Big Luke

Car chases are fun. Wouldn't you agree?

"So... run the plan by me one more time," requested David in the back seat.

"I'm gonna drop you guys off in a good ambush position with that M240 machine gun and plenty of ammo. Then, KATE and I and gonna roll right up to their front door, do a couple doughnuts and crank up a little AC/DC or Molly Hatchet," I explained as I started to make my way towards the UN building. "I'll get plenty of them to follow me to the ambush spot and blow 'em all away."

"Molly Hatchet?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah," I said with excitement. "Roll the windows down and crank it up. Shit will be awesome."

"Did you drink a little too much booze back at the hotel? What's wrong with you?" David asked. "You seem a little... crazy."

"Let me ask you something: as operators, what would you say your 'bread and butter' is?" I asked. I had a place where this was going as I turned down another road in New York City as we got closer to the UN building.

"Probably sweeping and clearing. You know, close quarters shit," answered Brandon.

"OK, well, I started running moonshine since I was sixteen. That meant running from the cops and getting out of sticky situations." just as I said it, I remembered the dream vision that Kronos gave me a while back. You're a runner. "This will be a piece of cake. Believe me. Right, KATE?"

"Affirmative," KATE replied. "However, don't you think it would be better if I drove? I can plan ahead faster and probably could take corners faster."

"No way, KATE. We tested that. I could get us around the race track much faster than you could," I argued back.

I drove for a little while longer before pulling over to let Brandon and David out. I climbed out too to help them with the ammo. KATE popped the trunk and I pulled the M240. Got it loaded it with about a 250 round belt of monster rounds. That wouldn't really be enough but with Brandon's 416 and KATE's M61's, we could pretty much take car of anything Kronos would be willing to throw at us.

I never did like the big cities. I was much more comfortable down some dirt back roads and cornfields. New York's buildings towered higher than the gods themselves. So high, you could only see about a blocks worth of blue sky. I like blue sky, not sky-scrapers. I don't like my sky scraped.

"Yo, Stargazer, you want to get a move on or continue to search for the Big Dipper?" asked Brandon as he stuck extra magazines in his cargo pockets and the mag pouches on his plate carrier.

"Oh, I got the Big Dipper right here," I said before laughing.

I climbed back in the driver seat to their rolling eyes. My hands seemed to work by themselves as they shoved the transmission into First. Then I took off and didn't shift again till the tachometer hit top end. The streets were narrowed by the parked cars on the side of the road. The only space to drive was about the width of a two-lane back road that I used to drive on back home. I eventually had to slow down and put the car into a slide so I could approach the UN building from the north. That was one thing about New York City: the whole thing was a giant grid of nothing but pavement. Each block was the same size which meant that you could be both random and predictable all at the same time.

You're predictable because you have a set web that you can travel on. There's no cutting corners or charging through a cornfield to hide. However, you could go in any three directions at any given time. If you're real good, you can bump it up to four. Only with an unstoppable force such as a tank can you cut through a building and bump the directions up exponentially.

I almost didn't recognize the UN Building until I saw it on my left. I slammed on the breaks before pulling the emergency break, jerking the wheel to the left and then back hard to the right again to slide into the parking lot.

The UN Building's parking lot was more like a car port; essentially, just a big circle for cars with important people in them to make their drops. It wasn't pavement, but bricks inlaid to the cement to create a surface to drive on. Parked in a big semicircle was a weird mix of military Humvees and Greek war chariots. Hitched to the chariots were skeletal horses that snorted fire. I figured the chariots would be able to keep up better than the Humvees.

Involuntarily, I started grinning from ear to ear as I cranked the wheel hard to the right. I gave the engine about half-throttle before quickly dumping the clutch. The engine's drive shaft quickly linked up with the transmission in mid spin. The tires began to skid across the stone, kicking the ass end of the car out. I caught the slide and feathered the throttle to keep the drift going.

"KATE, roll the windows down," I requested.

Without response, the windows started to roll down and let the tire smoke replace all the air in the cockpit. I almost preferred the smell of the smoke over the smog of the city air. The car continued to go round and round in circles and man, was it fun.

"Yeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!" I could hear myself wail as I felt eyes start to peer on me from above.

I couldn't really see the things staring at me as I created a smoke screen with the rear wheels. Once I decided that I had enough fun, I pushed on the brakes so the car stopped facing the UN building. Now, I could have opened the door and stood to yell at the building's inhabitants but I chose to just hang out the window like Bo or Luke Duke.

As the dust settled, I yelled "Wassup, Bitches? Damn, y'all look a lot better at a distance. Too bad it still makes me want to hurl!"

I watched as some of the monsters pounded on the glass windows and the rest turned around and left, probably to chase after me. I waited until I started to see windows open and arrow heads and rifle barrels jetted out towards me, then I climbed back in the cockpit. By then, monsters were loading up in the chariots and PMC were loading up in the Humvees.

"KATE, I think it's about time you put some tunes on. Play 'Flirtin' with Disaster' by Molly Hatchet," I requested. Then I shoved the shifter into Reverse. (Quick, open a new tab and go to YouTube. Type in "Flitin' with Disaster Molly Hatchet" and listen to that while you read this section. To get the full experience, ya know.)

The enemy troops in front of me started to charge towards me when I took off going backwards. More tire smoke filled the air and the tires broke loose. I figured there was going to be a lot of that.

I used the rear view mirrors to see behind me, it was what they were there for. I raced down the street backwards to taunt my pursuers, weaving side to side just to mess with them. I let out on the throttle a little bit so the horses could get really close to KATE's grill, then I floored the throttle and shot way ahead of them. Once I had gotten a little distance from my pursuers, I grabbed the parking brake and turned the wheel hard to the left. The car swung around and I stuck it back in First-gear.

I found out real quick that my biggest challenge was choosing a direction to go in. it helped a little bit that only some of the roads were clear enough to fit my car through. KATE could scan the streets ahead and tell me which roads were clear and which weren't.

"I'm travelin' down the road and I'm flirtin with disaster," I sang along with the song. "I got the pedal to the floor, my life is runnin' faster."

I downshifted and pulled the parking brake. Yanking the wheel to the left, the ass end kicked out to the right. I feathered the throttle around the corner. I let the car get a little too far sideways on me to create more tire smoke.

I was having fun. I could feel my face straining as I smiled from ear to ear.

I checked my rear view mirror for the thousandth time. I saw that one of the Humvees was trying to pit maneuver me. I made the split second decision to let him. The pit came from the passenger side so the car started to spin to right. I turned into the spin, tightening the turn. Then I shoved the transmission into Reverse and continued backwards.

I tried to hide KATE's true speed as much as possible. Which meant not shifting above fourth gear and trying to stay under a hundred and twenty at all costs.

This was going on for perhaps a little too long. Brandon and David might be getting worried. I pulled yet another Rockford turnaround and accelerated forward. I never realized that the things chasing had split off in different directions. I was about to turn down the road that ran into Brandon and David's ambush.

Everything converged in on the intersection that I was about to drift through. I had to pull the parking brake as I was surrounded. All four directions of the intersection were jammed packed with Humvees and chariots. I had no way out.

"Uh oh."