novelraw Chapter 340: Baby Wants To Run
Chapter 340: Baby Wants To Run
The Hummer rolled southeast, its engine purring like the kitten Lachlan always said that his baby was like.
It tires hummed over patched asphalt, easily dancing over all the obstacles in its path. Just as before with the truck, Zubair drove, his hands fixed at ten and two, and his eyes never still.
Sera watched the tree line as they flew past. Thin pines, brown ditch water, a collapsed barn with its roof bent down. She leaned forward between the seats, quiet, alert. Not planning. Not predicting. Just watching for the next door to open.
To say that she had never experienced a world like this in either one of her lives before was not an understatement. She felt just like Alice in Wonderland, only she never wanted to leave. Every time she saw a rabbit hole, she just wanted to dive deeper in.
Of course, it helped that her creature was feeling the exact same way.
"Fuel at half," Elias announced from where he was seated between Lachlan and Alexei. He had the open map on his lap, the paper creased hard along the folds. "Next usable highway is forty minutes if the roads stay clear."
"They won’t," Alexei replied with a shrug. He sat behind Zubair with a rifle propped low across his knees. He didn’t touch the window and he didn’t blink much.
Lachlan drummed a finger on the side of the door and looked pleased with nothing in particular. "We’re not the only ones who like paved roads," he said. "Hear that?"
Of course, they all heard it.
It was the sound of a faint stutter behind them. It wasn’t the sound of the soft wind flowing around them, it wasn’t the sound of the hummer.
It was bikes... motorcycles.
More than two. Not all that close yet, but it was clear by the sound that they were approaching the Hummer fast.
Zubair glanced at the rearview. "I need a count when you have it."
"Three," Lachlan replied after a moment. "No, four. Staggered. Running light."
"Do you think they are bikers?" Elias asked, cocking his head to the side as if he was almost excited with the news.
Sera, who had probably read more than her fair share of biker romances, simply raised and eyebrow and smirked at the idea.
"Who else out here?" Alexei asked. "Well, I guess it could be the General. Either way, I think it will be scouts first. We can always ask nicely whose sandbox we’re in now."
Sera rested her hand on the dashboard in front of her and continued to stare out the window. She looked out at the flat land and the broken fences and felt it—the tug. A pull downward. Not away. Deeper.
People made rules here. She wanted to see how far they went when pushed.
The road dipped suddenly, and the sound of the bikes faded under the hill and then rose again. Closer. Fast.
"Stay course," Zubair said.
No one argued.
Luci lifted his head between Elias and Lachlan where he had been tossed into the cargo hold and huffed once in irritation.
He didn’t growl. He didn’t need to. They already knew that they had company.
Lachlan rolled the window down two inches. Cold air slid along the floor. "I’ll say hi if they come up on the left."
"Don’t," Zubair sighed, gripping the wheel just a bit tighter. He refused to let anything happen to Sera while he was driving, and Lachlan saying ’hi’ had a tendency to blow up in more than one way.
"Just a little hi," Lachlan pushed with a bright smile on his face. "Not a big one or anything like that."
"Don’t," Zubair repeated.
The first bike showed in the right mirror.
Black frame. Long forks. A hard face behind a tinted shield.
No colors on the black leather cut he was wearing. There were no patches showing, but it might be because he wasn’t a fully initiated member.
The second and third fanned out behind it. The fourth stayed back. Spacing was disciplined. They had done this for years.
"Side mirrors only," Alexei said softly. "No head turn."
"Copy," Elias said.
Sera watched out the side mirror without moving.
She noted the scratch on the lead bike’s tank. The extra fuel can on the second. The way the third rider kept his left foot loose over the peg.
Clearly, he was bored.
But his hand never left the clutch. He was experienced, calm. And for just a moment, both her and her creature wanted to see what he would do when she managed to upset that calm.
But first, she wanted to see the one in charge. She wanted to know what face he made when people said no.
The lead bike slid left and matched their speed. The rider lifted a hand. Two fingers. Casual. Testing.
Zubair didn’t answer.
The rider waited five seconds.
Then he tapped his helmet twice and pointed ahead. Off the highway, a service road branched south. A faded sign with bullet holes read: SUMMERFIELD. Someone had spray-painted SAINTS across it in black.
"Not that way," Elias said.
"Obviously," Alexei replied.
The rider waited another second and then accelerated. He moved ahead of the Hummer and cut in, too close. Brake test.
Zubair held speed.
The rider looked back once. He kept his front wheel steady and reached to his belt. He lifted a metal ball the size of his palm and tossed it out the window. It hit the road and bounced under the Hummer with a hollow clang.
Lachlan had his hand on the Hummer door, a cocky smile on his face. "Magnet check."
Sera held still. The ball clacked again and rolled out behind them. No spark. No blast. A decoy. A nerve test.
"Cute," Lachlan said.
The second bike accelerated to the right side, close to the ditch, then drifted in.
The rider tapped the Hummer’s rear quarter with a gloved hand and laughed. Sera watched his mouth move inside the helmet. She could not hear the words over the engines, but she didn’t need to.
He was having just as much fun as she was.
Zubair said nothing. He let the Hummer crawl a hair left, just enough to intrude on the bike’s space. The third rider moved up to box that side and then set a steady offset.
They were making a tunnel.
Guiding the Hummer exactly where they wanted them to go.
Sera looked past them down the highway and spotted the same thing that Elias had.
"Bridge in two minutes," Elias said. "Single lane. If they try to herd us, it will be there."
"Then we don’t go there," Zubair said.
"They’ll expect a turn-off," Alexei said.
"Not if we make our own," Lachlan said. He looked happy now. "Baby wants to run."