Oxygen 2043

Chapter 4: Mayor's Voyage Highway

06/02/43

Hi. I haven't journaled in a while, mostly because nothing's really happened. Just packing, mostly.

I'm starting the journey to Joy domecity in an hour. A guide who familiarized me with the cargo truck I'll be driving (which was 5x longer than a normal car) just left. It's a normal vehicle but there's a massive shoveler at the front like that of a large construction vehicle. Luckily, I won't be alone. Apparently there was just a decision to have 2 people in every cargo truck going between domecities. I'll explain the reason later. Anyway, the truck has its own bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. It's a bunker-hotel on wheels.

It has some extra features to survive the harsh conditions- airtight pressure sealed cabin with oxygen (standard for any vehicle which goes outside of domecities), puncture-proof tires as thick as a tractor tire, 16 wheels with AWD (All-Wheel Drive), and practically invincible glass windshields and headlights. Oh, and fully electric. All cars are like that nowadays though.

So. I'm starting. The cargo was just loaded into the truck in the back and I'm going. I only have to drive until Mayor's Voyage Highway (MVH) which is ~20km/12.4 miles away from ISREA HQ. Once I get to the highway, the self-driving AI takes over. You might be wondering why I need to be there for the whole journey then. Well, multiple reasons. First, as a diplomat/messenger between the two ISREA headquarters, I have to ensure co-operation regarding the launch of the JMSS.

Also, there are several rumours of dangerous roving gangs/animals out here. Trying to sabotage anything going between domecities to take whatever's inside if it's useful to them. It's probably not real, but some trucks have inexplicably gone missing in recent days. 3 or 4 in the last week alone. No explanation. No trace. Nothing. No evidence of a crash, and when they checked the battery percentage, oxygen percentage, etc of the missing trucks from Peace, the readings were normal. Oxygen remained at the exact same level. So the trucks were either abandoned (but there is little evidence to support this, the oxygen levels are untouched) or the drivers were killed and whatever killed them didn't want oxygen. Luckily a security officer at ISREA HQ, Liam, who I've known for a while is my partner in safeguarding. This is the reason why they are now assigning two people each to a cargo shipment, instead of one person going alone.

We've just reached MVH. The self-driving system is driving for us now, albeit at a pretty slow rate due to the various hazards in the road. The GPS system says it'll take us 46 hours to get there. We're only going at 10 km per hour/6.2 miles per hour.

Day 1:
Time Left: 44 hours (5 pm, 06/02/43)

We're keeping ourselves entertained during the painfully long and slow road trip by playing boardgames and road trip verbal games. We're trying to use devices only when it's absolutely necessary to save battery. My phone is at 49%, Liam's is at 17% right now. My laptop is at 100% (haven't opened it) and his is at 30%. We both have to share one power bank (which is built into the truck) which can get one phone and one laptop from 0 to 100. We'll be fine even if all of it runs out, we'll probably get to Joy shortly after and there's an inbuilt GPS/Navigation system in the truck anyway.

It's 11 pm now. We're going to take shifts sleeping to keep a watch on the cargo too, as per protocol. Weirdly paranoid protocols though. Good night. I'm going to bed.

Hey, it's 3:30 in the morning and it's my turn. I have to keep watch until 8, when we start Day 2. Feeling super sleepy, I'm not used to sleeping in chunks. Normally I have a nice, continuous night of sleep, or pull an all-nighter without a wink of sleep.

Day 2:
Time Left: 29 hours (8 am, 7/02/43)

It's 8 am. We're going to start today again. Playing some board games (mostly chess, I used to play a lot when I was younger), and talking. Nothing too eventful. I stared out the window for a while, looking at the endless orange dust and rocks. The outside world is practically a huge desert now. There's no plant life at all. A few visibly 30-year-old pre-apocalyptic signs which  bore a lot of damage are all we can see every few kilometers

It's 1 pm now, we were eating lunch when the truck, still going at 10 km per hour, started to slow down. We didn't even notice until I pointed out that the speedometer went from 9 km/h to 8 km/h. We assumed we were coming up on another rough patch and so decided to pause lunch and resume it after we crossed it.

However, it kept slowing down. 8 km/h, then 7, then 6, and eventually all the way to 0 on flat land. We tried looking at the truck screen to see if there were any messages or errors. Nothing. In fact, actually nothing. The screen wasn't working. We put on our gas masks and hazmat suits to inspect the truck. Everything's fine. Nothing abnormal, no indicators of battery/power issues but the truck strangely stopped. In the pre-mission briefing ISREA gave us, if there was anything like a hardware issue, that we shouldn't check the electronics as they are highly dangerous if the titanium panels that cover them up are opened. We still have 24 hours, a full day left before we reach Joy. We have enough oxygen for 30+ hours though. We probably have to call for help from Joy. We'll talk soon. Hopefully.