Truckin'

A furry anthropomorphic short story by Tergonaut

"Back it up, easy, easy, that does it!"

Maggie McPherson shifted the truck's stick shift into park and popped out of the door. She hit the ground and bounced up to her feet. "Okay, let's start unpacking!"

The feline ran over to the back of the truck, which was securely placed against a raised platform with was a part of the warehouse they had been hired to deliver some furniture to. The client was one Mr. LeFatre, a private businessman who had recently moved his office to America from France. Over the phone, he didn't sound like he had gotten the hang of English yet, but the pay was good enough. The Union Trucking Agency was their company, and they were truckers!

Maggie jumped up onto the platform and turned her baseball cap around on her head, bill facing backward. "Open it up, we don't have all day!"

Ernie Armington, the muscular lizard who had signed up with the Agency only about a year ago, nodded in agreement and grabbed the bottom of the trailer door. With a mighty heave, he lifted the door up and locked it up into place, so that it couldn't fall down and crack an unlucky trucker's skull.

"Okay, move it out, let's go!" Maggie rushed into the trailer and grabbed one of the smaller boxes, then started back out to get into the warehouse, where the box would be placed, as per orders.

"Calm down, Mag, we got here two days early." This was from Fara Duncan, a skunk who had a mischievous streak and a sailor's tongue when she got ticked. She picked up a box and helped with the unloading.

"Yeah, she's right! If you hurt yourself being hyper like that, how are you going to enjoy your vacation?" Nate Hoppin, a squirrel with a slightly more negative view on things than everyone else, commented mostly to point out things that are bad. But he could certainly loosen up at parties.

Adam Velucci pushed a refrigerator out on the dolly. "Say, what are you doing this vacation anyway, Maggie?" the fox asked as he passed Maggie on his way to the warehouse.

On the second pass, she replied, "Oh, nothin' much. You got a better offer than getting some sun?"

The next time around, Adam pulled out two tickets. "Las Vegas Multiplex Hotel. Reservations for a private suite. Best view in the City of Lights." He wagged a suggestive eyebrow as he passed.

As Maggie got another box, she heard Fara cussing Adam out about business before pleasure (and she had a few choice words for why he hadn't given the invitation to her). The next time the feline saw him, his face fur was blown back and he looked a little shaky. "Y-yeah, finish the job, r-right..."

As he went into the truck again, Maggie could have sworn that he said, "Can't imagine how such a pretty thing has such a dirty mouth..."

Ernie Armington just silently watched all of this as he carried most of the bigger things in his arms. He was a quiet fellow, and didn't participate in the banter of the others much.

Maggie looked over from the work to see that their correspondent, a mouse by the name of Darwin O'Faye, was finishing up the red tape with Mr. LeFatre. The poodle was excited about them being there two days early, and he promised to pay a modest bonus for their good work.

"Thank you, and just remember to call up the Union Trucking Agency for your transportation needs." Darwin turned to see that the crew was done with the unloading, and now some workmen in blue jumpsuits were starting to unpack the boxes.

"So, ready to head out?"

Nate agreed carefully. "But Darwin, you told us at the beginning of this job you'd tell us at the end why our normal correspondent wasn't able to make it. We weren't exactly informed on the matter, so howsabout now, hmm?"

Darwin sighed, then pulled from his trenchcoat a small map. "Your normal correspondent was not able to make it because she was sick. I have recently been hired by the Agency, and since your correspondent was out of commission for a while, my boss decided to give me a spin on you. But before I join the Agency for true, I have some unfinished business to wrap up at this town," he pointed out a spot near the ocean and continued, "which is called Land's End. There are some issues that I must settle with the I.R.S. there, and my boss was thinking that you could drop me off there before you went on vacation."

The crew took that all in. Then Maggie stepped forward. "Hey, sounds cool to me! And I just got an idea! Why don't we take our vacation at Land's End!"

Adam started to say something about his tickets to Las Vegas, but Fara stomped his foot real good, causing him to be silent from pain. Maggie's idea sounded interesting, as it appeared that Land's End had minimal population, no landmarks, no fast food restaurants, in short, nothing to do but nothing! It sounded great, considering how much fast food they had consumed during the last few weeks of their rapid-pace trucking life. A chance to taste home-cooked cuisine while sitting back and letting time go by sounded perfect to the overworked truckers.

Darwin nodded. "If you really wish to. I will take a few days, so you could enjoy the local eccentricities before we leave."

"Okay, let's load up!"

"This is Maggie, calling Support. You roger? Over."

Nate pulled the radio out from the support car's dashboard. "Loud and clear, Maggie. See Land's End yet? Over."

Maggie looked out the window, her fur rippling in the wind. The support car had Ernie, Nate, Adam and Darwin inside, and it was behind the truck, which she was driving. Sitting next to her was Fara, who was listening to her headphones with her eyes closed. Tinny funk-mental bled out of the headphones, which was Fara's favorite music when she wanted some quiet time to herself.

Maggie shouted, "Land ho! Or rather, Land's End ho! Over."

Darwin got the radio into his hands. "Remember, when we get into town, we'll check into the motel, get something to eat, and then I'll head over to the I.R.S. building while you...do whatever you want to do. It's a pretty rustic town, but it has electricity and clean water. Over."

"Good! A change of view. Better than looking at Maggie's butt all day!" Nate was referring to the fact that the support car was always behind the truck's rear end.

"I heard that!"

"Good! I meant you to!"

Adam ventured, "Hey, I don't mind looking at her butt, you know?"

"I heard that, too, and don't think I won't prank ya both once we get settled into the motel. Watch out for water balloons!"

"G'night, ladies!"

"Good night!"

Fara closed the door to the room that they had paid for in the homey motel in Land's End. Due to their limited funds, they only had two rooms. The guys were in one room, and Fara and Maggie were in the other. Fortunately, they had all lived with each other for so long that this sort of arrangement didn't bother them.

Maggie slipped into the bathroom and closed the door. Her muffled voice rang out, "I hope they don't look under their pillows before they bed down for the night."

Fara crossed her arms and leaned against the wall nearest to the bathroom door. "Oh? Why's that?"

"That's where I put the water balloons."

Fara rubbed her temples. "You really should be less clumsy, leaving water balloons laying about like that. But seriously, I need to talk to you about something. About Darwin."

There was a gentle thudding in the bathroom, then Maggie asked, "Yeah? What about Darwin?"

"You noticed his trenchcoat? How it's got the big pockets inside it?"

"Yeah, so?"

Fara stood up straight and looked out the window at the darkening sky. They had actually been here for a full day now, and this was their second night. "I think he may be a drug runner."

The gentle thudding stopped suddenly, and Maggie swung open the door. "If you want to use the bathroom that bad, you could just ask."

"I'm dead serious." Fara sighed and went over to one of the beds, fell back onto it. "When he pulled out that map yesterday, I saw a little plastic bag with some white powder in it. It might be none of my business, but there's no other reason I can think of that makes sense."

Maggie looked thoughtful, a rare occurrence. "So you're saying that maybe he's here to finish up his dirty business before he joins the Agency?"

"Could be. But I've seen the building that he says he went to, and it looks like a dirty old shack. Not exactly something the I.R.S. would use as a local office. But I don't think I've seen anyone else go in there, so he can't be cutting deals in there. But he doesn't go there until after dark, so I'm not sure about what he does there."

Maggie turned, walked over to the coat rack in the corner, and grabbed her jacket and baseball cap. "Hey, why don't we follow him! We could see what he's up to, and maybe we can bust the smuggling ring! Imagine the headlines!"

Fara sighed. She had hoped Maggie wouldn't say something like that. "I figured as much. Fine, let's get ready."

This is crazy, Fara thought to herself, but at least I can keep an eye on Maggie this way.

They had crept into some bushes near the shack that Fara had identified, and were just watching Darwin approach the building. The mouse looked carefully all around, and opened the rusty door. With a resounding creak, the door closed behind him.

Maggie and Fara crept up to the shack and circled it until they found a window that they could use to see inside the building. Rubbing away the dust, Maggie pressed her face to the glass for a few moments. Fara glanced around pensively. There was no way that anyone else could get to the shack without seeing them. They would get caught, and the fanciful headlines that Maggie had mentioned were becoming ones of murder rather than heroism.

Maggie pulled back from the window after a small eternity. "I don't see him."

"What? Is it too dark?"

The feline shook her head. "I can see everything in there, but he's not anywhere in there, and he can't be hiding under anything. Look for yourself."

Maggie moved aside, and Fara bent down to take a better look. Inside the shack, bathed in the moonlight from cracks in the ceiling, she coud see that the room was rather bare, save for the amazing amount of dust and cobwebs present, and a small wooden table up against the far end of the shack, opposite the door.

Fara pulled away. "That doesn't make sense. People don't walk into shacks and disappear."

Maggie started around the side of the shack, heading for the door. "Ever seen any of the old movies? There's gotta be a secret passage in there!"

Fara shrugged and followed Maggie into the shack. They looked around, disturbing dust everywhere in the search of secret panels or switches. Minutes passed, and they could feel themselves hurrying to find a passage. The night would not last forever, and Darwin had to come up eventually.

Maggie got up onto the table and looked around at the ceiling. "Ooh, there's gotta be something in here!" She stamped her foot in frustration, then gave a little yelp as the table lurched beneath her, and it began sinking.

Fara turned from the wall that she had been examining and made a leap for the table as it sunk faster into the ground. Landing on it, she and Maggie had to wrap their arms around each other to keep from falling off. As the table sunk deeper into the floor, Fara saw that it was actually going through the floor, as if it was just an illusion. This was proved when they began to sink through the floor themselves.

Their eyes passed the level of the floor, and they could see up into the shack as if there was nothing in the way to block their vision. This was beginning to get creepy, even to Fara. This was not just some drug running, unless they had some serious technology.

The table finally stopped with a jolt, and they gripped each other more tightly until they were sure that they had stopped. In the darkness, they couldn't see much, but it was obvious that the table had just landed at one end of a tunnel, which led away from them deeper into rough rock.

Maggie turned her head toward Fara, and even in the minimal light that came from above, she could see the feline's smile. "Gee, Fara, I never knew you felt that way about me."

Fara realized she had been gripping a little too hard, and she released Maggie with a bit of a huff. "This isn't the time for that kind of joke, Mag. C'mon, let's get going. There's only one way he could have gone."

The two of them hopped down from the table, and Maggie pulled out a flashlight from her jacket. Using it, they started down the rocky tunnel, which seemed not to vary in direction.

The pair walked as quietly as they could, trying to ignore the creepy feelings which tried to overpower them. There didn't seem to be a likely explanation for all of this.

"No way this could be a drug smuggling operation, Mag," Fara whispered. "It isn't practical. This has got to be something bigger."

Maggie hissed, "You mean like a top secret agency that's keeping us from knowing about aliens? Or maybe this is a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world?"

"Maybe. And don't sound so excited, you know what they're going to do to us if they find out?"

Maggie became quiet, and they walked in silence. Fara tried to puzzle it out, but none of the clues seemed to point to either of Maggie's over-imaginative ideas. Why would Darwin want to join a trucking agency if he was a part of either of those?

There was a light at the end of the tunnel, a pale, reddish light that flickered and flashed. They could hear voices carrying from the room beyond, but they couldn't actually hear what they were saying. One of them was Darwin's, but the other was...feminine?

Maggie turned off the flashlight, and using the crimson glow to guide them, they both crept up to the mouth of the tunnel. Looking around, they could see that the mouth of the tunnel had a small flight of stairs that led around the inside of the room, heading downward until it merged with the smooth stone floor. The flickers of red showed them horrific painted images on the walls, shapes that they didn't recognize at all, and down, at the bottom of the room, stood a cauldron on a raised round platform. A tigress, dressed in what they guessed were ceremonial grey robes, held a dagger and a staff, chanting something beneath her breath and gesturing over the cauldron.

And then they saw Darwin, standing on the opposite side of the cauldron, with a sword that he could have easily hidden in his trenchcoat. He had a pleading expression on his face. "Please, Cassandra, I beg you this one last time. Come with me, away from this place! Do you not tire to serve the Fell Spider? Are not his practices evil? Please, Cassandra, come away with me and start a new life! Don't summon him to this world, he will only destroy you!"

The tigress did not hear him, or at least did not appear to, and kept chanting.

Maggie and Fara looked at each other. This was not what either of them had been expecting, and from what they heard, this was going to be worse than they expected, too. Maggie gestured back at the tunnel behind them, Fara nodded, and they both turned and slammed themselves into the hulking form of Ernie.

Ernie grabbed them both by an arm and pulled them back into the caves. Setting them down, he pulled an amulet from the inside of his shirt. "Get out of here. This is not a place for those without magic."

Maggie stuttered, "W-what's going on, Ernie? What are you talking about?"

"I am Ernesto Calbe. I am the Demon-slayer of my tribe. I joined the Agency to find out where the evil that plagued my dreams was, and now I have found it. Now go." The Komodo dragon pulled a large knife from his shirt and held tightly onto the amulet. "This is not meant for the eyes of women."

Before they could reply, he had leaped out of the cave and down toward the cauldron's platform, yelling out a strange war-cry. The two of them felt an unnatural chill from it, and they both took his advice and ran for their lives.

Maggie pulled her flashlight out hurriedly and lit the way, allowing them to go faster without tripping. They had gone about halfway when they heard a chittering sound all around them. Rocks started falling away, and spidery legs were poking out at odd angles from the tunnel walls. Then they could see what was making the noises.

"Big spiders!" Maggie shouted. Fortunately, they were passing the spiders quickly, but from the scuttling sounds behind them, they were being pursued.

Everything was happening so fast. They had to be close to the table now, but the spiders were coming, and Fara felt one brush her leg with a pair of fangs. Dang it, why is this happening?!

Then, suddenly, brightly-colored globes flew at them from just ahead, and they ducked and slid just in time to avoid them. They could hear the spiders recoiling, and there was a splashing sound for every one of the globes that had passed. Fara felt herself getting helped up by Adam, and she heard Nate's voice say, "C'mon, let's get out of here!"

The four of them got onto the table and held together quite tightly (as the table wasn't really all that big). Maggie pointed her flashlight back at the spiders, who had recovered from the water balloon assault and were now charging them again.

"Hey, doesn't this table have an 'up' button?" asked Maggie tensely as the spiders came closer. There seemed to be no indication that the table was going to move up soon.

"If one of you lovely ladies happen to have a water balloon somewhere on your persons, now would be the time to use it!" Adam shouted as he kicked at one of the closest spider, a kick that threw it back into its fellows.

Just when they thought they were all going to be devoured, the table shook beneath them, and it elevated. One of the spiders tried to clamber on, but it got caught between the roof of the tunnel and the table, and two of its legs snapped off, leaving them free and clear.

The table reached the shack and stopped with a bump that sent them all tumbling. Helping each other, they ran out of the shack and got a good distance away when suddenly, a massive explosion threw them to the ground, shielding their eyes from the massive red pillar of destructive light that had blown upward from where the shack had been, leaving a glowing, smoking crater filled with the cooked remains of spiders.

Sitting on the grass away from this crater, the four truckers looked at each other in turn and laughed, releasing the tension that they felt. They had survived!

Maggie looked over at Nate. "Nate, you found the balloons under your pillows, didn't you?"

"Yup. Good thing we did, huh?"

"Yeah. But it ruined a good joke."

They stood up and paid silent tribute to Ernie Armington, Darwin O'Faye, and Cassandra. Then, with too many questions in their heads, they went off to the motel for a good sleep, just as the sun was rising.