It was twelve o clock at night and the phone in Raven's room rang twice before she reached it. Half asleep and blundering, she swiped down a book and a mug half filled with coffee.

"Shit!" She swore under her breath. She plucked the sodden mess of wet paper from the carpet. The coffee was cold. The heat had seeped into the chilly air long ago.

Putting the phone to her ear, she heard Slash's voice on the other end.

"Hullo?" She said

"Hi, Raven- I just called a couple of good friends of mine and guess what?" He responded,

"Mm?" She replied, dragging a towel over the puddle of cold coffee and flopping onto her bed.

"We've got wheels!" He exclaimed,

"Oh! Awesome!!" She grinned and held the receiver against her ear. "Does Axl know?" She questioned,

"Yeah of course, I called him before I called Duff and now I'm calling you." He told her. She knew Izzy and he were flat mates, so Izzy was probably the first to know. That meant she had found out last.

"I'll see ya tomorrow." He said

"Yeah, bye." She responded.

The following morning...

The sound of a blaring car horn sounding woke Raven abruptly. She jumped up out of bed, quickly put her jeans on and grabbed her bag as she rushed for the door.

Piling into the weathered green Oldsmobile parked out the front with Izzy, Slash and Duff already in the back, Axl in the front and a stranger at the wheel.

"Hey, Raven." Duff greeted

"Morning." She said, rubbing her tired eyes.

"Oh, that's Dan, by the way. This is his car." Axl said, pointing to the strange man at the wheel, "and this is Raven, Dan." He added. The brown haired guy grunted in greeting. Raven hopped in, sitting down between Duff and Slash.

"What's the time?" Raven asked,

"Seven o clock." Duff answered. Slash swigged his bottle of jack.

"Did I wake you up when I called last night?" He asked,

"Yeah. But it's alright, Slash,  I know how excited you were."

"I'm sorry." Slash said.

"It's okay!" She smiled at him. Dan began to reverse out of the drive, then sped off down the street. They drove for about ten minutes, then stopped. Steven came running out of a two storey apartment complex with a backpack and jumped into the car.

"Hey there popcorn!" Raven cheered.

"Morning Ray!" He grinned back, closing the car door behind him.

"Is my drumset packed?" He asked

"Everything is at the practice room, we're gonna drive round to that trailer place and rent one." Slash said gruffly.

This took another twenty minutes, then they were speeding on back to the practice space. Once they finally arrived, Duff lead the way, everyone piled out of the car and Axl unlocked the trailer.

"Alright, so get the drumset first, Slash, carry your guitar in the car, and everyone else's should fit." Axl directed. Once the practice space was unlocked, everyone grabbed one component or another of Steven's drumset, and carted everything out to the trailer. Axl directed where they put things, carrying bits and peices himself. After fifteen minutes, between the seven of them, everything was packed up and ready to go.

"Okay, is anyone missing anything?" Steven asked, the answer was a collective no after about ten seconds of thought.

They all once again piled into the Oldsmobile, and were finally on their way.

Sacremento was the first stop, a whole 400 miles (643.74 km) from L.A.

200 miles later...

"Aww fuck." Dan said, as the car chugged, he pulled over, and the little green car stopped. He tried to start it, but it just whined and stayed still. The car had broken down.

"We're just outside of Fresno. There's a service station around the next bend." Duff said, pointing down the road. Dan stayed in the front seat, put the car in drive, and everyone else began to push. It was hard, hot work, but the group managed the servicestation. Dan went inside and coincidentally the guy behind the counter was an ex mechanic. After taking a look under the hood, he turned and said

"Shit, for a beast this old, you aint gonna be findin' parts for a good few days." He told us, "Aint nothin' you can do." He added, then returned to the counter inside.

"We can't stay here for four days! We'll miss our gigs!" Axl complained.

"We won't stay, then." Raven said assuredly. Everyone turned to her.

"Let's hit the blacktop." She said,

"What? We can't hitchike!" Axl protested, jaw agape,

"Why not? It's our only choice, Ax." Slash responded. Axl shut his mouth, thinking, then his shoulders slumped,

"I guess you're right." He said defeatedly. They left Dan with the car.

"When it's fixed, drive up to Portland, we'll meet you there." Were Axl's last words. Dan wanted to come too, but somebody had to stay with the car and  it was kind of his car, so he was the obvious candidate.

Everyone else made their way up the on-ramp to the highway, carrying their guitar cases with them.

A few hours passed and nobody had even slowed down, but that didn't put a scratch on their confidence. They tried every kind of hitchiking configuration they could; 6 people with no visible luggage, two hitchikers and four hiding in the bushes, one guy with a guitar case, just Izzy and Axl, just Izzy and Slash, Axl and Slash, just Steven grinning and waving, just Duff, Raven and Duff... nothing seemed to work. Nobody seemed to want them in any way, shape or form. Six tiring hours later, and finally  their kind of misfit came along. It was a trucker, and he was willing to take everybody and the guitars on board. They squeezed into the front seat and the small bench behind it in the cab, it was close quarters, made even closer by the guitar cases and the sheer intensity of the guy's speed habit.

Raven was squished between Slash and Izzy, and every time they went over a bump in the road, Slash's guitar head came dangerously close to her face, making her intinctually lean into Izzy,  which was super awkward.

The truckie was quite the talker, telling endless stories of life on the road, but was very generous with his stash of speed. Raven didn't have any, nor did Axl, but Slash and Steven in particular weren't complaining or hesitating in any way. Izzy had some, but at least he wasn't as bad as Slash and Steve.

It was alright in the cab, sort of fun really, for that night, the day after and the one after that. The truckie would pull over to sleep, which might take anywhere between an hour to half a day, at rest stops. They'd just crash on park benches, write songs as the sun rose, or simply mosey around kicking trash at squirrels. After a few days of this, the driver began to smell particularly bad, and his chatter turned darkly weird. He told everyone that he planned to take a little detour to pick up more speed from his 'old lady'. It was starting to get mightily uncomfy and it did not look like it would improve. When he pulled over for yet another of his endless naps, the band and Raven decided to hit the blacktop once again, figuring if worst came to worst, the speed demon in the semi would come along and pick them up again whenever he woke up. There was alot of doubt in their minds about hitching a new ride, because none of them bore an iota of mainstream appeal. From Duff's red and black leather trenchcoat to the boys' long hair and everyone's combat boots, coupled with a few days of road grime. After a pretty long wait, they managed to catch a ride with a couple of chicks in a pickup with a shell, who drove them to the outskirts of Portland. Once within the city limits, Duff's friend Donner from Seattle sent some one to get them, who informed them that Dan had called ahead and said that the car was too unreliable to make the trip, so he'd headed home to L.A.

The final show was scheduled in Seattle, and as long as the band made that, they had no care for Dan and the Oldsmobile.  The question struck Raven, however; without gear, how would they play  the Seattle gig? All they had were their guitars. 

Donner's house was wild. The day that they rolled in, a barbecue was thrown in their honour, which never seemed to end. Everyone was partying, drinking, tripping out, screwing each other. It was obscene... and oh-so Guns N' Roses.

Upon settling into this odd house, having only a few hours before they were meant to be onstage, the question finally dawned on the band...

How do you play a gig with no mike, no drumset, no amps and no leads?

Duff solved this easily. He had played in legendary Seattle punk bands, and he simply called up his friend Lulu Gargiulo, of the Fastbacks, who lent the band the necessary equipment.

The club was called Gorilla gardens, it was dank, dirty and stank of stale beer. It was situated right on the water,  on an industrial wharf.  The place was at the end of a concrete slab, the kind of setting where deals get made in East Coast gangster movies.

It was cold and rainy, the crowd was pretty rowdy and Guns played their hearts out, they played eight songs,  which included 'Move to the city', 'Reckless life', 'Heartbreak hotel' and 'Shadow of your love'. It was a really good gig, or it was until the money needed to be collected. The club owner refused to pay the $150 owed. The band tackled this obstacle as they had the whole road trip- as a group.

They broke down their gear, got it packed up outside, and then cornered the guy in his office. They basically blocked him in, and Raven could hear Duff talking. The others would throw in a comment occasionally, but Duff was mainly the one negotiating. They walked back out with $100 of their cash, and Raven and the guys made their way out. After a couple of days of after partying at Donner's place, a woman, who introduced herself as 'Jane' drove the band and Raven all the way back to L.A. from Seattle. They took a pit stop in Sacramento,  which is about 750 miles from Seattle, involving wandering around begging for change all afternoon,  finally grabbing a meal from McDonald's and then laying in the shade of some oak trees to escape the summertime heat. It got unbearable enough that the group decided to jump the fence and take a dip in somebody's pool. They didn't care if they were tresspassing, actually if they got arrested it might be of some relief.  There would be food and better air conditioning then Jane's car. They got back on the road as the sun set.

They'd partied, they'd played, they'd survived, they'd endured, and they had racked up enough stories to last a lifetime in just a week and a half. The band was content, and closer then ever.

Please comment! Hope you enjoyed. Apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes! Rock out!