has discovered it before now," she said. "Don't you find that odd?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," he said. "But now that you mention it, it does sound odd. We go out to places a lot farther away to scrounge and scavenge for scraps. Doesn't make much sense to keep something like this under wraps."

"What if it's a setup?" she asked as she leaned closer, one hand hanging onto a bar.

Eb leaned in a little bit to close the gap even more and whispered, "Then we fight like hell, take what we can, and get outta there."

"Rest stop in ten!" Breaker called from somewhere up front.

"Always," Celia said. "The world is a much more savage place."

Eb grinned and leaned back while nodding. "Sounds like we get a bathroom break. Or at least a chance to stretch our legs. Might even see if he'll let me round off the wheels since we're stopped."

Celia laughed. "Maybe. I like the way you think, Eb." She got up to stretch as the vehicle slowly rolled to a bumpy stop.

Eb smiled. "Thanks Celia. I try sometimes." He chuckled and stood up, stretching his arms upwards. He leaned against the wall and arched his back, pushing his shoulder blades together. He felt his spine crack in several places. "Damn that felt good." He went to the door and opened it. The smell of the wastelands was easily overlooked for the fresher air. "What kind of rest stop we got here, I wonder."

"Hopefully one that doesn't involve being shaken to pieces," Celia said as the vehicle slowed to a stop.

"Ten minutes!" Breaker called as he got out of the drivers s eat and stepped out of the vehicle.

She headed for the exit and gave him a smile. "Time to shake things up."

Eb chuckled. Whether or not she was being literal, he couldn't tell. If she was, he wasn't going to miss it for the world. The big guy followed her out the door into the blinding sunlight.

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