Chapter-02 Part 2: Midnight Pursuit

Date: April 14, 2046
Time:22:26:09
Location: Lith Harbor

~Mariah~

The dead of night, the apex of darkness. Shadows crept across the white bricked walls like ghouls and specters, ghosts from the abyss. The temperature plummeted far below normal as another gust of freezing wind surged through the buildings. Yet yellow florescent lights lit the street up with artificial warmth, giving the illusion that there was still hope in the city. While Mother Nature brooded in blackness, the world of men surrounded itself with illusions of grandeur and trivial accomplishments.

A low drone resounded from the end of the street, growing louder and louder. A pair of bright white lights suddenly flooded the avenue, the monotonous drone exploding into a feral roar as the black Porsche 911 Turbo screamed through the narrow corridors of the city.

“Could you slow down please?” Matthew whimpered, his body shifted so low in the passenger seat that his head was barely above the dashboard.

“Do you want to die?” Mariah shot back without taking her eyes off of the road ahead. They whizzed through the night traffic with ease, the other cars becoming multicolored blurs across the windows.

“If I say no, would you speed up or slow down?” Matthew panicked as he slid lower in the leather seat.

Mariah grinned to herself and slammed on the accelerator, her sapphire eyes watching the blood red odometer needle fly by a hundred and thirty miles per hour. Only thirty miles per hour above the speed limit…

Suddenly, another engine joined the Porsche’s roar. Mariah eyed the rearview mirror and saw a black sedan tailgating her. Four dark figures resided behind the tinted windshield. As the first one leaned out, she saw that they were all wielding Uzi submachine guns.

They opened fire, the bullets searing through the night and ricocheting off of the bulletproof carbon fiber frame of the sleek black Porsche. Cursing to herself, Mariah swerved the car around the corner, down another, emptier street. The less civilian casualties the better, though sometimes Mariah accidentally slips…

Behind the pursuit car, two more black sedans appeared, closing in on her tail. As the Porsche screamed down the side streets of Lith Harbor, Mariah reached over to the glove compartment and pulled the lever down. To her surprise, a small armory complete with a Desert Phoenix and spare magazines appeared in a small grey trey that slid out with a mechanical whir. “Thank you, Renault…” She smiled as her right hand closed around the handle of her weapon, her left hand still kept firmly wrapped around the steering wheel.

“Take the accelerator, and don’t, DON’T, let go,” Mariah ordered as she tugged Matthew towards her. He nodded fervently and slammed his foot down just as she let go. Just as Matthew was about to take the wheel, Mariah knocked his hand away, “Do NOT touch the wheel.” And with that, she leaned out of the car, sitting on top of the bottom of the window frame, her legs locked around the steering wheel.

Mariah steadied her aim with both hands as the Porsche continued to hurdle down the streets at over a hundred forty miles per hour. She could hear bullets whiz by, barely glancing off of her blonde hair that whipped furiously about her face. Then, she zeroed in on the driver and pulled the trigger.

Her bullet penetrated straight through the mobsters’ windshield and through the driver’s skull, splattering the inside of the car with a burst of blood. The sedan swerved unexpectedly to the left, smashing into another parked car. As if defying gravity, the chassis jackknifed into the air, sending shattered glass, broken plastic, twisted metal, and four bodies careening through the air in all directions. The man in the passenger seat landed first on the parked car and a fraction of a second later, his vehicle slammed down on top of him. The blare of a dying alarm system met Mariah’s ears as they sped away, a wicked grin spreading across her face.

Matthew let loose a stream of curses as the other two cars raced in to take their fallen comrades’ spot. Mariah kicked him against the ribs just as another burst of bullets screamed past the Porsche.

Suddenly, a bright life engulfed Mariah from behind. Whipping around towards the front of the car, her sapphire eyes met the agonizingly bright headlights of a cement truck barreling down the opposite side of the narrow street.

Just as Matthew started to scream profanities again, Mariah pivoted her feet to the right and looked back just as the gigantic truck rolled past her, the wake messily ruffling her hair. Hastily aiming another shot, she unloaded one more bullet into the left tire of the closest pursuing vehicle. As the tire exploded into shards of black, burnt rubber, the sedan swiveled uncontrollably and with a horrendous crunch, met the cement truck head on. Mariah saw one of the mobsters fly out of the right side of the car, hit the cement truck’s windshield with his upper body, and slam to the ground, leaving a smear of dark crimson blood oozing on the floor.

“One more…” Mariah muttered to herself as she kicked Matthew to shut up once again. She leaned back in and kicked his foot off of the gas petal. “Hold this,” she shoved the Desert Phoenix into Matthew’s shaking hands.

“What… how… the…what… the… F***!” he swore loudly, shaking his head as if hoping to wake up from a nightmare.

“Hold on to your balls, Matt,” Mariah grinned wryly and drifted around the corner, “We’re taking a short cut.”

The Porsche caught some air off of a bump in the street and landed right in front of a construction zone. The last car predictably followed, sparks flying from the underbelly of the car as it hit the ground. Mariah grabbed the Desert Phoenix from Matthew and held it out in front of her, directly at a crane holding a bundle of steel beams.

“Oh no,” Matthew groaned in shock as he realized what she was about to do, “No, no way…”

Mariah squeezed the trigger. The bullet soared through the darkness with a shrill whistle, and sliced clean through the steel cable. Right as the Porsche sped past underneath, the steel beams gathered speed, no longer restrained, racing towards the ground.

In a earsplitting crash of twisted metal, the bundle had hit its mark. The front windshield of the sedan burst forwards as the first steel beams pierced right through the cab like a hot knife in butter. The car was instantly stopped, going from one thirty to zero in less than a second. Mariah glanced in the rearview mirror just as the hundreds of metric tons of steel smashed the mobsters’ car flat into the ground. She jerked the steering wheel to the right and drifted to a halt at the end of the construction zone.

Something bumped up against the door of the Porsche. Mariah leaned her head out the window and saw a lone tire falling to the floor. Looking back up, the car suddenly exploded in a fiery burst of red and orange, lighting up the night as if it were day. Mariah ignored Matthew’s screams as she looked deep into the ball of fire twisting and turning towards the stars. Hell of a way to go…

Whipping her head around, Mariah’s sapphire eyes met Matthew’s, “Fun sh** eh?”

Matthew nodded feverishly, his forehead drenched in sweat, “Yea, fun, in a f***ing sick, not-so-fun-at-all kind of way…”

Mariah grinned slyly and slammed the car into drive, speeding down the streets once more towards headquarters. She sighed deeply, letting the raging wind lash her blonde hair around. The fun was over so soon…

“So…” Matthew’s voice piped up uncertainly. Mariah could tell he was easing up now. Bad move. “Where are we going?”

“Headquarters,” Mariah snapped, not looking at him.

“Headquarters,” Matthew nodded as if it meant something, “Cool… what’s going to happen to me?”

“I don’t know.” Quick and simple. The Porsche drifted around another intersection and roared down a different set of streets towards downtown Lith Harbor. Somewhere out there, the bell tower gonged deeply.

“Oh, I just thought… you know… you might know something since…”

Gong…

“Look,” Mariah interjected, “I know exactly who you are and I don’t give a damn.”

Gong…
“You know nothing about me, and here you are wanting to know EVERYTHING.

Gong…

“Seem a bit odd to you, Matthew?”

Gong…

“Sorry,” he replied, looking down, “And please call me Matt.”

Gong…

“Matt,” Mariah repeated to herself as she slowed down, entering the garage’s street.

Gong…

“Matt do me a favor,” Mariah said as the garage came into view.

Gong…

“If you make it out of this alive…”

Gong…

“Forget about me. Everything. I never existed.”

Gong…

“You never met me, I never met you…”

Gong…

“That is…” Mariah pulled up against the curb of the front drive, and turned to look at Matt. Smiling she finished, “That is, if you live.”

Gong…

“I’ll keep that in mind…” Matt rolled his eyes and reached for the door handle.

Gong…

The clock struck midnight, and a tremendous blast consumed the garage. Flames roiled out in all directions, engulfing everything in the vicinity. Swearing loudly, Mariah stomped on the gas pedal and the Porsche screamed out of the flames, leaving behind a pair of charcoal black skid marks. Another fireball thrashed towards the moon, roaring in triumph as the remnants of the bomb floated away without a trace into the night sky.