Chapter 7 - Sally's Descent
The Thunder Hollow Speedway, a track with the devious disguise of a fun dirt track. But its true nature was that of a destructive derby, and you would be lucky if you ever came out of that track alive.
And through some luck, Sally discovered Thunder Hollow's tradition, and she wanted to use it to her advantage. But first, she needed to see if its contestants were truly worthy of helping her.
So, the blue Porsche traveled alone out to Thunder Hollow to make it to an event that night, and she subtly watched from the crowd as the massacre took place; the blood, the mutilated bodies, the high-speed collisions, it all ignited a fire inside Sally, and this fire was further fueled by her irrational anger.
And it didn't take long for the intelligent Porsche to figure out who she needed to collaborate with, so she headed behind the track after the demolition was over.
"Excuse me, Miss Fritter?" Sally spoke proudly when she saw the said school bus with horn-shaped smoke stacks, and she snarled when her conversation with her nasty cronies was interrupted.
"Whadda you want, Wimp?" Fritter hissed and quickly drove up to Sally to intimidate her, but Sally was determined and barely flinched.
"You and your friends are very strong and useful, Miss Fritter, and I need your help," Sally calmly explained.
"What makes ya think we'd help you?"
Sally was quiet for a moment, pondering how she could get Fritter's attention…and then it hit her, "Are you a fan of Lightning McQueen? I work very close with him, and could get you a one of a kind autograph."
Fritter's eyes widened in surprise, and she was torn between excitement and arrogance, "We're listenin'…"
"There is this racer who threatens Lightning's fame and career, so I need you and your friends to teach him a lesson," Sally went on while clenching her teeth when Jackson came to mind.
Fritter exchanged glances with Arvy and Dr. Damage; all three surprised someone as awesome as Lightning McQueen was in trouble, and fretting what would happen if their favorite Piston Cup racer fell.
"Who're we dealin' with?" Fritter questioned with a glare.
"His name is Jackson Storm," Sally replied with a grin.
On a clear and full moon night, a desolate feeling blanketed the old Thomasville Speedway, yet a single car drove out onto it to bask in the faint presences of past glories.
Jackson sighed and closed his eyes, listening to the soft chirps of crickets and a gentle breeze.
"What am I even worth anymore?" Jackson asked himself, depression obvious in his tone, and then glanced up at the starry sky and bright moon, "You were always a greater racer, Hudson Hornet…you're worth all the honor and love you raced for. But me? …I only raced for myself, and now I've ruined another racer's dream."
"Oh, how sad!" Jackson nearly jumped when a haggish voice broke the silence, and none other than Miss Fritter, Arvy and Dr. Damage pulled out onto the track, all scowling down at the ebony racecar.
Meanwhile, approaching the gate to the dirt track, Lightning was looking forward to a peaceful night alone in order to collect his thoughts, and figure out a way to cope with everything. But when Lightning noticed that the gate was left cracked open, he drove up to the crack and peeked through.
"You ain't gotta worry 'bout yer racin' anymore, Jackson!" Fritter cackled.
"W-Wait, how do you know my name? Who are you?!" Jackson demanded while slowly backing away.
"I'm Miss Fritter, all-time champion of Thunder Hollow! But that don't matter! We're here ta teach you a lesson, little man, so you better get drivin'!"
"Jackson!" Lightning gasped quietly.
All the sudden, Lightning heard a gun cock behind him and then a vile hiss, "Get the hell out of here."
"Sally?" Lightning turned around and saw the said light blue Porsche, but she had a revolver aimed right at him.
"I said get the hell out!" Sally snapped, "But if you won't leave, I'll make you leave!"
Just then, the gates burst open and Jackson sped out with Fritter and her friends hot on his tale; they just barely missed Lightning and Sally, and paid no attention to either of them as they disappeared into the night.
"That son of a bitch will never get between us again," Sally chuckled darkly.
"Wha-? You hired them?" Lightning questioned in shock.
"So what if I did?! You're not Jackson's, you're mine, Lightning McQueen! And nothing will ever change that!" Sally snapped as her eyes welled up with tears, and she once again aimed the gun at Lightning.
"You're wrong, Sally. I can belong to whoever I love—and it's not you," Lightning firmly protested, throwing Sally off guard long enough for him lunge at her and snatch the gun from her grasp.
Lighting glared directly into Sally's eyes as he crushed the gun beneath his wheel, and Sally's eyes darted between the rubble and Lighting's scowl in shock.
"You're sick and manipulative, Sally, and I'll never let you hurt Jackson."
But as Lightning turned and revved his engine to chase after Jackson, Sally suddenly let out a raging cry, "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, LIGHTNING!"
Elsewhere, Jackson had managed to just barely stay ahead of Fritter and her maniacal gang, as they chased him into the Thomasville logging facility. Death and destruction was always possible here, so they had to tread carefully.
"I got 'm! I got 'm!" Arvy cackled like a maniac and pulled ahead of his friends, as they were all fast approaching a convoy ofp semi trucks slowly pulled loads of huge logs down a hill.
The trucks were just tall enough for Jackson to pass underneath the trailers before Arvy could grab him, but Arvy was too large and ran into the trailer. This resulted in the momentum tipping the logs over and snapping the safety ropes. The truck himself even lost balance, and suddenly jackknifed and rolled forward into the other trucks with heavy loads below.
Arvy was trapped within the chain reaction, and he was crushed by hundreds of logs when the other semi trucks' safety ropes came undone.
Jackson, Fritter, and Dr. Damage didn't have time to stop and look back at Arvy's death, as the two remaining Thunder Hollow racers chased the ebony racecar into another part of the logging facility.
They soon came up to a collection of conveyer belts that pulled logs along to a giant spinning saw blade, which effortlessly cut them in half. Dr. Damage was next to try and catch Jackson, but he didn't expect him to suddenly jump over an unoccupied conveyer belt.
But Dr. Damage wasn't going to give up that easily, so he tried to jump the conveyer belt, too. Unfortunately, the ambulance was too large to make the jump, and he was stuck on the moving belt when his wheels were dangling off of both sides.
And as he struggled to get off, he traveled down the conveyer belt, getting closer and closer to the spinning saw at the end. And once Dr. Damage realized the danger he was in, it was too late and he was instantly split in half by the giant blade.
Even though Fritter didn't stop to mourn her friends' deaths, she was still fully aware that they were now gone, and she blamed it all on the one she was chasing.
"I'll make you suffer, ya little bitch!" Fritter screamed at the top of her lungs, fire spewing from her horn-shaped smoke stacks to further emphasize her anger.
"Why are you doing this?!" Jackson called back.
"'Cause you were gonna destroy Lightnin' McQueen!"
"What?! Who told you that?!"
"Who cares?! I was hired ta put the hurt on you, but now I'm gonna kill you!"
Jackson didn't know what to think. Well, he knew he needed to escape, but he couldn't figure out what sick and twisted person would put someone up to this.
Suddenly, Fritter's smoke stacks flared again, providing her a short boost of speed that nearly allowed her to catch up with Jackson. But the racecar was much too small and fast, and continued to stay ahead. And soon, he used the logging facility to his advantage again when he saw a slanted conveyer belt that dropped logs into a giant wood chipper on the other side, but it also provided a pathway up onto a ridge with a small cave.
If Jackson could make the jump, Fritter wouldn't be able to chase him into the cave. So, Jackson sped up even more and hastily made his way up the conveyer belt, but Fritter was close behind hit his bumper with a hard swipe of her wheel, ruining his speed and momentum.
When Jackson finally lifted off, he wobbled in the air and chances of him making the jump quickly diminished. But chances for Fritter dwindled even more after she hit Jackson, and she lost too much momentum, too.
The school bus only made it a little over halfway off the conveyer belt before gravity acted upon her, pulling her down into the wood chipper, and to shredding demise.
Even though Fritter didn't make it, Jackson luckily managed to grab a small ledge, but his grip was quickly slipping.
"Jackson, grab on!" Lighting's voice cried from above, and Jackson was surprised to see the said stock car standing on the ledge, leaning down as far as he could with a wheel stretched out to him.
Jackson wasted no time in taking Lighting's grasp, and the two grunted as Lighting immediately pulled him to safety. The two racecars were then left speechless, as they panted from the shock of everything that just happened.
"I'm sorry," Lightning breathed heavily, looking into Jackson's eyes with guilt.
"What're you talking about?" Jackson inquired with a quirked brow, "You didn't have anything to do with this."
"Actually, I did…Sally—my ex-girlfriend—hired those brutes to hurt you, maybe even kill you. She was only after me…and you got in the way."
"You're right, I am in the way." Lighting was surprised. "Everything I've done to you only made things worse for you, and that included ruining your love life."
"But my decision to leave Sally was just that. If I had known how controlling she could be, this never would've happened."
"You two really wanna spend the rest of your days together? Fine," a familiar hiss came from nearby, and Jackson and Lightning turned to find Sally slowly approaching, a noticeable twitch of insanity in her eye, "Then you'll both be damned for all eternity!"
"C'mon, we gotta get out of here!" Lighting warned, making a quick U-turn driving into the dark cave, and Jackson was right behind him.
Unfortunately, Sally was still determined and followed them as well. All three cars switched on their headlights, but it barely helped against the sharp turns and old support beams, especially when they entered the mines.
"Jesus, she's faster than she looks!" Jackson exclaimed in surprise.
"No kidding!" Lightning added knowingly, "How're we gonna lose her?!"
Jackson immediately went to creating a plan, and that's when she noticed a thin support beam ahead. So, he slowed down enough to bash into the beam, and then quickly sped up again to avoid the tumbling rocks above. And just like Jackson planned, Sally wasn't fast enough and got caught in the falling rocks' path…sadly, his plan didn't go as completely planned, and only Sally's back left wheel was caught under the rocks.
Jackson and Lightning stopped and turned back to see if Sally was truly defeated, but the said Porsche was somehow able to pull her now flat tire free, and she miraculously drove into high speeds again.
"What is this woman made of?!" Jackson asked hysterically, and he and Lightning instantly raced forward to stay ahead.
Just then, the mines gave Jackson another idea when he saw two paths and a large oval-shaped hole in between. Then it hit Jackson.
"Can she drift?"
"No!" Lighting replied in confusion.
"Good! Follow my lead and split up!"
So, when Lighting saw the split in the path and the hole, he drifted around the curved right path while Jackson drifted on the right. When Sally tried to copy them, her lack in drifting skills and missing forth tire prevented her from following them anymore. Even when she tried to put on her breaks, the dirt was too slipper, and she helplessly fell into the seemingly bottomless pit.
But Lightning and Jackson couldn't stop now, as the support beam that Jackson took out earlier caused a chain reaction, and the entire tunnel was now caving in. More and more heavy ruble collapsed close behind them, but the two racers just managed to find an exit and escape without a scratch.
The cave that they exited was now stiffed to the brim with large rocks and dust, and the two knew for certain that Sally would never be heard from again when the dust cleared.
"Jackson?" Lightning gently spoke up, and the said ebony racecar looked at him quizzically, "W-Why don't we stick together for a bit? Ya know, to be more mature and even with each other for the next race?"
Jackson cracked a small smile, "Sounds good."
Ooh, this is gettin' good. Frankly, this story isn't over just yet, as there is still one last enemy Lightning and Jackson must face. Can you guess who it is?
Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!