Chapter 35- Tragedy
Drake jumped out of the hole in the wall. Brooklyn was staring up a car outside the building.
"Brooklyn, can you drive?" Flynn asked, following Drake outside.
"Uh, yeah! I can drive." Brooklyn said, completely failing to meet Flynn's eyes. He stuck his head into the driver side window and turned the key. The engine roared to life.
"Somehow I doubt that." Keith said. "Where did you get a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Roadster?"
"Uh, Matt, uh, borrowed it from the manufacturer." Brooklyn said.
"As in stole?" Helen said.
"Well, uh, yeah."
"You should return it!"
"I can't! Matt would have to. I can't or I would be associated with him and probably arrested. You have to realize that when Matt slaughtered all of those Egyptians, he went onto the world's most wanted list. I had to cut ties with him to avoid being brought in and questioned and stuff like that."
"I see. But you could just leave it in front of the place while they're not looking."
"Nah. Matt told me explicitly not to do that. Said that he had taken care of all of it. Never found out what he meant. Get in, already!"
"Uh, it's a Lamborghini." Flynn said. "There are only two seats."
"Come on! With all the spare time he had, do you think Matt just sat around and did nothing? He customized this thing. There's enough room to seat 5 people, along with 2 secret seats in the trunk. So get in already! I already told you that the other fiends are probably alerted to our presence." He threw open two very well concealed scissors doors at the back, slid into the front seat, and shut his door. Flynn shrugged and slid into the shotgun seat. Keith and Helen slid into the back seat. Drake sighed, flipped open the trunk, flipped up a seat hidden in the trunk floor, and sat down. Julie joined him.
"Everyone in?" Brooklyn said over his shoulder. "Good!" He turned the keys and the engine roared to life. Brooklyn stepped on the gas and the Murciélago leapt forward. Drake clung to his seat as Brooklyn took a turn probably 140 mph.
"What did Matt put in this car?" Flynn asked.
"Oh, just a couple extra turbochargers that he bolted on, some suspension mods, and a few extra things on the engine and transmission." Brooklyn slid the car around another corner at 160, crushing a couple of fiends who were standing by the road. "Oops."
"That's not good. Now they're going to get on us." Keith said.
"Maybe." Brooklyn pulled on a shift lever in between him and Flynn. The engine began to give off a much louder whine than before.
"What was that?" Drake asked.
"I said Matt put in some turbochargers. The truth is that two of them aren't always on, so we can save gas money and stop the car from going too fast. I just turned one of them on." The needle on the speedometer went past 200. "Also, we've got a few surprises in it…"
"Such as?" Helen said sternly.
"I hope you don't have to find out." Brooklyn sped out of the city going about 230. The turbochargers continued to whine as they sped along the highways of Italy. "No more police to chase us at least."
At that moment the radio turned on. "I've got a possible code six that just sped by me."
"Oh great." Brooklyn said. "I spoke too soon. Drake, where is he?"
"He's right behind you, but he's falling back." Drake said.
"Good. I didn't think he could keep up, even with all these curves." Brooklyn said, attempting to slid around a corner at 180 mph and broke through the guardrail. The car slid off the edge, down the side of the hill, and onto a road below. "Hehe, oops."
" 'Oops?!?' You almost killed us, you inane twit!" Helen said.
"Uh, so?"
"You don't have your license, do you?"
"Uh…"
"I didn't think so. Why are you driving?!?"
"Because I'm the only one who has any experience at this speed!" Brooklyn said, starting down the new road. "Besides, this way is faster anyway and the car is coated in carbon fiber; that little slid probably just broke off a little of the fiber. The car itself probably wasn't damaged much." Something hit the back end of the car, causing both Drake and Julie to pull their legs in closer. The police car had followed them and was ramming the back end of their Lamborghini. The officer's eyes were blank.
"Brooklyn! This isn't a normal cop." Julie said.
"I get that! We'll get away. His car can't muster as much as this one can."
"The question is not whether or not he can get going as fast as us, it's whether or not he can control it better!" Keith said.
"Good point." Brooklyn pushed to shift lever forward another notch and the Murciélago pulled away from the cop car. "See? We can get away." Brooklyn turned slightly so that he could see the car following them. "So long, sucker!" Something hit them in the front this time. Brooklyn looked forward. "Great, more 5-0!"
"I thought you said you could outrun them!" Helen said.
"Well, not if there are this many!" Brooklyn stepped down hard on the gas and the Murciélago shot away from the police car that had hit the front end of the car. "I should be able to outrun them, I'm driving a heavily modified Murciélago LP640 Roadster and they've only got Lamborghini Gallarados… still, the Gallarado is not exactly a slow car. If there are enough of them, they could smash us around too much." Several more police cars drove down the exit ramps and slid in down next to them.
"Now you've done it." Helen said. "You've brought all of the Italian authorites down on us."
"Not for long." Brooklyn said. He grabbed a handle next to the shift level and pushed down on it. The car began to accelerate faster as Brooklyn injected Nitrous Oxide into the engine. The needle spun past 280 on the modified speedometer. The Gallarados that were following them fell behind as the Murciélago exceeded the speed they were capable of. "Told you. Too bad I just emptied all of the Nitrous in that one burst."
"I don't think it matters, unless there are more ahead of us." Flynn said.
The police scanner crackled to life. "Attention, units. Watch your speed, we have a 10-53 about three miles out from your position."
"What's that?" Julie asked.
"Oh crap… it means they blocked the road ahead!" Brooklyn said. "And we can't afford to stop… guess we'll have to hit it as hard as we can. With luck, there won't be SUVs… not like we will have time to notice!"
"There they are." Keith said. "Punch it!"
"This is the top speed!" Brooklyn said. "Matt tested it, we can get going exactly 294 mph, that's it. Brace yourselves!"
Drake grabbed the base of his seat and pressed back. He felt a sudden pressure on his right arm and realized that Julie was clinging hard to it, apparently afraid of what might happen when they hit the block. Her eyes said it all. She had pressed up against him and her nails were digging into his arm. Drake (with much effort) wrapped his right arm around her and held her tight to his side. She continued to cling to his arm. Drake turned to watch as the block came closer.
Time seemed to slow as they closed in. Brooklyn was aimed right at two SUVs that were parked side-to-side. At the last moment he tried to turn toward the single Gallarado that was to their left, but there was no way he could turn going 294 miles an hour. The front end of the Murciélago began to shed fine black threads. After a while the black threads stopped shedding. The front end of the car began to crumple, but not before the SUV was sent flying. The car made contact with the second SUV, which caused the hood to crumple slightly before it too was sent flying off to the side.
Brooklyn kept the pedal to the floor. The car, though damaged, kept going at about 170 mph. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" he said.
"Not so bad?" Helen said. "You almost destroyed the car!"
"Nah, that was just the carbon fibers shearing off the front. The engine should be okay, the front didn't crumple as much as I thought it would. Good thing we were going pretty fast, else it would have been worse."
"Wait a minute… the front end of the car's not crumpled at all." Flynn said, staring through the front windshield.
"What are you…" Keith said, staring out the window and stopping in surprise. Drake stared as well, once he had pried Julie off his arm and pulled her out of his side. The front end of the car had started to smooth out as they watched. In a few seconds the entire front end looked brand new.
"What did he do to this thing…" Brooklyn muttered. "I didn't know it could do that."
"Don't bother thinking about it, just go!" Flynn said. The car's engine whined again as they took off, leaving the cops behind.
"Suspect is through the roadblock, repeat, suspect is through the roadblock! We need more units to continue pursuit." The scanner said. A different voice came on. "That's going to be a negative, let him go."
"Well, we got away." Drake said.
"Not yet." Brooklyn said. "They've put a unit by the mountains. We'll need to break through them too."
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Brooklyn pulled into a garage at the base of the mountains.
"Pretty well concealed." Keith commented.
"Just stay alert." Brooklyn said, stepping out of the car and hoisting his laser. Everyone stepped out and exited the garage. Brooklyn flipped a switch and the garage was concealed again. They all set off into the mountains. "We have to be careful not to be ambushed. It's easy to hide in here. Wait…" He stopped. "They're here!"
Drake frantically scanned the area. Sure enough, he could make out the shadows of many fiends walking down toward them. He unslung his rifle and began to fire randomly at them. "Not much of an ambush, eh?" Drake said.
"Don't let your guard down!" Flynn said. "Shadows, coming in from behind us!"
"Right!" Keith said. "There's some big ones coming in from deeper in the mountains!"
"We need to divide the attack up equally!" Brooklyn said, blasting away.
"Good idea, Brooklyn! Drake, Helen, fire on the normal fiends!" Flynn said, taking charge. "Keith, you and I will fire on the shadows! Brooklyn, Julie, take out those fat things!"
"Right!" said the other five, and moved toward their respective assignments. Drake continued to hammer away at the oncoming fiends. Helen joined him.
"How do you stand this carnage?" Helen asked, tearing apart a fiend with her rifle.
"I ignore it. I rarely watch what I shoot." Drake said.
"Really? That would explain why your shots seem to hit less than the others…" She said. A fiend stepped between them and forced Drake away from Helen. Drake swung his rifle up and hit the fiend in the jaw. The fiend growled at him and raised a claw to strike Drake. Drake raised his rifle in front of him to defend himself. The blow never came. A horrific scream pierced the air, and it seemed that all heads turned to see the source.
Drake could see through the aisles of fiends. Julie and one of the large fiends were standing face-to-face. The fiend's right arm was sticking out of Julie's chest. Julie was screaming, apparently in horrible pain. Strangely, no blood was leaking out from around the fiend's arm. Either way, Drake felt numb.
N-n-no… it can't be… Drake thought. He could feel his mouth moving but he couldn't hear his own voice. He knew he was speaking but he could hear the scream he knew he was producing.
The fiend tried to pull his arm out. He seemed to have it stuck on something inside Julie, because Julie's body moved with it and she screamed louder. The fiend pulled again and Drake saw the base of the fiend's fingers. Something blue-colored was in between them. The fiend gave another tug and Julie screamed even louder. For some reason her body seemed unable to move as more of the blue thing came out of Julie. The fiend pulled one more time. The entire blue thing separated itself completely from Julie's body. Julie's screaming suddenly stopped and her body went limp and fell at the fiend's feet. The fiend held the blue thing over his head and roared. All the other fiends joined in. Then, suddenly, they all disappeared, leaving Drake desolated, kneeling in the snow.