Chapter Fifteen—Open Road

“Step on it!” Kyle yelled.

The four men opened fire, their energy projectiles cracking through the windshield and sizzling through the interior.

Kelly screamed and so did John and Kyle.

Then the car shook violently as John must have ran over one of them in their mad dash to get out of the parking garage, the engine screaming like an angry bull. John glanced up above the wheel as more shots cracked through the back and exited through the front windshield.

He turned the vehicle up a winding exit path and sped faster at the front gate, ramming straight through the checkpoint. The car scraped into the street with a terrible sound as the tires screeched during his forty-five degree turn.

“Shit!” Kyle said.

“Better put on your seatbelts,” John called.

“Couldn’t you have said that before?” Kelly said from the back.

The engine growled as John floored the gas pedal. Despite speeding through the streets, palms and high rise hotels on both sides, he tried to keep his driving as orderly as possible.

That didn’t stop their pursuers from recognizing them. “Shit!” Kyle said. “We’ve got a tail, Staxx.”

“I can see that,” John said, screeching the car through an intersection and turning left. Oncoming traffic haulted, their horns blaring.  “Gonna have the cops on our asses if we keep this up.”

And then the sirens lit up.

Kelly thrust herself between them using both leather seats as arm bracers. “I think it’s a bit late for that!”

Shots cracking into the back of the Lamir and missed, impacting into the street ahead of them.

“Shit!” John cried, feeling like a sizzling energy projectile had just missed his head by mere inches. “Get down!”

He took the next right, then told Kyle to plot their course to the Harkun space port.

“We’re on the right path!” he said. “Just keep this heading due west!”

“Yeah,” John scoffed. “I’ll get right on that.”

More energy rounds sizzled past the car.

“Gods,” Kelly screamed. “I wish I was still with Laiwyn Scorr!”

“Shut up, kid!” Kyle ordered.

“No! You shut up, SQUEAKY!”

“Hardly the time!” John said.

Then his eyes widened when he realized the dip in the road that went under the bridge. The Lamir’s tires lifted from the cement and they flew several meters before touching back down again, the weight from their momentum slamming them into their seats.

“Whoohoo!” Kyle whooped.

“What the fuck! I can’t believe you’re having fun!”

John laughed.

“Both of you?!”

John and Kyle laughed together as they swerved through traffic, passing high-end cards and industrial vehicles.

“Fuck sake!”

Kyle turned his head. “Looks like we’ve got company.”

John glanced through the rear view mirror since the main terminal had the map display instead of the rear view camera enabled.

“Step on it!”

“I am!” John said, swerving around the cargo truck and making the driver push his horn for an extended period.

The other car came up.

“Whoa!” Kyle gasped.

 “What is it?”

“That’s an 88 Prime Thunder right there.”

Had they not been in a dangerous car chase, John would have rolled his eyes. “Keep track of those guys on our tail!”

“I am! It’s them!”

“Well shit!” John called. “Aren’t you armed?!”

“Oh right!?”

“You forgot you had a gun?” Kelly croaked.

“Shut up and stay down,” Kyle said, then he turned in his seat and put a fusillade of rounds into their pursuer’s car. When they returned fire he came back in. “It’s a damn shame we gotta shoot ‘em up, John.”

“You can mourn their fucking car later!” John barked. “Take them down!”

Swerving through traffic, John realized another intersection was coming up. He put the pedal to the floor and zipped ahead of a car.

Then another.

“Look out!” Kyle screamed as he came back in.

Those guys in the Prime Thunder came up beside them, their guns aimed straight into their car.

John touched the brakes, slowing them enough to almost make him bash his face into the wheel. Kyle’s hands slammed into the dash and something heavy hit the back of John’s seat. Kelly Hess squealed like a dying animal.

The other guys slowed their car, getting right up beside them again. They fired two shots just as John turned into them. The cars scraped and groaned as glass and sparks whirled about them.

“Fuck!” Kyle groaned.

“It’s already totaled,” John snarled with frustration and just a little bit of hidden amusement.

“Man oh man!” Kyle moaned as he fired shots out his window. He took out the driver, his blood spattering on the window opposite him.

The Prime Thunder slowed before swerving into a devastating flip. The this-year’s primo sports car ripped into pieces.

“Guess that won’t be on their performance rating,” John quipped.

“Fuck,” Kyle breathed.

“Oh chill out,” John said.

“But we did that, man!”

“There’s plenty more where that came from.”

They continued swerving through traffic and when John realized their pursuers were no longer within sight of them, he pulled into a parking garage.

“What are you doing?” Kyle asked in surprise.

“Oh gods,” Kelly said. “Finally. We’re slowing down.”

“Stop whining,” Kyle said as he glanced back toward her.

“Me?” she asked. “You’ve been moaning like a cow that’s lost her child for the past five minutes!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh gods—like—I think I’m gonna puke!”

“You better not!” Kyle barked.

They exited out the other side of the parking garage, light and wind hitting them once again as they drove freely on the open road leading out of populated district.