Driven to Win

Chapter 21- A Crazy Night of Crazy Eight

I know that the last few chapters have been pretty short, so I'm hoping this one can make up for that. :)

Chapter 21- A Crazy Night of Crazy Eight

Before Fudge, Cruz or Lightning knew what was happening, the lights on the track shut off. The crowd went wild.

"Welcome, y'all, to Thunder Hollow Speedway!" an announcer's voice boomed over the PA. "For tonight's edition of..."

A bunch of bright lights came on and swept over the track in the shape of the number eight.

"CURRRRAAAAZYYY EIGHT!" the announcer finished.

Several explosions went off around the trio as flames came shooting out of some tyres. Fudge whimpered and put her hands to her ears, shutting her eyes. She hated both fire and loud noises. Not holding onto anything sent her tumbling into the dirt. Finally, one massive explosion from all of the tyres at once made Fudge give a frightened yell.

"I don't like this!" she declared, whimpering.

"Did he say 'Crazy Eight?'" Lightning quizzed the two females next to him as he helped Fudge up onto her feet.

"That's what it sounded like!" a fearful Fudge responded, trying keep her hands on Lightning's muddy roof. She didn't know what Crazy Eight was, but given how scared she was already, she wasn't at all interested in sticking around to find out.

"Whoa!" Lightning exclaimed abruptly as a flaming tyre came bouncing along dangerously close to them.

"I don't like this!" Fudge repeated and both Cruz and Lightning felt sorry for her. She was genuinely scared.

"Race fans!" the announcer continued. "It's time to meet tonight's challengers!"

There was another explosion directly behind our three heroes, making all three of them yelp and hurry out of the way. A whole bunch of cars and trucks came pouring in from behind, all of them very battered and bruised. An ambulance with the word RAMBULANCE written on him rushed out, imitating a siren.

"Have a nice trip!" an RV with a nose ring called out.

Fudge, Lightning and Cruz were surrounded by racers, who were driving around recklessly and in all directions. Some were even driving backwards or spinning around and around dangerously.

"Protect and swerve!" a severely dented police car laughed as she spun around.

They just kept coming, all flooding in one after the other and all performing some dangerous stunt. Then the humans showed up! The five humans that had taunted Fudge earlier practically flew in on their roller skates.

"This is my high noon!" Wild Wes declared.

A water truck on the track whistled casually as he sprayed water into the dirt, turning it into mud. Looking around at it all, it absolutely was not something Lightning, Fudge or Cruz wanted to be a part of.

"Guys!" Lightning called out. "This isn't what I thought it was! Come on! Follow me and we'll slip out!"

"Gladly!" Fudge agreed, holding onto Lightning, letting him lead her out. Cruz followed.

Unfortunately, before they could escape, Roscoe and Mitch shut the gates!

"No!" Fudge wailed in horror.

"Rule number one", Roscoe began. "Gate closes, you race."

Well, that kinda sucked. Cruz gasped as a forklift spray-painted the number 20 on her sides. At the same time, another plastered the number 19 to Fudge's back and chest, making her flinch. That was when she realised that the other humans were wearing them as well. Whiplash was number 22, Fire and Ice were 100 and 101 respectively, Wild Wes was 48 and Benny was 6 (she later heard the others joke about how he got the number six because he could only count that high).