Gobo and Red were neck and neck. Marlon was catching up to them. Red looked over her shoulder, and saw him coming.
"I'd better speed it up," she said, as she began to pedal harder. "No way I want to be anywhere near Marlon! Yuck!"
Red sped up, and managed to pass Gobo as she did. As she pedaled, she kept her eyes behind her. She wanted to make sure she put a good distance between herself and Marlon. She wanted to leave him in the dust. Unfortunately, since she was watching out behind her, she didn't notice what was in front of her. The rope Marlon had set up was directly in her path. However, Marlon had made a slight miscalculation in setting it up. It was a bit too high. Instead of Red's car running into it, it sailed directly under it. Unfortunately, it wasn't high enough for Red to avoid it, and she hit it, and was pulled right out of her car. Marlon was right about one thing, though. It did act as a slingshot of sorts. Red was flung back a ways, sailing right past Gobo.
"What the . . . ." Gobo asked. He wasn't quite sure what that was that flew past him. He just shrugged, and continued pedaling.
Red plunked on the ground right on her backside. She was a little confused at first, but then she realized what had happened.
"Oh no!" she shouted, and she began chasing after her car, which kept right on going. "Hey, come back here! You can't cross the finish line without me! It's against the rules for a car to cross the finish line without a driver! I'll be disqualified!"
Marlon then approached, and smirked.
"Hey, Red!" he called out. "How's about giving me a big victory kiss after I win the race?"
"I'd rather be eaten alive by a Poison Cackler!" Red shouted, grimacing at the thought of kissing Marlon.
Marlon just laughed, and pedaled on his way, passing Red completely.
"I hated to do that to her, but I've got to win this race!" he shouted. "All that's left is to get ahead of Gobo, which shouldn't take too long now!"
Marlon was right about that. Gobo was headed directly for the hole Marlon had dug, and would up hitting it.
"Whooooaaaa!" Gobo shouted, as he was flung from his car. He landed right into a shallow pool of water.
"Darn those burrow beasts," he grumbled as he climbed out of the pool. "They'll dig holes anywhere!"
"Better luck next time, Gobo!" Marlon shouted with a laugh, as he passed by.
Gobo glared at Marlon, and went to retrieve his car. He found that it had been snapped in half when he hit the hole.
"Well, that's the end of the race for me, eh?" he said, as he put the front half of his car into the back end, and began pushing it like a wheelbarrow. Marlon was practically beside himself.
"Oh boy!" he shouted. "I'm ahead! With both Gobo and Red out of the race, I'll win for sure! Although, I can't help feeling I've forgotten something. I wonder what it could be? Oh well. It will come to me sooner or later."
By this time, the race was about to come to a close. The Fraggles at the Great Hall were all waiting in anticipation about what was going to happen next.
"The cars are approaching the finish line!" the World's Oldest Fraggle shouted. "And here comes the first car now! And the winner is . . . ."
Morris waved the checkered flag as Marlon crossed the finish line.
"Marlon Fraggle in the Greased Lightning Green Pepper!" the World's Oldest Fraggle shouted.
"Marlon?!" Lou shouted, incredulously.
"I don't believe it!" Boober shouted.
Suddenly, Red's radish car crossed the finish line next, and kept on going. It headed right for the grandstand.
"Look out!" Boober cried, and he and the other Fraggles scattered out of the way, screaming. The radish hit the grandstand, destroying it.
"I knew Red was reckless, but that's ridiculous!" Boober shouted.
"Wait a minute, where is Red?" Lou asked. "She wasn't driving when she crossed the finish line!"
"No kidding!" Red shouted, breathlessly, as she crossed the finish line on foot. "Someone hung a clothesline on the course, and my car got away from me."
"At least your car made it in one piece," Gobo said, wheeling what was left of his car across the finish line.
"Gobo, what happened?" Pedley asked, giving up on trying to get moving, since he hadn't made much progress at all.
"I hit a hole in the track," Gobo said. "There must have been a burrow beast out there last night or something. You know how they love to dig."
"I wonder what happened to Mokey and Wembley?" Boober asked.
"Here I am," Mokey said, crossing the finish line. "I took a wrong turn."
"Well, congratulations, Mokey," Red said, shaking her best friend's hand. "You officially came in second this year. You've finally ranked in the top three of the Fraggle Five Hundred."
"Oh, really?" Mokey asked. "Wow, that's never happened to me before!"
"Yeah, I got disqualified because my car crossed the finish line before I did," Red sighed. "And Gobo's car snapped in half. Believe it or not, Marlon won."
"Really?" Mokey asked. "But where's Wembley?"
"He probably came to a fork in the road and is still there, wembling about which way to go," Red said. "You know him."
"Wait a minute, I see him," Boober said, looking through Lou's binoculars. "But I think something's wrong. It looks like he's having trouble controlling his car."
"Let me see," Gobo said, taking he binoculars.
Marlon drew in his breath. He finally realized what it was he had forgotten, and that was Wembley's loose wheel.
It's going to be okay, he thought to himself. He's bound to notice it's loose soon.
Gobo looked through the binoculars, and sure enough, there was Wembley out on the track, having a hard time steering, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He didn't even notice his rear wheel was wobbling, and badly. Suddenly, the mushroom came off the axle completely, and Wembley lost control, much like Gillis did when he hit the oil slick.
"Oh my gosh!" Gobo shouted. "Wembley's rear wheel just came off! He's out of control!"
"What?!" Marlon shouted.
Gobo continued to watch the action through the binoculars. Wembley tried to brake his car, slamming his feet against the pedals as hard as he possibly could, but the car wound rolling over, right off the edge of a cliff.
"Wembley!" Gobo shouted, dropping the binoculars.
"What's wrong, Gobo?" Mokey asked.
"Wembley's car rolled right off the cliff!" Gobo shouted.
"Oh no!" Boober shouted. "Oh this is bad! This is really, really, really bad!"
"Come on, you guys!" Red shouted, as she started running. "We've got to go help him!"
The other Fraggles agreed, and ran off. They reached the accident site in record time, and followed the wheel tracks to the edge of the cliff. There was a ledge below, where the wreckage of Wembley's Pickle-Mobile was. Wembley didn't appear to be there, at least not until Lou looked at the wreck through her binoculars.
"He must be under the car," she said. "I think I can make out his tail."
"Okay," Gobo said, tying a piece of rope around his waist. "I'm going down to get him."
"You can't do that!" Boober shouted. "You should never move an unconscious Fraggle! You might hurt him more than he's hurt already!"
"Well, we can't leave him underneath that pickle forever, Boober!" Red shouted.
"Don't you have a stretcher in your hole somewhere, Boober?" Mokey asked.
"Yeah, actually," Boober said. "I'll go and get it."
"I'll go get some extra rope, too," Gobo said. "Everybody else stay here and don't move!"
The others nodded, and Gobo and Boober ran off. Red and Mokey followed them, figuring Boober might need help carrying the stretcher. Boober also needed to pick up his doctor's bag, just in case. Once they returned, Gobo tied some rope to each end of Boober's stretcher. He handed the ends to the other Fraggles.
"Lower that down first," Gobo said. "Then I'll go down."
"Me too," Red said. "You're going to need help moving that pickle."
Mokey, Lou, Pedley, and Morris also volunteered to go down in order to move the pickle. Gobo took another piece of rope and began tying it around his waist.
"We're going to need you to come down, too, Boober," he said.
"Me?!" Boober squeaked. "Why me?!"
"You're the only Fraggle who knows about injuries and broken bones and stuff like that," Red pointed out. "You said so yourself, we can't move him right away, and we won't know when we'll be able to move him!"
"Ooohhh . . . ." Boober moaned. "All right. But I'll only go down if I'm hanging onto Gobo! And the same goes for going up, too!"
"Okay," Gobo said. "Let's go."
Boober took another piece of rope, tied it around his waist, and clung to Gobo as tightly as he could. Gobo handed the end of both his, and Boober's ropes to the other Fraggles, and they lowered them down to the ledge. Then they untied themselves, and sent the ropes back up so the others could use them to climb down. Once the rescue team was on the ledge, Gobo, Mokey, Red, Lou, Pedley, and Morris grabbed the pickle, and lifted it. Lou had been right. Wembley had been underneath it, and he was unconscious.
"Hurry it up, Boober!" Red shouted. "We can't hold this up all day!"
Boober then began looking over Wembley, touching him gingerly, trying to avoid doing any major damage. The others were getting a little impatient with how slowly he was going.
"Speed it up, Boober!" Gobo shouted, straining. "I don't know if I can hold this thing up much longer!"
"I have an idea," Lou said. "Everybody push this way! On three. One, two, three . . . ."
"HEAVE!" the Fraggles shouted, pushing the pickle in the direction Lou indicated, which sent it flying the rest of the way down the cliff.
"Thank you," Boober said. "That should give me a little more light to work with. The good news is Wembley's still breathing. The bad news is that might be the only good news here."
Boober began to look over Wembley again, feeling his limbs and torso gently.
"Mmm hmm," he said. "Just as I suspected."
"What's the diagnosis, Boober?" Mokey asked.
"He's about as broken as his car," Boober said. "His left leg is broken, his right ankle is broken, his right arm is broken, his left wrist is broken, I'm pretty sure he's got some broken ribs, and he's got a very nasty bump on the head. It's probably a concussion. And finally, as I suspected this would happen all along, whiplash."
"Ouch," Red grimaced.
"Poor Wembley!" Lou shouted.
"Gobo, come here," Boober said, kneeling down next to Wembley. "I'm going to need your help."
"Oh, sure, Boober," Gobo said. "What do you want me to do?"
"Hold these in place when I tell you," Boober said, handing Gobo an armload of sticks. "I'll need two to start with Wembley's leg."
Gobo nodded, put all but two of the sticks down, and held them where Boober indicated, while Boober wrapped some bandages around the sticks to hold them in place.
"Lou, keep an eye on this," Boober said. "I don't think I tied those bandages tight enough to cut off circulation, but you never know. You can never be too sure. Let me know if Wembley's leg begins to look pale, swollen, or starts turning blue."
"Okay, Boober," Lou said.
Boober then took one of his sticks, and broke it in half. He handed the pieces to Gobo, and told him to hold them against Wembley's other foot, and then tied some more bandages around them. Then he took another stick, told Gobo to hold it against Wembley's right arm, and tied it with the bandages. Then, Boober took a handful of cotton out of his doctor's bag, and put it in the palm of Wembley's left hand.
"Close his fingers around the cotton, Gobo," Boober said. "But do it gently, okay?"
"Okay," Gobo said, and closed Wembley's fingers around the cotton wad. Once that was done, Boober put some more cotton between Wembley's fingers, and wrapped the bandages around his hand. Then he took a cervical collar out of his doctor's bag, and placed it around Wembley's neck for the time being.
"Okay, I think that about does it for now," Boober said. "I'll take care of everything better when we get Wembley back home, but this should hold until we get there."
"So it's okay to move him now?" Red asked.
"Yes, but be extremely careful," Boober said. "Try to keep him flat."
Boober pushed the stretcher next to Wembley while Gobo, Lou, Morris, and Pedley rolled Wembley onto his side, as gently as they possibly could. Then, just as gently, they rolled the unconscious Fraggle onto Boober's stretcher. Gobo took one of the ropes, and gently tied Wembley to it, as a makeshift seatbelt.
"Okay, guys!" he called up. "He's ready to go! But take it easy when you pull him up!"
The other Fraggles nodded, and began pulling slowly. Once they got it up, Gobo threw the end of the rope around his waist (and the one around Boober's waist) upward. Boober then clung to Gobo, and the two of them made their way up the cliff, followed by Red, Mokey, Lou, Pedley, and Morris.
"Okay, let's get Wembley back to your cave, Gobo," Boober said. "I'll be able to work from there."
"Check," Gobo said, as he and Mokey took the ends of the stretcher, and followed Boober back to the Great Hall.