17
Tara had never felt this afraid before in her entire life. Even the bizarre incident on the Escutcheon couldn't hold a candle up to the very moment that played out before her very eyes. The whole world outside the doors howled and wailed after them--after her, that pretty blonde girl that everyone mistook was German, for whatever sick reason they held fast. Everyone, that her darting, peeking eyes could catch outside the bumpy ride either tossed stones or blasted rounds that zipped and zinged over her bench seat.
"HOLD ON TIGHT, T!" Yune called to her through the madness just beyond Sadie's doors--and a quelled groan escaped her as she found the top of her body pressed harshly into the back of the front passenger seat. The tires protested too much--she could barely make them out over the *thuds* and the *bangs* the rocks made against the side panels.
*God, please don't let me die! * She whimpered.
***
"Kim!" Kim barely heard that nasal voice. "You'd better find a damn way out of this camp, and fast! I can't keep this up forever!"
"How should've I known I'd run into a refugee camp this fast!?" Kim countered with a yell; her head ducked between her arms as she felt something fleetingly grab at the thick flesh of her ears. She tugged the wheel harshly at the sound of squealing tires, to the right, as the next corner came upon her. "Huh!? TELL ME THAT MUCH, SADIE!"
"We don't have time for this, ladies!" Yune said loudly, yet calmly as though everything was fine outside the SUV. Though he was quick to drop his act in the next sentence, as the volume surged gradually in his voice.
"But our ladies' van's tailing right behind us!"
"How far behind!?" she demanded.
"Oh Sadie...!" that strange vehicle was a sophisticated predator, sleek and flawless. It just had to be! "The garage awaits us!"
"For the last damn time, Matt!" Sadie shouted at the top decibel of her speakers, as loud as the amplifiers could safely intensify the waves. "I SAID NO!!"
"Don't be like that, Honey!" the Hummer named Matt carried on like Sadie had said nothing at all. "I was built for you!"
--She gasped, and her heart stopped for mere seconds as another *POOMPH* blasted into her ears. She saw something from above fall to the dirty ground, something small about the size of a cola can. It touched the road, as gentle as if it had lips to kiss the ground--
--"Oh SHIT!"--
--And the ground leapt up in surprise, a good chunk of it left the earth and leapt in an explosion of fiery orange and angry red, chunks of it slapping and hard granules tapping against the windshield as she drove through the dark brown cloud. The seatbelt around her trunk tightened awkwardly on her chest, some of her air squeezed out her mouth and her hands flapped off the wheel as it turned by itself to the left.
Sadie took control automatically, and she was grateful the AI did when she came face to face with the dirty, hairy visage of some Palestinian plastered on a dirty, pebbled wall a mere foot away. A collar of some militant garb swaddled his neck while a green banner with white, scribbled Arabic was wrapped tightly against his very tanned brow.
"Everyone okay?" Sadie asked earnestly.
"*Ugh...! *" Her tongue slipped through her lips in disgust.
"Kim means we're good!" Yune thankfully took up the conversation. "Come on, let's get moving already!"
She shook the dreadful image out of her mind, and she stole a glance over her shoulder. The engine of the Matt vehicle rumbled lividly through the manic-depressive choir of angry camp folk, screaming and chanting after them. A few clusters of dark, dirty children hurried around the corner she'd turned, in their menacing, flailing hands where stones clenched as fierce as the utter hatred burning in their dark eyes.
It'd be mere moments before those stones became bullets, as more dirty people--older people rounded the same corner. They were closing in quickly.
Both her boots stamped upon the pads of the gas and the brake, and Sadie let out a quick cry of surprise as thin clouds of smoke plumed up from behind the back. She eyed the tachometer warily as the needle began to arc. The stench of burnt rubber swirled gently up her nose, and she exorcized the bitter stink with a harsh snort.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, KIM!?" Sadie demanded in a yell. "MY TREADS ARE BALDING AS WE SPEAK!!"
"Yune!" she dismissed the whining vehicle altogether. "Blind that monkey off our backs!"
The Asian gave a quick bob of the head as he spun his body around in the seat cumbersomely. His gun jumped, and his good hand flicked at the wrist and his digits clenched the gun at the back most end of the slide. A quelled grunt came out of him as his fingers wrenched the slide back just a little; the gun hopped once more and he caught it properly.
The needle of the tachometer begged for her attention, tapping swiftly against its stop in the red line, just as did the temperature gauge with the tip of its needle calmly lifting towards that little, white H. Only then did her ears managed to recognize that fluctuation discord that blared out of the speakers.
"GET OFF THE DAMN BRAKE, KIM!!" Sadie's voice was a nasty, terrible shadow of its former sassy self. "YOU'RE GOING TO BLOW US ALL UP!!"
"Just shut up, S!" she growled.
"I CAN'T!" The vehicle screamed back. "I'M IN PAIN!!"
She took a glance at Yune, all his body squatting severely in the seat while the arm tried to steady itself. She could barely catch the Matt's smug... arousal through the engine's terrible scream.
"Lord, I do love a good burnout!" it said haughtily. "Oh--how'd I love to get you in my garage."
That calm needle continued in ascent into the dangerous regions of that little, white H.
"Come on, Yune--"
*BLAM! * The Asian unleashed a 9mm, seemingly at the sound of her words. A yelp of surprise came from the Matt vehicle, powering over the gentle sound of cracking glass. She quickly turned her head over her left shoulder. The mechanical monkey upon Matt's back had an eye punched out, spider-web thin cracks trailed from out the circular blackness that was the center.
The angry crowd was on top of the Matt, about a yard away at most as she saw older people turn the corner, the short barrels and lengthy barrels of pistols and many an AK bobbing for it--
"KIM!!" Sadie yelled.
The tension in her body eased a bit, her muscles unwinding as a confident smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.
"Going!"
The car surged from underneath her body as she retrieved her left boot from the brake, the Matt and the angry mob eating the thick cloud of Sadie's stench. Her back was flush against the seat, and she peeked out of the corner of her eyes to her Asian passenger who had the dash in a strong death grip.
"You okay, Yune?" she said.
"Oh sure!" he blinked, and the tension eased in his hand a little. "I nearly got stoned, blown up, and almost fell out of the car to boot, but otherwise I'm the king of the world! And you?"
"Don't you--EVER--do that to me again!" Sadie's shriek put her mother's own scowls to shame, scowls that even her puppy-dog pouting couldn't wane. "You hear that, Kimmie!? I swear by my ejection seats that you'll French the sky if you *ever* power-jack me like that again!"
"Sorry, Sadie..." the roots did nothing to mane, whipping violently in the wind as she shook her head.
"Just..." the AI was at a surprising loss for words, "--forget it!"
"Maybe you should just drive, Kim." Yune said.
"CAREFULLY!" Sadie interjected loudly.
***
Uzi's eyes took a lap around his sockets, and he let out a disgusted, incensed sigh.
Once again, things took a sad turn for the worse for his men below. An angry crowd of degenerates had overpowered the MAT; victory over that troublesome Korean slipped through his fingers once more, as he tore out of the alleyway in a smoking fanfare.
Just as the passenger in the red-and-yellow devil blew out something on the SWARM, the rear left corner of the Hummer dropped dramatically with a small wisp of whatnot rising from the tire, quickly dissipating into the heated atmosphere. Matt attempted to roll away hobbled, but the crowds quickly overwhelmed it. They crawled atop the doomed vehicle like the ants they were, bouncing on it triumphantly like as though it were a trampoline for mere entertainment.
Soldier ants filed in quickly, armed with bats, pipes, guns, and whatever their greedy little hands could snatch. One larger ant smashed in the passenger window, bits and pieces of it twinkling in the light as they broke on the dirty ground. Arms from all classes dove into the window--
--"*Shtup... *" he growled. --
--And dragged their lunch out of Matt like a sardine in a can. His small, olive body filtered down through the mass of wretched faces, circling away from him like vultures to a fresh kill. The olive ant had no gun; he saw one of the punks cart the UZI away proudly like a trophy. The soldier ants filtered in through the mob, armed with tools of their guerrilla trade. The tips, the very apexes of their bats and pipes arced in, then up and away in perfect sync. Then they all--
--*That's an investment I'll never get back; owed me a damn shekel! Jerk! *--
--Crashed down together.
"Shia," his fingers rubbed at the closest temple, massaging it almost, "care to explain why Ben didn't put my SWARM to good use?"
"We got a radio signal from Delta before... well--this, anyway." The curly top pilot tried to put a better face on things. "Ben said that the MK19 had malfunctioned, just as its lens was shot to pieces. Maybe the force from the bullet giggled the gun too much or something."
"The damn yellow devil's gun's a 9mm!" he said loudly. "Doesn't matter now if Ben's alive or dead! We need to get that fucker now! But first, we've got some cleaning up to do. Shia, take out the Mobile Automated Turret post haste! Leave nothing for the enemy, got it?"
"Rodger!" the pilot replied.
"After confirmation," he continued, "engage the target vehicle. Eliminate it through any means necessary, and I *do* mean by any means!"
"Collateral damage, sir?"
"Don't be scrupulous, Shia!" he smirked. "Don't even think of these mongrels as human. All personnel are considered hostile, and watch out for any Rocket Propelled Grenades. And while you're at it, get Avi on the horn. I want him back in pursuit!"
"Sir!"
*Run, Bin-Mok! Run like the little faggot you are! Is it mere coincidence that your skin's as yellow as your streak? I think not! *
"Muslims and mongrels got a yellow streak in them a mile wide!" he chuckled softly. "Isn't that right, Bonnet?"
"Uh..." the curly top seemed to be taken aback, "right--sir!"
"Good answer," he affirmed it to himself, "now let's get on with it!"
"Sir!"
***
Everything was quiet around her, nothing rogue imposing itself upon the steady thrum of the engine or the gentle vibration in her body.
Tara's hands slid off the back of her head, her weak fingers combing through the thick of her wavy hair as her pinkies came into contact with the matted carpet. Her palms sank barely into the floor as she lifted her chest up a tic; enough to where she felt the crooks of her arms lock and twist in a little. Her neck let out a crack as she shook her head around.
"*Oh... *" She placed the heel of one of her palms against the flesh of her ears, rubbing at it. "We all should be deaf now."
"I see you're still alive." She frowned at Kim's drone, as though the nightmare they had just awakened from was nothing more than an ill joke.
"Is that a bad thing...?" she growled irritably while she turned her back to the floor, shuffling herself back against the door. She could just catch the crest of her dark, auburn mane over the tip of the driver's headrest.
"Can you see *now* why I wanted you back home, Tara?" Kimberly paid her no more attention than by a shift of her hair, nothing more than a little twist of it towards her. "You could have died!"
"I could have died...?" she pursed her lips tetchily with a furrow of her brow, and the tense ambiance outside felt nothing more than a breeze as she shot straight up from the floor defiantly. Her hands clenched tightly around the nearest bar of the vehicle's shiny roll cage... thing. "*I* could have died!? Newsflash, Kim—WE *ALL* COULD HAVE DIED BACK THERE!! DO YOU SEE!? DO YOU GET THAT, KIMMIE!?"
The dusted road ahead may have had some curves, but that didn't skip her heart as much as the driver, who shot her a dirty look. Yet she had the courage--the guts to press on.
"QUIT PRETENDING THAT I'M JUST DEAD WEIGHT, KIM!" She yelled. "I AT LEAST DESERVE THAT MUCH!"
Kim simply returned her head back--and she barely saw the auburn stamp on the brake as she tumbled off her feet, almost into the front seats if she didn't have her hands clenched on the roll cage bar.
"Will you QUIT--DOING--THAT!?" Sadie let out a yell of protest.
"TARA!" She had never witnessed this ferocity in Kimberly for as long as she known her. "THIS IS NOT YOUR CALL TO MAKE! DO YOU GET ME!?"
"I DON'T REALLY CARE NOW," her body trembled furiously, her hands around the bar quivering in unbridled rage, "DO I KIM!?"
Out of the corner of her dry eyes, her black-capped man had his body twisted at his door, his head squarely trained at her, angled back while his eyes gazed past.
"Uh--ladies?" her ears could barely catch him through the yelling.
"I'M THE ONLY THING STANDING BETWEEN YOU AND BULLET, T!" Kim carried on unhindered, and she shall not disappoint.
"I--I--I--I--I!" She one-upped that firebrand in volume. "THAT'S ALL I EVER HEAR FROM YOU!"
"Ladies...?" Yune trailed off, his dark eyes dead center in his tan head.
"THIS 'I' KNOWS A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN YOU, GERMAN!"
Tara blinked, just before a severe tick caused the flesh below her one of her eyes to spasm in a swift, infuriated pattern.
*Oh--NO YOU DIDN'T! *
"I'M NOT GERMAN, YOU FUCKING MICK!!" she screamed, and the vehicle rocked from the back to the front in a heavy wave in the midst of her stomp.
"CUT IT OUT, YOU TWO!" The vehicle yelled to the top of her speakers. Kim carried on zealously--way *too* zealously.
"I'M NOT A MICK!" the auburn drove an ax-handle strike straight into the steering wheel. The entire body of the car trembled throughout its entirety. "I'M NOT EVEN IRISH!!"
"NOW YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL, BITCH!"
"I'M NOT THE BITCH, BITCH!"
"LADIES!!" Yune joined in, his gun making a loud, exclamation high into the air, as up as far as his arm could reach with a ribbon of thin smoke fleeting higher.
"WHAT!?" She and the Mick poured their entire wrath into a single shout, all forced upon the poor passenger along for the ride. The Asian showed them no signs of hurt--not even a hint of pain as trained the muzzle of his gun behind him, the barrel staring coldly past her--
--*KAA--BLAM!! *
Something behind flashed brilliantly, and the vehicle shuddered in the wake of a huge blast, nearly sending her out of the cabin altogether if it weren't for the roll cage bars. Her feet strained, barely able to keep her body upright as she gathered her bearings. From the deafness in her head came out a quick, and irregular beating, as if someone drummed their middle and index fingers right next to her ears. Slowly, she twisted her body around.
"OH SHIT!" The grudge between them dropped on a dime, all on Kimberly's broken gaze.
Behind them, in the air indifferently hovered a mechanical dragon, seemingly of American origin. Its fleeting breath of radiant yellow engulfed the air just blow the nose, but it was a mere candle wick aflame compared to that angry, bellowing cloud, filled to the brim with malice just as the beast responsible. A trail of dark and golden colors streamed from below the craft to the ground like urine.
"Just that thing in Prague all over again..." she could only catch a piece of her voice, as she helplessly witnessed the sheer destruction unfolding before her, like that other interloping 'copter flying close beside the beast like an annoying fly.
"Not this time!" Kimberly exclaimed, as she twisted back her body against her seat. "We'll talk about this shit later, Tara! We've got people to save!"
"Right!" she gladly took her seat, as the Mick made Freeman's poor vehicle tear ass back down the street, in the reverse gear, of all options.
"REMIND ME TO HAVE YOUR LICENSE REVOKED!" Sadie yelled angrily.
"Shut it!"
***
Riot teams, non-lethal weapons, tear gas; everything of that sort was so overrated nowadays, when people would rather risk life, limb, and arrest, utterly refusing to simply submit to the superior authority. The mongrels below put up a good show for him, training their illegal weapons upon him with the fleeting possibility burning in their hardened skulls that just one of those many rounds--just one magic, silver bullet--could magically puncture through what little remained of his face, let alone his impenetrable perch.
Uzi's entertainment was quickly coming to a close, to abrupt for his savoring tastes. Most of the mongrels had scattered when push came to shove after Matthew and Benjamin became a smoking, blackened crater in the middle of the road, whimpering and crying back to their dens with their tailbones between their legs, mooning him their true yellow colors. The rabid zealots of the bunch littered the streets in a dirty, crimson smear, pooling even wider as Shia continued to hammer out the rounds, and that interloping 'copter nearby was there to catch it all.
*Send my people a message, Channel 2. * He smirked.
But even as the hot brass and disintegrating chain continued its shower on the reddened road, pockets of resistance let out little blasts of smoke at him from behind the corners down the road, beyond the turret's reach.
"Finish them off!" he barked. "We're reengaging the target vehicle ASAP!"
"I don't think we'll have to wait long, Mr. U." Shia said almost comically.
"What do you mean?" his brow kinked.
"Three o'clock, Sir!" the pilot exclaimed. "The target's coming right for us!"
He pressed his hand against his eyes, drawing it across his face as he touched the flank of his chin to his right shoulder. Low and behold, the red-and-yellow devil tore up a small cloud of tan dust as it barreled closer, ass first.
"Hot damn." He grinned softly. "Well isn't this a hell of a note! Redirect your fire, Shia! We're not loosing them!"
"Yes sir, Mr. U!" the pilot replied, and his breath seemed to feel a little tighter while the bloody street pulled up and away from him. The survivors of the *real* massacre were pandering for some more sand for their hourglasses; too bad he actually had some to give this time around.
"Time's up for you, Yellow Devil!" he clenched his fist, tight fingers trembling with anticipation.
"Amen to that, Sir!" the pilot behind let out a growl of raw jubilation.
"Fire at will, Shia!" he laid his back against his seat with ease. "I'll let you do the honors. He put the slug in your gut, after all."
"Sir!"
***
"Sadie!" Kimberly said loudly, wringing the wheel, as that terrible worm, wrapped tightly in its mechanical pupa above, became her focus in the rear view mirror, through the narrowed eyes of her furrowed brow. "I want your missile battery armed and ready ASAP!"
Drazen; the sheer thought of him--of *it*--disgusted her, his disgusting visage singeing a burning, red crack straight into her brain. The soulless monster wasn't going to get away this time, not from her! He was going to atone for everyone he had touched--humanity itself for his unspeakable crimes, here and now, and nothing was going to keep him from it.
"I can't!" The vehicle yelled. "My weapons' systems are fried!"
She blinked--and she turned to the fluctuating readout of forest green, eyes wide with a dreaded disbelief. A pit merged out of nowhere in her stomach, and quickly did the deep, sinking feeling persuade her to ease off the gas.
"What'd you mean they're fried!?" She demanded.
"Like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kim!" The bars upon the readout reached their highest peaks, a little dash of agitated sass encoded deeply into the voice. "Stick a fork in them, they're done--*well done*! Some of my guidance systems are gone too, so don't expect me to fully compensate any time soon!"
"You'd better not be fucking with me--!"
"Cross my carburetor and hope to stall, Kimmie!" the vehicle snapped back. "I'm not! Something got scrambled or singed when my blaster came down like a damn anvil!"
"SO WE'RE DEFENSELESS!?" Tara inadvertently clamped a piece of her hair, using both her hands to push her trunk forward, in between the front seats.
"I'm sorry, you guys..." Sadie sighed--and she slammed both her feet down on the brake through a loud, throaty yell of abhorrence, one of her roughest ever to pass through her lips. She gave the wheel a heavy pound with her fist, the plastic quivering at her angry touch.
"IT'S NOT OVER YET!" Her voice sounded nothing of it, not even a hint in her terrible bark, and her eyes clamped shut in agitation. "YOU HEAR ME, SAD!? IT'S NOT TILL I SAY IT IS, GOT IT!?"
"Well what the hell do you expect us to do, Kim?" Yune said calmly. "We're out gunned! We've only got the rifle and our pistols, and I'm running low on rounds!"
"Will you shut up, Yune!" she yelled. "I'm trying to think!"
Think? Ha--that's a laugh in itself, if she were back home, watching this whole nightmare on tape. She opened her eyes, the slick water on them glistening in the sun, and her gloves strangled the firm grooves of the wheel. What was there to think about? Uzi mercilessly opened Hell's gate for those poor, defenseless people, and he continued to hammer out the judgment as though God himself had ordained him to. That TV 'copter nearby caught it all, hovering distantly on the repulsive action like a shy cameraman in a snuff film.
*TV chopper... * her mind whispered quietly, brow kinking as the thought passed through. She lifted her butt a little, trying to capture the reflected light of the bench seat behind her in the rear view mirror. Tara sat slouched right in the middle of the seat, head safely below the tip of the back of the seat, leaning gently against the small pile of duffle bags to the blonde's left.
"Yune," she looked at him, "how high do you think that news copter is?"
"I'd say higher than Drazen!" The Asian didn't bother to look back, and she could see his dark eyes in the mirror outside his door. "And he's training right for us!"
"Tara!" The girl in the long, narrow mirror darted her gaze right at her, eyes big and quivering with apprehension.
"Yes?" the blonde replied anxiously.
"You're driving!" she called. She didn't think Tara's eyes could have gotten any wider, but the blonde proved her wrong. She turned to the Asian beside. "Yune, you're in the back seat!"
"WHAT!?" Both exclaimed, awestruck.
"Don't look at me like I'm frigging Frankenstein!" the buckle at her hip clicked, and the thick seatbelt drew roughly across her chest as the thin slit in the seat slurped it up like a fettuccini noodle. She frowned at the Asian's skeptical gaze, but he dropped it quickly as his restraint slapped him upside his face. "Just do it!"
Yune sighed as he tumbled over the thick, center console, through the space between the front seats with his face planted nicely into the back of the bench. Tara placed her hands atop the backs of the front seats, in between the headrests as she limbered over the console. The car bounced as she took to her new seat.
"Everything's rocking and my tires aren't rolling!" Sadie exclaimed. "What the hell's going on up there?"
She looked at Tara with an impatient gaze. The blonde was halfway, one foot on the seat while the other dangled in the back as she grabbed at the wheel for some balance.
"How high can these ejection seats of yours get, Sadie?" Her fingers of her right worked the flap of her monster pocket open, feeling it pop through the thick cloth of her glove, while the others latched onto the blonde's closest wrist.
"Easy down, Tara...." Yune said softly.
Tara said nothing, and the car rocked gently as the girl hopped down into the seat, as soon as her feet were clear of the steering column. She let the blonde relinquish her wrist from her grasp, and she took her left hand and placed it on the buckle of her utility belt while her right withdrew her hairdryer.
"Don't know." Sadie replied. "The Doc never tested them, even after he had them installed. But the NOS with the rocket boosters should pack a punch... in theory anyway."
"Great...!" she let her eyes take a lap around their sockets.
***
Uzi let out a deliberate, droning hum, thick with contemplation as he gazed at his motionless target, a sitting duck in the dirty water. It sat there, with these two little dots, one black while the other pasty played an impromptu game of musical chairs in the open cabin.
"What do you think they're doing?" his pilot asked.
"Who knows; who cares?" He shrugged. "It's working on my nerves-- that much I can tell you! I want a show, damn it!"
"You still have nerves, sir?" Shia chuckled.
His brow furrowed and spasms in his neck made his head jerk quickly. Apparently the shiner on his boyish face didn't make his balls shrink as hurriedly as he had wanted.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, Shia." He grunted.
"Should I just end it here, Sir?" Shia carried on naturally.
The tonnage of his reply followed suit. The pilot would get it soon enough, but now was not the time for such a trivial pursuit. He had that little yellow devil pinched in his inescapable sight.
"Hold your fire, Bonnet." He wrapped his good arm around his combat load, a slight shiver running through his chest as he tucked the hand into the slippery, greasy crook. "Let's play it out a little longer."
***
Tara was scared.
Her body sank gently into the warmed, leather seat, wanting to sink deeper into it till the hide enveloped her completely. Simple the premise was or not, what Kimberly had asked in the frighteningly stressed circumstance around her was beyond crazy—stupefying practically.
The hard wheel in her grasp was moist and slick in her clammy hands, feet numb as she shuffled them to and fro on the carpet, her breathing shallow and labored unlike her passengers. Kimberly spoke with loud, utmost confidence while her man acted as cool as an ice cube in the fridge.
"What exactly are you thinking, Kimmie?" Sadie asked honestly. "Waltz over to that beast machine, and ask for a fair fight?"
"I'm taking your advice, Sadie." Kimberly said sternly, while she fumbled with an orange hairdryer in her hands. "I'm about to 'French the sky'. Yune, hand me that rifle."
Kimberly fastened her seatbelt, and then did she realize how too comfortable her own chest felt. The back of the chair to her left let out a whir as she drew the thick restraint across her body, latching smoothly into the buckle with a deep click. She took the liberty to adjust her mirrors accordingly, just to be safe.
"Tara--!"
"What!?" she snapped.
"Calm down, Tara." Kimberly said coolly, collectedly.
"I'm calm!" she replied swiftly, quickly, concisely. "I'm perfectly calm! Cool as a cucumber, that's me! Who's freaking out! I'M SURE NOT FREAKING OUT!! No sir!"
"This isn't hard, T." Kim said. "But it's not going to be a cakewalk."
Her fingers strangled the wheel, wringing it as she pushed a wad back down her throat.
"Just tell me what to do...!" she said softly.
"Okay," she began, "you're going to hang a U-turn, and you're going to punch it as soon as you're straight. Drive as straight as you can, and don't slow for anything! Got it?"
Somehow the wad worked its way back up her neck, but a quick swallow held it back from reaching any higher.
"Right...!" she nodded.
"Behind us, there's a news copter near the Apache." Kim continued. "On this road, get as close and as carefully as you can to it. Okay?"
"Yes...!" she nodded again.
"Good." Kim nodded. "Let's go."
She removed her hand from the slick wheel, slowly shifting it toward the little round ball atop the shiny steel stick, as though to draw out the inaction for as long as possible. Her feet moved into the accurate position, the sole of her left scraping the carpet to its rest while her right moved onto the brake. She nudged the wheel right, and she moved the shifter down the straight line, feeling the bumps through the smooth, bulbous grip till the rod sat squarely next to the "D". Her heart quickened its hammering, the car crawling the second she eased off the pedal.
"Trying something are we?" the beast assaulted her ears in a crackling, mocking cackle, thick with that discernible accent. "Ah... Bin-Mok: North Korean, scum of the earth, fights till the bitter, bloody end. I'd pity you... if I felt such things anymore."
Sadie moved to the right, and she let the vehicle roll all the way till the point where she could see the difference between the grime and the natural color of the cement walls. Carefully, she turned the wheel back to the left and the dirt crunched around her as the tires shifted. She clenched the wheel tightly, her eyes penetrating the skin of the beast as Sadie rolled perpendicular to it, straight into those of that freak-show, sitting haughtily, behind all that armor.
"Oh, I see now." The beast said superciliously. "Letting your little drop- dead, Nazi, German beauty queen take point for you. How typical of your yellow-bellied race, you little mongrel! Why Yahweh doesn't smite you all down, I'll never know!"
Never had she felt so scared before in her life, and yet had never felt this brave. Bravado of ten men, it felt had surged through her body in its entirety, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. She clenched her teeth, so tightly that the rows grinded against each other. Her fingers drummed the wheel, from pinky to pinky, left to right before they wrapped around the molded groves firmly.
*I'm... not... German!! *
She took a hint from the Mick next to her. As soon as Sadie was straight, headlights staring down the bright sheen of her rival's canopy, she took her left foot from its rest, placing the ball directly against the brake.
"What are you doing, Tara!?" The Mick demanded.
Playing just like the auburn, she shot the girl a smirk, beaming the very confidence she felt deep inside.
"Taking a play right from your playbook, Kim." She said and she moved her right foot accordingly, regardless of the two measly cents the AI threw out.
"Oh--NO YOU'RE NOT!" the bars on the readout touched their peaks.
The vehicle ached to surge forward, the large engine roared in angry protest, but her left prevented such action while her right opened the throttle generously.
"Yes I am!" she exclaimed, her narrowed eyes watching, waiting intolerantly for the tip of the orange needle to hit its stop in the red. Her wait had come to an abrupt close in a mere second.
She lifted her left--and there was no time, not even a lag to set it back upon its rest as Sadie shot off like a rocket, body flopping like a doll against the squishy seat.
"Holy... COW!!" her ears could barely catch her own voice.
Tara had never felt this afraid before in her entire life. Even the bizarre incident on the Escutcheon couldn't hold a candle up to the very moment that played out before her very eyes. The whole world outside the doors howled and wailed after them--after her, that pretty blonde girl that everyone mistook was German, for whatever sick reason they held fast. Everyone, that her darting, peeking eyes could catch outside the bumpy ride either tossed stones or blasted rounds that zipped and zinged over her bench seat.
"HOLD ON TIGHT, T!" Yune called to her through the madness just beyond Sadie's doors--and a quelled groan escaped her as she found the top of her body pressed harshly into the back of the front passenger seat. The tires protested too much--she could barely make them out over the *thuds* and the *bangs* the rocks made against the side panels.
*God, please don't let me die! * She whimpered.
***
"Kim!" Kim barely heard that nasal voice. "You'd better find a damn way out of this camp, and fast! I can't keep this up forever!"
"How should've I known I'd run into a refugee camp this fast!?" Kim countered with a yell; her head ducked between her arms as she felt something fleetingly grab at the thick flesh of her ears. She tugged the wheel harshly at the sound of squealing tires, to the right, as the next corner came upon her. "Huh!? TELL ME THAT MUCH, SADIE!"
"We don't have time for this, ladies!" Yune said loudly, yet calmly as though everything was fine outside the SUV. Though he was quick to drop his act in the next sentence, as the volume surged gradually in his voice.
"But our ladies' van's tailing right behind us!"
"How far behind!?" she demanded.
"Oh Sadie...!" that strange vehicle was a sophisticated predator, sleek and flawless. It just had to be! "The garage awaits us!"
"For the last damn time, Matt!" Sadie shouted at the top decibel of her speakers, as loud as the amplifiers could safely intensify the waves. "I SAID NO!!"
"Don't be like that, Honey!" the Hummer named Matt carried on like Sadie had said nothing at all. "I was built for you!"
--She gasped, and her heart stopped for mere seconds as another *POOMPH* blasted into her ears. She saw something from above fall to the dirty ground, something small about the size of a cola can. It touched the road, as gentle as if it had lips to kiss the ground--
--"Oh SHIT!"--
--And the ground leapt up in surprise, a good chunk of it left the earth and leapt in an explosion of fiery orange and angry red, chunks of it slapping and hard granules tapping against the windshield as she drove through the dark brown cloud. The seatbelt around her trunk tightened awkwardly on her chest, some of her air squeezed out her mouth and her hands flapped off the wheel as it turned by itself to the left.
Sadie took control automatically, and she was grateful the AI did when she came face to face with the dirty, hairy visage of some Palestinian plastered on a dirty, pebbled wall a mere foot away. A collar of some militant garb swaddled his neck while a green banner with white, scribbled Arabic was wrapped tightly against his very tanned brow.
"Everyone okay?" Sadie asked earnestly.
"*Ugh...! *" Her tongue slipped through her lips in disgust.
"Kim means we're good!" Yune thankfully took up the conversation. "Come on, let's get moving already!"
She shook the dreadful image out of her mind, and she stole a glance over her shoulder. The engine of the Matt vehicle rumbled lividly through the manic-depressive choir of angry camp folk, screaming and chanting after them. A few clusters of dark, dirty children hurried around the corner she'd turned, in their menacing, flailing hands where stones clenched as fierce as the utter hatred burning in their dark eyes.
It'd be mere moments before those stones became bullets, as more dirty people--older people rounded the same corner. They were closing in quickly.
Both her boots stamped upon the pads of the gas and the brake, and Sadie let out a quick cry of surprise as thin clouds of smoke plumed up from behind the back. She eyed the tachometer warily as the needle began to arc. The stench of burnt rubber swirled gently up her nose, and she exorcized the bitter stink with a harsh snort.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, KIM!?" Sadie demanded in a yell. "MY TREADS ARE BALDING AS WE SPEAK!!"
"Yune!" she dismissed the whining vehicle altogether. "Blind that monkey off our backs!"
The Asian gave a quick bob of the head as he spun his body around in the seat cumbersomely. His gun jumped, and his good hand flicked at the wrist and his digits clenched the gun at the back most end of the slide. A quelled grunt came out of him as his fingers wrenched the slide back just a little; the gun hopped once more and he caught it properly.
The needle of the tachometer begged for her attention, tapping swiftly against its stop in the red line, just as did the temperature gauge with the tip of its needle calmly lifting towards that little, white H. Only then did her ears managed to recognize that fluctuation discord that blared out of the speakers.
"GET OFF THE DAMN BRAKE, KIM!!" Sadie's voice was a nasty, terrible shadow of its former sassy self. "YOU'RE GOING TO BLOW US ALL UP!!"
"Just shut up, S!" she growled.
"I CAN'T!" The vehicle screamed back. "I'M IN PAIN!!"
She took a glance at Yune, all his body squatting severely in the seat while the arm tried to steady itself. She could barely catch the Matt's smug... arousal through the engine's terrible scream.
"Lord, I do love a good burnout!" it said haughtily. "Oh--how'd I love to get you in my garage."
That calm needle continued in ascent into the dangerous regions of that little, white H.
"Come on, Yune--"
*BLAM! * The Asian unleashed a 9mm, seemingly at the sound of her words. A yelp of surprise came from the Matt vehicle, powering over the gentle sound of cracking glass. She quickly turned her head over her left shoulder. The mechanical monkey upon Matt's back had an eye punched out, spider-web thin cracks trailed from out the circular blackness that was the center.
The angry crowd was on top of the Matt, about a yard away at most as she saw older people turn the corner, the short barrels and lengthy barrels of pistols and many an AK bobbing for it--
"KIM!!" Sadie yelled.
The tension in her body eased a bit, her muscles unwinding as a confident smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.
"Going!"
The car surged from underneath her body as she retrieved her left boot from the brake, the Matt and the angry mob eating the thick cloud of Sadie's stench. Her back was flush against the seat, and she peeked out of the corner of her eyes to her Asian passenger who had the dash in a strong death grip.
"You okay, Yune?" she said.
"Oh sure!" he blinked, and the tension eased in his hand a little. "I nearly got stoned, blown up, and almost fell out of the car to boot, but otherwise I'm the king of the world! And you?"
"Don't you--EVER--do that to me again!" Sadie's shriek put her mother's own scowls to shame, scowls that even her puppy-dog pouting couldn't wane. "You hear that, Kimmie!? I swear by my ejection seats that you'll French the sky if you *ever* power-jack me like that again!"
"Sorry, Sadie..." the roots did nothing to mane, whipping violently in the wind as she shook her head.
"Just..." the AI was at a surprising loss for words, "--forget it!"
"Maybe you should just drive, Kim." Yune said.
"CAREFULLY!" Sadie interjected loudly.
***
Uzi's eyes took a lap around his sockets, and he let out a disgusted, incensed sigh.
Once again, things took a sad turn for the worse for his men below. An angry crowd of degenerates had overpowered the MAT; victory over that troublesome Korean slipped through his fingers once more, as he tore out of the alleyway in a smoking fanfare.
Just as the passenger in the red-and-yellow devil blew out something on the SWARM, the rear left corner of the Hummer dropped dramatically with a small wisp of whatnot rising from the tire, quickly dissipating into the heated atmosphere. Matt attempted to roll away hobbled, but the crowds quickly overwhelmed it. They crawled atop the doomed vehicle like the ants they were, bouncing on it triumphantly like as though it were a trampoline for mere entertainment.
Soldier ants filed in quickly, armed with bats, pipes, guns, and whatever their greedy little hands could snatch. One larger ant smashed in the passenger window, bits and pieces of it twinkling in the light as they broke on the dirty ground. Arms from all classes dove into the window--
--"*Shtup... *" he growled. --
--And dragged their lunch out of Matt like a sardine in a can. His small, olive body filtered down through the mass of wretched faces, circling away from him like vultures to a fresh kill. The olive ant had no gun; he saw one of the punks cart the UZI away proudly like a trophy. The soldier ants filtered in through the mob, armed with tools of their guerrilla trade. The tips, the very apexes of their bats and pipes arced in, then up and away in perfect sync. Then they all--
--*That's an investment I'll never get back; owed me a damn shekel! Jerk! *--
--Crashed down together.
"Shia," his fingers rubbed at the closest temple, massaging it almost, "care to explain why Ben didn't put my SWARM to good use?"
"We got a radio signal from Delta before... well--this, anyway." The curly top pilot tried to put a better face on things. "Ben said that the MK19 had malfunctioned, just as its lens was shot to pieces. Maybe the force from the bullet giggled the gun too much or something."
"The damn yellow devil's gun's a 9mm!" he said loudly. "Doesn't matter now if Ben's alive or dead! We need to get that fucker now! But first, we've got some cleaning up to do. Shia, take out the Mobile Automated Turret post haste! Leave nothing for the enemy, got it?"
"Rodger!" the pilot replied.
"After confirmation," he continued, "engage the target vehicle. Eliminate it through any means necessary, and I *do* mean by any means!"
"Collateral damage, sir?"
"Don't be scrupulous, Shia!" he smirked. "Don't even think of these mongrels as human. All personnel are considered hostile, and watch out for any Rocket Propelled Grenades. And while you're at it, get Avi on the horn. I want him back in pursuit!"
"Sir!"
*Run, Bin-Mok! Run like the little faggot you are! Is it mere coincidence that your skin's as yellow as your streak? I think not! *
"Muslims and mongrels got a yellow streak in them a mile wide!" he chuckled softly. "Isn't that right, Bonnet?"
"Uh..." the curly top seemed to be taken aback, "right--sir!"
"Good answer," he affirmed it to himself, "now let's get on with it!"
"Sir!"
***
Everything was quiet around her, nothing rogue imposing itself upon the steady thrum of the engine or the gentle vibration in her body.
Tara's hands slid off the back of her head, her weak fingers combing through the thick of her wavy hair as her pinkies came into contact with the matted carpet. Her palms sank barely into the floor as she lifted her chest up a tic; enough to where she felt the crooks of her arms lock and twist in a little. Her neck let out a crack as she shook her head around.
"*Oh... *" She placed the heel of one of her palms against the flesh of her ears, rubbing at it. "We all should be deaf now."
"I see you're still alive." She frowned at Kim's drone, as though the nightmare they had just awakened from was nothing more than an ill joke.
"Is that a bad thing...?" she growled irritably while she turned her back to the floor, shuffling herself back against the door. She could just catch the crest of her dark, auburn mane over the tip of the driver's headrest.
"Can you see *now* why I wanted you back home, Tara?" Kimberly paid her no more attention than by a shift of her hair, nothing more than a little twist of it towards her. "You could have died!"
"I could have died...?" she pursed her lips tetchily with a furrow of her brow, and the tense ambiance outside felt nothing more than a breeze as she shot straight up from the floor defiantly. Her hands clenched tightly around the nearest bar of the vehicle's shiny roll cage... thing. "*I* could have died!? Newsflash, Kim—WE *ALL* COULD HAVE DIED BACK THERE!! DO YOU SEE!? DO YOU GET THAT, KIMMIE!?"
The dusted road ahead may have had some curves, but that didn't skip her heart as much as the driver, who shot her a dirty look. Yet she had the courage--the guts to press on.
"QUIT PRETENDING THAT I'M JUST DEAD WEIGHT, KIM!" She yelled. "I AT LEAST DESERVE THAT MUCH!"
Kim simply returned her head back--and she barely saw the auburn stamp on the brake as she tumbled off her feet, almost into the front seats if she didn't have her hands clenched on the roll cage bar.
"Will you QUIT--DOING--THAT!?" Sadie let out a yell of protest.
"TARA!" She had never witnessed this ferocity in Kimberly for as long as she known her. "THIS IS NOT YOUR CALL TO MAKE! DO YOU GET ME!?"
"I DON'T REALLY CARE NOW," her body trembled furiously, her hands around the bar quivering in unbridled rage, "DO I KIM!?"
Out of the corner of her dry eyes, her black-capped man had his body twisted at his door, his head squarely trained at her, angled back while his eyes gazed past.
"Uh--ladies?" her ears could barely catch him through the yelling.
"I'M THE ONLY THING STANDING BETWEEN YOU AND BULLET, T!" Kim carried on unhindered, and she shall not disappoint.
"I--I--I--I--I!" She one-upped that firebrand in volume. "THAT'S ALL I EVER HEAR FROM YOU!"
"Ladies...?" Yune trailed off, his dark eyes dead center in his tan head.
"THIS 'I' KNOWS A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN YOU, GERMAN!"
Tara blinked, just before a severe tick caused the flesh below her one of her eyes to spasm in a swift, infuriated pattern.
*Oh--NO YOU DIDN'T! *
"I'M NOT GERMAN, YOU FUCKING MICK!!" she screamed, and the vehicle rocked from the back to the front in a heavy wave in the midst of her stomp.
"CUT IT OUT, YOU TWO!" The vehicle yelled to the top of her speakers. Kim carried on zealously--way *too* zealously.
"I'M NOT A MICK!" the auburn drove an ax-handle strike straight into the steering wheel. The entire body of the car trembled throughout its entirety. "I'M NOT EVEN IRISH!!"
"NOW YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL, BITCH!"
"I'M NOT THE BITCH, BITCH!"
"LADIES!!" Yune joined in, his gun making a loud, exclamation high into the air, as up as far as his arm could reach with a ribbon of thin smoke fleeting higher.
"WHAT!?" She and the Mick poured their entire wrath into a single shout, all forced upon the poor passenger along for the ride. The Asian showed them no signs of hurt--not even a hint of pain as trained the muzzle of his gun behind him, the barrel staring coldly past her--
--*KAA--BLAM!! *
Something behind flashed brilliantly, and the vehicle shuddered in the wake of a huge blast, nearly sending her out of the cabin altogether if it weren't for the roll cage bars. Her feet strained, barely able to keep her body upright as she gathered her bearings. From the deafness in her head came out a quick, and irregular beating, as if someone drummed their middle and index fingers right next to her ears. Slowly, she twisted her body around.
"OH SHIT!" The grudge between them dropped on a dime, all on Kimberly's broken gaze.
Behind them, in the air indifferently hovered a mechanical dragon, seemingly of American origin. Its fleeting breath of radiant yellow engulfed the air just blow the nose, but it was a mere candle wick aflame compared to that angry, bellowing cloud, filled to the brim with malice just as the beast responsible. A trail of dark and golden colors streamed from below the craft to the ground like urine.
"Just that thing in Prague all over again..." she could only catch a piece of her voice, as she helplessly witnessed the sheer destruction unfolding before her, like that other interloping 'copter flying close beside the beast like an annoying fly.
"Not this time!" Kimberly exclaimed, as she twisted back her body against her seat. "We'll talk about this shit later, Tara! We've got people to save!"
"Right!" she gladly took her seat, as the Mick made Freeman's poor vehicle tear ass back down the street, in the reverse gear, of all options.
"REMIND ME TO HAVE YOUR LICENSE REVOKED!" Sadie yelled angrily.
"Shut it!"
***
Riot teams, non-lethal weapons, tear gas; everything of that sort was so overrated nowadays, when people would rather risk life, limb, and arrest, utterly refusing to simply submit to the superior authority. The mongrels below put up a good show for him, training their illegal weapons upon him with the fleeting possibility burning in their hardened skulls that just one of those many rounds--just one magic, silver bullet--could magically puncture through what little remained of his face, let alone his impenetrable perch.
Uzi's entertainment was quickly coming to a close, to abrupt for his savoring tastes. Most of the mongrels had scattered when push came to shove after Matthew and Benjamin became a smoking, blackened crater in the middle of the road, whimpering and crying back to their dens with their tailbones between their legs, mooning him their true yellow colors. The rabid zealots of the bunch littered the streets in a dirty, crimson smear, pooling even wider as Shia continued to hammer out the rounds, and that interloping 'copter nearby was there to catch it all.
*Send my people a message, Channel 2. * He smirked.
But even as the hot brass and disintegrating chain continued its shower on the reddened road, pockets of resistance let out little blasts of smoke at him from behind the corners down the road, beyond the turret's reach.
"Finish them off!" he barked. "We're reengaging the target vehicle ASAP!"
"I don't think we'll have to wait long, Mr. U." Shia said almost comically.
"What do you mean?" his brow kinked.
"Three o'clock, Sir!" the pilot exclaimed. "The target's coming right for us!"
He pressed his hand against his eyes, drawing it across his face as he touched the flank of his chin to his right shoulder. Low and behold, the red-and-yellow devil tore up a small cloud of tan dust as it barreled closer, ass first.
"Hot damn." He grinned softly. "Well isn't this a hell of a note! Redirect your fire, Shia! We're not loosing them!"
"Yes sir, Mr. U!" the pilot replied, and his breath seemed to feel a little tighter while the bloody street pulled up and away from him. The survivors of the *real* massacre were pandering for some more sand for their hourglasses; too bad he actually had some to give this time around.
"Time's up for you, Yellow Devil!" he clenched his fist, tight fingers trembling with anticipation.
"Amen to that, Sir!" the pilot behind let out a growl of raw jubilation.
"Fire at will, Shia!" he laid his back against his seat with ease. "I'll let you do the honors. He put the slug in your gut, after all."
"Sir!"
***
"Sadie!" Kimberly said loudly, wringing the wheel, as that terrible worm, wrapped tightly in its mechanical pupa above, became her focus in the rear view mirror, through the narrowed eyes of her furrowed brow. "I want your missile battery armed and ready ASAP!"
Drazen; the sheer thought of him--of *it*--disgusted her, his disgusting visage singeing a burning, red crack straight into her brain. The soulless monster wasn't going to get away this time, not from her! He was going to atone for everyone he had touched--humanity itself for his unspeakable crimes, here and now, and nothing was going to keep him from it.
"I can't!" The vehicle yelled. "My weapons' systems are fried!"
She blinked--and she turned to the fluctuating readout of forest green, eyes wide with a dreaded disbelief. A pit merged out of nowhere in her stomach, and quickly did the deep, sinking feeling persuade her to ease off the gas.
"What'd you mean they're fried!?" She demanded.
"Like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kim!" The bars upon the readout reached their highest peaks, a little dash of agitated sass encoded deeply into the voice. "Stick a fork in them, they're done--*well done*! Some of my guidance systems are gone too, so don't expect me to fully compensate any time soon!"
"You'd better not be fucking with me--!"
"Cross my carburetor and hope to stall, Kimmie!" the vehicle snapped back. "I'm not! Something got scrambled or singed when my blaster came down like a damn anvil!"
"SO WE'RE DEFENSELESS!?" Tara inadvertently clamped a piece of her hair, using both her hands to push her trunk forward, in between the front seats.
"I'm sorry, you guys..." Sadie sighed--and she slammed both her feet down on the brake through a loud, throaty yell of abhorrence, one of her roughest ever to pass through her lips. She gave the wheel a heavy pound with her fist, the plastic quivering at her angry touch.
"IT'S NOT OVER YET!" Her voice sounded nothing of it, not even a hint in her terrible bark, and her eyes clamped shut in agitation. "YOU HEAR ME, SAD!? IT'S NOT TILL I SAY IT IS, GOT IT!?"
"Well what the hell do you expect us to do, Kim?" Yune said calmly. "We're out gunned! We've only got the rifle and our pistols, and I'm running low on rounds!"
"Will you shut up, Yune!" she yelled. "I'm trying to think!"
Think? Ha--that's a laugh in itself, if she were back home, watching this whole nightmare on tape. She opened her eyes, the slick water on them glistening in the sun, and her gloves strangled the firm grooves of the wheel. What was there to think about? Uzi mercilessly opened Hell's gate for those poor, defenseless people, and he continued to hammer out the judgment as though God himself had ordained him to. That TV 'copter nearby caught it all, hovering distantly on the repulsive action like a shy cameraman in a snuff film.
*TV chopper... * her mind whispered quietly, brow kinking as the thought passed through. She lifted her butt a little, trying to capture the reflected light of the bench seat behind her in the rear view mirror. Tara sat slouched right in the middle of the seat, head safely below the tip of the back of the seat, leaning gently against the small pile of duffle bags to the blonde's left.
"Yune," she looked at him, "how high do you think that news copter is?"
"I'd say higher than Drazen!" The Asian didn't bother to look back, and she could see his dark eyes in the mirror outside his door. "And he's training right for us!"
"Tara!" The girl in the long, narrow mirror darted her gaze right at her, eyes big and quivering with apprehension.
"Yes?" the blonde replied anxiously.
"You're driving!" she called. She didn't think Tara's eyes could have gotten any wider, but the blonde proved her wrong. She turned to the Asian beside. "Yune, you're in the back seat!"
"WHAT!?" Both exclaimed, awestruck.
"Don't look at me like I'm frigging Frankenstein!" the buckle at her hip clicked, and the thick seatbelt drew roughly across her chest as the thin slit in the seat slurped it up like a fettuccini noodle. She frowned at the Asian's skeptical gaze, but he dropped it quickly as his restraint slapped him upside his face. "Just do it!"
Yune sighed as he tumbled over the thick, center console, through the space between the front seats with his face planted nicely into the back of the bench. Tara placed her hands atop the backs of the front seats, in between the headrests as she limbered over the console. The car bounced as she took to her new seat.
"Everything's rocking and my tires aren't rolling!" Sadie exclaimed. "What the hell's going on up there?"
She looked at Tara with an impatient gaze. The blonde was halfway, one foot on the seat while the other dangled in the back as she grabbed at the wheel for some balance.
"How high can these ejection seats of yours get, Sadie?" Her fingers of her right worked the flap of her monster pocket open, feeling it pop through the thick cloth of her glove, while the others latched onto the blonde's closest wrist.
"Easy down, Tara...." Yune said softly.
Tara said nothing, and the car rocked gently as the girl hopped down into the seat, as soon as her feet were clear of the steering column. She let the blonde relinquish her wrist from her grasp, and she took her left hand and placed it on the buckle of her utility belt while her right withdrew her hairdryer.
"Don't know." Sadie replied. "The Doc never tested them, even after he had them installed. But the NOS with the rocket boosters should pack a punch... in theory anyway."
"Great...!" she let her eyes take a lap around their sockets.
***
Uzi let out a deliberate, droning hum, thick with contemplation as he gazed at his motionless target, a sitting duck in the dirty water. It sat there, with these two little dots, one black while the other pasty played an impromptu game of musical chairs in the open cabin.
"What do you think they're doing?" his pilot asked.
"Who knows; who cares?" He shrugged. "It's working on my nerves-- that much I can tell you! I want a show, damn it!"
"You still have nerves, sir?" Shia chuckled.
His brow furrowed and spasms in his neck made his head jerk quickly. Apparently the shiner on his boyish face didn't make his balls shrink as hurriedly as he had wanted.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, Shia." He grunted.
"Should I just end it here, Sir?" Shia carried on naturally.
The tonnage of his reply followed suit. The pilot would get it soon enough, but now was not the time for such a trivial pursuit. He had that little yellow devil pinched in his inescapable sight.
"Hold your fire, Bonnet." He wrapped his good arm around his combat load, a slight shiver running through his chest as he tucked the hand into the slippery, greasy crook. "Let's play it out a little longer."
***
Tara was scared.
Her body sank gently into the warmed, leather seat, wanting to sink deeper into it till the hide enveloped her completely. Simple the premise was or not, what Kimberly had asked in the frighteningly stressed circumstance around her was beyond crazy—stupefying practically.
The hard wheel in her grasp was moist and slick in her clammy hands, feet numb as she shuffled them to and fro on the carpet, her breathing shallow and labored unlike her passengers. Kimberly spoke with loud, utmost confidence while her man acted as cool as an ice cube in the fridge.
"What exactly are you thinking, Kimmie?" Sadie asked honestly. "Waltz over to that beast machine, and ask for a fair fight?"
"I'm taking your advice, Sadie." Kimberly said sternly, while she fumbled with an orange hairdryer in her hands. "I'm about to 'French the sky'. Yune, hand me that rifle."
Kimberly fastened her seatbelt, and then did she realize how too comfortable her own chest felt. The back of the chair to her left let out a whir as she drew the thick restraint across her body, latching smoothly into the buckle with a deep click. She took the liberty to adjust her mirrors accordingly, just to be safe.
"Tara--!"
"What!?" she snapped.
"Calm down, Tara." Kimberly said coolly, collectedly.
"I'm calm!" she replied swiftly, quickly, concisely. "I'm perfectly calm! Cool as a cucumber, that's me! Who's freaking out! I'M SURE NOT FREAKING OUT!! No sir!"
"This isn't hard, T." Kim said. "But it's not going to be a cakewalk."
Her fingers strangled the wheel, wringing it as she pushed a wad back down her throat.
"Just tell me what to do...!" she said softly.
"Okay," she began, "you're going to hang a U-turn, and you're going to punch it as soon as you're straight. Drive as straight as you can, and don't slow for anything! Got it?"
Somehow the wad worked its way back up her neck, but a quick swallow held it back from reaching any higher.
"Right...!" she nodded.
"Behind us, there's a news copter near the Apache." Kim continued. "On this road, get as close and as carefully as you can to it. Okay?"
"Yes...!" she nodded again.
"Good." Kim nodded. "Let's go."
She removed her hand from the slick wheel, slowly shifting it toward the little round ball atop the shiny steel stick, as though to draw out the inaction for as long as possible. Her feet moved into the accurate position, the sole of her left scraping the carpet to its rest while her right moved onto the brake. She nudged the wheel right, and she moved the shifter down the straight line, feeling the bumps through the smooth, bulbous grip till the rod sat squarely next to the "D". Her heart quickened its hammering, the car crawling the second she eased off the pedal.
"Trying something are we?" the beast assaulted her ears in a crackling, mocking cackle, thick with that discernible accent. "Ah... Bin-Mok: North Korean, scum of the earth, fights till the bitter, bloody end. I'd pity you... if I felt such things anymore."
Sadie moved to the right, and she let the vehicle roll all the way till the point where she could see the difference between the grime and the natural color of the cement walls. Carefully, she turned the wheel back to the left and the dirt crunched around her as the tires shifted. She clenched the wheel tightly, her eyes penetrating the skin of the beast as Sadie rolled perpendicular to it, straight into those of that freak-show, sitting haughtily, behind all that armor.
"Oh, I see now." The beast said superciliously. "Letting your little drop- dead, Nazi, German beauty queen take point for you. How typical of your yellow-bellied race, you little mongrel! Why Yahweh doesn't smite you all down, I'll never know!"
Never had she felt so scared before in her life, and yet had never felt this brave. Bravado of ten men, it felt had surged through her body in its entirety, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. She clenched her teeth, so tightly that the rows grinded against each other. Her fingers drummed the wheel, from pinky to pinky, left to right before they wrapped around the molded groves firmly.
*I'm... not... German!! *
She took a hint from the Mick next to her. As soon as Sadie was straight, headlights staring down the bright sheen of her rival's canopy, she took her left foot from its rest, placing the ball directly against the brake.
"What are you doing, Tara!?" The Mick demanded.
Playing just like the auburn, she shot the girl a smirk, beaming the very confidence she felt deep inside.
"Taking a play right from your playbook, Kim." She said and she moved her right foot accordingly, regardless of the two measly cents the AI threw out.
"Oh--NO YOU'RE NOT!" the bars on the readout touched their peaks.
The vehicle ached to surge forward, the large engine roared in angry protest, but her left prevented such action while her right opened the throttle generously.
"Yes I am!" she exclaimed, her narrowed eyes watching, waiting intolerantly for the tip of the orange needle to hit its stop in the red. Her wait had come to an abrupt close in a mere second.
She lifted her left--and there was no time, not even a lag to set it back upon its rest as Sadie shot off like a rocket, body flopping like a doll against the squishy seat.
"Holy... COW!!" her ears could barely catch her own voice.