There's no crowd to cheer us on this time, just us and the road. As usual I play dumb and allow the three of them to speed past. I'm sneak attacking these guys. Two speed ahead, the first guy I raced against taking the lead. One lagged behind me, which was strange since I was only going 80 miles per hour.
"One less to worry about."
"90 mph." my speedometer said, and I'm starting to feel the centrifugal force acting on my body as we make a turn. The two racers are starting to get out of my sight, so I decide it was time to speed up. The gravity lock activates, and I catch up to my first opponent.
Expecting me, he looks back briefly and pressed the autopilot button.
"Is he trying to kill himself?" I say alarmed, just as he completely turns around on his bike to face me. He pulls out an Opelentium powered gun and points it at me.
I duck down and zigzag behind him, trying to avoid his shots. But my moves are too predictable; a couple of them hit my bike.
"Common!" I start getting anxious.
I thought quickly, I'm going to get shot if I don't do something fast. And so my savior came into view.
I slowed slightly, putting distance between the gunshots and me. My opponent takes it as a retreat and turns back onto his bike to take it off autopilot. As soon as he did I immediately jump to his speed and pulled up on his right side. It didn't surprise him at all, and he had his gun ready. What he didn't realize was that I had forced him to the farthest left lane, right where a broken light pole protruded into the street.
"No one, puts a dent in my bike." I said as I raised my speed and traveled to the right to avoid the pole.
He shot at my direction and attempted to follow me. But it was too late, I turned to see him barely touch the pole's end with the side of his bike, but at these speeds it was just enough. He flipped forward, the sounds of metal screeching against the street fading quickly into the background as I continued to my goal.
I take the second exit that leads straight into Allentown. This would prove to be more difficult. Weaving through this much traffic was touchy but not impossible. I got quite a few honks, and couple people flicked me off. It didn't faze me, and soon I heard a bike ahead of me. It has to be my final opponent. I picked up my pace. Traffic was beginning to ebb away as we traveled further from Allentown.
No-Name was right in front of me now, I flank his left side. He turned back to me, and continued at his own pace completely unconcerned.
"What? No police? No guns?" I think.
I increase my speed, when my bike starts flashing.
"Warning, system override. Warning, system override." my bike starts flashing red. And my bike begins to decrease in speed.
I curse myself for thinking I could win this easily. No-Name started to get ahead of me, I was losing fast. And nothing I was doing was working, my only option was to reboot the entire system. It would only take five seconds, but in those five seconds my gravity lock would shut off. And it only takes five seconds for me to fly off my bike.
"I have no choice." Reluctantly I let my bike slow to 150 mph, got the firmest grip I could possibly get on my bike, and hit the reset button.
"System reboot..." the Opelentium powered down, and it became an ordinary bike. I feel the regret of my decision fall into the pit of my stomach.
Immediately I feel the force of the speeds acting on me, convinced this was my final five seconds of living all I could think of was Jay and Kirra. Everything I've ever done was for them, and now I've really screwed things up. How will they live now? Without the money I brought in, without me.
"This was supposed to better their lives..." my grip tightened on the handles. Gravity began to lessen it's hold.
"Do it Norah."
I flinched at the familiar voice, a suppressed memory. I told myself I wouldn't do this again, there was no reason to until now.
"Do it!"
I obeyed and held on, finding the unnatural strength to do so.
"Systems online." my bike finally said and the gravity lock reactivated.
I speed up immediately and catch up to No-Name.
He looks at me in surprise, but he's unable to do anything now. My bike is much faster than his, and I pass him. In his shock he does nothing to try and stop me. I've won their games.
I turn into the airport exit and pull in, my mind very distracted on the thought of the shock shield No-Name had used on me. In fact, the last time I saw one was when Dex was demonstrating his small prototype, when the invention was still in the process of being made...Dex!
"So Jazz was right. They have him, and he's alive."
I pull into the location Mr. Vaughan had described and turned off my motor, wrapped in my thoughts. "Dex did it. And that moron tried to use it on me. I can't remember how it works..." All I can remember is that as soon as any Opelentium powered vehicle rode into it's perimeter the systems were overrode and eventually would shut off. But the shield only lasted so long.
I shook my head to clear my confused, cloudy thoughts and look around.
"...Where is everyone?" I say aloud. I should have checked earlier. No one, not Mr. Vaughan, his body guard, or the other racers have shown up. Not a sound has been made, except my own nervous breath. Honestly it's getting kind of creepy just standing around here.
"Hello?" I call out. By now No-Name should have shown up.
"I should have known this was a set up!" I yell angrily. There's no money, nothing. Just a stupid race and for what? To try and kill me because I took two grand from him. This was child's play, and I'm tired of the games.
"...Norah..." a voice calls behind me.
I look around, but no one's there, I take my helmet off now.
"Who's there?" I call out. Silence answers.
"Norah!" the voice yells now, a man's voice, and then it cackles.
"How do you know my name?" I look around panicking; still no body is found to match the voice. My heart starts to pound, my instinct is to run but my fear holds me in place.
I now feel a whisper over my shoulder, and feel the lung-less breath on my neck. My hair stands on end.
"I know more than that...Norah Gray." it whispers. I whip my leg over my bike and kick at the voice, feeling the impact of a face against it. It yelps in surprise, and I see a drop of blood fall to the cement. But still there is no face for it to come from. It laughs again, "You killed Warren." now many whispers surround me, some seem to even come from inside my head. I scream and fall to my knees, trying to suppress what was about to come out of me.
"Enough Zenith! Do you want to set her off?" Mr. Vaughan's voice called, I looked around but still couldn't find anyone. At least the voices stopped.
"Yes Sir." the voice called, sarcastically. And then something smashed against my ribs, I doubled over in pain and started to cough again, blood mixed with black blue fluid spilled onto the concrete. The voice cackled again, the feeling now came back. And this time there was no stopping it, "Look what you have done!" Mr. Vaughan's voice had called again.
The Opelentium coursed through my veins now, just like it does in my bike. Strong and cool it felt, I found I actually missed it. It was the same feeling I had when I kept myself from flying off my bike.
I started to feel everything around me, the tiniest vibration. I could smell everything, hear everything, see everything. My senses improved, I identified where the voice came from, and saw the cut on the invisible face. Wiping the polluted blood from the corner of my mouth I stood up, ran up to it and grabbed it, lifting it into the air with ease.
He gasped, "That wasn't very nice." I said and slammed him into the ground, the concrete cracking. A man materialized before me, staring straight into my eyes, the same eyes as the one they called Warren. Warren, I remember now. He was the one I had raced against the first time; the one who's Opelentium was now running through Kirra's bike. And this was the same crazed man that Mr. Vaughan had sedated before.
"Say goodbye to Jay and Kirra." he managed to get out before I pushed him harder into the ground, falling unconscious. His laugh now echoed in my head again, and voices started to circle.
"Jay! Kirra!" I call out. I got up, angrier than before. The Opelentium pumped harder and faster now. I looked down at my hands; they felt like they were going numb. The veins in my palms began to turn a white bluish color; it reminded me of the strange bruise on my side. No it looks like they're glowing almost, I embraced the cold tingling sensation.
I look up, Mr. Vaughan was standing right in front of me, afraid. "Do something!" he managed to blurt out.
Something grabbed me from behind and held me tight, I struggled for a second before a cloth was placed over my mouth. I gasped for air, but then I realized that was a mistake. "Chloroform."
With the drug being forced down my lungs, the world started to spin and melt into blackness.