ABOMINATIONS

CHAPTER NINE

C R A E

There was nothing around for miles and the only sounds were the humdrum noise of the tires on the pavement, the wind whistling by the partially cracked windows, and a song Crae couldn't make out coming in over the radio, which was mostly static in a remote area like this. It was a wonder there was any music at all. Being on transport wasn't the worst thing to be assigned to, and it made it better that Shauna was able to come with him. Crae suspected that Tiler knew what was up between them and this was her indirect way of trying to be nice. Or it was a total coincidence. Either way he was happy with it.

    Most of the time when they went on drives like this they did not speak. Shauna was not a particularly vocal person and neither was Crae so they enjoyed a comfortable silence, the radio offering a mixed soundtrack of whatever station they could catch or static depending on where they were driving that particular time. There wasn't much to look at out here besides desert and shrubs. They had passed the border into Nevada but the scenery had remained exactly the same. The large truck that they were driving left a cloud of smoke in their wake, and in front of them the sun watched them on their journey, silent but scorching.

    He wished life could always be this simple. Well, as simple as things could get when you were transporting either weapons or drugs. Crae had his money on drugs. He wasn't one of the people involved in the direct dealing of them, but he did end up with the transport job sometimes so he didn't think of himself as any better than the men he was going to deliver it to. All he could hope was that the transfer would be quick and civil. He had no idea how many people were involved total, or who would be meeting them at any given dropoff. It was situations like this that reminded Crae what kind of mess he had gotten himself into.

    "What's on your mind?" Shauna asked, snapping Crae's attention out of his own head.

    "Hmm?" He responded, glancing from the straight road that stretched seemingly forever in front of them to briefly look at her. The sun was setting and her skin glowed in this light, turning a caramel color.

    "You're zoned out, and gripping the steering wheel so tight it looks like it hurts."

    "Oh," Crae said, looking at the strained skin on his knuckles and loosening his grip a little bit, stretching his hands for a moment to regain feeling. "Just... I don't know, stuff."

    "Stuff?"

    "Yeah, like, wondering what events in my life got me into this situation. Was it a specific one or two or has every decision in my life lead up to this moment, you know? Was me choosing orange juice over apple juice at lunch on that one day in fifth grade what got me here?"

    "Okay, you lost me," Shauna sighed, propping her feet up on the dashboard. She was wearing an unflattering uniform, which was supposed to match whatever truck they were driving and make them more inconspicuous. Her boots made a clunking sound as they settled. "You shouldn't be getting all existential while you're driving."

    "You're welcome to drive," Crae offered with a smirk, knowing she hated driving.

    "Nah, I'll let you go for another hour or so," she replied, and they fell into silence once more.

    Crae tried to focus on the road ahead of him but it was difficult when the landscape had not changed for hours and his mind was trying to give him things to think about to entertain him. The issue is that when his mind did that it usually went to dark or existential things, a habit he hadn't been able to break since his dad died.

    "Babe," Shauna said once again a few minutes later. The pet name threw him for a loop; she never called him things like that.

    "Huh?" he said.