An Azure Future Part 7:
Roadtrip.
I find it both depressing and exciting that I wrote 7 parts...
John Norris woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. He checked his watch, it was five in the morning. Lets get this show on the road. John grabbed a few of his bags and made his way to the stairs. He paused at Azure’s room. The alarm John had set up in his room was blaring. Goddammit. It should get him up eventually. John continued down to his truck and threw the bags in the bed. After two more trips John had the truck packed.
John went to check on Azure. The first thing he noticed was the alarm’s blaring electric buzz was no longer in the air. John opened the door. The alarm he gave Azure was smashed and in shambles. Well, fuck. Too bad I don’t have a watergun. Note to self: buy super soaker.
“Azure, get up!” Bellowed John. Azure had slept in. John had already packed the truck with various supplies and the only thing preventing them for leaving, was Azure. The pegasus shifted under the sheets and groaned. Okay then, lets do it your way.
John carefully grabbed the corners of the sheet on the bed, taking care to not wake Azure, and with one sudden movement pulled it up, forming a sack containing the young pegasus. Azure instantly became fully aware and started thrashing about inside the makeshift sack.
“Dear Luna on the moon! What the hay dad?!” Azure swore as he struggled.
“We are going. Now.” John stated, walking down the stairs.
“Can, I at least walk now? I’m pretty sure I’m awake now.” Azure had given up on breaking free from the sheet-sack John had him trapped in.
“Your walking privileges are been revoked. You are now my sack pony. I shall keep you in the sack accordingly due to your new status. We shall go everywhere with you in sack. You shall never leave sack. Sack is new home now. You will eat in the sack. You will sleep in sack You with urinate in the sack. You will defecate from sack, but I recommend not doing it in sack. You will love sack. The sack is all there ever was, all there ever will be. You will try to recall a life before that sack and you will see that it was always sack. Hope is useless. resistance is futile. Look upon the sack and despair!” John spoke, imitating a strong Austrian accent. He was now outside of the apartment complex.
“Dude, what?”
“Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!” John screeched in response.
“You are so random.” Azure replied with true concern in his voice.
“Thats mister random to you boy. We are here.” John swung the sheet-sack over his shoulder and opened his truck, putting the sheet-sack in the passenger seat. He walked around the front, got in the driver seat and started the engine.
Azure shrugged off the sheet and pushed it off the seat. “Ya know that was pretty much unnecessary, right? I have perfectly good legs and all.” Azure cracked his neck from side to side to accentuate his point.
John shrugged. “Now you have a story to tell your kids. No need to thank me, you’re quite welcome.” He put the car into drive and started got on the road. “Now lets get going! It says the fifty seven north for nine miles, which turns into the sixty. From there I get on the interstate fifteen for almost five hundred miles. Then the forty for over a thousand miles. Damn. The seventy eight, and then we’re there pretty much. ”
John got on the first freeway. “now, going the speed limit average of seventy five would take forty six hours to get there. Good thing is, there are no cops anymore, and therefore, the whole thing is an autobahns and this truck may be older than me, but its seen some upgrades, this baby can easily hold speeds upwards of 200 miles per hour and has a driving AI to boot. we should be there before midnight, considering food and restroom stops.” After hitting a few buttons on the touch screen in the dash, the truck accelerated tremendously and John put his feet on the dash. “It must’ve sucked to have to do this manually for almost fifty hours.” He boasted.
The truck fell silent and remained so for the next hour when Azure spoke up. “So what are we doing again?”
“My best friend has called in a very old favor. He helped me with the ‘Dog Incident’.” John explained.
“What was the ‘Dog Incident’ anyways?” Azure asked furrowing his brow in confusion over what it could possible entail to drag his father across the country
John shuddered at the memory. “All I will say on the subject is that I wasn’t always a nice person.”
Another uncomfortable silence followed only to be broken by Azure once more. “Hey dad, where did mom go?” The question hit John like a sack of hammers and his heart skipped. He had dreaded the day Azure would ask about Catherine.
How do you tell a child his mother was murdered? Its not going to be pretty. Best just give it straight. “Azure, you are familiar with mankind's long kept tradition of hate and violence more often than not based on nothing?” Azure nodded in response, a worried look on his face. “Well, in the letter you gave me it explained that she and your grandmother were on their way to check on me, make sure I was still there, they were attacked by some human liberation front fanatics and beaten savagely. Your mother didn’t make it. Your grandmother died a few days later from wounds.” The silence that followed hurt worse than speaking.
Azure’s features hardened, “So...” Azure finally spoke after a long silence, His voice was shaking, “Mom’s... gone? Forever?”
John’s heart shattered at the sight of Azure. He clenched his jaw to the point where it caused significant pain to keep his emotions steady. “Yeah kid, I’m afraid she’s gone. You know what though Azure?”
“Huh?” the reply was barley audible over the dull sound of the engine as the pony fought back tears.
“I shared some of the best moments and years of my life with your mother. I knew her better than she did, and she knew me better than I did. She was all I wasn’t and wanted to be, a truly happy and outgoing individual. If there is one thing I know, its that she would want us to be happy. Its okay to be sad though, don’t get me wrong, but don’t let it get in the way of your life. I wasted the last four years of my life like that...” The truck rolled on, much like life itself.
The silence perfectly accentuated the mid-morning scenery, somewhere in new mexico, the wide feilds and cliffs were even more desolate now that the few houses and towns that dotted along them had long since been abandoned.
After a very extensive amount of time, Azure broke the silence,“I think... I think I understand. If we spend all our time and energy focusing on how much we miss her, we’ll be letting her down by not living.”
“Yes. Exactly.” He seems to have taken it well. He’s pretty rational for being so young. John checked his progress. They were making good time, better than he expected. They were a third of the way across the country. John decided to take a nap.
John woke up a few hours later. First things first, progress. Damn, almost there now. Oh man I really got to pee. Pee and poop. “Pull over at the next stop with a restroom.” He directed the onboard AI. The screen said it would arrive shortly.
John looked over at the passenger seat, Azure was sound asleep. John shook him gentley, “Hey Azure, we’re pulling over to take a rest stop. If you need to use the facilities, nows the time, we’ll be in New York soon enough.’
“Okay.” Azure replied simply. He stretched out his legs and yawned deeply. They arrived at a convenience store a few minutes later and exited the truck The pair walked inside, much to John’s surprise, the store was active, and a pony behind the counter welcomed John to the store. John went to restroom first, and when he finished, Azure walked into the small water closet. When John exited the restroom, He saw something he hadn’t seen on good terms in a long time. Another human.
The man had shaggy unkempt hair, and was just a bit shorter than John. It looked like he hadn’t had a decent meal for a long time. He was the first to speak, “Are you going to Fort Stillwater as well?”
John was in shock. Last time he had seen another human at all wasn’t in the best of situations, the last time he actually had a real conversation with a human was months ago. “Whats that?” Were the first words out of his mouth.
“You haven’t heard? The International Human Survival Association. They’ve made strongholds for humans all over the globe. A last ditch survival measure. I’m Isaac by the way, Isaac Hamilton.” The man claimed, extending his hand for a handshake.
John reciprocated. “I’m John Norris, been quite some time since I’ve seen another human on good terms. Can’t say I’ve heard of that organization before.”
“Hey, you should come with me and my friend, and join up with the IHSA.” Isaac offered.
“Actually-” John started, when Azure came out from the bathroom.
“Hey dad, who’s this?” The pegasus asked upon seeing the other human.
“Did that pony just call you ‘dad’? Did you... you know... with a pony?” Isaac questioned.
“Oh. Oh God no. His mother got ponified when she was pregnant. I’d never do.. that with a pony.” John explained.
There was a honking outside, “Oh, thats Will, I should go now.” With that Isaac left.
Nice to know there’s still some good humans left. John grabbed some snacks and checked out.
John and Azure left the store got back in the truck. John started it up and got on the road, driving manually. Twenty minutes later, They were pulling into a parking lot across from a building that proclaimed itself simply as ‘HLF HQ’. “We’re here.” On that note John exited the truck and faced the building, unsure of what he would find within. It was time to saave his friend from the hands of mad men.
_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_)_NOTES:
ALL SHALL LOOK UPON THE SACK AND DESPAIR!!!
Yes, those are the actual directions more or less.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&xhr=t&q=new+york+new+york&cp=12&qe=bmV3IHlvcmsgbmV3&qesig=UFaR7hVkofukdtG_t8sIBA&pkc=AFgZ2tkKG_cyR1d1jYz45QIcc-ICr995NdY8WySbZMxE4Z1Tr7yDWxlnKq2OY5G5FhlBHS6BGFQA7BcxGK8QhWEiQFaJmX_fIA&safe=off&biw=1280&bih=622&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xc80b8f06e177fe62,New+York,+NY&gl=us&ei=zlkFTunuOOX00gG-5bmCCw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQ8gEwAA
Isaac Hamilton from LMS. Thought it’d be a believable mesh to have them meet like that.
For an austrian accent see The Terminator
Not much for notes. I enjoyed the sack bit a little too much.
I made the trip so quick because I didn’t want 2+ parts on a roadtrip.
As always, thoughts, concerns, ideas, what you’d like to see. I’m going to try to put a cameo in each update from here on. So post ‘em in the current TCB thread or email me at KrassMcWriter@gmail.com or if your interested in a cameo.