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AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you check my website link below, I now have TWO full color drawings of Jordan. One is in the gif image so that you can see how I visualize his appearance in this story. The other is from the sequel to "Slipstream" called "Oculus" in which he is eighteen and a freshman in college ("Oculus" isn't published yet, but I sent it away this weekend). You'll also find a link to a blog post I wrote on Kolin and killsuits embedded about halfway down the page. This blog post includes a sexy full color drawing of Kolin modeling in his armor. :) I drew both the pictures of Jordan and Kolin myself.
"Wraith" uses the main characters featured in the science-fiction novel "Slipstream," but is its own story that I will post in its entirety on Nifty. Both of these tales are based on the events established in the short story, "The Insanity of Zero." If you like Jordan, Kathy, and Kolin, please consider giving "Slipstream" a read.
If you are a reviewer for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise, or would just like to talk about my stories on your blog, please contact me for a complimentary e-copy of "Slipstream" in .pdf format.
Here is my author information: Website: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html Email: kavrik@hotmail.com Twitter: @MichaelOffutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slipstream/164452693676933
Chapter Fourteen
Jordan awoke alone in the backseat.
Painfully, he adjusted himself. He'd dreamt of kissing Kolin and now bore a small wet spot on the front of his jeans. He soo wanted to jack off. But his sister's breathing reminded him that he couldn't do that here.
He had no sense of time.
The unchanging dark on the outside of the window felt counterfeit.
Where is the sun? he thought. Ah, we're still in the parking garage.
He blinked and saw Kolin standing outside the door, his body illuminated by the interior truck light. Jordan sat up and shook his sister's shoulder, "Let's get moving," he said. Then he stepped out to piss. It took a few seconds for his morning hard on to relax enough to allow him to go. He did his business on the far side of a mini-van a few wrecks down from where they parked. The only time he'd ever pissed in a parking garage before was during the Gay Pride parade in Salt Lake City. Because it occurred on a Sunday and all the public facilities downtown are closed, he'd just cut loose near a storm drain.
Kathy handed out some of the ice cream. Even stored inside the cooler, much of it had melted to basically the consistency of a thick shake. It still tasted good, and Kolin swallowed it easier than he would solid food. They needed calories and this wasn't a bad way to get it.
Kathy inserted the key, turned over the ignition, and the H3 sprang to life. "We've almost got a full tank, so I imagine we have can go 200 miles or so before we'll need fuel. Maybe further, I'm not sure how much gas this thing guzzles."
"Doesn't matter," Jordan stated, popping open another can of cola. "Anywhere is better than here. Where would that leave us though?"
"Well, without GPS, I can't be sure. Maybe we'd be into Tennessee by then, but don't quote me on that." She held her head cocked to one side for a moment and her filthy blond hair hung loose, almost to the collar.
It wasn't difficult for Jordan to imagine that he looked much worse, and he didn't check himself in the passenger side vanity mirror to find out.
"We'll have to drive to Nashville, then Chattanooga, onto Atlanta, and then into Florida. But I don't see how we're getting over the wall. It's over a mile high, right? There's a reason why no one escapes from the Waste."
"Maybe we can climb it," Jordan said. "I mean, it's manned, right? By sentries? They probably have medical facilities there for their troops. They'd have to. Maybe if we show up, they'll have some scanner thing where they can verify that we aren't supposed to be in the Waste. Someone on the wall can help us. But no matter what, Kat, we need to get Kolin to a doctor."
She looked back at the Brit whose eyes were soft blue spots in the dark. "I hope that when we get to wherever it is that we're headed that some kind of surgery can bring back your lovely voice, Kolin." This comment made him smile and he reached up with his right hand and gently squeezed her shoulder.
"I guess we'd better get started then," Jordan said, sitting back against the seat. "You want me riding shotgun?"
"Yeah. I may need you to shoot at something," she declared, handing him the Colt .44. "That is, if this thing even works."
Jordan jumped between the seats and scrambled into the passenger side of the cabin. He started to reach for the seatbelt, but then thought otherwise, as it could trap him in the vehicle if they got attacked. He'd rethink this if it seemed like they'd have it easy.
Kathy put the H3 in reverse, turned on her headlights, and backed out of the stall. She followed some painted arrows on the ground and looked up at the signs that hung suspended from the ceiling. On the first ramp they came across, Jordan saw a thick swarm of flies. He could never forget the smell of a rotting body. Kathy stepped on the gas and ran over the remains. Jordan grimaced when he heard the snap of bone reverberate from off the under carriage.
The tires slipped momentarily.
"Gruesome," Kolin mouthed to Jordan.
He nodded in agreement.
The next level of the parking garage took them above ground. As it came into view, they all heard the barking of multiple dogs. Sunlight streamed in through spaces between the support pillars. Another ramp continued upward but the exit they wanted to take lay straight ahead. Kathy turned to the right and made for the street.
Most of the cars on this level lay in ruin. Broken windows, smashed hoods, flat tires, and skeletal remains suggested that the owners of these cars all died at roughly the same time.
Directly in front of them a pack of ferocious Doberman pinchers looked up from a small pile of human bones, one of them still gnawing on a femur. Jordan counted ten total and half of them stood their ground while the others split off to either side of the H3 as they approached; Kathy drove slow so as not to alarm them.
One dog in particular, a rather large one at that, stood in the way and refused to give ground.
Kathy gunned the engine.
The pack scattered like frightened wild animals before a thunderstorm, but this one didn't budge.
"Just run it over," Jordan said.
She grimaced and stepped on the gas hitting the dog with the bumper. It finally ran to one side and bared its teeth. They looked extraordinarily sharp, and Jordan saw foam near the corners of its mouth.
"Fuck. I think it's rabid," he said.
"Just shoot it," she told him.
"And waste a bullet? How about you just drive?"
The ramp Kathy took merged with a street facing the Mississippi River. On Earth, this downtown would have hummed with traffic. Here, the streets remained empty and rolling with tumbleweeds. The gutted remains of skyscrapers rose like colossal headstones placed into the ground all around them. Overhead, a cloudless sky streamed down sunlight bathing the entire vista in summer heat. Superheated air rose directly above the black asphalt causing the horizon to shimmer.
He felt Kolin touch him on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. Jordan turned and his friend mouthed the words, "We're being watched."
Jordan craned his neck to look up at the buildings through the glass. He saw some humanoid shapes up there but couldn't detect noticeable details on any of them. Just then, sunlight glinted off of a rifle scope.
"Step on it, Kat," he directed. "We've got company."
His sister pressed her foot to the gas as a shot rang out.
The back window shattered explosively into a hundred bits of glass, and Jordan saw the dogs they'd left behind in the garage come barreling out onto the street at full speed.
"Kolin, lay down in the seat," Jordan ordered him.
His friend slumped, and Jordan aimed the Colt .44 out the back window, bracing his arm against the leather of the head rest. Kathy wended the H3 between wrecked cars and made a sharp turn, driving as fast as she could down a street overgrown with weeds and blocked by downed power lines.
Behind them, the dogs gained on them. "The big nasty one is going to catch us, Kat."
"I don't know where I'm going," she stated.
Jordan looked ahead briefly, "Turn left he said. "If we hug the river, we probably have a better chance of seeing where we're going."
"I can't turn left, it's a one-way street."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Kat-there's no oncoming traffic. Turn left!"
She blinked, and then pulled hard on the wheel. The tires squealed and almost tipped them onto two wheels. Jordan almost dropped the gun as his body flung up against the door.
When the truck righted itself, she barreled up the road.
Jordan rubbed the side of his head. "Did I mention that I'd also like to survive?"
"Oh shut up."
Behind them, the barking grew closer.
Jordan saw the lead dog leap onto the roof of a parked car and jump at them through the window. Kathy stepped on the gas, and the dog missed by mere inches and slammed head first into the asphalt. It rolled end-over-end, landing in the grass planter that took up the median separating the streets.
Unfazed, it got up, shook itself off, and leapt into pursuit again.
Jordan spotted a tunnel up ahead. "Kat, where're you going? We don't know what's in there!"
"It's the only way we can go. Do you want me to pull over so you can drive?"
Jordan stared back at the snapping teeth chasing them down. "Maybe later."
She charged through the tunnel and scattered a shopping cart filled with empty aluminum cans. A baseball bat flew up and smashed into the windshield, shattering it into a crystal web before it rolled off the hood near the passenger side of the truck. The sound of cans bouncing off pavement filled the air. On the far side of the tunnel, she turned right again. To Jordan's right, sunlight gleamed off the river.
Another gunshot rang out and one of the tires blew.
"Any other bright ideas?" she said hastily, almost losing control. "I'm all ears."
Jordan spotted pursuers on bikes moving past buildings one street over.
Kolin pointed down an alley. "Go this way. I don't know why, but I think there's someplace safe at the end of the road," he mouthed.
"Fair enough," Kathy said and turned the vehicle onto the path Kolin had indicated.
The pack of dogs pursued.
Kathy blew past a chain link fence. Behind the hummer, the pack of dogs skidded to a halt. They continued to bark at them from beyond the fence, but they didn't approach any closer. Even the bold one stopped in its tracks, barked and whined, but refused to follow them where they had gone.
Jordan no longer saw the bikers, but he heard their engines echoing off the walls around them. If he could judge distance by the Doppler Effect, it sounded like a retreat.
"Are they afraid of this place?" Jordan mumbled. Curious, he looked up and saw a factory rising above them.
Kathy parked in its shadow. Steam billowed from out of smokestacks, and lights shone from every window.
"What the fuck is this?" Jordan asked, staring all around. He took in the red bricks. A sign near a blue metal garage door read "W R a I t H" but only because so many letters had been scarred beyond recognition. "World Research Institute for Human Evolution...Jesus Christ, Kolin...you took us to your birthplace."
Kolin stared at him uncomprehendingly.
"Why didn't you shoot?" Kathy asked Jordan, both hands braced on the wheel.
"Huh? With this?" He said, gesturing at the gun. "I don't know if it'll work. I don't want it blowing up in my face if there's dirt in the barrel."
"Jordan Pendragon...you could have MENTIONED THAT EARLIER!" she screamed.
Jordan didn't know how to respond, so he stayed quiet. But his eyes had become as large as saucers.
Kolin's hand appeared, and he curled his fingers in a gimmie motion, and Jordan handed him the gun. The youthful Brit turned it in his palm delicately, his fingers flying over its surface nimbly disassembling the Colt .44 into its separate components. When it was in pieces, he blew out the chamber and barrel, tapped some dirt from the hammer and then put it back together.
"It should be fine now," he mouthed, handing it back to him. "Now what did you mean by my birthplace?"
Then Jordan explained what he'd found in the journal last night. As he told his tale, he passed around the papers from the satchel behind the seat.
"You're Adam," Jordan said. "I think that's fucking cool as hell. But you know what's even cooler?"
No one answered him. Both Kathy and Kolin were too stunned by what Jordan had revealed.
He flashed Kolin a toothy grin. "I have a way inside." Then he fingered the magnetic badge that had belonged to the scientist. "If there's a spaceship in there that you can fly, it could be our ticket out of the Waste."
Chapter Fifteen this weekend.