Max pressed the gas down – and the car made a weird lurch forward but didn't move.
"Oh, now what?" Max asked irritably.
Fang sighed. "You have to release the parking brake."
"Oh," Max said sheepishly. "Well, where is it?"
"I don't know!" Fang said. "What do I look like, a mechanic?"
Max took a deep breath... and let it out. "Ig, do you know where it is?"
This whole time, Nudge, Gazzy, and I had been struggling to keep our laughter contained, and now I had to compose my face so Max wouldn't, you know, kill me.
"Yeah," I said. I got up and showed Max the parking brake, which had been sitting there in plain sight – well, for her, at least – the whole time. I smirked a little and went back to my seat.
"Oh. Thanks, Iggy," Max said quietly.
Nudge and Gazzy were now shaking with silent laughter. I elbowed them both, grinning.
"No problem."
"Okay," Max said. "Now here goes nothing."
She pressed the gas a little too hard, we careened out of the parking lot, and Nudge shrieked, almost falling out of her seat.
"Sorry!" Max called apologetically over shoulder. "This is harder than I thought."
The road must have been relatively empty, or else we would have crashed by now. I hoped it would stay that way.
Max managed to get control of the steering wheel. Everything went smoothly for a few minutes. And then we came to a turn.
First of all, Max didn't slow down. I wasn't sure if she knew how to brake yet. So when we hit the turn and she suddenly spun the steering wheel at the last minute, the van actually went up on two wheels and stayed like that for about ten seconds. We all screamed, even Max and Fang, and I think Fang took the wheel from Max for a second. The van came back down and the wheels bounced when they hit the pavement. Max was panting.
"I'm getting the hang of this," she said.
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"Okay, okay, we're doing okay," Max said, about ten minutes after our gravity-defying moment of terror. We really weren't doing okay. But we weren't dead yet. That has to count for something, right? "I mean, it's not as good as flying, but it beats the heck out of walking!"
We didn't say anything.
"What?" she said.
"Could you take it easy on the hairpin turns?" Fang said.
"I'm getting better," Max said. "I just had to practice."
"I didn't know a van could go up on two wheels like that," Nudge said. "For so long."
"I don't want to barf in a borrowed car," Gazzy said. Nudge and I scooted away from him.
Max ignored the Gasman. "We need to turn east in about five hundred yards," she said.
We drove for an uneventful half mile, and then Max pulled over. "Where the heck is the road?" she yelled, making me jump. "There's no freaking road there!"
"You're going by your own directional senses," Fang said.
"And there can't be roads everywhere you feel like there should be a road," I said, trying not to snicker.
Max sighed, pulled back onto the road, and turned around. "I'll just have to take a less efficient route," she said.
We drove for a little while longer. Nudge and Gazzy were playing rock-paper-scissors across me.
"Ha! I win!" whispered Gazzy triumphantly.
"No, it was me! Rock beats scissors!" Nudge argued.
"But you did paper!" Gazzy said.
"No, I –"
"Argh!" Max cried from the front seat. Gazzy and Nudge sat back abruptly in their seats, thinking she was mad at them.
She pulled over, and I heard the distinct sound of something being hit. Hard.
The Gasman, seeming to have realized Max wasn't angry with him, said, "It's okay, Max."
"Is she hitting the steering wheel?" I asked.
"Look," Fang said. "There's a town up ahead. Let's go there, get something to eat, and find an actual map. 'Cause this wandering thing ain't workin'."
Yes. Food. Thank you, Fang.
She drove into the town and pulled into a parking lot at some restaurant. The moment Max turned off the engine, Nudge and Gazzy leapt up and raced to the door.
"We're alive!" the Gasman cried.
"Wait!" Max said. "Look, we're really close to the School. This might feel like the middle of nowhere, but really, Erasers could be anywhere and anyone. You know that. So we have to be careful."
The smell of hot food was beginning to make me edgy. We get it, Max.
"We have to eat," Nudge said.
"I know, Nudge," Max replied gently. "We're going to. I'm just saying be really careful. Be on guard, be ready to run, okay? Anybody we see could be an Eraser."
We nodded. I got up and stood behind Nudge, waiting for Gazzy to open the door. Max flipped down the visor. There was the sound of a keyring falling and hitting Max's lap.
There was a pause. "Well, that'll simplify things," Fang said.
I couldn't help it. I cracked up.