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# <center>Part 18: I struggled to open my eyes.</center>
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***

  The ethereal smile faded away…slowly. My eyes were gummy and gritty.  At first I could barely see. 


 Someone was standing at the foot of my bed. I was relieved to find that there actually WAS someone present….not just a fading grin.

“I see you’re having a rough time” the person at the foot of my bed  said.

“Who’s that?” I asked. My sight was slowing clearing. I still had ringing in my ears. I vaguely remember a loud gun.  The person at the foot of my bed was coming into focus slowly.  By GOD!  It was the rent-a-cop from the TruckLot gunfight.

“My name is Captain Robert Boyer.  My Friends Call me Bob. You did us all a great service the other day.  I came here on behalf of a lot of people to express our gratitude.” The cop said.

Imagine that! A cop wanting to be friends with a Trucker.  Cops and Truckers were natural enemies. I remembered my experience with cops from before the _cooling,_ before the _SHATTER._ Not good.   I slowly gathered my wits about myself.  The _SHATTER_ was long gone although that couldn’t be said about the _cooling_. 

 Things were different now, MUCH different.  Today all cops were private security.  Rent-a-cops as they’d been called in days of old, the bad old days. No longer.  Cops really were my friends. 

“Um…” I said brilliantly. I still wasn’t up to speed.

“_Cough_  Er.  I don’t know what to say” I said to the Captain “Thank me for what?”

“You are the one who killed _Mahmoud Fawzi Qaboos bin Said Al Mustafa Pasha Abd ar-Rahman al-Bazzaz Amin abIdin Bin Nashi_” he said.  “Folks around here just call him _Ben Nasty_, it saves time. He’s  been pretty nasty. He’s the leader of a local gang. We think he’s organizing for _HezBubble_, _BooBoo IceCream_ or maybe the _TowelBan_. He’s terrorized, tortured and killed a lot of people. You did us all a big favor and performed a public service by getting rid of him” the Captain said.

“Ah” I said “With a name like that no wonder he was nasty. His mother must have  hated children   to inflict a name on a child like that.  Abortion would have been kinder. I don’t remember any details.  I remember being shot at and shooting back.”

“Well you got him. It was your tiny rockets in his body.  Everyone else was using bullets.” Bob said

“Ummmm…..yeah”  Strangely enough I was exhausted. I hadn’t sleep well at all and hadn’t rested. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. “Ahh…you’ll pardon me Bob.  I haven’t been resting well. Nightmares don’t you knoooo……”

I drifted off. The Nurse had injected sleepy juice into my IV.  I went to sleep.

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***To Be Continued***
***The Next Episode Is***
[Part 19:Whisky]( https://steemit.com/fiction/@everittdmickey/45qgxj-ride-the-lightning)
_The Last episode was_
[_Part 17: More NightMares…_](https://steemit.com/fiction/@everittdmickey/6qb4aj-ride-the-lightning)
_the first episode was_
[Part 1 : Winter Storm]( https://steemit.com/fiction/@everittdmickey/part-1)
.
I'm
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU2VndeN9cqSTK4yrXQouhpNQ9ejHu32T2VvQUE8dKYRo/image.png)
@everittdmickey
I surf the net, find the GOOD stuff.
and write posts about it 
So you don't have to.
I also write
___SPECULATIVE FICTION___
and comment on the news
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNoscPQPjPbksJjYjDSajn4w3zf9eGsZB43kgY1NNfask/image.png)
Sometimes it's hard to tell fiction from the news.
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