Page 46 of Senseless
After making a convincing display of a natural rock slide, Slick and I rolled a larger boulder into place on the road. It was off to the side, not directly in the center, but just enough of an inconvenience that it would need to be pushed out of the way. Roughly three car lengths behind of it, I carefully laid the explosive hidden under one of many smaller rocks littering the road. We dumped more sand and brush to cover the long wire to the remote trigger—which I would hold and press when the time was right.
And thenkaboom.
Slick kept on covering the wire with sand as it moved off the road while I hid the bike and any other evidence of us being there. We found cover, wedged between two boulders and a tree, and hunkered down. We masked up, trying to blend into the landscape until only our eyes were visible, then sat and waited.
And waited.
It wasn’t a half hour like I initially thought, but at least two hours before we saw anything.
“Here they come,” Slick said in a tense whisper.
I raised the binoculars, looking south down the length of the road. A speck of black appeared, growing slowly larger.
“They’re drivingreallyfuckin’ slow,” I remarked after a few moments. “Like twenty miles-per-hour, max.”
“About the same speed they were rolling through the city.” Slick squinted at the oncoming vehicles. “You think they’re just watching out for obstacles and enemies on the road?”
“Maybe.” If that was true, it didn’t bode well for us. If they stopped before our supposed rock slide to clear the road of any threats, our bomb would be discovered. I wasn’t a fan of any of these people, but I’d rather blow up supplies than a person just trying to clear the road.
If my gut was uneasy about Slick’s earlier suspicion, it was screaming at me as I watched the leading Jeep creeping closer up the road, the procession following along behind it. It was like watching toy cars moving along a track—a slow, constant ambling that seemed almost…automated.
I looked through the binoculars again, peering as hard as I could through the windshield of the lead car. It was still too far away to see the driver clearly, plus a black mask covered most of his face. Even so, I could tell there was an eerily un-human stillness to him. No shifting of hands or arms on the steering wheel, nor gentle movement of the head or shoulders that all living people had.
“Fuck!” I threw the binoculars down in frustration, forgetting all about being quiet. “Man, I think we got fucking duped.”
“What do you mean?” Slick picked up the lenses and peered through them.
“They got crash-test dummies in the seats. The cars must be locked on some kind of cruise control.”
“What? How?”
“I dunno.” I rubbed my temples, already dreading having to bring this news to Gun and Reap. “The caravan through the city looked legit, but I bet they switched on us when we lost sight.”
Slick lowered the binoculars, looking at me with a harrowed expression. “So they knew we were watching.”
I nodded gravely. “Brick must not have gotten all of them.”
“Well, shit.”
“Yeah.”
“What now?”
“Stay put for a sec.” Slick looked like he wanted to jump out from our hiding place, so I placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him still. “Let’s see how this plays out.”
The decoy vehicles looked so obvious as they got closer, and I wanted to kick the shit out of myself for not realizing our mistake. Maybe using decoys was standard procedure on transports to Blakeworth. This road was not easily accessible, but I still should have known they wouldn’t have put precious cargo on a direct route. Shit, Blakeworth might have cut a whole network of hidden roads just to transport goods for this alliance. Fucking stupid.
Gravel and dried brush crunched under tires as they approached our fake rock slide area. I wasn’t even holding the trigger button anymore, there was no point. Crash-test dummies were indeed outfitted with black uniforms and masks, and placed in the driver seats of the escorting Jeeps. The three armored trucks in the middle had black-tinted windows that were impossible to see through. They might still be worth checking out, but I wasn’t about to hold my breath on anything valuable.
“You think it has a sensor for anything blocking the road?” Slick asked as the leading car slowly approached our biggest boulder obstacle.
“We’re about to find out.”
It did not, as a matter of fact. The Jeep continued on, delayed briefly as the left side of the bumper hit the rock, metal crunching and bending in as the wheels insisted on continuing forward. Whoever set these cars to autopilot did not account for the need to swerve around obstacles. The Jeep continued straight forward, the boulder only nudged to the side slightly. A high-pitched screech echoed throughout the canyon as the boulder drew a deep scratch along the side of the car.
It was like a train wreck happening in slow motion— fascinating and horrifying. The short halt caused by the front car’s collision allowed the armored truck behind to catch up, giving a love-tap on the Jeep’s rear bumper, and then the second car got scratched to hell by the rock.
Slick and I exchanged a short laugh together. Despite the utter disappointment at the failure of this mission, it was still kind of funny to watch.
