"The key!" Akari shouted in excitement. Jason looked to where Akari was looking and saw the key surrounded by soil.

"The key was in the plant pot?" Jason rhetorically asked, pissed off at the weird location. "We would never have found that", he continued, frustrated.

"Let's go tell the others!" Akari said, picking up the key. The two of them quickly left the house and went outside; they noticed that Malakai had turned the car around to make their exit quicker.

"You go tell Luna", Akari told Jason. Jason followed her orders and went to the house at the end of the road. Akari continued to Nina's house and opened the door. "NINA WE GOT THE KEY!" she shouted as loud as she could. Akari heard footsteps scurrying upstairs and eventually saw Nina at the top of the stairs.

"You found it?" Nina questioned, looking towards the door.

"Yep", Akari replied, holding up the red key. Nina rushed down the stairs, jumped the last two steps, and followed Akari out of the house. They were accompanied by Luna and Jason, who also left the house. They all rushed to their car and opened the doors to get in.

"Malakai, wake up!" Luna said in a slightly loud tone, getting into her seat and seeing Malakai's head tilted down.

Malakai removed his hood. "I wasn't sleeping, just daydreaming," he replied, fixing his hair, which had been messed up when he had put his hood on. He turned around and saw Akari holding the key. "Let me know when you lot are ready," he said, watching them put their seatbelts on.

"Go, we're fine", Jason said, out of breath, clicking his seatbelt in.

"Aryt", Malakai slowly drove out of the road, took a left turn and continued straight.

"It looks like there's a key in most of the street," Luna said, looking out of Malakai's window at the other roads and seeing cars parked in different ones. They left the area, and Malakai kept driving as normal, so like a maniac.

"Is it just this straight road?" Malakai asked Luna.

"Yeah, there's no turns anytime soon", she replied, relaxing with the map on her lap.

They were currently going 80 mph. Malakai would've gone faster, but his team talked him down as it looked like they were in the lead by a lot. They didn't like the idea of crashing. Malakai was tempted not to listen and go over 100 mph anyway, but he didn't want the whole car screaming again. The time he was alone in the car was peaceful; it made him appreciate the silence much more. The car was silent; everyone was determined to win. Silence for the first time. But nothing lasts forever. Malakai looked at his mirrors and noticed another car behind him in the distance, and they were closing the gap.

"Someone's catching", he alerted his team.

Luna checked her side mirror, "I can't see their number, but it looks like they are coming closer", she said, squinting her eyes and trying to see the number.

"Don't do anything stupid", Jason told Malakai sternly.

Malakai smiled, "I've got two options. Increase the distance by speed or increase the distance by slowing them down", he said, giving his team a choice.

"No, don't go faster!" Akari quickly replied, worried about the speed.

"What's wrong with what you're doing now?" Nina asked, not wanting to get into a race.

"They're gonna catch us. If I slow them down, I guarantee they ain't coming close to us", Malakai replied confidently.

"How are you going to do that?" Luna questioned, looking at Malakai's smile.

"Hehe, you're gonna have to wait and see", he said with a devilish smile.

The car behind them progressively closed the gap between them; Malakai saw the number on the car, "Six. Looks like we got the green light". Everyone looked at him when he said that.

Malakai took his foot off the accelerator, dropping his speed. He watched the car's movement, ensuring he stayed directly in front. Their speed had fallen to 50 mph, and the distance between the two cars was about three car lengths.

"What're they doing?" The driver said, looking at Malakai's car. They tried to steer left, but Malakai steered left. They tried to speed up and steer right, but Malakai blocked them. They were forced to drop their speed because of this. They couldn't overtake; Malakai was blocking them; he made it look like the car behind them was tailgating them. Malakai was perfectly blocking them, making sure they stayed behind him. Malakai giggled, and everyone looked towards him. Malakai pressed the brakes gently, bringing down his speed further while still blocking the car behind. The car was following really close now.

"Everyone hold on tight", Malakai warned. In the space of two seconds, Malakai quickly put his foot down on the brakes, causing the car to jolt forward. Everyone in the car moved with the car and was stopped being flung out by their seatbelts. Despite the passengers in the backseat holding on to what they could, they weren't safe from the jolt. They still felt the impact. After quickly pressing the brakes, he removed his foot from the brakes and slammed his foot on the accelerator, causing the car to pick up speed again and zoom forward. While all this happened in their car, 2 seconds before, in the car behind them,

"Why are they slowing down so much? I can't get past them". He kept driving, keeping close to the car in front until,

"WOOAAAHH!" He slammed the brakes as he saw the brake lights and the car stop in front of him. Everyone in the car got pushed forward by the force of the brake. The driver's chest hit the steering wheel, and the person next to him got saved by their seatbelt, strangling them to their seat, same with the person in the middle at the back. The people on either side got their faces smacked by the seat in front. Everyone's seatbelt saved them but also hurt them. The car stopped, and everyone sat in silence for a moment.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"IS EVERYONE OKAY?!" The driver asked in a panic, looking at all of them

"Yeah", one of them responded shakily, holding their chest. The rest seemed to be in shock.

"Is anyone hurt?" One of them asked.

"I don't think so". No one got seriously hurt, but they did get minor injuries. The speed they were going at wasn't fast at all, but braking suddenly was still dangerous at the speed they were going.

The driver slumped back in his seat and watched the car in front drive ahead. He forgot it was a race; he just sat there in shock. The five of them sat there in shock. Someone could've seriously gotten injured. Who's fault was it? There's or ours for driving too close? But I wasn't trying to drive close. They made me. Yeah, it's their fault. They did it on purpose.

"Did Malakai just brake check them?" Delilah questioned, staring at the TV wide-eyed at what she saw. Everyone was shocked at what they saw.

"Why would he do that? Imagine if they didn't stop and crashed into each other", Ray said, hoping for a logical response. But all he got was,

"It's Mally. Who knows what he's thinking?" David replied with a straight face. Inside, he was scared about what he saw.

"Does he always do dangerous things like this?" Maria asked, covering her mouth with her hand.

"It looks like it. I know we've said we've been friends for a long time, but we've only physically been with Malakai since we've been in this academy", Benjamin cooly answered, looking disappointed.

"Yeah, he's always been a joker. When we used to play online, he would do reckless stuff like go to the opposition team to fight them on his own. But every time he does something, he does it for a reason", William said, trying to make it look like a good quality.

"I don't know. What he did may have had a reason, but it was still dangerous. Did you see how harshly the other car stopped?" Tanisha pointed out that she was unimpressed by Malakai's actions. "He did something illegal to win a challenge. A stupid reason if you ask me".

Lucas stood up to go to the bathroom, but before he left, he said, "The only thing we can say is, it's Mally. That's the only answer. I bet he's laughing right now".

"Hehehehehe".

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Jason screamed at him, leaning forward in his seat so he was close to Malakai's face.

Malakai turned his head to look at him and smiled, "What? What did I do?"

"THEY COULD'VE CRASHED INTO US! WHY DID YOU DO THAT? ARE YOU A FUCKING IDIOT!" Jason continued to scream in his face.

"Bro, look, they ain't behind us no more. We're far ahead", Malakai replied casually, like he wasn't getting shouted at.

"Malakai. That was fucked up", Luna said in a cold tone. Malakai could sense her mood; he also felt her eyes piercing through him. Malakai didn't meet her eyes; he kept looking at the road. Akari and Nina were shocked into silence. They were holding their chest; their hearts were running. The seatbelt may have caused their bodies to sting a little. Akari was scared, Nina was shocked, Jason was angry, and Luna was pissed off.

"Heheheheh", Malakai giggled. "Look, nothing happened. No one died, no one's hurt", he said, trying to lift the mood.

"Malakai, shut up", Luna harshly said, stopping him from talking. Her tone alone sent a shiver down his spine.

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

"Jason shut up. Please", Luna stopped him from talking as well. "Malakai, listen and listen to me carefully. I know you're not a bad guy, but look what you've done to Akari and Nina. You did what you thought was right, and it worked, but look what it came with. So now, don't say anything and don't drive like a moron. You got what you wanted. You don't need to do anything extra, so shut up and drive normally", Luna calmly but harshly scolded Malakai; it was clear she meant what she said. Luna looked out of her window; she didn't want to look at Malakai or anyone, for that matter. Malakai didn't respond; he kept looking forward and gave a faint smile. He also bit his tongue so he wouldn't smile harder. He made sure not to look at anyone's faces; if he did, he would crack. The ride was silent and awkward, but they eventually reached location C.

"Okay, let's go", Luna said, getting out of the car. The rest of the team also got out of the car without saying anything. When they all left, Malakai put his face in his right palm and started giggling; he'd been holding it in ever since Luna had scolded him. He made sure to cover his face to make sure his teammates didn't see.

"Are both of you okay?" Luna asked, putting a hand on Nina's and Akari's shoulders, as they hadn't said anything since the incident.

"Yeah. It was a bit of a shock, but I'm fine now", Akari replied with a weak smile on her face.

"Me too. Now that we're here, I'm all good", Nina replied. "I think you were too hard on Malakai", Nina said to Luna, looking back at the car.

"Yeah, I feel bad. Even though it was dangerous, he did it to help the team", Akari said, glancing back at the car and seeing Malakai's head tilted down and his hands covering his face.

Luna looked back, "He's fine. I doubt my telling him off hurt him. He's probably laughing right now. I could tell while we were driving he wanted to laugh; he's probably letting it all out now", Luna said, crossing her arms.

"Forget about him; let's go," Jason said, rushing ahead without caring about Malakai. The four passed a gate and reached what seemed to be the challenge—a large climbing net. The net was vertical, at about a 50-degree angle. At the end of the net was a platform, but they couldn't see what was on it.

"Guess we have to climb up", Luna said, looking up.

"Maybe it was a good thing that idiot drove fast; climbing up this with other people racing to the top would be a mess", Jason said, looking behind and seeing no one there. Nina was the first to climb, and as soon as she saw the net, she was excited to climb it. Luna followed with Akari, and Jason stayed at the back in case anyone fell, specifically Akari. Nina and Luna were climbing the net just fine; Nina, in fact, was racing to the top. On the other hand, Akari was slow, so Jason helped her by holding her hand and supporting her balance as she slipped a few times before. Eventually, everyone reached the top and was met with a door with a circle in front of it painted on the floor. The door didn't look like one that opened sideways; it wasn't a door that you had to push or pull the handle to open. It looked like a door that automatically went up when you stood in front of it.

"How do we open the door?" Jason asked, even though no one knew the answer. Luna walked and stood inside the circle. The door didn't open. Luna looked down at the circle and noticed it was pretty big,

"Stand in the circle with me", she told her teammates. Everyone joined and stood within the circle.

Ping!

The noise startled everyone in the circle. Did it work? The door started lifting up. Everyone remained in the circle until the door fully opened just to be safe.

"It looks like it worked," Nina said, stepping out of the circle and entering the room. When they entered, it was nothing special. It was a plain white room with six boxes with locks placed on a relatively high table.

"Can I have the key?" Jason asked Akari.

"Here you go", Akari gave Jason the key. Jason walked to the box that was labelled 1st in gold. The boxes were lined up in order from 1-6, with one being coloured gold, two being silver and three being bronze. Four, five, and six were coloured black. From what it looked like, that meant the order in which a team arrived unless it was a trick.

"We're going for number 1, right?" Jason asked his group before unlocking it.

"Yeah, I don't think we should overthink this", Luna replied. Jason wasted no time, he used the key and unlocked the box. Inside the box was a folded piece of paper and a map. Jason handed the map to Luna and kept the folded piece of paper.

"Another piece of paper'', Jason said while he unfolded the paper, "86479," he read out.

"That's probably the code to the safe at the last location", Akari said.

Jason smirked, proud that he got first place.

"Let's go".