Mother nature had been brutal. Record snow and ice made lethal with massive winds. Classes were canceled. Everyone hunkered down. The town was closed.
Save Troy.
He had his truck fitted to his high standard and was the only loud V8 anyone heard. Thanks to having a satellite connection on his truck, Troy coordinated with neighboring towns a food drive push to keep the battered college town fed.
Nonstop trips back and forth had established paths crisscrossing the main arteries where other volunteers could drive up to and take deliveries from Troy. In time, several of the men with trucks eventually were able to dig out and join the initiative.
The drones that recorded the scenes became instant hits that went viral. Troy was now being lauded as a hero. By the time the larger snow excavation gear had arrived to open up the roads, Troy was credited with delivering meals to dozens of shelters, a handful of government offices, hundreds of homes, and the school campus.
The biggest newsworthy note, Troy had managed to drive to the most remote part of town to pick up a pregnant woman and her family to rush them to a hospital for emergency care that saved the unborn and the mom.
The media wanted to know what was under the hood of the truck that allowed it to plow through everything that was in it’s way. The cameras couldn’t get a good shot because the tires churned up such massive roosts of snow and ice.
When stationary, close ups showed Troy climbing out of the window and crawling across the ice that was up to the height of his hood.
Aiden noted, watching the various news feed, that Troy employed a very unique technique to ensure he could get free from his parking spot whenever he had to stop. A technique he had never seen done before. It allowed Troy to get going with what appeared to be miraculous ease.
While the truck had a small lift kit, the ride height was not nearly as high as commentators suspected. Troy had built this truck with the purposes of serious deep wood off-roading in mind in adverse weather. The shell looked like a stock Chevy Silverado but below, it was anything but.
Powered by a V8 supercharged gas engine, Troy had added electric motors on all three differentials and gearbox to boost torque and power. The batteries were hung very low in the chassis for stability. The frame, while very strong, was lightweight. The floor of the truck was smooth so that snow and mud couldn’t not find anchoring points to slow it down.
Aiden had ruthlessly teased Troy about his seemingly ridiculous investment in making his truck competition ready for street applications. Now, Aiden understood. The truck could perform nearly on the level of a trophy stadium truck while handling the Dakar desert. It was a massively powerful beast with gnarly tires.
Troy had to tow a few guys free a couple of times as their trucks couldn’t skim over the deeper ice like the Silverado could. This was partial due to the wider tires Troy used and the weight distribution.
When Jen and Sally turned on the news, they were impressed by what the saw Troy doing. The two shared a few knowing looks and teased each other.
“Where’s your Aiden today, Ms Let-him-lead?” Sally quipped.
“Your Troy didn’t come by the dorm with food yet” Jen fired back.
When the heavy duty snow removing trucks arrived, they used the paths Troy had created as their start point. The work was hard, the work took time, but it was made faster by Troy’s playful runs breaking up the surface layer of ice as he ventured deeper around the tertiary roads.
One betting pool emerged trying to guess where Troy would have gone too far and gotten hopelessly buried. Needless to say, Troy managed to avoid all the streets that would have overcomed his truck’s abilities.
One of the closing video clips of Troy’s fun caught a good angle of him entering a cleared street. That’s when the impressiveness of Troy’s heroism became very evident.
The truck had been equipped with a custom skid plate that acted like a snowboard beneath the truck. The tires had custom cutouts that acted like paddles to propel him through the snow. In essence, Troy was almost floating through the disaster. The upturned lips allowed Troy to reverse as easily as going forward.
The drop down from his exit point in the snow to the road looked like a serious step down that threatened to faceplant the truck. Once out, Troy did not return back to the deep pack ice/snow. He remained on the cleared paths until one was opened that headed out of town towards his place. The drone was not able to keep up with Troy as he disappeared in a flurry of white clouds.
Shallows of the Deep 