Maximus

“Are you ready?” he asked, reaching out to give her upper thigh what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze.

“No.”

He turned to look at her. “But you’re going to do it anyway, right?”

Haley inhaled deeply, then blew the air out quickly through her lips. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“I need to know yes or no Haley. This isn’t the time for half-assing things.”

She glared at him over his tone, but right then he didn’t care. His priority was getting the two of them out of the jam alive. After that he could apologize and deal with any pricked feelings. For now, he needed her best as well as her instant acceptance of his commands.

“Yes. I will do it.”

“Good. On my command.”

She nodded, one hand on the wheel, one hand on a black handle sticking out from behind the wheel. Maximus eyed the roads as they went by, waiting until he found the one he wanted.

“Okay, ready…ready…” Side roads flicked by in sequential order. “Now!” he shouted as Side Road 11 flashed by on the right.

Haley killed the lights, plunging the car and the road ahead of them into darkness.

“Okay, brakes now,” he said. There was no escaping the lights on the rear of the car from lighting up, but that shouldn’t matter.

“Hard left!” he shouted as the turn came upon them.

Haley wheeled the car around to the left. Maximus smiled, until he realized she had gone too far. “Straighten out!” he shouted, his night vision easily piercing the dark ahead of them.

They were going to have to form a team here. He could see where they had to go, but he couldn’t drive. Haley was driving, but she couldn’t see much past the front of the car, if that. So he would give directions, and she would steer. He could understand why she was nervous, especially as the car slid around the corner.

“Did you hit the brakes at any point while turning?” he asked.

“No,” she said as she straightened out, heading mostly down the road as he called out small corrections. “I don’t think so. I hope not. I tried hard not to, but I was too focused on not crashing.”

He nodded. The dust cloud from their abrupt braking would give them away anyway, but it had been harsh enough he hoped the other car would go by the turn and have to reverse.

“Curve coming up to the right,” he said. “Not overly sharp. Little more. Good. Little more.” He continued to tell her any necessary course corrections, his eyes occasionally flicking behind them. He thought he’d seen something…

“Umm, Maximus.”

He returned his attention to in front of them. Ahead, the road was bathed in the soft glow of the stoplight at an intersection, as well as four streetlamps overhead, one on all sides of the stop.

“Run it,” he commanded. “There’s no cars coming from the other direction.

“Okay…” she said, relaxing slightly as they entered the radius of light around the solitary intersection.

“Go faster,” he urged.

“I’m not comfort—”

“Do it!” he snapped, pressing down on her foot.

The engine revved and the car shot ahead. Maximus glanced behind them, to see if he could see any sign of their pursuers. But it was just darkness, nothing in sight.

Wait. There!

“FLOOR IT!” he shouted as the other car came flying out of the darkness aimed directly at them. “They’re going to ram us!” he hollered a split second before the shifter-driven vehicle plowed into their rear end.

Haley screamed and the vehicle lost control, beginning a wild slide out of control across the road. Her feet stomped on the brakes and the car began to shudder.

“Take your feet off!” he shouted. She did, and the shaking stopped, though they were still sliding around and around, somehow staying on the road. Mostly. As their speed dissipated they slid off the road, onto the shoulder, through the gravel, and down the embankment a little.

Behind them the other car approached, its lights flaring to life, illuminating their car in its glow. He braced himself for the collision, but the car only came to a stop. Maximus wondered why they weren’t trying to block their progress. Then he craned his head around, looking left and right, until he realized that Haley’s car was facing backward, and that the enemy were in his way.

“Are you okay?” he asked, reaching out to touch Haley, to reassure her that everything was okay.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Shaken, rattled, and mixed like a smoothie, but still in one piece,” she said.

He smiled. She was going to be just fine.

“We’re not out of this yet,” he said, jerking his head at the car in their rear.

“We have to go that way?” she asked.

Maximus thought she looked beautiful, illuminated by the glow from the headlights, long brown hairs falling out of her bun to frame her face. There was a glow in her cheekbones, following the high-swept curves of them back away from him. Her lips were utterly kissable in the moment.

“We have to get past them,” he confirmed, his eyes never tearing away from her.

“How?”

“Go one way, at the last second go the other and hope they’re committed.”

“That’s it?” she asked in disbelief.

He nodded.

“Cool. That’ll be fun.” In her anger she slammed the car back into gear, gunning it up the embankment and skidding the car around in a hard turn.

“Wait,” he said as she prepared to accelerate.

The Institute vehicle, a thick-bodied black sedan, was actually angled across the road.

“Okay, try to make it look like you’re going to go behind them. They’ll hopefully gun it in reverse to block you off. As soon as they start going backward, spin the wheel and go around their front side.”

“Got it,” Haley said, her voice tight but still controlled.

He wanted to say more. To encourage her, to give her further direction, to tell her when to change her angle, all of that and more flowed to his tongue, but he held it still. This wasn’t the time, nor the place. Haley was smart, and capable. This may not be something she was trained for, but she had held her own just fine. Maximus needed to trust her, like the ways she’d been blindly trusting him since he showed up at her studio.

So he sat back and tried to appear calm.

Haley moved her foot to the gas and the car shot forward abruptly. Maximus had been so focused on trying to remain cool and collected that the sudden acceleration caught him off guard. He yelped and slammed his hands out in front of him to brace himself.

“Pipe down,” she commanded, her hands on the wheel, leaning forward intently as she aimed for the slim patch of grass behind the Institute vehicle. They got closer, and closer, but still the car didn’t move. He could tell that she was getting nervous, but he had to let her drive. Shouting instructions would result in them making a mistake. He knew Haley would have to judge when to turn, or when to just go for it.

He saw her look over at him, and knew her confidence was wavering. So he just relaxed and smiled. “Stick to the plan,” was all he said.

Haley didn’t reply, she just set her shoulders and pushed the pedal down further. He watched as she raced toward the rear end of the blocking car. Still no movement. He grew nervous as the distance closed. Nothing.

Nothing.

There!

“Now!” he yelled.

“I KNOW!” she cried out, her hands already in motion before he’d begun speaking, spinning the wheel hard to the left.

It wasn’t enough he saw the nose of Haley’s car swing around. His heart thudded in his chest as he watched the two hunks of motorized metal move. The Institute shifters slammed on the brakes and tried to reverse course, but it was too late. Haley had built up too much speed by that point, and they zipped around the enemy and down the road, disappearing into the dark.

Maximus breathed a sigh of relief and sat back into his seat, closing his eyes. They’d made it. Now they could—

“HEY, WAKE UP! I CAN’T SEE OVER HERE!”

He sat bolt upright, reaching over and pulling the wheel back toward him. The car skidded along the shoulder and then came back onto the highway.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?” Haley hollered at him.

“I’m sorry!” he said, trying to keep his own voice down. “Left a little. You’re drifting to the right.”

She corrected the course and the car zipped along the road, straddling the two lanes. Maximus was vaguely aware he was supposed to pick one or the other, but in the dark, they would see an oncoming car from ages away. Behind them light bounced crazily as the shifters came around and took up the chase.

“Take your foot off the gas,” he instructed. “We want to slow without them knowing.”

“Okay.” She glanced over at him. “For someone who says they can’t drive, you know a lot about how vehicles work.”

“I pay attention to things,” he said. “I want to learn to drive someday. Just haven’t had the time, you know?”

She nodded.

“Okay, take this left turn,” he instructed.

“What left turn? I can’t see shit,” she reminded him.

“Turn left. Now. Harder!” he said, guiding her through the turn and onto another side road.

“Okay, faster now. Let’s hope they didn’t see us.”

Haley gunned it and they picked up speed once more. He split his time between keeping her going straight and glancing in his rear view. The lights flew by their road, but to his dismay, before he could breathe a sigh of relief, they came to a halt, reversed, and turned down the same road.

“Darn, it didn’t work,” he muttered, reaching out and turning the wheel to the right a little.

“So, what do we do now?” Haley asked, sounding nervous.

“We keep going.”

“Are we close?”

“Brakes,” he instructed. “Right turn. Here we go, little less. Okay, straighten it out.”

Haley went to gun it, but the car began to bounce violently.

“Are we on a road?” she asked, slowing the vehicle even more.

“N-no,” he replied, his voice vibrating as they rumbled along.

“What are we on?”

“A driveway. Brakes again please,” he said, taking the wheel once more, guiding them to a stop exactly where he wanted.

“Okay, out out out. Let’s go!”

Behind them the lights followed once more. He’d been expecting that this time. They were on a gravel roadway, unable to disguise their passage due to the dust the tires stirred up.

“What?”

“I said get out of the car!” he ordered. There was no time to waste. Behind them the lights grew brighter, reflecting off the car and its surroundings.

The Institute was coming.