I know that the last few chapters have been pretty short, so I'm hoping this one can make up for that. :)
Chapter 21- A Crazy Night of Crazy Eight
Before Fudge, Cruz or Lightning knew what was happening, the lights on the track shut off. The crowd went wild.
"Welcome, y'all, to Thunder Hollow Speedway!" an announcer's voice boomed over the PA. "For tonight's addition of..."
A bunch of bright lights came on and swept over the track in the shape of the number eight.
"CURRRRAAAAZYYY EIGHT!" the announcer finished.
Several explosions went off around the trio as flames came shooting out of some tyres. Fudge whimpered and put her hands to her ears, shutting her eyes. She hated both fire and loud noises. Not holding onto anything sent her tumbling into the dirt. Finally, one massive explosion from all of the tyres at once made Fudge give a frightened yell.
"I don't like this!" she declared, whimpering.
"Did he say 'Crazy Eight?'" Lightning quizzed the two females next to him as he helped Fudge up onto her feet.
"That's what it sounded like!" a fearful Fudge responded, trying keep her hands on Lightning's muddy roof. She didn't know what Crazy Eight was, but given how scared she was already, she wasn't at all interested in sticking around to find out.
"Whoa!" Lightning exclaimed abruptly as a flaming tyre came bouncing along dangerously close to them.
"I don't like this!" Fudge repeated and both Cruz and Lightning felt sorry for her. She was genuinely scared.
"Race fans!" the announcer continued. "It's time to meet tonight's challengers!"
There was another explosion directly behind our three heroes, making all three of them yelp and hurry out of the way. A whole bunch of cars and trucks came pouring in from behind, all of them very battered and bruised. An ambulance with the word RAMBULANCE written on him rushed out, imitating a siren.
"Have a nice trip!" an RV with a nose ring called out.
Fudge, Lightning and Cruz were surrounded by racers, who were driving around recklessly and in all directions. Some were even driving backwards or spinning around and around dangerously.
"Protect and swerve!" a severely dented police car laughed as she spun around.
They just kept coming, all flooding in one after the other and all performing some dangerous stunt. Then the humans showed up! The five humans that had taunted Fudge earlier practically flew in on their roller skates.
"This is my high noon!" Wild Wes declared.
A water truck on the track whistled casually as he sprayed water into the dirt, turning it into mud. Looking around at it all, it absolutely was not something Lightning, Fudge or Cruz wanted to be a part of.
"Guys!" Lightning called out. "This isn't what I thought it was! Come on! Follow me and we'll slip out!"
"Gladly!" Fudge agreed, holding onto Lightning, letting him lead her out. Cruz followed.
Unfortunately, before they could escape, Roscoe and Mitch shut the gates!
"No!" Fudge wailed in horror.
"Rule number one", Roscoe began. "Gate closes, you race."
Well, that kinda sucked. Cruz gasped as a forklift spray-painted the number 20 on her sides. At the same time, another plastered the number 19 to Fudge's back and chest, making her flinch. That was when she realised that the other humans were wearing them as well. Roxy Rocket was number 22, Fire and Ice were 100 and 101 respectively, Wild Wes was 48 and Benny was 6 (she later heard the others joke about how he got the number six because he could only count that high).
"Wait!" Cruz cried. "No, no, no! I'm not a racer!"
"Me neither!" Fudge added.
"Rule number two", Roscoe went on, ignoring them. "Last one standing wins." That kinda sucked too; no way could a human beat a car in this kind of thing. "And rule number three. No cursing! It's family night."
With that, he began to drive off.
"Good luck, guys!" Mitch called over his shoulder before following Roscoe.
Well, that last rule kinda sucked too. Fudge had only ever cursed a couple of times in her life, but, given the situation, now seemed like a perfect time to start.
"Excuse me! Guys?!" Lightning called after them.
"Wait! No!" Cruz shouted. "I'm just a trainer!"
"I'm gonna die here!" Fudge added.
However, their pleas were ignored. Mitch and Roscoe were gone. All of a sudden, a honking horn blared out from behind them and again, all three of them were startled. There was a car racing mere inches from them.
"And make way for the undefeated Crazy Eight champion!" the announcer started.
Fudge groaned. Oh, God! These guys looked tough and dangerous enough as it was. What would the undefeated champion be like?
"The Diva of Demolition! MISS FRITTER!"
There was another explosion, this one right behind the trio. Lightning screamed as they all jumped and turned around. A menacing-looking school bus was directly behind them. She had horns going up to her roof, a chain on her hood and a collection of licence plates hanging off one of her sides as what they could only assume were trophies collected from previous victims. The sixteen-year-old whimpered and clung to Lightning, looking down at the mud staining her shirt and jeans.
"Now, I'm muddy on the front and the back!" she whispered to herself.
"Boo!" Miss Fritter's voice was low and raspy. She laughed. Well, actually, cackled is a better way of describing it. "Lookie here, boys!" she called out to the other competitors. "We got us a couple of rookies!"
Wild Wes laughed, catching sight of Fudge. "What are you doin' here, Sweetheart? We told you you didn't have the guts to do this."
Fudge wasn't even going to argue with him. She just wanted to get out of there.
Miss Fritter looked to Fudge too. "So, this is Sweetheart, huh?" She shifted her attention to Lightning. "I'm gonna call you Muddy Britches." Finally, she looked at Cruz. "And you Lemonade!"
"Hey! Neither one of them has a single dent", the RV, who the group later learned was named Arvy, observed.
"Oh, I'm gonna fix that!" Miss Fritter vowed.
Nobody doubted that.
Roxy Rocket scanned Fudge up and down critically. "Sweetheart's missing a couple of teeth, though. I'm sure she'll lose a couple more tonight."
"Yeah, let's make you lose all those baby teeth!" Fire taunted.
"Let's see how gutsy you really are!" Ice chimed in.
Not very! Fudge thought, cowering.
"All right, everybody!" the announcer called it. He chanted along with the crowd, "Let's... go... RACIN'!"
An air siren blared and a terrible night began.
Immediately, Miss Fritter chased Fudge, Lightning and Cruz while the other cars and humans smashed and crashed into each other.
"I'm about to commit a moving violation!" Miss Fritter shouted as she tried to hunt her prey.
"Whoa!" Lightning cried, darting out of the way at the last second.
Fudge, on the other tyre, hadn't been able to get out of the way. Miss Fritter clipped her slightly, propelling her forward out of control before she smashed into the fence, prompting ecstatic cheers from the crowd. Fudge was glad that they were happy. Not only did it hurt, but she'd lost the prescription sunglasses she was wearing! Her vision was blurry and she couldn't see a thing. Before she could get her bearings, she felt herself being grabbed from both sides. Fire and Ice had just slid their arms under her shoulders and dragged her along as they skated at rapid speed. Fudge screamed the whole way around.
Meanwhile, Lightning was racing around the track, desperately trying to avoid crashing into any of those Crazy Eight cars as well as being hit by any flying objects. That was when he noticed something- or rather, someone- frozen in the middle of the track, hiding behind a stack of tyres.
"Cruz!" he exclaimed, racing off in her direction.
On his way, he ran into Fudge, who had just been let go by Fire and Ice after they realised that Miss Fritter was on their tail. She was flying, unable to stop and struggling to keep her balance on the skates. Luckily, Lightning showed up to catch her in the nick of time.
"Thanks!"
"Fudge! Fudge, hold onto me!" McQueen instructed and she didn't hesitate to obey.
"I can't see a damn thing!" the human complained.
"Cruz!" Lightning yelled. Then he raced off to save Cruz, Fudge struggling to hold on.
"What are you doing?!" he demanded when he reached her. "Gotta keep moving!"
"I shouldn't be out here!" Cruz protested.
At that moment, a car bounced off the ground and came flying towards the trio. Cruz screamed.
"Move, Cruz, move!" Lightning shouted, pushing her out of the way.
"I don't like this!" Fudge announced for the third time that night. She was on the verge of tears as Lightning led her onto the solid dirt.
There was one major problem on the solid dirt.
"What do I do?!" Cruz called out to Lightning, unable to move in a straight line. "I can't steer!"
"Turn right to go left, turn right to go left!" Lightning coached her, drifting around a corner in the dirt with Fudge hanging on for dear life.
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!" Cruz shouted.
"Turn right to go left!" Lightning repeated.
"Cruz! Look at what Lightning's doing!" Fudge added, thinking that that would be a little more useful advice to Cruz, but she couldn't hear over all the chaos.
"Whoa!" Lightning skidded to a halt to avoid a collision and Fudge fell to the ground.
"Lightning!" she called out, wanting him to help her.
But Lightning didn't have time to stop. Miss Fritter was right behind him, ploughing forward three other cars and Wild Wes. Luckily, Fudge managed to crawl away at the last second, only to have Roxy Rocket, who had been hit by a car, smash into her. Now, Fudge could see why having humans on the same track was banned in forty-nine states.
"Fudge!" Lightning hollered when he came back around and she climbed up onto his trunk. "Why did you let go?!"
"I didn't do it on purpose!" she argued defensively.
"Well, stay with me this time!"
"I'll try!" she promised.
Lightning screamed yet again as several competitors blocked his path. Yet, he couldn't stop.
Luckily, they got out of his way in time, but pretty soon, Arvy and a taxi called Fare Game were chasing them. All of a sudden, Fudge climbed off Lightning's trunk.
"Fudge!" he screamed. "FUDGE! Fudge, what are you doing?!"
Fudge didn't answer. She was too focused on trying to stand up and manoeuvre on her skates properly. She'd been hoping to find something sturdy to hold onto, but there was nothing, so she was just going to have to be careful. She'd already broken both her hip and her neck once; she didn't want to do it again that night.
"Nice day for a drive, huh?!" Arvy called out as he and Fare Game sandwiched the two incognito celebrities.
"Hey, buddy!" Fare Game yelled. "Get the-" He honked his horn. "-out of my way!"
The two collided and clipped Fudge on the way (not hard, thankfully), sending Arvy crashing into the barbed wire fence. The crowd cheered.
Arvy's crash had brought the fence down a little bit and that was exactly what Fudge wanted. Making sure that no wild racers were in her way, she removed her skates and put her hands on the fence in front of her. It would've been much easier with her glasses, but she could still see it. There was a gap in it, created by part of it being knocked down. The human girl was trying to squeeze her way out through the gap. While the crowd were loving that, nobody was much help. They just laughed and cheered.
"Hey! Guess Sweetheart's given up!" a voice called out, laughing.
"So soon?" another voice asked with mock disappointment.
"I have never seen this before!" the announcer's voice came over the PA. One of the bright stadium lights shone down on Fudge. "It looks like we got ourselves a runaway!"
That made everyone laugh even more and, while Fudge felt like her humiliation was complete, she consoled herself with the silver lining that nobody knew it was her.
Cruz, who was still struggling in the dirt watched Fudge, amazed. She was actually going to escape this hell! The yellow car was kind of jealous, to be honest.
Sadly, before Fudge could escape, Benny came over, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
Lightning had watched the whole thing as he was still being chased by Dr. Damage and Fare Game. "Goddammit, Fudge!" he whispered to himself.
"Hey!" Fudge shrieked. "Put me down!"
Benny didn't put her down. He carried her back onto the track, but when Dr. Damage appeared on his tail, he was forced to drop Fudge and skate off to safety.
Thank Chrysler a pile of tyres and some mud broke Fudge's fall.
"Fudge!" Lightning hollered, rushing to her side and pulling her up to her feet once again. "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I wanna get out of here!" she cried as she got back onto his trunk. She'd already had numerous near death experiences in her life- being chased by evil Lemons several times during the World Grand Prix; being beaten by them; jumping out of a helicopter without a parachute into the River Thames; nearly being blown up by the bomb attached to Mater; having guns aimed at her; being stranded in Tail Light Caverns for two days with no food or drink and, of course, the accident. Now, this. Fudge could tell you firsthand that having multiple near death experiences didn't make it any easier.
They didn't have time to discuss it anymore. Arvy and Fare Game were still after them. They'd both spun out in their collision and had kept going. Arvy was behind them and Fare Game was driving in front of them, blocking their path.
"Hey! I'm driving here!" Fare Game yelled at them.
However, at that moment, Dr. Damage came from nowhere and slammed into the taxi. So, he was gone. That just left Arvy.
And the fifty million other competitors coming at them at rocket speed and from all directions. Just like the one right in front of them who happened to flip over and roll towards them at that moment. Fortunately, Lightning managed to get out of the way. The car landed on Arvy's roof and he didn't seem to mind.
"Look at my new hat!" he called out excitedly.
Lightning raced into the mud and the car behind them had somehow become airborne. Fudge had to duck to prevent herself from being hit in the head.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I'm flying!" Although as he neared the ground, he was quickly drawn back to reality. "No! I'm not flying!"
He hit the ground hard and bounced, crashing into the fence as well and hurtling a rocket into the crowd.
A couple of seconds later, a forklift held up the rocket triumphantly. "I got it!" he shouted, prompting even more cheers from the spectators.
At that moment, Fudge and Lightning remembered someone they hadn't seen in a while.
"Cruz!" they gasped simultaneously.
They found her practically flying through the mud, completely out of control, screaming all the way.
"We've gotta help her!" Lightning declared determinedly.
"Yeah, but how?!" Fudge wondered. "We can't even save ourselves right now!"
"Well, we gotta do something!"
Meanwhile, Cruz had found herself back on the solid dirt, still unable to steer.
"Turn right to go left, turn right to go left", she repeated Lightning's words.
She attempted the move, but started spinning out of control.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" she screamed as she ended up straight in the mud, powerless to get out.
To make matters worse, Miss Fritter had just flipped over a car and glared menacingly at her next victim of choice: Cruz.
"Oh, no!" Cruz murmured softly, trying to move, but she couldn't.
"Buckle up, everybody!" the announcer called out. "It's... FRITTER TIME!"
Several more explosions went off, posters of Miss Fritter appeared around the speedway. The crowd began chanting, "Fritter, Fritter, Fritter!"
Miss Fritter herself joined in, driving around in circles with flames coming from her horns. "Fritter, Fritter, Fritter!"
"I don't even wanna know about Fritter Time!" Fudge groaned.
"Oh, yeah!" Miss Fritter called out to Cruz. "Your licence plate's gonna look real nice in my collection!" She rattled the licence plates on her sides.
"Oh, boy!" Cruz murmured.
"Run!" an upside-down car next to her instructed.
Lightning came to a stop and he and Fudge had a clear view of what was happening. "Oh, no!" he groaned.
"What do we do?" Fudge wondered.
"Remember!" Miss Fritter went on. "Obey all appropriate street signs!"
"Cruz!" McQueen shot off to try to save her.
Good thing, too. Miss Fritter had just produced a razor-sharp stop sign, which she started spinning, sending off a shower of sparks. For a brief moment, Fudge wondered if that was even legal. Who cares?! she told herself. Legal or not, we gotta help Cruz!
Miss Fritter was heading for Cruz. Everyone was eager to see her destroy this Frances Beltline car, whoever she was. Nobody was prepared for what happened next, though. Chester Whipplefilter and Joy "Rider" Sweet pushed her out of the way. However, in doing so, they sent up a stream of mud. It caused Miss Fritter to lose control, shooting right past them, going backwards and tilting sideways slightly. Finally, she toppled over onto her side!
"Oh, my gracious!" The announcer was clearly astonished. "Miss Fritter's down!"
A series of gasps came from the cars and humans in the stands. Meanwhile, Lightning was trying to move, but he couldn't. As he spun his wheels, there was an odd sound.
Fudge glanced down to see what the problem was. "Lightning! Look at this!"
He looked. The stop sign was caught in one of his rear wheels. The tyre had burst. Great.
"Nobody touches them!" Miss Fritter called out, making Fudge and Lightning jump. "They... are... mine!" She was trying to get back up on her tyres. Double great.
Everyone was silent for a long time.
"Oh, boy!" Fudge mumbled.
"You gon' get it now, Whipplefilter!" an RV in the crowd shouted.
"Yeah, you and Sweetheart better start diggin' your own graves!" an African-American human man beside the RV added.
They probably should've, as far as Fudge was concerned, but if there was one thing people should know about Lightning McQueen, it was that he didn't go down without a fight. He revved his engine and dug through the mud, doing anything it took to push himself forward.
"Anything I can do to help?" Fudge offered.
"Yeah. You can stay up there and keep quiet!"
Fudge wasn't sure if he was just stressed or actually mad at her. It was hard to tell from his tone. She just decided to do as he said. Now, a little part of her wished they weren't in disguise. Why? Because after this, she was certain that they wouldn't be allowed to show their faces at Thunder Hollow Speedway ever again.
"Come on, McQueen!" the stock car whispered to himself as he persisted through the mud. "You can do it! Come on, Lightning! Keep going!"
The clock was ticking. Miss Fritter wasn't going down without a fight either.
"Miss Fritter's looking to get upright, folks!" the announcer observed. "And she is not pleased!"
Fudge was beginning to get afraid. Lightning was trying to get out of the mud. Miss Fritter was trying to get back on her tyres. She had no idea which one was gonna happen first.
"Are you sure you don't need me to do anything?!" Fudge quizzed McQueen frantically. If she could do something, it might reduce their chances of becoming roadkill.
"Yes, I'm fine! I can do this, Fudge!"
"Isn't that what you said about the simulator?" the sixteen-year-old reminded him.
"Can we not talk about this right now, Fudge?!"
Her heart sank when Miss Fritter stood before her on all four tyres. Lightning was still in the mud.
The School Bus of Death glared at the two, ready to kill them both. "You", she vowed, "about to feel the wrath of the Lower Belleville County Unified School District!"
With flames pouring out of her horns again, Miss Fritter charged!
"Tell Luigi and Guido I love them!" Fudge shouted.
"Oh, stop being so dramatic!" Lightning scoffed, still struggling in the mud.
Just then, the stop sign was released from his wheel and was sent flying. Lightning spun and Fudge was sent flying as well along with some tyres. When Miss Fritter hit the scattered tyres, she became airborne as well! She crashed right into one of the billboards around the track!
"No, no, no, no, no!" she screamed as the billboard toppled over.
The water truck, Mr. Drippy, screamed and rushed to her aid.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!" the announcer declared. "Frances Beltline!"
"Frances Beltline?" Fudge repeated. It took a second for her to realise. That was Cruz!
Cruz, who was still racing around the track, needed a second too. "Is that me? That's me! I won! I won!" She was heading straight for Fudge, Lightning and Mr. Drippy.
"Cruz, Cruz, no!" Lightning shouted. "No, no, no, no, no, no!"
"Watch out!" Cruz shrieked as she swerved to avoid Mr. Drippy.
The water truck lost his balance and fell over onto his side. As if things weren't bad enough, all of the water in his tank burst out, drenching Lightning and Fudge.
"At least now, I won't have to take a shower!" Fudge grumbled as the water stopped and she staggered to her feet while Lightning shook himself off. Both of them were sputtering.
However, the crowd had noticed something that she didn't: the water had washed away all of the mud on Lightning and caused her wig to slide off her head. Everyone gasped.
"Whipplefilter?" the RV from earlier gasped.
Lightning froze. He realised that everyone was staring at him and his disguise was gone. Triple great.
"IT'S LIGHTNIN' MCQUEEN!" the RV yelled.
"And Fudge Rossi-Topolino!" the African-American man beside him added.
All of a sudden, everyone was shouting. Two forklifts pushed a sign behind the two celebrities, which said GOT MY TYRES DIRTY AT THUNDER HOLLOW. Lights went off in their faces and Miss Fritter somehow managed to get herself upright again in record time.
"LIGHTNING MCQUEEN!" she squealed, rushing forward to be at the race car's side. "AND FUDGE ROSSI-TOPOLINO! I can't believe this! I am such a big fan of both of you! I can't believe you're really here! It's so great to meet you!"
"Yeah, it's a real pleasure", Fudge stammered out uncertainly. This school bus had been hell-bent on killing them not even a minute ago and now, she was fangirling over them. Strange.
Roxy Rocket marched over to Roscoe and Mitch and gave them both the hardest slap she could give.
"How could you even think of letting a kid in here?!" she demanded.
"She's sixteen years old!" Fire pointed out.
"And she looks younger!" Ice added, eyeing the teen. "Though, she's pretty gutsy for a kid."
"You didn't even think to ask how old she is?" Miss Fritter looked Fudge up and down with concern. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" she assured the other competitors, who crowded around her as she tried to limp off, only to sag to the floor.
"Come on!" Miss Fritter insisted. "You had that accident a couple years ago!"
Without a word, Benny lifted Fudge over his shoulder again and carried her over to a medical tent nearby. Lightning followed, but stopped when he noticed Cruz going in the opposite direction.
"Cruz! Where are you going?"
"I won!" she replied. "I gotta get my trophy!"
Lightning groaned and rolled his eyes. He had three things on his mind at that point: how the night had done nothing to improve his speed, making sure Fudge was okay and getting as far away from Thunder Hollow as possible.