Nothing.
Nothing at all.
No- thing.
No dark, no light, no good, not even bad…
He was alone in nothing.
Suddenly he felt the ground beneath his wheels… but it was still dark.
Whoa! Its… its night, isn't it?
Lightning waited for a minute until his eyes adjusted to the ultimate darkness, and he could speed up a bit.
When that moment came, he did indeed speed up. He also looked around. (Duh)
He was definitely somewhere up north, because the pines aren't this tall and thick in Tailfin pass, and he was definitely somewhere on a mountain… thick, shiny, strong guardrails lined the skinny road, and jagged rocks lay behind those rails. To his left, the great mountain loomed up, out and above him, he could feel the age and weight being strained, to not fail. To not crumble. To not kill me. Jeeze, where exactly am I? How…
His thoughts where knocked down, for 2 strong headlights [of a car or truck] had appeared out of nowhere… blinding him. Lightning yelped and swerved to the side of the road. He didn't see the steep drop just a foot away… there was a great deal of sand on the road, and it was beginning to pull him closer to the rail… no, now he was bumping into the rail! And in one horrifying half second… he went through the rail. Searing pain shot over him as he tore through the rail, pulling it apart. He soared off the side of the cliff, then landed, (knocking the wind out of him) and rolled violently, 7 times down a mulchy hillside… and whacked into a great pine tree.
***
"This is Kori Turbowitz, live, on the scene of Lightning Mcqueen's second vanishing this month, and this is Sally Carara, claimed girlfriend of Mcqueen."
"How do you feel about the disappearance of Lightning Mcqueen?"
"How did it happen?"
"Is it true you are dating Mcqueen?"
"Wait- w…"
"Ok, just take it from the top!" Kori said smoothly.
"Well," Sally began, "this morning he was all mad abou-"
"His mother, Miranda Mcqueen, just died of a brain tumor last night."
"Oh… well… that, um, kinda explains a lot!"
"Please continue."
"Yes, and…"
Chick Hicks watched his huge flat- screen monitor thoughtfully as he sipped on a can of Dinoco oil. He found it quite amusing that Mcqueen could vanish off the face of the earth twice in 3 weeks, and this time, he was hoping that he wouldn't be found…
But poor Chick (or anyone else, for that matter…) didn't know that this time, Lightning was actually not on the same Earth he was on… Lightning Mcqueen really had vanished off the face of the earth… at least he had vanished from that Earth…
***
"Did it work, boss? Did our big plan work?"
"Shut up! Yes, our plan worked, you dimwit!"
Derek was a very powerful businesses man, he wasn't a genius… but he excelled in math. How he had invented the dimension portal, would remain a mystery.
"Now, I must find that car…"
"What car, boss?"
"THE CAR THAT CAME THROUGH MY MONEY MAKING PORTAL, YOU IDIOT!!!"
"Oh."
Derek continued to think aloud, "Once I find the car, I will discover how to control it, yes, and then I will put it in a cage and charge people money to see it! Ha! You, retard, I will improve my plan later on, but I promise, we will be billionaires in a few weeks! I just need to find the demented talking car…"
"The car talks? Ooooh! Can it do tricks, boss? Can it?"
"I will make it do tricks. It will be my slave! Think about it, Bob, that car under my mercy… ha!"
"Heehe!"
"Shut up."
"Sorry…"
"Pft! Sure you where…"
And with that, Derek and Bob walled out of the room.