It Happened One Doomsday (29 page)

At the next intersection, traffic screeched to a halt as Greyson forced the long black car through it, swerving through a sea of oncoming headlights and angry honks. When they were clear, he accelerated again, the force of it jolting Dru.

Behind them, the Mustang charged straight across the street without pause.

“Main streets are clogged. We'll take the back way.” Greyson spun the wheel, and Hellbringer slid around the next corner, skidding past a slow-moving taxi. Ahead, an oncoming SUV blared its horn.

Hellbringer's engine howled, and they shot around the taxi, swerving out of the SUV's path. Its horn warbled as it streaked past them, its taillights leaving a red glow in the darkness.

As they dodged and weaved through the traffic, Dru craned her head around, looking for the Mustang. It drove up onto the sidewalk, smashed through a blue mailbox, and closed in on their right. “Over there!” She pointed.

“I see him.” Greyson's right hand worked the shifter, cranking Hellbringer into a higher gear. “Hold on!”

He spun the wheel left, yanking the car hard across the street, between oncoming cars, and toward a narrow alley framed by trees. The car's long rear end swung around wide, nearly making them overshoot the alley.

As the brick corner of the building loomed over them, Greyson straightened out and steered them back into the turn. They squeezed into the alley. Newspapers and trash swirled in their wake.

The Mustang crossed the street behind them, bumped up onto the curb, and clipped the tree at the corner. Leaves and branches exploded over its hood.

Hellbringer shot down the dark alley. Dumpsters and telephone poles whipped by in a blur. Behind them, the Mustang closed in, and a streak of red-hot fire erupted from the driver's window.

Through the Mustang's windshield, past the glare of streetlights sweeping over the glass, Dru could clearly see the glowing eyes of the reptilian Horseman hunched over the wheel. He held his fiery sword high out the window, trailing flames into the night.

Hellbringer soared out of the far end of the alley and rocketed across lanes thick with cars and trucks. They headed uphill, leaning into a hard turn that brought them into the next lane at easily twice the speed limit.

The Mustang exploded out of the alley behind them, the Horseman's sword billowing with flames. The car plowed between two parked taxi cabs, sending them spinning away in opposite directions.

As Greyson straightened Hellbringer out, Dru got a good look at the pursuing Mustang's smashed front end. It seemed to snarl at them, its headlights glaring from above a jagged, hollow mouth filled with sharp steel teeth.

As she watched, the crumpled grill smoothed itself out with a ripple of chrome. The headlights realigned themselves, staring like a wide-eyed predator closing in on its prey.

They crested the hill, fast enough that the tires left the ground for an instant, and Dru's stomach dropped. They sailed over an empty set of railroad tracks and landed hard with a crunch of metal and a chirp of tires.

Greyson cranked the wheel right and took a fast turn at the next block, cutting off a delivery truck just before it could turn onto the same street.

The truck braked, its tires screaming a shrill warning. The deep, heart-stopping blare of its horn shook Dru to the core. Its huge grill closed in on them, filling the windows on Greyson's side as they flashed past.

A moment later, safely behind them, the truck bumped up onto the sidewalk and stopped, filling the road.

Greyson accelerated down the street. On their right lay a row of broken-down houses with boarded-up windows and junk on their lawns. On their left, a rusty guardrail blocked off the edge of the road, where the dry grass dropped away into the pitch black ribbon of the river below.

Ahead, a frontage road to the highway led to a motionless expanse of headlights and taillights. Traffic was completely locked down.

“Can't go that way,” Greyson muttered, his voice nearly drowned out by the thunder of Hellbringer's engine.

Dead ahead, an ominous pair of classic car headlights swung around the corner, coming straight at them. A flush of fear froze Dru's veins as she realized what she was seeing.

It was another Horseman. The silver one.

Behind them, the delivery truck still barricaded the street. The long, flat side of the truck buckled outward and exploded in an eruption of crushed cardboard boxes and flying sheet metal.

The Mustang burst through the side of the truck as if fired out of a cannon. It sailed through the air, the Horseman's sword leaving an arcing banner of fire, and slammed onto the road with a trail of sparks and wreckage.

They were trapped. They had one Horseman closing in from the rear, another straight ahead, charging toward them. The only other route was the highway, and that was dead still.

They had nowhere to run.

In front of them, the silver car swung sideways and skidded to a stop, blocking the road. Its headlights burned twin lines out over the darkness of the inky black river.

Trapped, Hellbringer slowed until nothing moved on the blacktop.

“Greyson?” Dru asked, unable to keep her voice from trembling. “Maybe we can make it on foot?”

The Mustang pulled up behind them. Its door swung open.

The reptilian Horseman slid out, sword flaming in the night. It flourished the blade in a quick figure eight, leaving a dazzling afterimage in Dru's vision. With a snaggle-toothed grin, it lurched toward them, serpentine tongue licking at the air.

In the back seat, Rane snorted. “They think they've got us cornered.”

“Don't they?” Dru turned in her seat.

Rane nodded toward the river. “I go running down here all the time. Hello? Bike trail!” She pointed one long metal arm to a gap where the guardrail ended, and a line of dry grass and bushes marked the edge of the road. Beyond, the shoulder dropped down into the dark nothingness where the river lay.

Somewhere in the middle, unseen, the bike trail split the distance between the road and the river.

Greyson's gaze ticked up to the rearview mirror and then over to the darkness at the edge of the road, as if calculating the odds. Then he turned to Dru, his face unreadable.

She nodded once. “Do it.”

Greyson's stubbled jaw set in a determined line. He jammed the long shift lever into reverse and dropped the clutch. Tires smoking, Hellbringer flew backward, headlight beams piercing the clouds of burning rubber.

The red Horseman's snakelike eyes widened in surprise just before Hellbringer's wing hit him in the snout. A split second later, the black car's rear end slammed into the creature's body, pinning him against the nose of the parked Mustang.

Greyson shifted again, and Hellbringer lunged forward, releasing the red Horseman. The creature stumbled after them, limping and angrier than ever, and let out a blood-chilling screech.

Greyson whipped Hellbringer around in a tight circle just as the red Horseman's flaming sword flashed down in a deadly arc, too late, carving a red-hot trench in the asphalt road.

Hellbringer headed straight for the gap in the guardrail and the impenetrable darkness beyond.

The black car's long nose dipped, and they sped down the steep slope of dry grass toward the narrow strip of concrete that ran along the edge of the river, nothing more than a sidewalk bisected by a chipped yellow line.

The headlight beams glittered off the swift-moving water as they swept past. Dru could imagine drowning in the cold depths of the river. Her fingers dug into the armrest next to her, fighting the urge to scream.

“Yee-
haw
!” Rane yelled behind her.

Greyson turned the car as they plowed down the steep hill, tilting them sharply to one side. The front tires slid onto the concrete and held on, with the rear tires whipping around right after them. In a heartbeat, they were centered on the narrow concrete track, rocketing along the edge of the river.

From behind, the silver car tried to follow them down the steep slope onto the path. But its demonic driver didn't make the turn in time. It hit the bike trail at an angle, sliding diagonally across the narrow strip of concrete with a squeal of burning rubber, like a terrified animal desperate to hang onto the precarious ledge of land.

For a long moment, the silver car seemed to cling to the bare strip of grass and dirt at the edge of the trail, its headlights shining in the blackness like two eyes glaring out from a wide chrome skull.

Then, unable to resist the forces of gravity, it rolled off the side of the trail, its momentum pitching it over onto its roof before it hit the river with a thunderous splash. Water erupted on all sides as it plowed its way beneath the murky surface, its headlights still burning all the way to the bottom.

Greyson didn't slow Hellbringer down but charged them straight ahead on the tight, uneven trail. They drove beneath the highway, under an echoing expanse of cement and shadows. Graffiti flashed past in the narrow glare of the headlights.

Then they were out, on the other side of the packed highway, where the trail stretched onward into the night, empty and welcome. A minute later, a steep exit ramp led away from the trail. Greyson drove them up, one wheel spinning on bare grass, until they bumped over the sidewalk and back onto a deserted street in front of a used furniture store.

“How far are we from the hospital?” Dru asked, completely disoriented.

“Five minutes, tops.”

Back on the road, the engine picked up speed. She peered over her shoulder. “How's Opal doing?”

In response, Opal turned her head and blinked at Dru. “Hey. What on earth just happened? Were we on the bike path?”

Dru could feel the silly grin as it plastered itself across her face. She laughed out loud in relief. Seeing the twinkle in Opal's eyes, she reached back and took her hand. “Are you okay? Don't move.”

“I'm all right. Except for lying on the lap of the Iron Maiden here. Not helping my headache any.”

“Hey.” Rane's metal face scowled. “Could be worse.”

Greyson ran a light just as it turned red, swerving around an eighteen-wheeler. They headed back underneath the highway again, as the road ran at an angle through the smog.

Every pair of headlights seemed threatening. Every honking horn made Dru jump. When she saw a flash of red in the right lane, her heart raced. But it was just a red station wagon.

“We're almost to the hospital,” Greyson said.

“Dru,” Opal said faintly. “You really going back to that mansion in the desert?”

“We have to. The scroll is there.” Through the rear window, Dru could see the jam-packed highway above and behind them as they passed beneath it. A river of motionless white headlights.

Except for one pair. A single car streaked along the overpass, hurtling along the shoulder. Its headlights flickered through the fence that ran along the edge of the highway.

With an explosion of twisted metal and concrete, the red Mustang smashed its way through the guardrail and hurtled down toward them.

36

DEATH MACHINES

The Mustang sailed through the air, trailing wreckage, until it bottomed out on the avenue behind them with a brutal crash. Sparks blazed along the asphalt as it clawed its way out of a wild skid and came charging after them.

Despite her choking fear, Dru found her voice. “Greyson!”

“I see him.” Hellbringer's engine let out a throaty roar, shoving Dru deep into the seat.

They flew through the next couple of blocks of small car lots and run-down industrial buildings. An empty street opened up on the right, and Greyson aimed for it.

The Mustang came at them from the left, swerving to hit Hellbringer on Greyson's side.

“Hang on!” Greyson yelled.

Dru barely had time to grab onto the armrest as Greyson nailed the brakes, making everything inside the car pitch forward. Hellbringer's tires shrieked.

The Mustang sailed diagonally across in front of them, missing Hellbringer's long black hood by inches. Before the Horseman could recover, Greyson accelerated and struck the Mustang's back corner with a bone-jarring impact.

The hit sent the Mustang spinning away on smoking tires. It dropped behind them, shedding velocity as it careened into the side street.

As Hellbringer charged onward past the Mustang, it pulled out of its skid. Quickly, it got onto the road behind and closed in, headlights burning.

Greyson accelerated straight ahead, dodging around a stalled blue pickup into a lane full of oncoming traffic. He charged hard at the honking cars, then whipped Hellbringer back into the right lane just past the stalled truck.

The lane ahead of them was completely clear, and as he sped up, Dru understood Greyson's move.

But the Mustang wouldn't be stopped by a traffic snarl. The red car shoved its way past the blue pickup, stripping off the side mirror.

It kept coming. Unstoppable. Focused. Ferocious.

The Horseman wanted Greyson, and he would kill anyone and everyone in his way. Including her. Dru knew it with frightening certainty. She had to find a way to stop it.

As the Mustang closed in, the car's demolished front end quickly uncrumpled and became whole again.

Greyson swung left around a slow-moving van, and the red Mustang streaked past the van, pulling up alongside Dru on their right.

Through the window, the Horseman's reptilian snout gaped open wide in animal rage, sharp teeth shining in the passing flash of streetlights. For a second, his luminous eyes locked on Dru's.

Then the Horseman yanked the wheel, and the Mustang smashed into Hellbringer's right side, nearly knocking Dru out of her seat.

Greyson fought the wheel for control, trying to get away from the Mustang. But it stayed viciously planted against their passenger side. Ahead, a concrete mixer truck barreled head-on toward them, horn blaring.

Only a few feet away from Dru, on the other side of the window, the reptilian Horseman glared at her, inhuman eyes shimmering with fury. Its long, lizardlike snout stretched open, revealing rows of jagged fangs, and its howl of triumph drowned out the horn of the oncoming truck.