Mike Zephyr: Split/Second

Chapter 6 - The Airstrip

      The first race for the intermediate level of racers finally came after some more weeks. The car's GPS navigation system traced the signal to a racetrack set within an airport upon the island, with planes flying in and out of the airspace, along with other sorts of aircrafts that flew about the area. It was pretty easy to find the starting line since I was used to the racing scene by now. Once I park my sports car at my race position, I look at the other racers' vehicles, quickly spotting a goth female grey wolf in the driver's seat of her own silver Porsche 911 Carrera S. She spots me gazing at her, and smiles with a friendly wave, as I wave back in response and move  my eyes of sky blue onto the racers ahead of me instead. I sigh and rest my head against the driver seat's headrest, shutting my eyes while I took a moment to calm myself down.

"Breathe... Just breathe, Mike. You're gonna get through this. Just breathe." I told myself in quiet whispers, opening my eyes again to watch as the flag-bearer catwalks past us all and heads to the start of the racing line, running one of her furred hands across my car before she stops at the line.

      She aims her pistol upward while we all rev our monstrous engines in turn, including myself. Using one of my hands to grip the gear shift stick while my left hand gripped the steering wheel of the orange Lamborghini Gallardo. Anxiously I waited for her to fire that gun and start the race for a short moment that felt more like an entire several minutes. When the gun did go off, we blast past the flag-bearer, covering the start line in dust and burnt rubber while we blast onto the racetrack with our engines screaming through the track. This time, the race was much more dangerous than the last, since it took only a little amount of time for shit to start blowing up into raging balls of flames. Parked semi trucks or gasoline carrier trucks on the sides of the road explode and tip over, small cars parked on the side would burn and roll across the track; and even a gas station that was to be used as a small shortcut through the race went up into flames, killing two unfortunate drivers who tried to cut through it to gain some positions. As we zoom past the blocked off airstrip, we drift past some more buildings which promptly burst before collapsing to the ground, the shockwave shaking my car for a brief moment while sending another unfortunate soul into the air, the crash killing them instantly before their car turned itself into a mess of glass and metal. We cut through the parking lot of the airport, which had more taxi cars roll across the track in flames, but I was able to get around them unscathed. It was then that I got a brief warning on my ear piece from my overwatch.

"Satellite dish coming down towards you, Mike."

      Looking upward, I caught a glimpse of a nearby satellite dish collapsing, the dish rolling across the track and forcing a racer in a pickup truck to be sliced in half from the weight, a brutal and awful way to die in this deathrace while I soar past.
"Jesus..." I said to myself. As we head past the starting line for the first lap, it took me an instant to realize something was wrong. Up in front of me, I watch as multiple flares soar up into the sky, and I notice that the pathway to the air terminal had been cut off, the road giving way and collapsing until it became a risky jump into a burning parking lot. Holding my breath, I let my sports car fall and land harshly into the underground parking garage, navigating through the tight tunnels while other racers struggled, one behind me triggering the traps on all of the parked cars in the side. Those cars burst into flames and shake the entire parking garage, forcing me to swerve to keep my control until I made it out of the garage, while others lost their balance and wreck. leaving me to continue racing on this death trap of a circuit. However, just as I head past that same gas station that killed two other racers earlier in the race, I felt the ground beneath me shake.

"Mike, watch your head! The control tower is coming down!"

Looking upward, my breath became short as I felt my heart seem to stop as I watch the event unfold. The control tower had been blown from bottom to top with explosives, and slowly tipped forward onto the track, emitting a terrifying groan from the bent steel and concrete.
"Hooollyy FUUUUUUCK!" I scream in horror. Swerving my car violently to the left side of the track, I had barely escaped as it came down with a devastating boom, sending my car forward from the shockwave. Luckily, my car's wheels made contact with the ground, and allowed me to jolt the vehicle back forward safe and sound. As for the others, they flew into the air before rolling across the now opened large airstrip in violent wrecks, while others were crushed by the destroyed control tower. My heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest from that slim escape from death, but I grip the wheel and continue driving, now headed through a warehouse. Using my phone, I force a nearby large forklift to lift a crate inside, speeding under it as a shortcut to blast right on through the warehouse instead of drifting around the crates in a U-turn to exit the warehouse. The second lap had been completed now, and the track had been cut smaller from all of the deathtraps. After heading back through that same burning underground garage, I head past the wrecked control tower again, and take notice of something... something BIG flying through the sky and approaching the air strip other racers and myself were racing across.

      It was then that I realized that it was a large passenger Boeing 747 plane that was headed straight for us all. Some of the engines on it were burning, their power emitting an almost deafening whoosh until it hit the pavement — crash landing into the air strip and heading right towards us in a murderous blaze.

"FUCK! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! OOHH FFUUUUUCCCKK!! NO, NO, NO!!"

I screamed out in terror and panic as I yank the steering wheel to the right after harsh spins, forcing my vehicle to swerve likewise, just barely missing an engine that just about grazed my vehicle if we had been any closer.

      The crash was atrocious, snatching away my ability to control my car as the shockwave left my car spinning in circles until I force it to straighten back in the right place, leaving me to gasp for a shred of air while panting heavily in shock and trauma. That plane must have killed hundreds of the other racers, I had no clue... I didn't get the chance to see anything else but that plane that crashed into the air strip. I didn't see any passengers in that plane, not even a pilot, so how on earth did it fly all the way over just to crash into us? Was it remotely controlled? I didn't know, nor did I really care.

      My heart felt like it was about to explode while I zoom past the finish line in first place once again, swerving to a stop as I felt like I was going to faint from all of the adrenaline and fear. Looking down at my hands that held the steering wheel, I watch them tremble and shake on their own, letting go of the wheel to stare down at my shaking paws. They just... Wouldn't stop shaking. I hadn't even noticed that someone was trying to get my attention until I heard the knocking against my Lamborghini's car window. Sliding the window down, I look over to the same grey goth wolf girl I had seen earlier at the start of the race.

"Hey! Hey, nice win there! Oh— Oh, jeez... You alright? You're shaking like a leaf." She said to me concern. I couldn't even say anything, no words were coming to my lips no matter how hard I tried to open them.

"Mike? Mike... Can you hear me?"

My world seemed to fade away with my vision until she clapped in front of my face.

"Mike! Hey! Look at me."

      I obey her, looking back over at her pretty face as she pulls me out of the car after unbuckling the seat belt for me, holding me up once she wrapped one of my arms around her shoulder so she could hold me up straight. My knees and legs shook too, being completely struck with shock after such a nasty event. I couldn't hear if the crowd was cheering, or just mumbling to each other. Whichever it was, I couldn't tell. She sat me in the passenger seat of her Porsche Carrera GT and buckled me in, sliding the windows up before the paparazzi could assault us with interviews and drove off after she locked my vehicle with the car keys. I tried my hardest to stay awake and calm down, but my heart and head refused to no matter my efforts. Suddenly my vision began to darken.

"Mike? Mike I need you to listen to me... mike...?"

Before I could even respond, I felt my breath slow before my eyes shut, fainting in her own car, completely shutting down like a computer's system reboot function. Whatever happened next was completely out of my grasp.