Lisa's eyes snapped open with a gasp.
Her whole body jerked upright, or tried to - the seatbelt locked, holding her in place. She clawed at it, breathing hard, her heart hammering against her ribs.
"Easy." Alex's voice came from beside her. "You're okay."
Lisa's head whipped toward him. He was driving, hands on the wheel, eyes on the road ahead. Calm. Like nothing had happened.
"Welcome back," he added.
Lisa stared at him, her mind racing. The club. Marcus. Running. The men chasing her. And then—
Headlights. A truck. Impact.
She looked down at herself. No blood. No broken bones. She was sitting in the passenger seat of Alex's truck, completely fine.
'What the hell happened?'
She opened her mouth to ask, then stopped. What was she supposed to say? "Did I just die?" That sounded insane. Maybe she'd passed out. Maybe she hit her head and hallucinated the whole thing.
But it had felt so real. The impact. The pain. The moment of weightlessness before everything went dark.
Alex glanced at her. "You're wondering what happened."
"I..." Lisa's voice came out hoarse. She cleared her throat. "Yeah."
"You died." Alex's tone was matter-of-fact. "And I killed you."
Lisa stared at him. "What?"
"You heard me. You died. I hit you with the truck. You're dead."
"That's not funny."
"I'm not joking."
Lisa looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Are you insane? I'm sitting right here. I'm breathing. I'm alive."
"Not exactly."
"What the fuck does that mean?"
Alex's jaw tightened. "It means you're not in Kansas anymore."
Lisa felt anger flash through her. "I'm not here for your cryptic bullshit, Alex. What the hell is going on?"
"Look outside."
"What?"
"The window. Look outside."
Lisa glared at him, then turned to look out her window.
She froze.
The road beneath them looked normal - asphalt, white lines. But beyond the road, beyond the edges... nothing. Just colors. Swirling masses of light and shadow, purples and blues and blacks all bleeding into each other. Like driving through space, but wrong. Fractured. She could see shapes in the distance - other roads? Other worlds? - flickering in and out of existence.
"What..." Lisa's hand went to the window, pressing against the glass. "What is this?"
"A dimensional gate-pass. We're between worlds right now."
Lisa jerked back from the window, her breathing quickening. "No. No, this isn't real. This is a hallucination. I hit my head, I'm—"
"You're not hallucinating."
She looked back outside. The colors were still there, still swirling. She could see what looked like entire landscapes flickering past - forests, cities, oceans - all compressed into split-second glimpses as they drove through whatever the fuck this was.
Lisa slammed her hand against the window control, rolling it up. When she looked back at the road ahead, it looked normal again. Just a regular highway stretching into the distance.
But her hands were shaking.
"What did you do to me?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Alex kept his eyes on the road. "Ever heard of Truck Kun?"
"What?"
"Truck Kun. It's... it's a thing. From anime and manga. A truck that hits people and sends them to other worlds."
Lisa stared at him. "You're telling me you're some kind of isekai truck driver?"
"Basically."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"And yet here we are."
Alex's hands tightened on the wheel. He explained - quickly, simply - about the accident, about killing the original Truck Kun driver, about the Council, about the punishment. About how his job now was to transport people to other worlds, to deliver cosmic justice.
When he finished, Lisa was silent for a long moment.
"So you're a cosmic delivery driver," she finally said, her voice flat.
"That's one way to put it."
"And you killed me."
"Yes."
"Where are you taking me?" Lisa's voice was sharp, direct. "What's my destination?"
Alex hesitated. "Constantinople. 1453."
Lisa stared at him. "Constantinople. As in... the Byzantine Empire? The Middle Ages?"
"Yes."
"So not only did you kill me, you're sending me backwards in time?" Her voice was incredulous. "I don't even get to go to the future? Some advanced civilization? No, I get the fucking Dark Ages?"
"It's not the Dark Ages, technically that's—"
"I don't give a shit about the technicalities, Alex!" She slammed her hand against the dashboard. "I was a journalist! I had a life! A career! And now you're telling me I'm going to be what? A peasant? A servant? In a world where women have no rights?"
"I don't know what you'll be there," Alex said quietly. "That's not my decision to make."
"But killing me was?"
Alex didn't have an answer for that.
"You fucking killed me!" Her voice rose, anger breaking through the shock. "I was running for my life, and you—you ran me over!"
"You were going to die anyway," Alex said, his own frustration bleeding through. "Those men were right behind you. If I hadn't hit you, they would have caught you. Tortured you. Killed you slowly. At least this way—"
"At least this way what? I'm dead! I don't get a choice! I don't get to—" She stopped, her breath hitching. "My story. My investigation. Everything I worked for. It's gone."
"You get a second chance. A new world. A new life."
"I didn't ask for a new life! I liked my old one!"
"Your old life had you sold at an auction and running from assassins."
"That was temporary! I would have figured it out! I always figure it out!" Lisa's voice cracked slightly. "You had no right. No right to just... to decide that for me."
Alex didn't have an answer for that. Because she was right. He hadn't given her a choice.
They drove in tense silence. Lisa stared out the window, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Alex could see her blinking rapidly, fighting back tears.
'The decoy worked,' he thought, trying to focus on something other than her pain. 'June created an illusion - another truck that looked exactly like mine, with a fake me driving it. Lisa saw it coming from the front, thought it was me. But the real me was waiting on the side street. She never saw me coming.'
It had been the only way to do it. If she'd seen him coming, she might have dodged. Might have survived. And then the whole mission would have failed.
"I saw you," Lisa said suddenly. "In the truck. Right before it hit me. I saw your face."
Alex's grip on the wheel tightened. "I know."
He didn't tell her it had been an illusion. Didn't tell her about the decoy. What difference would it make now?
'Why?'
'How long?'
Alex glanced at the dashboard. A new gauge had appeared - something he'd never seen before. It showed the truck's dimensional energy at 23% and dropping.
"We're stopping soon," Alex said.
"Where?"
"I don't know yet."
'A waypoint? What about Constantinople?'
'Three days?'
"England," Alex said aloud. "12th century. We're stopping there first."
Lisa's head turned sharply toward him. "England? What are you talking about?"
"We don't have enough fuel to get to Constantinople directly. We need to stop and recharge first. Three days in York."
"Three days?" Lisa's voice rose. "You're telling me I have to spend three days with you in medieval England before you dump me in medieval Constantinople?"
"I don't like it any more than you do."
"Bullshit. You're the one who did this!"
"I didn't choose the refueling schedule!"
They glared at each other. Then Alex turned back to the road, his jaw clenched.
The colors outside the windows started to shift, coalescing into something more solid. Buildings began to take shape in the distance. Old buildings. Stone and wood. Nothing modern.
"We're here," Alex muttered.
A massive gate materialized in front of them. Not metaphorical - an actual gate. It looked like it was made of light and shadow woven together, towering hundreds of feet high and stretching wider than Alex could see. Symbols he didn't recognize covered its surface, glowing and pulsing.
"Holy shit," Lisa breathed.
The gate began to open. Light poured out, so bright Alex had to squint. The truck drove toward it, and for a moment everything was white.
Then they were through.
The world solidified around them. They were on a dirt road now, trees on either side. The sky above was overcast and gray. In the distance, Alex could see a settlement - stone buildings with thatched roofs, a church spire rising above them, smoke drifting from chimneys.
York.
"Oh my god," Lisa whispered. "It's real. This is actually real."
Alex looked around. They were definitely going to stand out in a truck. "June, I need the illusion skill."
"A wagon. Something that fits this time period."
The truck shimmered, and suddenly they were sitting in a wooden wagon pulled by two horses. At least, that's what anyone looking at them would see.
Alex steered the wagon-truck off the main road, finding a small clearing hidden by trees. He parked and killed the engine.
They sat in silence for a moment.
Then Lisa's stomach growled.
Loud.
She looked down at her stomach, then at Alex, her expression almost comical in its surprise.
"I'm hungry," she said, as if she couldn't quite believe it.
Alex couldn't help it. A small laugh escaped him. "Yeah. Apparently being dead doesn't stop that."
'I thought ghosts didn't get hungry. Or... whatever she is now. Is she a ghost? A dimensional transplant? Does it even matter?'
Lisa's face flushed. "This isn't funny."
"I know. I know it's not." Alex rubbed his face. "Look, we need to eat anyway. And the truck needs to... recharge. Three days. So let's find some food and figure out our next move."
"Our next move?" Lisa's voice was sharp. "There is no 'our.' You brought me here. You did this. You figure out your next move. I'm leaving."
"To go where? You don't know this world. You don't know the language. You don't know....."
"I'll figure it out. I always do."
She reached for the door handle.
"Lisa, wait...."
She shoved the door open and climbed out, not looking back.
Alex watched her go, torn between following her and giving her space. She walked about twenty feet, then stopped, staring at the settlement in the distance.
He sighed and got out of the truck, closing his door behind him.
"Come on," he said. "Let's at least eat something before you storm off into medieval England."
Lisa didn't move for a moment. Then, slowly, she turned to face him.
"I hate you," she said simply.
"I know."
"I'm only going with you because I don't have a choice."
"I know that too."
They walked toward the settlement in silence, the weight of everything unsaid hanging between them.