The Eternal Sleep

The First Card

Olivia was relaxed as ever, hands on the wheel and a determined look on her face. Luca rubbed absentmindedly at his chest, where he was certain his heart would be beating painfully fast in the real world. The lights clicked from red to yellow, cars already revving loudly and inching forward.

Green, and like that, the racers were off.

Olivia whooped and gunned the engine, smoke filling the track. The screams of the crowd rose to a crescendo, drowning out the music for a few seconds. “Straight ahead, then first left!” Luca yelled, watching the map that Armando sent him.

A raucous sound similar to gun fire exploded behind them, Olivia hardly flinched, keeping her eyes on the road. The first racer was already out of the competition, their car unable to handle the strain. Luca braced himself as she pulled a tight corner, yelling out a couple more directions and flagging Jay of their position.

A car slammed against them, almost shoving them against a wall. Olivia hit the brakes, forcing the car forward before pulling to the other side and repeating the same trick, this time successfully. The racer panicked and pulled to close to the wall, another car was out.

“Mando, how we looking?” Luca clutched the handle on the door to keep himself steady. Olivia pulled another around another drastic bend, her face scrunched in concentration, “Armando!”

“Guys, you wouldn’t believe what!” Armando was distracted, Luca pointed to the left and Olivia pulled another corner, barely avoiding another driver.

“Mando, not the time, focus!” Jay’s voice was breathless and staticky on the earpiece.

“Right, you have fifteen drivers left, you have two on your tail and the guy you smoked yesterday in front.” Luca wanted to praise how confident Armando was talking but he was too busy trying to focus on the maps in front of him.

“Good, do you have another route we can take?”

“Yes, but it’s another fifteen metres ahead the right tunnel, watch your three!”

Olivia pulled sharply to the right, but it was to no avail, she was blocked on all three sides, “Luc, plan, now!”

“Hit the brakes!” she stopped sharply, “Now take another right, into the tunnels!” The sudden darkness was blinding, the tunnel lights were too dim to be of any use. They could hear another car behind them, rapidly catching up. “You’ll hit a ramp in a minute, use that to get him off your tail and then back onto the main road.”

“Guys, someone found the first card!” Armando practically screaming in their ears.

“What?” Rena screamed back, Luca head seeming to rattle with his attempt to keep up with both conversations. He braced himself on the dash of the car, using a split second to decide whether to tell Olivia or not. No, he could distract her, not now.

“Take a right, ignore the round-about!” she didn’t question it, pulling hard and throwing a car off their trail. “Guys, not the time, we can focus on that after, Mando, cars, now!”

“Right, eleven, a few hit the ditch, good job avoiding the round-about. Jay’s on your left.”

Luca tapped Olivia’s shoulder and pointed to her window, “Jay.” She nodded and kept a steady trail to avoid possibly hitting the motorbike.

Jay pulled up the window, his borrowed motorbike carrying a few scratches and his face disgruntled. He rapped his knuckles on the window lightly before pulling in front of them, stopping another racer from badgering them. They kept off track, avoiding other racers as much as they could and pulling into second place easily.

That’s when Luca saw it, his heart leapt in his throat in anxious surprise. He turned around to get a better look at the object they just rocketed pass. There was a black key card, hanging mid-air in the middle of the track like an innocent butterfly. He needed to decide immediately, or they were going to lose their chance to grab it.

“Hit the brakes!”

“What, are you mad?” Olivia screamed at him. She pulled on his jacket harshly to get him to sit down.

“I said stop the car!”

“Luca, what’s going on?”

“A key card, we passed a key card.”

“What?”

“Ollie, stop. Turn. The car. Around!” she cursed and slammed the brakes; Luca pulled his seat belt off and swiped his screens away. “Mando, get a new route now, a faster one!”

“What the heck’s going on?”

“We found a card!” Luca’s voice broke several times, panic constricting his throat.

“Just how the heck are you going to get it?” Olivia tried to look at him as he opened the door, his teleportation totem glowing in response to his anxiety.

“Just keep the car steady, don’t stop for nothing!” he grabbed the top of the car and leaned his body out, arm stretched. He was faintly aware of Olivia clutching the end of his jacket to steady him.

They hardly had time to react as a car slammed into them roughly, Luca slipped in surprise. He grabbed into the door, his feet searching for purchase on the seat. “Rena, what hit us?”

“Your battery guy from before, Brexiet I think, he’s on your tail, he turned when you did!”

“Jay?”

“I’m too far, Mando?”

“I plotted a new course, but you only have a minute to get back on the track or you’ll fall to last place!”

The card was in front of him, of he just leaned a little more. The car rocked again, his hand slipped off the car door and the stability disappeared from under his feet. Luca’s eyes widened as the information registered in a split second, he was weightless. Time felt like wading through molasses. “Luc!”

He clutched onto a thin strip of plastic, then turned, disappearing in a small vortex of blue dust.

He clenched his hands, breath coming out in panicked gasps, he was kneeling on top of Olivia’s car with one hand tightly gripping onto to the roof. The card seemed to be vibrating in his hand as if trying to calm him down, he shoved it in his jacket and yelled into the earpiece, “I’m on the car!”

“Thank Eternal Sleep,” Olivia screeched as the others let out a sigh of relief, “What were you thinking?”

The car jerked again, Luca scrambled for purchase, glancing at the perpetrator. “Rena?”

“He’s been flagged three times; you can take him out legally!”

“Get in the car you maniac!” Luca pushed himself towards the windscreen, teleporting back into the car as soon as he had the inside of the car in his sights. Olivia cuffed him in the ear, he responded with a shaky grin, certain his heart was hammering against his chest in the real world.

“Can you stop him?”

“Just give me the new route.” He prattled off the directions Armando sent him, keeping an eye on the other car. “I can, but you have to hold on hard.”

He braced himself on the seat, foot against the dash and arm on the door handle. Olivia moved to the right, the car behind her touching the bumper harshly in an attempt to throw them off the road.

She sped up the car, turns becoming far tighter and much more reckless. “What are you trying, at this speed you could lose control!”

“We’ve been at these speeds before.”

“In controlled tracks for training!”

“The guy behind us is angry enough to forfeit the race to hit us, right?” Luca couldn’t understand what she was getting at, wincing as she pulled another difficult corner, “How far is he willing to go to get us?”

Luca could almost physically see the plan falling into place. “Can you pull it off?”

“We can pull back now if you want?” she pointed to the wall she was fast approaching, “You already gave me a heart attack, I want to return the favor.”

Olivia was going to pull one of the tricks she was most proud of learning. Essentially, she was angering the driver just enough to have his full attention on her. Now, she was going to test that attention by driving at a wall at full speed and pulling to the side at the last minute.

They’d tried it in the empty racing areas, but they had no idea if it would work in the real thing. She continued to increase the speed, Luca couldn’t tear his eyes away, he knew he’d be fine, but it didn’t stop the absolute terror.

“3… 2… 1” Olivia stamped on the brakes ruthlessly, turning the car and pressing on the fuel again. Luca closed his eyes as the car tilted dangerously, trying to balance out his weight.

It was barely two seconds before a loud explosion rocked the ground, the light reflecting off their mirrors. It took them a moment to understand.

Luca looked at Olivia in shock before they both began yelling in excitement. The others joined in enthusiastically. They made it and manged to obtain second position again.

Olivia dragged the car back on track, easily claiming first place. She went through the finish line ribbon, the pair still screaming in excitement. Camera’s flashed and horns blew to signify the end of the race.

Luca finally relaxed in his seat, hand over his chest. They’d scored first place, and as Luca touched the card in his pocket, they were one card into the biggest quest of ‘The Eternal Sleep.”