The Drive 7/4/14

"Hey, Zane!" Jay calls me from the back of the van, "Can you turn on some music?"

I press the button to play, and classical music turns on. "Did you have to put Beethoven's 9th symphony on? For goodness sake! Zane, put on something energetic for once!" Cole shouts at me from the back.

I don't bother with a comeback and change it to something else that the others would like, I hope. "Would you guys be quiet? I'm trying to read!" Lloyd exclaims, slamming his comic book carelessly on Cole's lap.

"Hey, what was that for?" Cole asks.

"I just wasn't paying attention. Sorry!"

"Oh, sure you are," Cole retorts and rolls down his window in the middle left seat.

"What are you doing?" Lloyd demands.

"Making you "sincerely" sorry." I hear something being thrown out the window and Lloyd screams.

"Give that back to me! You jerk! You're going to pay for that!"

"What's going on?" I ask.

"He threw my comic book out the window!"

"Jay, is that true?"

"What?" I hear him say from the very back, "I didn't pay attention."

I refrain from rolling my eyes and turn to Kai, who tells me, "I saw him do it."

I look behind me and speak in reprimanding tone, "Cole, you should not ever do that to someone. How would you like it if I threw an entire chocolate cake that was yours out the window? How would you feel?" He's going to get it from Sensei when we get back home, if we even make it with an accident, that is.

"It's just a dumb comic book," Cole mutters.

I turn back to the front and quickly swerve to the right, avoiding a truck from the left lane I nearly ran into. "Kai, could you keep them under con-" I stop when I feel immense heat next to my face and glance over to see the fire ninja in flames. "What are you doing? You can ignite the entire vehicle!"

"That's it guys. If you make anymore complaints, I'm going to flare up and trust me, you don't want that," Kai says.

I hear the glorious sound of silence in the rear, and glance back, only to see the others making pig noses at the fire ninja. I think to myself, Great! Just what I need is a ninja on flames being inflamed by the others. What if he catches the car on fire? "Kai, just calm down. You cannot light up the car like this. We'll deal with them when we get home," I plead him earnestly.

Kai's brown eyes burn with a fiery tint, and I sense flames are spreading across the van. A loud beep brings my attention back to the road, where I avoid another vehicle because I keep going in between both lanes. I do another quick swerve to right, slamming my body into Kai's. Instantly, I feel the sizzling flames melting the artificial skin off my arm.

"Zane!" everyone screams in unison as Kai's fire goes off and he starts rubbing my arm.

"Move him over," Lloyd tells them, "I'll stop the vehicle.

I look down, as is my habit when I am in intense pain, so they won't see how much, but I see something far worse under the steering wheel. I sit straight up, knocking heads with Jay, who is behind me and I scream, "Don't stop the van!"

"Why?" Lloyd says.

"There's an explosive inside, and once you hit the brakes, we will all die."

"What? How come you didn't say anything?" Kai asks.

"I saw it just now."

'Well w-what do we do?" Jay begins panicking.

That's precisely how I thought he'd react, "Hand me something heavy."

"Uh…is this okay?" Cole lifts a backpack and shows it to me.

"No, smaller. Kai, can you operate the steering wheel while I'm doing this?"

"No problem." I take my shaky, pain-ridden hands off it, grimacing as Cole brings a dumbbell over.

"How about this?"

"Okay," I say and he hands it to me and I flinch from my stinging wound. I take some of the pressure off the gas petal, in order to slow us down significantly.

"What are you doing?" Lloyd asks.

"Just trust me and take your seatbelts off." They do without hesitation. "Unlock the doors and when I tell you to, jump out."

"Okay," they respond.

I glance up to see the other cars are way ahead of us and quickly move my foot off the gas petal, putting the dumbbell on it, causing the car to accelerate. "Open the doors." I take control of the steering wheel again, while the others obey. I turn the vehicle off to the side of the road, into a grassy part on the side. We're driving through a rural area, so there are plenty of plants and not too many people around. "Now!" Everyone flocks to the right side and leaps out without hesitation. I hope they're okay.

I take my seatbelt off and go to the passenger side, opening the door. I glance back, seeing a barn about fifty feet away and the van closing in on it. I hear the distant voices of the others calling me, "Zane! Jump, now!"

The door slams into my body with enough force that I feel my body hitting something hard. I hear a shatter and find myself on the grass. My leg and arm have pain shooting up them and the last thing I see is the van crashing into the barn. Orange and red flames erupt, and everything goes black.

"Zane? Are you awake?" I hear a male voice calling me, sounding like he's talking with his mouth covered.

I open my eyes, meeting blinding light. I blink, letting them adjust, and as my vision clears, I see Lloyd, Kai, Jay, Sensei, and Cole all bent over me, relief flooding their features. "You're okay!" Jay exclaims.

"Don't be so loud," Kai tells him, "How do you feel?"

"I could be a lot better." I smile at them as they back away, "I presume we're in our room in the Bounty, am I right?"

"That's our Zane," Lloyd laughs, "He always figures out what's going on."

"Did you find out who did this? Plant the bomb I mean?" I ask.

Everyone stops laughing and Sensei speaks softly, "No. There was no evidence left at the scene."

"Let's just check in the vehicle next time to make sure we don't have another explosive again," Cole says.

"I will be more cautious in the future," I respond.

I went ahead and put this up from a game my family and I are doing called 'Create a Story', but I did not follow the rules. :) *chuckles nervously* Please R&R.