Two Graves

There was a sizzle from the waffle iron as Darius poured the plastic cup of batter on it. The sound was an annoying assault on his and his two compatriots’ slightly hungover minds. Darius finished pouring the last of the batter, then closed and turned over the waffle iron. A large dish sized AR timer appeared above the cooker and he stepped over to the table they’d chosen in the breakfast area of their motel a few feet away.

“Hey D, thanks for making me that waffle and all. You’re such a pal,” the over two meter tall, almost three hundred pound mountain of a hispanic man at the table said with a smile as he raised his cup of shitty coffee in a toast to the dark skinned man he addressed. Ignacio knew that Darius loved his waffles, especially after a night of drinking.

“Fuck off Iggy. You touch my waffle and I’ll make you hurt in places you didn’t know you had.” Darius pointed at the giant with his plastic fork as he sat down in his seat with his plate of crappy breakfast à la motel. “That goes for you too Lex,” he continued as he looked to his left at the man grinning through his cup of orange juice. “I don’t care if you got some surgeries from some doctor with a german accent. I’ll still break you.”

Alex snickered. “Even if you could hit me, which you couldn’t old man, I’d still win in the end.” Someone should never rely on warez, cybernetic or bio enhancements, or equipment to be what wins them a fight or keeps them alive. Though he was pretty sure that his radically enhanced reaction times could keep him out of Darius’ clutches, provided he didn’t do anything stupid. All three men at the table had some warez in them, came with the job and the times, but Alex had more tools in his metaphoric toolbox.

Visibly, all three of the men had a datajack. Nowadays it came standard if you opted into the procedure at the end of Selection. However, after Alex had been through an incident that damaged his hearing and left his eyes non-functional, he volunteered for a program that would restore both his sight and hearing, as well as give him some extras. His eyes had been replaced with a pair of cyberbernatics, bridged together in his skull behind his nose, that were fairly low profile. While still being obviously cybernetic, his eyebrows and the moving exposure lenses gave a surprising amount of expression.

His ears had also been replaced. Where they had been now were a pair of plates that covered the area where his ears had been and went halfway up his cranium. The plates then went back, leaving just over five centimeters between the end of one plate and the beginning of the other on the back of his head. These plates were the reinforced protective covers for other portions of his headwarez.

“Really,” Darius looked the tanned man up and down as though he was sizing him up, “how you figure?”

With a literal, and intentional, twinkle in his eye on account of his cybernetic eyes, Alex stabbed a link of sausage and took a bite. While still chewing he began his rebuttal. “Well I’ve got a secret weapon. One that didn’t come from an operating table.” Alex swallowed.

Seeing where this well tread path was going, Ignacio leaned forward in obviously fake and overplayed interest. “Wow Lex. What’s that? Some super secret squirrel combatives that they’re teaching all the new Pilot Enhanced?” His eyes widened as he said this, like a child talking to his hero for the first time. The absurdity of the act was accented by his large frame.

Tightening an invisible necktie, Alex laid out his master trump card. “Well that would be one Henrietta Green-Washington. My cousin and I are oh so very close. And the things she might do to you if you managed to harm even a hair on my head…” Alex sighed in false worry. “Well I shan’t even consider the awful things she would do to you. My innocent soul wouldn’t be able to handle the foul and vulgar details of such acts.”

“You gotta give it to him D. Your old lady would skin you alive if you killed her favorite cousin.” Ignacio said with mock concern on his face as he looked to Darius.

“Yeah...well... what she don’t know won’t hurt her.” Darius’ eyes shifted left to right as though looking for evesdroppers and after seemingly confirming there were none looked to Alex. “And Iggy ain’t no rat, so who’s your witness?”

“Shit,” Alex said with a befuddled look, “you got me there D. I guess I’m right fucked, aren’t I?” There was a few seconds of silence as they all sat there. Iggy broke first, his face cracking with a smile. Then the trio laughed for a bit, unable to keep up the act in their hungover state.

Once they’d settled down and continued eating their breakfast, a beeping came from the waffle iron. Both Alex and Darius got up from their seats. Darius to fetch his prized waffle and Alex to refill the group’s coffees.

Once they were all seated again, Alex threw out an inquiry. “So what’s our plan? I know I want to swing by that old geezer’s tables. Mr. Chang talked up that stand of his at the Tiger Valley match and what he was going to bring out. If half the shit he talked about is true, that old signaleer is going to have a lot of goodies that you can’t find of’n on the secondary market.” There was a giant swap meet of sorts happening this weekend. It was the reason they’d come here and yesterday they’d hit it late in the evening with only really enough time to get the lay of the land.

“I saw some stands for gunsmiths from the area that I’d like to touch base with, make a few contacts. Maybe I’ll get myself a few accessories for the toys,” Ignacio said, his fingers making a muffled tapping sound as he drummed them against his cybernetic left leg through his pant leg. He’d lost it years ago and drumming on it with two fingers had become a mannerism of his.

“Yeah, because you need more shit to put on your gats,” Alex shot at his friend.

Ignacio just gave him a look as though the giant man was unsure if he was the intended target of the comment. “Who, me? For real though, I do need to swing by Ted’s and pick up that trade he owes me for that project I did for him. Restoring a Label isn’t cheap or easy these days.”

With a roll of his eyes, Alex looked to the third of their number. “What about you D? You gonna take your balls out or your wife’s purse for the day and actually buy that deuce?” This succeeded in getting a flat, unamused stare from Darius as Ignacio chuckled with a mouth full of eggs. “Watchu laughing at Iggy? When does Sarah ever let you make your own decisions? You wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t asked on your knees.”

Darius and Alex both grinned as their friend abruptly stopped his antics mid chew. Ignacio swallowed, mentally making note to try and not leave that opening in the future, like he always did, and tried to bring the conversation back on topic. “Back to what Lex asked. You getting that truck or what?”

“First off,” Darius began, “you know that’s not just some truck. It’s a 2060 all terrain hauler the Army surplused that some brilliant, beautiful person then improved the already awesome suspension, power, and battery. That truck can carry or pull up to twelve tons and go at 95 km/h while doing it. And if the numbers on that battery check out, it should be able to do that for maybe eight to ten hours on one charge.”

“Sounds like you want it,” Alex stated matter of factly.

“No shit I want it and you can’t tell me that you don’t,” Darius replied. He then started scratching his short beard. He and Alex had stopped shaving while they were on leave for this nearly month long road trip and, being about halfway through, they’d both gained some scraggly, short laziness trophies. However neither of them could hold a candle to Ignacio’s well kept beard, as he’d had over three years to grow it. “I just don’t have anywhere to put it. Then there’s Henny.”

Alex smirked at that. “Look D,” he began, “cutting out the BS, I think you might get away with it. Also, I’ll go ahead and drop a few subtle comments and try and make her more receptive to the idea. I’ll be chatting your wife up this evening coordinating who’s making what for your daughter’s little birthday feast.”

“You’re tracking that she’s only gonna to be two right?” Ignacio chimed in.

“Well yeah. But any excuse to spend time with my cousin and in-law,” Alex tossed a salt packet from the center of the table, hitting Darius, “and eat a bunch of good food is always a good excuse.”

“Invitation is still open for you and the family to come, Iggy.” Darius said, turning to his friend.

“I’d love to, but Sarah’s been up my ass about spending more time with the kids outside of the garage and shooting ranges. Has this whole plan when we all get back from this trip where the kids each get four hours of exclusive daddy time,” he said while giving air quotes.

“What’s wrong with teaching a five year old girl how to shoot a scattergun?” Alex asked.

“That’s what I fucking said!” A look of bewilderment on Ignacio’s face.

“Alright, calm down you gun-nut,” Darius said to calm him down. He saw a couple families that had started to come down from their rooms to eat breakfast since it was no longer the early morning hours.

“Right,” Iggy said as he received a tisk-tisk from Alex, to whom he flipped the bird after checking that none of the newcomers would see. This got a dramatic, but soundless, gasp of fake shock from his target.

“But yeah, I got you brother,” Alex stated to Darius while finishing up the last of his bagel. “By tomorrow morning you’ll be in the clear, so I’d say go ahead. Try to get that hauler for the best price you can. It would be nice to have our next project be something we’re not building from scratch.”

“Definitely liking the idea of the next one taking less than four years,” Ignacio agreed.

After some thought, Darius spoke up. “Thanks man, but I’m not gonna get it. I got nowhere to put it and even if Henny gives the go ahead, I’d still have to pull the money from somewhere.”

Ignacio had to interject here. “What are you talking about D? Just use your car fund or trade for it.”

“That’s for my daughter’s first car. And we’re saving the trade fodder for our retirement house.”

“She’s about to be two,” Ignacio deadpanned. “You got plenty of time to save a little here and there to have a nice chunk of change to get her a dependable, safe driving car. Trust me, I know where you’re coming from. I’ve got five kids, remember? You and Henny are making enough money to save a bit each month for that.”

“Iggy’s right D. And if you think you’re retiring anywhere other than the family ranch, you’re delusional. Henny loves that place, so you’re retiring in Texas...period. You don’t want to miss out on the truck because you’re being a stick in the mud. We’ll get work out of that deuce so it will be worth it. I’ll even chip in if you want,” Alex added.

Darius screwed up his face in thought for a moment and then decided. “Nah, I’ll be fine. I don’t really need it.”

“Look D,” Ignacio began. “The Ex-Wife is done. At this point all we’re doing is tweaking this and that and we’re going to do that until we wreck it or blow it up doing something stupid.” At this, Alex hummed his approval. “The Ex-Wife is going to be hopping back and forth between me and Lex after this trip. Per your old lady’s directive I might add. So you’re going to have garage space just big enough for that monster. You get the base vehicle, we’ll chip in if needed, and the two of us,” gesturing to Alex and himself, “cover the lion’s share of the upgrades, parts, etc.”

Alex and Ignacio saw their friend think about it further for a while. The trios’ breakfast had been finished for a good bit now, the plates forgotten, and only the smallest dregs of coffee left in their cups. “How are we going to move it on such short notice?”

Alex scoffed at the question. “We drive it of course. Take it with us on the rest of the road trip.”

“Too easy,” Ignacio added.

Darius was skeptical. “I’m thinking we pass on this one. We can pick something else to work on later.”

This got a pair of sighs from the table’s other occupants. We’ll see how long this last, Ignacio thought. He’d known Darius longer than Alex but a shared look between the two confirmed that Alex also knew that Darius would probably change his mind at least three more times before the day was done and likely end up buying the thing.

“Okay you old geezers,” Alex said as he got up from his seat, picking up his disposable dishware to throw away. “Let’s get this train a rollin’ before all the good stuff’s taken.”

“You’re what, maybe five years my younger?” Darius pointedly asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Meh,” was the only reply Darius received before Alex turned around after pushing his chair in.

****

After a fair amount of arguing and insults to other drivers’ intelligence, the trio finally got through the hellacious traffic and backed into a parking spot on the ground floor of a parking garage that was fairly centralized in the areas that they really wanted to check out. They all hopped out of the Ex-Wife.

The Ex-Wife was a work of beauty, to some. It was a titanium and steel alloy frame with some weird metal alloy body that the three to this day couldn’t tell you how they actually ended up with it. All they knew was that Ignacio’s wife had showed up one day while they were working on the engine with a shipping crate, said that she still had some old friends from college that owed her, wished her husband an early happy birthday, and left. Compared to other up-armored civilian cars of similar size,the result was a relatively light weight, all-terrain vehicle slightly larger than a full-sized truck that could take a hit from most modern non-emplaced anti-material railguns and keep trucking on. They’d painted it OD Green with some patches of brown and dark grey to breakup the truck’s profile.

The three of them had dreamt up the idea one New Year’s Eve and before their better halves had caught wind there was an engine and some run-flat, off-road tires sitting in Darius’ spare garage. The concept had started out as a S.H.T.F. vehicle that was reliable as the setting sun and could travel long distances over any terrain one might realistically run into. This was refined into a truck that could go surprisingly fast for its size, 145 km/h top speed, and carry or pull two tons without much, if any, trouble. Not necessarily at the same time, obviously. Ignacio had also added a turret mount to the top of the thing between the second row passenger seats. Just unlatch and pop open the top hatch from the inside and with a practised hand one could have a mag-rail machine gun mounted and spitting 900 rounds a minute in a dozen or so seconds. The ladies of their respective households had just shook their heads when they learned about that.

Once they had that basic platform made, another fun phase began. Stored in the cab in separately secured compartments in the floor, roof, and behind the rear passenger seats were eight rugged solar panels to charge the Ex-Wife’s twenty four hour battery, or anything else they might need charged. When optimised for charging on a normal sunny day, the Ex-Wife could have its battery charged in roughly six hours.

Alex had stuffed more sensory and communications equipment than was generally or realistically necessary. It had cameras that gave complete vision around, above, and below the truck. It could detect several aspects of the weather, use radar and ultrasonic to various degrees, and even function as a communications hub. There was even an option, at the cost of the truck’s battery life, to turn the truck into a small mobile network server if they fed enough power to the stack. A little impressive, and a little expensive, even by modern standards. Almost every system had a backup or redundant system or part for reliability.

Early on the three of them had argued for days because the truck was losing it’s entire back row of seats to the “server room” being put in. It was then that Ignacio pulled the turret shenanigan, taking more room out of the cab, and they all settled on a four-seater. So they lost four of their potential eight seats, but the goal wasn’t to move a family to and from the church potluck on Sunday. This was a working truck for when it was you versus the world… and also a really cool and expensive man toy.

They also ended up sacrificing over a third of the truck’s bed to a large custom-made truck box that was half-filled with enough tools to fix anything short of totalling the vehicle or having to replace a big part. The other half of the space was reserved for safe and secure storage, and on this particular road trip that was namely weapons, ammunition, and Ignacio's portable gunsmithing tool set. Equipment always tends to break when you are on the clock under stress and they were hitting three shooting matches on this trip. The bed was otherwise empty at the moment as they had stored everything they felt they safely could in the room. They knew they were leaving the swapmeet with stuff, and it pays to prepare.

This almost month long road trip of eating, drinking, shooting competitions, camping, and hunting was the Ex-Wife’s maiden voyage. The ending event was a gunshow where they were going to show off their creation and Ignacio’s recently acquired FN Rapid-Rail 68 light machine gun. It seemed like every time they jumped out of the Ex-Wife’s raised chassis, they stared at her proudly. It’d taken them four years to complete and they were going to enjoy her.

“Alright, let’s stop ogling her so we can go get some shit to stuff her full,” Alex said with a sly grin.

“Giggity,” Ignacio followed up without missing a beat.

“Y'all stupid,” was Darius’s immediate response.

“No, you’re stupid,” Alex and Ignacio retorted in unison.

Having apparently heard the whole exchange, an elderly woman passing by chastised them. “Are the three of you children?”

“According to my wife: Yes,” Ignacio stated as the fact that it was. This just got the women to lightly laugh as she continued on her way wishing them a pleasant day, to which the trio responded in kind. Then they left with empty and nearly empty bags in hand ready to buy, swap, trade, and barter everything their skills and wallets could afford.

****

After an hour or so of browsing with a few small purchases amongst them, Darius spoke up. “Yo, I’m going to head over to that public shitter we saw a block back. Where you guys headed next?” There was something to Darius’s voice, though, that only so many people in the world would have heard and understood what it meant. Two of those people happened to be who he was addressing.

Alex and Ignacio had seen this song and dance before and did a well practiced job of acting like nothing was noticed. “Well Chang’s tent is over yonder,” Alex gestured down the street. About a six block stretch of three streets had been cut off to regular traffic and was being used in conjunction with the neighboring stadium and its parking lot as a colossal swap meet that happened annually in Denver. “I guess Iggy and I can head that way and you can meet us there.”

“Rog. See you in 20.” He started to move away.

“You birthing your second kid in there D?” Ignacio said with a smirk.

“Yeah, basically.” Darius lied.

“Leave the mother-to-be alone Iggy.” Alex patronized. “You know how pregnant women get.”

“My bad, D. Do go on,” Ignacio complied. And with that Alex and Ignacio promptly bowed slightly while dramatically motioning for Darius to proceed down the street toward the public toilets.

“You two are assholes.”

“We aim to please,” Alex said. To which Darius rolled his eyes and left. After he’d gone behind a vendor’s stall, Alex and Ignacio recovered. “So how long do you think we wait?”

“Oh, one mike... tops. I want to see the whole thing,” Ignacio answered. The chuckle Alex gave was all the acknowledgement he needed and they both leaned against a nearby railing. They both watched they’re clocks in their AR - for Ignacio his shades and for Alex the integral systems in his robotic looking eyes.

Once sixty seconds had elapsed, they were off. Rather than the roundabout way Darius had to take in his vain attempt to convince his friends that he was not going to go look at that truck again, they took the most direct path. When they drew close to their destination, they slowed down so they could spot Darius before he caught them following.

And there he was, just now approaching the owner of the truck of the hour and presumably all the other vehicles and drones in the immediate area. Ignacio had his hands on his hips as his head dropped, shaking left to right and he lightly laughed. Alex, had taken to a devilish smirk as he rubbed his hands together in preparation of the shit talking that would be at Darius’s expense.

With a shared look between the two, they both moved to a somewhat concealed position behind a tree in a planter. A nod from Ignacio and Alex pulled out from his bag one of the audio devices that he had traded for in the last hour. In a speedy fashion, he paired the directional microphone with his Personal Area Network, connected Ignacio and his PAN, pointed the device, and turned on the mic. Through his cyberears and Ignacio’s earbuds they began listening to the sweet, sweet music.

“-n that? Contrary to mah best interest, I’ll tell ya that you’re one of the few people in a while that’s interested in the thing outside of general curiosity.” The short stocky mechanic said. “But each of ‘m want it pridy bad.”

“I get that sir. I was wondering how much wiggle room you had on that asking price?” Darius asked.

“Oh, not too much ahm afraid. Pretty sure that a couple of the folks making offers already just gonna end up paying what I’m asking.”

“But they aren’t here right now. I am.”

“Yeah, hit’em with the old standby D,” Alex said sarcastically. Ignacio shushed Alex so they, and more importantly he himself, could hear. Alex in response stuck his tongue out at the man and received a flipping of the bird for the second time that day.

“Fair point. What’s yer offer?” The owner inquired.

“Well I’ve got 20k that can be paid to you directly right now.” This got the older mechanic to raise an eyebrow in an unamused expression. ”But I’ve also got this,” Darius continued as he pulled a small datastick from one of his pockets. He offered it to the portly man, who took it gingerly and plugged it into his commlink. A few seconds rolled by as the stick was verified and the moment the contents were visible became obvious to all observers as the mechanic grabbed his commlink in both hands and stared intently. “I’ll trade you one of mine for one of yours.”

Snapping out of his daze the mechanic looked at Darius. “Which one? And where’d you get these? I’ve only ever seen three in the same place and that was a classics drag race.” Darius had him … hook, line, and sinker.

“The first engine listed. It’s basically the same value as the deuce. Also I have them. That’s all that really matters.” Darius had acquired a small storage warehouse in an auction years ago and what was inside was worth far more than the relative pittance he’d spent. Inside, among the scrap and brokedown old combustion engine vehicles that were barely worth the metal they were made of, were eight unused 409 Chevy Big Block engines. Six were untouched, the other two missing a couple small parts that were not too hard to replace. Darius was offering one of those.

Since the transition to electric motors decades ago due to the revolution in battery technology of the 2020s, combustion motors that weren’t emergency generators or used for other specific applications had grown scarce, especially over the last three decades. The value of quality combustion car engines had grown to stupefying levels in some cases. But why complain when you had some that you can use to trade for stuff you’ll actually use, like a house.

“How’m I gettin’ it? I’m assumin’ you’re not carrying these around with you.”

“Well, I can transfer the bill of ownership to you right now. It’s at a storage unit in Georgia. I give you the address and some contact information and you pay to get it moved to wherever you want it.”

The mechanic rubbed his grey stubbled chin as he thought about the offer. “I’d p‘fer not pay’n to move it.”

“That’s my offer.”

The mechanic tapped on his commlink a few times and started looking around in front of him, obviously looking at the items listed in his AR. This presumably was being “displayed” directly into the part of his brain responsible for vision through the datajack connected to the commlink at the rear base of his skull. Or maybe through a pair of contacts. Those had become rather popular since their invention a few years back.

“Make it one a’the complete ones and we got a deal.” The mechanic said while extending a hand out to shake.

Darius thought it over. Over the last few years he’d traded off two complete engines and one of the incomplete ones already. He wasn’t too keen on trading a complete engine, but he could see that transporting the engine to somewhere that was most likely in this part of the country could get a bit pricey. Making a decision, he grasped the man’s hand in a firm handshake that the mechanic reciprocated. “You got a deal,” he said with a smile.

“Good doin’ business with ya.”

The two talked briefly as they coordinated logistics for transport of the engine. As the mechanic was looking to have it shipped inside the next week, Darius was forced to make a call home and set it up so that his wife would be there to deal with the pick up. Henrietta made it rather clear that she was not thrilled about the situation.

Once the deal had been finalized and the titles transferred to their new respective owners, a pair of applauding hands could be heard behind Darius. He turned around and glared at the culprits. “So how’s that not buying the deuce thing working out for ya?” Ignacio inquired as he and Alex approached the dealmakers.

“It’s working out great,” Darius answered in a flat unamused tone.

“Really? Because Henny doesn’t sound too thrilled.” Alex grinned.

“You tapping my calls again Lex? I told you what’d happen if caught you doing that again.” Darius threatened.

“That was a one time thing to see if I could and you know it. And no, I didn’t... Your wife happens to be messaging me right now. Apparently it’s my fault you bought the thing.” As though to accentuate his point, his messenger app pinged in his AR yet again with an angry text from his cousin. His only logical and practical response was to send her a text simulating a voice box asking her to leave a message and then promptly mute all notifications from her messages until she calmed down an hour or so later.

“Well she’s right.”

“The fuck she is. You bought that thing on your own.”

“Actually,” Ignacio interjected, “we did kinda convince him that this could be our next project.”

His head snapping to the side to look at Ignacio, Alex pointed at him with the small directional microphone in hand and with squinted eyes. “You are a fiend and a traitor Ignacio.”

Ignoring their resident asshole, Darius and Ignacio looked to one another. And then they looked to the mechanic that had a rather large and amused grin on his face. “Enjoying the show?” Ingacio asked.

“Ya could say that,” the mechanic answered and then addressed Darius. “Well your new truck has almost a full charge. Ya can drive it off right now or later this evenin’ when a lot o’ the foot traffic dies down.”

“We’ve still got a few places we want to hit before the day is over.” Darius explained. “It alright if we pick it up this afternoon?” The mechanic replied in the affirmative and Darius thanked him. Turning back to his resident asshole, “Lex, you want to actually go to that tent now?”

“Eh,” Alex said with a shrug. “Only if you aren’t going to go trade away more of the Free Parking you landed on in an effort to piss off your wife.”

Ignacio threw his arm around Alex and began pulling the shorter man in the direction of their next target. “Alright Lex, let’s go. You’ve bothered this man enough.” He then bid the mechanic a good day and started walking away. Alex just rolled his eyes as his giant mexican of a friend pulled him along.

Darius turned away from his friends’ antics, looked at the mechanic, and just shrugged. He then spun on his heel and followed his two friends off into the crowd of people.

****

“Damnit Lex! Why the hell did you get all this shit?” Ignacio barked. He’d dropped one of the six heavy 63-gallon tough boxes full of various electronic equipment that Alex had acquired. They were presently moving all the new stuff they’d bought and traded into the back of their new truck..

“Hey, I was able to get this shit for basically half of what it’s worth on the open market.” Alex had really hit it off with the retired Army veteran at the Tiger Valley match and they’d continued that trend when the trio arrived at Mr. Chang’s tent. The both of them being former como guys that had mostly experience directly supporting combat arms, they talked a lot of shop. Even if there had been a few decades between their respective times in service, Joes breaking shit and asking the closest signal guy to fix it hadn’t changed in centuries.

By the time they’d stopped swapping stories and Alex was putting together what he was looking to buy from the man, Alex felt like he was stealing from the old guy. What the old timer was asking for all that Alex had piled together was just criminally low. Alex and his friends had tried to convince him to take more than he was asking but the gruff and crotchety vet would have none of it. “I can tell you’re one of the good ones, kid,” he’d said to Alex. “You remind me of when I was your age. They might not have my old MOS anymore, but you’ve got the drive, skill, and, most importantly, the ego of a Charlie. I’m more than happy to help out one of my own.”

And just like that, the three men were lugging six large and heavily filled tough boxes several blocks and into the back of their new hauler. Very much so to Darius’ and Ignacio's annoyance at that point.

“Just because you robbed it from an old man, don’t mean it ain’t shit.” Ignacio said as he hunched over and rubbed his injured foot.

“You bought some stuff too Iggy,” Darius said with a grunt as he and Alex lifted one of the boxes into the back of the deuce.

“I got less than half the shit he did and most of it is what I was already owed.” He shot back.

“Sure. But we still had to drag it all here. Why didn’t you tell us what you were picking up from the start?”

Standing back up and moving to lift another of the boxes with Alex, Ignacio continued. “It was a surprise and I wasn’t really expecting that much machinery.” In exchange for the work Ignacio had done to restore several pieces of Ted’s French rifle collection, Ignacio had received a full set of equipment to make mag-rounds.

One of the benefits of the power technology boom decades ago had been the ability for small arms technology to have a large jump forward after decades of stagnation. With batteries now being able to hold enough power in a man-portable package to support a railgun, small arm ammunition was now caseless. There were many other benefits to the technology leap. One being that suppressors were no longer required as all you had to do was dial down the speed that you propelled the bullet to subsonic speeds and spend some extra time tinkering or extra money spent to get a mag-rail that didn’t make much, if any, noise during operation. Also, ammunition was far lighter and a fair bit cheaper to make, given that it’d lost a lot of the previously required components during the technological development.

What Ignacio now owned was a little bit more than just something to form a metal into something bullet shaped. His old friend Ted had given him the tools to make his own in-house specialty rounds. He could give it a core using different materials, shape the round to something more than just a blunt or pointed tip, and make a hollow point for self defense. More elaborate things could be done but the restriction with this new equipment was that he wouldn’t be mass-producing anything. However that wasn’t too much of an issue for him. Ignacio had acquired the Type 7 FFL only a few months ago and this was his ticket into a new market.

“Actually, this makes a whole lot more sense now,” Alex said as they lifted one of the last boxes into the back. “It was weird when we were starting this whole trip and you were adamant that we just buy the rest of the ammo we’d need for the last match later in the trip. I’m guessing you want to make it?” Darius then moved the box to the front end of the bed with the others.

“Not really. Though I’ve thought about it. While I’ve made mag-rounds before, it’d probably take me a hot minute to get used to this equipment. He gave me a bunch of material to get started from what he had leftover.”

“Let me guess...ugh.” Alex was lifting a small box into the truck that was heavier than its size had any right to be. “That’s what’s in this.”

Ignacio smirked. “Yes.”

“Alright, let’s close her up.” Darius said as he finished pushing the last of the goods into place.

Once the three of them were all on the ground again, standing near the front of their new project truck, Ignacio put forth his plan. “So how about Lex and go in the deuce to the storage place near the motel to drop all this shit off in an overnight lot. I’ve already called the place and told them we’ll be needing a garage and they’re holding a spot for us. D, you go drop off the Ex-Wife at the motel and meet us at that bar not far from it. Since it will be about four in the afternoon at that point, I say we get some grub, drink something nice, and get some shuteye before we leave in the morning.”

“Works for me.” Darius consented.

“Let’s keep the drinks down. The prices here suck.” Ignacio proposed. Darius and Alex both agreed.

****

Alex slammed the tailgate shut on the back of the new truck and grinned at the groans he got. The punch in the shoulder he received from Darius just made the grin even bigger. The three had just finished loading both of the vehicles.

“I fucking hate you right now,” Darius rubbed his eyes.

“I second that,” Ignacio agreed. Both of them were hurting from last night. They were safe to drive, it just wasn’t going to be fun. “D, next time Lex convinces me to go drink for drink with him, punch me dead in the face.”

“Done,” he acknowledged. “Lex, screw you and your neffy screen.”

“It’s a Nephritic Screen,” Alex corrected with his grin still. One of Alex’s few bio implants had been a modification to his kidneys. This gave them far better filtration of toxins, and the like, while also keeping good stuff in the blood. An added bonus was that he could hold his liquor three times better than some of the best drinkers out there and hangovers were basically a thing of the past for him. The only reason he had been as screwed-up as he was the previous morning was because he’d downed a few shots of Everclear to help counter his implant’s effects.

Alex chuckled for a few moments, until he’d gotten a pair of annoyed stares. “In my defense, flirting with the bartender got her to discount those drinks and save both your asses from your financially-inclined better halfs.”

They talked for a few minutes as they figured out the driving situation. By the end of it, Alex would drive the deuce the whole trip, while Ignacio and Darius drove the Ex-Wife in two hour shifts. That meant both of them would be driving twice to get to the land they’d leased for three days. Also, whichever of the two was not driving could ride in the deuce since it had more space in the cab to sleep.

“I set up some of the radio shit that I got from Mr. Chang in the new truck,” Alex added. “Did you realize he had a TZ/RCM-299R? You just don’t find that shit anymore. Only like two hundred of them made it to civilian market before they were recalled when the DoD said they actually wanted to use them in the birds.”

“I remember when we got those at Bat. All our RTOs wouldn’t shut up about them.” Ignacio received a look from Darius and Alex. “What?”

“The Regiment got that radio in 65... Damn you’re old.”

“I’m only 39. Fuck you.”

Darius chuckled. “Yeah, that means you’re ancient by doorkicker standards.”

“I could still break both of you in half and I’m a better shot than both of you. Fuck both of you.”

“I distinctly remember that we ran most courses of fire faster than you.”

“Well they did involve some climbing and crawling,” Alex chastised. “We can’t expect the old man to high crawl in the mud like he used to.”

“Alright assholes. D you’re driving first,” Ignacio said as he pointed a finger at the man. “I’m going to get some sleep and Lex is going to keep his mouth shut while I’m there.” He then got into the passenger seat of the larger truck while Alex and Darius just smirked and followed suit, getting in their respective driver seats.

As they got onto the interstate, headed north, Darius and Lex exchanged some text messages by way of their hands-free datajacks being plugged into their commlinks. Darius was looking to use one of the harddrives they’d brought on the trip to listen to an audiobook while they drove. One quick flip of a switch and Alex had the stack in the back of the cab up and connected to Darius’ commlink.

The rest of the drive went smoothly. It was late fall and the weather was chilly as they pulled off the dirt road in the woods and into the clearing they would use for their campsite.

“Okay, let’s get the fire going and the tent up.” Darius walked to the back of the Deuce and started to pull out their compact three man tent.

Ignacio looked towards the Rockies and the sun slowly working its way to the mountain’s ridgeline. “We got about half an hour before good old Bob gets behind the mountains.”

Ignacio and Darius then put up the tent as Alex went around collecting firewood. The duo got the tent up quickly, joining Alex, and by the time that the sun had set behind the mountains, Alex had a fire started and was heating up some water from the nearby creek for the dehydrated chicken and rice meals they’d brought. When Ignacio and Darius were back with enough wood to last the evening and part of the next morning after their small game hunt, there was a pot full of grub waiting for them.

As they ate, Darius stood up, walked over to the Ex-Wife, pulled a small wooden box out of the truck box, and returned to his seat. He then opened the box and pulled out three cigars, a cigar punch, and a lighter. The other two got passed out and they all prepped and lit them.

After a minute or so Ignacio broke their present line of conversation. “Lex, how much did you spend on all these?” He asked while enjoying the strong tobacco flavor. Alex breathed in sharply through his teeth with a painful expression on his face. He’d bought a dozen of them for this trip and this was the first time they’d planned to enjoy them.

“Ouch, that bad?” Darius inquired.

“Well at least they’re definitely worth it… even if I had to sell my soul.” Alex took a pull and after a few seconds blew the smoke out of his mouth. He then added with a smile, “and you know how much I like to spoil y’all.” Darius gave him a stare with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh yeah. I felt really spoiled when you gave me a pair of socks for my last birthday,” Ignacio said with a smirk.

“Hey! Those were some nice ass socks and you know it. Plus, you only got one flesh and blood foot. So I really got you two pairs of socks… from a certain point of view.”

“Yeah, ssuuurrree.”

They continued on for a while smoking and talking, whilst sitting around the fire. When the stubs of their smoked cigars had been thrown into the fire and burned up for a time, Darius and Ignacio called it a night and went to the tent and their sleeping bags. Alex stayed up a few more hours reading a book in his AR view and catching up on a podcast. His sleep regulator implant gave him less need for sleep and he spent most nights up a few hours longer doing things like this. However he still needed sleep and when he’d reached a stopping point and the podcast was over, he followed his friends and went to his own sleeping bag.

The night was chilly and had clear skies. They’d lucked out on the weather that had been projected for their area. It was going to be just cold enough to have that nice crisp chill and there was no precipitation expected for the duration of their stay. Though a little more than an hour before daybreak, it was suddenly very cold and there was snow on the ground.