Worlds Collide: A Cars Fan Fiction

Here and Gone

"Don't worry, Elsie," McQueen told her. "I'll get us out of here."

Good luck, she thought, eyeing the bars of the cells. After being "escorted" back to the compound by the security guards, the two had been put in holding cells in a room that more or less resembled a jail. 

Rather than being scared, Elsie found herself annoyed; the cells had been designed to hold cars, not humans, so the bars were fairly distanced from one another. But, when she'd tried to slip between them and escape, she'd found that they were still too close together for her to get through. 

McQueen backed up, revved his engine, and looked like he was about to ram the bars. Elsie, having noticed that the bars were reinforced into the door, signed at him to stop. Thankfully, he noticed and parked. 

"Does that mean 'stop'?"

She nodded, and pounded on the bars. McQueen looked confused, and sighed. 

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand."

The bars are reinforced, you'll just hurt yourself if you try to hit them, she wanted to say. But Lightning didn't know ASL, and her notebook had been in her tote (which she'd stupidly dropped in the desert). Charades it is, she decided.

She pointed at the bars, while looking McQueen in the eyes.

"The bars?" McQueen guessed. Elsie nodded, and held up two fingers.

"There are...two bars? No, wait, the bars are too...something?"

She nodded again, then gritted her teeth, looked angry, and flexed her arm muscles. 

"The bars are too mad? No, they're too...strong!" She nodded, smiling. 

"I get it! If I'd tried to do that, I would've hurt myself." He stomped his tire, frustrated. Elsie completely understood. After all, she was supposed to be the smart one in her group, and she couldn't even find a way out of a simple--

Her eyes rested on the button on the floor outside of her cell. She remembered seeing the forklift (who seemed to be the second-in-command) stepping on it with his tire to open and close the cell door. She got on her belly and reached through the bars. While she could get her entire arm through, it was just out of reach. She slapped the floor in frustration.

McQueen, who'd been watching, encouraged her. "Come on, keep trying! I wish you had a stick, or a wrench...or something!"

Elsie started to get up and glanced at her foot. A grin spread across her face. I have a shoe.

She quickly untied her electric purple high top and got on her belly once more. Using her shoe to extend her reach, she slammed it down with all her might.

Nothing happened. That should have worked, she thought. Why didn't it-- She then noticed that, in her eagerness, she'd slammed her shoe down two inches to the right of the button. 

She grinned at her own mistake, and tried again, aiming carefully. This time, the toe of the shoe hit the button with a satisfying click. The door to the cell (which, like most doors in that world, functioned like a garage door) lifted up.

"You did it!" McQueen cheered. Elsie quickly put her shoe back on, and ran over to set McQueen free. Only, the second she got to his cell, a siren (much like the one she'd heard not six hours before) began going off.

They must have heard the cell door opening, she realized. How could I be so stupid?

"Elsie, you need to go!" McQueen ordered. "Escape while you still can! I'll be fine! Go!"

She was conflicted. She couldn't leave him behind! Her fear won out, however, and she decided to do what McQueen had said. She looked around the room, and her eyes rested on an air vent. 

She knew that movies were often misleading about air vents as escape routes (they weren't designed to support human weight, often they were too small for the average person to climb through, and the air conditioning or heating could make them unbearably hot or cold), but she didn't have many options. She ran to the cover, kicked at it with all of her strength until it came off, and slipped into the vent. She pulled the cover back on just as the door to the room of holding cells opened.

--- 

McQueen put on his best poker face as the forklift (had someone called him Stevens?) and two security cars pulled up to his cell. They immediately noticed that Elsie was missing, and wore matching expressions of rage. 

"Where's the human?" The forklift yelled. He wasn't much bigger than Guido, but he had a surprisingly shrill scream.

"What's a human?" McQueen asked, trying to look confused and nonchalant. "I've been alone in here."

"Don't play dumb, race car! Where. Is. The human!"

"I've got no idea what you're saying."

"You're lying!" The forklift slammed the reinforced steel bars with his left fork...and quickly realized what a bad idea that was. He yowled in pain and spun in a circle. McQueen, and even the two security cars, had to fight back laughter. 

Still, McQueen knew that he had to buy Elsie time, and decided to try a little reverse psychology. He glanced around, and saw, through the open door, a bathroom across the hallway.

"I'm not lying," he lied, "but if I were you, I wouldn't waste any time looking in the sewer pipes."

"The human's in the sewers! Quick, we'll try and head it off before it gets out. You two, round up as many guards as you can and get to the septic tank!"

Neither of the guards looked enthusiastic about this plan. "Boss, really?"

"Do what I say!" The forklift was shaking with fury. The two apparently decided that it was best not to argue, and left the room. McQueen was left alone with Stevens. He tried to look upset (which, given everything he and his friends had been through in the last few days, wasn't hard). 

"Hey, I told you not to look in there! Why--"

"You might be lying, race car," Stevens interrupted, eyes narrow with rage, "and maybe you aren't. But I need every lead I can get right now. If you lied, and are trying to protect that freak from me, then I'm going to come back. And I'm going to get answers, if I have to rip you apart to find them."

McQueen's poker face wavered as he realized how much danger he was in. Stevens stared at him for a minute before leaving the room. The race car took a breath and tried to stay calm. He hoped Elsie could escape and find help. Because he didn't have much time.