Chapter 11 - "Baby's First Treads"

Bubba was inside his home with Sally. She was chained to his bed and blindfolded. Sally struggled around but she didn't get anywhere. After a while of squirming, she finally just gave up.

"You don't have to be this way..," she said.

Bubba drove close to her. His lips, just inches away from hers.

"What way is that?" asked Bubba, in a gross seductive voice. With every vowel in his sentence, Sally felt his breathon her lips. She pulled her lips in for a second then let them loose.

"Mean..," Sally answered, "Dark...why are you doing this to me? What made you a monster?"

Bubba swallowed hard and opened his eyes wider.

Twenty years earlier…

"Hmmprh! Get off me!" yelled a little red chubby tow truck. A bigger yellow truck was on top of him.

"Nope!" he yelled.

"Why are you like this?" yelled the little tow truck.

Bubba shook himself out of it.

Sally noticed Bubba zoned out for that moment, "I'm a lawyer..I can help you."

Bubba glared at Sally, "I hate lawyers."

He thought back again.

"No, your honor, I didn't hit Bubba," said a now adult yellow truck, "He ran the red light."

"I think I can tell the difference between green and red," replied a now mature Bubba.

"Can you prove it?" asked the yellow truck's lawyer, "Can you explain why there's red paint on his body?"

Bubba just collapsed. He looked up at the judge, "No..I can't."

"Alright, Sam, you're free to go," said the judge. The judge honked his horn and court was dismissed.

Bubba spoke through clenched teeth, "Because of cars like you, Sally, I was beaten up every single day of my life until I dropped out of high school. When I did, when I was free and out of that damn jail, I vowed to get stronger so that I can beat him. Show him how it feels..I haven't seen him since."

"That's doesn't mean beat on everyone else."

"This is what all of you lawyers and goodie four-wheels deserve," Bubba hooked Sally and drove out of his home.

Bubba turned around in front of a cliff in Tailfin Pass and started to back up. The blindfold became loose. Sally started to shake herself back and forth to see what was going on. The blindfold fell down and a vast canyon was out in front of her.

Sally's eyes widened and she started kicking her front tires forward and into the ground trying to stop Bubba from reversing.

"STOP PLEASE!" screamed Sally.

Lightning was just arriving at Bubba's when he heard Sally's oil curdling screams.

"SALLY!" screamed Lightning.

"STICKERS! HELP!" screamed Sally.

"LET HER GO!" Lightning yelled, driving over to Bubba.

"What are you gonna do about it, race car?"

Lightning thought back to when Bubba said the same thing when he was trying to help Mater.

Bubba continued, "Nothing. You're going to do nothing. Just like you always do when you threaten someone."

"YOU CRAZY DIPSTICK!" Lightning screamed.

Bubba paused when he heard the word 'crazy'. He looked over at Lightning and gave a twisted smile, "Crazy? I'll show ya crazy."

Bubba backed up all the way and Sally was no longer on the ground, but hanging from Bubba's hook over the long way down.

"Your fiance wanted to see crazy!" yelled Bubba.

"NO!" screamed Lightning. Sally was screaming at the top of her voice.

Mater was driving to the scene. He was on his way the entire time with Jane on his truck bed. When he arrived, nobody saw him. He could see Sally hanging off the edge and Lightning in Bubba's face.

Bubba spoke again, "Want some more crazy?"

He started to swing Sally around, "I'm letting go on the count of three."

Lightning didn't know what to do. He stayed back with tears in his eyes. He realized he wasn't going to intimidate Bubba by yelling at him. Lightning was ashamed of himself. His sweetheart was about to die right in front of him and he couldn't physically do anything about it. Bubba chuckled and started counting.

"One."

Jane poked her hood out from Mater's truck bed and saw her mother hanging. She gasped and her mouth hung open.

"Two."

Sally screamed, "HELP! HELP!"

Mater knew he needed to do something and he knew he needed to do something fast. Still, no one saw him. Lightning started shaking and was biting his lip. He wasn't sure if he should charge into Bubba or just watch in horror.

"THREE."

Bubba swung his hook up and then down really fast which whipped Sally right off of his hook. Sally's screaming echoed further away as she fell and Lightning watched in horror. He sped to the edge of the cliff.

"SALLY!" yelled Lightning. Bubba turned and faced the cliff to watch his hard work. He chuckled again.

"Don't worry! She won't feel it in a minute," he said. Sally's axles were spread out, kicking around as she watched the ground growing closer and closer. She closer her eyes tight as Mater pulled to the edge of the cliff and bashed Bubba out of the way.

"Mater!" exclaimed Lightning. Mater didn't answer. He flung his hook down the cliff. Bubba quickly recuperated and got to the edge of the cliff again.

He grabbed Mater's axle, "Don't you dare."

Mater shoved Bubba off of him and then his body jerked, catching Sally. He planted his tires firmly on the ground. When Sally opened her eyes, she was staring at the ground in front of her face.

"Am I..?" thought Sally.

Mater's teeth were clenched and his eyes closed tight, "L-Lightnin'...g-get Jane..behind me."

Lightning turned away from the edge to grab Jane from his truck bed, but Jane was missing.

Lightning looked everywhere, but then he looked up, "Jane..?"

She was standing on another level of rocks above Lightning, Mater, and Bubba.

"You drove!" Lightning exclaimed. Jane had an angry face on. She drove over to a rock slightly bigger than her, which seemed like a boulder to her. She pushed it and it slowly dragged across the ground.

Mater started to crawl forward while reeling Sally in. He groaned, "Sh-She's heavy!", but Sally was almost to the top.

Lightning went back to the edge and reached his axle out, "Sally, I'm here!"

When Mater finally got the last tug in, Sally was lifted to the top. Bubba slammed Mater out of the way turned to Sally, "Fine! I'll push ya over myself."

He pushed her, but Lightning quickly grabbed her tire, "I got you, baby."

He reversed while holding her tire, pulling her right back up, but Bubba was just about to knock them both off.

Suddenly, a rock hit fell hard on his roof.

"OUCH!", yelled Bubba. He closed his eyes and backed up. Little did he know, he was about to fall of the edge now.

Jane giggled, smiling wide. She waved with her wheel.

Bubba backed all the way and fell just enough to hang as Mater sped to the edge and flung his hook to Bubba. Once it latched on, Mater turned around to call Lightning over, "Lightnin', I can't hold him for too long!"

Some of the dirt under his wheel began to bunch up from the pressure, "Come pull!"

Lightning reached over and held the chain tight in his tire.

"Lightning!" yelled Bubba, "Don't do this!"

Lightning loosened his grip some more to scare Bubba a little.

Bubba screamed, "Don't!"

Lightning kept his glare right on Bubba's eyes, "I won't," then helped Mater pull him back up, "Because I'm not you."