novelraw Chapter 345: Burn With You
Chapter 345: Burn With You
Zubair ignored the creature under his skin and watched the three riders ahead.
Two closed from the sides, trying to force him into the center rut. The third held slightly ahead, throttle matched to their speed, waiting to make contact.
He had a skull tattoo up his throat, faded now but still visible in the glare. His posture was all confidence and training—arms relaxed, knees angled in like a racer.
Sera leaned forward, hands braced on the back of Zubair’s seat. Her gaze swept across the bikers, her tone calm. "The one with the tattoo leads. The other two follow his line."
"Then we break his line," Zubair answered.
"Left fence line," Alexei called, watching the terrain.
"Left it is."
Zubair turned the wheel a fraction.
The Hummer drifted toward the edge of the road, where a row of leaning posts marked what used to be boundary wire. The earth there was harder, baked flat by sun and time.
The lead Saint adjusted too late.
Zubair caught the moment his front tire hit loose grit.
The bike slipped half a foot to the right. Zubair angled the Hummer into him—not full impact, just enough.
Metal kissed rubber.
The back wheel of the bike spun, caught, and kicked the machine sideways. The rider lost control, boot scraping dirt as he tried to recover. He didn’t. The bike flipped once and vanished behind a cloud of dust.
The remaining two reacted fast. One veered wide and peeled off into the ditch; the other kept speed and tried to cut across the Hummer’s tail.
"Rear right," Alexei warned.
"I see it," Zubair confirmed.
Lachlan twisted in his seat, hand out. "Do I have your permission, Zaddy Dearest?"
Zubair gave a short nod.
Lachlan snapped his fingers again—one clean strike. The air cracked like a small whip.
The Saint’s bike wobbled; the engine hiccupped as the pulse hit it. The machine fishtailed, lost traction, and slid. The rider hit the ground hard, rolled, and didn’t get up.
"It’s down," Alexei confirmed.
"One left to go," Elias added, voice steady.
The final biker eased off, falling back toward the SUV. He wasn’t running; he was regrouping. The man with the shotgun said something into his radio and raised a single hand in signal.
"They’re calling the next grid," Alexei said.
"Let them," Zubair answered. "It gives us a trail."
You like the chase, the creature murmured. You always have.
Zubair didn’t answer. He could feel its grin behind his ribs, sharp and bright, shaped like his own.
The SUV ahead started to reverse, angling for a new block further north.
Zubair kept them straight, the heat shimmer blurring the edges of the road until it looked like the world was folding in on itself.
The Hummer’s hood carried streaks of soot and silvered paint; the radiator whined, wounded but alive.
"Fuel at thirty-two percent full," Elias said.
"We’ll make it count," Zubair replied.
He eased them forward through the shimmer.
Behind them, the Saints were already regrouping, their engines faint in the endless afternoon. Ahead, the land sloped down toward another line of fences and storage tanks half-buried in dust.
Zubair tightened his grip and let the road pull them onward. The creature purred low in his chest, content for now.
Next gate’s close, it whispered. Don’t stop this time.
He didn’t intend to.
The shimmer cleared into shape.
Ahead, the road widened and curved east around a string of half-buried fuel tanks.
They were rusted at the seams, their ends stenciled with faded numbers and warnings in red. Wind hissed through the holes where valves used to be.
A perfect place for a trap—enclosed, narrow, flanked by metal that could hide rifles.
"Movement," Alexei murmured, his gaze narrowing through the side window. "Five, maybe six. Using the tanks as cover."
"Positions?" Zubair asked.
"Three low, two high. Someone’s coordinating them. They’re waiting for us to stop."
Sera leaned forward, one hand braced on the seat, the other steady on the dashboard. "They’ll push from the left first. Didn’t anyone tell them that routine was the best way to get someone killed?"
The creature stirred at her voice, a low vibration that rippled through his ribs like the first breath before a hunt.
She’s watching. You’re making her happy. Don’t stop doing that.
Zubair didn’t answer it. He didn’t have to. He pressed the accelerator, steady, giving her what she wanted—movement, certainty, control. The hum beneath his skin swelled, not angry this time but proud.
Dust rolled across the field in heavy curls.
The Saints weren’t rushing—they were watching, measuring. One crouched near the base of a tanker, rifle resting over his knee. Another climbed to the top and crouched behind the pipe ridge.
Their discipline was better here. This wasn’t a chase; it was an execution ground.
Lachlan shifted in his seat, grin tightening into something sharper. "Feels like a show of force."
"Then let’s give them one," Zubair said quietly.
He dropped the Hummer into a lower gear, the engine answering with a rough snarl.
The creature purred approval.
That’s it. Let it sing. Let them hear what hunts them.
Alexei leaned his rifle against the window frame. "Two hundred meters. They’ll fire at range."
"Not before we do," Lachlan replied.
The first muzzle flash blinked from the ridge. The round struck high on the hood, leaving a clean hole and a hiss of vapor. Zubair didn’t flinch. He took the bend wide, keeping momentum. The second shot came lower, sparking off the bumper.
"Left high," Alexei called, calm as if counting beats in a song.
"Take it," Zubair replied.
One clean shot cracked back.
The Saint on the ridge dropped out of sight.
"Four left," Alexei confirmed.
"Three," Sera corrected softly. "One of them ran away."
Zubair caught it then—the faint blur of a figure sprinting between tanks, rifle tucked low. "He’s signaling," he said.
"Signal for what?" Elias asked.
A hum built under the ground—low, metallic, vibrating through the tires.
Then the world snapped.
A line of flame tore up from the dust where the fuel lines had been buried. It burned blue first, then white, a clean streak cutting across the road behind them.
A wall of fire to block retreat.
"Minefield?" Lachlan barked.
"Fuel ignition," Zubair answered. "They lit the runoff."
Beautiful, the creature whispered. They want to burn with you. Give them what they asked for.