G Hopf - Driver 8 - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

“Oh shit, man, I didn’t know your friend was the Driver Eight. Wow, that’s huge news,” Jacob said.

“Call me if you get any info, I’ll be offline for about twelve, I’ll check in later when the jobs done and I have the shipment,” Tommy said.

“Just watch your back Tommy, we’re being hunted. You lost your partner, you’re flying solo now,” Jacob said referring to the fact that the Leviathan syndicate had become enemy number one in many areas which had resulted in warrants for their arrest or bounties on their heads. It was a reversal of fortune for a group that had created a reputation and legacy.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll call soon,” Tommy said.

“We’ll wait for you, but if no contact for twenty-four hours, we’re setting sail. It won’t be personal,” Jacob said.

“It’s all good. I know the drill. I’ll be in contact soon enough,” Tommy said and hung up. He went back inside the small safe house to find Kyle waking up.

Kyle sat up and looked around. He was in a strange room, a single candle burned on a table next to him. The flickering flame caused his shadow to dance on the wall. He scratched his head to remember how he got there but couldn’t recall. The last he remembered was getting into Tommy’s truck, everything else was a blur.

“I’d suggest getting more rest than that, brother,” Tommy said from the other side of the large room.

Kyle gazed towards his voice but saw only shadows. “Do you always hide in the dark?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. It’s part of my job description now.”

Kyle struggled to rise, his body ached from his head to his feet, but he managed to sit up. “I feel like I’ve been run over.”

“Worse, you were hanging for days, scratch that, being stretched for days. How fucked up is that?”

“What?” Kyle asked before reaching towards a glass of water on a table next to him. He picked it up and gulped it down.

“That they attached that weight to you. As if your own body weight wasn’t enough to pull you down.”

Kyle rubbed his eyes and asked, “How long have I been out for?”

“Oh, about twelve hours.”

Hearing that, Kyle grew stressed. “We have to go, we need to find her.”

“Already working on that, but I just need to know where she went to narrow our search perimeters down. I also called in a favor with another Leviathan. If anyone can track slavers it’s that guy. His team are notorious trackers. Jacob was a slave himself when he was a kid, now in between jobs he hunts down slavers.”

“But it’s still a wild goose chase. One person knows and that’s Barry.”

“And Barry is the guy who stuck you on that tree and more than likely is inside the walls of Collective Prime?” Tommy asked.

“Yes, he’s inside the walls of Prime.”

“I had a feeling you might say that.”

“Getting inside the walls isn’t the problem, getting to Barry is,” Kyle replied.

“I plotted where she could be on this map. Come here and take a look,” Tommy said before reconsidering Kyle’s condition. “Better yet, I’ll go there.” Tommy went over and sat next to Kyle and laid the map on his lap. He turned on a flashlight and shined it across what was an old highway map of the central United States.

First thing Kyle noticed were circles emanating from Prime. “What do they represent?”

“Days. I estimate that if she left the same day you hung from the tree, she’d make it this far on day one, this far on day two and so forth. See these red dots?”

“Yeah.”

“Those are known trading posts or slave markets,” Tommy said pointing at over two dozen dots all outside of The Collective Zone. “If she got here, two days south, she could be in someone’s hands and God knows from there. And if she’s gotten here…”

Frustrated, Kyle said, “I get the picture.”

“Timing is everything, but right now you need rest, so I’ll go in and get your guy, I’ll bring him back.”

“I can’t have you do that alone, it’s too dangerous, plus you don’t know where you’re going.”

“If you tell me where to go, give me details, draw me a map, I’ll be fine.”

“No.”

“Bro, it’s what I do, I’m a fucking bounty hunter for Leviathan, I track motherfuckers like this down all the time.”

“Not like this. He’s a dumpy fat slob, but he’s cunning and he’s got a small army guarding him. No, I can’t let you go alone.”

“You need more rest, a day at least. I can do this, trust me.”

Knowing another day put Portia even further away and possibly out of reach forever, he insisted, “Tommy, I’m going, end of debate. Let’s get ready, we leave in an hour.”

A wide smile stretched across Tommy’s face. “Still the same Kyle I remember from the force.” He patted Kyle on the shoulder and continued, “I missed you, brother.”

Kyle picked up the map and located Prime. He put his finger down and said, “The main gates are here. If you’ll remember right in front was a creek that flows east west then curves right about here and heads south.”

“I saw it,” Tommy said.

“We’ll follow that until we get to a culvert, right about here,” Kyle said tracing the winding blue line.

“Ok,” Tommy said nodding.

“It’s large so don’t stress.”

“Wait, are we crawling through a fucking pipe?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Kyle asked.

“I’m scared of two things. Spiders and tight spaces. Please tell me I won’t get stuck.”

“You won’t get stuck, I promise you,” Kyle reassured.

“Serious?”

“Yes, now can I go on?”

“Go.”

“That will take us all the way to Main Street. Once there we’ll pop out and the executive mansion is about five blocks. Like I said, getting in is easy, navigating around inside will be difficult and getting into the mansion will be a fight more than likely…” Kyle said then stopped when he noticed Tommy wasn’t paying attention. “What’s wrong with you? I need you focused. This is important.”

“I haven’t told you the truth,” Tommy confessed with a sigh.

“The truth about what?”

“Why I’m here,” Tommy said and paused before continuing. "I was contracted to kill Number One. I got the gig a couple days after seeing you in Salina. I decided to take it and to be honest, I was going to use our friendship to gain access into Prime and to Number One. I was a day out when I got the word he was dead. I was going to turn around but on that same call I was told you were hanging on that tree.”

Kyle blankly stared at Tommy unable to speak.

“As soon as I heard about you, I pushed hard to get here in hopes I’d be able to save you,” Tommy said. He looked at Kyle and was hoping to gauge how he felt but Kyle was stone faced. “Sorry I misled you.”

Kyle didn’t need to think long, “Its fine. I guess I should be apologizing to you for lost wages.”

“Not exactly.”

“There’s more, clearly,” Kyle said.

“When The Underground found out I was still in route they changed the target and tasked me with killing the son. Hence why I was pushing you to stay and rest so I could go in and take care of business. I’d bring him back, you’d get what you needed and I could kill him, make it a win, win.”

Hearing that The Underground was involved, Kyle growled, “The Underground are nothing but a group of pussies. They run around pretending to be a resistance. All they do is interfere and cause problems for everyone,” Kyle complained.

“I need to do this job, Kyle,” Tommy confessed.

“That’s fine, but you can’t kill him until I know where they took Portia.”