“Alright! Good practice everyone. Rest day and long runs for tomorrow.” Alice greedily drank the last of her water as the coach dismissed cross country practice. Sprints were the worst, but Alice could tell she was in way better shape than she had been last year. Despite all her work, she was still only the third fastest of the girls. And the boys… Well that wasn’t really fair anyways. Alice wondered how fast the Infected could move. She walked back to the school to wait for her Dad’s car.

“Hey! Hey Alice.”

Alice saw Julia walking towards her from the school.

“I realized after lunch that I never got your number and I had to rush straight to theater practice. We should hang out sometime, sorry if my friends were a little much. We didn’t really get to talk much.”

Alice reached into her pocket and quickly fumbled out her phone. “Oh, yeah!” She tempered her excitement a little. “Er, yes. Let’s trade.”

After a few moments they traded and Julia sent a text. Alice’s phone buzzed a second later. “Ah, got it.”

They both put their phones away again. “Soooooo…. ”

Alice looked at Julia. “I never did end up hearing what you thought of twilight. Did you read it?”

Alice snorted. “That book is such old news. But yeah, it was okay.”

There was a moment of silence as Julia seemed to struggle to come up with a reply. Alice tried to think of something quick and blurted something out quickly before she could chicken out, “Do you want to hang out this Saturday?”

Julia was surprised for a second, but then she nodded. “Oh, sure! Anything you want to do?”

Alice blinked, “Er. Well. Go karting!”

Julia burst out laughing.

“What?”

“Sorry, sorry. That’s just not expected. I thought you’d want to go shopping or go on a walk or something.”

Alice blushed. “I mean, we can do those things too. It was just the first thing I thought of. I saw it one time and it seemed interesting.”

“No, now that you say it, it could be fun! I’ve actually never been to that old place. Let’s go and Go Kart, girl!”

Julia put out her fist and Alice hesitantly bumped it. “Alright.”

Another moment of silence before Julia spoke up again. “So how do you feel for the chemistry test? Memorizing those reactivity series is SO hard.”

Alice relaxed a little as the two of them stepped to the side as some of the other students went to pass them on the sidewalk. “Yeah, that was so bad. Like, isn’t that what computers are for?”

“I KNOW. Like we ever need to know sodium is more reactive than lithium in real life. That class…”

Julia and Alice chatted for a while and complained about class for what felt like a long time. Alice was surprised that Julia was waiting for the late bus. She had at least thirty more minutes before it would show up. When she saw her dad’s car, Alice almost didn’t want to leave. But Julia spotted it and so Alice realized it was time to go.

“Well, that’s my ride Julia. See you Saturday?”

Julia smirked. “See you tomorrow you mean. It’s only Wednesday.”

“Pffffft. You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, see you Saturday too. I’m just teasing you. Alright, bye now.”

Alice lingered for a moment before turning and leaving, adjusting her backpack one last time. “Bye.”

As she drove back home with her dad, it was quiet. A comfortable silence, for her at least. Alice was staring out the window as her dad drove, “Making friends in school?”

His voice broke silence, and Alice smiled. “Yeah. We’re meeting Saturday to go go karting. Can I borrow the car for a few hours when I go?”

He drummed his fingers on the wheel for a few seconds. “Okay. But drive carefully okay? And I’ll have to tell the ADF you know. But, good for you.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. If they had their way I’d still be stuffed in a padded box in a bunker somewhere.”

— — — O — o — O — — —

Well, the ADF had been annoyed and Alice had to drive on a certain set of roads to get there, but otherwise it wasn’t so bad. They hadn’t liked that their security force would have to infiltrate and scout the go karting place in so little time. She wasn’t sure why the undercover ADF agents couldn’t just pretend to be customers, but apparently they wanted more than that.

Dad was the one who had to discuss and arrange everything with them, so luckily Alice just got notice when they figured everything out. The rest of the school week went by quickly and Alice and Julia grew closer and even sat next to each other at lunch on Friday. A few of Julia’s friends threw the two of them amused looks, but no one had commented on it yet.

Alice still got… Flashes. Her dead friends' laughing faces superimposed on the people around her. But it wasn’t affecting her as much anymore. Things were different now, she wouldn’t have to worry about them dying again.

— — — O — o — O — — —

“So you ever been to this place?”

“No. My dad said he did it one time and it was fun… have you?”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“No… Well let’s go.”

The two girls walked in the door and the indoor track smelled musty with engine oil. The sound of big fans and rattling sounded above from the exposed raised ceiling and pipes. The place echoed with a dull roar as the karts drove around the track. They went to the front desk and Julia took charge. There was a bald man in his forties sitting there looking bored on his phone.

“Go karting for two please,” Alice said.

The man looked up and gave an exaggerated blink as he saw the two of them. He gave a small nod to Alice. He was ADF.

“Well, helmets over on the rack on the left," He said, "Try them on and make sure they’re tight. We don’t want you getting hurt if you hit a wall.”

Alice and Julia moved their way over to the helmets. The two of them eyed the full head motorcycle style helmets suspiciously. Only the clear front on the part was missing, leaving a hole. Julia picked one up and flipped it over.

“Well, here goes nothing,” she muttered before she put it over her head, her hair spilling out from underneath. She stood there for a second before putting her hands to her head again. She tugged for a second and nothing happened and it seemed stuck. Alice stepped forward to help, but then with a *pop* the helmet came off and Julia blinked with her hair sticking up and pointing every which way.

Alice held back a giggle as Julia just stared at her dumbly for a second.

“What?” Julia said.

“You look like a mess. Look in the mirror.”

Alice pointed at the nearby mirror and smiled widely as Julia turned and futily tried to pat her frizzy hair back down. Alice started laughing, unable to hold it back anymore. Julia turned back to her in mock outrage and held out the helmet empty side first towards Alice.

“Oh, funny is it. Let’s see how you like it! Hahahaha”

Her evil fake laugh was nasally and high pitched like a witches cackle as she leapt forward and shoved the helmet roughly onto Alice’s head.

And suddenly it wasn’t funny anymore. There was a pressure on her head from all sides, telling her to not pay attention. No, just padding.

“Get it off, Get it off, Nonono”

She was walking on a road, and the white line was all she could see. Francis was behind her and freedom was ahead. The pressure pressed on her mind, telling her to turn around. To return to the cage to be eaten like the others.

There was a woman babbling and tearing at the helmet, but it was stuck firmly and her thrashing only impaired the other girl that was trying to help her.

One of her old friends had been named Julia. How could she have forgotten her name already? Alice saw her blank face along with the others as she was loaded into the ambulance. Already replaced by the parasite.

It was just padding.

Julia finally managed to yank the helmet off Alice’s head with a grunt of effort, and Alice’s scrambled thoughts came back together. Her eyes darted around to the crowd of other people staring at the two of them

“...Alice? Al…”

None of it was real, she just had a panic attack. She felt inside herself and watched her golden core spin. Over and over, it was hypnotic. Her breathing slowed and she could string together a coherent thought again. A hand landed on her shoulder and Alice jumped in surprise and snapped back to reality. Julia’s face stared back at her in concern,

“Alice, are you alright? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you… I just…”

Alice took a shaky breath, “N… No. It’s me. It just was, surprising is all. I’m sorry I made fun of you before. It really feels like my… my brain is being, is being compressed in that thing.”

Julia stared at Alice for a moment and Alice gave her a forced smile. Julia returned a hesitant one of her own, and Alice took the helmet from Julia’s hands. With a deep breath Alice put the helmet back on and the pressure on her skull returned. Her breathing hitched. She focused on her golden core and slowly calmed down and her breathing returned to normal. She stood there and spoke loudly, her voice only wavering a little bit.

“See, I’m fine. Now let’s go have some fun.”

Julia opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again and grabbed another helmet and put on her own head. Her muffled voice came through.

“You’re right, it is like my brain is being squeezed. Let’s go squeeze our brains together on the track. I bet I’ll beat you in all the races.”

Feeling lighter, Alice quickly ran after her as they went to the line for the next race. “No way, you’re going down!”

— — — O — o — O — — —

“How have you never done this before? You were like a pro out there.”

Alice and Julia sat eating some of the snacks from the vending machine between races. Alice had beaten Julia four out of five times.

“I don’t know. Maybe you're just really bad at this?”

“Lies! Slander! I’ll have you know I am the best at Mario Kart. It’s basically the same right? I’d beat you if they had power ups in here.”

“You just want the blue shell, that thing just punishes people for being better at the game.”

Julia huffed and reached into her bag and went to pop another chip in her mouth. “Mmmphhh. I SKhnow Right? Sush bullshit.”

Julia finished the bag. “Want to do one more? Winner takes all?”

“Sure. Now we both know its just like Mario Kart, who knows what might happen…”

— — — O — o — O — — —

Alice won again, but her kart was only a little in front of Julia’s at the end, which the girl took as a win. They were walking back outside and were about to have to split to go to their respective cars. Julia hesitated. “Hey Alice…”

Alice looked up, “Want to come to my house?" Julia continued, "We could play some Mario kart on my console. Even our scores?”

Her voice raised at the end and she gave a weak chuckle. Alice thought of the ADF losing their shit trying to secure her route in time. She knew it was theoretically to protect her, but it was so overbearing sometimes.

“Sure, that sounds great. Just tell me the address and I’ll text my dad.”

— — — O — o — O — — —

Julia’s house was nice. Just like how her old place in Harmony had been. White walls with a little green lawn. A pool, which was something Alice had definitely had not had. Julia's family was friendly, and her two little brothers ran around causing chaos.

They joined Julia and Alice in playing Mario Kart, where she got absolutely thrashed. Julia really hadn’t been kidding about her skill, Alice was almost half a lap behind everyone else. Julia's brothers shot her pitying looks as they fought for second and third nearly every race. Alice was near the back every time.

Julia smirked at her as they finished their last race with her in first place, “Guess we’re even now.”

Alice snorted and leaned back and put down the controller, “Yeah, I guess we are.”

One of Julia’s little brothers looked between them. He was ten or so, and looked confused. “Didn’t Alice lose every time? How are you even?”

Julia turned to him, “She beat me in real life Go kart. There’s a place indoors and they have a whole track you drive around… That’s where we were for the last few hours.”

The eyes of the two brothers widened comically and their jaws dropped. “You can do that? That’s awesome! We gotta go do that.” The two ran off without another word and the two girls quickly heard them begging their parents to take them in the next room.

— — — O — o — O — — —

“Bye, Alice. That was really fun, we should do it again sometime.”

“Definitely. Definitely. See you at school then?”

“At school.”

“”Bye Alice“”, Julia’s two brothers said in unison, and she waved at them as she stepped in her dad’s car and started the engine. She hummed a happy little tune all the way as she drove home, ignoring the ADFs carefully preplanned route as she drove.