A trumpet call on a highway

The freeway stretched across a dusty concrete landscape between two massive urban centers, fusing them into a single megalopolis. Suburbs, strip malls, and parking lots clung to the highway like growths leeching off a strong blood flow. Seven million people. Isolated inside cars, insulated by their routines. Seven million signals, reverberating as background noise. In a gas station at the edge of an overpass, someone was trying to break out.

Gradie stood at the register buying nothing, staring at the slim, freckled brunette in front of him. A warm-blooded living thing framed by a frozen mass of shiny plastic packaging in primary and fluorescent colors. He leaned into the counter as if gravity had moved behind her, trying to find a way to get closer. She shifted, smiling under his stare as she talked, and her hoodie rode up at the sides, letting her pale hips peek out like a giggle. He forgot the words the moment they were out of his mouth, and she kept on smiling and talking lightly about whatever nothing he mentioned. He rode it all like a wave.

Suddenly, he fell out of the cloud and back into the fluorescent glare of the gas station. The girl was staring out the windows as police sirens rose from the highway. A car screeched to a stop outside. She jumped with a cute little yelp, and Gradie took the chance to play the hero.

“Get down,” he whispered to her. She crouched behind the counter and he went out the door like he could do something about anything.

Beyond the slanted parking lot and slim access road, the concrete prairieland was so flat it seemed that if he tripped he would fly out over the horizon. The muted daylight could have been evening or morning, and the traffic rushing beneath the overpass, either the nine or the five o clock rush, was just light enough to be dying down or getting started. A guy pumped gas next to a corvette and talked on the phone to someone whose income depended on listening, oblivious to the car stopped at the edge of the pumps.

It was a black sedan with mirror windows. The doors swung open like they weighed a thousand pounds, and the two people who stepped out shouldn’t have been there. A big man, black overcoat over a charcoal pinstriped suit and black running shoes, and a sleek woman, navy suit under a trench coat the color of an overcast sky, both with short assault rifles in hand and plate carriers and mag pouches (color-coordinated with their suits) on their chests. They knew exactly where they were, where they were going, and what they were doing. It made Gradie realize he didn’t.

He didn’t remember why he was on the highway or which direction he had come from. He didn’t know what day it was or if he should be going to work. He didn’t even know why he had stopped here. All he knew was that these people with guns were coming towards him, and while he didn’t know if they were going to rob the place, he knew that the girl inside would probably think so.

He went back in and she was still crouching behind the counter. He got down and wrapped his arms around her.

“Some people coming up with guns. Stay quiet.”

She squeezed him and he pressed himself against her. They stayed like that for a moment, the sirens getting louder by the second. She shivered pleasantly in his arms as the door opened.

“It’s me. You get confirmation? All right, we’re coming in.” It was the man speaking. He sounded calm.

“You gonna talk to him about that shit?” The woman’s voice was enough to make Gradie forget the girl in his arms.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I will, but you need to—” The man stopped abruptly. Sirens had stopped right outside. Gradie saw an opportunity and whispered to the girl.

“They’re gonna shoot.” He moved her to the ground and got on top of her. She was breathing heavily and he wondered if he was dreaming.

“Take him?” the woman asked. Before the man could answer, shots broke through the windows. The gunfire was almost deafening, even from outside. Bullets ripped through the shelves and freezers with alien hateful sounds that nothing in Gradie’s experience had prepared him for. The girl squeaked beneath him and he tasted bitter adrenaline.

“No, let’s go,” said the man. A door opened and closed in the back. After a few more breaths from the girl under him, the front door dinged open.

“Police!”

“Here!” The girl yelled. A troubling idea formed in Gradie’s head, but not fast enough.

“Get the fuck up!” The cop was right behind him. Gradie tried to stand with his hands over his head, but he stumbled and the girl had to catch him and help him to his feet. She stammered at the cop.

“No, no, he was helping me. They went in the back.”

“Face me!” The cop yelled like they were a mile away.

Gradie turned around with his hands in the air and knocked some cigarettes off the shelf. The cop had the gun pointed at his chest.

“Uh, they’re in the back,” Gradie said. “They’re armed.” His voice came out steady, calm, surprising him. Something in the cop’s face changed.

“Shut the fuck up.” Gradie saw his finger move inside the trigger guard. Is this really happening? His phone vibrated in his pocket and he jumped. The cop flinched and the girl screamed.

“It’s my phone.” Gradie remembered he had been on his way to work. It was probably his supervisor calling. How did he not remember that before? What time was it?

“Step away from her and get down on the ground.” The cop said, still watching Gradie with that strange expression.

“No! They’re in the back!” the girl said.

“Oh yea? All right then. You two head back there. I’ll follow.”

“What?” Gradie laughed. That did it. Whatever confusion had been showing on the cop’s face broke through into a realization. He aimed the gun at Gradie’s head.

“This the best you can do? Jump on top of some cashier? How about I drop you out and have my boys trap you in a box for a while? Will your boss come get you, you think? Or will he just pick another crash dummy off the ball?”

Now Gradie was sure he was dreaming. None of the words made sense and the entire situation was wrong. It got more wrong.

The cop’s brains shot out through his temple and his eyes went in two different directions as a loud snap ripped out of the snack aisle. He collapsed with a wet thud. The slim blonde woman was crouched down with her rifle raised, thin grey smoke floating off the suppressor. The girl whimpered and threw up behind the counter.

“Thanks,” Gradie said to the woman. She looked at him oddly and let a smile break through.

“You’re welcome.”

“Who are you?” The big man asked. He was standing in the center aisle as if he had teleported.

“Uh, Gradie. I’m no one.” The man smiled like he was being told a clever lie. Gradie tried to think of something else to say.

“Here.” The woman handed the man something and he took it from her hand without looking. She brought her palm up to her mouth like she was taking a pill and swallowed.

“Sweet dreams,” He said to Gradie and sat down. The rack of chips crinkled behind his back and he popped the pill in his mouth. The woman sat down next to him and they both closed their eyes. In a few moments, they had slumped into unconsciousness.

Gradie stared at them while the girl moved out from behind the counter and grabbed a bottle out of the display fridge. More police sirens met up outside and wailed through the shattered windows. The smell of vomit swirled with the scent of gunfire. Insane. Gradie looked at his phone. His supervisor had called him twice. He looked back at the two sleepers and the bottle of pills in the woman’s hand.

“Are they dead?” The girl whimpered after a deep drink.

“Knocked out, I think.” Gradie picked up the bottle. It was unlabeled. The white pills inside looked like the archetype all other pills spawned from. An idea came to him and he couldn’t shake it. It grew in his head like the sirens in his ears. The girl took another drink and spit it out when she saw what he was doing.

“Hey!”

He opened the bottle and popped one in his mouth. The girl grabbed him by the shoulder and spilled malt liquor down his back. It was cold on his skin and her eyes were the last things to fade away as he fell back into humming darkness.