I AM THE RAGING ROAD

Chp 1

Thick raindrops showered the rusted steel sheet on the top of Ricky's home. The air of the outdoors wafted through the house, filling her lungs with the horrible stench of acid rain and urban development. The city didn't sleep, and neither could she, as she waited to hear Red's voice on the other side call. Sweat beaded itself into salty droplets on Ricky's forehead, dripping slowly as her anticipation turned into anxiety. She could barely contain her anticipation for what Red had to say, so much so that she couldn't understand why Red didn't seem so excited.

This is the sort of news he would want, right?

He would be head over heels... in love with the plan, even...

Ricky had thought he fell asleep, and simply left the phone on, until...

"No. I'm not doing it. I can't do something so suicidal like that." explained Redford.

Ricky waited for Red to say anything else...
She realized he wasn't going to.
Ricky didn't respond immediately. She wanted to sit and take time to map out a response in her head, to speak coherently...
"...What the hell? Wha- I just waited like a solid 5 minutes to get an answer, and you say 'No'? That's it? No, no, NO. NO TO THAT. I shouldn't have to spell it out for you, should I? You have nothing, I have nothing, Aaron just has that Nintendo... nobody around here has anything next to squat.

...The Moon is our best bet. You gotta believe me. I know it seemed like a joke a few months ago, but believe me, Red, this time i'm serious! Just give us the chance! It won't be a 'suicide mission' if we do it right! I have the whole thing planned out, and I have the cards-"

"No, no, no, this isn't about any of that, Ricky-- you don't GET it."

Red was observantly focusing his statements on Ricky's surroundings. He cannot see what is around her at that very moment, but given his vivid recollection of what Ricky's room looks like...

I'm not gonna let you die like this, Ricky. Look behind you... please.

If only Ricky could read Redford's thoughts.

"What are TALKING about, I'm-- wait a second."

Ricky turned and looked at the camera with the towel thrown over it in her room, sitting on the wall, directly over her bed. It all made sense. Almost every house in this developed region of Florida has a few "Home 5.0" cameras setup in their houses that record their actions for surveillance. The walls, ceilings, stairs... These cameras can be anywhere, but they lie in plain sight. The tapes are overseen by Martian personnel and the Federal Bureau alike, to prevent any conspiracy against the Earth/Moon/Mars Administration branch of the UN, ever since Musktober. Ricky concealed the video capture of the camera, with her blanket, but... she can't stop the audio collection. She knew what Redford was trying to do.

"You know what... you're right. This was a stupid idea. I should get Aaron off the porch."

"Yeah, you go do that."

Ricky carefully tiptoed out of her room, hushing the lamp illuminating it. She stepped through her home out to the front of the house, phone in hand, up to the head. She shooed Aaron to bed, and continued to talk to Redford outside. She sat right under the deck, so that the rain wouldn't burn her eyes, and tapped her feet in the sour puddle right in front of the 3 small steps to the porch.

"So yeah, I'm definitely down for this, but when would we go? It's a school night, and you've skipped like 7 days already."

"Nobody actually goes to class anyways, what will they do about it?
They don't have Martian teachers or board members in Florida, so we can't be arrested."

"Yeah, but one, They always have cams in every building and on the lamposts to watch kids just like us, not to mention those new Air Cameras they've been using, and two, they still send quarter reports to the Martian Education Council about our screw ups in school. That's how that officer that pulled you over last week knew about your last incident."

"Well... forget about all that, Red. That won't matter once we're out in the county. They only send over the stuff they have in the computer, and I set my 'rig' to mark me present for five days from today. That means we have five days to prepare and leave."

Redford sighed in relief.

"Great stuff, Ricky... still feels bad leaving the dump, though."

"Of course it'll feel bad. This is pretty much all we know, but if you think about it, wouldn't you rather die in a good house on Moon, with maybe... a decent job, not one of those data mining jobs they post on the dead search? You really want to be together on a trash heap like Earth?"

"Not exactly a great reason, but I see your point..."

"Well, at any rate... I'm gonna tell Buddy and Holly about it tomorrow.

I know they'll understand."

"Yeah, probably. It's tricky that their parents have stakes in the Mars exchange program, so they can't go, right? Otherwise, this wouldn't be a problem... but you know how the 'gubment' goes."

"I really don't, but uh... skip that, I guess."

"We gotta do it for them, not just us, Redford."

"Definitely, definitely... I'm just tired, is all."

"Yeah, me too, I think.

I'm gonna go to sleep now, Red."

"Bold choice. G'night, cutie."

Ricky hung up.

She took her feet out of the puddle, her toes now numb from the acidic water, and walked back into the house. She walked into Aaron's room, and found him asleep on his mattress. She pulled the cover over him, and gave a kiss on the cheek. She then walked back to her room, and pulled off her tank top, musty from being outside. Her swamp cut jeans were smelly too, but she folded them up for the next day, knowing her appearance would be the least of her problems in the coming days. She climbed into bed, put her phone on the ground for the last time, and wrapped her Ferdinand High School blanket around her body.

'Cutie'.

That left a weird feeling in Ricky's chest.

She kind of liked it, though.