Free The Mulligan Planet by Zachariah Dracoulis Page A

he had everything ready, just had to fit
it,” we squeezed through the crowd, “Is his car just in the lot
Mark?” Wolf yelled into the air as we continued to the elevator,
“Yeah! Furthest from the entrance, keys are in the glove
compartment!” there was no real sound to these words as we finally
managed to climb inside another elevator, “Thanks! I’ll see you
later, happy birthday!” The doors slid shut and I felt my stomach
drop as we moved up. Before long we were in the garage looking at
my car, it had a new glossy black paint cover, a set of chrome
wheels attached to beautiful white-wall tires, chrome mix side
skirts and bumpers that were millimetres from the ground snuggled
the base of my monstrous vehicle as well as the windows now
exceptionally darker. My mouth dangled open, “It’s… beautiful.” I
looked over to Wolf, looking similarly impressed, “Yeah… want to
have a look inside?” I nodded feverishly, I grabbed the handle and
pulled, it wouldn’t budge, I tried again, “It won’t open.” I looked
at Wolf again, “What do you mean it won’t open?” I threw my hands
in the air, “It won’t open, I think Marcus must’ve locked it.”
There was a click sound from the car and the indicators flashed, I
tried the handle again, “Unlock.” The door popped open when I
pulled, “Oh that’s cool.” I climbed in and felt the seats, which
were noticeably softer, there was a small tablet in the middle of
the console now, Wolf was climbing in next to me while I gripped
the hard steering wheel, “I don’t have to give this back now do I?”
Wolf seemed as marvelled about the car as I did, “I’m going to go
with… no. Yeah, no, definitely not.”
    “Wolf, could you grab the keys?”
he nodded and started feeling around inside the glove compartment,
“This is a really nice car, the seats are so soft... There we go,”
he tossed the keys over to me, “Mind if I borrow it at some point?”
I shook my head as I turned the keys in the ignition, “No, not at
all. So where are we going to go?” Wolf shrugged, “There’s an old
air field about twenty minutes west from here, could be a nice
place to let it loose.” A deep purr rolled from the engine and the
tablet lit up, “Good morning John, and welcome to the HCV, today I
will be running you through a tutorial on how to effectively use
this vehicle, state safe testing area.” A strong, British male’s
voice pushed through the centre console and into my ears. I looked
over to Wolf, whose jaw was dangling open, “Did… did the car just
talk to me?” his jaw slammed shut and he nodded, “Tell it we want
to go to airfield seven…” I started but before I could finish the
windshield came to life, “Now connecting to OLHUD and LAP. Please
wait… Complete, now finding route to airfield seven closest to your
position. Upon exit of facility go left.” I was still very
confused, but I grabbed the wheel and followed the car’s
instruction, Wolf was sitting bolt upright, “This is cool… but at
the same time really unnerving.” I nodded slowly, I felt as if I
made any sudden movements I would scare the car. I followed the
directions of the car in complete silence until we were on a strip
of tarmac that must’ve been ten kilometres long surrounded by sheds
with the corpses of several passenger planes. In fact, the only
exception in this aerial graveyard were a few small jets that still
looked functional, “No officers or civilians within a one hundred
kilometre radius, discretion is unnecessary.” I opened my mouth
several times before I said anything, “Is that the car’s way of
saying floor it?” Wolf smiled widely, “No no, I believe he means
floor it or he will.” I now shared his grin and dropped the
accelerator, I could feel the difference between last night’s drive
and today's, the tires held us to the road while we picked up
speed, I looked down at the speedometer which had just spun past
one ninety, “Wooooooooh!” at