The desert wasn't as interesting the second time around. As they sped through the miles of rolling dunes and abandoned signs, Alex couldn't wait to get back to the bunker. She had taken its safety and repetitiveness for granted.
The Wildlands weren't at all the adventure she expected them to be. Her only souvenir was a concussion and a bruised throat. The only useful thing she had taken from it was that she'd learned her dreams weren't fake.
Looking out the window, her view was partially obscured by the smeared blood on the glass.
My blood.
She touched the bandage that Rollo had wrapped around her head. Blood had soaked through it. The wound would probably need stitches.
Alex couldn't remember a time where she ever had a cut that needed anything more than a bandage. Cicero didn't let her adventure around too much to get many injuries as a child. Aside from a couple broken bones here and there, which he'd always reacted to poorly.
"Did that guy say anything to you?" Ace interrupted the silence. He leaned forward between the passenger and driver's seat, eyes peering curiously over at Alex.
Carefully, Alex touched the edges of the bandage again. "I think he did."
A haze rolled over her mind. She could remember the sound; words spilling from the man's mouth. However, all she could recall was nonsensical noise.
Why can't I remember what he said?
"I don't remember, though," Alex added.
"Something's wrong." Cicero's words pulled Alex from her thoughts.
She sat up and looked ahead, noticing the glowing brake lights in front of them. The Glider pulled to a stop.
"I really hate this desert," Ace mumbled. He checked the magazine of the gun he pulled from his waistband and loaded it once more with a loud click.
There was a line of parked vehicles side by side on the road ahead. They blocked the way completely, leaving no room for anyone to even squeeze by. They'd scrape the concrete barricades on the side of the road trying to get by the end cars, and there was no room between the vehicles themselves.
Dozens of people stood outside the vehicles, guns visible on nearly every one of them.
"It looks like you guys have found yourselves in a bit of a pickle." A voice crackled throughout the Glider.
Everyone in the Glider looked down at the radio in shock. Somehow, these strangers were transmitting over the radio and through the speakers.
"I wouldn't bother going any further. We've already found the bunker and alerted the Patrolmen to its location. It would be best just to turn yourselves over at this point." The voice continued.
Alex's eyes widened as she stared down at the radio. How could they have found the bunker? Who are these people?
She looked through the blood smeared glass, trying to glimpse in the other cars of those in their own convoy. No doors opened, no windows rolled down. No one seemed to have any reaction.
"Edric, we know you're in one of those cars."
Suddenly, the car beside them flew into reverse. It was the vehicle Vida was in. Daniel and Greg were close behind in the SUV, while Edric started backing up the truck. Before he could even complete his turn, Cicero had reversed the Glider well away from the line of cars before them.
Alex braced herself with the sudden motion. Her stomach flipped over on itself as the Glider's wheels screeched on the asphalt. It felt like the car turned around on the spot as it rushed off in pursuit of the others.
"Who the hell are those people?" Ace turned around to look out the rear window. "Whoever they are, they're coming after us. They're all packing way too much firepower to be on our tails like that."
Rollo turned around, too. "I don't know, but how do they know who Edric is?"
"I'm more worried about where we're going," Alex said.
All she wanted to do was get back to the safety of the bunker, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen. She hoped, though, that the others could get out in time if what the voice over the radio said was true. Brin, Gianna and Jonathon; they would be like sitting ducks in the bunker.
Dust billowed up around them as they peeled off on an exit ramp. It didn't look like people traveled it often. Sand dunes covered most of the road, and they had to travel in single file at some points until it opened up into wider lanes.
The pursuing cars were close behind. They followed them like shadows as they darted back and forth across the road.
Cicero maneuvered the Glider expertly around flipped cars and sand dunes. One of the cars pursuing them inched in behind the Glider too close for comfort. With a precise hit, Cicero rammed into the side of it.
The car took a hill of sand like a ramp and tipped over at the very top. It went screeching across the asphalt on its roof, and they flew by as the car spun out and crashed into another vehicle traveling with it.
"Keep doing that, and we won't have to keep trying to outrun them," Ace said with a whistle. He watched, almost gleefully, as the crash crescendoed behind them.
The Glider easily covered ground, but Cicero kept it to the back of the group. He was using it like a battering ram, knocking cars left and right when they tried to overtake them.
Alex tried to see if she could look into the vehicles, but they had blacked the windows out.
One of the pursuing cars revved forward and glanced off the side of the Glider. The back window rolled down, and a man leaned out. Wind ripped at his hair, sending a ball cap flying into the distance. He propped a gun against his shoulder and pointed it right at Alex's window.
If it hadn't been for the bulletproof glass, Alex might have been scared staring down the barrel of such a gun. The most a bullet would do to the glass would be a scratch on its surface. Still, it was a little unsettling.
The man fired the gun. Alex couldn't help but jump at the first few, wincing as she watched the bullets bounce off the Glider like bugs from a windshield. He aimed at the tires, trying every weakness. Bullets ricocheted off the wheels just the same as the rest of the vehicle. A bomb barely dented it; the guy was foolish to think he'd be able to do more damage.
Obviously realizing he wouldn't do much to the Glider, the man aimed forward, directly toward Edric's truck. It was the slowest of the vehicles, loaded down with the weight of the supplies of perma-preserved food. A better target if they wanted to at least take someone out.
Cicero turned the wheel sharply. The man's arms became pinned between the car he was hanging out of and the Glider. He managed to hold on to the gun and tried to use it to wedge himself out of the situation he was in.
Wind roared loudly throughout the Glider. It took a moment for Alex to realize Rollo had rolled the window down.
The man freed his left arm and swung into the Glider. Rollo dodged the swing easily and landed a direct hit across the man's cheek. Bone snapped loud enough for Alex to hear from the passenger seat. He wouldn't be eating solid food anytime soon.
Slumping forward out of the window, the man let go of the gun. It rattled onto the asphalt and turned into a distant shape behind them.
Rollo reached behind her and held out her hand. Ace handed a pistol to her as if he had been reading Rollo's thoughts. She aimed for the driver's window and fired a single shot. Whoever had been driving the car slammed on the breaks and veered away from the Glider. The man, who had been half out of the window, went flying completely from the vehicle.
Sitting back into the Glider, Rollo rolled the window up. Silence once again returned to the car. She handed the pistol back to Ace and pushed her hair from her eyes. The once neatly done bun on her head had become frayed from the wind.
"What is that?" Cicero's voice trailed off as he leaned forward, peering off to the left.
Alex followed his gaze, just as baffled.
Tall, cylindrical shapes were shooting out of the ground. They had found themselves in a section of the road descending toward a tunnel. The shapes emerging from the ground would trap them in the tunnel—if they could make it to the other side.
Ace pounded his hand on the door beside him. "Go, go, go!"
The Glider lurched forward, knocking the bumper of Edric's truck in front of them. The action helped push both of them beyond the barrier as the last few raised from the asphalt.
Looking in the rearview mirror, Alex saw two cars slam into the barrier. She could hear the metal against metal; a nail on a chalkboard in her already sensitive ears. The other cars behind them pulled to a stop. A few figures stepped from the vehicles, but the space between the barriers was too narrow for anyone but a small child to fit through.
Cars and people faded into nothingness behind them as the Glider passed into the tunnel. Headlights turned on, the only light to guide their way into the unknown.
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net