Road to Venis, Pt 3

Doc briefly entertains the idea that the black Cadillac behind them is simply out for a morning drive through pre-renaissance Europe and that they weren't following him after all. This fleeting hope disappears when Doc throttles up and their pursuers follow suit.

"Them dumb mother fucker are comin' after us!" Mark says. "Here I though I wasn't gonna have any fun today."

The Exkoreans are about a half a mile back, well out of effective weapons range. Doc starts looking for outcroppings in the rock or someplace they can make an ambush, but there's nothing good within sight.

"[What's going on?]" asks Brother Broderick.

"Just keep your head down and your seatbelt tight," Doc replies.

Doc pounds on the gas. The tires spin in place, rooster-tailing mud behind them. Doc tries again. The Jeep continues forward, but begins slipping sideways. With a burst of adrenaline, Doc wrestles with the wheel and applies the right amount of brake to save the jeep from spinning out.

Damnit! Doc thinks. He checks behind him. By the rooster tail they're throwing, the Exkoreans are not having much luck accelerating rapidly either. But they're not spinning out. They've yet to cross the creek, so hopefully that will slow them down some.

It does. For a moment it looks as if they're going to try to jump the gap, but instead it slows down and makes its way carefully across. Doc meanwhile gets the Jeep back up to speed. The road bends slightly as it passes between a small lake and a minor foothill, heading downward. He eases forward on the gas, just on the threshold of spinning the tires, pushing the Jeep past eighty. The hill is just enough to put the other vehicle out of direct line of sight, but there's nowhere to hide. If he stops now, the Exkoreans will see him long before the Time Operatives can make an ambush.

Now that there's more distance between them, Doc has time to think ahead. The dirt road heads downhill towards the fjord, eventually hugging close and squeezing between it and a larger ridge. Another small creek awaits them at the bottom of the hill they are going down.

Doc still hasn't seen them coming around the hill, but that doesn't slow him down. He pushes past 100 going down the slope. At last the black car appears around the bend, just less than a mile behind. It soon begins gaining ground.

The creek is approaching swiftly. It's a 12' wide mess of mud and rock. With the way the ground has behaved so far, Doc doesn't want to risk jumping and not making it. He can use his vehicles superior ability to handle the terrain to gain the advantage. He slows down.

The Jeep slides almost to a hault as it approaches the creek. Doc gently navigates across the muddy banks and powers up the other side. The Exkoreans continue barrelling down the hill as fast as they can go. Doc tries to power it a little too hard on the far bank, and the wheels slip slightly. He has trouble picking up speed rapidly as he starts up another hill. The Exkoreans gain an alarming amount of ground as they race down the slope.

At last Doc gets the Jeep back up to eighty. The Exkoreans are showing no signs of slowing down. They have no choice but to try to jump the creek. It doesn't look good for them; their brick of an SUV was not built for this kind of thing. It races towards the gap in excess of a hundred miles an hour. It leaves the edge and sails through the air... pounding the ground on the other side. It bottoms out hard but continues on like nothing happened. It's a landing the Duke boys would be awestruck by.

"Holy shit!" Doc yells. "Sorry, padre." Mark's got him doing it now.

The race continues. The Exkoreans slowly gain ground. There's yet another creek ahead. This one is bigger and uglier. Doc is determined to gain the advantage here. The bastards got lucky on the last one, but can they do it again?

Doc slows down as much as he can. The wheels slip in the mud as they approach the creek. Doc maintains control over the Jeep and keeps it in a straight line, but the vehicle slides off the shallow edge and bottoms out hard on the rocks of the creek bed, comming to a violent stop.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT!" Doc yells.

The Exkoreans continue racing towards them at top speed. They're just outside of 500 feet away when a man in a black suit and dark sunglasses pops up from the roof of the Escalade with a mounted M60. He opens fire. The spray goes everywhere but near them.

The Escalade starts to slow down for the creek and the Jeep stuck within it. The gunman smiles as they bear down on them. But they are going too fast. The black SUV can't stop in time and loses control. It spins 180 degrees and launching off the edge of the creek backwards at highway speeds. It flies across the gap and slams tail first into the rocks on the other side.

The gunner is thrown from the vehicle like a ragdoll, his spine turned instantly to jelly. He's not getting up. There is a large amount of smoke pouring from the underside of the vehicle, and the smell of gasoline permeates through the canvas roof of the Jeep. The driver and his passenger sit, dazed.

Doc rams the Jeep up the other side of the creek bank. It roars loudly as it leaves its muffler behind.