A trumpet call on a highway

  The freeway stretched across a dusty crete ndscape between two massive urbaers, fusing them into a single megalopolis. Suburbs, strip malls, and parking lots g to the highway like growths leeg off a strong blood flow. Seven million people. Isoted inside cars, insuted by their routines. Seven million signals, reverberating as background noise. In a gas station at the edge of an overpass, someone was trying to break out.

  Gradie stood at the register buying nothing, staring at the slim, freckled brue in front of him. A warm-blooded living thing framed by a frozen mass of shiny pstic packaging in primary and fluorest colors. He leaned into the ter as if gravity had moved behirying to find a way to get closer. She shifted, smiling under his stare as she talked, and her hoodie rode up at the sides, letting her pale hips peek out like a giggle. He fot the words the moment they were out of his mouth, and she kept on smiling and talking lightly about whatever nothing he mentioned. He rode it all like a wave.

  Suddenly, he fell out of the cloud and bato the fluorest gre of the gas station. The girl was staring out the windoolice sirens rose from the highway. A car screeched to a stop outside. She jumped with a cute little yelp, and Gradie took the ce to py the hero.

  “Get down,” he whispered to her. She crouched behind the ter and he went out the door like he could do something about anything.

  Beyond the snted parking lot and slim access road, the crete prairiend was so ft it seemed that if he tripped he would fly out over the horizon. The muted daylight could have been evening or m, and the traffic rushih the overpass, either the nine or the five o clock rush, was just light enough to be dying down etting started. A guy pumped gas o a corvette and talked on the phoo someone whose ine depended on listening, oblivious to the car stopped at the edge of the pumps.

  It was a bck sedan with mirror windows. The doors swung open like they weighed a thousand pounds, and the two people who stepped out shouldn’t have been there. A big man, bck overcoat over a charcoal pinstriped suit and bck running shoes, and a sleek woman, navy suit under a trench coat the color of an overcast sky, both with short assault rifles in hand and pte carriers and mag pouches (color-coordinated with their suits) on their chests. They kly where they were, where they were going, and what they were doing. It made Gradie realize he didn’t.

  He didn’t remember why he was on the highway or which dire he had e from. He didn’t know what day it was or if he should be going to work. He didn’t even know why he had stopped here. All he knew was that these people with guns were ing towards him, and while he didn’t know if they were going to rob the pce, he khat the girl inside would probably think so.

  He went ba and she was still croug behind the ter. He got down and ed his arms around her.

  “Some people ing up with guns. Stay quiet.”

  She squeezed him and he pressed himself against her. They stayed like that for a moment, the sireing louder by the sed. She shivered pleasantly in his arms as the door opened.

  “It’s me. You get firmation? All right, we’re ing in.” It was the man speaking. He sounded calm.

  “You gonna talk to him about that shit?” The woman’s voice was enough to make Gradie fet the girl in his arms.

  “I will, but you o—” The man stopped abruptly. Sirens had stopped right outside. Gradie saportunity and whispered to the girl.

  “They’re gonna shoot.” He moved her to the ground and got on top of her. She was breathing heavily and he wondered if he was dreaming.

  “Take him?” the woman asked. Before the man could answer, shots broke through the windows. The gunfire was almost deafening, even from outside. Bullets ripped through the shelves and freezers with alien hateful sounds that nothing in Gradie’s experience had prepared him for. The girl squeaked beh him aasted bitter adrenaline.

  “No, let’s go,” said the man. A door opened and closed in the back. After a few more breaths from the girl under him, the front door dinged open.

  “Police!”

  “Here!” The girl yelled. A troubling idea formed in Gradie’s head, but not fast enough.

  “Get the fuck up!” The cop was right behind him. Gradie tried to stand with his hands over his head, but he stumbled and the girl had to catch him and help him to his feet. She stammered at the cop.

  “No, no, he was helpihey went in the back.”

  “Face me!” The cop yelled like they were a mile away.

  Gradie turned around with his hands in the air and knocked some cigarettes off the shelf. The cop had the gun poi his chest.

  “Uh, they’re in the back,” Gradie said. “They’re armed.” His voice came out steady, calm, surprising him. Something in the cop’s face ged.

  “Shut the fuck up.” Gradie saw his finger move ihe trigger guard. Is this really happening? His phone vibrated in his pocket and he jumped. The cop flinched and the girl screamed.

  “It’s my phone.” Gradie remembered he had been on his way to work. It robably his supervisor calling. How did he not remember that before? What time was it?

  “Step away from her a down on the ground.” The cop said, still watg Gradie with that strange expression.

  “No! They’re in the back!” the girl said.

  “Oh yea? All right then. You two head back there. I’ll follow.”

  “What?” Gradie ughed. That did it. Whatever fusion had been showing on the cop’s face broke through into a realization. He aimed the gun at Gradie’s head.

  “This the best you do? Jump on top of some cashier? How about I drop you out and have my boys trap you in a box for a while? Will your boss e get you, you think? Or will he just piother crash dummy off the ball?”

  Now Gradie was sure he was dreaming. None of the words made sense and the euation was wrong. It got more wrong.

  The cop’s brains shot out through his temple and his eyes went in two different dires as a loud snap ripped out of the snack aisle. He colpsed with a wet thud. The slim blonde woman was crouched down with her rifle raised, thin grey smoke floating off the suppressor. The girl whimpered and threw up behind the ter.

  “Thanks,” Gradie said to the woman. She looked at him oddly a a smile break through.

  “You’re wele.”

  “Who are you?” The big man asked. He was standing in the ter aisle as if he had teleported.

  “Uh, Gradie. I’m no ohe man smiled like he was being told a clever lie. Gradie tried to think of something else to say.

  “Here.” The woman hahe man something aook it from her hand without looking. She brought her palm up to her mouth like she was taking a pill and swallowed.

  “Sweet dreams,” He said to Gradie and sat down. The rack of chips kled behind his bad he popped the pill in his mouth. The woman sat dowo him and they both closed their eyes. In a few moments, they had slumped into unsciousness.

  Gradie stared at them while the girl moved out from behind the ter and grabbed a bottle out of the dispy fridge. More police sire up outside and wailed through the shattered windows. The smell of vomit swirled with the st of gunfire. Insane. Gradie looked at his phone. His supervisor had called him twice. He looked back at the two sleepers and the bottle of pills in the woman’s hand.

  “Are they dead?” The girl whimpered after a deep drink.

  “Knocked out, I think.” Gradie picked up the bottle. It was uhe white pills inside looked like the archetype all other pills spawned from. An idea came to him and he couldn’t shake it. It grew in his head like the sirens in his ears. The girl took another drink and spit it out when she saw what he was doing.

  “Hey!”

  He opehe bottle and popped one in his mouth. The girl grabbed him by the shoulder and spilled malt liquor down his back. It was cold on his skin and her eyes were the st things to fade away as he fell bato humming darkness.

  Wele to book 2, where your questions are answered and the tables are set for more mayhem. Remember, these episodes take pce before The Office Job, and expin how Gradie joihe team, what they do, and what the hell is going on. I guarantee you've never read anything like it. Episode: An Other World...