beyondtheline | I sure like the feeling of an endless road

I sure like the feeling of an endless road

[A few hours of open road makes for easygoing fun. It's great to be traveling again, and the feeling of Chrissy leaning up against his back, holding on tight while he whips ahead on a wide-open freeway through the pitch black of night is like nothing else. The last time they were racing up and down this freeway, they were on the way to go burn a bunch of people's lives down - but now that's hours back, back with the rest of the city. They've left the lights and have nothing to look at but the pavement in Johnnie's headlight, the glimpses of stars shining weakly through hazy clouds, and occasionally an oncoming car.

Johnnie hasn't exactly been trying to tune in to his senses or abilities or whatever it is he has - he's just been cruising, letting the night go by, enjoying their plunge northward without a care or a thought. So it is deeply irritating when the pavement quickly fades to a well-worn dirt track that almost tosses him and Chrissy to the ground, and it takes all of his skills to get the front wheel under control and to slow down before they hit a rock that really might launch them into the nearest alfalfa field. Or whatever it is that's here, whenever they've found themselves. Somewhere pre-freeway. Boo.

But there are a few lights ahead, and he did need a stop to pee, so, fuck it.]

Well, shit. Y'know, I dunno exactly where we are. Last sign said San Jose was still fuckin' hours off. You good? That was kinda shaky.

[As long as this dirt road stays packed, they can drive it, but it's going to be slow. Good thing they're almost to somewhere.]

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[The louder the commotion gets, the bigger those flames become? Well, the more quietly excited she is. One of her hands rubs at his leg while the other twirls the end of her ponytail around her finger. Her smile is dimpled by the time he gets them moved and to pick out a can of spray paint.

He opts for white, but she decides that red sounds fun for now. She grabs it and gives it a good shake, giggling at the sound as she does. Whatever he starts off with is a little different than her own. She does a pretty W & E with a squiggly bolt, but then uses the red to draw a heart around it.

She's primed after that, and finds a dumpster to spray paint her initials & Johnnie's initials with a lightning bolt between them. By that point he's probably already tagged the whole block, but that's okay. It's the effort that counts here. He doesn't look like he's done though, so she skips along tagging tons of World Ender memorabilia all over whatever surface she can find.]

Hey, I'm just about out!

[It's called out to him as she draws a series of hearts in varying sizes along a wooden fence that's been painted white. It's adorable and she poses beside her handiwork.]

How long do you think we should stick around?

[Johnnie opts for the sort of stuff he usually does - or rather, usually sees. He doesn't go around tagging much back home, that's kid shit. But out here there's a real need, and he'll fill the gaps with paint.

With his can approaching empty, and with his eyes constantly scanning for signs anyone might move in on them, he makes his way back toward the bike - and happens across quite a lot of Chrissy's hearts along the way, which makes him burst with laughter.]

Oh fuck! Yeah, real threatening. Shit, all right, yeah we better get a move on. Fire an' cops'll be headin' toward that building any minute, we don't wanna be here when they get here.

[Fuck this paint can, it doesn't have enough left to be useful. He tosses the thing aside and straddles the bike seat, and gets the engine started.]

Much as I'd love to sit an' watch those fuckers burn to death, I don't really wanna wind up in jail in San Francisco, we got a lot more driving to do!

[She glances back toward the fire and shrugs. It was fun when it started, but she can lose interest in the name of getting out of here and driving around. Having fun is a whole lot better than winding up arrested.]

We gotta go back and find our stuff at that temple, right?

[The fun part of that will be the fact she was so excited by the fire that she potentially has forgotten how to get back where they stashed everything.]

Let's go find it and then head back to the hotel to pack everything up and get outta here. If any Jawbreakers are still around, they're gonna come looking for us.

They better fuckin' come. You cowards too fuckin' scared?

[He shouts toward the fire, but the yelling in return doesn't sound directed at him anyway. They're busy - the ones outside trying to help their friends, the ones inside trying not to die. Nobody is ready yet to come chase after them. Probably never will be.

With a joyous cackle, Johnnie pulls her up onto the bike, then takes off. Before they fully leave the scene though, he does one last loop around the block so he can howl and jeer at the people trying desperately to claw their way out of the building. The people outside have pulled the pipe from the door handles, but there's so much fire billowing out that it looks like they can't get closer.

One of them hears the two on the bike and shouts, and tries to throw the pipe like a javelin. It's nowhere near as effective as he might have hoped, though, so it rolls off with a clang onto the pavement somewhere behind them. Johnnie pulls the front wheel off the pavement in a wheelie briefly just to show off before they're fully out of sight.]

Fuckers! Those assholes are really gonna fuckin' regret ever messing with us. Okay, I think we go this way? That temple thing can't be too hard to find.

It's too bad more of them didn't get out. We could've run some of them over doing wheelies!

[She laughs as they speed away, and once she's sure no one is following she outstretches both of her arms and howls to the night sky. It's great to be able to make people explode and everything, but there's just something about physically lighting things on fire that's really special. It's impossible not to give into the pure joy and rush of adrenaline she's feeling, and her arms wrap tight around him and she holds him close so he can feel her heart racing against his back.

He's mentioning something about the temple right after, and she shrugs even though he can't see it.]

I bet there aren't too many temples around here. There's churches everywhere, but - oh! Turn up ahead! I remember that gas station.

[Whether it's the exact one they went by before or another one similar remains to be seen. But she sounds confident, and she thinks that's the only thing that really matters.]

Oh yeah, yeah me too!

[It's not that hard to backtrack. Their memories combined (and sober) get them back to the temple without too much difficulty. Sunrise is still at least an hour or two off, although here in San Francisco it may even come later - the fog has rolled in overnight and on this side of the hill it's even more obvious, where it has filled up all of the spaces between buildings and the bay, hanging low enough to make visibility start to suffer at the far end of the street.

There's stirring in one of the old homes across the street from the temple - a light on, shadows moving behind the curtains. But Johnnie pays it no attention. They won't be here long. He parks and hops off, striding right toward those big doors to head inside and grab their stashed treasures.

If anyone is especially attentive come morning they might notice the new footprints on the carpet, but by then the two of them should be long gone. Johnnie pops the trunk open and starts dragging out armfuls of their stolen hoard.]

I wonder if they got anything else we can grab while we're here? Don't places like this have wine?

[Or maybe Jewish ones don't. He's fully clueless.]

I'm not sure. I know Catholic churches do.

[But she's not against looking around, and she pauses as she passes by a big book up on a stand. It's not the same Bible she knows, but she still respectfully averts her eyes and keeps on moving.]

I think most religions use wine actually. Usually around where the guy talking gives it out to people, so...

[There's some built in shelves back there, and some built in chests. They're not locked. She opens one and grins as she glances over his way.]

Bingo.

[Two bottles are held up, one in each hand. The lid to the chest drops shut, slamming and echoing loudly in the temple. Her eyes go wide as she startles herself, and she takes a running leap toward Johnnie to hide behind him like something's there that might get her.]

[That loud echoing slam has Johnnie look up sharply with the pillowcase full of jewelry in his arms, but all he can see is Chrissy running toward him, nothing actually dangerous, and he smirks as he puts it together.]

What, baby girl? You scared of some ghosts lurkin' in the back corners?

[He teases, but then looks to make sure there aren't actually ghosts back there - if there are, he can't see them.]

Wonder if they got good wine or cheap shit? Anyway, c'mon.

[Pillowcase, metal lunchbox, other loose stuff - it all gets loaded up in one saddlebag, with plenty of room in the other for the wine. He looks one of the labels over, but it's pretty mysterious to him. Whatever, it's alcohol. Drinkable, or worth a trade to someone else for something better. Or a gift, you never know when one of those will come in handy.]

Hotel next, but I'm thinkin' we better just clear our shit out an' leave. Those cops have seen enough of us tonight. We'll find somewhere else to sleep, maybe up north of the bridge.

That sounds like a good plan.

[He helps her up onto the bike and they're off, and it takes hardly any time for them to find their way back to the hotel. It's quiet and still at this hour, and Chrissy has to stifle a yawn as he leads her into the room and they work together to get their stuff packed up and back into the saddlebags. This hotel was a nice place with a fun pool, but it's exciting to be getting back on the road.

She waits until they've been on the road for a few minutes before resting her chin on his shoulder and turning her head enough to give his jaw a kiss.]

Are we gonna drive over the bridge? I want to howl and shout the whole way across, until we run out of breath!

[He had mentioned resting once they got north of the bridge, which sounds nice. But it would be pretty cool to get to drive really fast across it and make as much noise as possible.]

Yeah! We'll fuckin' make sure they hear us all the way to fuckin'... I dunno, whatever's across the water.

[Just to emphasize, he tips his head back for a howl here and now, right as they race through downtown. Again, maybe, probably, they should have consulted the map. But really, he's not worried. They'll do it if they get lost or if they have a particular place to go. He's driving over the bridge, up the coast, and wherever else the roads take them.

It takes some backtracking through the city on streets they've been on or past but eventually the road takes some broad curves through a big park that reminds him of the one in New York, then lines them up to drive up and over tall cliffs and toward big orange bridge - though in this lighting it doesn't yet look orange. It's a muted brown through the dark and the fog, only turning reddish where the street lights touch it.

There are toll booths here, with arms swung down to make people pay, but Johnnie notes a side entrance without any sort of barrier except cones. What that's for, who can say, but he cackles as he weaves the bike between the cones and races onto the bridge despite a startled shout from the person working an overnight toll shift.]

Woohoo! Yeah, fuck you, you can't make me pay to drive on a goddamn bridge, this shit's for free now, asshole!

[She howls with laughter at that, flipping off the person working with a grin as she glances back. A wink is timed just right, and the shocked employee stares in open confusion as they speed on ahead.]

This bridge is ours! Fuck you, San Francisco!

[That deserves double middle fingers up in the air as they drive past some cars with losers who probably have to get to work early in the morning. What a sad life. She's giggling as her hands drop down to wrap back around Johnnie to hang on like he might go really fast at any given second.]

Oh gosh, babe, I wish we could tag this with a big W and E and make everyone know it belongs to us!

[But this thing is really big and high, and there is probably water down there beneath them, since this is a bridge and all. They'd probably stop to try and tag it and wind up falling in. Then again, stopping is a bad idea since they just dodged paying a toll and they'll probably have cops on their butts again.]

Maybe another day! We gotta go back south eventually!

[They could do that by going east of here and see new sights, but if the urge to tag this stupid fucking bridge comes to them on the way south then at least they'll have the option.

It is a long bridge, too, made longer by the fog hiding the end of it. It feels like they travel forever over that long paved curve with only shadows below them, dark water hidden by the same fog they're driving through, until finally the end of the bridge emerges as the road curves on through shadowy hills.

And it's changed, too. Johnnie feels it coming before it hits - the vibration from the road, ringing in his ears, becomes rougher as the pavement changes to something poor, under-maintained. Johnnie looks up, then around, as he keeps driving - the street lights look decayed, but they exist, flickering and pale.]

Okay, well, least it didn't drop us in the water, we still got a road. I could tell it was happening this time too, right before it hit.

[For some reason. Maybe he's just getting better at this with time, but it's not really the most important thing right now.]

You could?

[He's always amazing, but he's getting stronger each and every day. It's impressive that he was able to tell when the shift was happening, and she gives him a quick kiss to his cheek as she holds on a little tighter. This kind of terrain makes for a bumpy ride, but at least there's still a road.]

The fog's getting really thick out here.

[Which makes sense since they're right by the water. Low visibility and unfamiliar road in a place they've never drove through before sure does make her nervous though.

They ride for a few more minutes before the poorly maintained road becomes a whole lot bumpier. She gasps as it happens, then can't stop laughing at every jostle. There's a minute when she tries yodeling to the bumps, but she really can't yodel and the bumps make her sound more like she's being shaken than anything. It's all in good fun at least, and she settles down when the street lights start becoming less and less frequent, until there's nothing at all. The bike's headlight is the only light guiding their way, and she gulps as she quiets down and tries to help navigate.]

You'd think that there'd be more light barely outside of a big city like that, no matter what time we're in.

Unless shit's really gone to hell. Or they all left here an' this shit's running on emergency power? I dunno.

[He has to slow down to deal with this road, but Chrissy's admiration is cute and keeps him smiling as he reaches back to squeeze her knee.

And then he has to come to an abrupt stop with a squeal of the tires as his light shines through the fog onto a vertical surface. The road has split, a large jagged crack racing across it, and on the far side, the land has lifted upward a good three feet. Johnnie looks it over, then sighs and kills the engine.]

Guess we gotta make a ramp. I wonder what happened? Kinda makes me think a huge fuckin' earthquake musta hit, that's about the only thing.

[They're common enough here - honestly it's a surprise they haven't had one since she joined him, or if they had, they were too small to notice. But he knows big ones happen. Really big ones, sometimes.]

I wonder if this is when dinosaurs are.

[She stares ahead at the three feet they have to get over, and chooses to be optimistic about that instead of frustrated they have a puzzle to figure out here.]

Not that I think that's the only time when earthquakes happen. It's just...I think it would be fun to use a longneck dinosaur as a ramp.

[That's about all the silliness she can manage given the situation, and she smiles a little as she rubs at his back.]

We can try lifting the bike up, only...I don't think we're tall enough. And I know I'm not strong enough. I could try blowing it up so it's all level...ish, but we'd probably be hit and that would really suck.

[Dinosaurs? With flickering street lights and a broken highway? Well, he appreciates the attempt at humor, if that's what it was, and chuckles at the idea. Yeah, a dinosaur ramp would be real cool.]

Yeah, you could, but I bet we got it in us to make a way up without all that. Save your blowin' shit up for when we really gotta hit someone hard. Or make a real cool explosion just for fun!

[Away from the two of them, ideally.

He hops off, drops the kickstand, but leaves the headlight on so they can see, turning the handlebars this way and that to shine light on their surroundings. Yeah, the road's pretty fucked, but if they have to, maybe they can go around. Walk the bike until they find someplace easier to cross. It's steep though - upward to the left, downward to the right. Headlands of the bay are apparently a real big hill.]

Okay, well, there's that guard rail. Maybe we can tear that apart, it's lookin' kinda broken already. We just need a big enough chunk of it to go up a few feet.

[But it might be flimsy, hard to say. Guard rails aren't necessarily weight bearing. Two people and a motorcycle might be too much.]

One person could go up ahead of it, then pull the bike up while the other pushes from behind until it's up? Once we get a ramp, I mean.

I'll push.

[It doesn't sound fun, but it sounds a lot better than trying to pull the bike up a makeshift ramp. She guesses it doesn't really matter much until they manage to get the guard rail to work in their favor. Claiming roles doesn't do much though, so she hops off the bike and cracks her knuckles like she's going to pry the guard rail to their will bare handed.

She can't, of course, but she still wants to be useful here. So she marches right on over to the guard rail and examines it with her hands on her hips. It's broken up enough she's able to grab hold of the edge of where it starts to curl upward and the tries prying it free. That doesn't work, so she tries the next best thing - pressing her foot against the rail and prying it with her hands. It doesn't budge and she huffs and puffs, before she breaks down in a stream of cursing.]

Stupid fucking guard rail! You're a broken piece of shit and you gotta come off so we can use you! So fucking work with me already!!!

Hey hey, c'mon.

[Johnnie rushes over to help, trying not to laugh meanwhile. She's just so damn earnest and it's cute and he can't help it.

The shitty guard rail is about to frustrate him too, anyway. He finds what looks like a weak, corroded spot and gives it a good solid kick with his heel to try and smash through the rusted metal still connecting it to the rest of the railing, but although it cracks, it doesn't fully break - and meanwhile he's sent bouncing backward, hopping on one foot while biting back the pain from the kick. He refuses to whine about it, he's tough, but fucking ow.]

Shit. Okay, but I got part of it! I can get this motherfucker!

[The answer is just to do it again! Harder! He braces himself this time, heel still throbbing, and sends it forward in a hard kick against that corroded surface. The metal bends and whines and snaps, and its jagged edge slashes through his jeans and leaves him bleeding.]

Asshole! Fuck!

[He's FINE he's fine, it's only a long but shallow cut, fucking guard rail bullshit. He grinds his teeth as he forces himself not to hobble, though he does rub at the cut to try and soothe it.

The warped metal is broken on two ends now - hers, and his. It's still very definitely bolted to a couple of posts, though, in the middle. Maybe they can pull it off of them. He just needs a minute.]

Hey hey, c'mon. Wait a second. Let me look at that.

[It doesn't seem like he's going to leap back into action, so she abandons the rail in favor of crouching down to get a look at his leg. It stinks that it cut through his jeans, and really isn't great that he's cut. But they can treat it whenever they find civilization again. Still, she likes fussing over him so she goes to the bike and finds a clean handkerchief so she can dab up the blood.]

I bet if we work it off the posts, it'll be free. Let's try kicking and shoving the posts away. Is your leg okay?

[They're wood. How hard can that be?]

Yeah, yeah, it's fine.

[She's being all doting and that's great but it's pretty unnecessary. Getting sliced up by a piece of rusted metal is unfortunately not a new experience. It'll sting for a while though.]

C'mon, you can poke at me all you want when we got a better spot for it. Let's get that shit taken apart. I bet that wood's barely holdin' on.

[He gives her a hand up, then goes to test the metal guard rail's connection to one of the posts, giving the metal a tug just to see how loose it might be. That wood is old for sure, eaten by bugs and full of rot.

Well, he still has one good leg, and he'll be more careful with it. He gets on the side of the rail where the post is unobstructed, then kicks at that - with a little less force than he'd given the metal. It doesn't topple over or anything, but he scuffs a pretty good chunk of it off, and the crumbling flakes go raining down the hillside a short distance.]

Shouldn't take too long to beat this shit to pieces.

[She watches him go at it, and decides to get out all her earlier frustration by kicking the shit out of this post. Despite the fact she's been out of training for a while now, she still has pretty okay leg strength. And all of her cheer jumps are focused into kicks as she works at crumbling the pillar down until the guard rail creaks and drops down away from it.]

Yeah! I got it!

[Both hands are in the air as she jumps up and down in victory, but doesn't waste any time. She hops over to the other pillar that's in even worse shape and gives it a kick. Some goes crumbling down the hill, but she recoils a little and winds up hopping back. ]

I got this one started. Do you wanna finish it off?

[While he does that, she goes to the rail and tries pulling it back and away. Her legs brace, ready for it to fly free as soon as he gets the wooden pole down.]

Woohoo!

[He cheers for her on that first one as she jumps around, earnestly enthusiastic. It's more fun to enjoy the process than dwell on the annoyances this situation has presented, after all. And hell, seeing her be all tough always gets him going.

Looks like the second one isn't going to play so nice with her though, and so he strides on over as she hops backward.]

Yeah, I got this one. You ready?

[That's not a real question, he sees here there, ready as ever. So he takes his turn, giving the stupid crumbling pole kick after kick until a few large chunks come flinging off, and the whole metal rail tears away from it, finally free.]

Hell yeah! Okay, okay, so now comes the real fun part.

[This thing is totally not sturdy enough to support the bike's weight fully, he can see that in how it bends. But it's going to have to be enough. It's only a few feet up anyway, if it flexes under the weight, who cares?

It's easy to get the strip of metal into position, and the natural groove in its shape is a great fit for the bike tires as he pushes it into place. But then, as he climbs up to the top of the shifted road with only a few choice words for the sting in his leg, he eyes the bike and frowns. Pulling is not going to be fun or easy.]

You're gonna have most of the weight down there, you really okay with that?

[Once they get the rail in place she's left standing at the base of it, squinting upward. A glance is spared toward the bike and it suddenly looks as heavy as it must actually be, and it seems far from the zippy little rocket they weave in and out of traffic in. His leg is hurt, but even so, there's no denying he's at least twice as strong as she is.

That leads her to hesitating, and he can probably see her thinking it over.]

I want to try.

[It's the simple truth. She desperately wants to prove to herself that she can do it. So she puts on a confident face and dusts her hands off on her shorts.]

So let's give it a try. I might be able to do it!

[The optimism gives her motivation to go over to the bike and get the kickstand up so she can walk it over. But gosh, it seems so much heavier with the saddlebags full of stuff. Still, she can do it. She can do this. It'll be fine.

The look on her face as she stands at the base of their ramp is hesitant though. Knowing she's not strong enough and knowing she's going to try anyway is leaving her feeling something funny she can't put a label on.

Pride? Maybe it's pride.

There's no time to think on it, because she takes in a breath and grits her teeth as she stays at the handlebars and starts making her way up the ramp. As soon as Johnnie can get his hands on it, she's sliding down to the back to push with all her tiny might.]

[Well she doesn't give up, that's for sure, he knows that about her. But man, walking the bike on a flat surface is enough of a pain. Up an incline? No easy feat.

He leans down as far as he can to try and reach for the handlebars, though he overestimates his leverage. Sure, now he can touch, but he can't pull, instead he's just sort of here almost laying on the ramp touching the bike. At least he can keep it from tipping, though, that's not nothing.]

Okay babe, c'mon, take a breath an' then give it a real good push, an' I'll help you from there. I just gotta get it a little closer to me first. Almost there.

[She's already red in the face and sweaty, but she still nods and pushes through the fact she's struggling. The noise she makes as she puts her all into pushing is embarrassing, like she's going into labor or something. It's a pained sound that turns into a little scream as her muscles start to burn and her back aches in protest. Still, she pushes through it to try and get the bike up to him.

Just when she's almost there her arms start to wobble and shake. They give out and the bike rolls back, taking her down with it. Just the handlebars hit her at first, but she crumples down and the bike rolls over her. She curls into the fetal position as soon as she lands back down at the bottom of the ramp, just in time for the bike to topple right over on top of her.

He'll probably come down to help her, but she's quick to start trying to squirm her way out from under it. She can smell blood, and figures her nose must be a little busted up or something. Nothing hurts too bad yet, so she needs to get up so she can try again.]

It's okay! I've got it! I just -

I've got it!

[If she keeps telling herself that over and over again, she'll eventually believe it.]

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