A young looking man, in his early twenties, was struggling on a old highway in the great Nevada desert with a stubborn trunk door. The man wasn't very musculated but wasn't a complete toothpick too. His short black hair was slightly swaying in the warm post apocalyptic breeze, his gray eyes fixed on the wreck of cars, surveying for anything useful.
He was scavenging amongst the car's that littered the old highway. As he closed the trunk of the old wrecked Chrysler Voyager, shaking his head as he didn't find anything useful in the old relic, he saw a small flash in the corner of his eye. He immeadiately ducked behind the Voyager thinking what the flash was.
'Could it have been a scope?' He tought to himself
'Possibly.'
'Well, i better go and take a look.' He reassured himself as he peeked over the old Voyager and saw what was the cause of the flash.
The light was being reflected off the surface of an old cars paint.
"The fuck i am jumping at cars?" He said to himself, giving off a small chuckle.
He then begined to move towards the peculiar car.
"Whoa!" He gasped as he was next to the glimmering white car.
"How the hell it is in such a good condition?" He said to himself wondering how thist car could have survived in such a great condition for so many years. It seemed brand new.
As he opened the glovebox of the car, a few documents fell of to the floor. He picked one of them and gave a quick glance at it. They were apparently the documents for this car.
Year of make: 1986
'Wow, this car is like over 200 years old and in such a good condition.'
He put the documents back into the glovebox and proceeded to check under a plastic flap beside the driver's seat for the vehicle number and was very suprised when he found it. ACID Prototype 23. He started to believe that this was not an genuine RS500. He went to check if there was anything interesting in the trunk that might be of use to him.
When he was about to open the trunk, he saw a few different coloured letters engraved on the trunk door.
He instantly recognized the blue oval logo. It was the logo of the old Ford motor company.
He continued to gaze at the other engraved letters
Sierra Cosworth was engraved in shining chrome coloured letters.
RS500 was engraved in bold red letters.
The weirdest thing about the car must have been the whaletail spoiler. It looked goofy but still gave a sense of intimidation and aggressiveness into the design of the car.
He tried to open the trunk but it didnt budge.
"Huh, must be stuck then." The man frowned as he was eager to know if there was anything in the trunk.
The curiosity got the better of him and he tried to open the trunk again.
The man hassled with the trunk again but still it wouldnt bude.
"Come on, could you just open already!" The man shouted when suddently the trunk gave a small click and popped open.
"Wha-" The man jumped back as the trunk automatically opened, revealing a blue device, resembling an engine of some sort inside the trunk. But it wasnt like any other engine he had seen before. It was coloured completely with cold colours, mainly blue and purple, had many wires and tube running through it. The letters A.C.I.D were engraved in the face plate of the 'engine' in red bold letters. The man was fascinated by the mighty machine and couldnt stop admiring it.
When he finaly closed the trunk, he went infront of the car and popped the hood open. Under the white bonnet was a engine. Just an engine, a slightly curious looking one but still an engine. He noticed that there was a nice looking turbo setup attached to the engine. He checked the front slam panel for the chassis number. Again he was suprised by the weird chasis number. ACID Prototype 23. He started to get irritated "Now just what the hell is this 'ACID Prototype 23'?" As he went back to the drivers seat, he saw that the bonnet was no longer open.
"I remember i left that thing open." He remarked to himself. This didn't ease any of his nervousness.
Looking through the dashboard, he noticed that there keys were lost. Well, they would be useless to him anyways as there was no keyhole anywhere to be seen.
He only saw a small round, black glass surface where the keyhole should have been. As he rubbed the small glass surface a little, the car started to quietly hum. Dozens of lights flared up at the dashboard and a small lcd screen pulsed alive, starting to feed all kinds of information
- Tire-pressure monitoring system: online.
- Warning, tire wear exceeds safe levels. Change of tyres is advised.
- Lubricant levels: adequate.
- Brake fluids: minimal. Change of brake fluids is advised.
- Oil and Fuel filters condition: acceptable.
The information continued to flood the small lcd screen and the man could already tell that this was not your everyday car. He saw a monitor screen pop up from the dashboard. As the monitor sprang to life, it was briefly completely white untill it turned blue and the only thing on the screen was a thin, straight horizontal green line, sitting in middle of the screen, similar to an heartbeat line. Frankly, he didn't believe this was an genuine RS500, but it wasn't your everyday Ford too. It was something else, something far more sinister.
He noticed an weird device on the dashboard. He knew that it was an music player and radio of some sort as he had seen many similar devices on almost all of the cars he had seen in his life. Some had a little fancier models while others had an old, bulky looking one with a big hole in them usualy. As he gazed at the device, he saw that there was an small blue pulsing orb that had an small triangle in it. As he pressed the button, he heard an extremely long, loud scream.
"FUCK ME!" He panted, startled by the sudden loud scream. He listened to the music for a while as it brought some deep feelings to him. It got the adrenaline flowing in him as he listened to the deep, loud boom of the music. It made made him feel somewhat aggressive as the musics tempo reached its height with a loud scream.
"THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL!
That's right!
THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL!" Boomed the voice of the music when suddently it turned from that aggressive high tempo screaming into a more softer, relaxing guitar solo.
The man turned off the music by pressing the blue pulsing square orb on the player.
The small black glass surface was now glowing blue with a red vector grid in it. He touched the surface again and heard an familiar sound of an engine struggling to start.
*Whomwhomwhomwhom* He had heard this sound from far too many cars during his lifetime.
*Whomwhomwhomwhom* To no avail.
*Whomwhom- "Could you just start, please?" The man said to particulary no one. -Wh-rrrrrrrr-wrooooommmm* The car sprang to life, the man feeling exhilarated from it.
As the man lightly pressed the gas pedal, the car started to roar and tremble just waiting someone to shift in the first gear an let the car blast off.
"Damn, what a nice car i found." The man said to himself as he raised his foot from the gas pedal. The car relaxed again and continued to maintain a stable purr.
"You know, i think im going to have some fun with this thing." The man stated to himself
"Im not a thing." Said a stern, commanding female voice out of nowhere, as the car turned off suddently.
"Who said that?" The man quickly shouted, grasping his old Browning Hi-Power from his pocket.
"I did." Said the voice again.
"Where are you? Stop hiding and show your self!" The man commanded the voice, gripping his pistol harder.
"I'm here, if you would look exactly 19.284 degrees to your right." The stern voice said again.
The man turned his head slightly towards his right and was looking at the thin screen with the green line.
"Now, could you give me your name?" The stern voice asked.
He blinked. He blinked twice. As he heard the female voice talk, the green line jumped up and down.
"I'm P-Philip, but eh-everyone calls me Phil." The man answered, stuttering slightly.
"Nice to meet you Phil, my name is Acid" Stated the now calmer, softer female voice.
"Acid?" The man repeated with a slightly puzzled look on his face.
"Artificial Central Intelligence Directive" The soft voice stated to Phil.
"Uhm... That's a mouthful" Phil replied feeling a little embarrassed.
"Thats why i prefer Acid for short." Giggled Acid's soft female voice again.
Phil was wondering what he should do when a question struck his head.
"So Acid, wheres your... umm.. you know, owner?"
"Owner?" Acid asked quizzically.
"I have never had one." Acid continued.
"Then how did you get here?" Phil asked suprised.
"I just... drove" Acid answered after a slight pause.
"Well, it looks like it. The condition of your tires are far beyond driven." Phil stated as he remembered in how bad shape the tires were.
"They will hold. They have held respectably so far." Acid confirmed.
"How far?" Phil asked.
"Approximately 1253375 Kilometers or 778811.1278 Miles" Confirmed Acid.
If Phil had been drinking something now, he would have spilled his drink everywhere.
"My god, how can you do that?"
"Why not?" Acid asked.
"You could have lost a tire, flipped over, crash into something and possibly die!" Phil shouted.
The white car got a slight red glow around the edges.
Phil noticed this and a serious look formed on his face.
"Oh, don't say that machines can blush too nowadays!" Phil shouted making the red glow around the edges grow bigger.
"Is it a bad thing?" Acid whispered with an even softer voice.
This made something in Phil's mind snap as the weirdnes crossed his limit.
"You know, fuck this! Fuck all of this! You just stay here or piss off! I'm leaving, NOW!" Phil yelled at the car as he started to march off, boiling with anger. He only could hear small sobs from the car before he was out of hearing range. After walking back to the old Chrysler Voyager, he sat on one of the Voyagers seats and allowed himself to cool off. After spending 5 Minutes Alone, cooling off, he jumped off from the old Voyager and again headed back home. As he was walking towards his home, he started to feel slight guilt growing inside him, but he managed to shrug it off. After an hour of walking, the guilt returned again, this time making Phil stop. He felt that he had mistreated the poor machine.
'But seriously, it's an machine, it shouldn't have any feelings.' He assured to himself.
As he looked behind him, the guilt was overpowering him.
'The poor machine was just trying to be friendly to me and i blew it.'
He started to walk back towards the pearl white car that he had shouted at before.
As he got to the white car few hours later, he saw that the door was still open, just the way he had left it.
"Hi Acid..." Phil said stopping next to the car, facing towards the now slightly darker blue monitor.
He could see that the power was still on, but Acid was just ignoring him, letting off a few small sobs from time to time.
"I'm sorry that i raged at you earlier today." He continued talking and noticed that the blue screen got just a little brighter.
The awkward silence continued for a few minutes.
"I... Forgive you." The soft female voice of Acid responded. Phil could sense that the voice was just barely holding up. Again Phil was confused.
'How the hell could a machine have feelings. This is beyond crazy.'
"You must be wondering how a machine can have feelings." Acid said, breaking the silence.
"How did you know?"
"I could see it in your face." Acid stated.
Phil quickly threw in a question.
"Wait, you can see me?"
"Yes, i have sensory equipment all over my chasis. I can create a 3D image of you and my relative surroundings."
The monitor quickly changed into a 3D live feed video of Phil standing next to the car, and back to the green line.
" Oh , okay. That's pretty neat."
A slight red hue again started to form around the edges of the car.
Phil gave a slightly concerned look at the monitor.
"Are you going to be angry at me again?" Acid asked with her soft voice that now had small traces of worry and fear in it.
"What, no!" Phil responded.
"Look, i was acting like a dick back then." Phil said as he remembered how he had raged at the car and hear the slight sobs behind him.
Phil suddently blurted out
"And i think it's kinda cute."
The slight red hue was turning into a definite red glow.
"It is?" Asked Acid with a light, gentle voice.
"Well, at least you're much sweeter than KITT from Knight Rider, that's for sure." Phil responded and saw the red glow growing even brighter.
"Oh sush you! You're flattering me." Acid radiated happiness with a small giggle. This made Phil feel much better too.
He also noticed that dark clouds were starting to gather in the sky.
"It's going to rain soon, do you have any place to stay overnight?" Phil asked.
"...No" Acid answered a little shyly.
This threw Phil a little off.
"You don't have any place to call home?"
"Well... The highways are a sort of home to me." Acid answered.
This made Phil facepalm.
"Is there something wrong?" Acid asked with a soft, caring voice.
Phil suddently asked her.
"Look, why don't you just come sleep in my home over the night?"
"In your home?" Acid asked.
"It's a big yellow house down the highway, next to an old gas station. You cant miss it."
"I know that house." Replied Acid.
"I have drove past it a few times during my travels."
"Good, well, go wait me at the house."
"So you are coming too?" Asked Acid quizzically.
"Yeah, i'll be there in a bit." Phil responded and started walking towards his home. He heared an loud roar and screeching behind him as a pearl white car blasted past him, off into the distance.
'Just how damn fast is that car?' He wondered as he only saw a glittering white spot off in the distance. The spot quickly started to grow bigger and bigger.
'What, is she comin back?' He tought to himself again.
"Just what is on that girls min-" He was cut off sentence talking to himself as the pearl white car threw itself into a sideways slide.
"Oh fuck, she's going to crash!" Paul yelled as the car was just meters away from crashing into him.
As Phil's life already started to flash past him, the passenger side door had opened and Phil was thrown into the car. The pearl white machine then spun around and was sliding backwards, closing into the old Voyager in speeds that were enough to leave only a fine red paste of Phil and a heap of junk metal of Acid if they would crash. Before the Cosworth was able to make contact with the old Voyager, it hitted the throtle and sent herself screaming down the road towards Phils home.
"What the hell was that all about?" Questioned the satrtled Phil.
"I tought that you might want a lift home, so i came back to pick you up." The red hue was still maintaining its place on her.
"You could have killed me!" Phil pressed her.
"Oh come on. I am not an amateur. I wouldn't crash into you." Acid giggled.
"Well, theres always the risk of a heart attack." Phil responded playfully.
"Don't worry your sweet little head over it." Now was Phil's turn to blush.
After a few minutes they got to Phils home which infact was the chop shop of the old gas station turned into a home. He opened his homes large door and let Acid roll in. She was scanning her surroundings a little nervously but welcomed the nice warmth of the garage. She saw a shining two wheeled motorcycle in the corner.
'An Aprilia RS-125' She tought to herself.
'Why would he be keeping something like that when he easily could get an bigger motorcycle with no problem.'
Acid continued to wonder.
'Guess it holds sentimental value.' She shrugged it off.
Phil quickly cut her flow of toughts.
"So Acid, what do you think?"
"I love it here. It's nice and warm and cozy..." She listed off all the things she could think of at that moment. All the things she didn't have for over two centuries. And now, one day, she was given the luxury of having a roof over herself and a warm place where to sleep for the night.
"...Thank you Phil." She finaly said.
"Hey, no problem." Phil replied with a grin on his face.
Phil was getting dowsy.
"Well, im off to sleep."
"If anything is troubling you, just call me."
"Thanks Phil." Acid thanked again.
Phil then pulled a huge warm blanket over the Ford, leaving only the bumper and windshield visible. Lastly, he landed a quick kiss on the car, making the whole pearl white car to get a red tint like it would be glowing hot.
"... Thank you..." Acid said with a voice so quiet that even she with her sensory systems had hard time hearing it. She then drifted off into sleep, all the lights in her dashboard slowly turning off one by one. The last thing that remained on was the blue monitor, the green line trembilng slightly as she left off a small sigh. Finaly the blue monitor darkened off and she was completely asleep.