Chapter 10
Present Day
Her car was losing power. It had seen nearly three hundred thousand miles in her twelve years of ownership, almost all of them hard driving. But this was different. The engine was breaking up. The drivetrain was straining.
The Terminal was dying.
Braking for the next corner, Cinder could feel the middle pedal sinking further into the floor like jelly. She turned in, the heavy car rolling over on its springs more than it normally would, and she wondered if the front-end shocks had blown from the overly aggressive landing after The Rise. At corner exit, she booted the throttle and the rapidly decaying car surged forward.
Ren was having trouble too. There was a very concerning whine coming from the rear end, and the differential had begun responding irregularly. He figured (very accurately) that the car's still factory CV axles and differential had begun to wear out as they were not originally engineered for the high torque and high revving racing engine he had shoe-horned under the bonnet. His undersized power-steering pump had very clearly worn out already, and he was working his arms harder to wrangle the subsonic machine. The two cars were clearly never designed for their driver's skill and determination.
Cinder had finally noticed the smell. The very distinct scent of coolant and oil being burnt. Her heart was racing, and her whole body shook as she sent a tentative glance down to the gauge cluster. Everything was wrong.
Oil pressure was through the roof, water temperature was deep in the red, the check engine light was on, the 'Service 4WD' light was flashing rapidly, as was the boost warning light. Her car was about to explode. She knew if she let the temperature rise any higher she ran the risk of scorching the turbos and potentially bursting them, which would send bits of ceramic careening through the engine and would ensure a crash. The only upside Cinder could see was that the high oil pressure ensured that there was at least oil still within the engine.
The right side of the transmission tunnel was like a coal furnace against her left foot. Something was very wrong with the car's front differential. Unbeknownst to her, it's gasket had blown out and spit all the fluid out onto the road, and the ring and pinion gears were mere moments from seizing. Or shattering. Neither would be good for her. Somewhere, a few kilometres back, all of the Terminal's electronic aids had ceased functioning, as the disastrously strenuous race had taken its toll on the twenty year old car. The traction control fuse had blown, as had the one for the four-wheel-steering system and the torque vectoring computers. The only saving grace was that the car's emergency centring motor had locked the rear wheels into a dead straight position. Cinder continued to push the dying car harder.
She was no longer racing down the pass. She was falling down the mountain. She had reached terminal velocity.
The next corner approached with horrifying speed, and Cinder mashed the brake pedal, heel-toe downshifting into second gear as the brakes screamed back at her. She turned the wheel to the left.
That was it. There was no traction. Her tires were shot, and she was understeering. The guardrail was approaching with great force. With no electronic assistance, the old white coupe was reacting like a classic Valean muscle car, lolling around like a broken mattress. The guardrail was now only a meter from her right door. She was going to hit it. Cinder, in one last measure of self-preservation, pushed the accelerator as far into the firewall as it would go, desperately hoping that the broken front end would pull her away from the impending crash.
She hit the rail.
Chapter 11
Cinder's skill with the complex all-wheel-drive system had proven its worth that day, as her last-second throttle decision had given the car enough forward movement to cause it to only scrape loudly against the metal barrier, pulling much of the car's pristine white paint from it's bodywork. She had seen over the edge and seen the crevice below. Some fifty metre drop into the jagged ravine. She had resisted the urge to cry for the tenth time that day.
Never look behind you.
A piece of advice Roman had given her so many years ago, suddenly rose into her thoughts. Something to do with your psyche, it would unfocus you. But she couldn't help it. She had to know if she was winning. Her whole body shaking, she looked in the mirror. Ren was falling behind.
Her terrified expression lifted so slightly. The destruction of her car had been worth it. But as she moved her amber eyes back to the road in front of her, she couldn't help but see something that almost made her sick.
Amber eyes.
She tried to push the image out of her mind. If she lost focus, she would crash, likely much worse than she just had. She stared ahead, and pushed the old car down the road.
Amber. Eyes.
It was in her vision now, the image of the little blond girl who called her Mommy. She was going to lose that. But she couldn't let up.
Amber's Eyes!
Her mind screamed at her. That was it. No more. She couldn't continue. Tears were streaming down her face. She let off the accelerator.
Tsssshuuuuuuuu
The waste-gate burst open and relieved her of all her stress and fear. She was shaking violently, the thought of losing her daughter, no, her daughter losing her as a result of her stupid ego. She pushed the brake and pulled the car onto the gravel shoulder. Her hands fumbled for both the door handle and the seatbelt latch at the same time, shaking as if she had lost of motor function of her extremities. She got out of the car.
No, Cinder fell out of the car, a pale, shaking mess of tears. The car lurched forward and stalled as her foot came of the clutch. Amber eyes amber eyes Amber's eyes Amber's eyes Mommy Mommy Mommy Mommy her mind screamed, as she crawled away from the white deathtrap. Ren had overtaken the stopped car and stood on his breaks, the parallelogram-shaped taillights of the XR casting an ominous red glow over the crying girl. Cinder collapsed.
Ren leaped from his car and rushed to her side, sliding the last few centimetres on his knees in the gravel. "Cinder, holy shit!" he cried at the sobbing mass that lay before him. He pulled the black-haired girl up to his chest in an embrace, and she was quick to latch on. "Amber...eyes..." she blubbered out through the stream of tears.
"Shhhhh, it will be okay." he assured her, stoking her sweat-dampened raven hair. "It's over. It's over. You won."
Chapter 12
It had been two hours since they had ended their race, and they were sitting in Ren's black coupe. A tow truck had come and collected the destroyed white Terminal a while ago, and the two had been left alone halfway up the pass. Cinder sat in the driver's seat, and Ren sat alongside her, gently stroking the soft pale hand she had placed in his grasp. She had stopped crying.
She spoke first.
"I feel sick" she said, almost silently.
"I understand" the quiet man responded.
"I could have died."
"As could I."
She looked at him incredulously, the fear still resting in her eyes. He met her gaze, magenta eyes meeting amber. He softened his face and put a hand on her cheek. "I pushed too hard. You wanted to win. We most certainly could have died." he said earnestly. "But it's over now. I'm here."
Cinder smiled and pushed her face gently against the hand he had placed on her cheek.
"What did you want to be when you grew up, Cindy?" Ren asked, slowly withdrawing his hand.
"A huntress" she responded, almost too quickly.
Ren looked her in the eye and frowned. He could see through her lie like it was plate glass. "I'm serious, Miss Fall. What did you want to be?"
Cinder sighed and looked away. All of her childish memories surfaced. She remembered playing with cars as a little girl, driving radio control cars, having posters of famous drivers on her bedroom walls. She remembered go-karting with her friends. She remembered her step-mother yelling at her for being to 'boyish'.
"A racing driver." she said, a look of regret settling upon her face.
"And what do you do right now? For work, I mean." Ren questioned, discreetly pulling out his scroll to send a text.
"I'm a combat instructor at Haven Academy. I teach kids how to fight monsters." she replied, looking away.
"Would you say you have good reflexes?" he asked, and swung his arm towards her head with blistering speed. She instinctively brought up her blocking arm and caught it, mere centimetres from her face. "I'll take that as a yes" replied Ren, watching as her face fell into a smile.
"Why are you asking me this?" she asked, wiping the one remaining tear from her eye.
"Have a read" the dark-haired boy said, handing her his scroll. Open on it was a messaging conversation between Ren and a man named Scarlet. She read on.
[Ren, 3:54pm] Hey Scar, I found you a new driver.
[Scarlet, 3:55pm] Oh yeah? wot's his name?
[Ren, 3:55pm] Her name is Cinder. Street racer from my youth
[Scarlet, 3:56pm] She any good? U know we're looking for a new driver for our 24h enduro team
[Ren, 3:57pm] The best
[Scarlet 3:57pm] Better than u?
[Ren, 3:58pm] Worlds better
There was a significant time difference between the last text and the following.
[Scarlet, 4:08pm] ok
[Scarlet, 4:09pm] Bring her in
Cinder looked up, shocked. Ren had mentioned to her that her friend ran a racing team in Vale, a man by the name of Scarlet David. The team was known as Specialist Speed System Nation, their cars bright yellow with the giant letters SSSN scrawled across the side. They were international champions, and the team owner had just offered her a tryout. She couldn't breathe.
This boy, who had been her rival for her whole life, her team member, and her ally, had just found her her dream job. She was so happy, she thought she could kiss him.
So she did.