Chaos Read online

  “Turn it off!” She jabbed at the buttons and controls on the dash. “Stop it!”

  Her knuckle must have hit something right, because the music halted as abruptly as it had begun.

  Johnis sat frozen. Both hands hovering over the steering wheel, enraptured or terrified or both.

  “Here he comes!” The man was running back toward them with a key dangling from his right hand.

  Johnis dropped his right hand onto the shift lever and jerked it back. The Chevy started to roll.

  He gripped the leather wheel, knuckles white, staring ahead like a shocked monkey.

  “Faster!” she cried, seeing the man close on them, sprinting now.

  “Careful, careful!” She jabbed her finger at the building to the right. “Watch the stable. Don’t run into the hill! Watch—”

  “Silence!” Johnis shouted. “I’m trying to drive the Chevy!”

  The man was on top of them, banging his palm on the window, cursing obscenely in words that made no sense to Silvie— but she understood the language of his red face clearly enough.

  He used the shotgun again, jolting them both.

  “Faster, faster!” They were going no fester to escape this monster than if they’d taken a leisurely stroll.

  “Okay, okay!” Johnis leaned back, took a quick look at the levers on the floor, then pressed one with his foot.

  The Chevy stopped abruptly.

  “The other one!”

  The car surged forward, effectively silencing them both. Like a rock flung from a slingshot, they sped across the ground and past the stables, heading directly for the sharp incline behind the station.

  It was dark, but the moon was full, and Silvie could see clearly enough the metal fencing between them and the hill.

  “Stop, stop; turn, turn!”

  But Johnis did not stop. He’d frozen, like a boy on his first rope swing, swaying beneath the tall trees near Middle.

  “Johnis!” Silvie grabbed the wheel and jerked it hard.

  The Chevy spun wildly to the right. Its wheels squealed in protest. They narrowly missed a head-on collision with the fencing and were now racing beside it.

  “Let go; I have it!” Johnis cried. Another fence cut across their path ahead, and seeing it, he yanked the wheel as Silvie had done.

  The Chevy spun again, but this time it didn’t stop spinning. Johnis kept the wheel turned, forcing the car into an arc that filled the air with smoke.

  The force shoved Silvie against him. “Straighten!”

  Johnis flung the wheel in the opposite direction. The Chevy shot forward, this time headed for the upright pumps … and the red-faced attendant standing in front of the pumps.

  “Stop!”

  “No, no!” Having mastered the skill of turning the Chevy, Johnis opted instead for pulling the wheel to his left. They blasted by the man, who had thrown himself to the ground. Another car was entering the station, and Johnis narrowly avoided a collision.

  So he could turn the thing, but could he stop it? Silvie felt her own feet instinctively smashing into the floor, wishing to slow the contraption down.

  “Slow down, please! You’re going to get us killed!”

  “He’s back there …”

  “You’re headed for a ditch! You have to stop. Stop!”

  But it was too late. They slammed into a shallow ditch, bounced over the other side, and ripped through a fence she hadn’t seen. Then they were on a bumpy, hard-packed dirt path instead of the flat roads of rock that the other cars seemed to prefer.

  Johnis shifted his foot to the second lever and pushed. They came to a sliding halt. Dust floated past them.

  Silence.

  “Fantastic!”

  Silvie punched his arm, furious that he’d put them in this predicament. “This isn’t a child’s game! Stop it with the ‘fantastic’ every other moment!”

  “But you have to admit: it’s like riding a hundred horses at once. Imagine going to battle with the Horde in one of these.”

  “There’s no room to maneuver your sword.”

  “We’d use a shotgun.”

  They looked at each other, then twisted back for a view of the station. Sure enough, the shotgun-bearing man named Ray was already halfway across the station in a full sprint.

  “Fool,” Johnis said and shoved his foot on the gas lever. The Chevy spun its wheels in the dirt, then shot into the night.

  Johnis managed to keep the car on the path, careening from side to side as he wrestled the wheel. But they were speeding away from the station, and that was good for Silvie.

  “You can stop it if you have to, right?”

  “Sure.” To demonstrate, Johnis hit the brake, and the Chevy went into a slide that piled them both up on his side.

  “See?”

  “Does this thing not know the meaning of gentle? This whole world appears to be violent.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. She can glide like a feather if I tell her to.”

  “Now it’s a she?”

  Johnis took off again, this time slowly at first, then gaining speed as they bounded down the road.

  “Put her on the proper road and she will glide, I can promise you that,” he said breathlessly. “Fantastic, I’m telling you. Mind-blowing.”

  “Just drive safely. Keep your eyes on the path. Why does this one not have lamps to guide us, like the other ones?”

  “Start punching buttons and you’ll find them. But then we’ll be seen.”

  He had a good point.

  “They’ll be coming for us, you do realize that?”

  His face lost some of its boyish delight. “Yes. But we have the Chevy, and we have the night. It’s a good start, Silvie.”

  “It could also be a good end.”

  he moon stood over them, round and bright, watching their every move. They’d brought the car to a stop a hundred yards off the dirt road in a shallow, sandy wash that protected them.

  Johnis led them both in a detailed exploration of the Chevy by moonlight, and now, out of harm’s way, Silvie found herself caught up in his excitement.

  They’d run through a whole gamut of exercises in an attempt to find the lamps on the Chevy and succeeded in triggering everything but. The music, the rear compartment door, sticks that presumably cleaned the front window, lights that blinked orange, even a loud horn that sent Silvie diving for cover when Johnis leaned on it.

  If they were going to venture onto the big road with the other Chevys, they had to use their lamps, no question. Johnis was bent over the front, looking for an exterior switch that might ignite them, when Silvie twisted the lever that moved the window cleaning sticks when pushed.

  Twin lights blazed into Johnis’s face.

  “Ahh!” He jumped back and threw his arm over his eyes. The light reached past him and illuminated the sandy slope beyond.

  Slowly Johnis lowered his arm. A broad grin split his face. “Yes! You’ve done it!” He twisted and stared at the far-reaching beams. “Fantastic! Look at that, will you?”

  Silvie jumped out, ran to the front, and leaped into the dazzling shafts of light, ” Whoo-hoo!” She grabbed his hands and they danced in a circle like children, carrying on as if they’d just heard news that the Horde had laid down their swords for good.

  “What did I say?” Johnis cried.

  “I don’t know, what did you say?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s fantastic.”

  “We made it.” Silvie stared into Johnis’s eyes, smiling wide with him. “You were right, my handsome warrior. We’ve crossed the worlds and taken the enemy’s treasured Chevy from under his nose, and now we’ve conquered it.”

  “Yes, we have.”

  Their dancing slowed.

  “I owe you my life,” she said.

  They were only partly serious in this mood of frivolity, but the nature of that mood was shifting quickly. They circled each other, arms stretched, hands clasped.

  “I owe you my life,” Johnis said.


  Silvie felt her stomach lighten, her heart swell. The world slowed around them.

  “Did you mean what you said?” Johnis asked. “To the attendant?”

  The statement about him being her lover had stayed in the back of Silvie’s mind, but not until now, staring into his eyes, did she understand how much she longed for the statement to be true.

  “Should I have meant it?” she asked, sliding her hands up his arms.

  The last of Johnis’s smile faded. His boyish charm was gone, replaced by a gaze of deep longing. His eyes swallowed her, like windows into a new world—a world that could be a sanctuary of perfect peace and love.

  He stepped into her arms and enfolded her in his embrace. His head tilted slightly to one side, and he pulled her to himself. His soft lips pressed lightly against hers. Then he bit her lower lip tenderly, and she felt her mind spin.

  This was Johnis, the man who had led her into terrible danger, to the brink of death, alongside impossible odds, for the sake of love and loyalty—the chosen one who’d never faltered or strayed from the way of his heart.

  This was the man she’d fallen madly in love with. Having that love returned now sealed her own longing. Silvie pressed against him and passionately returned his embrace. They kissed long and tenderly, hearts pounding against each other’s chests.

  Other sixteen-year-olds in Middle were joining in marriage, but she and Johnis had crossed worlds to find their love. And nothing could possibly be sweeter. When she pulled away from him, she half-expected the night to have passed, but the sky was still black, and the Chevy’s lamps still drilled the darkness with its two beams of brilliant light.

  Johnis was breathing steadily. He smiled and drew her close again, “I’ve dreamed of that longer than you know.”

  “You have?”

  “From the moment I saw you fighting over the Horde ball in Middle, I wondered what it would be like to kiss you.”

  “Then it’s not just the air here?”

  “No,” he said and kissed her again. “Definitely not, although the air does seem to loosen things up a bit, doesn’t it?”

  “Just a bit.” She smiled, and they kissed yet again.

  A thumping sound joined her heart, like a muted drum in the sky. The sound jerked her back to earth.

  “What’s that?”

  They scrambled to the top of the knoll on their right and saw the source of the beating—a bird or flying car, moving across the horizon slowly, shining a light onto the road they’d traveled. Lights from cars racing toward the city stretched out along the big road beyond.

  “They’re looking for us!” she said. “They’ll see the lamps!”

  Johnis spun and raced back to the car. “How did you ignite them?”

  She slid into the seat next to him and turned the lamps off. “Now what?”

  “They’re following the same road we did. We wait for them to pass us, then head back in the dark, join the other cars on the big road, and take the Chevy to Las Vegas.”

  Silvie thought about his plan, which sounded more like a vague notion than a reasoned course of action. But she felt emboldened with the taste of his lips lingering on her own.

  “Assuming we survive the other Chevys and make it to this Las Vegas, then what?”

  “The attendant mentioned an arena for fighters called the Excalibur. Dangerous perhaps, but I think we would fit in- We start there. And we find Darsal and Karas before the Dark One does.”

  “Assuming Alucard hasn’t found them already.”

  THE BIG ROAD WAS A NIGHTMARE IN THE MAKING; SILVIE could see that much as Johnis angled the Chevy down the strip that merged with cars racing east.

  He’d learned to maneuver the car fairly well on the dirt road, but his confidence was challenged by the sight ahead: not the road but the other cars.

  “Lights!”

  He ignited them, then pulled out onto the road. A horn blared behind as a car swerved to avoid running up their backside.

  “Patience!” Johnis snapped at the passing Chevy.

  “Easy, just keep us on the road. Ignore them.”

  “How can I? They’re traveling like lightning past us. I have to speed up.”

  He fed the Chevy more gas, and they flew down the road. Another car blasted them, blaring a rude horn, and Johnis took his speed even higher. Cars were still passing them but not as if they were stopped. Slowly his confidence returned, and he increased their speed.

  The next fifteen minutes raced by without event. The road was flat, straight as an arrow. But the moment they crested the last hill and caught their first close-up view of the city called Las Vegas, the complexity of their journey increased tenfold.

  For starters, the number of cars seemed to have doubled without warning, forcing Johnis to concentrate on all sides, careful not to run into a slowing Chevy ahead yet staying in front of the impatient Chevys behind. He repeatedly braked hard, then zoomed forward with enough suddenness to tear an unprepared passenger’s head from his shoulders.

  “Slow down!”

  A horn blared behind.

  “And be run over?” Johnis muttered angrily and swerved into the space to his left, then shot past the car that had slowed before them. He shook his fist at the man as he sped by.

  Two minutes later the same car drove past them, its rider glaring angrily.

  “You see what happens when you lose your patience?” Silvie snapped.

  “He’s a menace!”

  The increase in cars was made even more complicated by the sheer magnitude of the city they approached. Las Vegas was lit up like the stars, only far brighter and brimming with red, blue, and golden hues that shone like jewels.

  The enormity of it all made it hard for either of them to keep their undivided attention on the Chevys around them.

  The roads widened, and soon thousands of lights streamed by on all sides. The city of lights. How would they ever find this festival called “Excalibur”? But none of this prepared them for the final complexity that suddenly altered their relatively successful experience in the Histories thus far.

  “Lights, everywhere lights,” Johnis cried. “I can’t see straight for all the lights. Now red and blue lights on top of a Chevy are riding our tail. We have to get out and find our bearings.”

  Silvie twisted in her seat and saw the car behind them, red and blue lights flashing on its roof. The driver …

  She gasped.

  “What?”

  “He’s a warrior. In uniform! He … he’s motioning us to the side!”

  “You’re sure?”

  A blurp sounded from the car, a horn of some kind, but this one didn’t end. It wailed, rising and falling in a sound that sent chills down Silvie’s spine.

  “They’re looking at us,” Johnis said.

  “Who is?”

  “Everyone!”

  And drawing aside, Silvie saw. Not unlike herding hunters pulling wide to give the archer plenty of space for a shot at the prey.

  “He’s after us, Johnis!” Panic swelled through her mind. “Go! Run for your life! Get us out of here!”

  The Chevy surged forward. Johnis whipped the car around a white one and left it to deal with the hunter behind them. As if they needed any confirmation that they were indeed being hunted, the Chevy with flashing lights veered around the same white car and closed quickly.

  “Dear Elyon, help us!” he cried and wound the motor higher.

  “Faster.”

  “I’m going faster!”

  “It’s a race car; make it race!”

  Johnis set his jaw the way he had heading into the Black Forest and the Horde city or a dozen other occasions when he’d thrown caution to the wind in favor of principle.

  Gripping the wheel with both fists, he swerved first to the left around a third car, then all the way across to the right, racing past the Chevys as if it were now they who were standing still.

  “Careful …” Silvie cut herself short, thinking that he was actually mastering the Che
vy with surprising ease.

  The hunter behind had been joined by a second, both wailing as they gave pursuit. “Never mind, go! There!” She pointed at a large green sign that read LAS VEGAS BOULEVARD.

  Johnis swerved for the road under the sign and flew down the slope, blaring his own horn to warn the slowing cars to move out of his way.

  An obstacle they hadn’t yet seen presented itself ahead: red lights hanging over the road. A dozen Chevys had stopped under them as if facing an invisible wall.

  “Johnis …”

  “Navigate!” he cried. “We can’t stop; the hunters are gaining. Find a hole, tell me …” His intense concentration stopped him, but she knew that he was right. They were in a Horde city from the Histories, being hounded by two warriors or hunters who undoubtedly meant to kill them.

  If they were to survive and go after the books …

  “To the right!” The opening was narrow, between two cars, and she couldn’t see beyond, but it was the only gap she could see.

  “Over the lip?”

  “What lip?”

  Johnis shot for the gap to their right, and Silvie saw Johnis’s “lip” then: a thin fence bordered the road, then gave way to a cliff beyond.

  “Johnis!”

  But Johnis was flying faster. They cut the car on their right off, forcing its rider into a squealing brake. It was all a blur now, and Silvie threw her arms up to protect her face.

  The Chevy hit a curb and launched up, nose high in the air. Then they were airborne.

  “Hold on …”

  “Dear Elyon, save us!”

  They sailed ten yards and landed level with a horrendous crash, bounced once, then flew forward on spinning wheels.

  They’d survived?

  Unscathed, it would seem, but the car was now screaming directly for another line of cars stopped beneath a line of hanging red lights.

  To this point Johnis had managed to maneuver the Chevy down the mountain and into the city without touching another car. Seeing the line, Silvie knew that would now change. She braced herself for the impact.

  Johnis whipped the wheel to his left, slammed his foot on the brake, then released it and applied more gas. The Chevy went into a broad slide, then abruptly straightened, flying past the line of stopped cars.