A Land of Despair

What Now, Speed Racer?

"We need to go!" I yelled as loudly as I could. They all turned to look at me with wide eyes instead of moving. "Everyone, out! Now!" This time my tone was more assertive than loud, which caused them to quickly shuffle out of the ship and into the car.
Immediately everyone was inside, I gassed the vehicle out of the town and onto the highway we had come through, driving dangerously fast, I hadn't even waited for everyone in the car to buckle up before I began driving.

As we continued on our way, ahead of us, I could see a cloud of dust rising from one of the side gravel roads. From the look of things, it seemed as though there were a number of vehicles heading our way, large vehicles.

I had neither the intention of seeing who was heading this way nor of being seen. In a swift motion, I turned into an area that had an abandoned amusement park and I could hear the girls screaming here and there but paid no mind. I stealthily parked my car behind a large carousel, this worked to my advantage because the colors of the horses on the ride made it easy for my car to blend in, it was also a good spot to see what was coming our way while staying hidden.

Everyone in the car was breathing heavily, it was a tense situation that felt like only I knew how severe things were. If the rest of them knew, they had never spoken to me about it.

My hands began to turn white as I squeezed the steering wheel tighter, my heart beating faster and faster, my knuckles started to hurt and I was suddenly aware of the situation. While taking a deep breath, I willed myself to calm down.

My head turned to the front passenger seat and there was no one there.
My eyes went wide as panic washed over me, had I left one of my friends behind?

Turning my upper body all the way round to face the back seat ready to fret over who was missing, I stopped in my tracks and dropped my shoulders in relief. The three of them were huddled in the back seat,Mike, Hope and Tina. The expressions on their faces was as if they had just witnessed a murder.

I turned back to the front and then slumped down in my seat, letting out a really long breath. My fingers combed through my hair as I watched the main road we had just come from.

"What's happening? I don't understand you people" Hope asked, her voice a little bit shaky.

"If I knew, I would tell you." Mike remarked, he sounded more relaxed than he was looking a few seconds ago.

With my eyes glued to the main road, I contemplated what to tell them regarding our predicament. "It's the military police." I announced.

"Okay, it's the military police. So why are we hiding? We haven't done anything wrong." Hope quaked, it was evident in her voice that she was still rattled, it wouldn't be a surprise if she were already crying back there.

"And how are we supposed to explain being there, huh? Being at a place we had no business, from who knows how many towns over?" Tina whisper shouted. She got the point fairly quickly, she was a rebel after all.

Hope began to breath heavily, she was extremely distressed by this situation and I couldn't blame her, it was obviously not the type of scenario that she was accustomed to. "Does that mean we are fugitives now?" She asked.

"No, it's nothing like that, worst case we are just a bunch of dumb kids goofing off. You know, as long as they don't do a background check." Mike said.

"And if they do?" Hope was full of questions.

Mike casually tapped the window before he spoke, "well, then whatever the controllers do to those outed as rebels, they will do to us."

"Really? ... Mike..." Hope continued to ask, I heard shuffling, she had probably turned to face him in anguish.

"It's fine as long as we stay hidden until they pass by this point, then we can use the side route to get to the main road, that way we will be on our way home and in the clear." I clarified, honestly hoping to calm everyone down a little bit.
No one said or asked anything after that, they all sat quietly, anticipating my next move.

I wanted to ask one of them to move to the front seat, but I stayed quiet instead letting the silence drag on, it didn't bother me anyway.

The military vehicles rushed by with so much speed it was astounding, there were so many of them, about 3 military trucks and 4 land cruisers and 2 SUV's all rushing to respond to the loud blaring noise of the alarm that had been set off.

How had it even been set off, there had been no buttons for us to push anyway... was there a secret portion of the plain surface that needed to be touched or hit in order to set it off?
All these were the questions that they would fire at us at headquarters and we would have nothing to say, no answers to give.

The last of the vehicles had finally vanished from sight and the road was clear, but it was best to wait a while before we could start off again. Now that emotions were in check I decided to ask someone to come to the front seat, having them all at the back was making me feel uneasy. "Could one of you come sit up here?" I asked rather pointedly.

When the door was closed shut, I turned to see that Mike was the one that had moved over, he saw me looking and he gave me a smug look and lazily wiggled his eyebrows.
I let out a sigh and turned my head back to the front.

"What now, speed racer?" Mike asked, his tone full of mocking.

"Now, we go home." Was my pointed response.

"Okay, so then what are you waiting for? Let's get going before we actually get caught here. I really don't want to get into any trouble." Hope was still full of worry. Seeing her this way made me look at her and wonder, was she always like this? Constantly worrying about her surroundings and situations. She wanted the unpleasant event to be over as soon as it started, and I could not even blame her, I wanted the same thing.

"We will... we just-"

"The military isn't even out of sight, do you want us to get caught?" Tina sneered before I could even finish my sentence. Her voice was shaky from agitation, getting caught here would not be an ideal situation for anyone. And even though Mike kept his cool demeanor, I knew better than anyone that he was panicking too, the look on his face told me all that I needed to know. Being friends for so long, I had learned to understand him without having to hear him speak.

Getting caught would mean getting questioned and then investigated. Being investigated would mean being exposed, and being exposed would ruin everything.
All the plans we had would burn down right in front of us, but I wasn't going to let that happen.

My slow taps on the steering wheel were the only things to be heard in the car, everyone else was still, no one made a sound as they waited for me to announce our next move.
Unfortunately I did not know either.