Chapter 26: Moving On

  “Okay, I assume that means you’re ready?” Abeona asked with an amused smile.

  “Yes!” Eve confirmed enthusiastically “I just have one last question, will Wheeler ever go to the Isekai world?”

  Abeona’s eyes narrowed as she tilted her head. “Why do you ask?”

  “He’s the only thing that ever successfully landed a hit on me.” Eve explained with a serious expression, her normal casual aura evaporating in an instant. “One of these days, I want us to have a rematch. Bet he couldn’t hit me again.”

  Abeona gave a little chuckle. “Well who knows what the future might hold. I’ll be certain to let him know.”

  “Please do, it’s surprisingly difficult for me to find a worthy opponent to dodge.” Eve lamented.

  “No shortage of those where you’re going.” The goddess reassured Eve. “Razorback Boars, Manticores, Dragons...”

  “Dragons!?” Eve repeated, her eyes shining with excitement.

  “Yes dragons and much more” Abeona said, a slight edge of impatience entering her voice. “So are you ready now?”.

  “Yes.” Eve replied firmly.

  Eve closed her eyes. So finely tuned were her dodging instincts, that it took all of Eve’s concentration to resist her natural inclination to dodge the goddess’s incoming grasp. But she stayed put as Abeona’s hand made contact with her head.

  Abeona then started to chant words Eve was unable to understand to initiate her divine magic. "Anima mortalis, Egredere in alium mundum. Anima mortalis, Egredere in alium mundum. Anima mortalis, Egredere in alium mundum."

  Within seconds, Eve was enveloped in a bright heavenly light, then mere moments after that Eve was gone, leaving Abeona alone in her chamber.

  “Good luck Eve.” Abeona whispered quietly, before returning her attention to her tablet, unmuting it so she could talk to Wheeler.

  The goddess started the conversation in a immediately upbeat and jovial mood. “Good news Wheeler my man... err truck, our first mission is now officially completed!” Abeona cheered, clearly giddy from their success.

  “So, Eve has been safely transported to the Isekai world?” Wheeler asked hopefully.

  “Yepperooney, aye-firmativo.” Abeona chirped cheerfully as she now made her charm dance across Wheeler’s dashboard in a similar manner to how Eve had done earlier.

  Wheeler, his engine emitting a low grumble, asked for clarification. “For those of us who speak English and not nonsense-ese?”

  “Yes!” Abeona confirmed with a more blunt, straightforward attitude before switching back quickly to her more giddy attitude. “Our first satisfied customer. This is cause for celebration... if only Adiona hadn’t confiscated all my booze.”

  Wheeler’s suspension shuddered at the thought of what a drunk Abeona may be like. She was quite frankly enough of a chaotic mess sober. The idea of this gremlin of a goddess after a few drinks was positively terrifying.

  That aside, Wheeler flicked his wipers across his windscreen as if wiping his non-existent brow. With Eve happily moved on, Wheeler’s job was done, he could finally rest and hopefully move on too.

  “So tonight we celebrate. TO THE SUCCESS OF PROJECT ISEKAI," The goddess yelled out triumphantly. “Then tomorrow, we go onto our next target.”

  “Next target?” Wheeler stuttered immediately, panicked.

  “Yeah, I know the first one was tough on you emotionally, but don’t worry I promise it’s going to get easier and easier with each target you take out.” Abeona reassured him.

  Wheeler for his part, wasn’t exactly sure he wanted this to get easier in the way Abeona suggested. While he may be a truck on the outside, he was internally a human, or at least clinging onto the vestiges of his humanity. If he lost that, Wheeler dreaded to think what he might become, should he become detached from the morality of his actions.

  Detached... that reminded Wheeler of the unsettling numbness that cloaked his Truck-body. With everything going on, Wheeler had forgotten to re-enable his haptic feedback.

  As he turned his systems back on, the sensations of the world rushed back to him. The chill of the faint breeze, the drumming of the rain on his surfaces. The solid tarmac beneath his Wheels, which connected him to the earth. He was finally reengaging with the world around him once more.

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  As he readjusted to the world around him, Wheeler was aware that after the intensity of the past few days, he wasn’t sure he was ready to jump immediately to another target. He desperately tried to think of an excuse to stall.

  “Oh, tomorrow, we already have a mission tomorrow.” Wheeler pushed insistently. “I promised Eve I’d keep an eye on Lily remember?”

  Abeona’s figure stopped dancing and gave an incredulous look. “I wouldn’t recommend checking on her quite yet.” The goddess warned. “If she sees you again, especially so soon after what just happened, it’ll likely only upset her more.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Wheeler relented with a dejected sigh.

  “Aren’t I always?” Abeona giggled.

  “Nope.” Wheeler replied, without missing a beat before adding. “But you are this time, I guess.” He admitted reluctantly.

  Ignoring the initial jab, the goddess reassured Wheeler. “We’ll check in on Lily eventually, I promise. But for now, we should give her some space to grieve.”

  Silently, Wheeler wondered to himself where Lily was now. How was she coping with the aftermath of Eve’s death?

  At that moment, Lily was sat in the police station waiting room. She’d already lost count of exactly how many times she’d cried, but once more, Lily found herself wiping fresh tears from her reddened eyes.

  Her mind kept flashing through the night’s events. As the emergency services arrived at the construction site, Lily had returned to Eve, and what she’d seen, now haunted her.

  Eve’s eyes, that once sparkled with life had turned into glassy voids. Any flicker of the energetic young woman Lily had loved had gone, leaving behind an empty shell. Lily had tried gently closing Eve’s eyelids, but it had been too late. That hollow stare was now burned into Lily’s mind, becoming the last memory she had of Eve. After that, the paramedics had taken her away. What remained of Eve was likely in the morgue by now.

  Not wanting to think about it anymore, Lily desperately searched for any distraction. The mostly plain waiting room at the station had very little of interest. A few chairs, a water cooler, the only thing Lily found to focus on was a noticeboard. The board was filled various posters, advertising different services the police provided

  “When there’s Crime in your neighbourhood, Who ya gonna call? US!” declared one poster. Another, offering some kind of emotional support counselling service, for some reason, that Lily couldn’t fathom, had an image of a piglet in a police hat.

  These images did little to disrupt Lily’s train of thought, which kept replaying every detail. Her mind was filled with countless questions, as she analysed every moment. Who was driving that deadly truck? Why had they targeted Eve? Why didn’t they also try to kill Lily? The more Lily thought about it, the less the whole situation made sense.

  The grieving girl was jolted out of her thought by a loud booming voice. “Miss Foster?” A stern looking policeman stood in front of her asked.

  The still somewhat dazed and shaking Lily nodded passively. “Yes, I’m Lily Foster,” she confirmed quietly.

  “I’m Officer Slaw. Sorry to keep you waiting, I’ve read over the case and need to hear your testimony about what happened tonight at the construction site.” The policeman explained.

  Lily, followed the Officer Slaw as he led her towards one of the interview rooms. As she sat down in one of the chairs in the interview room, Lily took a deep, calming breath, gaining some modicum of control over her tremoring.

  If she was going to get justice for what happened to Eve, Lily knew she’d have to do her upmost to recall and communicate every detail, no matter how small.

  So it went on, for several gruelling hours, Lily was forced to relive the events of earlier that night, the worst night of her life. She laid out everything, from the days of close calls with the truck Eve had encountered prior to her demise, to every sight, sound, scent of the deadly event itself.

  For every answer she gave, Officer Slaw asked a string of follow up questions. Lily responded to the best of her ability to every query, until finally, the cop asked her a question she found herself unable to answer.

  “What was the truck’s license plate number?”

  “License plate number?” Lily repeated, repeating her mind for the answer. It was such an obvious thing. But she simply was unable to remember. She thought she would have taken in such a vital piece of information... maybe she’d simply forgotten? How could she have missed something so important?

  “AGGHHH”, Lily began smacking her forehead with her hand. As if truck’s number was simply stuck in her mind and needed shaking loose like the last remnants of sauce in the bottom of a condiment bottle.

  She could feel it was there somewhere, but she couldn’t retrieve it. Some sort of mental barrier keeping the information just beyond her reach.

  “Why? WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER.” Lily growled in frustration.

  Officer Slaw gave her a calming smile. “It’s ok, happens to the best of us.” He reassured her. “I actually had something similar happen a few weeks ago. You see I was...”

  “I’m sorry but I really don’t care right now, I know that number is in here, so just let me think” Lily snapped.

  “Miss Foster, I understand you’re upset, but...” Slaw started.

  Lily leapt to her feet and brought her hand crashing down onto the interview room desk. “I JUST SAW MY BEST FRIEND DIE,” She bellowed, “YOU WEREN’T THERE, YOU HAVE NO DAMN IDEA HOW I’M FEELING.” She then collapsed in a sobbing heap back onto her chair.

  “What use am I? I couldn’t protect her, I couldn’t save her, I can’t even remember a damn license plate.” Lily cried. “If she hadn’t jumped in to save me, she’d still be here.”

  Slaw gave a deep sigh, “I think you would benefit from talking to our emotional support officer, Officer Pacifica.”

  “I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” Lily accepted tearfully.

  “Great, I’ll go get her.” With that Officer Slaw got up and left the room, leaving Lily alone with her thoughts. A few minutes later, he returned, holding something wrapped in a purple blanket in his arms.

  Looking around confused, Lily saw no other officers at Slaw’s side, Where is the emotional support officer? I thought you were going to get her?”

  “I did, she’s right here.” Officer Slaw pulled back the blanket to reveal a baby pig in a police hat. With a felt police badge stuck to it.

  “Miss Foster, meet our emotional support officer, Pacifica.” Slaw beamed proudly.