Checkered Ladder

I still remember the screams, not from the crowd but from my own mouth. It was not a scream for excitement but of fear. The kind of fear that still haunts me today along with the soar in my throat. It was the last race on the planet Metrocon the planet for speed junkies. This was no ordinary race though. Whoever won got the Universal Speed Demon Cup and controlled the rules of the next Universal race. My dad worked his bones to dust to get qualified and he was known to hold 1st in all the races he attended, no doubt that he would win the final race and become Speed Demon or at least I thought. Just 50 miles out you could see the dust from dirt rising to let everyone know the racers were almost here. My dad was neck and neck with a racer that has been earning a reputation for some time. I know there was no way my dad would allow himself to lose. Using his last tank of boost he started heading to the finishline at rocket speed. He pushed his luck too far though, first his back tire flew off like a cap to an old Coca-Cola bottle, after that the car turned sideways going into a deadly roll no, one ever could survive. It all happened in a matter of seconds but for me it was in a matter of hours. Mid-air I could already see some blood tinting the front window dark red. For me it was a devastating hit but for everyone else it was just another unlucky racer. Thunder Titan won first place that day and still holds the title. It was only after the race they decided to grab the dead body and torn up car sitting just barley in front of the finishline. That was 11 years ago, in my dads will he gave me his first car he won a race in, I plan on taking that car and winning it in this years Universal Speed Demon Cup.

Chapter 1

“AXEL!!” is what I first words I heard as I walked out of the spaceport. I began to raise one arm for a wave but before I could finish I was embraced with the warm hug. Unable to hold it back I began smiling and dropped my bag hugging back. Knowing who it was I replied “Hey Luna it’s been a while.” Stepping back I take a good look at her “you have grown quite tall the last time I saw you.” Luna ignored my comment knowing I was teasing her about her height, “So how did the will go?” she replied. “Fantastic” I said sarcastically as I looked out the lobby window seeing the men unloading a car from the Starship, “they could have at least cleaned the blood off the car.”  Luna’s expression changed and pats my back “good thing you don’t have to clean it out.” Sighing I hugged her again “Thanks for doing this for me, you were the only person I trust helping me fix the car up.” Luna was my closest friend and the first person to find out about my past. We met at an orphanage just 4 days after the incident with my dad, we were both there for the same reason the only thing that was different was her dad was an engineer and was crushed by a car while changing the oil. After we were old enough to leave the orphanage we both got into engineering so when I got my dad’s car that was being held in the Metrocon Museum I could fix it up. “Don’t feel too bad about it Axel, we both knew the car was going to be in bad condition….well maybe not this bad but hey at least they didn’t leave the body in there right?” Just the thought of it made it worse though, all it did was bring back that horrible image of my dad’s lifeless body hanging out of the front window. “Come on” Luna said, “I got my tow truck in the front” Picking up my bag I began to follow her “Did you get the parts we needed?” I asked “Of course I did, well at least some of the parts to get us started.” She replied “We will need some more money if we want to even think about putting it in the tryouts though” She finished. “Well as long as we at least get the car running and sell the parts that we don’t need we shouldn’t have a problem with the money.” Stepping in the passenger seat of the truck I throw my bag into the back seat. “Hey, seatbelt” Luna said as she turns the truck on “It would be a shame if you broke a limb just because you wanted to be cool and not wear a strap across your chest.” Ever since I told her about how my dad died and how im going to win the Universal race she’s been on my ass about seat belts. “I know, I know” I said as I buckled up “but we are only going to move a few feet to get the car, I was going to buckle up when we started heading home.” “I don’t car” she said firmly “this galaxy is full of idiots and if one of them so happened to crash into us it might ruin our chance to even try out for final’s” for the rest of the small drive to the back of the spaceport and getting the car onto the back of the truck we began to head home in silence. Why is it every time we argue about seatbelts it has to end in silence?