The sun had barely risen when the bus rolled up to the stop, opening its doors to the divine patron it was about to accommodate. She kept Her IV pole close to Her body as She hopped in, since having it roll up the steps was physically impossible. The inside didn't have anyone other than the bus driver, who barely gave Her a nod of acknowledgement before closing the doors behind Her. The inside of the bus had a weird musty smell, but She would have to deal with it for now. She quietly slinked into the seat right next to the door since it'd be quicker to get out that way. Pulling Her IV pole close to her as the bus started to move, She mentally prepared herself for a long, long trip.
The first 35 or so minutes were mercifully uneventful, with nothing of note happening besides a few people getting on and off. But then at one stop came a mother and her crying, screaming baby, who sat right next to Her. Safe to say, She did not appreciate having a child yelling in Her left ear during an already slightly unpleasant ride due to the smell.
"Excuse me… Ma'am?" She confronted the mother after about 5 minutes of the torture, Her voice sounding a little gravelly since She hadn't used it much if at all in the past few months. "Can you please quiet down your child?"
"Oh, don't worry, he'll shut up eventually." The apparently horrendous mother didn't even look up from her phone, which she had gotten onto right as she had sat down. On the flip side, the thoroughly pissed off deity was having a small migraine while mentally screaming at this woman to get off the bus, since She was now unable to move even if She wanted to with this idiotic woman sitting right next to Her. Unfortunately, the lady didn't get off the bus for another 20 minutes, her kid screaming so loud that She could've sworn that the souls of the damned could hear him.
Thankfully the woman eventually got off, leaving Her to practically melt into Her seat in bliss. With the screaming finally over, the rest of the next two hours of the bus ride flew by as nothing else as bad as that happened for the whole trip. She was honestly caught a little off guard by how fast time went, but it was still pretty peaceful after that mother left, so She was happy about it.
Giving the bus driver a nod of thanks and respect for his job, She found Herself in the Oregon City area surrounded by all sorts of different businesses. Gaining Her bearings, She determined which way was south and started heading in that direction, maneuvering around whatever humans were on the sidewalks at the time.
Besides seeing a random couple arguing on the other side of the street and noticing a spelling error on one business's sign, She didn't really get that far before something really weird happened. Around 15 minutes after getting dropped off by the bus, She heard police sirens off in the distance, but didn't really pay attention to it much. That is, until the sirens got louder and louder, making Her eventually turn around to see what all the commotion was about.
And boy, was there a well-earned commotion going on behind Her.
4 police cars were chasing a dark brown monster truck with a stained red grill down the street, their sirens blaring loud enough that you could probably hear them from 5 blocks away. The monster truck in question was driving extremely recklessly, swerving around the corner a couple blocks behind Her in a way that hit a couple pedestrians to the ground, though She couldn't quite tell how bad they were injured at this distance. As the truck sped forward on the street, She tried to get a good look at who the driver was, but the glass was tinted in a way that made it impossible to see inside.
She watched as the truck tried blasting past Her, but it got blocked off by 3 more police cars coming around a corner further up, forcing the vehicle to spin in place as it stopped itself. The police cars stopped in turn, with the humans themselves flowing out of the vehicles with their guns ready, one of said humans holding onto a microphone instead, clearly intending to say something to the truck.
"Step out of the vehicle with your hands in the air!" The police officer called out, his fellow policemen bracing themselves for any hostility. "You are being charged for multiple cases of vehicular manslaughter, speeding violations, and other illegal activities!"
After some very tense silence, both of the windows on the monster truck slowly dropped open to reveal who was inside. Her mind was racing about what kind of human could be inside. Was it some fat old man that smells like alcohol? A scrawny teenager thinking this was some sort of sick game? A woman that looked like she was a mafia boss? All these thoughts swirled around in Her head as the windows fully opened to reveal…
Nothing.
There was nothing driving that car.
Confusion spread throughout the entire section of road at this, from the policemen to Her and the other onlookers on the sidewalk. This was actually unreal. A self-driving monster truck was utterly unheard of, yet here it was, right in front of everyone. As if to confirm that this thing was working on its own terms, the truck revved its engine, sending the other onlookers to flee in panic.
"Bitch - you think you can - arrest - a car!?" What seemed like multiple recordings of different people spliced together to create a sentence blared out of the truck's radio on full volume. At this point multiple policemen were starting to waiver, clearly realizing they were in over their heads. It didn't help that the truck was clearly preparing to ram into them at full speed.
"S-sir!" One of the officers called out to the one with the microphone. "I really think we should leave!" The worried officer was stepping back into his as he spoke.
"Nonsense! We'l-" Just as the head officer tried to answer, the truck lurched forward and smashed right into him. The other policemen started screaming and floundering to get in their cars, but the truck had an insane reaction speed as it swiveled around to ram into more police. Only two police cars managed to make it out, with 5 or 6 dead people on the ground at the end of the massacre.
Once all the policemen were either slain or escaped, the truck swiveled to look right at Her. She almost thought that it was going to charge at Her too… until it spoke to Her.
"What - are you?" A spliced question surfaced from the vehicle, undeniably aimed at Her. It was extremely unusual for anything to acknowledge that She was out of place, but maybe it was just that the mental fog didn't affect machinery.
"What is it to you?" She tried retorting, but the truck simply lurched forward, shaving the distance between the two to about a foot.
"I won't ask this again. - What - are you?" The truck, adamant about getting this information out of Her, turned its headlights on in what could be described as a show of intimidation. On the flip side, the divine being decided with a sigh that She didn't want to get run over by a 10 foot tall vehicle.
"Mortals may call me a goddess or a deity, I don't care which title you may use." She admitted, which seemed to placate the truck's deadly curiosity enough for it to turn its lights off and back up about a foot.
"What is - your name?" The truck asked another question, apparently calmed down now as it was using much less angry voice clips.
"I'm-"
She didn't know.
Who was She?? How long had She not known??? Wait, what was she even supposed to be the goddess of?! This isn't right. It isn't normal. What does it even mean that She can't remember her own name, let alone herentire purpose in the fabric of reality-
"Ma'am." The truck interrupted Her train of thought, pulling the confused goddess back to reality.
"Ah, sorry." She tried to keep Her cool, but She couldn't stop herself from faintly hyperventilating. "I just… Can't seem to remember at the moment."
"A goddess - can't seem to remember - her own name?" The truck used Her own audio in the new sentence, pitched to make it fit the tone that the car was trying to make. It almost seemed to physically laugh too, its engine slightly revving a little bit over and over, making the vehicle's frame bounce up and down. "That's hilarious!"
"Hey. It's not like it was in my control." She retorted, annoyed by this machine's brash apathy. "What about your name, mister…?"
"Miss. - Brown." The word "brown" seemed to have been recorded from far away as the audio sounded distinctly quieter and more echoey that the truck's other audio.
"Simple yet informative…" The deity whispered to Herself, slightly thankful that it wasn't some abhorrently complex name or something.
"Get - in the back - I can - pretend - you're a - hostage" Brown swung her doors open as she commanded the deity to get in. "Could - keep - the police - at bay"
"What?! No!" She shouted, slightly repulsed by the idea of being with such an attention grabbing vehicle. But then, thinking quickly, the goddess added: "Not unless you take me to Los Angeles."
"Los Angeles?" The car parroted a pitched version of Her words to make it sound like a question. "The fuck - do you want - with - Los Angeles??"
"Well, there's another deity there that I was gonna check up on." She admitted as She somewhat shuffled in place. "Aperantly now I also need to ask Him if He remembers who I am or not."
"Why - would - I want - to go - to - Los Angeles?" Brown turned her headlights on again, seemingly getting annoyed with Her lack of cooperation.
"Uhm…" She had to think hard to come up with a reason for the truck to bring Her to the burning city. So, this thing didn't seem to like humans very much. Maybe She could use that?
"Well?" Brown, getting impatient, basically demanded that She hurry up with Her line of thought.
"The whole city is on fire." She mentally facepalmed Herself for the stupid statement, but apparently, Brown was able to take it.
"HAH - what idiots!" Brown did her weird revving laugh again. "You know what, - I have - to - see - this! - Get - in."
She sighed, not understanding how the crisis had averted but being thankful that it did anyways. The deity happily complied with the agreement, maneuvering Her IV pole to fit inside the truck before hopping in Herself. It was a somewhat tight fit, but it was perfectly fine for now since She was able to get comfortable inside. It didn't even smell bad in here!
"Alright - don't expect - me - to - stop - for - lights - or - humans." Brown's radio blurted out as she rolled up her windows. The deity braced Herself for the sudden lurch forward as Brown started for Los Angeles at full speed.
This was either gonna be an extremely long trip, or a very, very short one.