Guardrail

As Gavin turned his gaze away from Ennis Town to look further ahead, the people in the Ford RV did the opposite, keeping their eyes fixed on the increasingly distant Ennis.

Watching that familiar little town, William raised a hand to cover his forehead, his lips trembling as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

Originally, he was a man of many words; at the very least, when he first met his idol, he had talked so much it was impossible to keep up, even becoming a bit incoherent.

But it had only been a few hours.

William's silence made everyone who met him for the first time assume he was a man of few words.

Beside William, Eugene rose from the sofa and walked toward the back of the RV.

Reaching the bed, he stood there and looked out the rear window, staring with reluctance at the town where he had lived for decades.

And what he was looking at, what he was reluctant to leave, was far more than just a town.

It was the life he had lived for over thirty years.

Meanwhile, at the RV's dining table, Winnie's small mouth parted instinctively as her gaze drifted past the window to the receding Ennis.

Noticing her daughter's gaze, Doris took her small hand and whispered.

"Don't look, honey."

"It's okay, Mom, I'm just looking, you don't need to worry about me."

Winnie replied in a flat tone, but that very flatness only served to trigger Doris's emotions.

In that moment, Doris's expression shifted emotionally, and she hissed in a low voice.

"I said don't look, child. That place isn't your father's grave; it's hell, a damn hell!"

As she finished speaking, Doris slumped helplessly onto the table, burying her eyes in the crook of her arm and squeezing them shut.

Hearing her mother's sudden outburst, Winnie froze for a moment, then turned back, ran her fingers through Doris's hair, and said.

"If Dad and my brother knew we were still alive, they would be so happy, Mom."

After saying this, Winnie didn't wait for Doris to respond; she leaned in close to where Doris was slumped and pressed her head against her mother's.

At the back of the vehicle, listening to the two women, Eugene took a deep breath and turned around.

He first wore a look of disdain, but a moment later, his smile turned bitter.

He simply dropped the awkward expression and went to the dining table to sit across from Doris.

While fiddling with the roses on the table, Eugene said.

"I was just about to curse you for being less composed than a child, but then I thought, fuck, it seems I'm no better than a child myself."

"Believe it or not, when we drove through Ennis, I almost fucking cried!"

"It's so damn embarrassing. I'd rather be scared shitless than have water leaking out of the two holes in my face. Do you know why?"

At this, Eugene tapped the table with his finger, causing Doris to look up at him with a hint of fear.

In the driver's seat, Madison heard Eugene's words and took a moment to look back.

"Eugene, you actually have moments where you're this serious?"

"There's a lot you haven't seen. Answer my question, nigger, do you know why I hate shedding tears so much?"

Eugene continued to press Madison, and before Madison or Doris could answer, he continued in a self-answering tone.

"Because when I was fighting in the Middle East, I discovered something interesting."

"Whenever one of my comrades had a mental breakdown from the constant suicide attacks and hid in a tent or trench crying like a woman, he wasn't long for this world."

"This wasn't a coincidence, nor was it an isolated case. The wars I fought weren't like the ones in the movies."

"In the movies, the more a soldier cries, the more likely he is to survive until the end, gradually becoming stronger."

"But in reality, once the comrades I knew felt fear or started to break down, they never had the time to become stronger, because death always found them with precision, without exception!"

"So..."

Eugene tapped the table again, looking at Doris's evasive and timid eyes as he spoke.

"Do you want to die like my comrades?"

As the words fell, Eugene stared intensely into Doris's eyes, and Doris gasped, shaking her head in a panic.

"No, I..."

"Haha, I'm just fucking with you. Because you are a woman, you can cry however you want!"

"I was saying it for William's benefit. Right, little William? Ever since you saw your deadbeat dad, you've been acting so womanly, like you couldn't wait to put on some lingerie!"

"You know, the kind of panties with a strip of cloth wedged in the crack of your ass, haha!!!"

Amidst his loud laughter, Eugene left the table, went over to William, and rubbed his head vigorously.

After being messed with for a while, William finally reacted; he exhaled in annoyance, constantly dodging Eugene's hands.

Seeing that William was genuinely irritated, Eugene let him go, then leaned back lazily on the sofa and pulled out a cigarette.

"I won't go to the passenger seat to smoke. After all, I'm not as particular as the Quarterback, and besides, the world has changed. You two ladies will see plenty more bastards like me sooner or later!"

He muttered a word and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it slowly.

Exhaling a cloud of smoke, Eugene looked toward the driver's seat and asked.

"Madison, do you want to learn how to smoke?"

"Trust me, you'll need this stuff in the future. It will slowly take your life as it burns, but it can also fill a little something into that missing piece of your heart."

"Even if it stuffs your heart with shit, believe me, even shit is much better than emptiness. Those two feelings are worlds ap... hm?"

Mid-sentence, Madison suddenly slowed the RV down!

In the blink of an eye, everyone in the vehicle cast aside their philosophical musings and lunged toward the front to look at the Tyrannosaurus.

They saw the Tyrannosaurus slowly decelerate and then pull over to the side of the road, while Gavin hopped down from the vehicle.

Stepping onto the highway, Gavin walked to the roadside and frowned as he looked at the guardrail.

When they were approaching Ennis, the highway hadn't had any guardrails, so why were there guardrails now that they were leaving Ennis?

Just as he leaned in to inspect the guardrail, the others stepped off the RV one after another, leaving only Doris and Winnie inside.

Before the group could get close, Gavin waved a hand at them and said.

"Don't worry, I'm just taking a look at the guardrail. When I used to drive on this road, I really never paid attention to which sections had guardrails or anything like that."

Gavin was not the kind of top-tier genius capable of being a super-brain; his memory was only at the level of an average person, though his personality was just a little more cautious than most.

At this moment, Gavin took a look at the material of the guardrail.

The guardrail wasn't the type made of plastic barrels for buffer deceleration, but rather hard metal that would be very difficult to destroy.

Beside him, Madison asked Gavin hesitantly.

"Is there a problem with the guardrail? There are always guardrails on the side of the road; this stuff is too common."

"Yeah, too common."

Gavin nodded, then shook his head, thinking as he spoke.

"The guardrail itself is fine, it's just that if we reach the vicinity of Coskana and are forced to avoid the urban area, looking for a way to pass through Coskana by leaving the road..."

"At that point, I'm worried the guardrails will become a problem for us, locking us onto the road where we can only move forward or backward."

Having said this, Gavin looked back at the group and asked.

"Are there guardrails like this on the roads near Coskana? Do any of you have an impression?"

"Ha, I actually do have a bit of one."

Eugene replied, counting on his fingers.

"There are indeed quite a lot of guardrails over there, and they are all very sturdy. After all, many trucks pass through that city, not to mention that Coskana's economy is much better than Ennis'."

"Unlike our Ennis, where there's only one straight road in and out of the city; it's hard to even get into a car accident."

"Coskana is connected in all directions, the city planning is a mess, the shitty City Hall and State Assembly are useless, the politicians full of nonsense only know how to lie, and the State Government only knows how to collect taxes, motherfucker."

Having cursed to this point, Eugene spat on the ground.

Hearing this, Gavin nodded, then walked toward the Tyrannosaurus and said.

"It's fine, let's keep going. We still have over thirty kilometers to go."

As his voice fell, Gavin and the others boarded the RV and continued their journey.

But after returning to the vehicle, they had driven less than eight kilometers.

Gavin actually stopped again.