-1 CHAPTER 3: Road Rage

I wrote this scene after watching "The Hitcher" starring Sean Bean. It's an edge of your seat suspenseful slash-fest, and I highly recommend it. Aside from partially inspiring this fic, part of this scene is ripped almost entirely from a similar scene in the movie, with minor changes. That said, I don't own Invader Zim or The Hitcher. Read and enjoy, or read and be terrified and never look at Tak the same way again…your decision.

Zim ran through the forest, stopping only to catch his breath. As he panted, he heard the sound of nearby automobiles. Looking up, Zim could see that just through the trees was a very busy highway. At last, he could get away from…her.

"Finally." Zim sighed, clutching his wounded arm, "Civilization." He reached into his PAK, and retrieved his humanoid eyes and wig of black hair. Putting them on, he rushed through the tree line…and right into the path of oncoming traffic. He dodged a car. Then another. An old sedan locked on its brakes, stopping inches from Zim. He rolled out of the way as an SUV rear-ended the car, sending it lurching forward with a hideous crunching sound. Both lanes of traffic on Zim's side of the concrete-divided four lane came to a stop. Zim ran to the window of a small sports car, trying to beg for help from the woman inside. She refused to roll down the window, and instead screamed into a small cell phone.

Just as Zim began threatening the woman angrily, he turned to see three police cruisers drive up the shoulder of the road, past all of the wreckage and stop, their blue lights flashing in the business sort of way. The woman leapt from her car.

"That's him, that's him! She shouted, pointing to Zim. "He caused all of this, officers!"

"You don't understand," Zim said, backing up, "She…she's after me. She's insane and she's…gonna…"

"Calm down, son." An officer said, his hand on his holstered pistol. "Let's just go downtown and we'll talk it over. Zim looked around, and seeing his opportunity, he jumped into the woman's car, and sped off.

"A car jacking!" An officer shouted. "Get 'im!" Zim raced down the highway with the police cruisers close behind. Hoping to keep one step ahead of them, he extended his PAK's built in communicator, and switched the device to monitor all police bands.

"In pursuit." An officer's voice said. "Vehicle is a late model Lotus Elise, white in color. Plates, Mike Oscar Sierra Yankee Foxtrot eight, over."

"Roger that, Unit 17." A female dispatcher said calmly.

"Unit 6, attempting a PIT." Another officer said. A cruiser bumped the back of Zim's car. His tires squealed on the asphalt, but he managed to keep the car in control. The cruiser bumped the car again, causing it to start fishtailing. Zim was able to save the car from spinning out, but the action was too much on the car's tires, and the back driver's side tire exploded. Zim immediately felt the car begin to loose speed, but kept the car going. He had to get away, tires or no tires. That's when he heard the police radio again.

"Dispatch, be advised, a new vehicle has joined the pursuit. Vehicle is a black TransAm." Zim didn't need to see this new vehicle to realize who it was.

"It's her." He said fearfully.

Tak shifted the powerful muscle car's transmission up another gear and floored it. After disposing of the hunter and finding the road, she immediately saw the shiny black car, and decided to 'liberate' it from it's human owner. She sat stoically in the driver's seat, her clothes spattered with blood. Her right leg was splinted with three sticks and duct tape. Her eyes were empty and unemotional as she fast approached the pursuit.

She rammed the cruiser in front of her, then backed off and accelerated, pulling alongside the car. The officer looked over into the TransAm. Tak held a shotgun in her right hand, the barrel resting on the car's door. Zim heard an explosion, and looked in his car's rearview mirror as the cruiser farthest back, it's windshield coated with blood, veered off of the road, hitting the guardrail, and flipping into the air. Zim stammered in terror as he pushed the small sports car faster, its rear wheel sparking uselessly on the pavement.

Tak switched the shotgun into her left hand and leaned out the window with the weapon. She fired through the back windshield of another cruiser. It swerved, but stayed in pursuit. She took her right hand off the wheel and ratcheted the shotgun. She fired again, this time hitting the officer with some of the buckshot. Ramming the cruiser's bumper sent it into the concrete divider, where it rolled end-over end into the oncoming lanes, striking a tanker truck, causing them both to explode. She pulled alongside the last cruiser, bringing the edge of the car against the side of the cruiser's bumper. The police car fishtailed to the side, and Tak pushed the TransAm against the driver's side door of the cruiser. It rolled onto its side, then spun into the air, Tak driving underneath it just before it came crashing down onto its top.

Zim gulped as he looked back to see Tak nearing his car, with the shotgun pointed at him. She fired, and Zim ducked as his rear windshield shattered. He rose up to watch the road. Another blast sounded, and his side-view mirror exploded. Zim took the exit ramp toward the city, Tak still following closely. Zim's car now smoked, the worn-down rim sparking dangerously on the road. Another shotgun blast, and the back hatch of the car blew open, exposing the smoking engine. Tak bumped Zim's car gently.

"Stop it!" Zim shouted. "Please, stop!" He watched in horror as Tak pulled alongside. Her shotgun was leveled at him. "Tak…Tak, no." Zim screamed. "Tak…don't!" He cringed, expecting a shot. Instead, he heard a barely audible 'click'. He looked up to see Tak looking at him with a psychotic smile.

"It won't be that easy for you." She called. They both looked at the road simultaneously to see traffic stopped just ahead of them. They both locked on their brakes. Zim's car collided with a small compact car and stopped dead. Zim's head cracked the windshield as the airbag deployed. He slumped back into the seat, groaning.

The TransAm's tires screeched on the road. "Oh shit." Tak muttered unemotionally, just before her car slammed into a pickup, the force of the impact forcing the bed of the truck onto the cab, and rolling the car onto it's top. Tak crawled out of the crumpled car's window a few moments later, dragging the shotgun out with her. Using the overturned car for leverage, she stood, wincing as she put weight on her leg. Zim slowly turned, his head pounding with pain, to see Tak limping closer. She methodically loaded the shotgun and cocked it. Zim tried the door, but it was jammed. He crawled out of the shattered window, and hit the pavement hard. He got to his feet, his eyes glued on Tak.

"Leave…me…alone!" He yelled painfully.

"I'll leave you alone." Tak said coldly. "Dead and alone." Zim ran as fast as his injuries would allow. Tak watched as he disappeared from view down an alley. "Run." She muttered with a small smile. "Run, run, run, as fast as you can."

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I was originally going to have Tak in a different vehicle, as not to rip off The Hitcher too much, but my unwavering love of TransAms won out. That, and I've always wanted to see a TransAm own a Lotus Elise in a car chase. There are two things I sort of stuck in here to see how well you were paying attention. Can anyone guess which minor IZ character has a cameo in this chapter, and the joke behind the Lotus' license plate number? Kudos if you can. Well until next chapter, cheerio.