Beyond the Veil, Part 3

I didn’t how much time I had in the back of that semi-trailer before they would be stopping. I also wasn’t able to see a great deal in the darkness of the trailer. My night vision does require some ambient light, but this puppy was sealed up pretty tight. I was able to use my watch ‘s light function to get quick glimpses of the contents and then rummage through the tightly packed equipment. I had no reason to be gentle on any of this stuff, so I was fairly indiscriminate on where I stepped. I heard and felt a number of crunches that sounded like breaking glass. Oh well.

Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any files or data disks, so I made the decision to make my exit from the trailer. This was no run of the mill trailer that hauls toilet paper across the country though, this was a tighly sealed, locked down trailer with thick metal sides, reinforced with steel ribbing. The easiest way out was going to be through the back doors, or through the rook of the trailer.

As far as I could tell, we were barreling down an interstate highway, so my idea of bursting through the back doors of the trailer seemed to be too risky, not for myself mind you, but for whoever might be following behind the truck on the highway. The last thing I wanted was to endanger any innocent bystander by landing on the hood of their car, or otherwise causing an accident. My watch said it was 11:30 AM, so the highways would be pretty busy.

So, I closed my own casket lid and leaped up to test the strength of the ceiling. On inspection, it seemed to be less solid than the walls or the back doors. I punched upwards, easily putting my fist through the roof. A couple of additional punches made a hole large enough for me to peek out.

I had to grab the sides of the hole and jump up a little bit, looking towards the front to see if there were any approaching overpasses. The view was clear of any oncoming overpasses, so I quickly gathered up some spare loading straps and made them into a single, longer rope, anchored it with one of the hooks on the floor, and gathered the rest in loose loops. I made sure to feed out enough slack in the thing and climbed back up on the coffin. One more peek to make sure it was still safe, then I leaped upwards, using my momentum and bulk to enlarge the hole enough to allow me to exit.

We were on a very busy freeway heading south. At first none of the cars in the vicinty even noticed me standing on top of the trailer. As I was surveying the situation though, I was drawing the curious stares and open mouthed looks of drivers approaching the truck from behind. The truck was in the second lane of the four available lanes, making it impossible for me to leap safely from the top, especially at the speed at whcih the traffic was flowing. The only safe way to get down was to get the truck to slow down and get over, but I had no control over it at this point.

I lay down on the top of the trailer and crawled to the front of it. By this time, more and more people in passing vehicles were reacting to me, some were honking at the truck driver, others were waving at me, still others just slowed down and gaped. Something caught the attention of the driver as he slowed the vehicle slightly in response. I took the opportunity to play Indiana Jones and swing down onto the step on the passenger side of the truck cab. There was more honking and the sound of screeching tires as nearby cars responded to this rather strange sight.

The look on the face of the poor bastard sitting in the passenger seat was priceless, a mix of shock, fear and anger all rolled into one. Unfortunately, his response to this turn of events was less than ideal, he pulled his gun and started to bring it up to bear at me. I punched through the window and snatched the gun from his grasp, mangling a couple of his fingers in the process. The driver, just as shocked as this other knucklehead, stomped on the brakes.

Traffic was snarled up pretty bad by now, a semi stopping without warning in the middle of the highway didn’t help matters much, but luckily I didn’t see any accidents more serious that minor bumps as everything came to a precipitous halt.

I leapt from the truck, gun in hand, and made my way into the woods separating the highway from the nearby residential neighborhoods.

Needless to say, the news reports of my little adventure and the traffic accidents and jams it caused have been extensive. It has been sort of interesting following the various theories of what happened and the competing witness accounts of the story.

In the end, I was able to physically escape make it back to my apartment. I then gathered the essentials, especially my laptop, and made a couple of calls. I have been on the move since Friday, trying to get in contact with John Red Bear. So far, I have been unable to reach him by phone or e-mail, and I have not been able to locate him in the Spirit World in any of my rcent journeys to our usual meeting spots. I fear that something may have happened to him.

I have been able to contact a woman he gave me as a possible emergency contact, known as Ravyn Fyre, I am planning on meeting her tomorrow. Hopefully she will be able to answer some questions I have.