Chapter Text
Lightning woke up with a snort, his head snapping up for an instant before he laid it back down on the seat. He groaned, trying to place what had woken him up in the middle of his nap. Glancing out the window, he saw that the sky was still—no, wait, it was light. He sat up, noticing first that the light was caused not by the sky, but by the lights of a gas station. They weren’t sitting next to one of the gas pumps, but rather in a spot off to the side of the store. The truck wasn’t even idle, completely turned off while its driver was MIA.
There was an immediate rush of irritation. They had stopped? Where was Mack? He had promised to get them to California! Lightning hadn’t said they could stop and get a midnight snack or whatever his driver had decided was so important!
He twisted into a sitting position, peering out of the tinted glass and into the store, looking for Mack. There, in the back of the store, he saw Mack’s trademark cap in the bright red of Lightning’s signature color. Stupid! Probably getting a hotdog or something when he should be driving! Lightning had half a mind to fire him if he didn’t get to the race track first.
In fact, he should tell Mack that.
He pulled on his jacket from where he’d been using it like a pillow, making sure the bolt on his arm was still shiny. He couldn’t be looking any less than incredible if he happened to meet a fan, now could he? Sliding out of the backseat of the truck, he looked about, wrinkling his nose in distaste at the dirty gas station in the middle of nowhere. The asphalt was dirty and stained with oil, there was trash in the gutters, and the windows to the station looked like the last time they’d been cleaned was a year before never.
He didn’t bother to hide his expression as he walked into the station. There wasn’t even automatic doors and the bell was a literal string of bells that jangled when he came in.
“Paying for gas or looking for the bathroom?” someone called from one of the aisles. Lightning assumed whatever poor teenager had gotten stuck with the night shift.
“Just telling my friend to get his ass in gear,” he responded, pausing only for a moment before heading to the refrigerator section in the back. Was Mack getting an iced coffee? He’d said he was tired earlier, but geez, why didn’t they just drive through the nearest Starbucks? What an absolute pain. “Hey Mack! You hear that? We shouldn’t be stopping for anything less than—”
Lightning stopped at the end of the aisle as Not-Mack turned to him with an irritated expression. The hat on his head was not Mack’s signature cap, but rather a Nebraska Huskers hat in a shade almost identical to his own.
The stared at each other for a moment before Lightning blurted, “You’re not Mack!”
The man’s irritation turned into a full-blown scowl. “Of course I ain’t a Mack! Git some derned glasses, ya idiot!” With that, he stormed out of the aisle, making sure to bump Lightning’s shoulder before stomping to the front desk.
Wait, if that wasn’t Mack, then where was he?
He looked around but there was no one else in the store besides him, the angry hat guy, and the attendant who had hurried to the front counter when the hat guy called for him. So what—
He looked out the front windows and felt his stomach drop as he watched his trailer drive away.
Lightning launched himself out of the store as fast as he could, heart thudding painfully in his chest as he tried to catch Mack on his feet.
“Mack! Mack!” he shouted. The truck stopped for a moment, waiting to turn and for a moment Lightning thought he’d be able to catch him and thud on the window and threaten Mack a thousand times over with his job for almost leaving him behind.
Then he was gone and Lightning was standing on the edge of the highway, unsure of what to do. His hands scrambled with his pockets, searching for his phone. He’d just call Mack! Tell him to turn his ass around before Lightning decided to just…
He had left his phone in the truck.
For a moment, Lightning pulled at his hair, gritting his teeth and resisting the urge to scream at the sky. What was even happening right now?! Did he really just get left at a gas station like a child forgotten by their parents? What was he supposed to do now?
The station! Someone there would have a phone!
Lightning had raced back to the store, noticing only now that the bathroom sign was on the outside of the building, and burst back in through the door before he realized he didn’t know what Mack’s phone number was. He was fuming in the front of the store, trying to figure out his next step when the shop attendant leaned around one of the aisle ends. The attendant looked him up and down, Lightning striking quite the image with his bright red uniform nearly matching the color of his face.
“Can I help you?”
An idea struck.
“I need to borrow your car.”
The bored look on the attendant’s face changed to suspicion. “What?”
“My driver just left me here so I need to borrow your car so that I can make it to California and win the Piston Cup. I’ll have my driver bring your car back right away, but I need to get to California now.”
“I need my car to go home!”
“You can walk!”
The attendant scowled. “Sorry buddy, but you’re outta luck.”
“Fine!” Lightning snapped. “Then I’ll just…” he tried to think of something and felt dread settle in him. “I’ll just go hitchhike or something!”
He had spun around and was halfway out the door when he heard the put-upon groan behind him. “Wait, dude, it’s the middle of the night, no one’s gonna pick you up. Just wait around here for a couple hours. There’s a bus that comes by and gets gas every night. They’re always heading west so maybe you can convince the driver to let you on.”
Lightning felt his heart leap. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but it would have to do. He could bus hop to California, no problem. It wasn’t exactly something he’d done before but it was scores better than waiting around for Mack to realize what had happened or getting in a car with a stranger. The gas station had snacks and energy drinks he could stock up on and then just ride out the way to California on a stinky bus full of stinky people that either couldn’t afford their own cars or weren’t smart enough to get a license.
“Yeah, I’ll do that. What time do they usually get here at?”
The attendant checked the clock on the wall. “Sometime after 3 AM. You’ve got a couple hours.”
->'v'<-
What seemed like ages later but was really less than half an hour after he’d gotten on the bus, they pulled up to another gas station. Apparently when Lightning had dashed up and explained his situation to the driver she had been distracted enough to forget to fill the tank up with gas, which had prompted a somewhat emergency detour off the interstate to the closest station located on the GPS. It was a bit of a drive down a windy, back-country road that had absolutely no landmarks whatsoever but they eventually came across a town with a gas station.
Buying that energy drink at the gas station had been a poor idea, as he’d had nothing to do but stew about his situation and bounce his leg irritably. Heading to Pheonix was out of the way from where he wanted to be and figuring out bus schedules as well as convincing whoever was working there at 6 AM to let him on without any kind of ID on him would be tough. The very thought of sitting in a smelly station while he waited for a good bus to come through already made him want to take a shower.
After the driver got out Lightning also jumped out of his seat to get some air. What he wanted to do was run a couple laps around town (which would probably take less than five minutes with how small it was. There was only one stop light, geez) but he wasn’t about to have a repeat performance of getting left behind again. Especially not in this tiny town where the nicest thing he was likely to find were jean jackets and cowboy boots.
Instead, he told the driver he’d be right back and went to go pace angrily by the road. Even with the detour there was still the likelihood that he’d get to California before Chick. Mack had made good time before Lightning had been left behind and they had already been about three quarters of the way across the country. If Lightning just didn’t sleep and was able to find a bus to get on straight away in Pheonix then he could make it. And from there…what? More buses? He’d walk to the racetrack if he had to. But he really didn’t want to.
His pacing took him a couple of stores down, glancing back at the driver to see her cleaning off the windshield. He had another minute to try and cool himself down. The end of the street was just another block down, the T in the road leading up to what looked to be a court house for the town with a statue of a man in front, a stream of water bubbling at his feet and a gold tooth shining in the dim lamplight.
Next to the court house was what looked to be a community building. It was a long building with a worn down brick wall, the red faded with age, facing the street. There might have been a mural there at some point, but the sun had all but bleached it away. The doors of the building led out to a patio, marked out by a large awning and a few wooden benches. There were wooden buckets of flowers sitting in all manner of places, seeming out of the ordinary in a desert town.
Lightning rolled his eyes. The whole place looked run down besides the flowers. This town was so small and sad probably the only reason why it was still there was because its residents were too dumb to pack up and move out. This place was just another bump on his road to success.
If he even got there. The longer they stalled in this little blip of a town the more anxious he felt. For all he knew, Chick had the same idea that he had, driving without stop all the way to California and this little pause was what made the difference between getting Dinaco’s attention. God, he could not think about Chick spending any time with Tex or Weathers. The very thought of the three of them getting all chummy made him want to upchuck.
He spun on his heel. The bus had to be filled up by now. He couldn’t stand this stupid town for one minute longer. Just to show the little country town his exact contempt for its existence, Lightning gave the street light he passed by a good solid kick. It had the added benefit of making him feel a bit better about himself as well.
Until he heard groaning metal behind him and turned back around. The light pole was either old and the bolts had rusted too much to withstand Lightning’s killer kick or was swooning from the little attention it had gotten from the sexy racer because it was tipping. Then leaning. Then falling. It was a rather stupendous fall as well. Just as dramatic as the panicked flashing of the bulb as the wiring attempted to hold on. But the bulb failed. And at the same time, the pole smashed onto the community building.
If it had been in good condition, Lightning had no doubt that the pole would have caused some minor roof damage and bounced off to land on the pavement. As it was, the wall was probably over fifty years old and had not been taken care of properly, leading to a rather spectacular crumbling of brick that left the inside of the center laid completely bare. The sound of tumbling brick and shattering glass was loud enough that it’d probably woken everyone up in a few blocks radius.
Lightning stared at the damage he had inadvertently caused. His night was just getting better and better.