There was rioting in the streets. The city was ablaze as people destroyed property and each other with clubs, knives, guns and anything else they could use as weapons. As the violence escalated downtown, military leaders converged uptown to discuss the situation. In an unusual display, soldiers ceremoniously marched in circles around the meeting, which took place under the swinging traffic lights of an intersection.
The president called in Ulysses S. Grant, who had not seen action in over a century, to quell the uprising. Strangely, Grant didn’t look like himself. He looked more like Stacy Keach.
As the military commanders planned a blockade of the city, another group of people were meeting in an underground hideaway. This group’s mission was not to save the city but to save the children who were being victimized by the uprising. They had access to vehicles of all types and would use them to transport as many children as possible to a safe haven.
The Three Wise Guys, old men who had seen the ravages of war, brought the group together and organized the effort. Convoys of busses, trucks and vans would make periodic runs to and from the city under the leadership of these men.
Dozens of people drove for and alongside these heroes, but a few were more prominent than others.
There was Vixen, who pushed the others to the edge of their abilities.
There is always a strange member of the team, and that position went to Lone Wolf, who would do anything to get the attention of Vixen.
However, there was only one driver who could find his way under the tough exterior of Vixen. The Original Face found his way under more than just her exterior.
The convoys went smoothly for a while. More smoothly than expected considering the circumstances. The drivers had to make their way into the city by dodging the military blockade. Then, they had to round-up the children before busting the blockade on the way out. The danger lay in and around the city. Once on the open road, nothing ever happened. Maybe that was the problem.
The convoy was on a rural highway with the Three Wise Guys in the lead like always. Lone Wolf was somewhere in the middle while Vixen and the Original Face were guarding the back. Suddenly, Lone Wolf’s truck veered out of control. He tried to maneuver, the steering wouldn’t respond. The truck hit the ditch, flew over an embankment and crashed nose first into the side of a hill.
The convoy slowed to a stop. As orders dictated, most drivers stayed in their vehicles as the Original Face and a few others ran to the scene. They found total carnage. All of the children were dead, and Lone Wolf looked like Hell. The Original Face was attending to Lone Wolf when he looked up to see officers of The Force come over the horizon.
The Force patrolled and policed the area outside the city. With the military keeping rioters from breaking through, its officers did not see much action. This day was different as the investigators noticed something wrong with the scene. One boy was lying in the middle of the road a few hundred yards from the accident site. What happened to him? To clear the area, the investigators ordered the convoy to be escorted to headquarters.
At headquarters, the Original Face pulled Vixen into a room that was filled with laundry.
“Damn it Vixen, this is all your fault!”
“My fault? You play the game, too!”
“It’s your fault because Lone Wolf will try to do anything to impress you! And, you encourage it!”
“Whatever! All I know is that none of us needs to say anything!”
While that was going on, the Three Wise Guys were talking to the commander.
“So, you three are the leaders of this outfit. Which one of you is going to explain this?”
Without any pause, the one in the middle spoke up.
“There’s nothing to explain. It was an accident.”
“Well, it’s an accident with dozens of bodies in one place and another body up the road. How do you explain that?”
“I don’t.”
“Explain this then. The driving records for you three are perfect. No accidents. No warnings in our system. The record of Lone Wolf is excellent. However, this Vixen is all over the charts. She is reckless, dangerous and out of control.”
“She’s also our best driver and has delivered hundreds of children safely. Besides, she didn’t have the wreck. Lone Wolf did. If this is the first blemish on his record, then we should all be on our way.”
“Not just yet. All of you will wait in our holding pen.”
As the drivers waited, the investigators looked at their notes. Why was one body up the road? They went into the holding pen to find out why, but the drivers didn’t know or wouldn’t say. The Three Wise Guys wouldn’t know because they were in front. Vixen and the Original Face would have seen it. Of course, Lone Wolf would know. None of them talked. The investigators yelled, threatened, hit, kicked. Nothing worked.
Then, one of the investigators realized why one child’s body was up the road. They left the holding pen and went to the morgue for her to explain. The body was pushed out. The way this happened could be found on the body. After a thorough examination, the investigators went back to the holding pen with their theory.
For some reason, Lone Wolf was driving the truck while standing on the sideboard. One of the children was operating the pedals. Another child was hanging out the passenger window with his arms and legs outstretched. When Lone Wolf climbed back into the truck, the child operating the pedals bumped into the one hanging out the window. This knocked that child into the road. Panicking, Lone Wolf lost control of the truck and it careened out of control. Everyone died but him.
Lone Wolf lost control again. This time of his emotions. He broke down and told everything. To relieve the boredom of the same drive over and over, Vixen invented a game. The drivers would compete with races and tricks. She did it. The Original Face did it. Lone Wolf wanted to do it, too. Unfortunately, his trick failed.
Upon this admission, the investigators left the room, and it was filled with poisonous gas. The game killed the children, killed the drivers and left hundreds of children without any hope of getting out of the city.
That’s the dream I had last night. I have no idea what it means. Do you?
Tags: Dreams
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 