The launch was underwhelming as the Challenger lurched forward. Harumi gripped tighter to the steering wheel as she realised the lack of traction wasn't due to any chance phenomenon of indoor rain. Muttering a silent prayer, she leant forward into the slow creep of the car as it made its way tentatively down the spiralling slopes of the five stories.
The many tightly wound steel loops rattled addictively under the cars heavy tyres as it rolled cautiously down the final ramp and towards the ticket barrier.
"Mei?"
"Yes?"
"You see a ticket, or a plastic chip or something on the dash?"
"Um, no, I don't."
"Well, we're gonna need one in about five seconds."
The first winds of panic swept Mei as she clapped eyes on the oncoming safety yellow of the ticket booth; a grey wardens cap poked out from within the paneless window. She tore her eyes back over the ridged dashed board once again, almost expecting whatever had taken the crucial token should have spontaneously returned it within the last three seconds.
Her luck not so kind, she wrenched open the glove compartment and began to rifle through its contents just as Harumi finally wound down her window.
/
A jovial pink-faced man flung down a stack of papers and ambled over to the booth window.
"Evening Ladies."
Placing both huge paws on the frame, he beamed down at Harumi who returned a weak grin.
"Ticket please."
The rapidly calculating woman stole a glance out of the corner of her eye. None of the piling miscellanea scattered about Mei's feverishly tapping feet resembled anything close to a parking pass.
"Terrible weather tonight, don't you think?" Harumi began, replicating the warden's friendly demeanour as she too propped herself on the car window frame and then inflated her initially pathetic smile.
To her temporary relief, the somewhat lonesome warden shifted his weight onto his left elbow as his contemplating face began to consider the question as though Harumi had just handed him the most riveting conversation material he'd ever come across. Harumi knew it then; this man was one for conversation.
"Well, I don't know if I'd say that," his voice was deep and resonant," I've always been rather fond of rainy nights."
"No kidding?" Harumi replied almost too enthusiastically as she heard a mini first aid kit hit the floor.
"Oh, yes," he sniffed deeply, "I think it's the roof in this place; everything echoes ten fold, so the pour of the rain is almost like a symphony in here. And they don't let us keep radio's on the job, so I suppose the racket of the gods is the best I've got, eh?"
The man let out a rich, booming laugh as though he'd just dropped the most crippling punchline; his jowls jiggled like a prize turkey as he leant into its deep chorus.
Despite the cumbersome situation, Harumi couldn't help but like the man. He reminded her of a favourite uncle who'd always spoil her rotten when he came to town.
"I guess I never thought about it from that perspective. Suppose I'm just sour 'cause I always seem to get caught up in it y' see."
Harumi motioned to her dripping hair and sodden jacket.
"You poor dear, you look like a drowned rat - not to be forward. I have just the thing, take a couple of packets of custard creams, I've got tons and no one to share them with anyhow. Besides, if I eat too many, the wife'll start on me again, and that'll be the end."
He winked cheekily before shuffling out of view for a moment. Harumi was taken aback as he genuinely returned with an armful of plastic-wrapped custard cream biscuits. Not wanting to snuff his generosity or more crucially put an end to the conversation, Harumi could only lean back as he unloaded the horde of biscuits into the car.
"And would you like a biscuit too, erm Miss?"
Mei glanced up suddenly from where she was examining the seat lining as she realised she was now part of the conversation.
She flicked her gaze on Harumi, who was making a barely susceptible nod whilst shooting her a razor glare.
"Yes, I think I will thank you."
Mei plucked a custard cream from the packet the man had just torn open and offered to her. She held the edible item between her thumb and forefinger as though she needed further instruction in the art of consumption. The man, however, had no such trouble and rammed two into his mouth one after the other as he heartily continued on with the conversation.
"So what are you two, like sisters?"
The man said, spreading a mouthful of crumbs as he spoke.
Harumi chose to ignore the chunk that hit her square in the forehead, unflinching as she continued to match the man's cheery manner.
"Oh, no, we -," Harumi took another quick glance at Mei who was now scouring the cars side pockets as she fumbled for an answer," we aren't related."
"Oh so…?"
"So...we're just friends. Good friends on a-er road trip. Y'know see the sights, have a few laughs, that kind of thing. It's just nice to get away from everything and breathe some different air every once in a while."
"Ahh. Oh, I envy you, my dear. When I was your age, I always dreamed of doing the same thing. That said, the day never came to pass. Lived in Kobe my whole life, born and bred. Top class wagyu beef - me, if I were a cow.
He belted out yet another low register of booming laughter.
"Now you've come to visit my city on your travels, you ought to check out the beef. I know a great restaurant just down the way-"
Harumi reacted as Mei suddenly placed a hand on her lap and stretched across her body like a big cat.
"We'll make sure to check it out," she said cooly, extending the green parking pass out of Harumi's window and towards the man.
"Ah, yes the ticket. God, I've talked your ear off, pardon me."
He slipped the ticket apologetically from Mei's fingers and shuffled towards the ticket machine on his right side. A small whirring sound started up as he fed the pass through the mouth of the device and knelt down to sift through a box of stationery below.
Harumi exhaled a sigh of relief and looked at Mei questioningly as she pulled herself back through the window. She mouthed 'under the sun flap' and winked triumphantly as she reverse padded across Harumi's thighs and back into her seat. The warmth of Mei's body remained on Harumi as she turned her now distracted attention again to the returning warden.
"Right you are, all done. Just follow the tunnel down, and you'll get out on your right."
The man gave a series of broad gesticulations to clarify as he pressed an unseen button to raise the hashed barrier fronting the humming vehicle.
"Thanks a lot, oh and for the biscuits too. I hope you get that holiday soon," Harumi said with a wave as the low hum of the Challenger evolved to a growl at her slight tease of the accelerator.
The man watched the two red barred lights diminish as the car rode into the distance, the growl of its engine stepping up to a roar as it descended into the tunnel ahead. He listened appreciatively to the rumble of the car he'd only just noticed in his blathering as its ghostly howls fed the dimming echoes of the tunnel. Perhaps he had a new favourite sound.
Returning to his chair, he plucked his rough papered magazine from the desk as he considered using a portion of his pension to fulfil his youthal desire to see more of Japan. He'd have to talk it over with his wife, after all, she had been talking about that new conservatory for the past five years. Perhaps he'd just settle for seeing the rest of Kansai.
He scanned the inky lines of the magazine, eager to dive back into his forgotten paragraph on topiary. He would put the page down less than twenty seconds later when the phone mounted to the wall would ring. He would amble over reluctantly and raise the receiver to his left ear; still, half a mind on that new pair of shears as the urgent voice on the other end would tell him under no circumstances to allow two women in a Dodge Challenger to pass the gate.
/
"This isn't exactly an inconspicuous way to get out of the city."
"You're welcome to try your luck with the public train service."
The engine gave a soft thrum at it waited patiently for the zebra crossing to clear, its many wildly dressed pedestrians sparing curious glances at the American muscle car fronting the line of all Japanese steel. Rain pelted the windscreen, the wiper blades wagging furiously to clear the relentless droplets obscuring the view.
The crossing finally cleared and the car gratefully purred over the vertical white lines. Beyond a second pedestrian crossing and left-turn, the cityscape of Kobe finally inflated. The glass and chrome of highrise skyscrapers reflected the building traffic in the city below, their hulking forms pushing against either side of the wide road they flanked. The sound of laughter and constant whirr of engines slipped through the rainy night as the car delved deeper into the luminous cityscape, its many fluorescent colours erupting across its numerous bars and clubs as though a divine artist had accidentally spilt his paint on the mortal world below.
Mei was suddenly doused in a sea of ruby light, the magnetic colour streaking brilliantly through the sunroof above. She stared about herself as the huge electronic billboard flooded everything with its fantastic colour; the leather seats, the dashboard, her hands and arms all painted in the same fiery red.
The artificial light flowed over Harumi's concentrated face in strobe-like waves, catching Mei with a sudden rush of deja vu. She watched transfixed as the red faded to an electric orange, the flames of artificial light constantly shifting into nothingness over Harumi's wet skin. Her brown hair was almost dry now, though still shiny with damp as it tumbled over her jacket collar. The plum strands were set alight with the fiery hues of Kobe's nightlife, Mei not breaking her childlike stare as the striking image manifested itself before her.
Too quickly, the beautiful autumnal light suddenly gave way to epileptic flashes of electric blue and purple as the car slid past a vibrant nightclub. The fluorescent colours threw Harumi's features into light and shadow at such an erratic rate Mei started to feel dizzy.
The neon-lit streets of Kobe flashed by the window, flooding the car with a different strain of their otherworldly lights at every passing junction. The electric lime cast from a Honda advertisement fizzled out as the car's interior was once more bathed in deep red, though this time far richer in tone as the vehicle began to slow. Mei's focus fell back inside the car as the scarlet sheets shunted alluringly across Harumi's face, the intrusive luminosity framing some distant thought that had occurred to the woman. Her lips quivered slightly as she puzzled the enigma out in her head.
Suddenly aware the silence had taken a new tone, Harumi flicked her broken attention on the other woman. She quickly became embarrassed as Mei's offbeat expression made her blatantly aware she had been caught dead in the act of talking to herself.
Mei shot her focus back on the city without a word, Harumi feeling even more like an idiot at Mei's awkward reaction to the situation.
If they were unfortunate enough to die trying to get out of Kobe, Mei thought as she focused on a huddle of street goers, the eternal avoidance of a certain impending topic would be a definite plus.
Mei watched further as the roves of people crawling by became slower and slower until the car could eventually go no further; it drew to a reluctant stop below a huge screen sporting the logo of Asahi beer. The glorified advertisement cast lemony light down onto the pavement below illuminating the drops of rain scattering down in a warm yellow hue.
Mei drew her gaze over the line of cars extending from where she sat, their many red lights stretching into the far off distance. The call of the sirens had grown sparse, their wails inconsistent and all echoing from back in the direction where the car park stood. She allowed the tension in her body to ebb a little as she considered a clumsy squad car battling through the sea of surrounding traffic to greet them. Her desire to leave the chaotic city was strong, but she had to admit; the traffic was a blessing just as much as a curse.
"Do you know where we're going?" Mei asked, partially in attempt to dissipate the multi-faceted tension that had undeniably built up inside the car.
Harumi drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as the traffic failed to move any further.
"I have an idea, that said I'm no Sat Nav. A little help from a map reader would be well appreciated."
"Where am I suppo-," Mei trailed off as she recalled her hunt through the glove compartment.
Digging her hands into the mountain of car-based paraphernalia still piled by her feet, she gave a small sound of triumph as she eventually pulled out the rectangular packet she was searching for. Slipping the untouched paper from its sleeve, she proceeded to unfurl the obnoxiously large map of Kobe.
The car crawled forward an inch more as Mei puzzled over the hundreds of intricate lines cracked over the sandy surface of the page.
"This may take a minute."
"You can help yourself to more than one. We're gonna be here a while."
The two women sat in rainy silence punctuated by the thrum of the Hellcat's warm engine as Mei began to relate her surroundings to the chaos spewed on the page before her.
She flicked her gaze up and out of the window, trailing the packed road for any indication as to the street they were on. She'd narrowed their location down to three distinct possibilities considering the distance they had travelled from the image of the multistory car park on the map before her.
She squinted through the racing droplets streaking across the glass, their watery bodies successfully obscuring most of her view.
Deciding she'd have to wind down the window, Mei pushed down on the button just above the door handle resulting in a soft hiss as the glass descended into the frame below. A few seconds trawling the rainy streets with fresh clarity led her to the high concrete walls of a large shopping centre, its existence on the map something she was sure she'd happened across a minute earlier.
Before she could confirm her suspicions; however, something else caught her attention; a man right in front of her, sat in a grey Honda stuck in the opposing line of traffic. Throwing his uniform into the back seat, he replaced his hands on the wheel and relaxed a little into the seat rest happy to be finally headed home after an arduous day of patrol duty in the hills. Mei watched him for a fatal moment as he finished polishing his glasses and placed them over his well-sculpted face. He looked to the left as he tested the clarity of his now smudgeless lenses.
Mei's eyes met his. She recognised him first. But with his glasses on and armed with the knowledge of a swift briefing a couple of hours prior, he undoubtedly recognised her second.
Mei jerked from her stupor, precious seconds after the off-duty officer reached for his police radio.
"Harumi! The officer from the hill!"
Harumi already had the car in reverse before Mei had finished her sentence.
The car lurched back into the slight gap between its right bumper and the car behind. Harumi stopped abruptly, her mind racing through five separate scenarios as she threw her gaze over the lanes adjacent. Mei was almost thrown into the dashboard as Harumi slung the wheel over to the right, her seatbelt stopping with a snap as her nose contacted the soft-touch surface.
The atonal honk of the horn boomed across the adjacent line of traffic. At the threat, two hatchbacks lurched forward almost colliding with the cars mere feet in front of them. The three behind remained defiantly still, the foremost driver fixing Harumi with a steely glare as she continued to abuse the horn. Stopping as she refused to exchange any more precious seconds for inches of space, Harumi took her half baked opportunity. She flicked the car into drive and put her foot on the accelerator.
The Challenger purred as it dove into the ambitious gap, bisecting the obedient from the defiant. Mei watched in horror as her wing mirror ghosted the rear of a Mitsubishi only half an inch from getting torn off. Triumphantly passing through the tiny gap with its hulking body, Mei heard the cars underbelly thump as its thick tyres slammed something solid. The Hellcats engine roared, leaving a stream of profanity in its wake as it mounted the curb and raced down the pavement.
"My-God!"
Harumi ignored Mei's distress as she punched the horn frantically, teeth clenched as she weaved the hulking beast through scores of pedestrians at nauseating speed. People threw themselves into doorways and onto the road to avoid being caught under the grill of the black shroud demon headed their way. The car made another awkward thump as its tyres slid off the pavement and found the cold tarmac of the road once more.
The vehicle raced ahead, the frozen traffic left miserably in its scorching wake. The discord of sirens exploded just ahead of them, their raucous intensity flooding the car through Mei's open window, rainwater rushing in. She made no attempt to close it as her hair whipped aggressively past her vision, white knuckles bared as she clung desperately to the leather seat beneath her.
The warm flesh of passing bodies shot a bassy thrumming down Mei's ear canal as the car rocketed towards the intersection. Harumi showed no sign of easing off the accelerator as the horizontal line of passing cars thundered closer. Mei couldn't bring herself to respond as the source of the undiluted wail screamed into view. The three police cars skidded around the upcoming junction and howled to meet them head-on.
Harumi turned the wheel sharply as the first Toyota sailed past the left fender, hurtling at 80mph down the entirely wrong side of the road. Mei's heart collapsed as the car began to wobble uncontrollably, Harumi fighting to wrestle the steering wheel back into place. She screamed in vain as the resistance began to pull her over, the wet road offering no mercy.
The two cars trailing the Toyota span by the left door of the vehicle as Harumi finally managed to get a handle on the steering. The car lurched to the right, narrowly avoiding the pair of one and a half tonne vehicles pelting towards it. Mei smelt the acrid scent of burning rubber as the squad cars recovered from the turn; their tyres squealed as they drifted sloppily back into orientation, pulling themselves back into a slow gallop as the Challenger thundered ahead of them.
Mei could only swallow as the cars front wheels left the ground on which the rear fleetingly remained. The speed bump threw the metal carcass into the air a foot from the ground as the intersection roared just metres away. Colliding with the tarmac in a sickening crunch of suspension, Harumi slammed her foot to the floor. Their lives fell neatly into the hands of fate as the two women made a beeline straight for the fatal line of cars.
Careering in front of a motorbike and just nudging the back of a sedan, the Challenger thundered through the intersection. The custard creams decorating the dashboard were thrown to the floor as the Hellcat hurtled through the traffic. The car bucked as Harumi let her foot off the gas, the car bursting triumphantly through the droves of mortal vehicles. Not wasting time to check if she still had a pulse, the red-faced woman skidded down a sudden right turn. Mei squirmed as she immediately recognised the mistake in spite of her current state of dishevelment.
"North Harum- we need to head North, not South!" She shouted half shocked she still had use of her constricted vocal cords.
"Seriou- Crap! I'm not the one with the friggin' map! Which way now!"
Mei peeled herself from the seat cover as she forced her inert body back into action. Gripping the map between her trembling fingers, she shepherded her focus from the hurtling tarmac and onto the incoherent page. She traced the chaos of lines jittering before her in agonising search for the electric blue of the Hanshin Expressway.
The car screeched past a narrow line of parked ambulances as Harumi slipped off the main road and crammed the Challenger against the austere shape of an infirmary. Mei caught a scrap of a silver wheelchair sling past her open window as a tide of wind suddenly howled to claim the map.
Heart racing she shot her hand out the window and brushed the sharp edge of the page, tearing the flimsy paper as she did so. Ignoring the sting of the paper cut, she feverishly leapt forward a second time as the last half of the page flapped dangerously against the window frame. She gave a growl of triumph as she succeeded the second time in snatching the crucial map back from the cold fingers of the howling night.
Mei smoothed the page back out on her jumpy lap, squinting as she struggled to orientate herself with its unfamiliar surface. Jubilation throttled her as the map, now flipped to its reverse side, showed the vibrant blue of the expressway pulsing dumbly obviously straight down its centre. Mei tore her eyes down the roads branching off of it colliding promptly with the turning they needed to take next. Her slight relief flickered out as she wrenched her vision back to her physical reality, the crucial right-turning already hurtling past the window.
"Right - right now!" She screamed, almost destroying her little-used vocal cords."
"Fuck sa- are you serious!"
Mei was thrown into Harumi's shoulder as the car lurched, its centre of gravity hurled over to the left as Harumi wrenched the handbrake up from the leather. Billows of smoke and rain flooded into the car through the open window as the Challenger's tyres scorched the tarmac below, the scent of burning rubber thick and nauseating once more.
Harumi forced the handbrake back down and by some God-tier level of skill, flung the car straight down the missed right turn.
She nailed the accelerator again as the car rocketed down the six hundred metres of tarmac ahead, the thrum of its engine picking up Van Halen.
The few cars crawling along the wide strip of road might as well have been moving in slow motion as the Challenger darted between them, Harumi rapidly getting a feel for the beasts handling. The relief didn't linger as sickening flashes of red and blue shot through the mellow yellow lighting of the car's interior, the recovered squad cars now barreling in their wake. Mei's breath picked up as she rustled the paper, her sweaty hand dampening the map as she traced their current course only a little faster than the diabolical machine traversed it.
The jet black Nissan Skyline spared no warning as it whipped out from the unseen side road. The harsh white stripped across its doors and hood labelled it's incentive unmistakably as it galloped across the way to flank the Challenger.
"Shit!" Harumi howled as she was forced to the left as the police car took a murderous swerve towards her door.
"Goddamnit, wh-t, which way now Mei, Mei?!"
Harumi lost her words, the police car relentless in its fatalistic barrage. The car bucked as Harumi was forced into the gutter, metal rims screaming as the cars thick tyres contacted the curb with an almighty scuff.
"You need to get over into the right lane! Then right at the crossroads!"
"Gotcha!"
Harumi released the accelerator, the abrupt loss in speed, allowing the car to jackknife around the demonic police car and undertake him. Harumi throttled past the Skyline before it had time to react to the unexpected manoeuvre, barreling straight through the right turn at the crossroads.
The air of the car suddenly spiked in temperature as the machine disregarded passenger comfort in an attempt to cool its rapidly heating engine. Far too overwhelmed, Harumi ignored this and swooped beneath a line of electric cables, wipers slicing furiously through the onslaught of rain. The spooked nightingales fled from there perch in a fitful flapping as the Hellcat roared by, the car howling with demonic ego as it reeled in its own shuddering power.
The car whipped past a belt of electric poles and ghosted four preemptive concrete pillars as it tore down the third Hanshin Expressway. Mei allowed herself a breath as the car flung itself gratefully under the shadow of a hulking concrete bridge. She looked up, trailing the bridges blurred sepia underbelly as it shot across the sunroof above. Mei snapped her gaze down profoundly as the cityscape met a grateful end and the highway finally began.
Harumi's breath was faster than hers now, the road rumbling like thunder beneath the Challenger's slick tyres.
"Mei?"
The near-miss with the Skyline had temporarily claimed her focus on the map; a lethal mistake, the array of interweaving lines now resembling the apocalypse.
"You need to keep le- No. Right. Definitely right, when you get to the fork, so you can -"
Mei trailed off as she gaped at the symbol hovering below her tentative finger.
"So, I can what!?"
"Go through, a - the-"
"The?!"
"The toll bridge."
"A goddamn what? You took us down a goddamn tollroa-"
Harumi couldn't squeeze the words from her heavy chest as the three gates rolled into view. The rightmost ushered a Mazda slowly through, a Mitsubishi creeping up leisurely behind. Mei finally wound up her window. The transparent sheet met the frame with a slight thud as she entirely disregarded the prospect of Harumi smooth-talking her way out of dodge twice in the same day.
Harumi jammed the brakes on. Two of the four sprinting squad cars cried out as they began to close the gap between themselves and the rapidly slowing car. She raised her foot at her unconscious mistake influenced by Mei's apprehension. Her mind raced with possibilities.
The leftmost toll gate was empty. At least a hundred and fifty metres of tarmac still remained. The red hashed barrier was the only obstacle barring their way. Steel or aluminium? For the briefest moment, Harumi's eyes left the road and found Mei's. The squad cars howled at their inevitable victory. The two women reached a wordless agreement. The chance was taken.
Harumi slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The Hellcat yowled with untamed delight at the opportunity to show off its potential. The engined coupled its bass growl with an otherworldly whine as the vehicle shattered past a hundred twenty miles per hour.
The booth warden didn't have a chance to comprehend reality as the blurred shape of the Challenger thundered through the empty gateway and collided with the barrier at point-blank range.
The deafening crack of the pole torn loose from its bolts was audible in the split-second Mei was sure she'd died. The severed stem picked up spinning to the right as it rattled over the hood of the car with fatal intensity. The hurtling metal stem collided with Mei's door frame contacting the glass within in a sickening impact.
The glass left the window cavity in a single sheet as though it wasn't aware it should instantly shatter. Mei could do nothing but listen as the high pitched sound finally razored her eardrums. The thousand shards rained down on her as the metal bar slammed the boot and hurtled down the road.
Shock screamed out of her as the raining shards aggressively lacerated the soft skin of her face and forearms. Warm blood burst forth from her broken skin, she watched paralysed as her clothes blotted with its telling red. Her stunned body forced her to raise her hands to the defence of her eyes as further knives of glass became dislodged in the rush of icy air. The stray fragments dug mercilessly into her palms, spurting more blood from the flush of her now pink skin. The Challenger shed its last glassy remnants as it hurtled ever on, speed insanely untouched, straight through the mouth of the toll gate.
Harumi was screaming her name, flicking her horrified eyes dangerously between her and the road ahead as she struggled to still the car that was now jerking out of control. Mei unclenched her gritted teeth as the car bucked in final warning. She had to reply now, or the next swerve would be fatal.
"I'm fine, Harumi! Just surface wounds! You need to focus!"
Swallowing roughly Harumi forced her staggering mind to heed Mei's words and not her blood-spattered image. Sparing one last glance, she wrenched the car back into a straight line as the speedometer continued to climb.
Mei's stinging pain was swiftly washed from her list of priorities as she snapped her black-stained vision up to the rearview mirror. The black and white-nose of the Skyline was stuck fast at the toll gate, delayed by the chaos of glass spiking from its black tyres. Mei's heart lurched as she spotted the opportunity.
The pain breaking through to some untapped clarity, she willed her sore hands into action and reached for the discarded map. Flicking her eyes over the roads ahead, she confirmed her suspicion.
"You got a plan?"
Harumi asked, the quiver of Mei's unconscious smile not lost through her peripheral.
"It's a little too straightforward to be considered a plan, but, yes, I suppose I do."
"Alright?"
"You just need to floor it until I say so."
"That I can do."
Mei's world was assaulted by a storm of thunder. Even with the shattered window letting in reams of violent air, the heat within the car was unbearable as the Hellcat focused all its attention on its blazing engine.
Harumi didn't let up as she leant aggressively into the curve of the highway barely moving the wheel to dodge the articulated lorries strewn across the three lanes. Losing speed wasn't an option anymore.
The golden road lamps blazed by, strobing the inside of the car in a fiery light show. The G-force bore down on Mei's thin frame as it threatened to crush her with its insane pressure.
The needle of the speedometer was teasing one sixty now as Harumi ripped past the steel bollards on the right and slipped down the left exit at Mei's instruction. Mei constantly flicked her filmy vision between the rearview mirror and the road throughout; knowing her plan was as good as screwed if the police caught up now.
The car sang over a metal grate lining the expanse of the three lanes. Both women jerked as they were struck by the mutual thought of an unseen stinger lying in wait. The thought came and went with the tremendous wind, the car now thrumming to one-eighty. There was no chance the police thought ahead of the Hellcat's raw speed.
Mei nodded. Harumi let her foot off the gas as the Challenger rounded the final turn into Osaka.
A kilometre of grey tarmac lay ahead, its flanking signage promising a return to the buildup of cityscape. The well-hidden sideroad whipped into view beneath a row of steel railings just as Mei began to question its crucial existence. The car's engine devolved to a soft growl as it left triple figures far behind and slipped discreetly down the new path.
The many intricate roads that stemmed from the first sent the humming vehicle crawling and weaving through a complicated route of concrete and dirt tracks. Harumi offered no more than slight nods and the odd hum for the next two minutes as she followed Mei's every deliberate instruction without mistake. The windscreen wipers squeaked and thudded to clear the spotting droplets from view as the forgotten roads continually narrowed, their slim girth threatening an end to further passage of the wide vehicle.
Squeezing around a left turn and tipping upwards as it rolled over the last incline, the vehicle at long last rounded upon its final destination. Mei felt the map fall with a rustle to her shaking knees as silent triumph washed away her clinging doubt. To her staggering relief, not a single person could be seen as the discrete coastal cove rolled steadily into existence.
The car left the street with an addictive crunching of gravel stones and rolled onto the cold sand. Harumi remained silent as she guided all four wheels onto the unstable surface, utterly awed at Mei's unreal map-reading considering the chaotic ride she underwent throughout.
Mei shot Harumi a look as she all too eagerly attempted to throw the car across the damp and shifting grains resulting only in unnecessary wheel spinning and the ultimate sinking of the heavy vehicle. Ignoring her scrutiny, Harumi eased up and allowed the car to creep painfully slowly across the wet sand. The sirens echoed distantly.
The car finally touched the dark shadow of the colossal cliff face, the soft hum of the car echoing off the limestone walls as it descended into the largest cavity weathered into the jagged surface. The roof of the huge natural structure threw the inconspicuous vehicle completely into shadow as it hummed inside, the car cut off from view altogether as it rolled to a final stop deep within the vast cave mouth. Harumi turned the key, and the engine died.
The waves crashed against the shore. The two women stared blankly into the darkness ahead, neither able nor willing to discuss what had just happened. They sat stiffly and waited. The harsh wail of approaching sirens resonated off the rocky walls, obnoxiously filling the entire cavity with their atonal song.
Near debilitating trepidation stung at the silence as the squad cars raced one after the other down the kilometre straight less than half a mile away. The rain drilled at the roof of the cave as the sirens hit a climax then unmistakeably began to dim, falling for the hasty trap as they all too eagerly raced ahead into the city of Osaka. The two women remained utterly still until the sickening wail was entirely outdone by the soft crash of the waves behind them. After a minute more, Harumi finally removed her shuddering hand from the key.
"They haven't got a clue, have they?"
"Not one."
"God Prez, you're brilliant."
"You aren't half bad yourself."
/