Chapter 8 - The Collision Course“Hold on!” Marcus screamed from the front seat, slamming his foot down hard on the accelerator.
The delivery van roared, its engine whining as it surged forward down the winding, rain-slicked mountain road.
I grabbed Evan, pulling him down onto the floor between the benches, shielding him with my own body as the van swerved violently around a sharp curve.
CRASH!
A heavy impact slammed into the rear bumper of our van.
Metal groaned against metal as one of the pursuing black SUVs rammed us from behind, trying to spin us off the slick asphalt and into the steep rocky embankment bordering the highway.
“They’re trying to pit-maneuver us!” Miller yelled, unholstering her suppressed pistol and sliding the side door open just an inch against the driving rain.
“Don't shoot!” Daniel shouted, lunging forward to grab Miller’s arm. “If you engage them, they’ll classify this as a terrorist combat operation and launch an airstrike! We need to get to the safehouse!”
“If we don't shoot, we’re dead in thirty seconds!” Miller snapped, shoving his hand away.
She aimed out the narrow crack of the sliding door and fired three rapid shots toward the front tires of the trailing SUV.
POP-POP-POP!
A shower of sparks exploded from the SUV’s front wheel well as one of its tires shredded at seventy miles per hour. The heavy vehicle fishtailed wildly, its headlights swinging across the dark tree line before it careened off the road and smashed hard into a thick grove of pine trees.
“That’s one!” Marcus yelled over the roar of the engine. “Look out! There’s another one right behind him!”
I looked back through the rear window.
A second black SUV was closing the gap, its high beams cutting through the rain like searchlights. But it wasn't trying to ram us anymore.
A heavy steel reinforcement plate was sliding open on the roof of the SUV, and a dark, cylindrical barrel was rising from the hatch.
“EMP launcher!” Miller shrieked. “Get down!”
Before anyone could move, a blinding blue flash lit up the night sky behind us.
ZAP!
A high-frequency electromagnetic pulse wave washed over our van.
The engine instantly died. All the dashboard lights flickered out, the headlights plunged into total darkness, and the power steering locked up solid with a violent jerk that nearly threw Marcus through the windshield.
“We’ve lost power! No ignition! No brakes!” Marcus screamed, wrestling frantically with the dead steering wheel as the van coasted down the dark, rain-soaked mountain grade at terrifying speed.
“Jump! Everyone out!” Miller ordered, kicking the sliding side door open against the wind.
“I can’t leave him!” I cried, grabbing Evan, who was too terrified to move, frozen in a state of absolute shock on the floorboards.
Daniel didn't hesitate. He lunged down, scooped Evan up into his arms, and hurled himself out of the sliding door into the thick mud and brush beside the road, rolling down the steep embankment just as the van’s momentum carried it skidding into a massive rock wall.
CRASH!
The front end of the delivery van crumpled like paper, bursting into a small ball of orange flame against the rocks.
May you like
I scrambled out of the smoking wreck, tumbling down the wet mud bank after Daniel and Evan, while Miller and Marcus fired suppressive rounds uphill toward the approaching black SUV.
“Keep moving! Into the treeline!” Miller shouted, grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet as bullets began to snap through the pine branches overhead, kicking up showers of bark and dirt all around us.
