CHAPTER 19 -THE DEATH DERBY 500 (SEVERE WEATHER) PART 2

The humanoid rift eater greeted Johnny as he came up to the checkpoint. “I see you were able to hang on after all that.” The beast said with disdain.

“What the heck was with the explosions?” Johnny asked with fear and concern.

“I might have forgotten to mention that at each quarter, a quarter of the field gets eliminated.” The beast replied with a toothy grin as he slapped the device he had put on Johnny’s car.

The beast informed Johnny on the next leg of the race, which was an all-weather challenge. The beast let Johnny know he had half an hour to make repairs and changes. The beast began to walk away after giving his talk to Johnny. Johnny was about to mess with the device the beast put on his car. The beast paused as it headed towards the checkpoint building. It didn’t stare at Johnny but let out a warning not to mess with the device planted on his car otherwise it would explode. It would kill not only Johnny but Julia and the others too. With that Johnny began preparing for the next quarter.

Johnny accessed any damage to the prototype from the onboard computer terminal. He needed to know what would need to be replaced by the matter/ anti-matter core. After a few minutes of processing the prototype. The only damage he found was with the suspension. Along with a left front wheel assembly. He quickly let the prototype repair the damage. He was given a warning on how much essence in the core he had left. Johnny had completely forgotten about that. He just ignored the warning and pressed yes as the prototype went to work. The prototype glowed a dark purple as it repaired itself. The suspension made popping noises as it bent itself back together. A warning came up on the terminal after, letting him know he was down to 75% essence after fixing the prototype.

Johnny could only sigh thinking he would have to be more conservative with the essence.I’d better be careful with not getting more damage or breaking parts. I should also just ignore the misc details too.

Johnny focused on the next step was to outfit the prototype for the next quarter. He let the onboard terminal calculate how much rift eater essence would be used for the next run. He put his ideas of what he wanted or thought he would need. In the end he chose not to add any more weapons or customize the look. When he was done adding the adjustments the computer alerted him, he would have around 65% core essence left.

Johnny went to work on inputting changes for the prototype. He first turned the prototype’s chassis into a storm chasing vehicle. Since the race was going into severe weather he thought why not. Unsure how the weather would play out. He changed the manual transmission to a four speed with midrange gearing, with transaction control to help him over ice or snow. The tires had been modified to have more grip to keep him from hydroplaning or losing control. Extra lights were mounted on top for better brightness incase for better visibility. The last modification he made was adding thicker windows and steal wire plating to protect the vehicle from flying debris and hail.

He was given another warning on how much essence was left in the core after making his selection. Again, he ignored the warning, selecting yes as the prototype quickly transformed. He was now left with less than forty percent after making all those changes. The whole prototype glowed purple as it made the changes merging from the Humvee into the storm chasing vehicle. The transformation only took a few seconds. With less than a few minutes left Johnny pulled to the starting grid.

Johnny drove the prototype up the starting line for the second leg of the race. He was starting in seventy-fifth position on the grid. Johnny was frustrated starting last but was grateful that he wasn't eliminated. He took note of other cars at the starting grid. Some still had some sort of damage that had not been completely repaired from the first leg of the race. Some of the Johnny’s had managed to change their vehicles to fit the next quarter of the track. Johnny had no idea how they managed to change their vehicles as he looked at them in confusion. He pondered over ideas but was brought back to reality when the humanoid rift eater appeared on a jumbotron screen.

The beast spoke. “The leg will be the same as last and only fifty of you will make it to the next round. Good luck.” He finished as the screen went blank and the starting lights turned on.

Johnny looked at the course ahead of him as the signal lights turned on to start the next part. He looked past the starting grid to see the track descended onto an eight-lane highway, with four lanes going in either direction. The highway went on as far as Johnny could see. Johnny was having doubts about the severity of the weather now since it was calm and collected across the landscape of blackness. Johnny’s expectations for an easy win would soon be shattered as the lights turned red now.

At that moment the weather on the highway began to change. The wind started to pick up from out of nowhere as precipitation began to blow sideways. The weather got so nasty it looked like mother nature was having an argument with her mother-in-law. Within just a few seconds the highway could no longer be seen from the end of where the starting grid stopped. Then the lights changed to yellow.

When the lights began to turn yellow Johnny noticed something completely unexpected. Traffic began to appear out of thin air. Cars, trucks, buses, and all sorts of vehicles begin to start driving into the chaotic mess of weather at full speed. Johnny was guessing the vehicles were easily doing 100 mph if not more, looking at it all made Johnny a trainwreck.

How am I going to even compete in this? He thought worriedly. Johnny knew his best chances were to finish in the top fifty. Looking at some of the other vehicles he knew his odds were not good, but at least he had a shot if he played it safe.

The lights turned green, and the race was back underway. Now that the traffic had been added, he needed a new game plan. Johnny turned on a radar from the prototype’s control terminal as he took off from the start. This radar had a special feature to let him see any hazards or obstacles on the map. Such as traffic or accidents. The radar appeared as a HUD on the passenger side of the prototype’s windshield. The display showed Johnny where the traffic was always. It also alerted him with sounds of distance.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Johnny took it slowly as he drove the prototype into the rough weather. The wind howled of a raging tempest as it blew rain drops onto the prototype. The rain soon got fiercer as he drove into the raging storm. He couldn’t see anything. Luckily, the radar was helping Johnny navigate in the white out of a downpour. He chose to use the slow lane to have a better chance at finishing. He slowly picked up his speed after a few miles. Johnny was now hitting 80 mph as he weaved in and out of slower traffic spawns.

After driving about twenty-five miles Johnny had managed to gain seven spots. He had managed to pass slower vehicles that were playing it safe like him. A few others had ended up sliding off the road or gotten into a wreck in the process. The rain soon began to change into a heavy snowfall, which turned into a whiteout.

I’ve seen some pretty bad snow storms but this is nuts.

Again, Johnny was thankful for the radar as he passed more vehicles that were having trouble getting through the snow storm. He gained around another seven positions.

The next twenty-five miles passed quickly. This time Johnny was driving into sleet with freezing rain. Johnny passed a few more competitors who were having trouble with the icy roads. The site reminded Johnny back to the Banzai Bangers event in the snowy Alaskan wilderness. It was an expo event that did poorly. Johnny ended up winning. Banzai Bangers never did the event again for poor performance.

Johnny was now running in fifty-ninth position with less than fifty miles to go. The precipitation now had all stopped, but now a thick fog covered the highway with a sandstorm blowing in the mix. Johnny hit the accelerator. Once again Johnny praised the prototype for having the technical advantage. Even though the visibility was zero he didn’t need to see. He let the radar do all the work he spent on gaining even more positions. He now has met his goal of reaching fifty or higher to be in the next quarter. This all came crashing down when the weather changed again.

The last twenty-five miles had proven to be the most difficult of the second quarter. As Johnny approached the final twenty-five miles of the quarter. His radar alerted him of a massive crash ahead. The weather had gone from zero visibility to adding hail.

As Johnny approached, hailstones started to bounce harmlessly off the chassis of the prototype that was harder than diamond. The window bars kept hail from shattering the windows of the prototype. He had to slow the prototype down to avoid sliding on the hail. He ended up passing a few competitors that had crashed into some of the spawned traffic. Two of which he saw had caught fire. I can’t stop to help they are not even real. Johnny reminded himself as he passed the burning wrecks. He was determined to stay in under the top fifty in drivers.

Johnny was soon given a warning on the radar. The hailstones began to stop. He was puzzled why the hail had stopped falling. The radar told him there was hail, but he couldn’t see anything until one hit the ground in front of him. The hailstone was the size of a minivan. It even looked like one when he got a better look. Johnny soon had to take evasive action as more minivan sized hailstones started smashing the ground. He watched as a few hail stones pelted spawning traffic. As well as a few competitors. The hail only lasted for a mile as he weaved his way through the onslaught.

The hail ended up only lasting for five miles before the weather changed again. This time Johnny hit the brakes of the prototype hard and came to a stop. In front of him was a tornado dashing back and forth across the highway. It kept picking up vehicles that spawned on the highway. To Johnny’s surprise other drivers had come to stop as well. Ahead of them cars had been tossed all over the place, even a few of the competitors. The vehicles were destroyed beyond recognition. A few were nothing but a pile of burning cinders. This made Johnny worry. He watched as a few drivers decided to go for it and a few made it. While a few were picked off the ground and thrown all around. He needed a way to get by the tornado.

Johnny went to work with the terminal letting it collect info on the twister. Johnny was going to have to thread the needle with this twister. He let the terminal work out the math of how he was going to time the twister. By the time it helped Johnny figure out the intervals. He was now outside the top 50 with less than twenty miles to go. Johnny was alerted that forty-five drivers have already completed the race. He was in dire desperation. He waited for the interval with the longest run on the tornado.

Johnny was given a countdown to hit his accelerator and he needed to time it perfectly. The clock counted from 5-4-3-2-1-Go. Johnny gunned it as a few of the other racers followed him. He barely made it past the twister watching a few cars get picked up and start falling all around him. Johnny weaved in and out of all the lanes trying to avoid the falling cars. The twister soon did something Johnny hadn’t expected. It began to chase him with Johnny's heart pounding out of his chest watching the horror follow him with the others.

Well, that is just nice. They are waiting for me to get destroyed before passing me. Johnny thought as he looked like his radar with disdain.

Johnny continued aggressively dodging falling objects the next ten miles with the tornado chasing him to the next checkpoint. He was running neck and neck in fifty-first with a spot for fifty along with the other drivers on his tail. Johnny was driving like a mad man in a dash for the halfway checkpoint. A few of the drivers had gotten a few car lengths in front of Johnny, making him lose hope in saving Julia. Johnny floored the prototype, giving no regards if he caused any damage.

A noise distracted Johnny from the radar. It was warning him of an incoming object. He watched in horror from behind as a truck carrying two tankers with gasoline was chucked out of the tornado. The truck twirled through the air as it passed over the remainder of the field. It crushed the lead cars in front of Johnny who had to lift off the gas to avoid crashing into the crushed cars with the truck bouncing down the road still. Johnny saw an opening as the two tankers lifted off the ground for a brief moment. Johnny floored it in hole as the other competitors followed as they tried to shove Johnny out of the way.

Johnny barely made it under the tankers as they fell back down. Johnny watched in his rearview mirror as only one other driver managed to pass under as the tankers landed. The other drivers piled into the tankers causing it to ignite into a massive fireball. The other vehicles crashed into the tankers blowing up as they impacted.

With less than half a mile to go Johnny kept on the gas not lifting or jerking his wheel. He was neck and neck with the other driver who made it under the tankers with Johnny. The other driver gave Johnny a shove, slowing him down. Johnny returned the favor while they both slammed and banged their cars into each other approaching the next checkpoint. Neither Johnny or his clone were giving an inch, with the tornado still throwing objects at them.

With two hundred feet remaining, both drivers ended up hitting each other too hard. They both lost control as they spun. Johnny was the first to regain control. His clone managed to recover nearly at the same time.

Both cars were about forty feet apart as they both were neck and neck as they closed in on the checkpoint. Johnny barely made it in fiftieth position by two inches. The other car blew up coming across the line along with the others behind him.