Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 30 of 30 12/20/2020

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 30 of 30

12/20/2020

I leave the track, kid in tow, and head towards the largest group of drivers I can spot. Takes like five minutes to walk over there around everything.

I recognize none of them, no surprise. So many of us are out at once. No reason to get close to anyone else. Might make it harder to vent them. Another medic comes up to us two to check us out. She looks at the wires in my eyelids and raises one of her own.

“Couldn’t take a chance on falling asleep on the final run in.”
She just nods and gets a small pulling tool. A little dab of anesthetic and she works and pulls each of the wires out. Once that is done, she does a cursory visual inspection of both the Kid and I before handing us a couple of bottles of something.

“Drink them both, restorative and curative. Will power you both till we are off planet. Once docked and in, you both can crash out for as long as needed. Just need you to drive out of the gravity well. All done.”

Longest time I have ever spent around one of them. Most of the time you either come back fine, or do not come back. Not much use mostly for them. Not for us Tracks.

Not long after the stuff kicks in and feel ready to keep going. Can hear machinery, cutting devices, cranes and other things all working. A long cart comes by and most of us pile on it. Drive towards the edge of the city where the shuttles are kept at.

It drops us off at a small building and inside is a large meeting space.

An old driver, from Training I think, comes in after a while.

“We are leaving. For good. The enemy is heading this way in numbers we could not defeat. Time to retreat back towards the center of our worlds, for a final stand. The displays are similar to the Tracks. You have about an hour or two before the first launches happen. No venting allowed in any circumstance. Need to get everyone and as much as we can off planet before they arrive in a few days it is estimated. One drive up is all that is needed. Once close to the Ship, there will be guidance.”

He turns and leaves with nothing answered.

We all leave and head out to the long cart that takes us out to the shuttles. I make sure the Kid is with me. No way he could do one alone.

So much noise, activity, yet we Drivers are just hauled out and have to climb up into the shuttles ourselves. The interior is a lot like a track, compartment wise.

Strap in, all at an angle. Pull up the Driver Panels and review the differences. No Guns, fewer cameras, more internal controls, along with a totally new Engine Section. Just looking and testing everything while other ones launch on pillars of fire and smoke out of the city, past the walls and into the sky.

Then it is our turn and we get the engines ignited, pull out and up and away into the sky and then into space.

Out of the atmosphere the huge bulk of The Ship is there. No one living has been on it since we got here. Now it is lit up and we are pulling in.

Mission over.