Chapter 04

“Could this traffic be any slower?”, Richard verbalized what we were all thinking.

We had been in stand still traffic for at least thirty minutes. Which gave us plenty of time to do what anyone does in a new vehicle, push all the buttons. There were so many, and they all did either useful things no one would conceivably put on a vehicle or seemed completely useless.

There was a button that made the truck and attached trailer into an amphibious vehicle, and one that seemed to do nothing. Whatever, I hit that stupid button like fifteen times.

After pressing all the buttons, and only moving about two car lengths, I ran and got us some lunch.

“You should be a food delivery person,” David said with a face that implied insult,” I can see it now, thirty seconds or less, or the pizza is free.”

“See you’d think so, right?” I responded not catching the insult,” Turns out that speeds that high cause the food to get cold.” I shrugged enjoying my ham sandwich.

Richard was oddly quiet, he looked like he really wanted to say something. I would have asked, but my sandwich was hogging my attention. I let out a slight chuckle from my thought pun.

“What would you do while running?” Richard asked.

“Well I would put one foot in front of the other at a fast speed.”

“Not what I meant, and you know it.”

“What did you mean then?”

“If there was traffic like this, and you were running, what would you do?”

Richard’s words got me thinking. If I was running and there was an obstruction, I would either run over it, or around it. I sped myself up. Running out of the truck I looked at my surroundings. This stretch of road was a main road, but even with traffic the fastest way to Earl’s. There were tall buildings on either side of the street basically touching the whole way past the traffic.

“I have an idea.” I said returning to the truck and slowing down.

“Well?” Richard and David said in unison.

“David lift us up and turn us sideways while pushing us to one side of the street.”

“What? Why?” was his response.

“Trust me.” I said while slipping the headset on. I started to speed the truck up, not with normal running, but the way I do to process information faster. Since David had his helmet on too, he was reacting at my speed.

The truck started to lift off the ground and rotated ninety degrees. Now the wheels were facing the building on the left side of the street. We moved toward it, and I started running not going anywhere but preparing to. As soon as the wheels touched the building we took off, leaving our spot in the traffic behind.

We had to hop a few alleyways but stayed on the buildings until the traffic had ended, when David picked us back up and returned us to the proper orientation. He lowered the vehicle slower than I’d have liked, but we still made better time than we would have.

As soon as the wheels hit the ground we returned to the top speed, bobbing and weaving through the traffic that, to us, was not moving.

Sparing a millisecond to look at the passengers, David was wrapped in his blue gravitation aura. That’s why he didn’t get car sick earlier. He’s in zero gravity. Richard wasn’t wearing his helmet, which was probably for the best. From his perspective we would be sitting in traffic, and then we wouldn’t be.

Smart, except for the fact he had just taken a bite of food right before we left. I have no idea how that will affect anything, but as a curious person, I couldn’t wait to find out.

“So, a gravity field?” I asked over the comms.

“Yeah, it helps with the motion sickness. I’m basically just floating here, and the truck is keeping me in place with the seatbelt.”

“Clever.” I hesitated before asking,” Should we mess with Richard before we slow down?”

“You know he never likes our jokes, and always goes overboard in retaliation.”

“True, but it never stopped us before.”

We devised an elaborate prank for him. It was ingenious. It was foolproof. It was diabolical.

We pulled into Earl’s, but before slowing us down I executed the plan.

Coming to a complete stop, Richard just swallowed his food. Darn. I guess because the food was travelling at his speed and not mine, it didn’t really affect him.

“Thanks for choosing Celerity transit, please exit to the right of the vehicle and remember to always tip the driver.” I said, realizing I was here just the other day, and now he won’t even know it’s me.

Just as we were getting out the backdoor opened, and Earl stepped out with a bunch of empty boxes in his hands. After seeing the truck and us he didn’t even miss a beat.

“What is this, a reunion tour?” Earl said walking past us, “You can’t park there, I got a delivery coming soon.”

“That is exactly why we are here, good sir.” Richard told him.

Earl stopped walking and turned to face us.

“You, some of the best heroes from a decade ago, are delivering beer and soda?”

We all struck a heroic pose as he started to talk, but by the time he was finished we were feeling embarrassed.

“Well, we were forced out, so now we have to pay the bills.” Orbital Force relayed to him.

“Fair enough.” Earl continued, “I was told that someone would be here to hammer out the contract.”

“That would be me, Mr.?” The Author asked stepping forward.

“Just Earl. We can talk when I get back from taking out the boxes.”

Before he finished the last word, I had sped off grabbed the boxes in his hands and the trash inside the store and taken them out to the dumpsters.

“If you need another job Celerity, let me know.” Earl joked as he realized what had just happened.

“Now that that is taken care of, shall we?” The Author said motioning to the door.

David and I watched as the two went into the back door, and most likely went to Earl’s office.

Watching Richard walk in we both snickered at what we did to him. After a few moments, David started to move towards the back and waved his hand signaling me to follow him.

“Alright, what’s up”? He asked me.

“Don’t know what you mean.” I stated.

“Why were you so quiet, and why did you take care of his boxes?”

“And trash.” I admitted.

“Why?”

“Well to answer your first question. I have been delivering here for almost six years, and don’t want to reveal who I am.”

“Ok, and why did you help?”

“Earl has a bad knee, he just had surgery on it last week, he shouldn’t even be at work. He had someone quit and no one would cover their shifts. So, he’s here.”

David didn’t say anything else, he just started unloading the order.

As soon as we were done unloading Earl came out followed by The Author.

“Well gentlemen, looks like I have Super Delivery now.” Earl said a small smile on his face.

“Glad to have you on board.” I said in a deeper voice, trying to hide my real voice.

“Now let’s get you guys checked in.”

“May I use your restroom Earl?” The Author asked.

“Sure, from the office follow the corner, any of the first three doors on the right.”

As the Author turned around, our masterpiece was revealed. A “kick-me” sign.

Earl gave a slight chuckle, then he started checking off the order.

After we were done, we just started talking.

“So how does this work exactly?” Earl asked.

“How does what work?” I questioned him.

“Do you guys all come every time? If not, who unloads? If so, isn’t that a bit much?” Earl fired questions, like bullets from a gun almost to fast even for me.

“Those are all good questions.” I forgot to use my deeper voice, as he had me raddled by the questions.

He gave me a side eye for a few heartbeats.

“You guys have no clue about it at all, do you?”

“Nope.” I said.

“Not a clue.” Orbital said at almost the exact same time.

“Aren’t you guys on a time limit or something?” Earl inquired.

“Normally if we had more than one stop, yes.” I told him.

“You guys get what thirty minutes or so?”

“If we had a full route, about that.”

“So why aren’t you guys putting the stuff away?”

“Oh right, Orbital Force here unloads it. I put it away.”

“You aren’t gonna shake up my drinks, are you?”

“Being one hundred percent honest, not sure.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.” David started,” I am going to keep my zero gravity fields around the stuff while he moves it all.”

“Doesn’t carbonation react bad in zero gravity?” I asked.

“Only if you drink it in zero gravity.” David responded.

Shrugging I put everything exactly where it should go in a matter of seconds and returned before Earl could ask his next question.

“So, do you need help finding where things…” he trailed off noticing the product was gone.

“Thanks Earl, but I got it.” I told him. It felt good to be able to put my powers to use to get the job done quickly.

“I’m gonna grab a drink before we go.” Orbital Force said, walking toward the store.

“Drivers get a free fountain drink after a delivery.” Earl told him.

There was a tense couple of seconds while we just stood in silence.

“Glad to see you landed on your feet.” Earl said, breaking the awkward silence.

Not sure what he meant, or how to respond, I stood there frozen.

“You’re a good kid, Ray.” Earl said.

“What? Who’s Ray?” I said in my best “nah” voice.

“C’mon kid, just because you got a mask on, doesn’t mean I don’t know you.” He started, “Plus you love that “kick-me” sign prank.”

“It’s a classic. And you shouldn’t be up walking around, what would Suzanne say if she saw this?” I reprimanded him. “Also, I told you I’m no kid, I’m older than you Earl.”

“Until you stop with the signs, you are a kid.”

“Seriously?!” Came an angry yell from the door.

“Can you keep this secret between us?” I asked quickly.

“Of course, Ray.”

“A freaking “kick-me” sign?! What is this eighth grade?” The Author yelled red in the face.

“C’mon ‘Writer Guy’ it’s just a prank.” I retorted.

“It’s ‘The Author’.” He said through clenched teeth.

Right at that moment, a couple of speeding SUVs pulled in front of and behind the truck blocking it in. I sped Earl inside and ran back out. Six people from each vehicle came out with guns pointed at us, then two more people came out in full battle gear.

“What is the trouble?” Mastermind asked.

“Trouble? You brought the trouble with you?” I said, as Orbital Force came bursting out of the back door ready for a fight.

“There isn’t any trouble?” Prometheus asked.

“Why would there be?” I asked him.

“You pressed the distress signal fifteen times!” Mastermind was yelling by the end. “I had to call in a security team!”