Chrysanthemum veered left down a side track and the car behind them took the sharp turn too. They weren’t chasing just yet. Chrysanthemum eased a little bit faster. The car behind sped up.
“Chrysanthemum,” Celia warned.
“I know what I’m doing,” the Linguist snapped.
“Oh?” Blue raised an eyebrow. “So what’s at the end of this track?”
Chrysanthemum ignored him, just pushing a little harder on the accelerator. The car behind them was creeping closer.
“You know what?” Celia said, with a glance backwards. “I think you should forget subtlety and just get us out of here.”
Chrysanthemum looked in the mirror and swore. “Hold on.”
The car shot forward, slamming Sophie back into the seat. They careened down the lane, bouncing wildly from pothole to pothole. The passengers were jolted mercilessly.
“They’re gaining!” Sophie cried, glancing back.
“Society,” Celia muttered. “I’m sure of it. That looks like Creature in that car, if I’m not very much mistaken.”
“Creature?” Sophie stared. “You know someone called Creature?”
“Yes,” Celia answered, distractedly. “Creature Breach. I’ve worked with him on occasion. Mean little worm.”
The car swerved wildly to the right and Sophie’s forehead bounced off her window.
“Mind the duck,” Blue said, cheerfully.
“Are you always this irritating?” Sophie snapped.
Blue nodded. “It’s a matter of professional…”
He yelped as he was jolted from his seat, banging his head on the ceiling. Chrysanthemum swore colourfully as she navigated the unexpected farmyard.
“Pond!” Celia yelled, pointing ahead. “Pond! Pond! Mind the pond!”
Chrysanthemum yanked the wheel and the car began to bounce crazily across a field.
“Fence! Fence!”
“I can see!” Chrysanthemum shouted. “I can see the fence!”
They crashed straight through it and were on the road again, swerving a little, scraping the paintwork on hedges, but definitely on smooth, comforting tarmac.
“Oh,” Tala glanced behind. “Um…Celia…”
Sophie looked back. The car was still with them, and someone was leaning out a window. With a gun.
“People actually do that?” she murmured, before the bang drowned out her words.
Chrysanthemum’s swearing was now a constant stream as gunshots flew around them.
“I’ll hold them off,” Celia said, unbuckling her seatbelt.
“Are you insane?!” Sophie shrieked.
“Relax,” Blue smiled, perfectly at ease. “Celia’s the Warrior.”
Celia grinned and rolled down her window. “See you guys later.”
She hesitated for a moment and then swung herself out and onto the roof. Sophie, glancing back, saw the gunman change his aim from the car to Celia. Celia’s returning fire was off target as the cars swung down winding roads. Sophie prayed no one normal would see them. This was a sight hard to explain.
There were more buildings on the road now but thankfully no more vehicles. Sophie sat low in her seat, clinging to it until her knuckles were white, wishing she had a god to pray to. She shut her eyes, very carefully not panicking.
“Wow,” Tala was staring, bug-eyed, out of the back of the car.
“What?” Sophie demanded.
“Look at this!”
Sophie turned and saw the gunman from the following car preparing to jump. He leapt. Sophie knew there was no way he could make it. Then she couldn’t quite understand how he did. But the man slammed onto the roof of Chrysanthemum’s car and Sophie could hear Celia’s cursing.
The two cars kept hurtling along, heading for a town that was coming up far too fast.
“This is not going to be good,” Tala murmured. “Not at all.”
“Why not?” Blue frowned.
“Uh…buildings? People? Other cars? Lots of lovely obstacles for us to crash into? Lots of lovely witnesses to see that we have two people fighting on the roof of our car?” Tala nearly shrieked.
She bit her lip hard, drawing blood, looking like she might burst into tears. Sophie stared at her. It had never occurred to her, even briefly, that Tala might be scared.
“Have you no sense of adventure?” Blue laughed.
“Bluebird Last, now would be a very good time to shut up,” Chrysanthemum said, coolly.
“Why?”
“Because this would be the perfect moment to kill you and make it look like an accident.”
There was a loud crash from the roof and everyone’s eyes flickered nervously upwards. With a similar sound, Celia and the unnamed gunman appeared falling down the windscreen.
“No, no, no,” Chrysanthemum muttered. “Don’t get in my way, Celia.”
Sophie stared in horror. Guns were long gone in this fight. Celia and the gunman were locked together, alternately trying to strangle one another or claw each other’s eyes out. Celia kept trying to do her summoning fire trick but the gunman had his hands around her throat and her face was going blue.
“Celia,” Sophie said. “Chrysanthemum, you have to help her!”
“How would you like me to do that?” Chrysanthemum snapped.
She spun the car down a side-street, away from the main noise of town. But there were already eyes on them. Already more traffic. Already people’s jaws dropping, staring in horror at two young adults trying to kill each other on the front of a car that was most definitely breaking the speed limit.
Sophie spotted camera phones and groaned.
“Don’t worry,” Tala gave her a sideways look. “None of us even exist.”
The car grazed a wall and they hurtled down another road, sending people diving out of the way.
“How are they not falling off?” Sophie wondered, trying to distract herself from the blur of the outside world.
“I have no idea,” Blue admitted. “For once.”
Something behind them exploded. Sophie screamed. Blue began to laugh hysterically. The glass in the back window starred and Sophie and Tala ducked. Blue flinched, but he didn’t look phased. Again.
Chrysanthemum swerved the car and, to the horror of the passengers, Celia and the gunman fell from the car.
“No!” Sophie cried, turning round in her seat to try and see. “Chrysanthemum, stop!”
“Relax,” Blue said, easily. “It’s not the first car Celia’s fallen off.”
Sophie stared at him. “Can’t you just try and understand what’s happening here?”
“How is panicking helping in any way?” he retorted.
Sophie’s world went white.
With exaggerated caution, Sophie peeled her face off the back of seat in front. She felt dizzy and her neck ached. If she touched her forehead, she could feel the beginnings of a bruise. But she was alright.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and looked around. The other three stared at her in horror.
“This is not going to be good,” Tala looked out of the window. “Not at all.”
“What the hell happened?” Sophie demanded.
“We hit a wall,” Blue said, looking a tiny bit shaken. “At high speed. More than one wall, actually. They managed to shoot one of our tyres.”
A crowd was already gathering outside the car. A lot of them had cameras or phones raised, their faces full of interest.
Well, of course they are interested, Sophie thought, irritably. Something that is practically a car chase, two people battling on the bonnet of a car and falling to the road, a car smashing into a wall…that’s great entertainment.
“Tala?” Sophie turned and blinked.
She stared at the space where Tala had been, willing herself to see the form of a girl in the shadows.
“Helpful,” Sophie murmured. “However…”
“Sophie,” Chrysanthemum dragged open the door and hauled Sophie out onto the road. People backed away, cameras flashing, murmurs spreading.
“Blue,” Chrysanthemum yelled.
He scrambled from the car, looking around, noticing the advancing people. Police uniforms. But they were not policemen.
“Take Sophie and go,” Chrysanthemum hissed. “Get away from the crowd and take her anywhere away from here. Tala and me will take care of ourselves. Go!”
Blue grabbed Sophie’s hand and pulled her away. Shaking her head to clear it of dizziness, Sophie ran with him. The crowd parted before them and closed afterwards, though heads turned curiously in their direction.
“Here,” Blue pulled her into a doorway.
“What are you going to do?” Sophie asked.
Blue grinned. “Don’t let go of my hand.”
And the world wasn’t there anymore.