She practically snapped her head up, her hands gripping her bookbag, probably deciding if she should or shouldn't. Releasing her death grip after a few seconds she mumbles. "I am Layla."
Wow she has an insanely nice voice all soft, she could become an audiobook reader if she wanted to, maybe a radio host, or a singer, or...
"So what's up with the veil? Are you hijabi?" I ask breaking my ongoing spiral of thoughts.
"Mmm, yes," Layla says as if struck by confusion there for a few seconds. It's not uncommon for people to be religious in our dying world, in fact, central has a whole religion tab on the Central net, a small web access all Central soldiers have access to to make us feel less alone and like we have control. We of course don't, central net is heavenly moniterd.
"Cool, I was just curious about the whole all-black thing you got going on, so is your whole family-"
BUMP
I almost go 4 feet in the air hitting my head on the truck's ceiling. I grab onto a hand rail gripping it with the force of Hercules. Avery looks startled like she's about to puke DAve is gripping his handrail and Liam is alarmed.
"Will, what the hell man-"
"Houston has a problem!" Bob yells.
"Who's Houston?-"
BOOM
"What was that!" Zion all but yells peering into the front of the truck, I unholster my pistol too trying to peer into the front.
"They're showing up as friendlies but one just threw a bomb at us," Bob says back, tapping the tablet like a madman. I hit my head on the wall of the truck as Will made another daring move, swerving the truck. "Two motorbikes and one truck. Will, keep it up we ran over one of them a while back, the truck is on our tail though!" Bob exclaims.
"We can take care of the truck, Will keep those bikes off of us," Zion says putting his pistol back, Opening his backpack full of goodies he pulls out a sticky bomb, it's not actually called a sticky bomb since central is boring but-
"Here." Zion hands me a sticky bomb while keeping one for himself, zipping his bag up, and placing it back under his seat. Going to the back of the truck is a trek on its own, with Will driving like a madman swerving the truck, I'm lucky I don't set the sticky bomb off. Zion sits up holding onto a handrail near the end of the truck I follow suit on the other end, he pulls the glass on the back door open and takes a look, I do too, the people following us have got to be in the scrappiest truck known to women, like a ford F150, jacked with the tackiest paint job and armor wrap, its god awful, they don't notice us peering down at them, too focused on not flipping their truck following Will.
Will is a damn good driver.
"1.. 2..-" Zion whispers
"..3" I yell flinging my sticky bomb out of the small window at the truck, out of nowhere the truck swerves almost missing my bomb, but it latches on to the armed structures near the side. While Zion, the lucky devil bomb sticks to the window shield. Immediately we close the small creaky glass windows and watch.
The man on the passenger side looks up at the sudden thing on their windshield—first, it is confusion, then realization, and finally dread.
A resounding boom rocks our truck a bit forward, I hold onto the handrail like it's my lifeline. I took too many hits already not trying to go flying backward in a truck, I don't know if my ego could take it.
After a few seconds of steady road, I and Zion head back to our seats, Looking around Avery looks as pale as snow, probably the truck ride and assault that just happened getting to her, dave is patting her thigh, calming her down.
"Layla, you good?" I ask concerned for her as well, the grip on her bag has increased and she's mumbling words to herself, perhaps praying.
It takes her a minute before she is calmed down, "I am fine." Layla says quietly.
I raise a brow not believing that for a second but it take her word for it. I elbow Zion's arm, "Pretty cool move you did there." I whisper
"Well we don't get a lot of chances to use them so-" Zion replies smirking.
"Taking chances." I chuckle.
"Bob, what's this friendly situation all about," Zion asked, changing tone.
"From what I can tell they're fake they flicked them on as soon as we came close, what I don't understand is how they were so quiet." Bob Wondered.
"I didn't notice them until I ran over one of them," William adds.
"Is it possible that intel has already leaked on this, transport?" Zion asks, pausing. "The way it looks is that they were waiting."
"Then they probably know our stops and our route," Tapping on the tablet Bob continues "Then they probably know our arrival, if we push it we can get there a day early on a different route." Bob said with a grim face, "We would have to push through Mousourri though, and as far as I know Missouri isn't cleared yet."
"How long will we have to drive through Mousorri?"
"I'd say 20 minutes tops until we reach Mousorri, we're almost out of Kentucky." Bob replied.
"We'll go through Missouri with no stops, no rest, and as quick as possible," Zion said rummaging for something in his backpack, pulling out a small tablet. "Do we have a Geiger counter?"
"Yeah, one is built into the truck from what the dashboard looks like," William replies.
"Any sign of elevated levels of radiation, we backtrack," Zion states leaving no room for question.
"Of course." We all more or less replied. No one wants more radiation exposure than what we have.
Even after the overthrow of the United States government some of the states they bombed still aren't safe or operational Missouri is one of the victims New York was the first. And as far as Central knows no one has started clean up or restoration of Missouri. Hopefully, we don't find Central to be wrong.