Random little thing I came up with while taking a break down in the country. I also overheard a conversation about how life just got faster and faster after WWII, and it never slowed down.
Kurt stood still, breathing as quietly as possible. Only a few yards ahead of him, a doe and her fawn were grazing in a clearing. A slight rustling sound caused him to look in its direction. He just caught a squirrel dashing up a tree trunk, its long bushy tail stream out behind it, before the animal disappeared into the tree's golden foliage. A bird high above him was twittering its melodic song as he focused once more on the deer.
Six months ago, the drivers from both teams were settling down for a day off at the new Acceledrome, when out of no where, Silencerz had come, surrounding them, and taking everyone back to the Silencerz head quarters, commonly referred to as SHQ. A week later, Dr. Tezla, Lani, the Metal Maniacs, and the Teku-including Vert-were sent to a safe house. They were forbidden to leave the land, or to speak of what they had done.
The safe house was located in the mountains of Oregon, in a heavily wooded area. The house-more like a mansion, was in the middle of the property, which was about twenty acres. Most days, the drivers kept to the inside, but sometimes they ventured out into the forest, like Kurt was doing now.
He glanced at his watch to check the time. His eyebrows lifted in surprise, for he had spent a good two hours outside. If he didn't go back soon, two of the five agents guarding the place might come out to get him.
More rustling erupted ahead of him, and Kurt saw the doe and fawn dash off, disturbed from their evening meal. A slight smile played on his lips as he ran lightly forward, catching fleeting glimpses of their white tails, flung high.
Sighing and shaking his head, he turned around to head back, when he had a thought. Why not go further in? He still had a bit before night fell upon the mountain. So he continued, always on the look out for more forest creatures, and spider webs that he might run into. Something that he did not enjoy. Unless it happened to one of the women.
The other day, the teams were actually playing a game outside. It was baseball, and Taro had hit a ball into the woods. Karma volunteered to go get it. After a moment of two, terrified screaming was heard ringing among the trees. Several of them started, but were told to stay as two of the agents dashed into the woods, pulling guns from out of their jackets.
After several anxious moments, a new sound was heard. Laughing. Soon, an extremely red-faced Karma came stalking through the yard and into the door. The agents came back hollering half-hearted apologies at her, as they told a broken story of what happened. Karma had run into a spider's web with the spider itself sitting right in the middle. The scream was a result of her realizing that the spider was right on her nose. Soon, the whole yard was full of chuckling people.
Kurt pushed a hanging branch out of his way as he made his way to was appeared to be a clearing. A few more steps and he encountered a fallen tree trunk, and a drop off. His breath was completely taken away as he gazed across the vast mountainous region that spread right before him. Gray patches were seen here and there, beyond the nearer, tree-covered mountains. The actual drop off was at least ten feet away from the fallen trunk, so Kurt sat down and just looked.
Below him, a river snaked its way among the mountains' bases. Every once and a while, he could make out the creeks and small waterfalls coming to meet it, and add to its water. All around him, the wind whistled, birds chased each other around in the air, and treetops danced with the wind.
The Teku racer sighed and leaned back, enjoying it all. The sky began to change its hue as the sun sank lower in the sky. The temperature dropped, and Kurt thought lazily how it was a good thing that he was wearing a jacket. Everything was just so peaceful, and slow. It was something he had noticed with his stay here, that he was actually letting go of worries and stress that came with being busy all the time in some way. Even his electronics had been getting on his nerves, and all of the sudden, he was beginning to wonder why he even needed those.
The sky was darkening, and the shadows began to recede from where they had lengthened. A dry twig snapped behind him, and before he could turn Kurt heard a low gasp.
"Whoa." Markie's familiar voice reached his ears.
"I know," he said back.
The crunching of leaves was heard as Kurt's younger brother came to sit next to him. For a moment, they were both silent, just observing the great majesty of Oregon.
Then Markie spoke up. "I thought I'd come get you before they did. It's kinda late, and you missed dinner."
"Oh? Who's turn?" Kurt glanced at his brother.
"Lani," Markie said with a grimace.
Kurt winced in compassion. "Ooh. What slop did she fix this time?"
"Well, at least it was recognizable…sort of. Fish. Burnt to a crisp."
A chuckle emitted from Kurt's throat. "C'mon. I hate being out here when it's dark. You can't see the spider webs."
The brothers rose from the ground, and with one last, wistful look at the scene, they started their trek back to the house.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kurt saw Markie roll his shoulder around, grimacing in pain.
"Arm bothering you again?"
Markie let out a soft laugh. "How'd you guess? Still, it hasn't been as bad lately. Actually, since we've gotten here, you know, all settled in, it's really lightened up. I can't figure out why."
"Yeah. Though, from my very uneducated opinion, I'd say that it's because we don't have all that stress surrounding us."
"I hate stress. Especially since you can never tell when it's happening. Sometimes I find myself suddenly relaxing when I didn't know I was so tense. But, yeah. I love to race, but I actually have been enjoying this. I'm actually kinda thankful for the Silencerz 'abducting' us like that," Markie confessed, using air quotes.
Kurt laughed. "Yeah."
Silence again reigned between the brothers as they quickened their pace with the quickening darkness.
"Kurt?"
"Yeah?"
"Why aren't we always just able to take breaks like this? You know, to slow down?"
Kurt looked at Markie before answering. "I'm not sure. But man it's nice." He laughed. "How 'bout that? A racer saying he likes to slow down."
They both chuckled a bit over this.
Kurt sobered up a bit to continue. "If everyone slowed down though, it would make everything a lot nicer. To have time to enjoy things-the little things, in life. To relish the taste of your favorite dish at a restaurant, instead of hurrying through so you can rush out to get on to business. To take your time with a neighbor, just to build community. To actually play every once in a while, just to have some fun. To enjoy the color and smell of creation, to listen to the wind in the trees, and to watch the bees drone about the flowers. That is life. And it is something we don't have time for, because we feel the need to get more things done in today than yesterday. And because of that, we don't really get anything accomplished in life."
He finished as they stepped into the house's yard. They crossed the lawn just as a face peered through the window. After a second it turned away, and a faint voice could be heard from within.
Before reaching the porch, Markie turned to Kurt. "I guess I do wish we weren't so busy all of the time. Maybe then, I wouldn't have a drone arm. And maybe, we would never have fought for so long."
Kurt smiled slightly, and stepped toward to door, but a hand on his arm stopped him.
"And Kurt?" Markie began. "Don't do that. Don't get all eloquently like that. It's freaky coming from you."
Kurt was speechless for a moment before he smiled and laughed. "Sorry, I guess I was thinking a bit too much back there."
"No kidding," Markie answered. Sniffing the air, he made a face. "Looks like they still haven't gotten the smell out of the house yet."
Kurt faced the door again. "I guess I can bare it. It's nothing like Monkey's apple pie."
"Is that what it was supposed to be? I thought it was stew."
Chuckling, Kurt opened the door, and they walked in.