Activity Log 19: Derby Dash

89 7 7
                                    

3rd POV

“This is the place?”, Eli asked to be sure. Korra encircles the part of the map given by Max view onto Eli’s sleevescreen. Mary then feels shivers down her spine to her tail, as if something is making her feel uneasy by just being there. “You okay?”, Eli asked. She nods and gets off of her mech horse. Then, slowly in the distance, an engine can be heard hurdling towards them. They turn their attention to it and Mary quickly identifies who its driver is. “Max.”

Max then quickly slows down and stops beside them to give them a state while wearing his shades, and gives them the bird. Eli literally hears Korra’s teapot whistling through his comms in his ears. He then drives away to park his car at the starting line. Mary grabs her mech's reins and gives Eli a pat in the back. “Good luck.”, she said and walked towards the audience stands to spectate.

“She has a sleevescreen with her. I gave it to her before we left so you two could talk mid race.”, Korra informed. Eli thanks her and drives the car to the starting line one car away from each other. As other cars start to fall in line, so did the crowd. After a few minutes pass by, the announcer finally turns on the mic and hypes the crowd. GOOOOOOD AFTERNOON, DERBY DOLLS!!! TODAY IS A FINE DAY FOR ANOTHER RACE HERE IN 'DERBY, DINES, AND DASH'!!!. TODAY, WE HAVE A COUPLE OF RACERS IN A BET IN WHICH ONE OF THEM IS SAID TO BE AN OCCUPANCE OF THE MYSTERIOUS TOWER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALT FLATS! COULD HE REALLY BE?? OR IS IT ANOTHER HELLA HOAX?!”, she spoke through the mic.

“AND OF COURSE, THE OTHER PARTICIPANT IN THIS BET IS NONE OTHER THAN MAX WOLFTON!!”, the crowd gives him a mix of cheers and boos. “Some crowd, huh?”, Mary asked through the sleevescreen.

“Yeah… What was that all about?”

“Almost a year ago, he supposedly killed a crowd favorite while doing this race. Some people liked it, most of them just purely despise him from doing that.”, she answered. “HERE’S THE BET; WHOEVER ONE OF THESE TWO BET PARTICIPANTS SURVIVE OR TAKES OUT ONE OF THEM, GETS TO KEEP THE TOWER!”, she said as she turn on the racing lights. The first row of the red lights turn on. “THERE’S ONLY ONE RULE AND ONE RULE ONLY IN THIS RACE!!!”, second row lights up. The engines rev as if they couldn’t wait to unleash thousands of horsepower altogether. The drivers look at each other side to side, picking targets. Green. “SURVIVE!!!”

Wheels spin as they dig into the dirt and kicking them back, their front suspension get lifted as the rear get pushed down, and finally exhaust fumes exchanged with heavy backfire, giving each driver a kick, but with four electric motors, Eli gets the biggest leap. In just one second, he overtook everyone else. “AN AMAZING LEAP FOR MAX’S OPPONENT! JUMPED FROM STILL TO FIRST IN A BLINK OF AN EYE!”, and a right turn comes ahead. Eli decelerated gear to gear and handbrake turned and drifted through the mixed surfaces of dirt and mud. The other drivers in his rear tries to catch up to him. Max, in second place, tries to keep his cool. Another turn comes, Eli transitions to a right turn and counter steers to keep his drift and control going.

“WHAT KIND OF DRIVING IS THIS GUY DOING?? WHATEVER IT IS, IT’S INCREDIBLE!!! THE CONTROL! THE STEERING! IT’S A MASTERPIECE!!!”, she shouted into the mic. A couple of turns later, Max has had it. Being at the back with the other drives, getting pushed and nudged, trading paint, just makes him want to crash them even more. And so he did. He slows down to the point a drive overtakes him slightly. He lightly nudges the side of the 2nd placed driver’s bumper enough to cause him to lose control.

To make things worse, a series of jumps is headed. Eli has already gone half way through it, but that’s when the carnage starts. The 2nd placer tries to take back control but took the jump, directing himself into the walls that separates the spectators from the track. He spins midair as parts of his car flies off, hitting the other drivers. A piece of a body panel punctured tire of a different driver, causing him to hit another driver, creating a domino effect. Cars rolling and getting torn apart.

“Holy shit… What just happened?!”, Eli cursed after looking through a wing mirror, not long after it was shot down by a bullet. He flinched as a reaction from the sudden disappearance of it, now left confused. “Where’d that come from?!”, he asked in a panic manner. “Yeah… Remember the fact that there are no rules in this race? Well… you could also use guns.”, Mary pointed out.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I didn’t think he’d actually bring one, okay?! He’s always been a 'punch first, talk later' kind of guy! Not 'shoot you dead, win the race' kind! Just avoid his bullets, I’ll keep in touch in case he does something drastic again.”, she added. The remaining two racers entered an S section of the track, each trying to maintain their speed. After that, they turn to a large corner before the long stretch of dirt to the finish. Eli’s car takes another hit of a bullet to the wheel arch, almost hitting the tires. Then finally came the long stretch to the finish. C’mon, I can win this!, he thought, gripping the steering wheel on one hand while changing gears with the other.

“NOT ON MY FUCKING WATCH!!”, Max exclaimed, pushing a red button on the top of his gear lever giving his car a boost, just enough to have the front of his car level with Eli’s rear bumper. All of a sudden, he jerks into the side of Eli’s rear bumper, causing him to lose control in a zig zag movement until his right tires to lift and turn the car on its side. After it touches the ground, the car starts barrel rolling rampantly as minor parts such as the windshield, lightbar and wheel to come off while Eli tries to maintain his sitting position holding the steering wheel while he spins. Max had little time to react and had to turn away from the ongoing crash, only to have him meet the curved walls that causes him to flip into the air, crashing through the starting lights and land to a stop on his roof. Same thing happened to Eli after his marathon of barrel rolls.

“ELI!”, Mary cried as she jumps over the fence and run towards the crashed cars. The crowd starter mumbling, asking each other whether who won and lost. She starts approaching Eli’s car only to see the driver side door to pop out like a champagne cork. His hand starts coming out of the car’s roll cage as he crawls out grunting as he put his arms closer to his torso to move away from the smoking car. Mary then helps by dragging him and resting him on her lap. “Eli! C’mon, talk ta me!”, she demanded.

“I’m up, I’m up…”, he replied while waving his arm, slowly getting back up holding his side. “That Max is insane! What the hell was he thinking?? Was he always that irrational?!”, Korra exclaimed through the sleevescreen. Click. As Mary was about to answer, she was then interrupted by a sound of a hammer of a gun pulled back. The two turn to see Max, holding his ribs in pain, limping while pointing his revolver at them. “You… can’t… I… can’t… lose! For 17 years I’ve won a race and I have never, EVER, lost one!! First, my crew… THEN my career! You…”, his hand starts shaking as he aims the gun at Eli’s head. “...are done for!”. GACK! Goes the sound of the impact of a back hand knocking Max out to the ground, causing him to let go of the gun. The two look at the unconscious body, then the stranger.

“Sorry about that, they tend to let out a tantrum or two, here.”

TO BE CONTINUED

ELEMENT: Molecular ManipulationWhere stories live. Discover now