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Charlotte
woke, groggy. She couldn’t remember falling asleep in the first place.
Where was
she?
Outside.
More
specific?
On the
ground.
She looked
around her at the surroundings: blue sky, grass, sheep, or were those clouds.
It was hard to tell where the ground ended and the sky began. She rolled over
and felt a sharp pain in her left wrist. What had happened to her wrist?
And why
couldn’t she move her legs? She tried to look at her feet, but her vision was
very blurry. Sounds were muffled too. She realized she was wearing a helmet.
She reached up to take it off and remembered the hurt wrist again. Helmet off,
the world began to make more sense. There were definitely sheep, also clouds.
Now to the
mystery of her legs. She looked at her legs, and realized that they were in
some kind of stiff pants. She flipped a lever next to the knee of each leg and
she could again bend her knees. That was a relief. Now to make sense of how she
got here.
She
blinked a few times and then noticed the railroad tracks. Suddenly, the day’s
events came rushing back to her in a moment. She had to move, quickly. If she
was caught here, she’d be toast.
First
things first. She took off the wingsuit. She limped into the rail tunnel and
found a niche near the entrance. She stashed the suit there. She would deal
with it later. She couldn’t very well walk into the city with a carrying a suit
made from illegal materials. Worse yet, she had been wearing it.
Ok, now to
figure out what to do. She looked at the city, and guessed it was a good five
miles to the center of the metropolis. Her legs seemed ok, but she was sore
everywhere. Her back ached, her legs were tired, and she was pretty sure she’d
done some serious damage to her wrist. She saw a country road ahead and began
to hobble toward the city.
After only
a few minutes of walking, she heard the telltale clip clop of hooves behind
her. She turned and saw a man driving a small horsecart. On the back of the
cart were piled sacks of what she could only guess were corn, carrots,
potatoes. She had to admit that she was feeling a bit hungry. She wasn’t sure
what time of day it was, but she hadn’t eaten since the previous night. She
waved at the cart and the driver stopped.
“Going to
the city?” she asked hopefully.
“Sure am,
miss. Need a lift?” The middle aged man seemed nice enough. He wore farmers’
coveralls and a tattered stetson. He smoked a pipe and somehow he managed to
talk without removing it.
“If you
don’t mind.”
The farmer
motioned with his head and Charlotte hopped into the cart next to the farmer.
He looked at her with a sideways look. She had no idea what she looked like
right now.
“Don’t
have any things?” the farmer asked.
“No,
nothing. Just me.” Charlotte replied as the cart began moving again. “Name’s
Charlotte Avalon. I’m an airbike racer, so you may have heard of me.”
“I ain’t
got time for no airbike races. Waste of time if you ask me.”
“Suppose
it is.” Charlotte replied. “Well, I don’t think I’ll be racing much longer
anyway.”
“You need
a good job, you do.”
“Nah, I
don’t think I’d like working. Racing’s a lot of fun, but it gets boring, you
know? I just don’t think working for a living would be any more exciting.”
“Well, you
won’t catch no pity from me when you end up living in the streets, if you don’t
mind my saying.”
“Oh, I won’t
be in the streets. I’ve got enough money I never have to work again.”
The farmer
cocked one eyebrow and looked sideways as Charlotte and shook his head. “So
what were you doing out in the country? You look awful beat up to have just
been out for a walk.”
Charlotte’s
heart beat faster as she realized that she hadn’t thought of a good alibi yet.
She jumped into a stranger’s farm cart and basically spilled her guts to him.
Now she won’t have a good excuse for why she was out there. She might as well
just tell him that she robbed a train and jumped off. Actually, that wasn’t a
bad idea.
“Ever hear
of train surfing?”
The farmer
laughed and shook his head.
“Well, you
stand next to the tracks with a big parachute. When the train goes by, the wind
catches in the ‘chute and it lifts you up into the air. If you time it right,
you get pulled along with the train for a while.”
“Idiot
thing to do if you ask me.”
“Nah, it’s
fun. Well, I was out surfing the southern line and this train was faster than
any other I’ve seen. The initial blast of wind that hit me knocked me over. My
‘chute caught on the train and I was dragged along with it for a few seconds
before I could unclip the harness.”
The farmer
shook his head in disbelief. “And how exactly did you expect to get back to the
city?”
“Oh, I
figured I’d just hitch a ride with a kindly farmer.” She smiled and jabbed the
farmer with an elbow. “When I didn’t see any, I decided you would have to do.”
The farmer looked at her with a frown. He lowered his eybrows and grabbed his pipe with his free hand. Slowly a smile crept at the corners of his mouth and he threw his head back in laughter. He slapped Charlotte on the back and she winced from the pain. She joined his laughing as they rode into the city.
Part 26 >
Part 26 >
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