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Underground eXperts United File 053
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Underground eXperts United
Presents...
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[ Friday The 17th ] [ By The Chief ]
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For some, it's Friday the 13th. For others, it's some other day.
You all know what I'm talking about, right? Well, when THAT day
crawls upon you, you're never prepared. You might prepare for
years, but when the day comes, it is the day you never suspected.
My "day" is Friday the 17th. Let me tell you what happened last
time it was that day (namely January the 17th) to me and a friend
of mine.
BACKGROUND
I'm currently doing my military service in a town far away from
my hometown, and when going home on vacations, holidays and other
miscellaneous times, I have to take (in order) a BUS, SUBWAY, TRAIN,
BOAT and last a CAR to get to my house. This makes for a great story
right? True. Sad but true. Let's start this special friday then..
THE BUS
The bus leaves the base at 17:00. We're finished with the training
at 16:15. This leaves us with 45 minutes to take a shower, pack, clean,
eat dinner, and go (read: run) to the bus. No sweat. If you don't
make mistakes that is. At 16.20 we were off to clean the barrack.
Quickly, quickly now. The clock on the wall showed 16.35 when we
were ready for inspection. Amazingly enough, everything looked ok to
the captain, and as he went out through the doors, I hit the showers.
At 16.50 I was packed 'n ready to eat dinner, so me and a friend of
mine, let's call him Eric, went over to the dining-hall. WHAT A QUEUE!
It went out in the street even! We decided not to have dinner (what
a surprise eh?), but to wait and eat when we reached Stockholm at
about 19:15 with the bus. Said and done, we were off to the bus.
The second not-so-surprising fact was that the bus was full. They had
just ordered another one that would "be here in about 5 minutes, so
don't go away, or you'll miss it.". 30 minutes later the bus arrived.
ARRIVED AT STOCKHOLM 19:50
As you can see, we were 35 minutes late, so we ran to the nearest
Pizza Hut (after taking the subway to the train central to send our
luggage to the boat) and grabbed a Large 'Spicey N Hot' to share.
During the dinner, a couple sitting next to us started to act strangely
walking around the restaurant, with luggage, sleeping-bags and stuff
like that. When they'd finished eating. The woman took the luggage,
the sleeping-bags and their clothes and went out the door. The man
just sat there at the table. After about five minutes, he stood up
and tried to run to the exit. (No, they hadn't paid). A waitress
caught him, and dragged him back to the table. "Ok, Ok! I'll pay!"
he said, and when the waitress had gone to get their bill, he ran
upstairs to the toilets and locked the door. The manager called the
police, and they arrived (two squad cars and a van) with flashing
blue lights (which they didn't turn off). After about 30 minutes
of "talking with the criminal" he came out, and they took him downtown.
We actually had time for a couple of beers too, before it was time
for us to go to the train.
THE TRAIN
The train were to leave the station at 21:39, so we ran to the right
track, and jumped on the train five minutes ahead of time. Talk about
making it! 5 Minutes! That wasn't bad. Suddenly the train started to
move, 4 minutes before schedule. We just sat back, relaxing and thinking
that they probably just made up for some delay or something. It wasn't
until we noticed some strange stations the train stopped at, we started
to question if we were really on the right train. So, we asked a girl
sitting behind us. "I don't know if it's the train to the boat. I'm
only going half-way this line, and this train goes my way. Sorry.".
We decided that one of us should jump off at the next station and ask
the driver if it was the RIGHT train. At Huddinge Station I jumped off
ready to start running to the driver. The doors opened and....
When I crawled back up on my feet again, blood streamed out from a
hole in the left leg of my jeans, my hands were covered with blood
and gravel. Well, I didn't let that stop me, though my friend also
jumped off the train and helped me. The driver said "No, you took
the wrong train. You have to go back to the central and take the next
train to the boat." To check when the next train would leave, we had
to go to the ticket counter and ask. Of course the old crow behind
the counter was Finnish, and didn't speak Swedish very well. We tried
to get through to her for 15 minutes (the queue behind us grew and
soon started to shout and scream too). Finally, I grabbed her train-
book and went out to check for myself. That's when my watch died. It
just didn't work. As if that wasn't all, the last train to the boat
had left the central-station ten minutes ago and we had missed it.
BUS THEN?
We ran (I walked with a straight, bleeding leg, my friend ran) to
the bus central to see if there were any busses going to the boat.
"Sorry, you just missed the last one. It left fifteen minutes ago.."
What about Taxi then?, we asked. "Well, it'll cost you about $175.00
if you want to get there in time for the boat."
TAXI
We ran (once again, I walked) outside to grab the nearest taxi.
What did you expect? If we didn't make it to the boat, we would be
stranded, with no weekend to spend with girlfriends and so on..
Jumped into the nearest taxi, and shouted "TAKE US TO THE BOAT
AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!". The driver, aged about 25-27 just stepped
on the gas, and we screeched out into the traffic. As you might know,
there's a lot of "black" taxis out there. People driving to make
money, taking "special price just for you" and also criminals who
drives these cars, just waiting for some unsuspecting victims to
rob and kill on some nearby, small, dark street. This guy looked
like one, and we didn't have time to check the car before we jumped
into it. He really started by saying "So, how much do you want to
pay for this trip, guys?". I just waited for him to make a turn
somewhere and pull out a gun, BLAM BLAM, and we're history.
But, what the hell, we said "We'll pay $90.00". And the driver
just nodded and didn't say a word. We zzwoshed down small roads
at a speed of 190km/h (yes, it was a Mercedes) listening to him
talk about his 'friends'. One of them apparently was in jail. Not
a Swedish, comfortable one, no no, he was doing time (12 years for
stealing a safe) in Greece. Then he started to discuss the drug prices
these days. Boy, was it expensive these days or what?!. Oh yeah, he
got his drivers licence back last week. The cops had taken it for
"reckless and drunk driving" three months ago. He went on and on
and we started to write our wills.
Amazingly enough we arrived at the harbour 10 minutes before the
boat would leave, and he charged us $90.00 as well. We didn't believe
it first, but when the car drove away, we did. Pretty cool guy really.
<grin>.
THE BOAT
When we opened the door to the cabin we'd got, we couldn't but notice
the two other old dodderers who were also to share the cabin. Ok, I
cleaned my wounds, and tried to get some sleep. What a joke! One of
the oldies snored like a couple of elephants and the other moaned and
groaned in his sleep. All night. I'm surprised the sea was calm though,
because the last time we went by boat, it was storm. But, we finally
arrived at 05:45 in the morning.
THE CAR
Of course we got the latest model, the fastest, the best equipped car?
Hahhahaha. Well, a Renault R5, model 1980-ish. I couldn't drive very
well with my leg in the shape it was, but I made it home at least.
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Well, that's what happened that friday. I won't go into what happened
when I went to see a couple of doctors (both civilian and military)
about my leg, and how they differed in judgement (amazing).
So what can we learn from this story? Hell, I don't know. I'm just
entertaining those who enjoy having fun at other people's misfortune
here. If you want to learn, go read a school-book or something.
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