The Shock of the New

Chapter 22: Rest Stop

As we saw in previous chapters, self driving vehicles were the norm in the W.E.R. with the roads of the nation largely populated by self driving trucks and buses with the occasional privately owned car for good measure.

However no matter how good the AI behind these vehicles was, there always existed a chance that they could go horribly wrong and so along the various motorways that connected the settlements of the W.E.R. existed numerous service stations usually manned by a couple of people at a time to check on the various delivery lorries which were programmed to stop at them on their routes.

Right now, in a small station in the North Dakota region, one such truck making a delivery pulled itself in and sent out a signal to the control box to tell the guy on duty that it was time to take a look at the truck and check it was working perfectly before sending it on it's way.

Said guy on duty was a man named Barry. Barry made his way out of the office and checked over the truck that had pulled in. All it's computer systems were working perfectly and there was no sign of errors or faults in the system.

The last thing to do before reporting the truck as working fine was to check the back trailer and make sure that it's cargo had not been stolen or tampered with which was a surprisingly common issue, although the companies that owned the lorries had repeatedly added measures to try and limit this from happening.

As Barry poked around the trailer, everything seemed to be in order. A second later however, he thought he heard movement.

"Hello!" he yelled "If there's someone here..."
Before Barry could finish his sentence, something whacked him hard on the back of the head causing him to collapse to the floor and completely black out

"You didn't have to hit him that hard" Sam said as Lawrence began picking up the body

"Calm down" Lawrence told him "He ain't dead, he's just gonna be out for a while. Now help move him before the guy comes around"

The two of them shifted Barry's body to a storage closet where Lawrence strapped him to a chair and taped over his mouth.

"There" he said "Now let's see if they've got anything to eat.

As it turned out, the station did have a small kitchen and rest area. Searching the fridge produced a few food rations that Lawrence set about cooking. While he did so, Sam watched a small TV that had also been provided for the people on duty.

"The P.R.E. still haven't owned up to the horrific events on Lunaville W.E.R." said the newsreader "But rest assured, W.E.R.. authorities will make them pay for every act of evil they've inflicted on our great state!"
Lawrence tapped Sam on the shoulder. Sam turned around to see him holding a plate of imitation beef stew. He took it and began to eat

"Did I miss anything good?" Lawrence asked in between mouthfuls of his own food

"Just the normal stuff" Sam replied "They're still going on about wiping out the P.R.E. in retaliation for all that crap on the moon"

Lawrence scoffed slightly.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked "Aren't you worried about a war?"

Lawrence shook his head "No I ain't. Because it ain't gonna happen"

Sam's eyes widened "What do you mean?"

"Ain't it obvious?"

Sam shook his head

"Well" Lawrence put his food down to explain "The truth is, the W.E.R. and the P.R.E. don't want the war against each other to end. You know why? Because it provides an enemy for the population to be constantly riled up against while providing the government with an enemy to continuously blame all their fuck ups on instead of admitting that their whole system is fucking shit"
Sam stared at Lawrence "How do you know this?"