A dark summer night, with the starry sky being the only light source to illuminate the roads ahead, other than the headlights of metallic comets flowing through the streets. Out of the pack of racers zipping by traffic, there was one lone car far, far ahead of the group. Inside this speed vessel is a dark-haired girl wearing a red beanie with a black face mask. The vessel itself? A Honda NSX Type R with a large, mounted wing on the back with seven spokes on its golden rims; the V6 screeched as her tachometer reached the red line. A monochromatic car with a red streak through the middle went over 200 mph down the blur of dashed yellow lines and lights. Seeing the never-ending straight in front of them, the driver looked to her passengers’ seat with a large khaki duffel bag stuffed with cash. She’d take her hand off the shifter, stuffing her pockets with money.

 In the second their eyes were off the black asphalt, she noticed a blue and red flash. Loud sirens broke through the loud electronic music barraging her ears. Looking to her right, the driver took a split second to shift to the exit needing to seriously slow down due to the banked curve. She didn’t read the green sign that she speedily passed through. The girl was now speeding through a relatively empty stretch of road. The aftermarket touch screen in her car showed that police were nowhere nearby. 

The driver decided to give a crew member a call, driving smoothly through the empty stretches of road as she waited for an answer. Soon enough, someone picked up. A masculine voice. She breathed a sigh of relief and spoke.

           “Malik! We did it! We fucking did it!” our driver’s voice was more guttural than most girls. 

“Yep! We did it. Every single race was for this moment! We’re at the top, baby! Lambos, Bugatti’s, McLarens beware!” The male’s voice was a bit scruffy but still very excited. “Where are you right now, Yumey?” he asked. 

           “I went through some exit, definitely not in Port Lumbre anymore. I’ve been driving for around 15 minutes now. So far, it’s just one stretch of land and- “Yumey, our driver, picked up on a specific sound, an engine, a loud one revving as high as it could. “Josh, someone’s following me.”

           With a confused sound, Josh responded with… “You didn’t see him in the police detector?”

           “No, not at all. What the…” The girl immediately stomped her foot down, using her ears to hear the rev of her engine shift rather than look at the ticker of the tachometer, getting up to speed quickly.

She had started to question things and started to panic. Why couldn’t she see this cop, and it wasn’t just some cop driving his interceptor around. This guy had skill. Then she passed through dashed lanes. The roads had become wavy, corners and hairpins, opening the opportunity to escape. However, he was keeping up the red and blue lights illuminating the inside of her vehicle with its bright white headlights blinding her.

Upon the approach of the third hairpin, due to her blindness, a mistake was made. Her left foot pressed down on the brake, far too early.

CRASH. 

She could feel her wheel losing control, her car veering straight into a guard rail. The girl counter-steered as best as she could, downshifting, attempting to guide her vehicle away from the guardrail. A futile effort.

CRASH. 

This time, the large SUV of a police car had rammed itself onto the side of the NSX, and within a few seconds… everything came to a halt. Yumey felt her forehead and could see red.

 Her windows were shattered, her airbag out; she needed to escape. Her hand veered for the duffel bag, along with a weapon. She never used this before. . .

Slowly, her door would creak before she’d push through and jump out. Looking back, she’d noticed the man in uniform behind her.

           “Chase.” It all made sense now, the impeccable driving, especially that cop car. 

           “Yumey.” Chase had a big grin on his face, unlike the bleeding and slumped girl. “I don’t want to do this to you.” His tone was belittling and smug, which changed slightly when his target pulled out a pistol, staring him down. 

           “Back off,” Yumey commanded.

Chase had put his hands forward, backing up slightly but still with a smile. He knew that Yumey couldn’t pull the trigger. 

           “Look, I’ll cut you a deal.” Before Yumey could speak, he added. “Skip town. I don’t want to see you EVER again. We’re already rounding up everyone else who joined your little race. Do you hear me?!” 

           “Fuck. You.” Two simple yet powerful words came from the noirette. She’d slump back. 

As his walkie-talkie suddenly picked up a signal, he chuckled, with officers asking about the situation at hand. At this point, he smiled and showed off the device.

           “They’re coming. You have to make a choice now. Get locked up, or run away. You’re a driver. This should be easy.”

With the tensest few seconds of her life, Yumey could feel her heart palpitating a cold sweat ran down her shoulders. Was she really going to leave everything behind for herself? Her legs were shaking, and in a split-second decision, she dropped the gun and decided to walk away. 

           With his cocky grin, the cop immediately called out to her as she turned around. “And the bag too.”

She dropped her bag and slumped away, holding her side, which had a bit of glass. She was wearing a simple pair of sneakers, black cargo pants, and a long-sleeved workout top. Chase had immediately pressed on his walkie-talkie. 

“Suspect not found. But we do have the car. Check back at the city and bring me a tow truck.”

           “Roger that.”

2 Hours later…

After the pain had finally worn off and the bleeding had mostly stopped, Yumey was back in a state of mind to think rather than be chockfull of adrenaline. The yellow street lights illuminated the long stretch of road around her, with minimal mention of human society, a few farms, and warehouses separated by long gaps of forestry. During this two-hour walk of pain, only three cars had passed by her. She couldn’t call anyone on her phone. She had left it in the car. 

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The car-less driver didn’t even feel a single ounce of rage or hatred towards those who finally got her. After a year of avoidance, her domination of the streets ended. It was inevitable…yet, why did she feel so frustrated? The rush of a high rpm and the power she felt when inside a driver’s seat…gone instantly disappeared because she braked too early. Tears ran down her face as she silently wept while stumbling across the road. 

An hour later…

Finally, some civilization. According to the sign, at the least, a small town with a population of 3,000. She had to think of a plan… she couldn’t just call her friends back in town. The police most likely caught them already and would track the phone call to her. 

           Ash…Malik…

She somberly thought to herself. Her crew, the people that brought her up to this point, we’re now hundreds of miles away. She’d never forget them. 

           I’ll get you guys out of there. One day. 

At the first stop, she saw an open gas station with its lights on. The inside and a large sign on the roof with its name. Not a single car other than one parked in front could be seen. She’d walk inside.

Looking up at the bright white lights definitely was a change, making the girl squint a bit. She’d go past the isles, grab an energy drink, and order a cheese steak panini. As she browsed the aisles, she looked for a specific item, one of those disposable flip phones that tourists got… 

           Man, WikiWiki’s are everywhere these days.

Upon purchase, she’d immediately turn on the phone, putting in the sim card. The phone barely functioned for anything other than calls… Maybe she should… call her family back in Korea. No, bad idea, bad idea. She had to think hard about this.

           Someone to call that isn’t connected to the racing scene…Or my parents.

She’d taken a bite out of her panini before her phone had suddenly rang, a number she didn’t recognize. Out came a german accent, a very thick one. That was fine, though. She could understand it nonetheless. 

“Hallo, you’re Yumey Choy? Gut gut. You’re in quite a detrimental situation, you know? Florida’s police are practically cheering in victory over your defeat. It even says that you were killed in a car crash. Listen, I’m here to give you a second chance at life, get you off the ropes. Why don’t you come to Los Langatos? I have work for you to do.”

“Can’t. Don’t have a passport.” She responded.

“Ah, that won’t be a problem. There’s an airstrip about 30 miles from your location. I’ve sent you the address. We’ll have all your fake documents and such inside. You just have to get there. Once you get there, we’ll talk. You have until 2PM today.”

And without a single question from our driver, he hung up. She stood in silence, going into the store and asking someone to use their phone, tapping a bit to find the Ritt app, which essentially was like… carpooling. 

           Some sleep would be nice… 

Thus she decided to go to a motel first, with the Ritter arriving very shortly. The drive to, payment, and everything else before she hit her bed felt like a fever dream. The girl immediately fell asleep upon flopping on the bed.

With the sudden oscillation of her entire life, her career, ending in an instant right after its most significant peak, an inflection point was hit where she could rise again. Her dreams were vivid, filling her mind with the sound of her comet on wheels purring as she drove, the feeling of the wind as the dashed lines on asphalt slowly became a yellow blur. Suddenly, hundreds, if not thousands, of police cars surrounded her, their flashing blue and red lights blinding her. Her car finally turned into an exploding mist at the end, waking her up.

She felt rushed and looked at the clock on her disposable phone and saw the time. It was 12:30 PM. 

Oh, God. Oh fuck.

A rush of adrenaline came to her. She immediately ran out, giving her card back to the front desk as she tried to look for a car. This was an emergency. She had looked around, and maybe it was because of the smallness of this town, but it seemed like there wasn’t a single camera out there. During her rise to the top, she got good at making sure cameras weren’t around for her getaway . . . and on her left was a sedan, which she promptly elbowed the window of an alarm ringing out as she quickly hot-wired the car in mere seconds before rapidly backing out and driving out of the motel. 

This town was relatively empty, so it was fine going 80 in a 30, making turns at 60, and within 30 minutes, she was there! Upon arrival, her phone started to ring.

“Hallo? Hello? It’s me, the plane is the Black one with a tall man with a scraggly beard there. He may look scary and have fewer teeth than normal, but just go up. He knows who you are, don’t worry.” 

He immediately hung up, and Yumey was up to her own devices, walking up to the jet-black plane. She paid little attention to the man as she had gone up, intimidated. Upon entering, she noticed the white velvet walls and seats of the same color. The pure air flowed from the air conditioning to her nose.

           Man, this place is stacked.

Upon sitting down on the cool seats, she’d notice the bottles of champagne on a cabinet above her.

           I should probably touch.

Suddenly, she felt movement, looking out the windows and seeing the wheels glide across the runway, and with a bit of force, the plane lifted itself into the sky, and our grounded driver was now high up into the blue sky without any clouds bothering her. She could hear a ding right after they had taken off, probably from the captain.

           “This is your captain speaking. Our trip to Los Langantos will take approximately 5 hours.” 

She’d look up into the velvet ceiling and could only think about one thing… her cowardice. All she could do was run away all her life, and here she was again, running away. She needed to become stronger, more powerful, but most importantly… she couldn’t be a coward anymore. 

And like that, her eyes closed, falling asleep again. Upon waking up, she’d notice someone standing in front of her.

           “Wake up, we’re here.” The bearded, tooth-missing man said before walking out.          

She followed him and, upon exiting the plane, saw the twilight. She completely missed how the city looked from above. This place reminded her of Miami and was probably the same… the bearded man started to talk.

           “Go to the exit; someone should take you.”

           “Okay.”

She’d step down the docker, walk out of the airstrip, and into the airport, going through the sea of people, being cursed and yelled at as she’d bump into a few people, both adults and children, would do it!

           What’s wrong with these guys? None of them have patience. 

Upon reaching the exit… she’d see a pale figure with dark hair holding a sign with her name on it.

           “Hey, that’s me.”

The other girl picked up on her voice and immediately ran over. She had a red and black motif, with the red being the outline of her goggles, jacket, and shoes. Everything else was black from her shirt, shorts, and stockings. There was an embroidered symbol on her left arm that Yumey couldn’t see. 

           “Name’s Scarlet. Snoball told me all about you, and before you ask, no, that is not his real name. I’ll load your stuff into the car and take you to the place.” 

What a fascinating start. . .