Worlds Collide: A Cars Fan Fiction

What to Do

"Elsie?" Zhara had waited as long as she could, but eventually she got worried. She excused herself from the fire and went off in the direction that McQueen and Elsie had gone. 

"Lightning McQueen?" Still nothing. She followed McQueen's tire tracks through the desert. She was beginning to wonder how far they'd gone when she tripped on something and fell forward. 

She groaned, mostly from irritation, as she got up. What was that? She looked along the ground, and froze.

She'd tripped on a bag. A tote bag full of books. It was too dark to see the purple stars, but she didn't need to. Her heart rate tripled; Elsie never went anywhere without her bag. 

"Elsie! McQueen!" She shouted their names two more times, with growing panic in her voice. No answer. She couldn't deny it; something terrible had happened. But what could have--

The scientists. She felt like smacking herself. After what had happened at the lab a few hours ago, they'd obviously be out looking for them. And Radiator Springs would be the first place they'd look. Why hadn't she realized sooner?

She picked up the tote and hugged it. "No."

She took off running back to town, screaming for Nikki.

---

Nikki tried to stay calm. They needed to focus on a way to save Elsie and Lightning. She stared into the remains of the campfire, as if hoping that the answer to their problems would crawl out of the ashes.

Mater and Hector were not helping matters. "They got McQueen! What're we gonna do?" Mater kept driving around in a circle, panicking, while Hector was running after him, repeating a similar mantra. Zhara and Abbey were trying to comfort one another, but they were equally anxious. A majority of the cars in town were arguing over what to do. Red was sobbing over by his flowers. 

The only ones keeping cool heads were Nikki, Zane, Sally, Doc, and Sheriff. Doc was trying to act calm, but his worry was obvious. Sheriff was silent, possibly trying to decide the best course of action. Sally was worried about her boyfriend, obviously, but she was stable enough to try and help. The two humans and three cars had gathered around the remains of the fire to attempt to form a plan.

"What I'd like to do," Nikki began, watching the smoke rising from the fire's embers, "is go back and try to break them out. After all, it worked before. But, they'll probably be expecting us to do something like that."

"They probably added extra security, too," Sheriff added. "We managed to sneak past Moteur's defenses once, and it cost him Abbey, not to mention the secrets of his special machine."

"And we now know that he's the one behind all of this," Doc stated. "Nikki, you said McQueen knew who the head of the project was, right?"

"Yes. It really surprised him. Moteur, I mean."

"He probably thought that, even if something bad happened, he was safe from any legal trouble or bad publicity as long as no one outside of the project knew that he was heading it. Lightning revealing his identity might be the reason why he was carnapped along with Elsie."

"That makes sense," Sally agreed. "But how are we going to get them out?"

"Nikki?" Zane asked his friend. She'd gotten a look on her face, as though she had an idea.

"I thought of something. It's a little crazy, but it just might work."

"You've said that about all of your best ideas, so let's hear it!" He leaned forward with his hands on his chin, staring at her eagerly.

She laughed and playfully shoved him. He could be such a goofball. Still, she felt better about describing her plan.

"Okay," she began. "What if we all went? I mean all of us humans, and every one--or at least most--of the cars in town?"

"How would that work?" Sheriff asked.

"Safety in numbers." Sally was catching on. "With so many of us there--"

"Especially if we split up to cover more ground--" Doc interrupted, beginning to understand.

"They won't be able to catch all of us." Sheriff realized.

"Gotta catch 'em all," Zane hummed while grinning. Nikki gave him a look (this was hardly the time for jokes), but was smiling all the same.

"If everyone's willing," Sheriff said slowly, as if thinking, "then it might work. But what will we do once we've freed them? They know that you're staying here, and unless we keep you all locked up at all times, then they'll just catch you again."

"That," Zane agreed, "is definitely not an option. I only have so much food in my backpack. Unless we're willing to risk drinking Fillmore's organic fuel, we've got enough food for about a day."

"Great," Nikki answered sarcastically. "No pressure, then."

Everyone was silent, thinking over their tough situation, until Sally spoke. "What if you used the device? Once we've freed Stickers and Elsie, you can go home and we'll destroy the machine."

"That could work," Nikki responded hesitantly. She'd studied the stolen blueprints thoroughly, and was certain that she could reactivate it to send them home. But they'd still be taking a serious risk; they didn't know where in the building they were keeping Elsie and McQueen, or even if they were being kept with one another. On top of that, they'd need to get back into the device room (which was likely to be heavily guarded).

But she knew in her gut that this might be their best chance. As big a risk as it might be, she owed it to her friends to do what she could to get them all home. And, after all he'd done for a bunch of strangers, she owed it to McQueen to try and rescue him.

Zane and the three cars were still waiting for her answer. She took a deep breath. She absentmindedly took Zane's hand. 

"If everyone agrees," she began, "then I think that Sally's plan is our best option."

"Alright," Sheriff agreed. "I'll start looking for volunteers."

"In the meantime," Sally said, "we should probably try to calm down Mater and Hector."

In the time that they'd been talking, Mater, Hector, and Red had come together in a large sobbing mess. It was not a pretty sight.

Hang on Elsie. You too, McQueen, Nikki thought as she ran over to try and calm the crying trio. We're coming for you.