Rings of Fate:
Chapter 14: The Unseen Path….
'The Plymouth fury stood proud and strong, as that evil smirk grew…. "You never cared about what I want! What I needed! You always messed things up and just got in the way! You and that crappy crew chief of yours! Both of you just wouldn't have my way…. And just like him, You butted into my personal business and have to tell me otherwise… and just like him….I have to take you out."
The Hudson's eye widened at her words, the old puzzle pieces finally coming together, "…it was y-you?…y-y-you're the one that killed…." A swift movement from the Fury caused the Hudson to stop dead in his weak speech…. His breath was caught short in his throat as he started coughing….gurgling….
The weak, beaten frame eased to the ground…..and landed…broken….. and cold'
Alice gasped, as she shook herself awake….. Her ring strong in her weak violet eyes…..Her eyes….caught something in that flashback….. it felt….close…..
…too close…. Like minutes…..
…time ….slowly…. ticking….by….. eating… at her heart….
"this can't be happening…. Not now….. please…. No… not now…." She tried turning over her frighten engine….. it choked….sending shooting pain up her frame…
"oh come on… no please… not now…." She tried turning over again… sending a horrible pressure inside her engine… then…..a powerful back fire….causing the engine to force itself to turn over…. And chugged sluggishly… …
Alice groaned at the access effort she had to put it to keep the pistons firing…. And to keep her engine turning…. Something was wrong…. …. No time Doc can always….
She paused…. Doc couldn't help her…. she needed her help…
"Well mom could always…."….. She paused again… her eyes burning with tears as her name left her grill… …. "Mom….."…. Her eyes burned….. "Mom!" She cried out to the world her sorrow…. Listening to her desperate voice echo back...alone…..
Tears streamed down her pain stricken face, feeling her fear and love build up in her frame….. Gritting her teeth….. Her eyes darted to the heavens….. as she closed her eyes again…. "m-mom…."….. she barely choked out her quivering lip….. holding back her sobs…
'the weak beaten hudson hornet crashed to the ground…. Broken…. Cold…. Not moving…'
She gasped from the unexpected flash of Fate….. "Doc!" She cried out of pure shock... Sending his name bouncing around…
####
An Echo caught his senses, causing the Dodge Dart to stop in his stride…. As he could hear someone shouting… "Hello!" He called out to the voice, Listening to his voice being carried by the wind…
Quinn sat there, his sugar brown eyes darting back and forth in the sky, waiting for a response…
And…. another call in the sky…. female…..saying…..
Quinn paused…. "Mock?... Dock?..." Quinn sat with a puzzled expression on his face….. "Why would someone randomly shout the word Dock in the middle of nowhere?"….He shook his grill and continued to drive slowly… "Dock….. that's just… "…. He paused…. "Dock…Doc…. Doc!" realization slapped his tired mind…. "Oh my gosh is he alright? Doc!... Doc!"
A sound of an engine interrupted his thoughts…..as he turned around to face the engine sound….. and his eyes widened at the surprising sight…..
####
Sheriff grunted as he just laid limp on the lift... his tire totally taken off, his damage mostly straightened out…. Car putty over his deep scratches….. and his axle in multiple braces, showing his weld marks….. he was resting from part one of his "road to recovery"….. Part two... was touching up on the minor wounds… ….
He opened one of his eyes… and looked around the humble clinic that Doc put in his heart and sweat into to turn it the way it is today….. he found a small smile tug on the good side of his face….. Doc really had pride in his work…. He'll give him that.
Sheriff went to look on the other side of him…. forcing his bad eye to crack open, causing the already irritated red eye to burn from exposing the crack in his one windshield… forcing it shut again….
He grumbled to himself in frustration. Peering out the window was hard, and with only one eye, just made the job a whole lot harder. His one sided vision could barely see tires on the road outside from in between the blinds …. Possibly a sample of a paint job or two…. But that was it….
He huffed a sigh, watching a few pairs of tires roll around outside….. He couldn't be on patrol while he was in the clinic….. it just seemed pointless….. and even if there was delinquent road hazard out there… it's not like he could get down and speed off after them…
Another set of tires rolled a crossed his window that he was looking through…. This time a pair of white walls….
He sighed as he closed his only working eye… he wished he was outside, behind his billboard hiding from the sun…. and ….getting a nap or two…..
He paused… as he chuckled at himself… "A nap sounds good right about now…"
He found himself shifting around on the lift trying to get as comfortable as possible and rested on the lift…. A soft content sigh escaped from his grill…. The sound of whirling tires on pavement was like a lullaby, rocking his sharp senses to sleep…. …. …. Then….
The clinics doors flew open slamming against the walls, "Sheriff!"
Sheriff jumped at the sudden noise, causing him to almost fall off of the lift in shock. "What in tar nation?"
The Tow Truck chuckled "Did I scare ya!"
Sheriff glared at him, which forced his open eye, out of habit, to open…. Then quickly shut "Mater, what are you doin' here? You almost gave me engine failure!"
Mater snickered at himself.
"Well, what's so darn important?"
Mater paused for a moment…. "Ahhhh…..Now.. what was it again?"
Sheriff growled… "Mater… "
Mater sat on the side…. Tapping his one tire…. "hmm… aw this is a tuffy!"
Sheriff sighed… "Mater…"
Mater rose a tire shaking it " No No No! Don't tell me! It's starts with an K…..I think?"
Sheriff slightly rolled his eye… "Mater, why don't you just go away and think about it…then comeback when you've got it."
Mater shook his head "Nah! It's right at the tip of my tongue…"
"Mater, Just get out!"
Mater snapped himself back "Well fine! if ya don't wanna hear about the she-car that broke out of the fence…. Then I guess I'll be on my way…"
Sheriff paused…. His face paled slightly….. "What did you say?"
Mater huffed a dramatic sigh "So now ya wanna know? Geez Sheriff… you need to make up yer mind!"
"Mater!"
"Okay! Sheesh! Don't get you cables in a knot! She just done broke through her cell." Mater Gasped as a thought entered his crazy mind of his… "She's in cahoots with the Screamin' Banshee! I knew it!"
Sheriff rolled his eyes, "Mater…. Get that tire on me… and put me down…"
Mater blinked "But Doc said…."
"Well…. Doc ain't here" Sheriff said as he watched Mater obediently grabbed his tire as he looked out the window…. 'I just hope he's still with us…..'
#####
Quinn paused as he stared at her…. the Plymouth Fury….. Her brown red eyes burning holes in him….. Quinn swallowed hard… "Ahh….. hi…."
"What are you doing out here?" She hissed at him, inching closer….
"… I was about to ask you the same thing." A nervous chuckle escaped his shaking bumper…. "W-What are you doing here? aren't you suppose to be ….well….. i-in the impound lot?"
A huffed laugh came from the fury "You really think that that rust bucket would keep me in?"
Quinn slowly rolled away from her, As Christine matched his pace…. "Now….What are you doing here?" her eyes narrowed…
He swallowed hard, ….. "Looking for Alice and Kendal…."
Her evil eyes narrowed at his, "Well at this rate you're never going to find them!" She snapped at him defensively… revving her engine at him.
Quinn looked at her questionably, "What makes you say that?"
She growled at him ramming into him causing him to jerk back…. "Get Going! What are you doing standing around?... Look…. Alice is up a side trail right next to the road that it connects too…. If you're standing around like this…. You'll never reach her in time….." She hissed, pushing him towards the side trail… "Get moving"….
Quinn felt his heart flutter… Alice was here!... Alice was here, right up the road!
He felt his newly found strength course through with his excitement that flooded his engine…. Causing his tires to spin on the loose dirt….. racing to find Alice….. to find her…. to find a part of him he's been missing all this time…..
He mind was racing with so much emotion… his eyes watered slightly…. 'Oh is she okay! Oh I hope she's alright! How'd she get way up there! Geez thank Heavens that…'…..
He slammed on his brakes, causing the dust from the dirt road to kick up around him…..his eyes distant…. As he slowly rolled back facing the road he came from… "how did she know…?"
…. He slowly let off of his brake, letting himself quietly roll down the hill…. Peering from the tree line down the road that she followed…..
His eyes barely caught the red tailfins as the disappeared into the forest, concealing the fury from the narrow sugar brown eyes of the Dodge…..
Some things just didn't add up….. Why would she tell him where Alice was?... Was it really Alice up there…. or some sort of trap?...
Quinn sat there his eyes still fixated on that one spot…. "maybe…" His voice was low and even as he spoke he thoughts aloud…. "Maybe that's why everyone is disappearing…."
He slowly rolled out of the safety from the forests edge as he found himself rolling closer to that fixated spot where the fury left the road…..
"It just seems weird how she would send me off in a completely different direction like that….. "
He rolled up to the path of grass that was mildly worn down by repeatedly getting run over… as his eyes moved further down the narrow make-shift path….
"She really wanted me away from here…"
Quinn paused as he turned to face the dirt path that lead to "Alice"…. Then back at this worn path….. then back at the dirt path… … a slow sigh escaped from his lungs… …
"Alright Christine….. I'll bite…."
He closed his eyes….. and slowly descended down that make shift path…. "What are you hiding….?"…
####
Alice coughed and sputtered through her ragged breaths as her engine knocked rather heavily…. Each rotation of her driveshaft was agonizing as she forced herself to go up hill… … when something caught her eye….
A dirt path that descended down the embankment…. Some side trail…. …. A Name smacked her in the face at the sight of it… Quinn…..
She missed him….. she needed him…. she….
Her face felt hot at that thought, and quickly shook it off….. there was something she needed to do….
She closed her eyes….. and drove past the side trail…continuing her climb up….