The fog was thick as I raced down the roadway. I could smell an odor of brimstone wafting in the air. The stench was coming from the vehicles pursuing us. I rolled up my window hoping to abate the smell. It didn’t help very much!
The car sped at a frantic pace down a gravel road in the brume.
I turned on my high beam headlights as I couldn't see well.
The road seemed to be leading to a lighthouse several miles in the distance. We weren't getting any closer as the distance to the light tower always seemed to stay constant.
Our pursuers numbered over a dozen. They all looked like demons to me, but what the heck did I know! The vehicles they drove were unlike any cars I’d seen before. Some of them looked terrifying as they were made for conflict and battle. The main car pursuing us, the one with the red horned demon, smiled at me as I looked in the rearview mirror. I could see the malice in its eyes - it knew I was looking at it. It waved its hand and slowed down. This allowed the other cars to move up after us.
“The creatures pursuing us are drudes,” Patrick said.
I glanced in the back seat at my dog companion.
“What the hell are drudes?” I asked.
“They were along the beach when I first arrived in Limbo. They are servants of the Archdemons.”
“Really don’t want to know how you know this, but I’ll take your word for it.”
The Plymouth fishtailed around a corner as gravel scattered everywhere from the tires.
“Do you have any idea what they want with us?”
“No, but my guess is that whoever has been after you since your arrival in Limbo has found you!”
One of the drude machines had a large gaping mouth on the front of the car. The vehicle was shaped like a missile on wheels. The mouth had razor-like teeth and seemed to be made of flesh rather than metal. It shot up alongside my Plymouth trying to get in front of us.
“Blimey Hannah, don’t let them get past!” said Captain Douglas.
“What am I going to do!?” I yelled back.
“Woof woof,” was all that Patrick managed to vocalize.
If that vehicle got in front of us that we’d be in bad shape. There was an embankment that came up alongside the road, so I decided to act. I veered my car towards the embankment and crashed the two cars together. I rubbed the drude car out against the dirt and rocks. As I did this the mouth on vehicle shot out and bit the side of my Plymouth Satellite. The teeth clanged off the doors and side panels. There was no effect. The missile car then crashed into a large rock and did a full 360 before flipping upside down.
“Jolly good show Hannah!”
The car hit a bump in the road and the Tome of Uriel popped open beside me on the front seat.
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[Item]
Name: Black Car
Abilities: Seeker, Sanctuary, Immunity
Sanctuary: Up to three normal sized spirits can enter the vehicle at the owner’s choosing. All other creatures are barred against entering the vehicle.
Immunity: Immune to all physical damage.
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“That’s right, my car is immune to physical damage,” I said aloud.
“What?” replied Captain Douglas.
“My car has certain abilities. It’s immune to physical damage! Remember, I told you!”
“Does that mean that they can’t run us off the road?”
“I’m not sure, but I doubt it.”
“Don't like being the bearer of bad news, but there are other forms of damage in Limbo.”
“Great! What are they?” I asked.
“There was an archdevil that I saw who consumed someone’s soul and there was another spirit that was destroyed by a ball of energy.”
What? When did this happen?”
“My memory is getting clearer now that I’m out of war horseman’s dominion. I think I was trapped in that place for a long time!”
“You and I are going to have a long talk when we get through this!”
The book flipped over several pages to a new section. This wasn’t by happenstance as the tome seemed to change pages on its own. I got the feeling that the book was trying to help me.
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[Types of Damage]
Physical Damage: Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing
Supernal Damage: Divine damage from Angels, Demons, Celestials
Psychic Damage: Mental, Telekinesis, Petrification, Curses
Elemental Damage: Fire, Ice, Cold, Lightning, Energy, Force
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According to the tome there were several other forms of damage in Limbo. I wasn’t sure what these drudes could do to my car, but I didn’t want to find out.
Another vehicle shaped like a 1958 Ford Edsel drove up behind us. The car tapped my back bumper and sent my car skidding sideways for a second. Where the Edsel’s roof would normally be located there was a giant metallic spider. It was almost as big as a small car and its fangs were the size of small swords.
The drude that drove the Edsel punched the belly of the metallic spider and activated it. The eyes of the arachnid lit up and the legs became unstuck from the sides of the car. Its head lurched from side to side trying to get a fix on me - its prey.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Not waiting for the spider to pounce I hit the brakes hard!
The Edsel crashed into my back fender and both cars came to a sudden halt. The spider flew off the top of the drude’s vehicle, over my Plymouth, and onto the roadway. The arachnid rolled down the road and bounced off a rock before coming to a standstill. The other drude vehicles zoomed past us, not reacting fast enough. I spun my car around 180 degrees and headed back in the same direction we had come, away from the lighthouse. As I blasted down the road I left a cloud of dust and fog behind.
“Where are you going Hannah?”
“I don’t know, I’m just trying to get away from these things!” I said. “If there was only another side road we could take, we could slip away.”
Visualization was a how I communicated my desires to my car. I didn’t see any other roads when we had come this way previously, but that didn’t mean much in Limbo. The way the topography changed in this realm made no logical sense.
I thought hard about a side road. Imagining a passage that coursed up the embankment and curved back towards the lighthouse. The more I strained on the mental imagery the more my head began to hurt. A migraine settled in quickly and I became more determined than ever to will a road into existence.
Knowing that I had done this before when I manifested the cemetery helped me to push myself to my limits.
My head hurt badly.
“Ah!” I cried.
Captain Douglas moved his head in between the front seats and rubbed up against me.
“Hannah, are you all right?”
I nodded my head in an effort not to break my concentration.
If I had powers then I needed to figure them out. The Oraculum did say I had abilities, so instinctively I pursued them. When I lost my token I also lost all knowledge of my abilities.
There was nothing else in my thoughts except channeling my desire to my car. Everything else around me seemed to fade from my visual perception. For a moment it felt like time stood still.
Patrick spoke to me. His dog mouth moved in slow motion and his words made no sense.
When my reverie broke I saw a road. It was a narrow dirt road that cut through the embankment. Exactly like I had envisioned.
“Yes!” I yelled in excitement.
I turned sharply to make the turn.
“You found another road!?”
“I… I think I manifested this road into existence.”
“Bravo Hannah! I cannot see any drude vehicles following us, but I’m sure they’re back there. I can sense them coming for us.”
I hoped that the drudes didn't see us turning down this side road. With any luck we could slip away quietly.
My headache disappeared in seconds and I concentrated on driving again. I was really proud of myself as I felt like I had unlocked an ability for the first time.
The new path wasn’t much of a road. It appeared to be more of an old muddy trail than anything else, but I was thankful for it.
I turned the steering wheel left and right along the winding trail. We climbed upwards and crested the height of a hill. At the summit I spotted the lighthouse flashing through the fog in the distance.
Both Captain Douglas and I kept an eye on the road behind us. We couldn't see any of the drudes pursuing us.
“Do you think we got away?” I asked.
The words had no sooner left my mouth when I saw the metallic spider summit the top of the hill. It leapt down onto the roof of my Plymouth, landing with a crash. The mechanical monster startled me for a second and I nearly let go of the steering wheel.
“Nope!” he replied.
The arachnid let out a huge shriek. I knew that it was trying to alert the drudes to our whereabouts.
“That damn thing is giving away our position!” I said.
Wham!
The windshield took a heavy blow from the spider, but the glass remained in perfect condition.
Wham… wham… wham!
Three more times the metal monster tried breaking my windshield. But true to the words written in the Tome of Uriel, the glass remained intact.
The spider wrapped two of its appendages around the front of my car. The other legs started dragging into the ground as it tried to slow us down.
It worked.
Our speed went down substantially and I struggled to keep the car going in the right direction. With the spider fixated on the hood we were weighed down. Not to mention that I could barely see out the front window. I struggled to look around the arachnid and I was unsure of where I was going. In a matter of a minute the drudes were back on our tail again. The spider had successfully slowed us down enough to allow them to catch up.
The roadway widened again and we skidded from the dirt road back onto a two lane undivided highway. Once again I felt like I wasn’t in control of where we were going.
The main car of the drudes zoomed back in behind me again. The leader drude with the horns on its face began barking orders. It yelled something to the other blue drudes that were still hanging from the sides of its vehicle. The drudes reached down to each retrieve a weapon. They appeared like a long green spears with blue flashing tips. The two drudes reared back and launched the projectile in a wide arc towards us. While the spears were in the air I could hear missile noises akin to a bomb falling from the sky.
“To the right Hannah!” Patrick yelled.
I swerved the car as best I could with the metal spider still stuck to the front of the car. The first spear from the drudes landed with a thunderous clap; exploding only a few feet from the car. The sides of the windows were hit with ice crystals.
“Bloody hell, what was that?”
The second spear flew over the car and landed about twenty feet in front of us. Again, I swerved the car to avoid the blast. Debris from that explosion caught the front of the car and also parts of the spider. I could see frost covering the right front of the car and parts the arachnid.
“They’re launching some kind of frozen projectiles at us,” I said. “If they hit us they might knock out the engine or freeze the car to a stop.”
The right wheel felt sluggish due to the frost.
We slowed down even more.
I continued to struggle driving the car as the spider blocked my visuals. I did manage to see that the fog was lifting as night set in all around us.
“They’re reloading again Hannah!” yelled Captain Douglas.
The lighthouse was getting closer, but we were still a ways off.
Before us was a huge rocky overpass. It looked like something you’d see in a postcard. The rock formed a huge donut shape and the road passed right in between the center of it. There were a variety of loose rocks that made up the donut overpass.
An idea came to my mind.
Pressing down on the gas pedal I hammered the engine for all that I was worth. I drove the car towards the rocky overpass. The drude cars lined up three abreast behind me on the road. I could see the horny-faced leader issuing more orders to the other minions. The blue drudes were readying to finish me off with more green spears.
“Wham… wham… wham!”
I could barely see the road with the metallic spider banging against my windshield.
“Down… get down captain!”
The Alsatian barked and jumped down into the front passenger foot space. I grabbed my seat belt, realizing at the last minute that I wasn’t buckled in. I clicked the connector and cinched the belt tight.
We got to the overpass and I veered the Plymouth Satellite away from the center of the road. Turning the car I headed directly for the rock wall that formed the overpass.
The car skipped over a small rocky section. The bump propelled us like a projectile through the air and we smashed headlong into the donut shaped overpass. The car bounced off the rocks and spun out in circles on the other side.
The loose rocks of the overpass quickly gave way and crashed down around the drude vehicles - they were forced to stop. I heard a cracking sound and a major part of the rock formation began falling apart. All the drude cars were right in the path of destruction as thousands of pounds of rock crashed down around them.
I was knocked senseless from the impact as my head banged off the steering wheel. Somehow I managed to rectify the spinout and I brought the car to a safe stop. Captain Douglas seemed shaken up also, but we were both alive. The Plymouth was still in perfect condition.
I looked up in time to see the leader of the drudes smiling at me. As the rocks crashed down all around, it just stood there staring at me, smiling until it disappeared into the falling debris.
There was no way any of the drudes were getting to us.
Blood trickled down my face and into my mouth. I struggled to stay conscious.
“Hannah… Hannah, are you ok?” Patrick said.
With blood on my teeth I looked at him and smiled.
“Woof!”
I thought that we’d won, but I was wrong.
Without warning a gigantic winged creature swoop down out of the night sky. It looked both like a bat and an owl, or some grotesque version of both animals.
“Screeeeeee- screeeeeee!!”
The winged beast grabbed hold of my car and lifted it off the ground like a plaything. It screeched several more times and took off into the night sky for an unknown destination.
My eyes rolled back into my head and I passed out.