Strips
Tall Tank Tales
Michigan Folk
It seemed to stretch out forever, endless rolling dunes, and clouds of sand. They used to say that those who lived in the desert could find their way around, where others might be lost. They must have been thinking of me when they wrote it. I can find anything out here in this god-forsaken place. Hard to believe it used to be a state, with towns, and boundries. After the comet hit, they tried to keep it that way, pretty soon realizing, it was fucking pointless. As the water dried up, the grass turned to sand, so did the boundries. Now, I get to drive my tank whatever i want, and nobody can say, hey, you are trespassing. If they did, well, I would just have to show them what i really think, well, what i really do!
Pulling out my 3rd cigarette for the day, i pulled my goggles over my eyes, and stood up, riding this baby in style. It was stale, and tasted like shit, but i sucked it down, and smoked it ’til the last bits clung to my lips.
Jet was up ahead of me, and Booga was sacked out below. I must have worn him out this morning, nothing like a good fuck at the first light of dawn to start the day out right. I grabbed my specs, and took a good look around me, on all sides. We were headed East, in the general vicinity of Michigan. Like I said, there are no borders. About a month back we had run into a crew that told us about some water near the old great lakes region. Rumors like this flew, everyone wanted water on a planet that was damn near dead.
"Tank, you there?" Jet’s voiced piped in over the radio.
"Yah, what’s up, mate?"
"I think you ought to cut back a bit on your speed, there is something up ahead, and I am not close enough to tell what it is."
"Jet, get to the point, what do you see?"
"There are a bunch of vehicles up North, and I don’t see any people. It is pretty odd, really."
"Check ya, circle and let me know, I will slow down."
I ducked and brought the speed to a near nothing, crawled over to Booga, and planted a wet one on him. His ears curled up, and his eyes opened. He had this uncanny knack of knowing when trouble was brewing, ’cuz he looked right at me and asked me what was up with Jet. I lifted myself back out of the tank and lit another cig. I could not see anything, but with the damn wind blowing, this was not surprising. Booga followed close behind, and climbed onto a perch. He tilted his head, grabbed a pair of specs and held the same vigil as me.
"Yo, you still there doll face?" I called out to Jet on the radio. Silence.
"Jet, do you read me?" I yelled this time.
The silence unnerved me, and i jumped into the tank, and cranked it into high gear. Booga let out a howl and we blew a trail of sand behind us that was high and wide!