Trucking Along 002
#2 of Nex Quest
Whelp, update two. Meaning yes, this isn't going to just die. It could have been produced faster, but based on how fast I wrote the first one (mostly in one sitting) and how I wrote the second one (over the course of half a week), I have a few things to try to repeat to figure out how my brain works... that and I shouldn't write in the cold, on a labtop, at my dad's. Definitely not a comfort zone there...
But yes, turn out was greater than I was expecting for the first one, if only because one of you blabbed to Nex.
But to keep things moving, let's try out how many people will vote if I submit a question, so without further adue...
Should the next scene begin with Benjamin exiting the train, or do you want to listen to Ioann a bit longer?
Simple question. Let's see how many people answer it. But above all else, enjoy.
Exiting my apartment into the slate grey concrete hallway, I close my door and quickly swipe my phone over the scanner on the handle. With a beep and a firm click, the door locks itself. Pocketing the phone, I quickly make haste towards stairwell up and out of the apartment complex.
One door... two door... three door... almost there.... five door... onto the landing for the stairwell and up the first two flight. I pump my arm once at the small little victory and continue upwards.
I live on the third of seven basements, so it takes awhile to reach natural sunlight. But soon I'm in the clear as I step into the light of the sun, as bright and blue as the sky itself. Behind me the stairwell into my apartment complex is disguised discreetly as a covered subway entrance. On the other side of the sidewalk is one of the neighborhoods many 'lawn' parks... and on the other side of that some red brick townhomes.
Taking a left turn, I start walking down the sidewalk. There are already other people up and about, mostly heading to work but some were just relaxing. A twenty four hour interdimensional business means every day is somebody's day off. Some were simply walking for exercise in the perfectly air conditioned outdoors, while others were heading off world for chores or pleasure. Those people were heading towards the private line that was on the other side of my apartment. I was heading towards the work line, whose silver grey majesty was slowly descending towards me on the curved horizon.
Yes, curved horizon. I not only don't live on Earth, if the blue sun wasn't a clue, but I also didn't live on a planet. I lived on a dyson ring built around a blue giant as part of the NexAcres project. Providing housing for about a few trillion NexCorp employees whose jobs took them across multiple realities, NexAcres was a service for NexCorp by NexCorp with little ambition to expand into a full and proper company... but then again, people used to say the same thing about NexCare.
Keeping a sense of purpose in my step as I pulled out my phone and checked the time; seven fifty two. Repockecting my phone, I noticed that it was starting to get harder to keep a comfortable distance from people as I got closer to the work line. Keeping my body on task, I distract my mind from all the people slipping in and out of my personal space by letting an ear worm run through my head. Lips mumbling the tune wordlessly, I'm halfway through the second refrain by the time I'm in a queue to enter the work line.
The social norm of standing in line overrides my anxiety, and I'm actually able to look around me. In front of me was a female coyote in a dress suit that just screamed authority, while behind me was a male tiger in leather chaps and jeans that screamed... I'm not even certain what, but it certainly screamed something. The conglomerate took all types.
In fact I think that's a gelatinous cube six spaces behind me. Make that five... four? Oh crude. My attention goes back in front of me to see how many people are still in front of me. Good, just two. Cube is still a good two people behind me! Turning back forward it's just the coyote in front of me. Just a few more seconds and I can...
GLORP?
...twenty seconds later it's my turn to process myself. Stepping up to the rotary gate, I swipe my phone over the scanner. Almost instantly the system checks my day's work orders against the trains currently docked and sends back to my phone the proper train number. Pushing my way through the stall, I check my phone to see what lottery I had pulled this time. Number seventeen.
Feeling like I've lost more time than the thin coat of slime would suggest, I pick up the pace. Blocking out the people around me as people and instead thinking them as oversized moving traffic cones, I start weaving my way through the crowd to platform seventeen. That takes me over three bridges and across two catwalks, but I manage to get there at seven fifty nine. Which is pointless early since the train is scheduled to leave at fifteen past, but if a further delay happens down the line I know the NexWay home office will take into account how early I checked into each waypoint.
Speaking of which, I swipe my phone one last time before boarding. Keeping the phone in my right hand, I pause to look up and down the passengers. I could deal with an uncomfortable train ride, but if possible I'd like to sit next to someone I've sit next to before. Starting a slow walk to down the aisle so as not to anger the people behind me, I pass over the double open seats and instead scan each single seat to see who my ride mate would be.
Over muscled cougar in a wrestling singlet and luchador mask. Might be a nice person, but I've never sat by him before. Pass.
Squirrel in a business suit who looks like he swallowed a ball of anxiety for breakfast. Pass. Put me within five feet of another person with anxiety and you might create a feedback loop.
Same coyote lady in a dress suit from the queue line. Pass for the same reason for the same reason the cube didn't engulf her as well. She just emanated authority, and for a lowly grunt that meant trouble.
Clean cut husky in a business suit who filled it out just enough to suggest he might secretly be superman. Pass. He wasn't superman. He was Jullian Theoson, an N-Sport Sales rep with a wife and three boys, the youngest of which was a perfect angel, and whose mouth just wouldn't stop even after the ends times come along! He's been trying to invite me over for a dinner party for four months now. Thankfully he appears to be updating social media right now, so I quickly pick up my pace and look for a valid target before he notices me.
There! Overalls at three o'clock. Dashing forwards at a speed that is almost running, I slip in next to a broad rhino in in white shirt and farmer's overalls. I don't know who he is, and honestly that's what makes him perfect. Based on the stop he gets off at he actually works for AgriNex and isn't just some farm boy porn star. More importantly he's silent to the point I suspect him to be mute.
Demonstrating just how much of a perfect ride mate he was, Overalls glanced at my direction and raised an eyebrow. Looking down at myself, I made note of just how thoroughly the gelatinous cube had slimed me. Looking back up towards Overalls, I simply said the word "cube" and he mouthed a silent aw of understanding before turning back around to stare forward silently.
Satisfied he wouldn't talk with me for the rest of the ride, I turned my attention back towards my phone. Tapping the device to my glasses, my lenses took a very subtle violet hue. Flipping through the stories I had downloaded to my phone, I launched one to display holographically at a frequency of light not normally visible to the naked eye. Thankfully this privacy filter was just one of the many ways my smart glasses worked with my phone.
Honestly, even if I gave into NexCare's badgering to get my vision corrected, I wouldn't know what to do with my glasses.
Double checking to make sure my phone was set to remind me when we were at my destination, I allow to get pulled into the story. It was a nice little short about loss, zombie plagues, and forbidden love. I had just managed to breach the prolog when suddenly...
"Heya Trucker." My ears fold back at the slur. Looking up, I find the annoying and criminally handsome raccoon the voice was attached to.
"Hello Ioann," I say in an intentionally flat and dejected tone. He was dressed in military fatigues again, which even with only seeing his chest and arms I knew consisted of boots, camo pants, tank top, dog tags, and those too hip to be standard issue shades. Ioann Vlasi was... predictable as he was persistent.
"You left without me again. I had to run all the way to catch the same train." He said, fanning his shirt slightly for emphasis. The scent of sweat was obvious. Fresh deodorized sweat, not any of that musky nonsense, but still sweat. It was a rather jock like behavior that fit those lean yet firm ripped arms of his.
Kiss him already.
I pause a moment to hit the intrusive thought with a small iceberg before continuing the conversation. "Well, I'm certain your board meeting will appreciate both your diligence and choice in deodorant." There was nothing wrong with being a civilian with a military fashionation, some of the more interesting geeks on the net were just that. Ioann worked for NexArm, though, making the fact that he was just a sales rep seem... off...
It was hard to describe why, but he probably did it best himself when he flashed that perfect cocky smile and said. "Well, we all can't be soldiers. You don't exactly match the NexWay model either, Trucker. What exactly do you do at work? Polish the hubcaps?"
I grinned at Ioann's ignorance. If only he knew. But then again it was for the best that he didn't. "Sorry Ioann. Sharing noncritical information between departments is completely voluntary, and honestly... I just don't like you."
Ioann just kept his grin plastered to his face, "I know," Suddenly Ioann redirected his attention to Overalls. "Now Farmer's Boy over here. He I could see behind the wheel of an eighteen wheeler. Real man's man. What are you, three hundred pounds of muscle and fifty pounds of love?"
Overalls just gave Ioann a deep hrmph, which is admittedly more vocalization than he ever gives me. Doesn't make it good in any shape or form.
Rolling my eyes, I go into deep 'Ignore Ioann' mode and return to reading zombie romances. My phone would alert me when we were at my stop. Just needed to maintain sanity till then..