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Apr. 19th, 2025 at 7:28 PM
[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.]
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.]
Comments
Fuck it, let's try! What's the worst that could happen?
[Probably all kinds of things but whatever. They're going down, it'll be fast even if it doesn't support their weight well for long.
But just to test it, first, just to make sure he's not about to get them wrecked and stranded out here, he takes a stride out onto the makeshift ramp and feels it flex under his feet. Stays put, though. Only bends a little.]
Seems okay! Least we're not gonna be goin' real steep. C'mon, let's go!
[He grabs a dislodged chunk of pavement to push up against the lip of the ramp, so the bike doesn't just push the metal down the little cliff instead of riding onto it. Up onto the bike he goes, then, with the wheel aligned and ready. And once she's on, he grins and lets that engine fire up nice and loud before riding forward. All speed, zero caution - slow and cautious now just feels like asking for trouble.
The ramp warps under their weight and tips sideways, and he yells in surprise as he fights to redirect the bike and keep them upright. At this speed, they're off the ramp in a second though, only to hit a few jarring cracks in the pavement that rattle his bones. He hits the brakes just as hard as he'd hit the throttle, and puts a foot down to keep them from tipping as they come to an abrupt stop.]
Ow. Fuckin' bit my tongue! But hey, we're down!
[Goddamn.]
You missed your calling as a stuntman, Johnnie.
[She's only teasing, of course. He does plenty of stunts on a daily basis. He doesn't need a bunch of people watching and cheering him on while he does it, it would go straight to his head.
It looks like the path ahead is bumpy but might be able to be driven, or at least the bike can be walked without too much effort.]
Let's see if we can keep going. If we're lucky, we won't need the ramp again.
[But her head lifts and turns back to look at it. Maybe she should just hop off the bike and grab it so she can pull it along with them as they go.]
If we need one we'll make another one later. Or we come back for it. But let's see how far this road'll take us.
[North, then. Through the headlands, skirting around places where the pavement has warped and rippled, dodging fallen trees, and finding relief for sure once the highway curves far enough inland that it seems to have escaped some of the worst of it.
They pass through a city here on the north edge of the bay that, like the road, doesn't look completely abandoned. As the sun begins to rise, he still sees lights on in a couple of the homes and businesses - but it truly is just a small handful. Most of the city is dark, vacant, crumbling.]
Well, I dunno which decade this is but it's future enough. The style of this shit ain't anything like what we got at home.
[Billboards advertising law firms, auto collision assistance, restaurants - he's no expert on graphic design, far from it, but it all reads as future to him with those sleek, clean fonts that have zero sense of whimsy. The abandoned cars look new also, and that's something he understands better, but they haven't done nearly enough travel in decades this far past his for him to really pick up on the year. It's not the sixties, not the eighties. And anyway, he doesn't really care that much.
There's an old blockade on the road ahead, but someone has pulled the makeshift gate apart to make travel easier. For a while though, evidently there was some reason to block this road.]
Someone didn't want anyone goin' north without their go-ahead. Maybe just tryin' to rob people though. Fuckin' toll to escape or shit.
[Or who knows. Maybe the damage is that much worse farther ahead. Doesn't matter now.]
They could still be here.
[The warning isn't needed, she knows, but it makes her feel better to get her anxiety spoken out in the open. Her hold on him tightens and she presses in flush against his back, her thighs baring down against the bike. She still remembers the time they wound up in some crazy race oriented version of the future and how being a girl made her some kind of commodity. She absolutely doesn't want a repeat of that.
There's no way around though, they have to keep moving forward.
As they pass through the gate her breath catches, and she's on high alert as she looks all around. No one comes storming toward them, no gunfire happens, there's no real sign of life. The area they drive through was once occupied in the time after whatever disaster caused the ground to shift the way it has. There's tags all over the place that she doesn't recognize, but what's interesting to her is it's done in mud and brushed paint that had to drip to dry rather than traditional spray paint.
They drive for about fifteen more minutes before they approach another makeshift barricade. Unlike the one before, this one is closed. Standing at the gate are two masked men, and even from a good distance away Chrissy can see they're carrying shotguns. There's no way around, they can only press forward.]
What do we do if those guys won't let us in?
But one thing is for sure, there's no clear way around. Not without doubling back and trying to head east instead, up into the hills, where the road and the people who live on it are likely to present some curveballs anyway.]
We deal with 'em, I guess.
[Not much choice. They can't exactly sneak up on the guys who are watching them and waiting for them to make a move. So Johnnie carries on, straight forward, stopping the bike when one of these guys puts a hand up.]
Registration and ID, sir. You too, miss. Where are you two heading?
[So that's not just an outright "this is closed", it's a "this is open for certain people if you follow certain rules." Maybe they can work with that. They sure do have a ton of bribes in the form of jewelry with them.]
I, uh, I don't have that shit. Lost it in a fire. Some assholes tried to rob my place an' burn it down. But we're just goin' north, y'know? How's the road look up ahead?
[He says it all with a smile, cheerful enough, like he'd love to play this game if he could.]
It's passable. [One finally says, and looks to Chrissy.]
But only for people with the right permits.
[The second finishes the thought, his tone implying they know there's no way they have the right kind of permit. But they're not shooting them, so Chrissy figures that's a good sign. She smiles a little, her eyes briefly making contact with the guy that's looking at her. When he doesn't look away, she averts her gaze first and ducks her head.]
You should know that by now. The only people with permits are military, clergy, and married couples that have business in New Greenwich. Everybody else stays back in the colonies.
[That's a weird list. Chrissy glances back up, and both men chuckle at the confusion on her face.]
Well, he's my husband. Why can't we go through?
[A casual lie just to get through won't hurt anything. Hopefully Johnnie manages to keep his reaction as easygoing as her response.]
You can as soon as you're able to prove you have enough to get you through the tollbooth at each zone since you don't got a permit. New Greenwich ain't cheap to get to. My family's been saving for decades and we can't get more than one zone out. There's no way you can afford it.
[So maybe this is just a situation where they have to pay to get through? Like only rich people can leave the areas they're in? It's starting to seem that way. That won't be...so bad. How many zones can there be before there's open road?]
But also, proving to these assholes they have enough to go through all the tollbooths right now sounds like extortion. These guys have shotguns, they'll just get robbed. Johnnie's pistol is tucked into his belt still, Chrissy can reach it if they need it, but that's not enough to get them past two shotguns in one quick moment.]
Don't see why it's your business we gotta prove we can pay the whole way. You seem like a smart guy, so how about this. We prove we got enough to get through yours here, we give you a little extra for bein' so polite, an' we move on?
[Bribery paves more roads than concrete, Johnnie's well aware of that. How could they resist a little extra for themselves beyond the usual toll? Sounds fair enough to him. However far this fucking Green place is, it's not like they're driving all the way there, they just need a little room on a long highway.
Johnnie tries to at least sound a little sad about having to pay, though, and while he doesn't take his eyes off the men with the guns, he tips his head slightly toward his shoulder, indicating Chrissy.]
Go on, sweet thing. We're gonna have to part with some of your mama's treasures.
[Boy, he hopes they'll take payment in jewelry and not some weird shit like fresh water, or - wait! They have the wine. That's gotta be valuable in a time and place like this one, and it's right on top too, she'll remember.]
[She wants to laugh at calling him that, but laughter doesn't feel like a good idea right about now. Instead she leans over and gets into the saddlebag so she can dig around. She pulls out a pair of earrings from her little lunchbox, and grabs the bottle of wine. Rather than hand over the earrings first, she passes the wine to Johnnie so he can be the one to pass it over.
They eye the bottle with interest, and one of them gets it open to take a swig. He passes it to his friend, and once they've both tasted they give a nod and motion for them to move back. The gate is manually opened a moment later and they're waved through. Clearly these guys are hard up for booze if they're taking that wine as payment.]
This gets the gate open. We'll need something else to let you pass through.
[She forces a smile and opens her hand, and rather than let Johnnie take them she makes eye contact with both men and waits for them to step forward to take them from her. The one who stared her down earlier approaches, and the other holds his rifle out to shoot in case anyone tries anything funny.
One of Chrissy's hand touches at Johnnie's back, right where the pistol is tucked into his waistband. It's a silent message that she knows where it is and is ready to grab it if needed. The moment as the man approaches and puts his fingers against her palm is tense, especially as he lingers and looks her over. She refuses to look away, even as the guy grabs the earrings and pockets them. ]
We're going now. Thanks for letting us through.
[She's really hopeful that if they just throttle it and really drive, they'll be able to get the hell out of this time and somewhere else so they can rest for a while.]
Because they do decide that, pretty quickly. A bottle of wine opens the gate, one guy pockets earrings, the other is left wanting.]
Hold on -
[The man starts in response to Chrissy, but Johnnie isn't going to sit and wait for these assholes to realize they have a whole treasury worth shooting them over and robbing. Every second longer that they stay gets more dangerous.
The bike engine roars to life as Johnnie tears off down the road ahead, risking some lumps and bumps from the uneven pavement just to get them the hell out of there. He hears the thundering noise of a shotgun blast go off almost simultaneously, but the guy was clearly too surprised to aim well, whichever of them it was that fired.
He can barely hear their yelling as they gain distance, and Johnnie finally lets out the laughter he'd been holding in.]
Goddamn! Fuckin' assholes just out here to rip people off. Fuck I dunno if I ever went from zero to a hundred that fast in my life!
[They are not going a literal hundred miles per hour on this lumpy road, but that's not a detail that matters very much. What matters is the elation at getting out of that situation without a big hole blown in either one of them, and with most of their jewelry and watch stash intact.]
This place is almost as bad as the last time we were really far in the future! Let's try to get outta here.
[Once they're a few more minutes ahead of those guys at the gate she feels more relaxed, and ignores the trace hints of settlements because she's guessing no one around is someone they'd want to meet. It's not long before they're making their way along the bumpy road and there's absolutely nothing. She chooses then to howl, because they're going to kick this place's ass by getting out of it.]
Do you feel anything like you did before? Any sign things are about to change?
Chrissy gets him howling right along with her, and he snickers and reaches back to pat her leg.]
I dunno, maybe. Gimme a minute, I wanna see if I can get in the groove.
[That headspace, that sensation, whatever it is - feeling it in the place the Ender sent them to means at least he knows what it's supposed to feel like now, when everything is right and everything fits and every little piece of the universe trembles as part of one whole. The universe is chaos, and yet everything relates to everything else. All he has to do is pick at the right string, get those atoms strumming some different chord next to this one.
It does help to think of it as music. The rumble of pavement and the bike engine sets a constant drone that is nothing like a bass line or drums, but it's its own background - one that can override everything else so that he sees and hears nothing at all. His mind swims in void. And it's not a comfortable place to be at all, because it so quickly brings back nightmares of unending darkness, of a wide stretch of space and time, where those who know how to look can see past the curtain to the things that move between the stars.
He refuses to panic, but he needs out. He grasps at the first thing he can, pulling them from one place to anywhere else, and at the same time becomes conscious of the world again, conscious of how they're flying at high speed toward another rusty, jagged old piece of railing with Chrissy yelling at him to try and avoid it. And as he steers away at the last second, the landscape around them changes abruptly.
It still looks abandoned, to his eyes. Still grass and oak trees. But the bike hits the hard packed ground of a well-worn trail, rather than concrete road, and he has to fight for control against the sudden change, swerving until he brings them to a stop and stares around them at the landscape.]
Holy shit. I did it.
[Who cares if it's a good change or not, he feels like this time, for the first time, he made it happen himself.]
[It doesn't matter when they are. The sun is rising and is a painting in the sky, there's grass and trees all around them, the air is fresh and clean, and there's birds chirping everywhere. It's picturesque, and it's a pretty good visual representation of her joy she's feeling.]
Oh my gosh, baby, I'm so proud of you! Really!
[She hugs him tight, laughing in delight as she kisses at the back of his neck. The fact he was able to do this has her nearly overwhelmed with how excited she is for him.
And almost like this is a perfect moment in a movie, a little bird lands on the handlebars of the bike and sings to them. Up in a tree ahead, its friend trills and the bird watching them tips its head and sings back before flying away. It doesn't matter when this is, this place is a whole lot better than where they were before.]
No, that's going too far.
But he laughs and leans back against Chrissy, letting her congratulate him as he breathes a sigh of contentment.]
Yeah! Fuck yeah, I wish I could show you what it's like. Man, that was fuckin' crazy! Almost like I fuckin' blacked out for a second, but hey, we're here! Wherever here is.
[Or whenever, because hopefully they're still in California. He's not exactly sure if he can make them move across the planet, after all, when all he's ever done is jump from time to time.
There are no signs, no real landmarks he can discern, but maybe they can at least work out where they are. He twists around in his seat to see if he can figure out where the map has been stashed, and when he can't quite reach, she'll help him until they have it unfolded and can look it over.]
Okay, so we came across the bridge, an' then I guess that town we got stopped in was Novato. So we're somewhere north of that now, 'cause we were goin' for a while. Gotta be Petaluma ahead? Or what turns into Petaluma eventually.
[It's sunny out now, and getting hot, and a wave of exhaustion hits him. Does time travel take a lot out of him or is it really just that they've been going nonstop all night? Probably the latter, on top of the heat.]
Maybe we find a spot to camp out while we figure out what the deal is here. Man, an' I'm hungry, too.
[That's going to be a challenge. There are no convenience stores here.]
Yeah, let's drive until we find somewhere to camp. We've got some food that we packed left. So we just need to make sure we find water.
[Actually, she's pretty sure she hears the sound of running water coming from somewhere nearby. This place is like nature to the extreme. There must be a little river or something around here. Since they're somewhat close to the coast, that makes sense.]
Do you hear that? It's water. I bet it's over near all those trees over there, right on the edge of the clearing.
[It looks so peaceful and nice to camp out over there. It's calling to her. As he gets them going in that direction she rubs at his back, and tries to steer the topic back toward their shared powers. They do different things, but they're both from the same root. That darkness that flows through them and the cosmos itself enables them to do these things.]
When you did it, did it feel like you were grabbing at strings? Or like...plucking one I guess? That's how I'm able to find the Ender or Rigo. I can even sense you like that too. The Ender is always there, I can feel him even now. He's so far away I can't figure out which string to grab to find him. But when I focus hard enough, I can hear a hum. And a beat, you know? Like this -
[She proceeds to hum and pat out a drumming beat on his back that is awfully similar to The World Ender song that he's played on stage countless times before. As he drives and she zones out humming and patting out the beat, her head goes a little fuzzy as she slips into darkness for a few seconds. A blink later, she's opening her eyes to somewhere very different. It's a warehouse somewhere. Rigo and Dale are there. Her mouth opens, but it's not her voice that comes out. It's Avery's.
She blinks again and she's back on the bike with Johnnie, where he's coming to a stop at the trees she pointed out. Whatever that was, she must have concentrated on the Ender a little too hard. She swears she was looking through his eyes for a second there, but that can't be possible. They're connected, but not like that.
Then again, she and Rigo can talk to each other inside their heads. Who knows what's possible with that darkness that connects all of them?]