You are driving down the highway, it's early in the morning so there isn't much traffic. You push the pedal down for some extra speed. it's a bit annoying because you have to use your left foot, the stump where your right leg used to be is slowly increasing the amount of pain signals being sent to your brain.

Crap, the morphine is wearing off.

You look in the rearview mirror. No police cars, no sirens even.

That won't last.

You adjust the mirror so can check out your face, the part of the bedframe that is handcuffed to your right hand rattles as you do so.

You see a bald head, stiches on several places, missing eyebrows, a black eye and some scratches. You feel your missing teeth with your tongue and smile to observe the damage.

You can see our tongue trough the missing teeth on the left side of your mouth, you pull your tongue back after it touches an exposed nerve.

Damn, I look like an asshole.

You readjust the mirror before you forget. you feel bad about how your face looks. You try to go faster.

Maybe it isn't that bad, maybe I look like pirate, pirates are cool right?

You look down to your bandaged left hand, of which only has a pinkie and a thumb.

That hand looks like a deformed crab incisor. That's

kind of piratey.

You put your eyes back on the road and keep driving, you should be able to see the obelisk soon, but you slow down as the traffic starts increasing. It's a bit hard adjusting the gears but you manage.

Ugh, why did I have to steal a car with manual transmission? Very handicap unfriendly. Especially when driving with a bedframe handcuffed to your hand.

There is a car in front of you, a boy on the backseat is looking at you. You give him your best smile and the boy opens his mouth and ducks.

You chuckle as the traffic almost comes to a stop... and you hear sirens in the distance.

Screw this.

You move over to the emergency lane and step on the gas.

It's and emergency after all, an emergency for me.

As you drive and try to keep ahead of the sirens, you start to see a black tip in the distance.

That must be the obelisk! If I can just get there, there is a chance I'll be able to escape.

You drive past what appears to be a car accident.

At least the traffic will clear up.

The traffic does clear up and you move back onto the main road, and while the sirens had not caught up, in the distance you see what appears to be a line of police vehicles.

Oh crap.

Your mind sharpens and your increasingly distracting pain is ignored.

I'll need to find a way trough. I'll also need to watch for spikes, can't really afford shredded wheels right now.

As you approach the line of police cars, you don't see any spikes on the road but you do see a policeman at the side of the road holding some kind of weird contraption.

That must be something used to set up the spikes. Are they still setting things up or will they wait until the last second before throwing out the spikes? Doesn't matter.

You turn the wheel towards the policeman and honk the horn. He looks toward you and you show him your biggest grin.

That's right fucker, I'm coming right at you! And you know I mean it because I've got a face that says “I'm gonna flatten you if you put spikes in my way”! What are you gonna do now?

He freezes for a second and fumbles with the thing in his hand.

Alright that bought me a second or two.

You correct your course at the last moment just as you're about to hit him.

I'm past him!

You look in the mirror and see him aiming a gun in your direction.

Oh Crap.

You lower your head as you hear gunshots and glass starts flying.

God damn bastard, haven't I been shot enough already?

The shots stop as you get further and further way. You notice the holes in the windshield. If you had not ducked, you would have been hit.

Pretty good shot though.

The holes in the windshield let air inside and you shiver as the hospital gown you're wearing is not very good insulation against the cold.

It's just a bit of cold. Nothing to it, at least I'm not hearing sirens anymore.

You take an exit on the highway, take a left turn on a dirt road and you see the obelisk rising up in the sky. The obelisk is surrounded by a fence.

My only chance of escape, I need to get past that fence.

You start hearing sirens again as you enter the approach the obelisk. You observe the fence.

It appears to be made of iron, looks pretty sturdy too... I'll have to drive trough it, not like I can climb it in my condition. It might also be a good idea to drive around it, look for any weak points. But no, I won't have any time for that.

You push down the pedal and start accelerating, awkwardly switching gears as you speed up. You're nearing the fence.

Here we go!

You brace yourself by making sure your head is on the seat pillow and... Everything goes white as you hear a loud sound!

You blink, dazed, the sirens are a lot louder now. You try to get your bearings by shaking your head but instantly regret it as the dizzyness gets worse.

Concussion?

You shove the exploded airbag out of your face and you see that the car did not make it trough the fence... You also see policecars in the mirror. Blood seeps into your left eye.

Looks like I'm fucked...no! There must be a way. I'll climb the fence if I have to!

You don't feel good about your chances of success, especially with what's handcuffed on your hand, you resolve to try anyway. You open the door and try to step out... but you fall onto the ground.

Oh yeah, stump leg. Forgot about that.

You push yourself up, supporting your process with your smoking car, as you look up you see that a section of the fence is broken.

Hello there. I could probably fit trough that.

You start hopping toward the fence. You cough and wave away the smoke coming off the car. Yes, you could indeed squeeze trough this. You look back and see the policemen stepping out of their car, they are so close. Don't wanna get shot.

You squeeze yourself trough the broken fence, pick up the bedframe attached to the handcuffs and start hopping forward as fast as you can.

You hear a “Thwick” behind you, and you glace back. A policeman is holding a taser pointed towards you.

Looks like I was out of range. And they're not willing to cross the fence. fuckers.

You continue to hop forward. Behind you someone yells “FREEZE OR I'LL SHOOT” behind you.

Ignore him, he'll probably fire a warning shot first.

You hear a bang and a pain shoots trough your foot. You fall to the ground.

Fuck, did he just shoot one of my toes? I have got to stop losing body parts.

You feel annoyed, irritated, to fall now that you're so close to your goal. You try to crawl but the pain that shoots trough your body is too much.

Well, if I can't crawl, maybe I can roll.

“DO NOT MOVE OR I'LL SHOOT AGAIN!”

Fuck you asshole. What should do I do? I'll throw him a non sequitur and hope that will stop him from shooting.

You yell the first thing that comes to your mind “My family will KILL your family! coughh!” It's a lie of course, but he does not know that and hopefully it'll paralyze him for a few seconds.

You start rolling. Pain shoots trough you every time you roll over the bedframe. No shots are being fired.

Damn, I have such a headache. Why don't they turn off those sirens, they've already found me geez. Bang! Pain spears trough your shoulder. You fall on your back.

You try to roll again, but you can't. Something important broke... The pain is manageable, but... you're getting sleepy.

Am I going to die here? I really don't want to...

You rotate your head to look at the obelisk. The obelisk looks black but you can see that there are fractal etchings all over it's structure.

Looks kinda pretty... Am I close enough? Because I'm not getting any closer.

Your eyelids are starting to feel heavy. You just need a little nap.

No no no! Damn it.

You compromise by just closing your left eye. As you keep staring at the obelisk, a fractal on it lights up and something shines in your eye.

—

11455 of 65536 participation slots left.

Time remaining until integration event: 255 days.

Scan complete.

Participation criteria met.

Participate in system integration event?

[Accept] [Decline] [Info]

Verbal confirmation required.

—

A grin appears on your face.

I did it!

"Ac..Accept” you mumble.

Blue light appears around you.

I'm about to be teleported!

You rotate your head to look at the police and raise your hand to try to give them the middle finger. You used your mutilated hand tough and end up showing a weird thumbs up instead.

Then you disappear.