Author's note: I've gotta get out of this slump. I've got to get back to writing. In the meantime, it looks like the last chapter just about wrecked me. But I can't turn back now, so here's the next chapter.
Segment 6: Scout's Honor
Chapter 2: Drive Me Crazy
(Leo)
I had a strange dream that night. I was in front of an altar and- oh, did Kim already tell you about that? Okay, I'll skip ahead.
Amy was waiting outside the hotel when we got outside. She'd bought round-trip bus tickets to the Keystone Mountains for both of us. I suppose it was an apology for chickening out on us at the end of our last excursion, or maybe she was just trying to support us. Either way, we accepted them happily.
Nothing was particularly noteworthy about the bus ride to the mountains. We watched the scenery go by, and people got on and off. Everything was pretty calm. Nobody really had any idea of what we were doing.
Kim and I disembarked from the bus when it stopped at the Keystone station. I wasn't really sure why it had that name, but I didn't say anything to Kim.
There were some tall mountains, sure, but most of it was the foothills. A path had even been raked out for us to follow. It seemed that this was a popular tourists' stop, too.
"I wonder what this Drive guy is like," Kim mentioned as we walked together. "To have a cabin here in the mountains, he must be quite the outdoorsman. I guess he hasn't changed a lot since his days in the Fox Scouts."
"Maybe not. Tails said that there's a picture of a car on his door. Maybe he's a racing fan." I wasn't sure what to think about Drive, but I said what I thought.
We were in luck. The path led right by a cute wooden cabin the size of a small house. A picture of a cute racing car was engraved into the front door. There was no need to use a lifeline; this was Drive's place for sure.
Kim approached the door and knocked on it. We waited a moment, but nobody answered. She put her ear to the door. She could hear a television on inside, she mentioned to me. It sounded like a NASCAR race or something, and the volume had been cranked up.
"So he didn't hear the door," I muttered. There had to be a way to get this cabin's occupant to hear us. And I knew just the thing.
Two metallic garbage cans rested beside the front door. I carefully removed the lid from one and placed it on the ground. "All right, Kim, help me on this one."
"Oh no you don't!" Kim quickly shot back, having apparently read my mind. "You know as well as I do how dangerous that move would be! Do you want me to get myself killed?"
It took me about five or ten minutes to calm Kim down and convince her to cooperate with me. I stood a few feet away from the lid, facing it, with Kim on top of me, acrobat-style. With one smooth motion, I brought my hands up and grasped Kim's ankles firmly. Kim responded by putting her fists together above her head.
"On my mark, okay, Kim? Three! Two! One!"
At zero, I swung Kim forward like an axe. At the same time, she brought her fists down to strike the lid, which rang like a gong. The noise was so loud it might've caused an avalanche if there'd been more snow on the mountains.
When Kim had hit the ground, she'd gotten awful scrapes and bruises on her lower body. She turned to me and yelled a lot of things at me while she rubbed her sore areas, but my ears were ringing so much from that lid that I didn't hear any of it. Even if I had, I don't think some of you would want to hear what she said.
It'd worked, though. She stopped when the doorknob on the cabin turned, and a grey-colored fox with a pair of racing goggles on his head greeted us in the doorframe. "You could've just knocked!"
"We did," Kim muttered, "but nobody answered. So Leo here had to pull this crazy move to make a loud noise and get your attention."
I snapped my fingers and pushed Kim aside. "You're Drive, right? From the Fox Scouts?"
"That's me. Teamwork was the name of the game in the Fox Scouts; my partner, Miles, picked that up right away."
Kim glanced up. "Miles?" Can't say I'd heard that name before, either.
Drive nodded. "Yeah, Miles. He kinda stands out in a crowd with his twin tails, but once you get to know him, he's actually a nice guy."
We began to trade stories. It turned out that Miles was Tails's real name, and that he hadn't begun calling himself Tails until after he'd left the Fox Scouts. Drive also apologized for not hearing us when we knocked; yes, he had the television on too loud. And he didn't get visitors too often, so he really wasn't expecting anyone.
"Sounds like Miles has developed a lot since I saw him last," Drive finished. He invited us in, and we gladly accepted.
And there we go. Another chapter done with. I hope everyone likes it. (Ha! That'll be a first.)