Detroit up in Smoke

"E.B!" my crew chief was screaming in my ear. The helmet speakers were crackling a bit. That bumping that Tony Fonteyn gave me earlier no doubt. "E.B. you're falling back, is there something wrong with the car?"

"Naw, Casey! I'm just playing with these boys a little. Teasing them. Letting them have some hope I can snatch away. The car is fine."

I could hear the anger when he came back on the mic. "Well, stop playing and win the damn race! It's fuckin' hot as hell and I want to go home already."

"Awe, come on, Case. Don't blow a vein. This race was mine before I ever went to bed last night."

My crew chief then began to say some words in German, that I didn't know but I simply assumed they were all cuss words directed at me. Deciding I might as well satisfy his need-to-see-me-lead I put the hammer down and screamed easily past the other. I was pushing the 170kph mark as I rounded the next high banking turn.

I took the lead back from Jimmy Monteria and then worked on widening the gap between him and myself. My eyes now clear of cars I took a half-second to look up at the monstrous mountain we were circling. The top, crowned with millions of gallons of white paint to give it the look it lost a half-century ago, was just starting to turn pink. The end was in sight. When the sunlight hit the finish line banner, this race was over, and the only thing left for me to do was drive into the winner circle around on the shaded side. I tore down that back straightway like a cheetah racing a gazelle.

On the small screen on my dash a white flag appeared.

"One more lap to go, E.B!" said my crew chief laughing now. "It's all yours, you're way ahead. You can ease up a bit; save the motor for the next one if you can."

"Got yah, Casey. Will do."

The sunlight was beginning to make the mountain glow golden when I came around that last turn, with a banshee's wail rising from my motor. I was already gearing down when I was still sixty feet from the Finish Line. There was nothing even close that could take the win and, when I shot under that banner, I raised a hand in victory! Glancing into my rearview screen, I saw Tony Dancers face as he took second. He was so pissed to be behind me again. I zoomed in on his face, grinning.

"E.B!" I looked up just in time to see a large ANC News drone land on the track, right in front of me!

Screaming, I saw a ball of fire devour my whole world.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

Far am I from the land of the sun. This lost land, terror to behold, scarred by night

I came out of the ~Neuroslide~ slowly. My breath was coming in panicked gasps; there was the sound of my heart like a drum in my ears, and my brow was dripping sweat down into my eyes. I was soaked in sweat and all around me were ghost-like voices calling for rescue crews. The sounds of flames and screaming haunting me as I sat up, shaking.

"Looks like that was some program," said Bonny from next to me. Startled, I looked at her. She smiled a comforting smile and placed a hand on my arm. "Easy, E.B. You okay?"

"Yeah, I guess. I should have checked the racing news before calling for that program. Oh, man what a ride though! To go out that way ... after winning? Damn! My fondest dream, almost."

I let her guide me out the building to where the valet, a different one I saw, had my StarMaker2000* waiting for us.

"You want to drive, Bonny? I'm not sure I'm up for it just yet."

"You're sure you're okay? We could have the Doctor here check you out. That Slider might have been defective."

"Na, I'm fine. Just a little shook up is all." Tossing her the key I opened the doors for us both with a voice command. "So, Bonny, got any plans for the rest of the night? It's still early, how about a tour of Detroit?"

"Sure. How far are we from the edge of the dome? Could we go for a drive out under the stars?"

Surprised, I checked my watch by habit, while I pondered why anyone would want to go do something like that. Stars? Humph. "Ah, if you want ... it's still hours till Midnight so we have plenty of time."

At my direction, she drove us lower and lower down the ramps into the dark underbelly of Detroit. The old parts, made of resalvaged rubble from the even older city, held the smell of aged things around them. Despite the car's filtered air, it began to get into the air as we went deeper into the city. When the street signs turned from the normal gold to faded green I knew were had arrived at the bottom level.

The Underlanes.

We were stopped at a light, waiting for it to change, with us both looking around at the harsh glare of hundreds of lighted signs. Signs that advertised stuff far more bizarre than even the worst StarMaker2000* dealerships.

Nude girls. and Live Nude girls, one which made me seriously question that first sign, were the most numerous types. In that unreal haze we drove through I saw things too, things I had never even imagined in my normal Highlanes life. This was the dark underside of life in Detroit. And I had never seen it my whole life, even though my own home was but a few miles from here.

A grungy looking man came up and tapped the window, as we waited for the next light. "Hey, you want some cigs, man?" He showed me a pack. "Two fifty Euro a pack, or two grand a carton. Genuine Carolinian grown. What yah say?"

I was about to tell him to get lost, when Bonny hit the button and rolled down the driver's window. "I'll take a pack."

I was in utter shock! No one I knew smoked. No one! Hell, this was the very first cigs I had ever seen not on a warning public service announcement. When she handed him the money, (cash I saw. Who the fuck carries cash?), and rolled the window back up I felt like we had a live demon in the car. One that was going to leap out from that shiny, rectangular, foil pack and kill me at any second. I was too far gone to even ask her questions as she drove away.

When the man and the light were far behind and the gate appeared I began to have serious thoughts of turning her in to the guards. I mean, yeah she was hot as hell and all and I liked her, but she had just bought a pack of cigs! Oh. My. Fuckin'. God!

As we approached the check point she hid the pack of cigs under her skirt. Only the memory that she had nothing on under that skirt kept me distracted when the tall, blue uniform dressed City policeman squatted down and looked through the window.

"Reason for leaving the city?" he asked.

"Just a drive under the stars, officer," Bonny answered, with a smile. As if she didn't have a pack of illegal-as-sin-itself cigs tucked halfway into her pussy.

The officer stood back up, disapproval plain on his face. He must have considered the whole idea of a drive under the stars to be insane. My own opinion at the moment, too. He tapped his wristwatch. "Okay, just remember you have to be back in at least an hour before sunrise. Exposure can kill you in moments ... outside."

"Sure thing, officer. We'll remember." She was far too bubbly. This whole thing was getting her turned on!

That my though when he looked away, to signal the outer doors to open, and she squirmed her ass. As we drove outside and the sky opened up to endless amounts of blackness I cringed in my seat. Then I had to close my eyes at the limitless horror or the empty night sky.

And it got better on slowly. The further we drove out, into the sun-baked wastelands that surround the huge dome, the more I could see the devastation of the past. Abandoned building, some half torn down to provide building materials for the Underlanes, on either side of the roads. Their forgotten sides lit with blue-white moon light. It was possibly that moon light that finally got me to calm down and really take a look around. It covered so much of that blackness I felt a bit more secure.

My hand shaking with nerves and fear I tried to turn on some music, but got the new station I had been listening to earlier.

(Detroit News 67*) In racing news tonight, we are pleased to report the quick recovery of Nigel "Windstar" Ericson, following his near fatal wreck after winning the Kilimanjaro 500 yesterday. Although we have yet to receive a full report of his condition, we have gathered encouraging rumors from fan holding a candlelit vigil outside the hospital. Ericson's wife, famed fashion model Nola VaVancy, was heard to say ...

"I'm glad we decided to do this," said Bonny next to me, bringing me back to the fact that we were still driving further and further away from Detroit.

"Ah, yeah." I looked out the window and saw nothing but trees and the broken foundations of houses abandoned for a century. There was an eerie serenity to it all that suddenly brought out the musician's love of the bizarre in me. "Yeah ... me, too."

As we rode, song lyrics began to come to me. Things I would have never thought of in my normal Highlanes apartment life. The dark buildings seemed like some fantasy world, some ~Neuroslide~ gone horribly wrong, maybe. In a way they were every bit as depressing to look at as a corpse in the street, but they were their own tombstones at the same time. How ... beautiful. I looked over at Bonny about to say something about that, but saw that she had an odd look on her face.

"What is it?"

"Your car is starting to lose power. I'm not slowing down, that's the car."

Leaning over, I asked the question I could already see the answer to on the dashboard. "What does the tank read?" I asked, and then began to silently beg I had seen wrong.

"About a quarter of a tank," she said, checking to make sure.

"Damn it! I should have thought to check it before we left the gate." At her look I shook my head. "That gauge doesn't read right."

"What! By how much?"

Without a sound the engine too the last sip of water from its tank. The filter then split those last few molecules into their independent atoms, fed those hydrogen atom into the spark and gave us one last second of power. Then it was empty and we were coasting along. As the car rolled to a halt on the side of the road, I looked over at her.

"By about a quarter of a tank."

She laughed under her breath. "I kind of guessed that E.B." She placed the car in park and opened the door. The smell of the outside world rushed in with a thousand scents I had never known. "You know, running out of water on a deserted back road, is just so cliché."

Opening my own door, I hesitantly got out under that endless sky. Looking around, all I could see was sun burnt trees and parched grass.

"Is that a building?" she asked pointing off into the dark. "Maybe we could find some water there."

Looking in the direction she was pointing, I could just make out a large shadow. It was set off back among the twisted remains of dozens of trees and outbuildings. "Well, let's go see."

Taking her hand, I headed for the shadowy building, but the closer we got and the more of it that appeared the less hope I had that we might find water clean enough for the car to run on. It was a brick building of some kind, with smaller more demolished buildings around it. The windows were boarded up. The doors hung half off their hinges with litter covering the entrance way. Not that it mattered; there was a hole in the side big enough to drive a bullet train through.

Sticking my head inside, I saw nothing, since it was of course pitch black inside. Turning to Bonny I said the obvious. "I don't think we are going to find clean water in here." I looked up at the sky, the huge empty sky with its tiny points of light. Miniature, only by distance, versions of that massive fireball that was a few hours away. "But ... it might offer us some shelter, protection from the sun."

Her only answer was to tighten her hand in mine. Moving forwards into the big building, we stumbled in the dark for a second, our hands outstretched before us to try and feel anything before we hit it. The floor was cover with rubble and trash that our feet kicked or tripped over. We were getting adjusted to the darkness by the time we found something large in the middle of the room.

A cloth covered something large.

I saw her shadowy silhouetted body moving her hand over it. There was a rustle of cloth "What is this?"

"Don't know. It's too dark to see. Whatever it is, it's covered in a big tarp. We'll take a look tomorrow. Come on. Let's see if we can find some place to sit down for a bit." I tightened my grip on her hand. "With all these windows and doors we can see it then, but we have got to find a place to hide from the sun."

"How bad will it get? Are we going to die because I wanted to take a drive under the stars?" She gave a small whimper.

I pulled her into my chest and held her as her growing fear began to get the better of her. Not that I was too far from tears myself. Growing up your whole childhood hearing how the sun can be lethal to you in "moments" but that it takes you agonizing days to die. Memories of school pictures of skin cancers, the horrors of it eating away at flesh, did nothing to help my nerves either.

We found what appeared to be a small office. It had what felt like a desk, and then we found a long couch. It was old, it smelled, but it was comfortable and as the night wore on and we talked our fears away that comfort wore on us both. Till we lay down and drifted to sleep in each other's arms.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** Lost to light. Forever night, Killing Light!

The sunlight woke me. Those first harsh, red, burning rays spilling into the broken remains of this building. I saw that we were in a warehouse of some kind. Getting up, I left Bonny asleep on the old couch. She had been turned towards the back and the light was not on her face yet. It took my eyes forever to adjust as the light grew and grew in brightness. It was far brighter than anything I had ever seen. Painfully bright, when I stumbled over trash and neared the big tarp covered object in the middle of the room. Knowing that I needed to be searching for water I, none the less, let my curiosity pulled me to that tarp off the ... "thing." ... sitting there so perfectly.

Rolling back the corner slowly, to keep down the dust, I began to shake as I uncovered a demon! "Oh, my god!" I said in breathy astonishment. "Oh, my total fuckin' God."

The black shadow given form that sat before me, now half uncovered, was not from this century. Not even from last century. It was from the one before that, hell the millennium before this one. But oh, this was no rusted antique. No, no, no. This was a monster of black metal, glass, and rubber. And, from the looks of it, one that had been well taken care of. As I pulled the canvas cover further and further back I began to drool. On the side, just behind the front tire there were two SS letters. Then I uncovered the rear of the car. Chevelle

I said the word silently to myself, my mouth forming out the letters. Walking around it, I took it all in. This long forgotten beast of old. Sitting, like the metal-armored destrier of a Black Knight from some barbaric century, it looked more than ready for battle. Like it was chomping at the bit to go fight. I ran a hand over the hood. The dust on it barely enough for my fingers to leave a trail.

"You've not been here long," I said to myself. I turned to the small office we had slept in. "Hey Bonny! Come take a look at this!"

"E.B?"

"Come here!"

She appeared slowly, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Those pretty eyes went wide when she saw the antique car. "What is that?"

"The name plate on the back says it's something called a Chevelle. Don't know. This thing has to be hundreds of years old." I walked around to what I figured was the drive's side. I had a wheel in front of the seat after all.

"Why is it flat black like that? All the cars I've ever seen are really bright, like your StarMaker2000* and my Friesian450*right? Never seen a black car. Don't know if I like it, kind of morbid to paint one that color."

That was a good question and my mind struggled for a moment to find an answer, till I remember those cigs she had bought last night before we got to the gate.

"This is a cigs runner! Oh, my god this this is for smuggling." With the smile a kid with a new toy would have, I began to look the car over with even more interest, if that was possible. "I bet it used to be a drug runner too."

"What?"

"Come on, Bonny, you remember. They taught about it in history class back in school. Before they legalized all drugs people would try to get them illegally. Like those cigs you bought last night, people could be arrested for having them. I bet this thing ran drugs and now it's being used to run cigs. Oh, this is so cool!"

"So it will run?"

Her question was innocent but it struck me hard. "Why shouldn't it run?" the question passed through my head even as I found how the handle worked to open the door. I looked at her and smiled. "Let's find out shall we?"

"What if whoever owns it shows up?" She asked clearly scared. "Those bad guys that run the cigs ... some of them are not nice."

"It's daylight outside, remember?" I pointed to the holes letting light stream in. "They can't be outside any more than we can. Come on."

The upholstery was almost my downfall. I recognized it as real leather, not Synthe-Leather* and nearly puked at the idea of sitting on some pour animal's skin. But, I was far too hyped up, to try and get this thing to cranked, to let that stop me for long. I hated the way it crinkled under me as I slid in behind the wheel. Looking at the dashboard, I was suddenly completely unsure of this whole idea. While compared to my StarMaker2000* this was childishly simple, none of the gages made any sense. There was no Kph gauge for one thing. I thought I found it, but I was wrong. What the hell is MPH anyway? And where the fuck is the ... oh there's the water level gauge, okay this isn't so bad. I looked for an ignition and found a pair of odd metal ... "things" ... on a ring, hanging from a metal disk set in the dash. Maybe a key?

Then I looked down and saw three peddles and my whole world collapsed. Just as it had in the ~Neuroslide~ chair when the race car wrecked, I felt exactly like that. "Three? What the fuck is there a third pedal for?" I muttered under my breath.

"What? Can you get it to crank, or not?" asked Bonny. She had opened the door and slid in, clearly not noticing what I had about the seats.

"I think I might can. Don't know. This thing is a museum piece, not a car." I turned the metal ... "key" ... to see if I was at least right about that much. Three pedals later, let's see if the damn thing will even crank first.

Wreeer....

Wrerrrrerrrrr....

Wrerrreeerr ... rroom!

Groom ... groom!

It was like some dinosaur had come to life under me as this dark, soulless demon awoke and then left out a roar that shook dust off the rafters from above us. Next to me, Bonny gave a half frightened squeal. Then another one as I pushed the pedal to the floor and the whole car shook and roared like a crazed thing, unchained.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

Bonny and I cleared debris from in front of the car. Moving small things easily, but some of them took us both. A task that often brought my face very close to hers. This led to several very nice kisses. The day passed outside, with us avoiding the light and me trying to figure out the Chevelle. It was a monster but I learned its ways through that long day. Enough so, that when the sun was sinking, I decided to try and drive this untamable horse.

When I cranked it, and tried to move the shifter into drive the thing made the most god-awful noise. A terrible grinding. It was Bonny that noticed that the third pedal, that odd one I had decided to avoid, had moved. I pushed it to the floor and tried to shift again. It did it without that terrible noise and I smiled having figured that one out.