Summer Crash (Zerralon 1.1)

Part 13: Gamer Boy

Christy yelled something, but Kevin couldn’t hear her over the harsh sound of the wind rushing by.

His hands clenched the manual controls of the hovercar. Too abrupt. He needed to calm down. Be more careful with how he handled them.

A right turn past a round building brought them into one of the wide avenues of Central City. Plenty of space between the buildings. Also few places to dodge and hide from the Vordac robot still chasing after them.

He widened away from a building, then turned right into the narrow space between two high-rises. So close to the exterior that he got the impression of furniture through the windows.

Too close. One twitch of the control and they would crash right into one of them. He pulled back on the lever, slowing their forward speed in preparation for making the next turn.

Only to have to jerk the joystick the other way when he realized the turn would take them into a small swarm of Vordac robots. No way would they come out of that encounter in one piece.

The hovercar nose came up as it whipped around. A push of the lever took them forward down the street.

A street he didn’t dare stay on, even with the robots now behind him. Not with so many of them. With the back window broken out… ugh, he hated thinking of it.

The back of his neck tingled in anticipation of those snake-like arms reaching in from back there to pull them out. To take them to the Vordac mothership where who-knew how many others already were. To disappear in the vastness of the Vordac worlds, never to see Earth, home, or family again.

The hovercar slid sideways through the air in his effort to turn into another street. Christy let out a scream as the side of a building whooshed up to her side. Another fast turn, and he was into another street.

He now knew the basics of the controls. Right for speed, braking, and hovering. The left for turning and altitude. It reminded him of an old flying game he once played.

A game. He was good at video games.

With new determination, Kevin pushed the hovercar forward. Deep into the streets of Central City. When two of the robots caught up with him, he even dared to dive down into the mazed webbing of the walkways lower to the ground.

Smooth and controlled, he reminded himself. Keep it under his control, not in control of him. Pay attention to angles and speed of approaches. Keep the turns and changes in altitude preplanned. Don’t wait to react. Control.

He might not have weapons to turn and fire with like he would in a video game, but he could still make it hard for the Vordac.

“One on the right,” Christy shouted over the whistling wind. She took to pointing along with the yelling, identifying other dangers.

While he appreciated the help, the one thing he really needed was a way out of the city. Away from the Vordac activity. No matter how he turned the hovercar, it seemed like the city just went on and on. If he thought it was safe, he would aim the hovecar up and fly over the city. But, not with the Vordac mothership out there.

Another turn. One that took them too close to the side of a building, this time on his side. They were taking too many chances staying up here. Too bad they couldn’t disappear into a parking garage when no robots were in sight, but he didn’t dare try that maneuver. Not yet. Not while still fine-tuning his flying. There were no extra lives in this video game.

Christy started pointing out the window on her side. Out of the corner of his eye he saw fast-moving shapes. Only, these weren’t black.

Streamlined craft with a rounded bulbed central structure swept past the nose of the hovercraft on their flight down a street. As fast as they appeared, they dispersed into the city.

“Dad!” Christy yelled.

That word he heard and understood. He nodded. He’d seen it, too.

Galactic Patrol fighters, and on one of them he’d seen just enough of the insignia to know. His father’s squadron.

Out here with the Vordac along with them. Did they know about the Morde? Did they know the location of the mothership? Kevin wished he could warn them. Any excuse to hear his father’s voice again.

The hovercar bucked. It shook so hard that he had to let go of the joystick control so as not to send them careening into a building. Sparks flew along the side of the hovercar and out past the nose. A shrill shriek joined the sound of the rushing air, but this one not coming from Christy. The nose dropped towards the ground.

Kevin grabbed it again, pulling back. The nose tipped up, but not enough. The shriek started breaking up, as if the hovercar were coughing.

With the rearview mirror, a dark shape rising up from the lower streets caught at Kevin’s heart. A shape turning a long barrel to fire at a passing Galactic Patrol fighter.

The Morde. And it had just hit them dead-center with one of its weapons.

TO BE CONTINUED…