Triple Digits

Claire Miles

Claire positioned herself in the leather seat of the La-Luna, her face covered by a mask, her hand trembling as it gripped the wheel. The killer had left her with a final warning as she lined up- Do not leave the zone set up for the race, or the engine would explode. He'd locked the car doors, preventing her from getting out, and even she knew the La-Luna had reinforced windows, so she couldn't just kick a window out. She couldn't roll them down and crawl out. He had taken out the motor that allowed them to move. She'd tried already. The La-Luna had a sun roof, but it was locked, and made from the same reinforced glass.
They were racing the same track that Quickshift had died on, in 'honour' of the racer. Claire considered it a vicious mockery of his death. Which was exactly what the killer, who had proposed the race, wanted.
The spot where he had crashed was full of flowers and tributes to the young man. Even people who did not watch the races, but knew Jaivon personally, had laid offerings to his soul. The candles reflected off the water, the waves making the flames dance excitedly until they looked less like flames, and more like underwater, glowing sprites.
She wondered if they would make a tribute for her, too. She was going to die tonight, somewhere along this track. Would they know her death was a murder, or consider it an accident, as so many in Mid-City considered Jaivon's to be?
To her left, Velocity was adjusting her radio, blasting a song, her face utterly calm. She ignored Claire's attempts to catch her attention. She wanted to try and warn the woman!
On her right, Casanova was blowing her kisses. Even he ignored the way she slammed her hand on the window, or tried to write 'Help me' on the glass using her breath and the tip of her finger. None of them, not the other racers, not the crowd of people watching, or even the announcer themselves, knew the race would be fatal once again.
Bullet was behind them, along with a car she did not recognise- someone taking Quickshift's spot in the top five? One of the lesser racers, hoping to make a name for themselves? It was too dark in their car to see who they were or what they looked like, but they drove an X-Class Flux. It wasn't too bad a choice, although it didn't stand much chance against the other Top Three and their cars. If she wanted to know who the new racer was, she would need to listen to the introductions the announcer would be making soon.
Claire wasn't sure if she wanted to simply spin the wheel, and send herself crashing into the bay the second the race started, or let the killer take control of the car, or blow it up, or whatever other horror he'd planned for her.
Sinking into her seat, she hugged herself tightly, trying to breath. The seatbelt felt suffocating around her, but she didn't want to unclip it. If the killer tried to spin her wheel, lock her brakes, and send her flying through the windshield, she was going to do her damned best to stop him.
Not that it had helped Jaivon. He always wore a seatbelt, and he'd still died.
Looking around the crowd, Claire hoped Strickland was amongst them, and had a plan to get her out.
She couldn't see any police present, but maybe they were in disguise? Corey had worn a jacket to hide his uniform the night he'd attended to try and find Triple Digits.
The killer had at least given her a bottle of water in the car, and the time to use the bathroom earlier. Sipping from the bottle, she glanced around again, spotting a familiar face in the crowd. Corey! She nearly spat her water out in joy, screwing the cap back on.
He was scanning the five cars, searching for her.
Slamming her palm into the window to catch his attention, feeling the glass rattle with the force, she screamed his name.
Velocity looked over to her in shock, wondering why she was making such a distressing sound, turning to follow where she was looking, and Corey locked eyes with Claire. He took a single step forward to come after her, and then her car shot forward, the engine screaming.
It rolled only half a metre before sliding back into position, a warning from the killer to behave herself, but it was enough to send her into a blind panic, trying desperately to unlock the door and get out, screaming for the people on either side to help her. When she reached down to unclick her seatbelt, she found it frozen in place. She was stuck!
No, no, no! Please, no! She didn't want to die!
"Corey!" She slammed her palm onto the window again, "COREY!"
The lights on the inside of the car went out, preventing anyone from seeing her, and the intercom in her ear, put there by the killer, crackled, his voice emanating from it.
"Calm yourself, Triple Digits. I won't hesitate to kill you right here, right now."
Outside, the announcer was introducing the drivers individually, using his usual humour.
When he got to Triple Digit, the spotlight lighting up the car, she pressed her palm to the window again, over her view of Corey's face- a goodbye. Leaning forward, she rested her forehead against her fingers, trying to breathe.
"Stay calm. Remember, you are racing for your friends lives. Win the race, and they live."
He hadn't told her that earlier! He'd only told her she had to race, not that she had to win!
The race was starting in less than a minute. She had less than a minute to live.
The spotlight landed on the final car, and a small part of Claire was curious. Who was the new racer? She twisted in her seat, peering out the back window at the car. The other racers were doing the same.
"And joining us for the first time ever in the Top Five is Eclipse!" Claire thought back to the pin they'd found, depicting an eclipse, and her heart sunk into her toes. The killer was here. Racing.
Corey looked to the car angrily, but before he could make another attempt to save Claire, or stop the killer, the girl standing in the middle of the cars spun her flags.
Settling into the same zone she fell into every time she raced, Claire adjusted her foot over the accelerator, and gripped the gearstick, studying its layout with an exhale. She wasn't as knowledgeable in the La-Luna, but she'd driven one before, once.
If she was racing for Maddy and Helix's lives, she would win. For them.
Even if it killed her.
Once again, what other choice did she have? All of this was out of her control, but racing, winning, was something she could do.
Corey must have spotted the look of determination on her face, because she looked to him one final time, and he shook his head subtly, saying something she couldn't understand.
He wanted her to lose? Why?
Then, the girl brought her flags crashing down, and Claire 'Triple Digits' Miles, slammed her foot down on the accelerator, and the race began.
It took her a couple seconds to get ahead of Velocity, but by the time they reached the first turn, going over the bridge that connected both sides of the Dock, she was ahead of her by five or six metres, and the world narrowed down to the race and the digital hand ticking upwards on her speedometer. In the intercom, she could hear the killer mouthing things to himself, shifts to make, when to turn. She ripped it out and tossed it onto the passenger seat with the water bottle, trying to concentrate, the feeling of the wheels bouncing over the ancient wooden bridge making her teeth rattle. She twisted the wheel, locking her car into a drift, and turned the next corner, leaving Velocity and the others even further behind.
Here was the stretch of road that, up ahead, Quickshift had died on.
The killer hadn't done anything detrimental to her yet, but every muscle in her body tensed, wondering when the wheel would turn against her will, or the engine would explode, sending her into a ball of flames.
She could hear the roar of the crowd as they cheered for her or their favoured racer, could see the flashing of photographs or videos being taken. At least her death would be documented. She wouldn't be forgotten for centuries, being Mid-City's best racer.
Velocity was gaining on her again, her lights visible in Claire's rearview once again.
Focusing on those two things rather than her imminent death, she began cursing, throwing the car into the next gear.
Two metres away, and closing in fast, Velocity was smirking. She knew the La-Luna was no match for her Delta.
Was she wondering why Triple Digits had chosen such an amateur car?
The Delta clipped the back-right corner of Claire's bumper, nearly sending her off the track entirely, but she caught it at the last second before cursing herself. She should have let herself crash, rather than give the killer the satisfaction!
Knocked off course only for a couple seconds, it was the advantage Velocity needed, and she flew by Claire. Along with her, any hopes of Maddy and Helix living followed.
"Fuck it!" She screamed, slamming her hand into the wheel. She wasn't losing this damned race!
Another gearshift, and the La-Luna was on Velocity's tail. Claire felt a vicious streak hit her, and she shifted the wheel, nudging the side of the Delta.
Velocity wavered, but kept on the track, slowing arrogantly for the last two-hundred metres before the hairpin turn- giving Claire a headstart. She believed she could claim the win back at the last second, making the race more exciting for those watching.
The Delta was practically bumper-to-bumper with Claire's La-Luna, nearly locked together. If she slowed for a fraction of a second, Velocity was going to rear-end her going one-hundred-and-eighty-seven kilometres an hour.
The hairpin turn was ten metres. They'd passed the spot where Quickshift had died.
Claire grounded her body, and the La-Luna began to drift.
The world spun with her. The Delta's engine roared angrily, Velocity preparing to claim the win back now, moving so fast that she was now right beside Claire. Both of them had survived the hairpin turn. The crowd was going wild across the bay.
Velocity blew a kiss to Claire, and sped ahead, leaving the La-Luna behind her by two measly metres that would make all the difference to Maddison and Helix.
This was it. She was going to die. Tears of frustration and anger pooled and spilled, blurring her vision. Claire was glad for them. At least she wasn't going to see her own death- A bright light flashed ahead of her, and she screamed, turning sharply to avoid the implosion of light and flames as Velocity's Delta exploded just metres from the finish line, leaving Claire to fly over it before she slammed on the brakes. The noise from the explosion drowned out the screams from the crowd.
With a 'CLICK!', the car doors unlocked, along with her seatbelt, and she threw herself from the La-Luna and into the mud of the bay's banks, believing herself to be next.
When the La-Luna didn't explode, she scrambled to her feet, looking for where she could run. There was nowhere. This part of the Docks was nothing but a long dirt road, and shipping containers that backed onto the bay water. She couldn't swim despite growing up in Redwood, so there was no chance of throwing herself into the water to escape. Would drowning be better than... than that?! She looked back to the flames.
Bullet, Casanova and Eclipse were all pulling over, gaping at the burning, torn-apart wreckage of Velocity's Delta. In the distance, police and fire sirens wailed, and people began to clear out across the bay. Two races, two dead racers. She could see the others doing the math in their head, looking to each other in horror.
Her body was not visible amongst the flames, but there was no doubt that she was dead.
Claire would live! The killer had murdered Velocity instead!
A hysterical, panicked laughter escaped her as she doubled over, planting one hand on her knee, the broken one hanging limply at her side, Bullet and Casanova glancing to her, while Eclipse began to make his way toward her. When he began moving, it seemed to shake the other two from their stupor, and they headed back toward their cars, getting back in and driving away to avoid being arrested by the police.
Claire screamed, backing away until she was standing at the front of the La-Luna, between it and the shipping containers, ordering in a panicked voice, "Keep away from me!"
Police cars were coming across the bridge now. Corey would surely be in one of them!
Eclipse made a dart for her, and she ran around the other side of the car, keeping it between them.
He faked going right, before leaping over the hood and tackling her into the mud. She struggled, fighting back against him, trying to shove him off her, and he pressed a knife he must have been keeping in his black and blue hoodie, a sun and moon painted on the front in an eclipse arrangement, to her throat.
"Get up and into the Flux, or I will kill you, Maddy and Helix before going after Officer Strickland!" He snarled in her ear. She nodded hastily, and he rose, extending a hand to her. When she took it, she wrenched hard, bringing him crashing against her, and started running.
He caught up with her in an instant, tackling her into the mud next to the X-Class Flux, the door opening with a press of a button on his car keys. Kicking her in the side to knock the wind from her, he tossed her onto the backseat and slammed the door shut. She heard the locks engaging. Throwing herself into the front seats, she tried the driver's side door, only to find it locked as well.
Seconds later, he was shoving her back, pressing a gun to her abdomen until she was cowering on the backseat. He ordered her to keep still while he tied her wrists again. The flash of red and blue lights lit up his face, the hard set of his jaw. Claire only cried silently.
When she was tied up, he put the keys in the ignition and began driving.
"Just to show you I did..." Eclipse pressed a button on his dashboard, and the La-Luna exploded into a ball of flames just as big as Velocity's Delta had.
Claire gulped. It could have been her. Next time, it would be.
The cars the police drove were no match for the Flux when it sped past them, going the opposite way. One of them tried, heroically, to ram into the side of it, but Eclipse dodged it. They went past so quickly Claire didn't even have time to search for Strickland's face before they disappeared...