Artifact 4: Speed Racer Josh

Still on his mysterious delivery run, the dire warnings replay over and over in Josh's fatigued head.

Artifact 4: Speed Racer Josh

 

 

            The memory of tough girl Dawn standing there alone in the dispensary lot lingered with Josh.

As he reached the merge ramp to the old repaved interstate, Josh pulled his player out and stuck it back on the dash board. He pushed the ear plugs tight into his ears and switched it to where he had left off. His eyes dropped to his jacket lying on the floorboards that covers his mysterious cargo bringing back the cop's warning about the others that might pursue him.  

The DJ had remarked that they still didn’t know the whereabouts of Axl Rose who had disappeared during the early ‘oughts.’ Rumors abound of Axl going into the priesthood, camping out in the Himalayans with some headstrong spiritual guide, but the most popular theory was that he was still strung out on drugs somewhere in a Florida senior center for all these years. The DJ then keyed up and played “Sweet Child of Mine” by “Guns n’ Roses.” Josh immersed himself in a long string of uninterrupted rocking music for the next hour and a half. 

            BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! 

Alarmed audibly that overrode his earplug speakers along with an intense, flashing red light signaling the proximity alert on Josh’s heads-up display. The noise and flashing light jolted him out of his doldrums with his heart skipping a beat and adrenaline instantly rushing to his head. For a split second his thoughts returned to the erratic driver in the city, but he realized better in the next second.

“Now what?” he said aloud.  Either my buyer’s competitors or their designated tail like the cop warned! He grabbed a handle in the dashboard and pulled out a keypad that tilted down at an angle.

With one hand, he stabbed buttons: “INQUIRY NOTED> WAIT, PLEASE” appeared on the heads up display. The spilt second that passed felt like a minute.  A single satellite came on-line, two, four satellites… “TRIANGULATED INTERCEPTION YOUR LOCATION IN 18 SECONDS> BEARING 067 DEGREES> VELOCITY 565KPH.” 

Coming up behind me�"and fast; faster than I can go! Josh thought, instantly flicking the shifter to fifth and stomping the accelerator down hard, almost hard enough to push it through the floorboards.

On the dashboard, gauge needles sprang to the right, the turbo boost jumped to 100 percent, and the exhaust roared to ear-splitting life with the sound dampening system now unable to function. The exhaust flowed completely unobstructed with full power and blare. Sensing the acceleration, the ghostly gray-black car’s spoilers tilted and the suspension stiffened as the car squatted to hug the road.

Despite his already fast cruising speed, the tires broke loose, squalling with instant acceleration. Josh fought with the wheel as the car’s rear went right and then left in a fishtail, but he kept the accelerator pegged and muscled the hurtling car back under control. He eyed the screen with the pursuing vehicle’s velocity. Damn! What the hell can go that fast?

              Josh flicked sixth gear not noticing his gauges, but his brain automatically registering the shift indicator flashing from yellow to red. The digital speedometer flashed kilometers per hour increases in tens and twenties, faster than a normal eye could see. The exhaust roared loud and potent as the car built velocity.   

            The computer voice announced, “16 SECONDS TO COLLISION, PLEASE TAKE PROPER AVOIDANCE MANUEVERS.”  Josh stabbed a couple more buttons and slammed seventh. The speedometer’s increase slowed a bit. Again the voice, INQUIRY NOTED< WAIT PLEASE>” “14 SECONDS TO COLLISION…”

            “Shut up damn, it” Josh hit a single button shutting off the voice in mid sentence, but the message and countdown remained on the screen.  13, 12, 11 seconds clicked off faster than the actual passage of time.  It’s gaining on me fast! Josh thought flicking eighth.

            “IDENTIFICATION IN PROGRESS” flashed on the screen that almost filled his heads up display along with his engine information in miniature along the bottom of the screen. “Who is it? Hurry, Hurry!” Josh slammed his palm on the steering wheel. His brain spun with ways to avoid his pursuer, but the scene outside and his position on the map display moved too fast to comprehend a viable plan. The screen countdown went past eight. Headings and columns scrolled down the screen almost too fast to see and were instantly eliminated. 

The Federal Aviation Agency’s air traffic control locations scrolling by with their aircraft listings flew off the screen. Department of Defense listings, US Air Force, Navy, Army, and military air traffic control locations rapidly marched across the screen. US Executive Government and a couple FBI, CIA and Secret Service aircraft listed out that Josh seen and caught, actually surprised him when they were shot off, eliminated from the display. Non-listed then came up causing Josh to shudder.

            He frantically thought of a reaction, but he came up with nothing like a prey animal within the grips of a predator, thinking only of RUN! His headlights lit up the highway for hundreds of meters ahead of him, but he couldn’t stop in time if there was something or someone in the road.  A person or large animal would be deadly to both of them. The reflective lane markers blended into a ribbon of fiery light against the black pavement on both sides of the car as Josh aimed his missile hurtling at a crazy velocity.  Five, Four seconds the countdown progressed.

  Suddenly, a brilliant, bright light shone in the car’s windows, on the rear and to his right, with two flashing red lights on each side. 

“Damn, here you come” Josh muttered, noticing an underpass up ahead on the fast-moving, quivering map. “Should I brake duck under, turn around, pull off?” Josh asked himself. Too long to slow! He decided.

The screen flashed up Department of Transportation, but Josh ignored it at first until it froze with a flashing final warning. “COLLISION IMMINENT” followed by an identification.

  “Oh Josh, you stupid son-of-a-b***h,” Josh said aloud. He shook his sweating head and relaxed his accelerator foot. The engine’s roaring exhaust note quieted to a rumbling burble as the car deaccelerated.

            The screen read, “GAZELLE.”  His car slowed rapidly as the bright light flew closer and closer on an interception course, but rising above his level at the same time.  The screen warning still flashed “COLLISION IMMINENT” just as the dark outline of the underpass grew rapidly ahead, blotting out the stars on the horizon, and just before he went under he saw the blurred outline of the bullet train and interior lights flickering rapidly over the bridge.

            “Stupid, stupid, stupid computer how’d you miss that?�"Never mind! Stupid me!”

   The screen flashed up additional information, “GAZELLE Magna-Train, Inc. owned and operated by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Newer York to Lost Angeles non-stop, 148 passengers.” The screen continued on with schedule information. 

“Man, I must be way, way strung out to fall for a mistake like that!”  Josh said, as the now silent vehicle coasted back to the speed limit with both the engine indicators and the driver relaxing to a more comfortable position. He realized that music still played in his ears.

I need to take a break somewhere quiet, he thought. 

        

Author's Note

You might find some of the technology is dated seeing I wrote this about fifteen years ago. I cleaned it up a little, but I'm pressing on!