Roadkill

[Ron Caliburn]

A friend in the local HPD passed along to me a lead about a month back about a string of fatal accidents on the Beltway.

At first they thought it was street racers just removing themselves from the gene pool, but then they found the minivan.

Sherry Thomas had been rushing her daughter, Courtney, with an ear infection to the hospital around 3 in the morning when she lost control of the mini-van and wound up in the ditch. Fortunately both of them were properly buckled in at the time and the police pulled them from the wreck with only minor injuries.

My friend with the HPD was one of the responding officers. Apparently Ms. Thomas blames the crash on some sort of face suddenly pressing itself against the driver side window while she was cruising along at 60. Normally the officer would have thought her crazy, except Courtney also said something about a “scary man.”

That’s why my friend called me in. So for the last couple of weeks I’ve been dividing my night patrols between the Blight and the Beltway, looking for a sign of this “scary man.”

Last night I got lucky.

I was up on my overpass with my binoculars, looking for signs of activity. About 2:15 a flash of sparks caught my eye.

I jumped back on my bike and twisted the throttle on full. Soon I was roaring down the on ramp and onto the Beltway.

It took me a couple of minutes to catch up with it. It was shadowing a big rig . . . zipping in and out under the trailer. Every now and then it would reach into the spinning wheel – sparks flying as it ground down the wheel hub.

As I pulled closer I got a clearer view, the thing was a little over about 5 feet tall, capped with a main of spiky hair. It had a nose roughly the size and shape of a child’s football. It was clad from the waist down in leather pants with spiked knee pads. Its chest and arms and face appeared to be decorated with tattoos. Strapped to its left arm as a shield was a stop sign. In its right hand, it held a metal sign post, which it was using to grind pieces out of the wheel hub. Stranger still, it was riding some sort of motorized unicycle.

I’d been guessing a gremlin, but this thing was too big, and I’ve never heard of a gremlin using technology before.

I goosed the throttle to pull up closer and drew my Piece. Just before I squeezed the trigger, the spiky haired freak ducked under the trailer again, putting the wheels between me and it.

I backed off the throttle and slid around behind the trailer, the freak was working on the wheels again . . . ‘till he looked back over his shoulder at me.

I fired my Piece, but I was too slow. My shots sparked on the metal side of the trailer as the freak zipped back to the far side of the wheels.

I went back around the rear of the trailer, gun at the ready. As soon as I cleared the back end, it ducked back around.

We played cat and mouse like this, back and forth for a couple of trips. I was coming back around the left side of the trailer again when I saw the little freak pluck one of the spikes from it head and drive it into the big rig’s tire.

The tire immediately blew and shredded, sending pieces of steel belted radial back at my head.

I ducked against the bike and swerved hard – just in time to avoid being taken out by the debris.

I got back on track and roared after the little freak – he’d given up on the truck and was speeding away.

That little unicycle of his was fast. I didn’t start gaining on him until I pushed my own bike up over a buck and twenty.

He was weaving back and forth, making it hard to keep my gun on him. I fired a few times, but only struck pavement. I had to get closer.

As I drew in for an easier shot, he leaned left and headed for the guard rail. A pump of his legs and he, and the unicycle, were over in the oncoming lanes.

He kept going up the highway, parallel to me. Swerving around the oncoming cars with ease, he gunned his throttle and started pulling away from me.

I wasn’t about to let the little freak get away. I accelerated and kept up with him. He was too far for a quality shot, but I needed to keep him in sight until I found away over there.

As we raced along I looked ahead and saw my chance. An abandoned car on my side of the road gave me a ramp to leap both guard rails.

I came down hard in the oncoming lanes, sparks pouring out from my bike where I bottomed out. Fortunately I’d reinforced the bottom of my bike for just that sort of eventuality.

I chased him up the oncoming lanes, pulling closer as we both weaved around the traffic. The constant movement wasn’t giving me any clear shots, but he wasn’t getting away either.

He broke left again and I leaned over and followed him up the on ramp. Both of us cleared the intersecting road without touching asphalt and continued down the off ramp at over 100 mph.

We’d just reached the bottom of the ramp when I looked into the headlights.

[Ron Caliburn]

I swerved and braked as hard as I could get the bike to go, the semi-whizzed by me with about 6 inches to spare . . . the turbulence buffeting me as I caught my bearings.

I looked up the highway and I could see the spiky haired bugger. He’d pulled to a stop and had a foot on the ground, looking back over his shoulder at me. His snout was split by his huge maw. He leaned back his head and laughed long and hard.

I really hate it when monsters try to laugh . . . they get the sound right but it always somehow seems wrong.

“You just gonna stand up there laughing, or do you want to come get some?” I hollered back.

He raised his signpost lance and let out a uvular trill. He smoked the tire on his ride and headed towards me.

I kicked my bike back into gear and whipped it around to face him.

He couched his lance and raised his shield as he charged me.

I drew my Piece as I raced forward, sighting and steering at the same point.

When he had closed range I opened fire, sparks striking off the stop sign shield on his left.

My Piece locked open on an empty chamber, I was out of ammo.

I replaced it back in the holster and gripped the handle bars. His lance meant that my Blade was going to lose the reach battle and I didn’t have time to reload. It was obvious that as long as we were on our bikes he had the advantage – so I needed to get him off without getting skewered.

He was trilling again, happily aligning his lance towards my chest.

It was time to improvise.

Just before contact I cranked the handlebars sideways and leaned over as hard as I could. My bike got off its wheels and it and me were sliding sideways on the tarmac in a shower of sparks.

The freak didn’t have a chance to bail out in time and his unicycle hit my motorcycle and flipped over. The little bugger flew over top of me, arms flailing like some sort of demented bird.

There was a wet scraping sound as he collided with the pavement and tumbled along it.

I, on the other hand, was pulling myself up to my feet, the rigid sections of my armour protecting me from the worst of my ride on the pavement.

I slapped a fresh clip in my Piece and advanced on the creature ... it was groaning and slowly rolled itself onto its back.

I sighted in on it and its eyes grew wide with the inevitability of what would come next. Blue-back ichor dripped from its broken nose.

“No kill . . . live, yes.” Its voice was nasally and had a strange trill to it.

“No.”

I emptied the clip.

[KonThaak]

Sounds like one helluva night... Glad you came out alright.

[Ron Caliburn]

The corpse of the spiky haired monster melted away in a cloud of blue exhaust and the sound of a motor revving.

But I wasn’t left totally without on this one. I have the mangled motorized unicycle to work with. It looks like quite the ingenious piece of hardware – I should be able to repair it and get it back up and running again.

I have no clue what this thing was . . . gremlins rip stuff apart, but that’s about the only critter I know of tied to machines. Nothing I know of builds them.

You guys got any idea what it was?

[Ron Caliburn]

Sounds like one helluva night... Glad you came out alright.

Me too, going head on with a semi-truck would have voided the warranty on my armour.

[GhostSpider]

Not to mention what it would have done to your own warranty.

[Ron Caliburn]

My only warranty is that I break other warranties.

[KonThaak]

Sounds like one helluva night... Glad you came out alright.

Me too, going head on with a semi-truck would have voided the warrenty on my armor.

Yeah, was about to mention that... Glad that driver was pumping the radio, or whatever kept him from looking in his mirror and seeing some guy on a motorcycle, shooting at his truck.

[Ron Caliburn]

The truck he was messing with didn't notice us . . . though I didn't fire much at the critter then - no clear shots.

[KonThaak]

As for what the thing was... It might be a new "breed", a spirit attracted to our world by modern tech, and creating a body designed around such tech.

[Ron Caliburn]

Perhaps so.

Either way, I got his ride if one of you folks who are smarter than me wants a look.

[Kei Nakamura]

Not good at the hands on aspect, but from a design standpoint, I should be able to help.

I would reccomend against trying to use his "ride" unless you have a lot of experience with unicycles, they are devilishly hard to control and stay on untill you get teh wheel spinning fast enough to get it to act as a gyroscope, at which point they do become remarkably stable.


What are Hannah's favorite subjects in school? I will bring some advanced course materials with me, along with the lower level books required to understand them. It may surprise you but I have found that an interesting problem that is at a more advanced level than the student causes the less advanced material to "stick" better, as the student then gets to see the application of what is otherwise mind numbing routine and memorization.

[Razor]

This is definately something new. An interesting encounter to say the least. Glad you nailed the thing but .... good gawd, I hate that kind of thing. Friggin nightmare chase down the freeway at 120 or more. I'm suprised you didn't catch the attention of law enforcement or news media. The last thing you would need is a news chopper following the action. Least the Blight doesn't catch as much attention. I'm sure the events of that night were plastered all over the news though.

Glad to hear you scraped through the thing. I'd offer to take the uni off of you to see what I could do with it, but I am not confident with that particular piece of machinery. However, with a lathe and a mill I could probably reproduce it.

[Ron Caliburn]

It was after 2AM, all the reporters and most of the cops were in bed . . . that's why it's not front page news.

Still, I let a few things hang out a lot farther than I like on that one, but it all worked out.

Anyway, I'll let Hannah speak to her school stuff when she's done her homework.

[Razor]

Ah, ok. Yeah, those are the dead hours... (called that for more than one reason).

[Ron Caliburn]

It was a first for me . . . I've been in plenty of foot chases, but I've never had to chase something at those speeds for that long.

I had a closer look at the uni, it's pretty incredible. It's got a foot throttle and no other controls or handle bars or brakes. Other than speed everything else was controlled by body positioning.

[Razor]

That would be an incredibly complex vehicle to operate. I bet that thing had supernatural reflexes that were ... almost un-matchable.

[Ron Caliburn]

Well I had to pretty much skewer myself on his lance to make sure he didn't have a chance to evade if that's what you mean.

[Hannah]

Hi Gang,

You shoulda seen how tore up Pa's clothes got from all that slidin' on the pavement he did. He had ta trash most of 'em. I'm working on patching up what I can outta what might be salvagable.

I'm real glad he had those hard plates in his armour around his knees and elbows and such ta let him slide along the pavement rather than rippin' his skin up like he did his clothes.

Hannah

PS: The unicycle is really neat . . . Pa says I'm not allowed ta try it out though.

[Bert_the_Turtle]

That's probably for the best. I don't even know if I'd keep the darn thing, it might be possessed or something. For all we know the damn thing might reform if his tech isn't busted up too.

[Kei Nakamura]

I would like a good look at it first, might be teh source of a breakthrough on a few projects. petrolium powered, or unidentified power source?

[Ron Caliburn]

Internal Combustion Engine . . . smells like he had it filled with french fry oil though.

[Kei Nakamura]

Bio deisel, renewable, cleaner, and if you can generate and maintain teh temperatures to get complete ignition (even just 90%) more energy per gallon.

[Razor]

yup. I've been looking into the bio-diesel thing as well. I believe it will be a solid investment. It's quick and fairly easy to make.

[Ron Caliburn]

Well the thing goes like stink, so he's probably got that figred out.

[Natasha]

Ron,I think that I know what this creature was. And I think it unique one, too. I only heard one story about such vehicle - and frankly speaking, I never believed it... until now.

Begin at the end. Was there a blue theme with this creature? I mean, more than the discorporation? Clothes, skin colour, such things? Or it was too dark to see anything?

Finally, I know it the strange question, but an important one: did you find a photograph (or any remains from one)?

[Ron Caliburn]

Sorry Natasha, had other items on my plate.

The creature's skin was blue, but the rags he was in were not.

I didn't find any physical evidence other than the cycle (which I got working again, but won't try to take it above 30 or so, too hard to control).

[Hannah]

Hi Everyone,

Since I'm going to get my learner's permit this week I decided I'd take the unicycle out to give it a try this morning. It was a lot of fun, it almost felt like I was flying.

It didn't feel too good when I missed the turn though. I'm just glad I didn't wreck it, or me . . . Dad would have been super pissed.

Hannah

PS: He was still really pissed, just not super pissed.

[Joe Smith]

Can you guys send some pics to me of that unicycle? It sounds pretty interesting. How is it started and does it have a kill switch if the rider becomes unattached from it?

[Hannah]

Hi Joe.

This is the cycle.



There's a pull start on the other side like a lawn mower. No kill switch though.

Hannah

PS: It doesn't have any instruments, so I'm not sure how fast it goes and I haven't found anyone to race it against.