Ruin // Danger Days (Book 3)

04.

Sin City came into Alien's view. It was just a couple of dots on the horizon, but she could tell it was a city because it looked just like Bat City did from Zone One.

So then she turned the van sharply to the right, and once it was facing that direction, turned the steering wheel just slightly to the left. She planned to drive around the city, keeping it in her vision, and once it was directly behind her, then she would turn right and be back on course in about two hours. It was 1345 right now.

"It would be great if I didn't have to do this," Alien muttered. "But hey, maybe I'll meet some 'Joys. I'd like to talk to someone other than myself."

Then, she started thinking of her dad. The two of them had went to France in 2011, and because of the lingual difference, they couldn't talk to anyone but each other.

During that trip, the two of them had listened to a lot of Coldplay. Her dad didn't like their music that much, but she loved it, so he went along with it.

"Come up to meet you," she sang quietly.
"Tell you I'm sorry,
You don't know how lovely you are..."

"Nobody said it was easy,
It's such a shame for us to part,
Nobody said it was easy,
But no one ever said it would be this hard...
I'm going back to the start."

About forty-five minutes later, a building popped up on the horizon. As it got closer, Alien realized it was a gas station, a Dead Pegasus.

"Oh hell yeah," Alien smiled, turning towards it.

She parked the van next to a gas pump. There were no other vehicles parked around the store, which she wasn't sure was good or bad. Just in case, she put her goggles over her eyes. Then she got out, put the pump into the van and let it go, and walked into the store.

The first thing she noticed was that the store's shelves were fully stocked, and nothing looked destroyed. The usual condition of convenience stores like this in the Zones was to be completely ransacked, and only the things that no one wanted were left behind. Mentos were one of those things, so Alien was lucky. But this one was totally fine.

Second, she noticed that all of the usual food brands weren't there. All of the products had white labels, with black smiley faces in the middle, which meant that they were all manufactured by BLI.

Then she realized that the electricity was on inside the store. That also never happened in the Zones, because most of the stores were disconnected from BLI's power grid... Oh shit.

"Unidentified being detected!" a metallic voice said. Alien realized that the BLI checker droid that was at the counter was still on, and that it had just sent an alert to BLI that she was there.

She quickly pulled out her gun and shot the droid. She hyperventilated, trying to figure out how much time she had. Okay, so I'm about ten miles from the city, which means that if they're going at top speed, I have about five minutes. "Fucking hell!" she yelled.

Then she got to work. First she ran to the register, pulled out all of the carbons that were in there, and put it all in a plastic bag. Then she grabbed a ton more plastic bags and absolutely destroyed the store. She managed to get every water bottle out of the refrigerator, all of the meal-type food, all of the potato chips, all of the chocolate, and a box of some Mentos-looking things, before she ran back out of the store.

She quickly pulled the gas hose out of the van, and didn't even bother to use the Vend-A-Hack to pay. She dove back into the van, started it, and took off, going from zero to sixty miles per hour in five seconds. Another five seconds, and she was traveling as fast as her van could go through the Nevada (well, it used to be Nevada) desert.

🛸

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, sir?"

"Yes I am, 676. I've never seen one in person, but there she is."

"I thought they were only outside Battery?"

"They are. And that's where she came from. It's the only way her being here makes sense."

"Do we know who she is, sir?"

"I'm running the image the droid took through the database now. We know how she's here, but I have a thought about why she's here."

"What's your idea?"

"She's heading east. She wants to get to American territory."

"Sir, I just got the database results. Her name is Atomic Alien."

"Dear god. That's the Killjoy General. Report this to every Better Living Industries location: capture her at any cost!"

"Yes sir!"

🛸

Alien made sure she was facing East-Northeast, then she pushed a button on the dashboard that locked her steering wheel into place. Then she put the van on cruise control.

She sat back in her seat and took a breath. "What a day," she laughed.

She took out her map, a sharpie, and a calculator. She would have to maneuver through the Rocky Mountains tomorrow; she was not looking forward to that. It would be smooth sailing after that for a few days until she reached a forest or something. So she drew a route on her pre-BLI American map that would get her through the mountains and right onto a highway that would lead her straight to Ohio. The only problem with the highway was that it went straight through Wind City, which used to be Chicago. She would have to turn onto another highway that also went into Ohio, so she added that to her route.

"I really should have planned this before I left," she laughed to herself.

Then she reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed Vendetta's jacket. She took off her own jacket and put his on, breathing in his scent.

"We're going home, Taylor," she smiled.