Junction City Preview
It’s the Third Thursday so you know what that means. Story time!
This will be quite different than the pieces I’ve shared before, both in setting and length. I usually try to keep these much shorter but I hope the entertainment will make up for it. Here is a peak into a new setting on the horizon, Junction City. A super hero setting filled with all the things you’ll expect but this particular story follows a woman with no awesome powers or terrible tools. Just a desire to do good and an ambulance. Enjoy.
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Junction City Preview: E.M. Rescue
The coffee was cold, it didn’t taste particularly good when it was hot but when it was cold it tasted like cigarette ash and cinnamon. Jessica rolled the window down and held the paper cup over the street.
“I should dump you for your offense to taste buds. I should dump you for blemishing the name of coffee.”
“What are we doing Jessica?” groaned Lei from the back of the ambulance.
Jessica narrowed her eyes at the cold cup, you win. She pulled the cup back to her lips and dragged the substance down her throat pushing it past her tongue too fast to taste. It didn’t work.
“Jessica.”
“I hate Galaxy Press.”
“Jessica.”
“I feel like they burn the beans on purpose. No way it can be that bad by accident.”
“Jessica!”
Jessica looked at the empty cup and threw it to the floor. She could feel Lei’s face hovering inches to her right the heat of his anger warming the side of her face.
“What,” repeated Lei. “Are we doing?”
“The same thing we always have,” Jessica half whispered, half growled as she turned up the volume on the police scanner.
The silence felt like a knife held to her throat.
There was a grunt followed by the sound of crinkling leather as Lei plopped into one of the rear seats. “How did you convince me to do this?”
“Because you are -madly- in love with me.”
“My boyfriend would be really upset about that.”
“That’s fine, he’s madly in love with me too.”
A blurt of restrained laughter escaped Lei’s lips.
The silence wasn’t so menacing this time.
Two sapphire fingers dangled a bottle of water before her. “Hmmm?”
“To wash away the taste of ash,” offered Lei.
Jessica took the bottle with a smile, “tha—”
//Shots fired in the vicinity of A-37th!// announced the police scanner.
“Is that one of ours?” asked Lei.
Jessica dropped the ambulance into neutral and pressed her foot to the gas. “I don’t—”
//H-17! Unconfirmed. H-17!//
Jessica slammed the ambulance into gear, the protests of the engine almost as loud as Lei’s.
//Lightning Rail inbound//
Lei pulled himself into the passenger seat with a weary sigh, “we’ll never beat them there.”
“Watch me,” promised Jessica almost shouting to be heard over the blare of the sirens.
Lei aimed a finger at the approaching intersection. “10th Jessica. 10th. 10th!”
“10th is always too thick,” answered Jessica as she blew past the road. “I’m taking 13th.”
“13th? That’s—”
Jessica turned onto the one way, leaning on the horn as something neon pink and sporty swerved out of the way.
“All cars have emergency drift,” answered Jessica dismissively as vehicles swerved aside to make way for the ambulance.
“Not all!” warned Lei as an angular vehicle that looked like something from the 20s skidded sharply to the left.
Jessica dragged the ambulance to the side, pushing onto the sidewalk flipping a trashcan into the street. A hard cut back onto the road prevented her from running down a woman frozen on the sidewalk. A bang lifted the rear driver side tires into the air.
Instinct was to pull harder in the direction of the turn but that was wrong. Turn with momentum.
Wheels returned to pavement and the engine roared like a lion.
Lei was hyperventilating. “Why aren’t you in NASCAR?”
“I thought you liked it fast Lei?”
***
Jessica wiped the disappointment from her face as she rolled down the window and waved the officer over. She knew it was pointless but had to ask. “Everything OK officer?”
The young man aimed a thumb over his shoulder at the people in bronze tending to the wounded. “Lightning Rail got here a few minutes ago.”
She looked over the officer’s shoulder, she could see three stretchers being lifted into the air and two more on the ground. One looked like an officer, the others civilians. Tarps covered two other bodies. “I heard the H call, that the marvel over there?”
The officer looked struck, “what? The hood? No, never found ‘em, but given all the blood I don’t think he’ll be doing a lot of heroeing in the future.”
Jessica gave a curt nod. “Well we gotta get back to the rounds, never know who’ll need us next.”
The officer gave a nod and smile, “stay safe out there, we need you people.”
Jessica rolled up the window, put the ambulance in drive and tried pointedly did not look at the E.M.T. personnel from Lightning Rail.
“Turn right,” said Lei in a hard whisper.
She knew better than to ask when Lei used that tone, she turned the ambulance trying not throttle the engine too much. They crawled down a block, and then a second. The flashing lights of the crime scene were almost consumed by the lamposts. “What are we—”
“Here,” said Lei opening the door before they’d come to a full stop.
Jessica watched as Lei approached a figure slumped between the buildings. She couldn’t here the conversation but the hairs on the back of her neck rose as she heard the bitterness and anger in the voice of the person Lei approached. Slowly she slid her left hand to the volt gun holstered in the door. The conversation quieted and the figure, wrapped in rags followed Lei to the back of the ambulance and inside.
“Get us somewhere else,” said Lei as the sounds of cabinets opening and bags unzipping climbed into the air.
She drove, slowly this time, and resisted the urge to look over her shoulder into the rear of the ambulance. No lights this time, no sirens, no attention. Just another ambulance sliding through the poor side of town.
Jessica knew it was unlikely for anyone to trouble her, even most gangs had enough decency to leave E.M.S. alone but with the way some parts of Junction City were practically falling apart it felt only a mater of time.
“Hands! Hands!” shouted Lei over the wet gurgling sound of their patient coughing through lungs filling with blood.
No time to be subtle. Jesica pulled the ambulance onto the sidewalk and scrambled into the rear where Lei had what looked like a human like rat pinned to the bed. “What do you need?”
“Reskin, themozyne, antibioc, two meters of filament—”
The list didn’t stop, Lei’s lips releasing a constant stream of provisions as his arms turned into a blue blur. While Lei sutured and swabbed, pulled bullet after bullet from the rat-man Jessica drained his lungs, injected pain killers and sanitized diseased flesh. Their patient looked like he had been living in a garbage can but it wasn’t the most disgusting victim they’d ever had to save.
In an hour it was done. Two dozen splintered bullets dotted the floor like dandelion seeds and blood filled the air with copper but the rat-man was breathing.
Slowly their patient sat up, twitching as pain pulled at fresh wounds and sutured flesh. “I,” he began in a voice that sounded like gravel and smoke. “Can’t pay you …”
Lei slumped against the far wall, his chest shaking as he held back laughter.
“We know,” said Jessica opening the ambulance doors. “We’re not doing it for the money.”
Cautiously, as though expecting some kind of trap the figure pulled himself to shaky legs and stumbled to the door. He took one step down and looked back at the two. “How, how can I repay you?”
“With lunch?” asked Lei.
Jessica hit him. “You were out there helping people right?”
“Yes,” nodded the figure.
“Keep doing that.”
The rat-man paused, nodded slowly and pulled his filthy hood back over his head and walked into the night.
“That’s what,” said Jessica.
“Huh?” asked Lei.
“You asked what we’re doing. That’s what. We’re helping the people that help people.”
—-
I hope you enjoyed that little hop into Junction City and hope that when the stories come out you join Jessica, Lei, rat-man, and many, many other heroes and villains in fantastic adventures. Until next time.
Take care dear readers;
~S. Wallace