The Principles of a Grand Hunt // Part 1 - A Cars Story

Chapter 11 - The Grand Hunt Begins

Present Day

Dash slowly opened his eyes and felt the fresh air touch his body. He was out and sat still in the middle of the hospital's ER terminal outside. But instead of a grand escape, everything froze. In his grand confusion, he turned back around to face the doorway. There were no more guards after him. No arresting officers... nothing. To his surprise, all the guards and doctors sat still in their spots.

"What the hell..." Dash said quietly to himself.

"I guess it wasn't about making amends after all." a familiar voice said from behind.

He slowly turned around, his eyes widening as he saw Demetria standing just outside.

"D-deme?" he murmured.

"Hold still. This won't hurt a bit." Demetria asked, rolling up to him and giving him a sleeping agent.

"Deme?! Why... wha-" Dash stuttered, his speech gradually slurring as the agent made its way through him. Just like that, he was out in an instant.

-----

"GAH!" Dash awoke, shocking Demetria.

"By the Manufacturer!" Demetria gasped, panting heavily.

"What the hell just happened? Where am I?" Dash panicked, looking around him.

They sat on the side of a lonely highway, desert surrounding all sides. Dash looked beside him and noticed a 'Route 66' sign.

"Calm down. I gave you a sedative and took you down the road." Demetria said, calming herself and Dash concurrently.

"Why? What's going on? Where's Finn?" Dash asked in a panic.

"He... left to go back to Florida. He's organizing plans for us to leave for France." Demetria said.

"Okay. But... what about the hospital? Why'd you just sedate me?" Dash said.

"Dash, the hospital... it was a test," Demetria said.

"A test? ... What's going on?" Dash repeated.

"This... all of this... was a test as part of our 'Lil soul-searching campaign. To have faith in each other to do the right thing." Demetria said.

"I'm still not grasping at what's going on." Dash quipped, shaking his hood.

"Whew... alright. So when you left for your sentence, it wasn't long before I started scheming a way to fix things. I wanted to show you why giving yourself in wasn't the right thing to do. To my surprise, the folks at the county jail and hospital were glad to be in on it too." Demetria admitted.

"W-what? So my quest for amends was it all for nothing?" Dash asked.

"Seeing that you escaped the hospital again... that may be the case," Demetria said, sighing.

"But, why the hospital? Why did you send me there?" Dash asked.

"You said you want to fix things, make amends, but you chose a safe space," Demetria said.

"Is this about the prison? Are you saying the prison was a safe space?" Dash retorted.

"No, it isn't, but because you're famous... well, cars treat you a little differently. Besides, you always complained to me that it 'wasn't harsh enough.'" Demetria said.

"So when you faced something traumatic like the hospital situation, you ran away. Do you know how hypocritical that makes you?" Demetria asked.

"But I handed myself into the prison! I wasn't running from my problems. Yet there I awoke, in a hospital, I have a bad history with, wondering why the hell I was in there for! Can you imagine what that'd be like?" Dash exclaimed.