The Place Inside the Storm by Bradley W Wright

Author:Bradley W Wright [Wright, Bradley W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644370421
Publisher: Black Opal Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Across the Border

Loki lay exhausted from his seizure, sprawled on one of the palleted and wrapped stacks of boxes. It had been over half an hour since we broke into the container. My active worry that we would be discovered had subsided into a general anxiety. I sat awkwardly next to Loki. His face was slack and his eyes jumped under the lids. Xel sat on his other side, monitoring his vital signs.

“He is sleeping soundly now. His brain activity has calmed,” Xel said.

I nodded, still watching his face, his chest rising and falling. Somewhere far off, I heard a low droning sound. I ignored it at first but it steadily became louder and louder. Then suddenly--Crash!--a deafening noise and impact shook the entire container, knocking me sideways. The shaking was soon followed by a sickening sensation of movement.

“What’s happening, Xel?” I yelled.

“A crane has picked up the container. They’re putting us on a truck,” he shouted back.

It felt like the whole container was being lifted high in the air then swung in an arc. I held on to Loki to keep him from sliding. We came to a stop, swinging back and forth for a moment, before the container began to lower slowly down.

Finally, there came a bump and a sound of metal hitting metal as the steel box made contact with the flatbed of a truck. More clanking and banging followed as various parts were folded and fitted to lock our box into place. I imagined robot arms fastening us onto the flatbed but it could have been real people. I just hoped nobody was going to check the hatches or open the doors. As a precaution, I reached over and turned off the lantern.

We sat there in the dark for another ten minutes until, with a jolt, we began to move. I imagined the truck passing between rows of other containers, stopping at the gate, turning onto the road we had crossed. For a while, the truck continued to move slowly. I could feel the powerful motor humming, gearing up and down. Eventually, after a couple of turns and an incline that might have been an onramp, we accelerated quickly. I could feel that we were moving fast and, before long, the truck settled into a steady pace, probably in a pack of other autotrucks, caravanning on the freeway.

My body began to relax. I had been holding myself tense for an hour or more. After a while, I realized it was still completely dark. I had been squeezing my eyes closed, imagining what was happening outside. I fumbled around until I found the lantern and turned it on low. Xel was there, on the other side of Loki still, gazing at me with his usual implacable expression. His shadow loomed huge on the wall of the container.

“Can you tell where we are, Xel?”

“No. I’m not getting any signal through this steel. Please open the hatch, and I will try again.”

I crouched below the hatch and pushed it open.

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