beyondtheline | I sure like the feeling of an endless road

[She fully plans on joining him, it's just that she's so mesmerized by all the lights that she has to admire then for a minute before she lowers herself down to her knees on the street like she's going to pray. Ever so slowly her head tips back so her eyes can take in the lights above them, and it's not long before she's falling back to rest her head on his stomach.]

We'll go there someday.

[It's said with such certainty that she laughs a little, because how could the two of them wind up in space? It's ridiculous.]

We'll be the first couple in space. Maybe we'll even discover whole other planets!

[Her eyes go wide with all the possibilities, and for a second she reaches up like she's going to gather stars in her hand to weed out the planets she catches with them.]

Been there, it ain't shit.

[Thankfully these city lights are somehow keeping him grounded enough where he can appreciate them without drifting off into those nightmarish visions.

Though he could swear he sees what moves between them, if he tries.

But maybe that's just the fog. Fucking San Francisco, supposed to be foggy, right? Maybe not here in the middle of summer though. No, instead it's just big and new and full of steep hills and people trying to kill him, only that latter part isn't all that new, he's fine with it. The pistol at his belt makes lying in the street a little uncomfortable, but he can't get up now with Chrissy's head where it is, so instead he strokes her hair and ignores the weird lump.]

Where we gonna go tomorrow? Or, wait, we still gotta grab stuff here, right? I want pop tarts.

[It's just barely like a normal conversation, thinking of food while splattered with some other dude's blood and watching skyscrapers bend and swerve to meet the sky.]

[No matter how hard she tries, she just can't capture the light in her hand. That's fine, it probably is prettier glowing up above them. His speaking makes her lift her head a little, but not for long. Those fingers in her hair mean she's at ease and not wanting to move anytime soon.]

We can get pop tarts. And some other stuff here. We just need to hit up the cash registers at lots of stores. Then we can go back to the hotel because you really need to sleep, babe. You gotta rest before we go anywhere else.

[She has a feeling once this nice high wears off she's going to crash and burn too. They can rest up after robbing some places and then get on the road before anyone finds them. She sighs happily and sits up for a second so she can shift to rest her head beside his on the ground. There's absolutely no concern for the fact they're laying out in the middle of the street covered in blood.]

I kinda do want to go to space though, Johnnie. Just a little.

[He sighs quietly, a small denial of his supposed need to rest. He's fine! They're in a big new city and there's so much to see and do, why should he sleep through any of it? He can run on pure adrenaline and enthusiasm for days, she just doesn't seem to realize it.]

Whatcha want with space anyway?

[She means not very far out, obviously. She's dreaming of planets after all, she said it herself.]

Just seems like there's a lotta nothing up there, 'til there's too much. You wanna see if we can go find us a view? Maybe that'll get you closer.

[See, he's willing to play along. A view is space enough for him tonight. She shot down his chance to buy something that would've taken them farther out anyway, that's on her.]

Maybe.

[Her sigh matches his, and she slowly sits up. Her eyes go from the sky over to the building that still looks very much like glowing stained glass. A frown slowly overtakes her face, but it's more thoughtful than anything.]

I guess I just want to grab a star and put it in a necklace so I can glow forever.

[She'd be the brightest person on the whole planet if she could do that. But she's pretty sure a star would burn right through her hands.]

Let's go find a view.

[Another soft sigh escapes her as she moves to her feet and dusts off her butt before offering him both hands to get him up too.]

But it doesn't have to be the stars. Maybe we can find something new. Something neither of us has ever seen.

All right, you're on. I know they got a fancy fuckin' bridge here somewhere.

[Thank goodness for her hands, he's a little wobbly on his feet getting up. Something about adrenaline and refusing to be tired and also being a little disoriented by the swirl of lights around his head as they swarm his vision.

They don't have to find the fancy fuckin' bridge, he has no idea how far that is, but they can sure walk until they find something new. Hills, though, shit, speaking of hills. It isn't long before they're out of the small downtown and have only steep choices to make - hills to the west, hills down to the east toward the bay, undulating streets to the north as he heads that direction through old homes and a little cluster of Chinese restaurants. He winds up laughing at how breathless he is after a few of them.]

Shit. They fucked up building this city, huh? So fuckin' up an' down. That's not just me, right?

[Because it does occur to him that the mushrooms might be moving the ground under his feet, actually. Maybe it's some of both. As he looks on, the road waves and bends like it's unrolling a carpet to beckon him forward.]

[She's absurdly quiet, face contorted in quiet concentration as she tries to pull away from him enough that she can take the lead. Rather than walking, she jumps like she's trying to find a stable surface to land on. It's nice the road gives her concrete lily pads to leap on when it ripples like this.]

I think this is the right way!

[It's late, but she still shouts anyway, laughing before she howls up at the lights overhead. She winds up dazed and staring upward as they all howl back in blinding white light, and stumbles until she falls back and winds up rolling right down the hill they just walked up.]

I'm okay!

[She hops up as soon as she stops rolling, and raises both arms over her head in victory. Those silly hills are playing hard to get.]

You're right. It's too much up and down. It needs to be flatter.

[In fact, she sees no need to go up the hill. So she sits right where she's at and figures she can take a breather. If she ends up distracted by staring straight ahead into a void where she can see the air swirling as it breezes over her, it's not her fault. It's just too pretty.]

[She's back on her feet before he can run over to help her up, and so instead he laughs and gives her a round of applause at her defeat over the road. He can see ripples in the air coming from where his hands meet, emanating outward as they grow fainter but longer until the stars have just as many hills as these roads.

So while she stares off at nothing, he finds himself doing the same, though it's a different nothing - one where the buildings roll like waves and where the sky billows like sails catching the wind.

Someone's car is parked by the road here and it offers the perfect seat to hop onto and watch from. It's a chunky Jeep, not his style, but it's in the right spot. He's in no rush to get back on his feet and tackle the hills, he's enjoying this just fine. This is all he'd wanted from the drugs anyway, a spectacular easy night.]

Hey baby girl, you're lookin' real good. I got me a car, you wanna see if we can take it for a spin?

[Keys would be nice, but they're not necessary after all.]

[His calling her baby girl tears her attention off the air and over onto him. She makes her way toward him at first on all fours, crawling so she can maintain her footing. When she's sure she'll be okay she pushes herself up to stand and hurries over to get into the Jeep.]

Let's drive this thing right into the ocean!

[It seems like as good of a idea as any. A joyride and crashing into the ocean. She leans over, lips pursed like she's waiting for him to kiss her. At the last second her attention span shifts, and she quietly presses her hand against the horn to hear it give a soft honk. That gets her started giggling, and she can't stop.]

Hell yeah! Let's fuckin' do it!

[He's a little disoriented right now and he's not sure where the ocean is, but he's aware that San Francisco is mostly surrounded by it so it can't be too hard to find. And besides, maybe the ocean will come to them if they drive so fast they make it all impressed.

That's how that works, right?

Anyway, he misses the attempted kiss and howls with laughter at her little tap of the horn, then jiggles his knife in the ignition to see if he can get it started. But it seems like cars in this day and age must have made some modifications to make theft a little more challenging, so he sighs and starts pulling off pieces from the dash to find the wiring. He knows how to do this, too, it just sucks and usually is reserved for when he needs to swipe something in particular and has the time to fuck around.

Eventually he finds the cables he needs to get the engine to spark to life, and he gives himself a cheer of victory before slamming on the gas. Except it's still in park, right. Okay. Cool, he can drive. Reverse, then - until he gets it out of its parking spot and on the road, moving at a pace that's too fast to keep up with but feels absolutely right.]

Ocean, here we come!

Yeah! This is the ocean's car now!

[Just because the sound is fun, she lays on the horn in quick bursts as Johnnie speeds along. It's good fun, but what's more enjoyable is turning on the radio full blast and letting rock music blast through the speakers. It's a song she actually knows, and she's able to scream sing and pretend head bang as she plays an invisible guitar. There's not much more fun than singing to Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf, especially when she can howl every now and then.

All the while, colors and shapes blur and zoom around them. The ocean is there somewhere, she can feel it. Smell it. She's pretty sure she can even taste the salt in the air. ]

Let's try going that way. I bet we'll find the ocean there.

[It's decided after sticking her tongue out to feel how much salt winds up on it. The saltier her tongue, the closer they must be. The ocean is practically reaching out to drag them in close now.]

Let's see if you're right!

[Johnnie spins the wheel to follow her gut sense about the ocean, grinning as the rugged little car swerves responsively. The road rises up to meet them - or maybe it's another hill - and after a long climb it drops back down. He guns it and lets out an exhilarated shout as the speedometer ticks up - 40, 60, 80 on tiny city streets until he has to slam the brakes to make a turn and the tires screech and squeal in protest.

They swing around the corner like they're in a roller coaster, and in his mind the road swirls them around and the whistle of the tires is music. It's all music and lights, and somewhere down below in the financial district, the city beckons them forward. The dark blue-black of the night reflects off of office buildings, the same color as the sea at night.

He's not quite so lucky with the next turn. The car clips the curb and skitters sideways across an intersection, and before he can regain control they crash into a hedge, leaving a long back streak across the pavement behind them as they finally come to a shuddering stop. Johnnie is laughing despite the hard landing, and spits leaves out of his mouth as he reaches forward to shove the mirror, which is stuck under a branch. It creaks and pops off entirely with one last creaking gasp.]

Whoops! Hey, we're still good though, car's still running! I can fix this! Which way's the ocean now?

[The car shudders and shakes as he tries to reverse back onto the street, but it does seem to be moving still.]

Wait, wait, wait!

[Both of her arms move like wings up and down as she insists he waits, and she laughs as she climbs over to sit on his lap. Sure, he could scoot over and she could drive. But it's more fun to sit on his lap and let him control the gas and brake while she steers. It's like teamwork, only better because they're cute.]

I wanna steer this ship. I think the ocean's...

[She pauses as she sticks her tongue out both in concentration and an attempt to taste the thick salt air. She doesn't get much of a taste of anything, but does spot the street rippling like waves beneath them. Gosh, they're really rolling. Are they on a hill? She can't figure it out, because her head swivels toward power lines that look like giant craggy arms sticking out of the earth. They're all connected by wiry lines that remind her too much of veins, and her eyes close for a second as she continues to steer.

They side swipe a few cars on the road in the process, and she gasps with a laugh as her eyes open and she rights the wheel so they get back on the road.]

This way! The ocean's this way!

[There's no real confidence there, just laughter and someone having a good time fooling around. Even if they don't find the water, they'll at least drive this thing until they crash it through a building or something. Then they can ditch it and move on to something else fun.]

[Oh hell yeah, team driving, why not. It's like team pinball only way more fun. Johnnie cheers her on as he helps erratically, pushing more for speed than sanity and really only tries to keep them from dying all over again. Otherwise, it's in her hands - and perhaps in the hands of fate, if fate were a real thing he believed in.

The sideswiping makes him laugh harder, but also makes him take the wheel back from her, or at least hold onto it to "help" by pulling a little harder and directing them toward wherever "this way" is. They squeal their way on down back to the east side, not too far from where they first arrived in the city, and there, finally, is - well, a bay, but to him right now it's the ocean. It's a lot of water.]

Yeah! Yeah, fuck yeah, we did it! Seagulls, so that's the ocean!

[There's a wooden boardwalk and a few shabby buildings. Johnnie swings the poor sputtering jeep toward the boardwalk, but hits a curb he'd been oblivious to and the car comes to a stop again.]

Hey, I remember that bridge. That's not the famous one, but it's real big! Huh.

[Before him, it seems to stretch on eternally - like elastic, it reaches even farther over the black water shimmering with lights, pulling farther and farther away as he watches it go.]

Shit, but we gotta get this into the ocean still!

[His enthusiasm for this is appreciated, but as they sit there against the curb something slowly dawns on her. She can't verbalize it at first, but does reach over to touch at his leg to signal there's something on her mind. Those words eventually find their way out, as she's opening the door to spill out of the Jeep and onto the street.]

We can't be in the car when it goes into the ocean! It's like...we'd be stuck and would drown or something, you know?

[Her dream of making the car belong to the ocean may not come to fruition, but that's probably okay. She's already distracted by watching the way nearby blades of grass make music visible as the breeze colorfully blows over them.]

Do you have your lighter? Maybe we could just light it on fire, and then go. Fire is better than the ocean anyway.

Yeah, we could do that.

[But he's not convinced. Jeep, ocean. They go together in his head now.

Except she's right that they can't be in it, and maybe if he was on some other drug he'd feel up to getting the car going real fast and then jumping out while it's moving, but he's pretty sure he's not capable of that right now, and he's extremely sure that he doesn't personally belong in the ocean. He's had enough drowning in black for - well. A lifetime.]

Okay, but what if I put it in neutral an' we push it in?

[That would work, right? They'd have to push pretty hard though. Maybe he can find a boat ramp. This place must have one of those somewhere.]

Huh?

[She blinks as his voice pulls her from admiring the grass, and she turns to try and process what he's just said. It eventually sinks in and she gasps as she nods.]

That's a pretty good idea. We probably only need to drive a little more, then we can just push it off a dock or something!

[He doesn't need to give her any more incentive, she's already going to hop back in the Jeep so they can get it to the edge of something. Putting it in neutral and shoving it into the water is going to be so easy, and the sound of it hitting the water will be payoff enough that she's sure she'll remember it...well, maybe not forever. But definitely at least until the high wears off.

They somehow manage to get the thing back onto the road, and she helps direct him using road signs until they end up stopped dockside at a Yacht Harbor. The place just reeks of rich people, and Chrissy's eyes light up as she looks from all the yachts over to Johnnie.]

If we can't set the Jeep on fire, can we set some of the boats on fire instead?

Hell yeah, we can!

[There's movement here, though. Must be getting on toward morning now - are there rich people up this early? No, it must be their boat servants, because that's probably a thing. People hired to make sure the yacht is ready to go for a morning cruise.

Johnnie eyes the figures in the shadows, but they're ignoring the car, so he chooses to ignore them. Maybe a jeep at this hour isn't that weird to them anyway. People drive. It's cool.]

Okay. I mean, we could do both, right? Set this fucker on fire an' give it a shove once it's blazing? Long as those guys aren't too bothered by it. Or if they are, I dunno. Fuck 'em.

[He positions the jeep at what looks like a good angle for running it off into the water, then hops out and slams the door shut, and wobbles for a moment once he's on his feet. Whoops, wasn't ready for that.]

[There's definitely some people out here, but she's of the opinion they can go fuck themselves because they're setting things on fire and shoving this car in the water.]

Did you get it in neutral?

[She checks as she hops out after him, and peeks back in to see that it is indeed set to the big N. That looks right. There's a big grin on her face as she laughs and dances her way around to the back.]

You get it lit up, I'll push.

[Which is a little comical, since he's the muscles between the two of them. But surely he'll come back and help her push this thing off the edge of the dock once he's got it on fire.]

You got it! Uhhh, let's see if they got kindling.

[Shit, what is he doing, he didn't even check for hidden goodies yet anyway! So while he digs through the glove box and the dash and under the seats for loose scraps of paper, he's also rooting around for fun hidden things. But the owners of the jeep are fucking boring - all he finds are some receipts, a pack of gum, a pack of cigarettes (those are his now at least), and a couple of pens with most of the ink gone.]

Goddamn, who keeps a car this clean? Okay, fuck it, you ready?

[It's lighter time. The receipts will have to do, once he wads them up, takes out his knife and cuts a seat open to reveal the shitty foam stuffing, then lights the paper on fire and snuggles it right into the gash in the upholstery.

It's a slow fire. Sort of a smolder. Fucking disappointing. He needs gasoline for this really, but what's a guy gonna do.

With a sigh of mild disappointment, he gets back there next to Chrissy to help push.]

[So it's not a big blaze but that's okay. Just knowing it's on fire even a little makes her giggle as they start to push the car. Even with as high as she is, she's surprisingly motivated to get this thing in the water. So she pushes and sings one of the Phantom Riders songs, because Until the Night Turns just feels like a fun one for the next few minutes.

As it turns out though, stopping to howl in the moonlight is a little difficult as they reach the edge of the dock and she starts getting winded. It's hard to shove the car off that final stretch, so she puts her all into it. The effort has her very nearly toppling over the edge with the Jeep, but either Johnnie grabs her and pulls her back or some invisible force out there does. Someone must be looking out for her. Maybe it's the moon.

She leans back against Johnnie and looks up at the sky to give the moon a wink. It doesn't mind what all they're doing here. It seems to be cheering them on by sprinkling the sky with stars like confetti. A few seconds later the sound of the Jeep hitting the water makes her laugh, but she slaps a hand over her mouth so it'll be quiet enough they can hear the stupid think sink like the rock it is.]

Do you think any of those people called the police?

[Maybe they should...go. But she feels compelled to stay there at least for a little while longer. What fun is it to push the car in and then leave right away?]

I dunno. Maybe? Prob'ly shouldn't let 'em see our faces too good though.

[Luckily it's dark. His jacket stands out more than his face. His jacket stands out a lot here, really, but that's kind of the point. Maybe in this version of the world, where people seem to think the World Enders are done for, maybe they'll realize how fucking wrong they are once word gets around about the kid with a lightning bolt on his back and several on the sleeve.

The water is awfully quiet. It accepted that car like a gift, and bubbles rise from where it drifts downward, but other than that there's no indication that anything happened. Johnnie decides to chance it and sits at the edge of the dock, legs crossed, and lights a smoke.]

I guess if the cops turn up we can leave, what are they gonna do anyway? We're good at gettin' outta the way of those assholes.

If they show up, I'll just get rid of them.

[She smiles as she sits down beside him, yawning a little as she gets comfortable. Her head rests on his shoulder, and her legs dangle down over the edge of the dock. It's a nice quiet moment after some physical labor that was fun but a little tiring.]

We really need to get a camcorder while we're in this time. We can grab lots of tapes too, that way we can have enough to record all the great things we do.

[Is it stupid to film their antics and have hard evidence? She doesn't think so. She's pretty convinced the World Enders deserve to have movie nights once a month where she can display everyone's big accomplishments and feats. Everyone would have a turn to be a star.]

I'll have to get one tonight. Or this morning, I guess. It's getting kinda bright out, don't you think?

[He looks up from the water, out toward the eastern horizon.]

Huh. Yeah, kinda. Summer's such bullshit, hardly any night at all. Least the days are gettin' shorter now.

[Summer's fine, actually, anyway. It's nice when it's a comfortable temperature out, and tourists love to come and spend their money in the summers. Lots of potential for casual theft and drug pushing.

But, well, here they are far from home and dawn is approaching, dragging the corners of the world up into the sky with it. He swears he can see the fabric of the night being pulled aside like the curtain on a stage.

So at least the mushrooms were the real deal. Dante was an asshole but he sold them good shit.

There's more movement. More people arriving in cars and several of them give him and Chrissy long, confused looks as they walk past. He offers her his cigarette and stands.]

Oughta go, I guess. Man, I dunno where we even are from here, though, where'd I even leave the bike? Feels like fuckin' forever ago.

[The cigarette is taken and she enjoys it a little before holding a hand out for him to help her to her feet. Once they're both up and going she takes her last drag from the cigarette and tosses the remains onto the dock to put out with the toe of her shoe.]

It feels like it was years ago we left it...somewhere. Come on, let's just head back the way we came. We'll have to find it sooner or later.

[The only issue with her optimism is the fact she can't exactly remember the way they came. Everything's a colorful and fun blur. Which is great, only she's pretty sure that they could easily walk around for a day or two and never find his bike. It's a good thing the sky at this hour is so pretty, like a dark watercolor painting growing in vibrancy. Otherwise she might really be freaking out.]

Did we leave it parked near the club? We were definitely at a deviant club earlier.

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