Chapter 7

Come 0300 the following morning, everyone was standing outside the running semi rig. Pixy and Mei gave John a hug and a kiss with moist eyes. Cecile was bawling her eyes out in a group hug with Alba and Gunny.

A cold front had come through in the night, with predictions for ice and snow soon. He caught Gunny’s eyes and mouthed “Let’s go.” She nodded in reply, kissed Cecile one more time, then went around with Alba helping her into the passenger side. Mary and Tess climbed up on the driver’s side and entered the cab. Hugging Pixy and Mei one more time he followed them up. After belting up, he put the rig in gear and away they went with a wave.

A short while later, he turned onto I-40 West. However, he passed by I-35 South. Gunny looked over at him from the passenger side with a puzzled face and asked “Where are we going?”

“It’s a bit out of the way, but the Flying J on Morgan Road has an LNG fueling station. There isn’t another one anywhere on the route south, so we are going there to fuel both the truck and the generator.”

She nodded in understanding.

A few minutes later, they pulled in going to the LNG station first. After arranging payment with the fuel desk, John instructed both Gunny and Mary how to do it, then stepped down. They didn’t have a night person for this, so it had taken some talking to the fuel desk to get them to allow it.

John started doing a walk around safety check. Mary, after seeing Gunny start the fuel load went to follow.

While on the opposite side of the truck out of view of the fuel window, a lot lizard approached John wearing only a mini dress carrying a clutch purse. ‘Rode hard and put up wet’ flashed through his mind.

The whore said “Need a girlfriend, handsome?”

Mary walked up behind her and yelled “Get the fuck out of here! He doesn’t need your skanky vag!”

John laughed at that, which apparently pissed the whore off. He saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye, Gunny had crossed behind the generator to spectate.

The whore stepped backwards while clawing at the clutch purse, unfortunately for her, the step back got her closer to the semi bed just under Gunny.

She then came out with a pistol saying “You Son of B” which was as far as she got when Gunny planted her boot against her head as she came flying off the rig, sending the whore and the gun to the pavement in opposite directions. Gunny went over and stepped on the pistol while staring the bitch down.

The whore eyed her gun for a moment, then she stood and charged Gunny. Gunny let her come, then kicked her in the face when she attempted to jump onto her. The whore went ass over teakettle, but didn’t get back up this time.

After a few seconds, the fuel clerk came over the loud speaker and said, “We saw it on camera, the cops are on the way.”

John looked over at Mary with a grin “Skanky Vag? You spend some time in the hood growing up?”

She laughed and said “No, just hanging out with your wife in school.”

Hearing this, Gunny barked out a laugh then said “She isn’t moving. Care to see if she’s still alive?”

John walked over, leaned down, and saw her chest moving with breath. “Yep, she’s alive.”

About this time, John heard a siren approaching. He looked over at Mary and Gunny and said to Mary, “Go tell Tess and Alba to stay in the cab.”

When Mary got back, the circus arrived. It took an hour to get through this, even with the clerk showing the camera recording. Eventually, they were told they could leave. Before the clerk could get away, John told her he needed diesel next.

Finally, after fueling up, and hitting the weigh station, John asked Gunny “You want to drive for a while?”

After clearing the weigh station and while they waited on their ticket, they swapped sides and were off again.

John updated the logbook then got up and went to the back. Mary, Tess, and Alba were strapped into the crew bunks playing on their phones.

John went to the small galley and made two coffees in a couple of Styrofoam cups using a Keurig machine. Putting lids on them, he went forward again handing one of the cups to Gunny.

He pulled out a cell phone hot spot and connected it to the truck systems. Punching a button on dash, a small screen popped up displaying a weather radar.

“Shit” he exclaimed when he saw multiple warnings up and down their path of travel.

Gunny looked over and asked “What?”

“We are riding into severe weather soon according to the radar.”

Gunny said “If you haven’t made any serious modifications, this rig should handle about anything.”

They were coming up on a weigh station and the state line as it was turning light. John yelled to the back, “Make sure you have your belts on.”

Looking at the radar, it looked uglier than it had before. The hail started as they got on the weigh station ramp. The troopers and DOT at the station didn’t bother coming outside. They were instead ordered to pass through, which they did.

John said “There is a rest area up ahead, pull over in it.”

After they had pulled over, they were at an angle where they could still see the interstate to the south.

John said “ I need to be in that seat for a minute.”

Gunny got up and went to the back. As she passed, John said “Make sure they stay strapped in, just in case.”

By this time, the hail hitting the cab sound like a constant barrage of gunshots.

He hit two buttons, and a plate rolled up over the windshield. The driver and passenger windows rolled down, then two plates rolled up in their place. When the window had been down briefly, he thought he’d heard a freight train out there. He flipped on all the external cameras. He had one mounted on the roof of the cab protected by a bullet proof glass dome.

Rotating the camera 360° John saw a black swirling mass up the freeway crossing it from his left to his right. Out of the mass came poles, cars, and farm equipment flying in all directions. John’s cameras were set to auto record if they were on, but he hit a button on the dash that recorded the sound from outside as well. They could feel the truck being pushed sideways by the wind. There was nothing they could do except go along for the ride at the moment. In the rear mounted camera screen, they could see something large smash down right behind the trailer. Whatever it was, it was too mangled to identify.

John said “I hope that bastard doesn’t turn north.”

After a few more minutes, the hail and strong winds stopped. John hit the two buttons again and both windows cleared as did the windshield.

Looking at the other vehicles in the rest stop, he noted most of them were totalled. Looking over at where the travel center building had been, he saw it was now a flat slab of concrete. Thinking to himself he said “If anyone else is alive out there, they will be in one those mangled vehicles.”

He did a 360° rotation recording from the roof camera, then uploaded it to his phone. He noticed there was no cell signal now. Going to the back he opened one particular storage cabinet and pulled out a satellite phone.

Using that phone, he called into the Texas State Troopers letting them know what was here. He got an email address from them, then forwarded the 360° picture he’d taken. Once the call was done, he gave the phone to Mary and said “Come get me if they call back.”

Grabbing a first-aid bag he turned to Gunny and said “Let’s go.”

Mary put a hand on his chest stopping him for a moment. She said “Tess and I have first-aid training, let us help.”

He grabbed another kit then said “You two stick together.”

He took the phone from Mary and handed it to Alba.

Everyone unassed the cab and fanned out.