Death Drive

Chapter 20

Every muscle in Lucas' legs cramped fiercely before Jason gave the all-clear for them to take their leave. Apart from that he had found the silent waiting to be quite enjoyable, compared to the rest of the day at least, and had even slept fitfully after the first few vehicles had driven right past them without a second notice. His anxiety, which had been on overdrive for hours, had finally lessened to a degree he was used to.

"So we can just drive out of here?" the young man he had learned was named Jason asked him, glancing at him over his shoulder.

He nodded. "Just stay far enough they don't recognize that there are people inside and it should be all good."

Jason kept the lights turned off to not attract attention and slowly, warily started the car ahead. He meandered around the mauled corpses, Lucas adjusting the filters of his glasses until the dead and blood was hidden from his sight.

As they had waited for the right moment to leave, he had finally had the time to think about what he had learned that day. And as he had relived the slaughter and the moments he had thought would be his last, a new feeling had begun to burgeon from under all the horror and anguish: indignation. His dream had been wrenched from his hands and perverted to the point of being unrecognizable. Instead of the perfect world he had envisioned they had gotten one sick man's twisted delusion of a paradise, a world where those most in need of a Heaven—most deserving of it—were culled. And the way the Intelligence had been corrupted to achieve those aims was the worst of it all! Just thinking about it made him want to scream.

The Ampere cars still lurking around gave them no trouble as he had promised, but they still gave them a wide berth. After a few minutes' drive through abandoned streets, they pulled over in a run-down area of the town. They made sure there were no sentries around and then bolted out of the car and inside an apartment building. Mailboxes overflowing with aged advertisements lined the wall by the exit which was illuminated by a flashing fluorescent light. Everything was dirty.

Jason whistled. "And I thought our place was bad. You really used to live here?"

"For a short while," the blond woman called Naomi answered. "At that time, we really didn't have any options. It was not a time I remember fondly."

The elevator door wouldn't close so they made their way up the stairs. The building was silent, possibly abandoned. They arrived at a door with no name on it. She tried the handle and the door opened, so they stepped in.

The air inside smelled rank, like sweat and some kind of hot spice. They turned on the lights and saw a layer of dust covering the shelves. There were clothes in the hanger, like a heavy winter jacket, which he thought odd since it was barely fall.

They stepped further inside, Jason taking the lead. The stench intensified with every step. Peeking around a corner, they saw a fat man sitting in a beanbag chair in what appeared to be the living room. The blinds were drawn, his surroundings littered with trash such as emptied takeaway boxes with scraps and congealed sauce stains. He was wearing a VR helmet as well as haptic feedback gloves.

"He hasn't even noticed me going about," said a gruff voice from behind them that made him jump in alarm. Thomas stepped out from a side room they hadn't checked. Naomi embraced him before stepping back.

"Did it work?" the tall man asked. "They don't pay attention to the fishbowl?" They nodded in unison.

"That's it, then," he said. "We'll just drive out of town, as far as the gas in the tank will take us."

"Not today, we won't," she said. "We are all pretty beaten up. We need to rest." She gestured to each of them with her arm, and Lucas felt Thomas' gaze stop at him for a while. He stared at the floor. The man intimidated him. If he had dared he would have agreed with the woman, figuring that under normal circumstances he would require hospital care but would have to settle for some food and a night's rest. Now that the adrenaline was no longer saturating his blood, he felt he could just keel over at any moment.