~Chapter 16~

"The Best Tractor Tipper"

Lightning was parked in the same examination room with Jane upon his hood. She had all of her tires spread out so that the bottom of her body was touching Lightning's hood. Lightning was rocking back and forth so that it would sway Jane. He was in a lot of pain and it hurt to move, but he would do anything for her.

Lightning sang while he rocked her, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the Earth so high, like a spark plug in the sky."

"Da-da! More!" Jane squealed. Lightning could feel his engine get warmer from Jane's voice.

"Okay," said Lightning. "Do you want to sing with me?"

Jane's smile got really big and she got up on her tires, nodding really fast in excitement.

Lightning chuckled, "You have to sing some of the alphabet for me first, Jane."

This made her smile fade a little, and she thought for a few moments to get her act together.

"A-Ay..Bee..See...Dee...yyy..effff..jee..aych...ey...jay..kay...", she sang. She stopped for a moment, "Nnnmmm.."

"Come on, sweetheart. You know the next four."

"Elemeno?"

Caught off guard, Lightning started to laugh harder than he ever would have thought he could at something so small.

The sun was just setting, which means it was Sally's time to come home from her job while another employee she hired took over while she was gone. When she arrived at Doc's clinic, she knocked on Lightning's door with her tire.

"It's open!" he called out. Sally pressed the button to open the garage door and drove inside, "How are you, Stickers?"

"I'm okay, still in a lot of pain though."

Sally frowned and drove over to McQueen.

"Things will get better," said Sally before giving him a kiss. Sally then looked over at Jane, "How's my little girl?"

The sight of her mother made Jane begin to bounce and rev her engine.

When the sky grew dark and the stars started to show their faces again, Mater drove out to Frank's Field. The smell of farm filled his filter and the sound of snoring tractors filled the air. As the wind gently brushed against his doors, he shivered. Autumn nights are nice and chilly. They were a nice change for those who lived in or near Radiator Springs. The Summer's were so brutal. Mater's eyes shifted back and forth. He even looked up to possibly see his old friend, Mator the UFO, sail just above the Earth's atmosphere.

"Ah know'd he wouldn't show..," Mater mumbled. "Whatta liar."

As he spoke, he began to feel the ground shake and then a flash came from behind him. Headlights. Mater was able to see his own shadow stretched in front of him as a result.

"Who you callin' a liar?" asked a deep scratchy voice. Mater lowered himself a little and gulped. His body started to tremble with fear.

That unmistakable voice.

Bubba's breath made the air behind Mater's rear bumper feel warm.

"Too close for ya?" asked Bubba with a grin.

"Les' git this over with..," said Mater.

"So, what's all this about?", asked Bubba, pushing Mater with just a tap of his tire. Rust slowly sprinkled off of Mater, "Why do you wanna tip tractors with me so bad?"

"Ta' show who is better, but in a nice way," said Mater.

Bubba scoffed, "Nice? You mean in a weak way 'cause you can't fight."

"Fightin' ain't got nobody nowhere."

"Yeah, 'cept a hospital for weak cars like you. Ugh...whatever, Mater. What are the rules?"

Mater stood up tall, cleared his throat and said, "Whoever tips the most tractors within the next hour, will be considered ta be the strongest."

Bubba vibrated his lips together and some of his spit landed on Mater's windshield.

"Pshhh! Strongest? From tippin' little ol' tractors? Is that a joke?"

"If Frank comes and catches ya before the hour is up, then we judge from whoever has the most at that point."

Bubba tilted his body, painted with confusion, "Huh?"

"Ready?"

"What?"

"Set!"

"Wait-"

"GO!"

Mater sped off through the field until you could no longer see him in sight. Bubba wrinkled his eyes in anger and bit his bottom lip.

"Who's Frank..?" he whispered to himself. "'Nother one of your imaginary friends?"

All Bubba heard was the sound of Mater's horn honking off key, a tractor mooing, backfiring, and Mater laughing after all of that. The cycle repeated over and over again. Bubba rolled his eyes and drove off through the misty plane. He looked around for tractors that were standing, but all he kept passing were a line of tractors that have been already tipped with annoyed looks on their faces.

"Heh," Bubba laughed. "These tractors may as well have little signs on them that say: Idiot This Way."

As Bubba kept driving, the line of tractors started to turn. Mater was no longer tipping them in the straight path he was just doing. It turned off track a bit. It's almost as if he was trying to avoid something. Bubba looked straight ahead and saw all of the tractors that Mater turned away from. His eyes widened in astonishment. There were so many all pressed together, sleeping. They looked younger than the other tipped tractors. Little baby tractors, huddled together for warmth.

"I can knock all of 'em out in one honk," Bubba said to himself. "I'll have more than that dipstick, Mater, right after this."

He slowly drove forward sneaking his way to the tractors. Just before he got close enough, he started to crawl, using his tires like an animal with four legs. He was right next to one of the babies.

"Ain't no way Bubba's got more than me!" Mater cheered. He turned around and started to drive back, following the line of tipped tractors. He counted each tractor one by one. Once he got to the part of the line where the tractors started to turn, Mater gasped at the sight he saw. Bubba was right in front of the group of baby tractors, about to honk.

"Bubba, you nuts?" Mater said. Bubba heard Mater and turned to face him.

"You're jus' mad 'cause I'm gonna have more than you right now!" he teased.

"Bubba! No!"

Bubba took in a deep breath.

"Don't do it!" Mater warned again.

But Bubba didn't listen. He exhaled and a loud HOOOOONNNNNNNNKKKKKKKK filled the fences. All of the tractors in the field, not just the babies, woke up and let out moos. They shook for about a minute and started to flip over. After they tipped, all 46 of them, they backfired.

Then, silence.

Bubba started to hop in the air with a huge smile on his face.

"YEEEEEE-HAWWWWW!" Bubba exclaimed. "THAT! That right THERE is how you go TRACTOR TIPPIN'!"

Bubba started to laugh in Mater's face. Mater backed up and shook his hood in disbelief.

"Bubba...what..what'd you do?" asked Mater. His mouth hung open.

"Jealous?", Bubba replied. Mater didn't answer. He turned around and sped away as fast as he could. Bubba watched as Mater's taillights disappeared in the distance. Mater broke through the fence and sped down the road, back to Radiator Springs. No matter how many times he came to Frank's field, he was never able to find the same broken area in the fence. He always made a new one.

Bubba was just there with his engine was idling.

"Such a hurry..," said Bubba. "Sore loser."

He turned around once again to admire the work he just did.

Suddenly, all of the tractors that weren't tipped opened their eyes from their slumber. Their eyes were wide and they didn't even blink. After only a couple of seconds, they all revved up and sped in the opposite direction of Bubba.

Bubba started to feel the ground shake under him. Pebbles jumped off of the ground and loose blades of grass with them. He could feel the vibrations through his shocks.

The vibrations started to get harder and harder, until they stopped on a dime.

Bubba swallowed hard. There was no way it could have been an earthquake. The air behind his rear bumper started to warm up, which made Bubba smirk through his fear.

"Very funny, Mater. Let me guess, now you're gonna ask, 'Too close for ya?'" he said.

A flash of headlights shined on Bubba from behind him and he was able to see his own shadow stretched in front of him.

"Ya know, Mater, I appreciate ya tryin' to be like me by copyin' what I did to ya, but you're doing a bad job at it. I must say that the brightness of your headlight is impressive, considering ya only have one."

There was no answer.

"At a loss for words, Mater?"

Bubba turned around, and his expression dropped as his fear returned to him at full speed. He gasped hard.

In front of him was a silver spinning cylinder of blades. Bubba looked up a bit more and saw it was attached to a huge, red combine harvester with anger boiling within his eyes.

"NNNRAAAAARRRR," screamed the combine.

Bubba immediately started to hyperventilate and he flung himself around. He slammed on his gas pedal and his tires skid in the dirt.

"C'MON!", Bubba yelled at himself. After a few seconds he sped forward, but the giant combine sped right on after him. Bubba was a big truck which meant although he could move pretty fast, it wouldn't be for long. The fence that Mater broke earlier was straight ahead. It came closer and closer.

"GO. LET'S GO," he yelled some more, trying to encourage himself. Bubba's breathing gained more weight to it, getting heavier and heavier. He felt his filters jamming up from it all. His axles started to tremble from the speed and he started to slow down.

"NO! NO! C'MON GO!"

"NNNRAAAAAARRR!"

"C'MON!"

"Raaaaprrrrrr."

Bubba closed his eyes tight and tried to push himself even harder. He switched gears, but that was as fast as he was going to go. His hook swung around behind him in the air, causing it to latch onto one of the combine's blades. The hook started to unravel and it ran around the spinning blades, like a fisherman reeling in his catch. The rope from Bubba's pulley was running out. Finally, the rope was pulled as tight as it could go. Bubba couldn't move anymore. He kept himself on the gas pedal, his tires ripped at the ground, and smoke was started to form from his engine and rear tires. But no matter how much he tried to keep going, he couldn't. His axles became numb.

The combine yanked at Bubba's rope.

Bubba groaned loudly as tears formed in his eyes from the pain.

"HELP ME!" he screamed, at the top of his voice. "SOMEBODY HELP!"

The combine kept pulling at him, showing no mercy. Bubba started to choke up and the tears rolled down his hood. He couldn't take it anymore. He stopped moving, but so did the combine behind him. Bubba turned around and looked at the combine, confused as to why he also stopped bothering, but also because he wanted to give a glance to what would be his fate. He could finally see for himself his rope all jammed up. He turned back to the fence where he was trying to escape and saw he was only inches away.

He failed with a final collapse.

All of Bubba's tired were spread out. He picked up his left front tire, stretched his axle out so it stretched outside of the fence, and placed his tire on his what would have been his freedom. Bubba let his tire sink inside of the mud a bit. He swallowed hard and pulled his tire away.

There was no turning back now. The combine pulled Bubba in and him dragged across the grass. Bubba stopped trying, but he still gripped the grass as he was being dragged. The combine turned on its blades once again.

It only took seconds.

A pile of chunks of metal painted a rusty red color, pieces of rubber from tires, and glass formed behind the combine. As he ate him, something made a clunking noise inside of the combine, but then the noise stopped when the pipe that spit out the chunks of metal now spat out a little metal tow hook with no tow rope. It landed neatly on the pile of the truck's remains.

The combine backed away and started to drive to where it was asleep with his baby tractors, Bubba's tangled tow rope dragged along with him as a souvenir.

No tow hook attached to it, and no Bubba attached either.

A lonely tire track outside of the fence was printed in the wet mud.