Fur and Claws (Race Games 4) - Page 31

THIRTY

Jo remembered hearing from Gidget everything she’d suffered, about how the dragon had barely survived the hurricane as it had come overland. Hurricane Ike had cut a path through houses, the storm surge a record high, but the wind had knocked down a lot of what else had survived the water. There wasn’t much that could stand up to a hurricane, and Hurricane Ike had been a category four. Whatever this hurricane was, Jo assumed it was a five based on the label of the section. It made sense, and it made everything inside of Jo shiver.

This wasn’t just a storm. This was a hurricane amplified by the magic of the Games. And it was moving far faster than any hurricane should.

The storm surge chased at their tires, biting at them, until every now and then, the rear tires threatened to lose their traction entirely. How high would it go? When the bridge leveled out, would they be sitting ducks as the sea crashed over the bridge?

To the right of the bridge, coming in from sea, was the massive cargo ship headed right for the bridge. The chances of the ship not taking out the bridge were low. After all, it was being propelled by a category five storm surge.

“Nic,” Jo whispered, her eyes on the ship she could see every so often through the heavy downpour of rain. She almost expected hail to rain down from the heavens the size of baseballs. Some small blessing meant there wasn’t that threat. Even if Frankie was practically a tank, she wasn’t sure how much the car could take, though it would fare better than the Crows and the Elves beside them.

“I see it,” Nic grunted, holding the steering wheel steady, turning into the momentum every time the car hydroplaned to correct their line. “How many more miles?”

“Eight.”

“Fuck,” he growled, his eyes glancing out the side at the elves on his left. “They’re going to seize their opportunity when they can. Get ready to use the weapons.”

Jo was ready. She had been the moment the weapon’s system had come on, but until now, there’s been no opportunity to use it. On her right, the Crows were swerving, the wind pushing them around and into Frankie every so often. Their Ferrari was beat up, the fenders cracked and missing pieces. Their rear tires danced on the water pushing at them from behind. As Jo looked at them, the driver, a younger looking female, glanced back, clear fear on her face. Guilt hit Jo. She was so young, too young for a race like this. But there was nothing Jo could do about it now.

They were all trapped in this nightmare together.

Hurricanes, unlike a normal thunderstorm, moved in circular patterns. They spun, building momentum and power, drawing from the warmth of the water and the perfect climate in the clouds that led to them. There was no stopping a hurricane, just as there was no stopping a tornado. You either got out, or you risked death. Jo and Nic didn’t have a choice.

The rain thundered down on Frankie, so loud, it was almost difficult to hear anything else, including Nic talking to her. Wind still brutally hit them, twisting, threatening to pull all three cars off into the rising sea. The power lines that had remained fastened to the edge of the bridge shook back and forth, their transformers blown or in the process of, and power lines began to appear hanging down on the bridge as it leveled out, forcing them to move around the live wires. The ocean waves crashed against the barrier of the bridge, rushing across it when it came in through the drainage holes, splashing high as it hit the concrete. How long until that concrete gave in, too?

Jo held onto her harness tightly, her knees clutched on the tablet to keep it from falling. Water droplets began to leak from the top edge of Jo’s door, the seal giving up against the torrential downpour. A few drops weren’t a big deal. The ocean outside was.

And then, just as quickly as the hurricane hit, the rain suddenly lightened and stopped. Jo leaned forward, her brows furrowed at the sunshine suddenly shining through. The road was still wet, the water still danced at the edges of the bridge, but the rain had stopped.

“What the. . .” Nic murmured. “Is it over?”

But Jo’s eyes were on the wall of clouds around them, of the clear gray billows that circled them tightly. Her friend had once told her, “the bigger the hurricane, the tighter the eye,” and it made sense now. The eye wasn’t very wide at all, maybe a couple of miles, maybe less, but it gave the illusion that the hurricane was finished, and the elves had clearly never had any experience with one.

“The eye,” Jo said, just as the elves swerved their Maserati right into the side of Frankie. Which was foolish really. A Maserati against a literal tank? There wasn’t much hope.

As Jo expected, their Maserati’s fenders came away cracked. Frankie probably only sported a few glittery streaks of paint from the altercation.

“There’s a wall up ahead,” Nic warned.

“That’s the eye wall. We’ll be back in the hurricane here in a moment,” Jo said, reaching forward to press a button. A mechanism came to life in Frankie, right before on the driver’s side, a small panel opened and revealed the arrows. One by one, they fired at the elves. Two embedded in the side of the Maserati. One sailed off into the stormy sea. Another busted the passenger window and hit the passenger elf in the shoulder. The storm was muted enough that Jo heard her shout of pain.

“Go, Nic!” she said. “Five miles to go, and that ship is getting closer.”

The cargo ship was just to the right now, due to hit the bridge in less than a minute, and the eye wall was about to slam into them just the same. The ship was ahead and to the right, but despite it drawing closer and their ability to speed up through the eye, Jo calculated the distance.

“We’re not going to make it before it hits,” she whispered, glancing at Nic.

He met her eyes. “We have boosters, right?” She nodded. He reached over and touched her hand briefly, squeezed in reassurance. “When I tell you to hit them, do it.”

The rain slammed down upon them again as they entered the eyewall and forced them to slow again. The crows were still beside them on the right, struggling to keep on track, not caring to attack Jo and Nic. The elves, however, were understandably pissed.

The rain cleared just enough for Jo to see the elf raise his arm out the window.

“Nic! Look out!”

He slammed on his brakes just as the elf threw what looked like a hacky sack of all things. When Nic hit his brakes, the elves and crows continued on, and the hacky sack hit the crow’s car instead. Glitter exploded from the ball and covered the car, building upon itself like some great boiling slime. The Crows screamed at the spread, but they kept their car on the road despite all the elements against them.

Nic hit the gas again.

Ahead of all three cars racing neck and neck to clear the section, the cargo ship swooped up with the wave and came down on the bridge. The thunderous crash was felt through the concrete as it cracked and gave way, the cargo ship sinking down into the water as the waves came up. Jo grit her teeth and held on as the deck of the empty cargo ship dropped below the bridge level with its momentum for a few seconds. None of the cars slowed.

“Boosters!” Nic yelled. “Now!”

Jo slammed her fist on the button. Immediately, she was pressed back into the aluminum seat, her head slapping against it, but she could only focus on the cargo ship, and it’s suddenly slow assent back to water level. The bridge was destroyed there. There would be no crossing once the ship passed.

Only then did Jo realize what Nic was doing.

The crows on their right kept pace, using their own boosters. The elves struggled but kept pace, just barely back from them. Apparently, everyone had the same idea.

Where the road was cracked, rebar and concrete stuck out at odd angles, threatening, but Nic kept Frankie aimed right at the center. As they drew closer and the ship rose slowly, everything slowed in Jo’s mind. She saw the window closing, saw that they were about to fail, but Nic gunned the car despite the wind and rain shoving at them. Frankie handled it well. The Ferrari and the Maserati began to jerk hard in the wind, but none stopped. If they stopped now, they would for sure lose.

“Here we go,” Nic grunted.

The edge of the bridge came fast, and just as the edge of the ship rose to street level, Frankie hit the end of the road and continued driving across the deck of the cargo ship, but that wasn’t the scariest part.

“Nic!”

“Hold on!” he spit. His fingers were tipped with claws, the adrenaline threatening to pull his wolf out. He bared his teeth as if in threat to the ship as it rose higher and higher. Coming off the other side was going to be hell.

The elves and crows made it onto the ship, both sliding along the top with Nic, who was angling slightly to the right to make up for the ship being pushed further inland. The others seemed to think he knew what he was doing and matched him. A wind gust hit the crows, their rear end fishtailing, and they fell behind as they corrected.

The window was quickly closing.

The edge of the cargo ship came faster than Jo expected, which was silly. Cargo ships were only so wide. Still, as the tires left the surface of the ship, she looked back over her shoulder, saw the elves in the air beside them.

And the crows slamming on their brakes as the window closed and they could no longer make the bridge. The female crow climbed from the car and watched them leave, the wind whipping her hair around her face as the cargo ship continued its journey inland. Only then did Jo turn back to face the front.

No horn sounded, but the crows were certainly out of the race.

The wind buffeted at Frankie as they landed hard on the other side, the car swerving for a moment before Nic corrected the path and gunned it. Jo could almost kiss him for his driving skills alone. She pumped her fist in the air, grinning from ear to ear, but the celebration was short-lived when the power lines began to fall.

“Nic, look out!” she shrieked as the large metal pole snapped and began to fall.

He swerved, slamming into the elves on the left of him where they were still struggling to keep up despite their Maserati slowly looking like it shouldn’t be on the road. The elves, not understanding what was happening, slammed on their brakes to avoid any more damage to their car past what Nic had just done. And it put them right into the line of collapse. The power pole slammed into them, crushing the front of their car, pinning them to the street, just as the waves began to flow over the concrete walls.

“They’re trapped,” Jo said, twisting in her seat. “Nic, they can’t drive.”

Nic glanced at her despite the literal hurricane he fought. “We can’t go back.”

“But—”

“Jo, look.”

She did, and saw the storm surge rising even higher, saw that they were barely staying on the road as it was. If they stopped and went back, they’d be swept away. There was no helping them without getting themselves killed. Guilt eating at her despite the elves having been rude and trying to kill them, Jo watched as the ocean swirled around the Maserati. She couldn’t hear their screams because of the storm and the quick distance they put between them, but she could imagine what they sounded like.

The Maserati came loose from the power pole as the water rushed around the car and they were swept into the ocean. The front of the car flipped into the air for a moment, before it rolled, and the entire car disappeared. She turned in her seat and faced forward, her chest aching with the decision that hadn’t really been a decision at all.

The edge of 5FIVE5 appeared, and they passed through just as the horn sounded around them, announcing the death of yet another team.

Tags: Kendra Moreno Race Games Paranormal
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