*'What is life, except excuse for death, or death but an escape from life." Anonymous

It was two weeks later. In the meantime the funeral had taken place. At first Liz had not wanted to go there, but of course went. Liz didn't have to wonder what it was like for the family, because she knew it. Fortunately Cara's family didn't belong to a certain church, so she was not having one of those terrible religious funerals. Liz could remember very well the day of her cousin's. She had hardly been able to bear it. Mainly since that time she didn't believe in any more God-like superpower that ruled the world's fate. Religion, the way she had seen it being practised, was really repulsive.

Only a few days later, Joce had left her, for beginning a period of practical training in a hotel in Spain, something, Liz had done one year ago. Unfortunately it hadn't been possible for both of them to do it at he same time. After all that had happened, Joce nearly decided to stay – one reason was, that she didn't want to leave Liz alone - but then her friend was able to convince her that leaving and having a time out would be the best. After reassuring that it was completely guaranteed that only the ones, that had been in the restaurant immediately before the explosion – and got out, of course -were in danger, she considered it to be better not to tell her anything.

Right now she considered it far to be better never having entered the black sport car. The first and the last one together, it was flashing through her mind. Since Cara's sudden death no one of them had been in any kind of severe danger.

"You really have to race like that?" Liz asked angrily.

"Ooooh, you scared?" Carter glanced at her, mocking.

"Will you please look at the street?!"

"Hey, I've been driving for more than eleven years, I really know what I'm doing, okay?"

"Bet you had a lot of car crashes!! I must've gone nuts – to get into your fuckin' car!"

"HEY!! One more word against it and you gonna walk. All through the night, all by yourself!!"

"Oh, I'm just so afraid you kick me out!"

Without warning, he suddenly put his foot on the brake and the car stopped with squeaking wheels.

"Are you totally crazy??" Liz cried. "What's wrong with you??"

"It's just: my car – my rules! I never forced you to get in."

"So you're gonna force me to get out now, or what?"

He looked up to the sky. The light was strange, letting everything appear unreal. Somewhat threatening. He shrugged, but, since he had never been the person to be impressed by some nature spectacle, refused to think about it any further, and, having forgotten about Liz' question, continued driving. On the other side she was sure that it was going to rain soon. No, not only rain, this would surely turn out to be a quite heavy thunderstorm.

*THANX; DARK; THANX! lol Up to now you're almost the only one that's reading it at all, so thank you even more, hehe.*

It seemed as if Carter wouldn't have listened at all to what she said. Well, basically the point was, that he just didn't care. The sky had clouded more within the last minutes, there were flashes, still far away, but nevertheless near enough to see them. And there was the sound of thunder in the distance.

"Scared?" He asked her, smirking as usual.

"Actually I like thunderstorms. The powers of nature. They remind me of the end, disaster, death. Bohooo!!" She raised her eyes heavenward. "'N you?" she asked bored, glancing at her fingernails.

"You're weird. Jus' like Browning."

"If weird means, that I'm – somehow, inexplicably – just unable to bear your presence, then I –SHIIIT!!"

Out of nowhere a red car raced past them, blocking off their way before illogically speeding up even more while trying to make the corner.

"Whoa!" was Carter's only comment while steering wildly, trying hard to get the car back under control, before U-turning and accelerating to follow the red one who had been stupid enough to infuriate him, never mind nearly killed them..

"Geez! What kinda lunatic was that??" Liz took a deep breath and then realized what Carter was about to do, or well, already doing. "STOP!!" she yelled at him, but he didn't even listen. "Carter, stop the car! I'm not gonna be part of that silly little revenge game!!"

"You can jump out at any time", he snarled.

"Fuckin' stop!!"

"Fuckin' shut up!!" he shouted back, a determined expression on his face. He was going to track this asshole down, even if it was the last thing he'd ever do. No one was messing around with him like that with impunity. But he seemed to have disappeared. Odd. There was only one street here he could go on. He didn't care about Liz, who was cursing him the whole time through. There he was. The De …. (*no, I'm not gonna write this, cuz the term belongs to DARK)* Grinning like the devil himself, he kept on speeding up until he nearly reached the other car. The driver froze, as he took a look into the rear view mirror and then panic-stricken slammed on the gas, but Carter had no difficulties in sticking to his opponent. Outside a heavy cloudburst had started, and the thick drops – or was it even hail? – drummed down on the window. Though Carter switched on the wipers he could hardly see anything, but still refused to slow down. He'd get that psychotic and then he'd beat the shit out of him.

"CARTER!!" Liz cried furiously. "You're gonna kill us both! For the last time, stop that – AAAAAAAHHH"

First Carter thought her a hysterical wimp for the horrified scream she gave. Until he heard the horn blowing, himself. Something huge and dark appeared directly in front of them. He tried to get out of the way as fast as he could, but nearly crashed into the rock, that lined the street on one side, so he made way by going right, feeling a hard blow against the back of back of his car the very moment, making it go into a skid. Desperately pulling the wheel around, he had another, far more terrifying, sensation, like losing ground. Due to the hard rain he was now completely unable to see anything, so instinctively he just braked, but the futility of his action became quite obvious as the car started to crash down into an impenetrable nothing.

********

Liz was unable to move for minutes, though they seemed to her like hours. Her heart was beating hard against her ribs and her breath was abnormally fast. After an endless descent the car had finally been stopped by crashing hard against something. She couldn't believe that she was still alive. Well, maybe she wasn't. Probably this was it. Being stuck in the place she died in for eternities.

"Are you okay?" She heard somebody ask from far away. "Liz?"

She turned to the left, meeting Carter's eyes, blue and cold as usual. He reached out to touch her face, but she shrank back, so he let his hand drop. "You're bleeding." Doubting she passed her finger over her brow, looking at the red liquid on it. Automatically she turned down the sun visor to gaze at herself in the little mirror that was attached to it. A pale face, she hardly recognised as her own, stared back at her, a long red cut on the forehead. It was silent inside the car, only the unchanged heavy rain and the thunder were heard. She wondered where the constant light came from, for it must have been already late at night. Ah, the little light at the top was on. She glanced at her watch – 11:17 pm – and then over to Carter, scrutinizing him from head to toe. There was something with his jeans, around his right knee. Like it was wet. She touched it, to find a lot of blood drenching the cloth, making Carter have a sharp intake of breath and gritting his teeth in pain. "You're hurt", she simply established. "Someone should have a look at it." She was still unable to feel anything like fear or rage, just functioning, like a robot.

"I'm not gonna take off my jeans, forget it."

She shrugged. "It's your leg."

"Damn right."

"Where's your cell?" she wanted to know unexpectedly. "Guess we should call the others."

He took it out of his back pocket, handling it to her in silence. She dialled the number of her home, waiting for someone to pick up, counting. …. five, six, seven, eight –

"Yeah? " someone finally asked. Though the connection was quite bad, she recognised Clear's voice.

"This is Liz."

"Oh my God, it's them!" she cried, obviously trying to call Alex' attention. "Where are you? We were worried, trying to reach you, but no one picked up, so we – you both okay? Is Carter with you?"

"Yes – and no …."

Clear's sigh of relief stopped. "What's up?"

Liz gave a cough. "We had an accident, kinda …. and the –"

"FUCKING SHIT!!" she got interrupted by Carter's shout. Another one of the innumerable flashes had lit up the scenery, just in time to let him see a huge bough falling down on the windscreen. Followed by the tall tree it had been ripped off.

*Sweet dreams.*