A/N: Okay so here is chapter four! Thank you guys for being patient while I was working the convention...I'm exausted so instead of this being the last chapter as planned, this is now the second to last chapter (maybe). I will hopefully finish the story tomorrow...but for now I need sleep, been going 24 hours a day since Thursday morning (It would now be wednesday lol) Even managed to break my cast :P But basically I felt I left you guys waiting long enough so a little is better then none, right? Okay i'll shut up now so you can read...R&R please! I will love you forever _ Hope you enjoy!
"God Mello! Turn off that damn alarm!" Matt whined, slapping his hand down onto my face.
"Bastard, don't hit me." I mumble, groping for the phone on the center counsel. I finally slam my hand down on it, effectively silencing the annoying screeching.
I drift back to sleep, not ready to start driving again. Fifteen minutes later the alarm goes off again.
"I swear to God Mello, If you don't turn that fucking alarm off i'm throwing the phone out the window." Matt growls, pushing at my head that's in his lap. Ahh, Matty at his best.
"Stop whining du scheisse kopf." I cuss at him in German and struggle to sit up. Matt is already sound asleep again, bastard.
As I head towards New Mexico it's still dark out. In the distance I see hundreds of flashing red lights, a wind turbine farm. Cool.
It's less then a half hour after I departed the gas station that I enter New Mexico. I have never seen so many stars in my life. By this point i'm not so much paying attention to the road as I am the sky.
I see a huge, bright blueish green light streak across the sky in front of me. "Gundam." I mutter, then start laughing to myself. I've been watching to much anime with Matt lately. I think about how it could of quite possibly been a ufo, well technically it was since I couldn't identify it, but how very stereotypical it was to see an unidentified light in the sky in New Mexico.
I decide I'm going with my first thought of it being a Gundam. I also decide I'm not going to tell Matt, he would just laugh at me.
Another thing I decide is I like New Mexico. The speed limit is seventy-five, a welcome change from the fifty-five I was forced to endure in Texas. Of course the van is such a piece of shit that no matter how much I floor it, I'm only hitting seventy-three. Sigh.
Also there are no cops. Instead there are signs stating that speed is monitored via aircraft. I like this. Both Matt and I are packing heat, and getting pulled over was a pain in the ass. First, neither of us is eighteen yet, so in most states it's illegal for us to be carrying firearms. Of course we both have several forms of fake identification, none of them with our true age or names.
Second they like to hassle us for some reason. Matt is usually really good at being able to talk his way out of trouble. Shit, Matt can talk his way out of anything, convince people of anything. Me, not so much. I lose my temper to quickly. I am not a patient person.
The road starts to sharply ascend. We're entering the mountains again. The angle is so steep it seems like I'm driving into the sky. I'm okay with this though, because I can't see the drop off this time. I know it's weird, but if I can't see the fact that if I drift off the road we will plummet to our death, I'm perfectly fine.
That is until the construction starts.
At first it's no big deal. There are no other car's on the road at four thirty in the morning in the middle of the desert, or so I thought.
As soon as I clear the first ridge all I see is tail lights, stretching out for miles. Oh isn't this just fucking wonderful?
The stupid orange barrels force my lane precariously close to the edge. On my left the oncoming cars are close enough that if reached my hand out the window I could touch them. A few times when semi's went by I was sure they were going to take off the side mirror.
A nerve racking hour and a half later I'm out of the mountains, and out of the construction. Also it seems that the majority of the cars have magically disappeared.
The sun is starting to rise behind me, giving the terrain a haunting glow. It's nice to be driving during sunrise with the sun to my back for once. It was a little strange, I wasn't use to not driving directly into the huge ball of fire.
I note how beautiful the barren landscape is. It's nothing like the tree covered rolling hills of Illinois or the endless fields of Oklahoma. For as far as you can see there is nothing but pale cracked earth, dead scrub grass dotting the land. In the distance red rocks jutted up, giving the whole place an alien feel. I've never seen any place like this before.
The only thing breaking up the vast emptiness was the occasional billboard and random heards of cattle. I know the long horns have to be farm animals. Thin, almost unnoticable stands of barbed wire was keeping them from the highway, but for the life of me I can't spot any homes or barns that might mark where they belong.
Matt finally begins to wake up next to me, stretching his arms over his head while arching his back and cracking his neck.
"Morning sunshine." I say with a smirk. Matt is always much more pleasant when he wakes up of him own accord.
"Hey." He responds in a soft voice, smiling. He is so damn adorable sometimes.
"Where are we?" He asks with a yawn, taking in the change of scenery.
"About three hours into New Mexico. Would of been farther but there was some crazy fucking construction in the mountains." I answer. "Did you have a good sleep?"
"Yeah, thanks for that. I was exhausted. Aren't you tired?"
"Meh," I shrug. "Not really. We do have to stop here in a few for more gas though. I would of stopped sooner but there's nothing out here."
"I'd say. This place looks even more desolate then Texas did." Matt says, looking out the window intently. He pulls out his cigarettes, lighting one up with practiced ease.
"Yeah, but it's prettier." I respond. Matt laughs at this. "Whats so funny?" I ask, giving him a sideways glance.
"How would you know if it's prettier then Texas? It was pitch black when we drove through that state." He points out.
He does have a point, but..."Well that's precisely why New Mexico is prettier."
"Nice save Mells." He laughs at me again.
"Shut up Matt." I grumble. He just keeps laughing at me.
We stop at a little travel plaza. The gas is way overpriced, but not knowing where the next place to fill up may be, we really have no choice.
With the morning sun beating down it almost seems warm, well not frigid. It's probably about forty degrees out, but that beat the hell out of the thirteen degrees we were in when we left Michigan a day and a half ago.
The place is absolutely packed. Mostly with families, and most of those families weren't speaking English.
Sadly i'm lacking in the spanish speaking department, but I'm still better than Matt.
Of course Matt blows me out of the water when it comes to French and Japanese, but I can speak German and mandarin Chinese. So there.
Matt grabs some "pop" and a few things to snack on. I just get some coffee and chocolate milk. We pay for our gas and argue over who is going to drive.
I win.
We drive for about an hour until we start to see signs of civilization, it's at this point that two things happen. One, we finally find a radio station that plays good music. Two, our heat stops working.
It's at this point that I finally decide to allow Matt to take over driving. I pull off and we quickly switch seats.
We agree that the trade off of heat for music that doesn't involve country or bible preaching is totally worth it.
We are just at the outskirts of Albuquerque and I'm finding it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. I finally allow sleep to suck me under.
Only to be awoken minutes later by the van jerking and Matt exclaiming "Shit!"
I sit up bolt straight as he pulls off to the side of the road as quickly as possible.
There is smoke billowing up from under the hood.
Well shit indeed.
So what happens now hmm? Smoke coming out of the engine is NEVER a good thing lol...guess you'll just have to wait and see!
And just so you guys know...because i'm proud of this :P The World Steam Expo (The steam punk convention I was just working tech at) is now officially the largest one in the WORLD! It was out first year and we had over 1,000 people, beating the next largest by double!
Still doesn't come close to the over 6,000 we got for Youmacon when I worked that last year, but hey, it was an anime convention :P