BloodWise

BloodWise, Chapter 11

Then there was a rumble. The blade stopped moving. Winston and the Prestons stared into the woods. The noise was low, deep and mechanical. It was punctuated by loud thumps. Then two headlights pushing through the thick woods.

"Get yer guns!" Old Skinner hollered.

As if in response, they heard the hair-raising clatter of an automatic weapon.

A long, black limousine exploded through the nearby shrub. It was covered with dents, the front tires were clearly flat and there were leaves and twigs jammed into the grill and under the engine. The driver's side front window was shot out from within and a muzzle was sticking out, spurting bullets at no particular target.  Winston had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

The limo slammed into the, veered into a drunken left and struck the Prestons barbecue, sending scarps of metal and glowing coals flying. It accelerated toward Winston and ran over noseless man as he tried to scramble out of the way. Bunny leaped past Winston into the woods.

Then Winston caught a glimpse through the front windshield. It was Reyna, and she was about to drive right into him. At the last moment, she carved a shade to the right and missed plowing Winston directly into the tree that he was tied by mere inches. The driver's side door cracked open. Reyna leaned out only halfway, keeping her legs inside the limo, and swung a machete that split the ropes the connected his wrists to the tree.

"Go!" Rayne screamed. her face was a mix of rage and focus. "Get in!"

"There was an explosion as one of the Prestons used a shotgun to blow open the back end of the limo. Winston feel into Reyna's arms- it was all he could really do-  and rolled with her the limo's front seat.

She didn't even wait to grab the wheel. She hit the accelerator ,and the car lurched forward as bullets began to eat away at it. Winston tried to orient himself in the seat, but it was no use. He could hardly get his body to sit up straight, so he finally settled on hanging on and praying. The limo hit something big and he was flung forward, his head smacking on the glove box.

"Hold on!" Reyna yelled.

Winston put his arms around her waist and tried to glance out the window, all he could see was tree limbs flying by. He knew that Reyna was a good driver, but it seemed impossible that even she could navigate these woods in such a big car.

Reyna glanced down at Winston and nearly cringed. He was covered in blood and bruises and cuts and it seemed impossible that he might even still be alive. But there he was, although they weren't out of the woods- literally- yet, and these woods were dense. She forced herself to ignore Winston and instead tuned into the very near future. For Reyna, looking into the future was much harder than peering into the past. If looking into the past was like looking at a movie projected onto glass, looking into the future was like trying to watch a dozen movies all projected onto an oily puddle. The future was slippery with possibility and probability and it was hard to see more than half a minute into it. Fortunately, she only needed to be able to see a few seconds ahead now, just enough to foresee and avoid driving into a pine tree or overturning the car on the lip of a stone fence. Just enough to stay a little ahead of the Prestons who were now in pursuit.

The Prestons. She glanced back and saw the flash of muzzle fire from far behind. Then  one of them- the one-armed woman- came racing from out of nowhere and jumped onto the top of the limo. Reyna gritted her teeth and did a quick stop-and-go, toggling between the brakes and gas pedal, and the one armed woman was thrown. Then she turned the wheel as far right as possible, plowed through a swampy length of deep puddles and hit the road with the screech of rubber and scream of tire rims.

She didn't stop moving as she grabbed Winston and the automatic pistol and dragged them both into the pickup truck that she had idling. She closed the door as she pushed the small truck past the abandoned mills and toward the main road.

Winston said something to her but she hardly noticed. She keot the truck moving at a steady 90 miles per hour until she got out of Balitmore city limits. She finally pulled over beside another car, a nondescript oldsmobile sedan, in front of a small grocery store in Ellicott City.

"Thank you," Winston hissed.

"You have to leave and never come back," she said. It wasn't what she wanted to say to him, but it was the only thing she could.