“Whoa! Watch it!”
“Relax, pal,” Jason smiled. “We’re fine.”
Samuel gripped the door of the cab and clung on for dear life, expecting another car to come hurtling toward them at any second. Jason navigated them up the opposing slip road with ease though and before Samuel knew it, they were up on the bridge and back on the right side of the road. Samuel could feel his heart pounding in his chest but saw nothing but a look of adventure on Jason’s face. This man was either not in his right mind or just excited to be driving without the usual Manhattan traffic for once. Samuel hoped with all his might it was just the latter.
“Anyway yeah,” Jason continued to talk, filling his cab with sound as he sped across the bridge. “This ransomware thing, all sounds like a load of baloney to me. Who holds money to ransom, when the ransom is for the money itself? Doesn’t even make sense! Nah, I reckon this is just some exotic marketing ploy, another trick to try and get us to invest more in the company. Might have worked on most people, but it takes more than that to fool me.”
Samuel was honestly and completely lost for words. He’d never met a man like Jason before, someone who could so confidently believe in his own opinion, even when everything and everyone else was telling him he was wrong. The worry that he was slightly funny in the head popped into Samuel’s mind again. The erratic driving coupled with the unorthodox opinions made Samuel worry exactly whose cab he had jumped into. He tried not to judge, thankful for the help Jason was giving to him for the time being at least.
“I really hope you’re right,” Samuel replied eventually. “That’d sure make my life a lot easier.”
“Oh yeah,” Jason glanced back in the mirror again. “You said you work there. What do you do?”
Now Samuel let out an awkward laugh, remembering what Jason had just said about this whole thing being a stunt. “I’m in marketing,” he answered, unable to come up with another response. “If this is some trick to get new customers, it’s not one that they ran past me.”
“Ha! Maybe you’re just not high enough up the ladder pal,” Jason chuckled to himself. “Or maybe you’re in on the whole thing. To think! I could be driving the very man who came up with this whole joke. Can you imagine?”
“You caught me,” Samuel replied, continuing his awkward laughter and really wishing he could change the topic of conversation. “Busted. It’s Freeport I need to get to by the way, about ten minutes after the airport.”
“Roger that,” Jason nodded, “I can definitely get you to JFK. After that you might be on your own.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve heard some radio chatter come through. Everything sounds a bit messed up around there, plane knocked over on the runway or something.”
“A plane crash?”
“No,” Jason shook his head. “From what I could best make out, a plane that was waiting to take off from the runway sort of toppled over. I think everyone got the news about Trident after the doors were closed and mass hysteria kicked in,” he chuckled to himself, rolling his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Anyway, now they’re all stuck on board. Emergency services are naturally nowhere to be seen.”
“Oh wow,” Samuel breathed, “that’s mental.”
“Told ya. Best practical joke I’ve ever experienced.”
Samuel let out yet another awkward laugh and then turned his attention to the scenery speeding by out of the cab window. The longer he was in the car with Jason, the less comfortable he felt. But they were well onto Long Island now and the airport was only a few more miles away, signs for it becoming more and more frequent on the side of the road. The traffic was increasing too. They’d passed plenty of cars on their journey so far, but much less than you’d expect to see on a Saturday afternoon in New York City.
The overwhelming sense that seemed to be flooding throughout the city and its people was confusion. No one really understood what had happened, nor what the ransomware statement meant for their future. There were plenty who had reacted poorly to it, those who had taken their own lives out of despair like R. Hauser, or those who were ransacking and looting stores for personal gain. But most now seemed almost frozen in a state of bewilderment. The initial shock of the incident had passed and while many were still angry and searching for answers, they didn’t have anywhere to turn to for them and so were left simply waiting for something else to happen.
“Hey! Watch it you maniac!”
Jason slammed down on the brake and his horn simultaneously, causing the wheels of his cab to spin and the back end kick out as someone sped out of a side road just ahead of them, nearly crashing into their bumper. The tires screeched on the tarmac and Jason struggled to regain control, spinning the steering wheel in his hands and attempting to slow the vehicle. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The trunk of the cab crunched against a lamppost and halted the car instead.
“No, no, no!” Jason was out of his seat in a flash, throwing the door open and stepping out into the street. “You jerk!” He shouted at the car disappearing into the distance, not even so much as slowing after the accident it had just caused. “Oh man, look at my cab.”
A little shaken
