The night air was thick with moisture. Skyscrapers reached upwards into the swirling pool of dark clouds. Endless square windows peered down into the rivers of grey concrete below. Lights shone from the occasional flying car overhead, breaking the darkness. I stood on the sidewalk the faint glow of a space-ship advertisement illuminated the side of my face. My stomach twisted and my breath quickened. Waiting.

The heavy air turned to specks of rain. Freezing wind burned against the faces of the crowds. People nearby hobbled into the warmth of the dirty buildings. The rain picked up, it pooled into the pavements and gutters. A screech rang out, An old car came racing towards me at least four times the speed limit, before skidding to a halt. Sirens in the distance coloured the water red and blue. I opened the car's side door ushering four or five people out. Before I could even think, we were running.

Some of the group disappeared down a side road. My breath became mist, rain drenched my clothing penetrating my bones with an icy chill. Huge neon signs lit my path. A large impish boy caught up to me. Once beside me, Kenny flashed a smile, I didn't see what was so funny. He overtook me. 

“If you run over a pedestrian, I’ll have your head,” I yelled. 

We cut through a back alley onto a smaller street. There, thanks to wonderful planning, was a stolen flying car. I got into the driver's seat and started it up.

The car joined the steady stream of late-night traffic. Behind me, I heard Natalie sneeze, and I turned on the heating in the car. 

"Are they following us?" asked Sam, one of Kenny's friends. Kenny looked out the back window and cursed.

"Lose them, Dan."

"How far behind are they?" I asked.

I was answered with the sharp sound of sirens. Panic lit in me like a fire. 

"Not far."

I swam in an ocean of traffic. A horn blared. I took a sharp left turn. Crack. The car hit a window display, tiny shards of glass flew everywhere. I could still see the red and blue lights. 

“What did you guys do?” I asked.

"We were robbing a store, and we ended up taking out the manager. Can you just do something Danny or they're going to get us," said Kenny. 

I couldn’t say I was surprised.

"Yes, I can see that." I hissed through gritted teeth. "And shut up, will you?" 

We approached an intersection. Rain blurred hazy orange lights. They flickered red. I accelerated. We sped through. A sharp honk cut the air. 

"Dan, there's a ramp coming up on fourth main." 

I nodded. Cars merged onto the road. My driving became more maniacal. The road widened. Cars wove into the stream of constant traffic. All the while the police cars hounded us. I could see at least three behind me. I realised in a short burst of panic that there was nowhere to turn off. A huge metal ramp arched up towards the night. Cars spilled off of it, joining the ones that jittered through that air in an unorganised mess. 

I sped up and shifted gears. There were bumps and we jolted around. I couldn't help but wonder if we would die that night. We launched off the ramp. Kenny let out a small whoop. Natalie turned back, watching out the window with big eyes. 

The police cars were phantoms that chased us through the night, haunting us in the dark. Heavy rain beat down on the windows. I looked at Natalie and she glanced back. At least we were on the same page. Blurs of colour merged into one another as we drove quietly on and I could see the shape of cars in the corner of my eye.

"I don't think we quite lost the buggers, Daniel." It was Kenny that had spoken.

"What makes you say that?" I tried to bite back the shakiness from my voice. 

"Look to your left."

Outside the window was the faint outline of a police car. I pulled upwards, the dreary light of the city fell away. Our car broke from the rest of the traffic. We flew directly into the rain. It hammered and gushed, beating us down. Up and up we climbed until all we could see were clouds. The windows and doors blotted out by the black vapours of the skies. 

"I don't think we should be going this high." Natalie's face was white. Kenny just looked on. The clouds gave way, and we all stared in awe at a glorious speckled sky. 

The atmosphere here was weaker than it would be on most planets, and the light of distant stars burned with frightening brilliance against caliginosity. The blanket of clouds below us ripped, and a car burst through the vapour and fumes gathered below. Two more joined, rushing in our pursuit. 

I continued to push upwards. The car to my left headed up and away making a wide arch in the sky. The other two flanked me, and we were above the rain now. My ears popped. I pulled the car yet steeper, diving it backwards. Sam sat, pinned against the back of his seat. Kenny grinned. I turned the car, levelling it out. We were horizontal to the ground. The police cars above us curved down to meet me. 

My heart leapt into my throat. Air rushed past us outside. I pulled again upwards into a gentle incline. They surrounded me, I had to lose them. I tipped the car, nosediving straight into the billowing storm. Blinded, with only the soft blinking lights and moving dials as consolation. The ground materialised beneath me. A grey blur of dusty buildings, advertisements and constant streams of cars. Everything seemed surreal, nothing quite was real. The ground came closer. 

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A red car travelled with the rest of the sky highway. We were only a few meters above it. I twisted the car abruptly, pulling downwards, joining the rest of the long trial of the highway. No doubt at this point I'd broken every driving law. I don't know if I'd ever see the open sky again if I were arrested now. 

Sirens rang out.

"Kenny, I can't lose them." I cried out. I hadn't expected Natalie to speak. 

"A tunnel isn't far from here, if you follow the stream of traffic down to Rander Street, you should be able to drive into it."

She spoke softly, and I almost had to lean in to hear her. This was it. I turned the car, pushing in between the roads that filtered the rush hour traffic. The ground became a huge wall. Buildings stuck out of it like needles. Traffic roared, rushing above and below us. A gushing flow of headlights, in a prism of rainy light. I saw the entrance to the tunnel. A small black dot, a pinprick. 

I dove towards it. The ground loomed closer and closer. In my mirrors, I could see the dots of the police cars pulling up. The car shook violently. The entrance to the tunnel grew larger until it swallowed us. I let out a shaky breath. At least we weren't dead. 

The large gaping mouth swallowed us. Yellow lights cast the space in heavy shadows. Two police descended in behind us. There was a loud clang as one of them hit the side of the entrance. Kenny kicked his legs, he looked like he was having the time of his life. Even Natalie looked excited. I looked around at the tunnel walls. One of the cops pulled up towards the back of my car. There was an abrupt smash. In the rearview mirror, I saw my license plate falling into the distance. It scraped along the floor until the gloom enveloped it. 

I pushed down hard on the pedal. The police caught up, tailing us from centimetres away. I switched gears. We were in flight. I rammed the car onto the tunnel wall. The police, unable to follow us in time went full speed into the car in front of them. Chunks of metal flew. For one horrible second, I could see the ice-cold dread plastered on those officer's faces. 

Flames bloomed, a cacophony of blinding reds and oranges. Bile rose in my throat. Blood pounded in my brain. The tunnel came to an end and I took a left into an alleyway. 

A large building made up most of the left wall of the dirty street. An apartment complex, if you could call it that. Washing lines covered one side of it. Somewhere in the distance, a baby howled. Sam got out first, opting to walk home. I'd forgotten he was with us. Natalie, Kenny and I entered taking a long staircase up to one of the upper floors. People bunched together in the corridors. Shouts could be heard from the doors we passed, fights, mothers calling their children for dinner, coughs of the sickly. All blurring into a homogeneous din. 

An old rusted door greeted us. Red paint chips peeled off the side, revealing the wood that had made it. The one place we could go where no one would find us. The temperature inside the room was not much better than outside. My numb body gave way into exhaustion. 

Kenny took a seat on the floor. Natalie walked to the couch and laid down. I plonked on a nearby armchair. My eyelids were heavy, stinging. I can't say exactly when, but I drifted off to sleep. 

                                                                                                   ***

I awoke to light streaming in from a hole in the wall. The sky was a dusty ashen haze. White fluffy clouds glowed a dim orange around an old sun. It seemed as if not even rain could wash away the dirt of the city. This was a normal occurrence. The unit of artificial weather always created clear skies after the rain. I didn't think too much of it. I sat up, wiping the sleep from my eyes. Neither Kenny nor Natalie seemed to be anywhere in sight. Another door swung open. I walked over to it, realising it led out to a tiny balcony. 

I found him there. We stood shoulder to shoulder in amongst an exotic jungle of clothing. 

"Morning Daniel, you're up early."

I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, where's Nat."

"Oh, she went home."

I nodded, following his gaze. The city did not look much better during the day. Neon signs and endless graffiti blended into the skyline. Large black beams held up the dull outlines of structures. Pointed bars in the ever-present city. A cage. 

"I hate doing these runs for you. I really do. I don't want to end up a mangled corpse on the side of the road."

"All the more reason not to get caught." He replied.

I looked at him seriously. Something changed in his eyes. 

"Look, you don't have to worry about it anymore, there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while." His voice shook ever so slightly. "You know that application I sent off to join the military?" 

"Yes?" I could already guess what was to come. 

"Well, I got accepted. Last night was my last chase."

"What?" 

“Look after yourself, okay?” He threw me a small black object. I caught it, he’d given me a fold-out knife. 

He looked away, unable to meet my eyes. Lofty wind blew, kicking up swarms of dust. There was a long pause. Disbelief became sadness. 

"I should go." 

I didn't stop him.

                                                                                         ***

The sun had reached its zenith. The heat had intensified, it sat heavy in the air, and weighed down on everything. I walked along a narrow concrete road. My eye drew to a storefront. An old wooden sign swung lazily in the wind. Specks of dirt covered the door, riddling it with filth. Shards of glass lay in front of an empty window frame, the door flapped on broken hinges.

It piqued my interest. I had nothing else to do, I entered the musty store. The smell of death hit me. I stumbled back, gagging. Nausea churned in my stomach. I walked past rows. Layers of dust lay on empty shelves. 

On the ground, I made out a dried red mark. It stagnated forth from behind the counter. Gradually darkening as it travelled. I peered over it, ignoring the copious amounts of dust. A heap of clothes lay on the floor. 

A face of an ugly-greyish white peeked out from underneath. His neck jutted out at an unnatural angle. Skin flapped off of him like large paper sheets. He was dead. 

His face, the putrid smell, it was too much. I stood there just shaking like a leaf. The urge to run out of the store right then and there grasped me. Dead people were normal, copses were an everyday thing. And he was young, couldn’t have been more than twenty. Probably just trying to get by in this hellhole of a place. One breath in, one out. He was holding something, papers it looked like. I closed his eyes and tried not to make contact with him as I pried the sheets from his hands.

He might have had a family. My stomach lurched, vision blurring, I nearly doubled over. The smell was too much, the thought of his life, slowly leaving him in those final moments, it was all too much. I started seeing doubles. Leaving as fast as I could go. Outside I ran to the nearest dumpster and vomited.

Only then did I think about actually checking the papers I’d stolen. In front of me were logbooks, passports and a little extra cash. This was an escape, just handed to me like that. I felt euphoric and took a seat on the curb, trying to process everything that had happened.