The Calling of Time

A Pledge of Loyalty

“No, Manda, there’s no way,” Jai sputtered. He was reaching for his seat belt now, scrabbling for it as he yelled at her. “You can’t just...no. There are too many…” he turned to me, eyes wide. “Seat belt, Kali. Now.”

My grasping hands found the belt after several seconds of panic. My eyes were glued to the road, to the group of cars that were blocking our way. They were about fifty feet away now. Forty. Thirty.

Manda put her foot down on the gas, her lips peeled back in a death grin. We were gaining speed.

Oh God.

The seat belt clicked shut and then I was being pressed back against my seat as we accelerated. The jeep’s engine was roaring like an angry bear. When we were ten feet away from the blockade there was a flurry of movement. Figures leapt out from behind the cars, scattering out of the way. There was a loud repeated crack, crack, crack, and Manda screamed, “They’re shooting! Down! Get down!”

I threw myself down onto the seat just as the front windshield shattered, sending shards of smooth cut glass over all of us. From where I was crouched on the back seat it looked like both the front seats were empty, since Manda and Jai were both down too. It looked like the car was out of control, hurtling me to certain death.

It probably was.

There was a bone-jarring crunch and a shuddering impact, and I was thrown forward, smacking my face into the back of the Jai’s seat. I tasted blood in my mouth, and there was a sharp, insistent pain in my nose. I doubled up and threw my hands over my head. It felt like the seat belt was cutting me in half.

In front Manda popped up and gave a woop of savage delight. She gunned the engine and we were moving forward again. The jeep shuddered and there was the rasping shriek of metal being dragged over the road.

“That’s right boys! You can’t keep the guardians back. Suck on that!”

Even after the ruined cars had begun to shrink in our rearview mirror, it took me a long time to pry my fingers off the hourglass, and even longer to stop shaking. Manda didn’t seem at all bothered by what had just happened. She grumbled about the shattered windshield, saying she would have to find a new vehicle when we got into town, because trying to find somewhere to install glass would be ridiculous.

“I knew I should have put bullet proof glass in,” she kept repeating. “Why didn’t I think of that? Well, I didn’t have any, but I should have looked harder and found some.”

“Maybe you can put bullet proof glass in now.” Jai’s voice was a bit shaky, and he turned around in his seat to look at me. “Kali, are you okay back there?”

“Fine…” I squeaked, poking tentatively at my wounded nose and flinching at the sharp pain. “I’m fine.”

I turned around and looked over the junk behind my seat, seeing the barrier in the road get smaller and smaller as we drove away. There were a few people grouped together beside the cars, apparently in a heated argument, waving fists and rifles at one another.

Manda noticed me looking in the rear view mirror and grinned. “We got lucky.”

Looking down at the tiny squares of glass that littered my seat I wasn’t sure exactly how we were so lucky. I wished my hands would stop trembling. “Oh yeah?” Was all I let myself say.

“Yup.” Manda slowed the car down, leaning over Jai to look at the map he was holding. “They were disorganized, obviously they got slack because they’re used to people stopping when they see the cars piled up. They should have realized those cars weren’t enough to stop an all terrain vehicle with a determined driver.  They needed heavier cars to stop us, a few trucks. They were obviously newbies at the whole mugging roadblock thing.” She glanced up and down the street, peering through the empty windshield. “I just hope we get there before we run into anyone else. I think it’s down this street.”