Chapter 31 -- Not Gonna Lose Again

The bald man was big. He seemed to fill the cavern, first with his size and then with this personality. And his voice, his voice boomed and echoed from the corners of the cave and it made Zed's heart thump in his ribcage with fear and reverence. Still, he was not going to do what the man said till he got answers to his questions.

"You want your sword?" Zed yelled.

The bald man just smiled and nodded at Zed.

"Then come and take it."

One of the suits frowned in anger at Zed's words to their boss. "You filthy insect!"

He disappeared from his position on the side of his brothers and appeared right behind Zed. The sword twisted Zed's arm behind him and saved his head from getting stabbed by the knife in the suit's hand.

"Shit," Zed screamed in pain as the tendons in his arms stretched and bones popped. He turned to face his attacker when the second suit appeared behind him and punched him in the neck. By the time the third suit appeared on Zed's side of the river, Zed was on the ground and trying to save himself from the kicks and punches thrown by the three suits.

"Enough." The big man said from the other side of river.

From his foetal position on the groud, Zed saw the man walk towards the river. The water parted where his sandaled foot touched the surface. The illusion made it seem like the man was walking on water. He stepped on dry land and walked to where Zed was getting beaten by the suits. He towered over Zed and then picked him up like a mother dog would pick her errant puppy. He sat Zed on a rock and dusted him down. He put his hands on Zed's shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

"Now, boy," he said, "listen carefully because I will say this only once."

Zed stared angrily at him.

"You cannot stop this competition from taking place again. You will not even exist when it happens next time. You started from a river and you ended back up at the river and you managed to stay alive till then. That's enough. This is over. And as far as I remember, you were picked from the middle of a race. You must continue that."

The prospect of finishing that race made Zed forget all the pain. His thoughts focused. There was a chance of race. A real race. Better than this. Still, he had questions of his own.

"Why me?" he asked.

The man smiled. It was the smile of an executioner whose prisoner has asked a very stupid question.

"We were testing you for the next big thing."

"What about this?" Zed raised his left hand with the chip embedded in his flesh.

"Ah, Marilyn. I'll have to send her home." He plucked the chip from Zed's hand like pulling a coin out of thin air.

"Tell her I said thanks, even if she was a bitch 90% of the times."

"You can tell her this yourself when you see her next."

And before Zed could ask any more questions, the big man punched him in the face and darkness enveloped Zed like a lover's embrace.

When he woke up, a girl was slapping his face and screaming his name.

Zed opened his eyes and saw Wolf's car speed away from him.

"Fuck this shit," he slammed his foot on the accelerator, "not gonna lose again."

-----------------

Finish

-----------------

More questions than answers. Which is good. We've got enough fodder for next time. This, as they say, is just the beginning.

Tomorrow, the wrap up post.

Thanks for reading :)

Chapter 30 -- Dreamspace

In his dream, Zed was driving again. His bleeding hands held the steering wheel and the road in front of him stretched to infinity. Still, he drove on. The car sped on till the speedometer sped in circles. He saw Krazkaf racing on his tank ahead of him and overtook him. Krazkaf waved at him and Zed passed him. Half of his face was hanging from his neck and his bones were showing through his skin, where teethmarks were visible in the flesh.

Next, he saw the little girl called the Questioner. She was sitting in a bath tub by the side of the road. She gave Zed a finger and got a grin as a reply. He saw Baxron next who was riding lopsided on his beast. His body twisted at strange angles and both of his legs were pointing in the wrong direction.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Zed asked.

"Fell from the cliff after cutting that web."

"Good going, loser!"

Zed saw the road ahead and slammed the brakes. Olag was standing in the middle of the road. Zed was out of the car in a flash and he stalked towards the little man who didn't even seem interesting in moving from the path of a sure shot beating.

He reached Olag and kicked him in the face. Zed's boot connected with Olag's face and teeth sprayed out of his mouth. Then he took some time in kicking the him in all the places which were supposed to hurt but Olag didn't even cry out once.

When Zed had exhausted himself, Olag got up and spat some more teeth from his mouth.

"You will never win the race." he said and wiped back sweaty hair with his hand.

"Why did you stab me? You asshole."

Olag shrugged, "I'm in the race to win and I'll stab anyone to win it."

"I thought we were friends."

"Then let this be a lesson for you. Friends will stab you the first chance they get."

Zed looked at Olag's bleeding face.

"This is some kind of dreamspace, isn't it? I am still there in the cave, bleeding to death, or getting poisoned by your black knife."

Olag smiled at him. "One of the two. But the end result will be the same."

"Well," Zed said, "I've got a lesson for you too, Olag. Never stop me in a race."

"I've stopped you already. Your thoughts will be stuck in this dream, while you will die in the labyrinth."

"If this is a dream, then how sure are you of reality?"

A confused expression flitted through Olag's face. Zed focused and thought about his sword which appeared in his hand instantly. Olag's confused expression changed to fear.

"No!"

The words were barely out of his lips when his head hit the road. Zed flicked the blood of his sword.

He needed a shock to get out of his dream. Without thinking for another second, he chopped off his left hand. As blood spritzed out like a water from a broken hose, his eyes opened in darkness. The copper taste of blood was in his mouth and his left hand hung uselessly from his arm. Olag's body was lying on the floor near him, with his eyes rolled back in his skull and his lips formed in shape of a silent 'no".

Zed spat back at him and walked into the darkness. Guided by the sword's blue light, he came up to an underground cave where a river flowed silently. There were three men standing on the other side. All of them wore identical black suits and their white hair were tied back in ponytails.

"Congrats Mr. Zed, on finding the river." one of them said.

"If you'd be so kind to come this side." the second said.

"So we can finish this race and send you back." the third added.

"Can you take them?" Zed asked the sword.

"Them? No issues. But I'd be more worried about their boss."

A figure towered behind the three suits. A bald man with ashen skin, who stood in the darkness, shadows hiding his face.

"Bring me my sword, boy," his voice boomed in the underground cave.

---

Heh :) Now who the hell is this?!

Chapter 29 -- Darkness Within

Zed felt the walls rush past him as he fell. He tumbled up and down. His hands clawed the surfaces for any purchase, but the sword stuck to his hand limited his movement. He grabbed the sword with both hands and jammed it into a wall as it rushed past him. The shock of the sudden stop almost dislocated his shoulders, but the sword held and Zed's fall stopped.

"Fuck, who the fuck pushed me from up there?!"

He waited for his breath to come back to normal and hung there in empty darkness.

"Put your foot down Zed," the sword said.

He stretched one foot as far as it would go, it touched solid ground. He put his other foot down and pulled the sword out of the wall.

"It's so dark."

In the silence of the pit, his sword started to hum with a blue light. He raised the sword above his head and the walls around him were illuminated in the same blue eerie glow as above in the labyrinth. He pointed the sword to his feet and saw a bloody smear on the floor. It looked like something wet, heavy and very dead was dragged from here.

"Krazkaf," he said to himself, "seems he didn't make it in one piece."

He started to walk in the direction of the blood stains. A noise behind him startled him and his foot slipped in the blood. He put one hand on the wall to balance himself and the small barbs in the wall dug into his hand.

"Yeaaowch!" he pulled his hand back and looked at it in the blue light from the sword. Little droplets of blood were dripping from his hand and falling on the floor.

"Blood in the labyrinth...shit."

He started to walk forward, taking care to stay away from the walls and place his foot carefully. Somewhere along the way, the smear of the blood faded and Zed realized that he was lost. He tried to back trace the way he had come from, but it was a dead end.

"Lord Zed," a voice called him from the darkness.

Zed recognized the voice.

"Olag? Is that you?"

"Follow my voice, hurry up, before those things catch you."

"What things?!" Zed said, as he walked towards Olag's voice.

"The things that live in the labyrinth. They ate Krazkaf."

"Ate?"

Zed walked faster towards Olag's voice. He saw the little man cowering in a hollow in the wall.

"Lord Zed," Olag said, "I am sorry."

"What are you saying man?"

And Olag buried a small knife with a black blade in Zed's foot.

Zed looked at the knife. Then he looked at Olag. Then he was looking at the darkness of the ceiling as Olag's face appeared in his fading eyesight and the little man spat at Zed.

"Fuckery," Zed burbled, "this is all fuckery."

And the world faded away from Zed.

----

Two more days! :)

Chapter 28 – The Labyrinth

The black hole of the labyrinth gaped in front of Zed and Krazkaf. The wounds on his hands had sealed themselves and now the blood was not flowing from the stumps.

"I really thought you were going to bleed to death back there," Zed said.

"You care? You meant to kill me, didn't you?" Krazkaf replied.

"I just wanted you to go away. But the sword and this place are doing things to me. I am just a driver. Never handled a sword before in my life."

Krazkaf smirked, "This is what the race is about Zed boy. It changes people."

"Yeah, and the sooner I see the end of this, the better. Let's see what this labyrinth is all about."

Krazkaf was the first to step inside the hole and Zed followed him. The walls inside the structure burned with a bluish flame that gave everything an eerie glow. There was no roof above them, but only darkness. They walked in a circular path that narrowed till Krazkaf's wide shoulders brushed the walls. They had to turn side ways to proceed. Zed saw that Krazkaf's hands were healing rapidly and the stumps had the beginning of fingernails on them. He didn't want to cut his hands again, but if need be, he was averse to doing it. The sword in his hand vibrated with a hum at Zed's thoughts.

Krazkaf took another step and then he disappeared. Zed waved his hand in the air in front of him, but there was nothing. Then someone pushed him and he fell into the darkness. 

Chapter 27 -- A Handy Affair

Zed took the sword and stepped out of his car. He gave the sword an experimental swing and it felt
easy and light. The sword balanced itself in his hand like it had belonged there. "I don't really feel very keen to do this Krazkaf." "Then you can give up and die easily," his opponent growled. "Not at all keen on that." Krazkaf came at Zed with his burning sword swinging in a wide
arc. Zed blocked. The sword in his hands rang as the weapons clashed. Such was the force of the strike that Zed's footing slipped and he slid back a few feet. "Hold your ground, boy," the sword said in his head, "I can only help you till a point, you have to do some work too." "Yeah? Then let's give the burning boy a taste of steel." Zed struck at Krazkaf with an offhanded strike and the burning sword easily blocked the strike. Zed stepped inside the block and before Krazkaf could realize what was happening Zed had kicked the big man's legs from under him. Krazkaf's face burned with surprise as he fell to the ground and Zed rained a flurry of wild swings on him. At first Krazkaf blocked them as well as he could, but there was no heart in his blocks. With a mighty strike, Zed smacked the sword out of Krazkaf's hand. He stood on top of the fallen man, breathing hard, he asked, "Death or dishonor?" "Death." Krazkaf spat at him. "So be it, old boy." Zed raised his sword and brought it down hard on Krazkaf's left
hand. The demon screamed in pain, but Zed was not done. He chopped off the right hand too.
Krazkaf writhed in pain and anger as blood made a pool around his feet. Zed picked him by the scruff of his neck and led him towards the labyrinth.

Chapter 26 -- Asking The Right Question

"Cool kid," the sword said in Zed's head.

"The kid is a pain in the ass. Want to ask her a question?"

"Sure. I have questions. Ask her where is the finish line to this damned race."

Zed grinned.

He lowered the window on his side and leaned out of the car.

"Hey, kid, where is the finish line?"

The Questioner smiled back at Zed. The smile was way too wide for a kid and the teeth were way too big for a girl her age.

"In the labyrinth, where you will lose blood, the door to the other side, is buried in the mud."

Zed narrowed his eyes. "I was hoping for clear directions."

"You have a navigator."

"Point."

"Now get out of your car," the kid said, "I have to eat you."

"I don't think you can eat me," he grabbed the sword, "this will get stuck in your throat."

The Questioner opened her mouth wide. It was like a cavernous hole and in the darkness things squiggled and wiggled over themselves. The smell from the mouth drove Zed back into the car.

"Woah! See a dentist, will you?"

"Throw me," the sword said, and Zed was more than happy to oblige.  He threw the sword at The Questioner like a spear. The sword turned itself midway and spun in a lazy circle. The Questioner opened her mouth and swallowed the sword whole. Then she burped. Her face contorted in pain and a thin line of blood tore out of her frock. The sword burst through the girl's stomach. Then it swung up in the air and sliced the girl's head clean off her neck. Zed caught the sword before it fell in the mud. The Questioner's dead body fell from the hood of the car and water rushed in from all sides into the car. Zed had bare moments to shut the windows and floor the accelerator.  

"Marilyn!" Zed screamed, "we need to find a labyrinth."

"What a coincidence! There is one just around the corner. Turn right."

Zed drove out of the river bank and turned the wheel right.

"And," Marilyn's voice seethed with sarcasm, "your  friend has reached here before us."

Krazkaf stood before a hole in the wall. He was on fire. He held a sword in his hand. The sword burned with a bright blue flame. He saw Zed and raised his sword.

"You carry the doom sword," Krazkaf growled,"fight me and claim your destiny."

"What the fuck..." Zed swore.

----------

If you want the right answer, you have to ask the right question.

Chapter 25 – From The Frying Pan

The car lurched as another of the threads came free from its hold on the mountain. There were only three threads holding the weight of Zed's car and Baxron sliced faster through the third thread.

Inside the car, Zed hand rippled like it was trapped in a haze of heat waves riding from a road in a desert. He took a breath and grabbed the handle of the sword.

A :) appeared on the LED panel in the side of the sword and a new voice cleared its throat in Zed's head.

“Owwww,” he screamed, “turn down the fucking volume.”

“Sorry,” Quicksilver's voice said without a trace of remorse.

“What the fuck is this? Is my head a free boarding house for voices?

“You're out of your league Zed and you need help. So take what you're getting and count your blessings.”

“Yeah, yeah, talk later, first get me out of this. That asshole is chopping the threads that are holding us and if we drop its goodbye to everything.”

“Start the car. Let's scoot before he has a chance to drop us.”

Zed put the sword back in the passenger seat and then he wrapped the seatbelt around it. He clicked in his own seatbelt too. Something he had not done for quite some time. He keyed the ignition and put the car in gear. His hand was red from holding the sword. It looked like a tattoo on his palm

Baxron looked at Zed, his face red with the effort of slicing the last thread. He waved a bye-bye to Zed and got a middle finger in return. The last thread snapped under the weight of the car and Zed fell from his view.

First Zed felt weightlessness and he loosened his jaw to wait for the bump. Many racers had bit off their own tongues or jarred their teeth after a bump. He was a pro.

The car, still stuck to the web, hit the side of the mountain and stayed there. Zed slowly moved the car forward so that it swung like a pendulum from the side of the mountain. At the height of the arc, he switched to reverse gear and the car moved back the way it had came. The web went taut, stretching to the point of breaking. Zed knew he didn't have much time, at the top of the backward arc, he switch gears and the car sped forward like an arrow from a bow. There was a pool of water at the bottom of the mountain and the car splashed into the pool, going under the surface. But no water entered the car. It just spread apart, leaving a cube of void the size of the car.

“Oh fucking no,” Zed said.

The girl in a frock with a teddy in her hand was sitting on the hood of his car. “Ask me a question or I'll eat you.” She opened her mouth wide and every sharp teeth illustrated her point.

Chapter 24 – Like Spider to the Flies

Baxron stood by the side of the cliff and watched Zed's car sail through the open air. He patted the neck of his mount, the creature gnashed its teeth at Zed's scent.

"We've got him. He'll be dead before he hits the ground." Baxron got off the creature and climbed down the mountain side.

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up." the voice was in Zed's head and it was hurting with every movement. He tried to open his eyes and only one eye opened. He panicked for a second, then touched his eye. It was crusted over with dry blood. His head hurt like he had slammed it into the steering wheel.

"Fuck me for listening to a woman for directions." he swore. Once he managed to pry his eye open, he saw that the ground was very far away from where he was. He looked out of the window and saw the car hanging in a web stretched taut between the walls of the mountain. The web swung slowly as Zed moved.

"Marilyn? A little help."

"Ask that fellow over there, maybe he can help."

Zed looked at the fellow. It was Baxron, nimbly climbing down from the mountain.

"Master Zed. I built a nice little web for you."

"Kinda ruined the purpose of killing me, didn't it?"

"I only seek to delay the inevitable." Baxron smirked at Zed.

"Thanks for the spear. It was a blast using it." Zed smirked back.

"Mock me when you find a way to get out of this jam you've gotten yourself into," Baxron said, "by the way, how much do you trust that chip in your hand?"

"I trust this chip more than I trust you Bax. Say your part and leave me to my misery."

"Die before Krazkaf gets you. You are carrying the sword he hates. This race is over for you and your planet."

"Is that all?" Zed asked.

Baxron shrugged. Then he took out a knife from his belt and started slicing the web's end that were stuck to his side of the mountain.

"Fuck you, Bax!" Zed swore as Baxron sliced through another thread.

"Zed, we'll crash if we don't have enough speed while going down." Marilyn's voice was clear as daylight in Zed's head.

"Yeah, I know. I am working on it."

A beep attracted his attention. The sword, Quicksilver was beeping. The LED panel flashed, "PICK ME".

Zed extended his hand towards the sword. A thread of static electricity passed from his hand to the handle of the sword. On the edge of the mountain, Baxron saw Zed about to pick the sword.

"Fuck." He started to slice the threads faster.

Chapter 23 – Flight Of The Flightless

 "Are there any flying parts in this car?" Zed asked Marilyn.

"We'll need elevation baby."

"Baby?"

"Why? You don't like when I call you that?"

He looked at the chip in his hand. He thought maybe he could look into Marilyn's eyes if he stared hard enough.

"You were silent when I needed guidance. How can I trust you now?"

The mocking tone dripped from Marilyn's voice as she spoke.

"Well, baby, you got no one else to trust."

Zed sighed and drove where his mind told him to. He drove over a straight road that spiraled to a mountain. Marilyn's voice kept guiding him.

"Faster," she told him.

"That's what you said last time." he said, but drove on faster anyway. There was a new feel to the car. Like a sleeping beast slowly waking up. Olag's people had really done something nifty with the car.

"Don't slow down Zed, no matter what you see."

Suddenly, the sky darkened around the mountain and Zed switched on the lights. A figure in a cloak was illuminated in the headlights of the car. Zed's foot hovered over the brake and Marilyn's voice spoke in his head, "Drive through it, it's an illusion."

The figure pointed a hand at Zed, made it into a finger gun and said, "Bang."

The word struck Zed like the thump of a bass drum and he was through the figure. On the passenger seat, the sword, Quicksilver lit up. A LED display on its side flashed the word "Fuck".

Zed looked at the sword from the corner from his eye and saw the road disappear from front of the car. He felt the wheels lose traction and then they were falling. Like a stone.

And Marilyn went silent again.

Chapter 22 – Fight Fire With Fire

Krazkaf's tank grew nearer to Zed and the worm creature behind him reared up to strike. Krazkaf pulled the trigger on the tube and a projectile followed by bright yellow flame roared forward in Zed's direction.

"Fucked." Zed said and slammed the handbrake. The car spun in an arc and Zed pushed a button to roll down all the windows. The missle from Krazkaf's tank entered the car from one back seat window and exited from the other, heading straight for the worm.

The worm opened its jaw wide and swallowed the missile whole. It exploded in its stomach with a silent flash of light. The worm expanded to encompass the blast and then reverted to its normal shape. It didn't lose its momentum.

"Shit," Zed said. The glow in his car was almost blinding now. He picked up the glowing spear from the back seat and swung the car to face Krazkaf's tank.

The car's wheels spun on the gravel as it sped towards the tank. Karzkaf was half out of the window of the tank and this time he had a battle axe in his hand and he swung it in a wide arc. Zed knew he'd get only once chance to get this right. He moved closer to Karzkaf's tank. The worm almost choking on the exhaust from his car's tailpipe. At the last moment, he swerved from the path of the tank and almost brushed its side as he jammed the blue glowing spear into the wheel spokes of the tank. The worm and the tank slammed into each other with a colossal bang.

Zed looked at the fireball in the rear view mirror. A burning wheel rolled out of the fire. Then something rose from the flames. A figure with an axe in his hand.

"When will this guy curl up and die?" Zed said to himself.

"Nice escape." Marilyn's voice came online again.

"Yeah, thanks for you help."

"Is that sarcasm, Zed?"

"Nah, I just feel like thanking you for all you've done for me so far."

"We still have a race to win."

"Then why don't you navigate, miss navigator?"

Zed's hand flared with pain for a brief second. Then Marilyn's voice rang clear in his head. "We'll need to fly to get closer to find the finish line."

--------

Okay all, I was re-reading these chapters, and there are some mistakes, typos n all. I'm getting no time to edit these, power cuts and life etc are making it hard enough to post. But I promise, an edited and much better version will be with you once this is over. Hope you all are enjoying :) I am! 

Cheers!

Chapter 21 -- Thinking Out Of The Box

The sword looked unlike any that Zed had ever seen. Though he had not seen too many sword but he had a general idea what they looked like. The grip of the sword had a well worn look. The leather strands wrapped around it had almost disappeared into the grip. It was a heavy sword too. Zed could barely lift it, let along swing it.

"How am I even supposed to fight with this thing?" he asked Olag.

"You will rock with this thing, when it wakes up." Olag asked.

Zed looked at the sword. Then he looked at Olag.

"Okay," he said, "let it sleep then."

The floor under his feet vibrated. Then everything lurched sideways and Zed was thrown into a wall.

"Olag! What is happening?!"

"We are being attacked Lord Z!"

Olag listened to some internal communication from the Box's bridge.

"It's Krazkaf."

"Drop me nearby. I'll distract him. You people get the fuck away from here."

"But..."

"No questions, Olag. I can handle the bugger."

"As you wish my lord."

Zed walked back through the corridor to his car. It looked the same as before but the car radiated an energy which even Zed could feel. There was a sense of force about the car that attracted and scared Zed at the same time.

He sat in the car and put the sword in the passenger seat.

"Alright," he shouted at Olag, "get me close to the ground and drop me."

He revved the car up as the floor under the wheels disappeared and the car hit the ground in motion. But Zed found he was in bigger shit than he could actually handle. He had exited in the wrong direction and he was now racing towards Krazkaf's tank. There was the worm like creature behind him, quickly gaining on his car. While Krazkaf was half out of a window of his tank, aiming a big evil looking tube at Zed's car. Zed had no way to get out of this, and then the car's interiors filled up with a eerie blue glow. The spear in the backseat glowed with an increasing blue intensity. It was going to explode for sure, the only question was when.

Marilyn's voice came online. "You're fucked, Zed."

----

OMFG! triple fucked!

Chapter 20 -- Weapons and Stuff

 Zed looked at the chip in his left hand. Marilyn had been silent for quite some time. The people of the box left no stone unturned in making Zed feel like a king and a god. But the race was not away from Zed's mind.

He sat with the leader of the people, Olag to talk about the things that were bothering him about the race. He had slightly more information about the race than Marilyn had told Zed but even he was mostly clueless. There was a race of ancient beings that often quarreled and every time their disputes got out of hand, contests like this were organized to settle their differences. No one had a choice in this matter. Once selected, they had to race.

"This contest was the reason that dinosaurs were wiped from your planet." Olag said.

"I read in a book long ago that it was because of comet strike." Zed replied.

Olag just shrugged and passed a sheet of paper to Zed. There were images drawn on the sheet of paper. "You have been cheated, Lord Zed," Olag said, "all the others came here with weapons."

"I was not supposed to be here Olag, it was a fluke that I ended up here. But there is a chance that we can rectify the situation."

Olag grinned at Zed in mutual understanding. He snapped his fingers and two minions appeared out of nowhere.

"Lord Zed's vehicle. I need it installed with weapons and stuff."

"And a bigger bar," Zed added.

The minions hurried among themselves and rushed to work on Zed's car.

"Tell me about Krazkaf. How does he know about me, and what's his beef with me, other than that we are competitors in this stupid race."

Olag gave his customary shrug again. "Krazkaf is from a planet of warriors. A large portion of their planet was destroyed by another earthman. So, they hate everyone from Earth. It's filled in their heads."

"I'll have to face him again, sooner or later. I need something that will help me kick his ass."

"You can take the sword left by the other earthman."

"I've never handled a sword before. It's all greek to me."

"Its a special sword. It will teach you how to use it."

Something struck Zed as strange. "You said the other earthman destroyed half of Krazkaf's planet. How come you have his sword?"

"Oh, we had hired him to destroy that planet. And he left the sword with us when his contract was over."

"Show me the sword."

"I will, I will. It has a name. Quicksilver."

Chapter 19 -- People Of The Box

 The flying box floated right above Zed's car and then dropped on top of it. The box was hollow from inside and Zed felt claustrophobia gripping him in its dirty claws. Then the floor under the car's wheels changed. There was a strange sensation of being in a lift and Zed's falling stomach told him that they were airborne.

"Any idea who's going to try to kill me here?" he asked Marilyn.

There was no response from the chip. No voice in his head. Thankfully, the spear stuck in the inside of the other door was not glowing now. Zed pulled it out and checked the carvings closely. He didn't like what he saw so he threw the spear on the backseat.

It was dark inside the box so Zed flicked on the lights of his car. The lights illuminated a corridor.

Zed smiled, he was getting used to the impossible. Almost expecting it at every turn. He opened the door and stepped out of the car. He picked a bottle on his way out and started walking the path that the lights showed.

Eager eyes watched him from the darkness. Voices whispered among themselves.

"Is it really him?"

"It can't be anyone else."

"The books have spoken his name."

"I am afraid to be in his presence."

"But we must. We must show ourselves to our god."

Zed walked on, ignorant of the eyes, the voices and the discussions they were having. The path he was walking on changed from mud to stone and then to polished marble after a distance of few steps. There was a big chair at the end of the path. Zed walked up to it. It was draped in red cloth. He pulled the cloth from the chair and sat down on it. It had been a long walk.

The moment he settled in the chair, things came out of the darkness. They were many in number and all of them scuttled forwards on four legs. He was about to start worrying how they were going to kill him when the strangest thing happened. They started to chant his name.

It started slowly, but then it picked up pace and his name rang loud in the hall like place he was sitting in.

"Well, that's good for the ego."

He raised his hand to the crowd of creatures. "Silence! Show me your leader."

A creature similar to the others separated itself from the crowd and walked forward.

"I am not worthy, my god, my master."

"Its ok Not Worthy. Rise." he said. He felt this was the wrong thing to say because the creature tried hard to get up, but it remained level, horizontal to the ground.

"Uh, don't rise. Just update me what's happening here."

"The great books say that you're our god. And you will deliver us from the tyranny of this race."

"Your planet will be destroyed if you lose, right?"

The creature looked at Zed with a sad look in its eyes. "This box is our planet. We are people of the box."

"And I am your god. So, it makes sense that I have to save you from demise or I will be god of nothing."

"Great Zed is wise, brave and considerate."

Zed smiled and waved his hand at the creature.

The crowd of creatures parted and a party of four brought a small box forward. There were bottles of bright liquids shining on the top of box.

"You ARE my people." Zed said as he picked up one bottle full of shiny blue liquid and took a gulp.

"Now, my people. We have to win this race. And the way I see it, there can be only one winner. Either you, or me. So I am going to suggest the only right way we have left."

The crowd of creatures looked at Zed in anticipation. He raised his bottle high and took another gulp.

"We are going to cheat."

---

Now he shows his bastardly colors. 

Chapter 18 -- Remove?

"WOAH!" Zed screamed at roof of his car. The white spear shook slightly as its handler tried to pull it back out. Zed saw that it was made from a bone like material and it was so close that Zed could see the markings made in the shaft of the spear. The spear disappeared back through the hole and before Zed could control his panicking heart, the spear thrust down again and this time it buried itself in the seat right between Zed's legs. 

"Not so close to the family jewels man!!"

The shaft of the spear almost touched his nose and he saw the drawing of a demon's face staring back at him. He needed to find a way out of this quickly and help came from the most unexpected source. 

Karzakf's tank was pointed at his car and it let loose a volley of canon balls that fell all around Zed's car. One of the balls knocked the thing holding Zed's car and he felt the tires touch gravel and find traction. 

"Only I get to kill you Zed!" Karzakf screamed over the din.

"Get a token and join the line asshole!" Zed shot him a middle finger as he pressed the accelerator and sped away. He had almost forgotten the spear that was embedded in the seat and then the spear vanished back through the hole in the roof. The spear holder was still on the car!

"Let's see how you hold on now."

Zed turned the wheel and pulled the handbrake sending the car into a curving spin that threw a figure from the top of the car, onto the gravel, raising a cloud of dust as it rolled the distance. As the dust settled, Zed looked out of the window to see a slight figure rise from the ground. The creature in question had a humanoid appearance from above the waist and that's where the similarity ended. Below the waist, the three legs were covered in symbols that swirled with the shifting of the light. 

"Name yourself, heathen!" the figure bellowed at Zed. 

"Who the fuck uses words like heathen," he muttered to himself, then he shouted at the figure, "I am Zed, from Earth. Racing enthusiast and alcohol connoisseur."

"So be it, Zed from Earth. I am Baxron and I must remove you from this contest now."

"Remove?"

The spear was the answer to Zed's question as it hurtled through the distance between the Baxron and the car, moved through Zed's open window and pierced the other door of the car. 

"I'm so tired of running from people who want to kill me." Zed said. "See you along Baxron. That was a shitty aim though!"

Marilyn's voice came online in Zed's head. "He was not aiming for your head, Zed."

"Well, I don't see the spear damaging the car in..."

The steering wheel shook in his hand and the car slowly swerved from the straight line into a zigzagging path. 

"Shit, not again."

He looked at the spear as the symbols on it slowly started to glow. 

"We need to leave the car Zed, its going to explode."

Something glided above Zed's car just then, it made a sound like a shroud flapping in the wind.

Zed looked out of his window.

"Oh no, fucking no, don't tell me."

----------------

Another car for Mr. Zed?

Chapter 17 -- Questions and Answers

 The little girl in the frock sat cross-legged on the hood of the car, waiting for the Zed to ask her questions.

"You better ask me something soon, or I'll have to kill your ride and eat you," she said with a sad tone in her voice.

"I have a question," Zed said, "what's big, ugly and about to smash you to bits?"

The girl beamed, "I know the answer, its Krazkaf!"

Zed grinned at the her, threw the car in reverse and pushed the accelerator as Krazkaf's fell down on girl's head like ten ton brick. The hammer nearly scraped Zed's car and he barely escaped its corrosive touch. But the girl was as fast as Zed's car. She had looked up the exact moment that Krazkaf threw his hammer at her, and now the hammer was stuck in her mouth that had expanded to gigantic proportions to take in the hammer.

Krazkaf jumped in the water-less cube of the river and his hand latched on to his hammer. He tried to pull it back, but it was stuck in the girl's mouth.

"Fine, bitch, pay the price for taking the hammer."

He swung the hammer with the girl still attached to it and slammed it into the wall of the river. But the girl was still chomped tight onto the hammer. Then she took a bite from the head of the hammer and Krazkaf was left with the handle of the hammer in his hand.

He swore loudly as the girl swallowed his hammer.

"Ask me a question, Krazkaf if you want to pass."

"Who's going to kill Zed once he gets out of a water-less hole?"

"Not you."

Her mouth opened even wider and she jumped at Krazkaf, trying to swallow him whole, but he dived out of the way and in a smooth motion hurled a rope out of the cube. The rope attached itself to something on the river's bank and Krazkaf was whisked away in a snap. The little girl roared in anger and frustration at missing two of the racers in such a short time.

Just then, Zed's car came speeding at her and caught her unaware. Zed turned the steering wheel and the car was on the side of the river, climbing out of the water slowly.

"No! Not out of the river!" the girl screamed over the noise of the engine, but Zed had all the windows closed. The moment wheels of Zed's car hit the dry river bank, the girl exploded in a shower of million bright colors.

And Zed was treated to another brilliant sight. Krazkaf was sitting on his tank, engrossed in a raging battle with a bulbous worm that shot spikes at the tank. A grin slowly started to spread on Zed's face when something struck his car from behind and he ended face first into the steering wheel.

He looked in the rear view mirror and saw a mouth full of big, sharp teeth grin back at him.

"Shit in a box!"

He pressed the accelerator but the car didn't move. The owner of the big, sharp toothed grin had lifted the back wheels of the car above the ground. He heard a thump on the roof of the car and a white spear pierced through the roof of the car and embedded itself in the passenger seat.  

---

More fighting, more racing! 

Yeah!

Chapter 16 -- The Questioner

 The strange procession of racers broke off in branches and everyone took their own path through the river. Everyone guided by their navigators but Zed didn't drive anywhere with the group. He turned his car ninety degrees and drove into the direction where the river was coming from.

“Be careful Zed,” Marilyn's voice warned him, “there are things here that you might not want to mess with.”

“I know. I am looking for something to mess with.”

The chip in his hand throbbed and the pain almost tore his fingers out of their joints.

“OWWW!” he screamed, “what the fuck is this Marilyn?!”

“Follow the others. This is not the right way to go.”

“I am the fucking driver of this car!” anger leaked in Zed's voice, “we'll go where I drive us.”

“No Zed,” Marilyn's voice was clear as honey in his head, “we'll go where I guide you.”

“Like fuck I will. Not after this bullshittery!”

“Yeah?” Marilyn's voice mocked him. The chip in his palm grew hotter and grabbed a bottle at random from the dashboard.

“No, no, NO!”

Zed watched in horror as his hand threw the bottle out of the window where it crashed with a sad bang on the rocks spread by the riverbed.

“There are more bottles Zed.”

“Fine, have it your way.”

He turned the car around and drove it through the river where he promptly fell in the first trap in the racing arena. The water around the car fell apart and flowed around the car without touching the sides.

“What now?”

“It's The Questioner.” a trace of fear colored Marilyn's voice.

From the wall of water, a small girl in a frock and a teddy bear clutched in her arms, jumped and landed cross legged on the bonnet of Zed's car.

“Hi, hope this look is in sync with your planet's norms. Here are the rules, ask me questions, tell me no lies, or I won't let you pass, and everyone dies.”

Inside the car, Zed narrowed his eyes, “A kid. I hate kids.”

“Shut up Zed and do as I say, or we won't get out of here.”

“We can just run over the kid.”

“She will eat us the moment we move an inch forward. We need to ask her questions.”

“I don't think we'll need to.” Zed said, as he looked up from their watery cube. “Help is here.”

Chapter 15 – The Race

Zed's hand throbbed with a dull pain. The bleeding had slowed after some time but every time he gripped a bottle, the pain shot up in intensity. He gave up holding the bottle and slung a bag around his neck with a bottle in it. One straw in, and he was ready for drinking and driving again.

The new car was a breeze. It drove like a memory through the heart of a lost lover. Fast and brutal. The more time he spent on the wheel, the harder he wanted to drive. Marilyn's voice was now in his head and she guided him as expertly as she had when she was sitting beside him. He missed her physical presence, but a man can't have everything.

She guided him through winding roads on the strange planet. Sometimes, he thought he saw things move on the side of the road, but he was driving too fast to notice any of them. He kept an eye out for someone resembling Krazkaf. If a man can't have everything, he can at least have revenge.

Marilyn guided him through some more turns and they ended up at a river that sloshed with clear white liquid. It looked like water, but it sparkled too much to be water.

"What is that river?" he asked Marilyn.

"It's our starting line."

"Other contestants?"

"Look around you."

Zed looked out of the windows and at first he saw nothing. Then, shapes started to materialize out of thin air. He was expecting other cars but his was the only car at the starting line. There were excited sounds from a big animals straining its leash, a big box just sat there on his right side, beyond that a bulbous white tube bubbled and fizzled with multicolored light, he saw Krazkaf in the line of "vehicles". He rode a tank-like machine that had turrets pointing out from most of its visible surfaces. Zed leaned on the horn till Krazkaf looked his way. Zed pointed at Krazkaf and then ran a finger across his own throat. Krazkaf raised his hammer in reply.

"When does it start?" he asked Marilyn.

"You will know."

The river in front of them bubbled, frothed and rose up in a wall. There were shapes in front of them that corresponded to their planets. Zed saw Earth loom up on the wall made of the river and he shook his head.

"Fuck the planet, I am in it to win it."

The wall collapsed with a sudden bang and thus, the race began.

The participants raced forward through the wall of river, but one of them didn't move at all.

Zed watched the others leave and quietly tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.  

---

More, tomorrow. 

Chapter 14 -- The Engineer

 Zed walked to the back of the car and saw that the metal had corroded and it was slowly spreading on the rest of the car. He checked Marilyn's body and saw that it was damaged in the same way as the car. A blue-green rust, like algae was spreading all over Marilyn's body. He picked up her head from the back seat of the car. He took a bag from the back seat and put Marilyn's head in it. Then he took some bottles from his dashboard and put them in the bag too. He slung the bag over his shoulder and started walking. He patted the bonnet of his car.

"Goodbye baby, been a good ride."

As he walked away, the corrosion ate away the car.

The darkness intensified around Zed and the starless sky made the road even gloomier than it was. Zed drank a bottle of some other foul liquid and it made him feel giddy for a while, but then the feeling passed. It was then that he started to see things. The apparitions appeared out of thin air and surrounded him. They moved all around him and spoke to him. Told him to stop walking and give up the bottles in his bag.

He ignored them and kept walking. The guilt for Marilyn's sudden death egged him on and the fact that ghosts wanted him to give up his liquor made him walk faster.

Zed saw a pulsing orange light in midst of the gang of ghosts and walked towards it.

It was the parking blinker of a new car. It was of a model unknown to Zed, but it was black, and that was all that mattered. Someone had drawn a garish representation of flames on the side of the car. He was inspecting the flames when a hand fell on shoulder. A gruff voice spoke in his ear, "Flames make it go faster."

Zed turned around so fast he almost dropped the bottle in his hand. The owner of the voice and the hand on his shoulder stood close to him and everything about the person spoke that he was The Engineer Marilyn was talking about. From his long hair tied and held in place with a screwdriver to the tattoos of circuits on both his arms and the one camera eye that zoomed in on Zed.

"I believe Marilyn's head is in your bag. I've been following her emergency transmissions for a few hours."

Zed rummaged through the bottles and picked out Marilyn's head and gave it to the man. He looked at the head and shook his head in dismay.

"'This head is fubar'd."

"I need her navigation skills. I have a race in less than a day's time."

The Engineer perked up at the mention of the word race. "You are racing The Race? Where is your car?"

"I lost the car. Some dude hit it with a hammer and it corroded away. The same corrosion ate away Marilyn's body."

The engineer took out the screwdriver from his hair and jammed it into Marilyn's ear and unscrewed a nut. The head fell open like a split orange and he took out a chip from a socket in the head.

"Give me your hand, Zed."

Zed extended his left hand palm up and fast as a snake strike, The Engineer jammed his screwdriver in Zed's hand. The shock of getting stabbed in the hand had not even registered in Zed's brain when he took out the screwdriver and inserted the Marilyn chip in the stab wound.

"THE FUCK!" Zed winced at the pain when Marilyn's voice rang clear in his head.

"Shut up Zed."

The Engineer grinned at Zed and tied a dirty rag on his bleeding hand.

"She is with you now, take care of her."

"Could've warned me, you crazy man."

"No need of that now. Here, take another gift from me."

The slapped a pair of keys in Zed's right hand.

"Have a good race."

---

We got Marilyn back, though she is just a chip now. Embedded in Zed's hand. And his mind. Great. Now he has to race to the starting line!

Chapter 13 -- Don't Do This To Daddy

Zed installed the bottles in his dashboard bar and picked one bottle on random to inaugurate the new bar.

"Cheers!" he raised to bottle of Marilyn who was already putting on her seatbelt.

Zed turned to look at her and saw a shadow loom on her side of the car. He saw the hammer swing and take off Marilyn's head along with a big chunk of metal from his car's side. Her head struck the back seat and sparks fizzed out of her neck.

An angry Krazkaf appeared in the hole left by the broken side of car.

"Zed," he growled, "you're dead."

Zed was frozen in that moment. Things were happening too fast for him to catch up. Then Marilyn's disembodied voice spoke from the back seat.

"Drive."

Krazkaf swung back the hammer for another strike and this one was aimed at Zed's head. But the car was moving by then and Krazkaf's hammer only struck the trunk of Zed's car. The car lurched for a second, but then it picked up speed and Zed was out of the parking lot.

"Marilyn," he said to the head, "you ok back there."

"No, I just got beheaded. I am not ok. I won't be able to guide you for long in this state. Drive where I tell you to. We need to find The Engineer."

"Shit, I am so sorry for this Marilyn. I should've moved sooner."

"Shut up and drive Zed. We don't have enough time. The race will start in a day's time."

Zed drove as guided by Marilyn through the strange landscape around him. Few times he felt her voice grow weaker and he had to strain to hear her. Then she told him to drive straight as far as he could, and her voice shut down completely. The sky slowly darkened all around Zed as he drove all alone on the road that went on till who knew where. Then his car lurched again. It sputtered and coughed like a sick, old man.

"No, no baby, don't do this to daddy."

Then the car stopped completely in the middle of nowhere.

"Shit." Zed said and slammed the steering the wheel.
---

The navigator out of service, our hero stranded in middle of nowhere, and the race about to begin in a day's time. 

Phew! Too much to handle!

Chapter 12 -- Fuel Collection

"This is how the race works," Marilyn told Zed who was busy selecting the different types of liquor from behind the bar.

"This whole planet is a race course and the finish line is not stationary. It's not even a line."

She stopped to think for a second while Zed examined a bottle with something decayed floating in brown colored liquid. He put that on the bar among other bottles for picking up later.

"Is the finish line like a zone?"

"Yes, you can say that. A sort of black hole that is constantly on the move and to reach it, you have to find it, and if you find it, you have to chase it."

"And what happens when you reach the zone or the finish line?"

"Your planet gets saved and I get a ticket home, to my planet."

Zed opened a bottle at random and poured a smelly liquid in his glass. "I never thought there would be other planets and now here is this, you, these strange people and this place, that you say, is not even Earth."

"This will be a learning experience Zed. There is so much that you can learn from all this."

He shrugged. "I am a racer. I know how to go forward and I know how to do it fast. Learning is for scholars and people of science."

"This race might change you."

"Every race changes me. I am never the same person on the other side of the finish line."

"Anyway," he drained his glass dry and refilled it, "tell me more about the race."

"Well, there are certain drivers who try to "eliminate" others while in the race."

"They'll have to catch us first."

"And there are traps on the race course."

"Are they deadly?"

"Very."

"Good. Anything else?"

"There is the creature..."

Just then the door to the bar slammed open. A thing that stood at the door was made from a solid block of meat and muscles bulged from every part of his body. He carried a big hammer in his hand and his eyes were small slits through which he peered at Zed. Every inch of this new entrant screamed murder, mayhem and absolute danger.

"Who is Zed here?" he asked.

"Oh, Zed!" Zed said, "He just left from the back door. If you run fast, you might catch up with him."

"Mrrrgggghhh," the thing growled, "if he comes back, tell him Krazkaf is going to kill him."

"Consider it done!" Zed smiled at the thing and waved his hand.

Krazkaf turned around and walked out of the bar. His head almost brushing the high ceiling.

"That's one of the drivers." Marilyn whispered to Zed.

"Seemed like a fun guy. Come on, let's get out of here."

He picked up his stash of bottles he had assembled on the bar top and grabbed Marilyn as he ran out of the bar.  

----------------------

Any/all feedback is welcome. Feel free to connect through twitter, @69fubar or send me an email. The address is in the sidebar :)

Chapter 11 -- One For All, All For Brawl

Inside Ten Thousand Elephants it was all chaos. The walls were dripping with fluids of all colors. There was an octopus swinging from a chandelier, a girl with her head on fire was spraying the 'people' in the bar with a hose. A man on a table was pointing a shotgun at random things and shooting them. From somewhere in the chaos, a bottle flew up. It reached the height of its arc and the liquid in it sloshed and dropped on the ground.

The sight put Zed in motion. He jumped in the throng, climbed on a person's back, and dove through two fighting creatures and scrapped his elbows as he fell to the ground, catching the bottle in his hand. The world around him slowed down as he put the bottle to his lips and drank like a baby suckling on his mother's breast. He drank deeply while the world continued to break apart around him. It had been quite some hours since his last drink. Then, a stray projectile from the crowd smashed into his bottle and he was left with only the neck of the bottle in his hand.

"Fuck!"

He looked into the crowd for the culprit who broke his bottle of the amazing drink but found no one. He was about to jump into the crowd and start kicking some ass, any ass, as long as he was doing the kicking, when the people in the bar froze.

Everyone was literally frozen in whatever position they were in. Zed could move. He stood up and saw Marilyn walking around two things locked in a fistfight.

"Animals. All of them," she said with disgust dripping from every word.

She motioned Zed to the bar and clicked her fingers to make bartender un-freeze from his position behind the bar.

"A glass of milk for me and a shark-vod for the gentleman here."

The bartender nodded nervously and busied himself behind the counter.

"So," Zed asked her, "what's all this about?"

She took a deep breath.

"This is a race."

"That's good. I am good at racing. I've won them all, except that last one where your people intervened."

"But there is a lot at stake in this race."

"There is a lot at stake in every race."

"In this case, every single person on your planet dies if you lose."

Zed was silent for a beat. He mused on the possibility of a whole planet full of dead people.

"Who will make the vodka if they all die?" he asked.

Marilyn shrugged.

The bartender put their drinks on the bar top. There was a tiny shark swimming in the Zed's glass of vodka. Nothing swam in Marilyn's glass of milk.

Zed raised the glass to her and swallowed it all in a gulp. The tiny shark thrashed around in his mouth for a bit, but he crunched it anyway. He grimaced at the burn and slammed the glass back on the bar.

"When does the race start then?

---

Chapter 12, What IS this race then?

Chapter 10 -- Faster!

Zed switched off his mind as he drove the roads told by Marilyn. The fact that he was not on Earth didn't hit him as hard as the slight possibility that they might not find the bar and he will not get his drinks.

Marilyn was an able navigator. She knew the terrain like the contours of a lover's skin. They swerved and skidded through tight corners in the mountains and Zed drove faster and faster to keep up with the pace of the road. It felt to him like the road was egging him to go faster. The needle in the speedometer danced in regions close to red.

"Where the hell is that bar?" he yelled over the sound of the engine as he turned the wheel hard to fight another curve.

"Drive faster!" Marilyn yelled back at him, "and stop asking questions!"

Zed knew his car and he was surprised that the engine had not overheated and seized by now. They had been driving at breakneck speeds and the engine was under massive stress. Another turn, another screech of wheels, and Zed saw a straight dark road ahead of him.

The road ended in swirling mass of colors and the high beams shone upon the colors like a mad disco light.

Amazed by the sight, Zed took his foot off the accelerator and Marilyn's shrill scream almost deafened him.

"NO! Drive faster!"

He looked at her for the first time in their mad drive. Her face was ashen, and her eyes had gone all black. The look on her face scared and fascinated Zed at the same time.

The slowing car picked up speed.

The speedometer needle spun a full circle and spun faster.

The car headed towards the wall of colors. The road ended and Zed felt the wheels of the car lose any traction. They flew through the air towards the swirl of colors and thus they were through. The car skidded on gravel and stopped in front of a shack.

There was an elephant's head fixed above the door. It was still bleeding.

The bar was called "Ten Thousand Elephants".

There was a loud blast and a creature crashed through a window of the bar and landed in front of Zed's car. The creature's tentacle rose up from the ground, quivered once, and fell on the hood.

"After you, my lady." Zed said and unlocked the passenger door.

-----

Tomorrow, Chapter 11, Inside "Ten Thousand Elephants" and a drink you only drink once.

Chapter 9 – Everyone Is From earth

The road took Zed and his unnamed passenger towards the mountains that rose from the end of the road like sleeping giants woken by the sound of Zed's car. They left the road chomping darkness behind them and once they slowed down, Zed asked the girl a question that had been troubling his mind ever since he had started driving.

"Do you know anywhere I can buy some alcohol?"

She looked at him and sighed.

"There is a bar..."

"Great!" he cut her off, "let's go there so I can fuel up!"

"It going to be a little difficult to find."

"We have GPS, girl!" he said, "we can find the bar, get some drinks, and then you can tell me about all this and how I landed here and how do I get out of here."

"We can give it a shot if you're so confident of you driving abilities."

"And it'd help if you told me your name."

She looked at him with ice in her eyes. "I am Marilyn."

"You look familiar..." he said, "like someone from old earth movies."

"I'm just a shadow of what she looked like," Marilyn said, "she was the most beautiful girl of her time."

"And why would that be?"

"So that Wolf, when he reached here, would recognize me and cooperate."

Something clicked in Zed's head.

"Is there a race involved in this somewhere?"

"Let's find that bar and then I'll tell you all about it."

"I hope they will let me buy some alcohol."

"They will. The owner is from Earth."

Zed turned in his seat and looked at her. "Everyone is from earth, sweetheart, and that's where we go in the end."

"I meant the planet."


---

Might have some typos. Not enough time to edit cuz the laptop's battery is dying and there is no power in the house.

See ya tomorrow.

Chapter 8 -- Mistaken Identity

Zed turned his head to face the girl, "Wrong number sweetheart, I am Zed."

She scowled and the expression made her look even cuter than she was.

"You're not Wolf?"

"Never was, never will be. Zed all the way."

"How did you get here? We had arranged for Wolf's transportation."

"The green cloud of gas, it made a hole in the ground and the next thing I know, I am driving on this road."

By force of habit, his hand reached for a bottle in the bar he had created in the dashboard. He picked one, it was empty. He picked another and it was empty too. He pounced on the dash, taking out bottles one by one. All of them were empty.

"What fuckery is this?" he turned to the girl standing outside his car. "All my alcohol is gone!"

She narrowed her eyes.

"You're that Zed? The Alcoholic?"

"I am also the best driver in the Circle of Earth Federation."

"But you're an alcoholic."

"An alcohol connoisseur."

"Precisely the reason we wanted Wolf. He doesn't drink and drive."

"Precisely the reason I have beaten him in every race he has ever drove in," he smirked.

She scowled as she walked around the car to the passenger door, opened it with more force than necessary, threw her briefcase in the back seat and sat in the car. She put the safety belt on.

"So it goes Mr. Zed, it seems we'll have to use what we've got. But its your planet's loss. Not my problem."

"Whatever the hell does that mean?"

"Oh, you'll learn Zed-san. You will learn. For now, you better drive. This road won't be here forever."

Zed looked in the rear view mirror and his eyes opened wide at what he saw. The road behind the car was disappearing as a pool of darkness ate away chunks of road. He stared at the girl who was looking ahead with a blank expression on her face and slammed his foot on the accelerator.

----

We have a female lead! Yay! Ok, just to clear some confusion. This is not the biker chick. That chick was different. We'll meet her later.

And Zed will drink only vodka from now on. If he finds any on this godforsaken place.

Any other questions? :)

Chapter 7 -- The Road To Nowhere

Zed was driving. The pain was gone. His hands were on the wheel and the road
in front of his car was lit by an eerie green glow. He looked at his face in
the rear view mirror and there was no sign of the damage that follows Red
Death. The skull shaped button on his dash was whole again. He looked out of
the window and the sky was the color of an oil slick after rain. The
landscape was a barren gray for as far as his eyes could see. The GPS in the
dashboard showed nothing around him, just his car as an nondescript blue
dot.

This is interesting, he thought.

There were heat waves rising from the road ahead and he thought he saw
something move among the fumes. Zed pressed the accelerator. He looked out
of the window at the apparition like figure standing on the side of the road
with a briefcase in her hand. She wore a white skirt that covered her strong
legs. Her hair was a golden halo around her head and her lips were colored
red of bloodstained battlefields. Zed recognized her face. She was an
actress from old earth movies. He could not, for the life of him remember
her name. He stopped the car right next to her and rolled down the window.

"Hey Wolf." she said.

Chapter 6 - The Void

Zed's car fell in the void. He burned in the driver's seat. His face
distorted with pain. The car tumbled end on end, like a doll thrown
carelessly. Zed stretched his hand to the dash, it was a herculean effort
because his fingers were spreading too far wide and a bone was already
popping out of his forearm. It was a miracle that he was still conscious.
And he wanted to make the most of these conscious moments. His fingers
closed around the neck of the vodka bottle and he drew it towards him in a
painful motion. The bone from his forearm dug into his bicep and his arm
stopped moving towards his burning face.

He moved his torso forward but his melted clothes had stuck to the car's seat. He felt the his defenses give up one by one. The car tumbled once more and the vodka from the open bottle sloshed all over his burning face which now burned with a renewed zeal, a blue blaze that spread all over Zed. He laughed as he licked the vodka and blood from his lips as they sizzled and cooked in a greasy flame.

The car splashed in a pool of water at the bottom of void. As it sank
slowly, Zed came to the painful realization that he might have lost the
first race in his life.

Chapter 5 - Bring The Pain

There are two kinds of drivers. The cautious and the insane. And then there is Zed. In another dimension where the religions were based on winning races, Zed was a god. But in this dimension where he was close to losing, he had made precautionary measure.

PAIN was that measure. It was a race winning device attached to the skull shaped button that was encircled with the words, DO NOT PRESS.

Zed was going to press it.

He knew it was not going to be pretty, that's not what the button did. But he was dead sure that it would work. The device activated by the button altered time and space and it had a simple price. The driver's life.

There was only one instance of PAIN being used before in the racing circles and the story was told by people who had picked off small bits of the driver from the upholstery of his car. The car had crossed the finish line though.

And that was all that mattered to Zed.

He saw Wolf's car ahead of him. He saw the mysterious biker take aim at Wolf's car. He was beyond caring about them. He was going to win this race. Ready to pay the price. He risked a glance at the GPS and aligned his car in a straight line towards the finish line. He took a breath, licked his lips and swallowed a mouthful of vodka. As he overcame the burn of the liquid, he didn't give himself time to think and slammed his hand on the button.

At the same instant the biker fired the strange gun again at Wolf's car. Wolf's car swerved and Zed's car took its place, straight in the path of green cloud of smoke from the gun.

Zed was having an amazing time inside his car. His skin was getting ripped from his bones and his bones were collapsing on each other. He felt like pulled in all directions by small needles and each needle hurt. His heart was beating in over drive and being alive hurt like hell.

Then the green cloud swallowed his car and the road beneath the car disappeared in a cloud of black dust. His car fell into the emptiness and time slowed for Zed.

If his pain was worse earlier, now it amped up to a maniacal intensity. He screamed and the air from his mouth was fire. The body parts he felt were getting ripped apart now felt like they were being put together by some insane surgeon who fed on the pain of his patients.

Thoughts amplified in his head and the last sliver of light showed him Wolf's car heading for the finish line.

He would have screamed louder if he could.

And then the darkness took him.

----

Tomorrow, Into The Void.

Chapter 4 - Bike In A Car Race

Wolf knew Zed was in the race. He had seen the idiot sleeping at the wheel at the start of the race. He knew he'd have to finish the race soon because Zed got good at the wheel the drunker he got. Wolf turned the rear view mirror towards himself and checked his hair for the 100th time in the day. He rubbed off an imaginary spot from his head and smoothed his hairstyle. When he returned the rear view mirror to its position, he saw a familiar black car in the mirror and a fireball blooming like a rose behind the black car.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" he slammed the steering wheel with every exclamation.

He turned the car hard at the next bend and nearly turned turtle. Fear was fucking up his driving and that made him angry. He looked in the rear view mirror to see how far Zed was and saw a biker overtaking Zed's car and come straight at him.

"Who the fuck brings a bike in a car race?" he spoke to no one at all.

The biker brought the bike right next to his car and pointed a barrel shaped device at him. Wolf saw the pointy end of the device glow an angry green.

"Shit on this." he flipped a middle finger at the biker and hit nitro. The red car became a blur on the road and a green cloud of rays burst through the biker's device. The rays left a hole in the ground where Wolf's car was supposed to be.

Zed came speeding after Wolf's car and saw the road disappear in form of a hole right where he was headed. It reminded him of cartoons from a dead generation. He was cool and calm, he knew how to deal with such situations. He had seen it in many movies.

He saw the left edge of road where the bike's wheels had been. He twisted the steering wheel to left with a jerk and got the car balanced on two left wheels. He took another pull on the vodka bottle and moved the car from above the hole, balanced just on the edge of the road. Once clear he brought the car back on four wheels, gentle as a feather, at least he thought so. He saw the biker chase Wolf's car and followed them. Zed checked the GPS, the finish line was closer now and Wolf's car was inching its way towards the finish line with a determined pace. He took a deep breath. This was turning out to be the emergency he has never wanted to face. He'd rather die than lose a race. And the latter was not an option for him. A shiver ran down his spine as he lifted the lid off the button marked PAIN.

---

Next Chapter -- BRING THE PAIN

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Chapter Three - The Observer

Four cars raced ahead of Zed. A red car, unlike Zed's black, was leading the pack. He saw the wolf's head decal on the side of the car and cursed.

It was his arch nemesis, Wolf.

The last race he had won from Wolf, he almost lost his middle finger, a crate of vodka and his pet cat. It had been close, very close, and he was no in the mood to repeat the experience. He swerved and overtook another car, taking the fourth place in the race now. He knew sooner or later he'd have to play his trump card, but he would get only one chance at it. With growing dread, he looked at the skull shaped button on the dashboard.

The word PAIN was imprinted on the button in block letters.

–

The cars raced through the city like hungry animals on hunt and the silent figure watched them from the top of a tower that stood in the middle of the city. A display screen hovered in front of her. There was a map of the city on the screen and the red car beeped like a beacon on the screen. That was her target, the car with Wolf's head decals. She checked the zipline once more and then slid down the line to her bike.

It was time to join the race and take what she had come here for.

Chapter Two - Drinking and Driving

Zed was chasing animals through the forest. He was big and mighty, scaring away all the puny animals like a jungle god. He roared his disapproval at them running away and not taking their punishment like the filth they were. The women of the jungle came to him and rolled at his feet for forgiveness, blissed out by the ecstasy of his power. Then all of them disappeared and only one remained. She spoke his name over and over. Then she screamed his name and slapped him across the face.

The slap startled Zed. He opened his eyes and his hand automagically put the bottle of vodka to his lips. He swallowed the drink and took a hold of his surroundings. He was in his car. That was good. There was a girl screaming at him and pointing ahead. That was bad. Sleepily, he put the car in gear and sped forward.

Then he remembered the slap.

He saw the girl in his rear view mirror. She was picking up something red from the ground. He put the car in reverse, aimed it at her and put his foot to the accelerator.

–

The race was in full flow and Zed was slowly and horribly realizing that he might not win this one. But he knew how to make sure that none of the others won too. The GPS on his dash showed him the other cars heading towards a green blinking light. He studied the layout of the city. It was a new place. He must have been drunk when his bosses signed him up and dropped him here. But then, when was he not drunk. He took another swallow of the vodka and passed the last car in the race. He saw the driver's window was open. The driver saw him and raised his middle fingers to him. Zed smashed the vodka bottle on his steering wheel and threw the jagged bottleneck through the other car's window. The car swerved and crashed into the side of the road. Zed waited for the blooming rose of a fireball but nothing happened.

He took a new bottle of vodka from the dashboard bar and bit the cap open. The liquor burned down his throat and the needle of speedometer shot up. Other cars were in his view now. And they were quite some distance away. This was going to be as close as it would get and he might lose the first race in his 25 year racing career.

----
Zed!

(Oh, and don't drink and drive. Not cool.)

Edit- Thanks Kris!

Chapter One - Go!

The girl at the starting line unhooked her bra.

She slipped it off one shoulder, then the other and pulled it out from the sleeve of her t-shirt.

"Boys!" she yelled and jumped up and down, "on your marks!"

The five cars at the racing line growled like hungry animals but the sixth one was silent like a tomb.

She raised her arm above her head, as high as she could.

"Get set!"

The red bra waved in the night breeze like an army flag.

Her fingers curled open and the bra slowly floated to the asphalt like a rose petal from an old diary.

"GO!"

And the five cars rushed forward, leaving the black car idling at the starting line.
----
Here we go :) Welcome to August Arc!