Finding Home - 5

The bus darted through the city taking an unpredictable path. Though at first it was beyond our view, Ejay helped us close in. Our tires screeched and burned as I drifted the car around corners. We started to catch a glimpse of the bus every time we rounded a corner, but the chase was speeding dangerously close to the inferno. Sadier leaned forward and clenched the door desperate for one more chance.

We came to a long straight away. I knew with our horsepower we would catch them here. But at the end of the straight away loomed the open gates of the inferno. Our MPH exceeded 100 as we closed in on the bus.

At this point a few options came to mind.

Option #1: Cut in front of the bus and push it away from the gates. We didn’t have quite enough road for that.

Option #2: Clip the bus and make it tumble. Even disregarding the fact that this would injure Saymi and Priscilla, the inferno guards who were posted at the gates would chase us away before we could jump in and rescue them.

Option #3: Follow the bus into the inferno courtyard and try to steal the girls away when they open the bus. The gate had a system that blocked every foreign object person, vehicle, etc. with a force-field wall. The inferno buses could pass through but our car would smash into it.

So with all of the sane options ruled out we were left with Option #4, a purely insane option. During the chase, Sadier and I had been frantically hashing through these options, but when we came to the straightaway we knew it was all up to Option #4.

Sadier thrust himself out the window and climbed onto the roof of the car as I drifted just slightly away from the bus. He clung to the roof through the ripping wind. I drifted our car back to the right as we came alongside the bus. Sadier launched from the roof with all his might and soared in the air towards the bus. The bus was lined with large glass windows on its side from front to back. Sadier crashed through one of the windows shoulder first and disappeared into the bus.

My car smashed into the Inferno gate forcefield. My head slammed into the air bag and I went unconscious.

Sadier tumbled to the floor of the bus, the passengers screaming in shock. He lay there momentarily before pushing himself. He crawled towards the front of the bush fighting through the writhing pain. The driver glanced back at him and threw a rocket at Sadier’s face. Sadier collapsed to the ground letting the rocket to sail over his head. He then lunged at the driver and pushed him against the door. The driver wrestled back but Sadier was able to reach the door handle. The bus driver fell out as the door swung open.

Sadier spun the wheel and turned the bus around 180 degrees. An inferno patrol vehicle smashed into the side of the bus forcing Sadier to react quickly to keep the bus from tipping. He floored the gas and sped the bus back through the gates and beyond into open space. The inferno guards chased after Sadier and the bus of prisoners in another patrol car. They began the chase too far behind and lost him in the city.

I awoke to the guards approaching my door. I popped the car into reverse - what was left of it anyway - and stomped on the gas to back away from the inferno.

Sadier eased the bus to a stop now miles from the inferno. He stumbled back into the bus where the passengers were still locked up. He practically fell at Priscilla’s feet and unlocked her first.

“I’ll get the others,” she said. “You go say hi to Saymi.”

Sadier scooted over to Saymi who was looking strangely at the section of night sky visible through one of the windows that Sadier had not shattered.

Her eyes met his when she realized that he was coming. They shared a long look trying to decide if the face they were seeing even looked familiar.

“Is this city what you thought it would be?” she asked.

“It’s not what anyone thinks it will be,” he replied.

She paused as if to ponder his reply and then asked, “So you defeated Alkador?”

“Yes,” he answered.

She paused again and suddenly smiled. “I missed you so much,” she said.

“I missed you too,” he replied. They embraced and cried.

When I drove up Priscilla was tending to Sadier’s wounds. She was annoyed that he wouldn’t hold still as she applied bandages to his shoulder and neck.

As I approached Sadier another man did too. I was concerned for a moment wondering if the man had ill intent but his body language seemed friendly.

“Who drove that bus out of the inferno?” the man asked.

“That would be him,” I answered, pointing at Sadier.

The man walked the rest of the way to Sadier and shook his hand. “That was really insane,” he stated, shaking his head. “And I really thank you because I don’t know how I would have gotten her out,” he said, nodding at a girl who was sitting shyly against a house across the street. I remembered seeing her earlier because she had bright blue hair.