Cascade

Jen hit the juice, the electric motor thumped up an and the hydraulic drive whined as the truck went forward as fast as it could.  Nobody tried butting in line, but she wasn't going to let anybody have second thoughts.  Into the shadow of the towering elevator enveloped by a cloud of dust, and though the pit one entry bay; clank and bump over the grate, a kid in the dust slid buy.  Pressing back in the seat, looking though the side mirrors until he held out his hand, palm forward, and she stopped, and lifted the bed.  Looked over to Vogt, he had dropped his case, left foot twitching, eye's glazed and slobbering.  Yelled "HEY" loud enough for the kid at the gate to faintly hear it over the electric motors blowing air through the heaters and up though the drying bin exactly over their head.  Threw the rest of her water at him, he twitched, "then I tried slapping, shaking,pinching and pulling on his arm, and he wouldn't come to.  During all this the corn had run out, that kid clanked the gate shut and was waiting for me to pull out; when I didn't - he started ah walking up to the window.  Here's this guy, this company man, dying in the passenger seat - I could not remain calm - and guess I triggered that encrypted emergency alert, and from what you guys have told me, it must've triggered over and over.  She peeped over the potted plant, Mrs. Starr was in the kitchen making her famous boiled chicken dinner, Mr. Starr was asleep in his chair, and door to the deck they were on was shut.      

E.M.I. Shielding Afterthoughts

       There were ten pits and number one was the dryer pit,  Jen thought they must of tested wet and would be docked: Lucky, it's coming in wet or their tester is off.  {Lucky}I'm []esting []in[].. we'r[] [][]n[] ha[]t[] di[]p[][][].  Lucky,you're dropping out I'm right by the dryer.  {L[][][][]} [][][].. and she broke off contact. The grain drier was a high voltage electric mess of heaters and very large motors, causing all kinds of interference.  A truck pulled out of the pit area and the rig beside her started off only to be beaten to the pit by very large rig.  " that guys not going to get a candy".   Vogt stammered out a "yes"? so unusual she took a hard look at him again, and he seem to almost be in that catatonic state,  flickering in and out of it.

   

Connection Lost

        Took a swig out of her water bottle, poured a tiny bit in the palm of her hand, then used the hand to flick it at him.  He inhaled deeply, his eye's opened more than seemed possible, and he whispered, "my M-corp connection seems to have been dropped".  She pursed her lips, squinted and briefly had a thought about the tragedy of game addiction, "you don't have make excuses, people are too hard on gamers, they need to give you're kind, a break, it's an addiction, a disease, maybe a chronic condition, I just hope you're in a recovery program".  Vogt seemed to try to speak but just let out air, she flung more water at him; he closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and forced out, "no connection" she turned the dash fan toward him, "sure like I told ya, the Tunnel Authority is down right iron fisted when the traffic snarls like this, it's got all the bandwidth tied up, emergency only.  Is it emergency?" in the mean time, the truck had started moving faster and before long they could see daylight at the end of the tunnel, the radio came back on, and control was given over fifty feet on the other side.  She glanced sideways, and Vogt seemed to be in the land of the living once again.