Cleo Hart: Intelligence by Default

Drive

I stared through the pitter pattering windscreen, watching the vast, green scenery rush past in a blur. The gritty road shook the seats, knocking my bruised legs against each other.

Luke sat on the weapons box in the back, chatting to Alice about self defence techniques, while she listened intensely, crouching against the wall.

Jason was whistling an unrecognisable tune from beside me, pointing out interesting looking trees and shrubs. I had no idea where we were, but there was a vaguely positive vibe from all of us, we were going home.

We stopped at a small junction, Jason folding out the map.

"Are we lost again?" Teased Luke, scrambling through the van to peer over the seats.

I chuckled at Jason's response, a scowl followed by a reluctant nod, and stared back out of the side door window. The wing mirror revealed a car edging down the winding road towards us in the rainy smudge of the reflection.

Luke and Jason were bickering about country roads and how the map was 'too old to be accurate'. Alice stayed in the back, leafing through a second hand book.

I glanced back at the mirror, frowning slightly when I realised that the car behind us was actually travelling at a high speed, too high for the narrow road we were travelling on.

"Wing mirror." I muttered.

The boys immediately stopped arguing and stared with me at the speeding vehicle. It was getting close.

"Cleo's the best driver." Luke stated, clearly having come to the conclusion that we needed to move.

I shook my head. "No time."

A silent decision was made, and Jason pulled the car into gear, swerving left onto the larger road.

Jason rammed up the gears to fifth, attempting to gain distance on the crazy driver, but the car performed a risky drift around the corner and started tailgating, making it obvious that the driver was following us.
Luke slid back and started loading pistols from the case of weapons. Alice helped as well as she could, passing him clips when he held out his hand.

I undid my seatbelt and clambered back into the main frame, crouching behind Jason.

"Does anyone have a good view of the driver?" Jason asked.

Alice stood up cautiously and glanced through the small rear windows.

"It's a man driving, there are two other men and a woman in the car. The passengers all have long guns in their hands."

Luke pointed through the two seats.
"Is that another car?"

We all turned our attention to the spot in the distance, driving towards us in the other lane. It was the same make and colour; a black Audi of some kind.

Jason muttered an obscenity under his breath and put his foot even harder on the pedal.

The car ahead steered into the middle of both lanes before skidding to a complete halt perpendicular to the road, blocking our exit completely.

"What do we do?!" Jason yelled as we neared the Audi.

"Drive into the bushes!" Luke replied, handing out guns and knives.

"Brace!"

The van rocked violently as we drove off the road, before throwing us all forward as it suddenly came to a halt.