It must've been years since the last time he walked alone, out onto the street, this late at night, after having drinks.

Rain had come and gone. Now he felt as though he was walking through mist rather than being hit by falling raindrops.

He was two blocks over from the smack dab of downtown. A consciousness hosted in a bipedal, walking stack of flesh. Anybody in the country if they so wanted to could run up on him now with a firearm and place a hollowed tip bullet, that expands upon impact, inside of him, leaving him to bleed out onto the wet, red brick sidewalk.

But nobody was around. It was just him and lights and sounds out in the distance. He got into his 

Tesla

and took out a piece of gum from the glove compartment. Spearmint flavor. Four bites in a 

Subaru

Forrester rolled past his parked vehicle. Its growl sounded so loudly to his ear now accustomed to the electric battery.

Moments later on the main drag he was accelerating after the red turned green. Next to him was a 

Ford

SUV, groveling. His Tesla accelerated three times faster, but with no grovel. He thought about his previous car. The grovel it made. The stops at the gas stations where he would pick up a pack of 

cigarette

s.