Victory

• Michael Ball
• Short Story
• 2009

WHUMP, TIZANG, BANG!
Bullets slammed and thunked around him as he swung around the hairpin corner, with centripetal force lifting the back of the hover-car over the track boundary. The driver regained control and… SLAM! The car came back down. On the second-to-last lap, the driver’s opponents were turning desperate; and he was only second.
Bullets continued to blow miniature craters in the track. Lang, the driver, swerved around another corner nearly overshooting and imagining a bullet fracturing the cockpit then hitting him. He glanced at the map on his dashboard, then at the speedo. There was a straight coming up. He’d lose his tail then.
SMASH. CHUNK.
That didn’t sound good. Lang checked his dashboard again. This time there was a score of flashing red and orange lights. The pit and finish line were just around the next corner, on a straight. He’d pull in then and hope he didn’t loose to many places. Slowing down Lang continued to dodge his pursuer’s attacks. Grimacing when more red lights appeared and the car slowed to a relative snails pace. Lang read the speedo at only 120km/h.
‘Wow that’s slow,’ he thought.
He was on the straight now, the trigger-happy car on his right, easily matching his speed and about to pass. Lang muttered a cuss word. It had taken 3 of the 10 laps in the race to pass that guy.
Lang pulled into the pits, his crew nearly stampeding the hover-car.
“Hey,” he shouted at his crew leader Jack. “Get me that pressie we got from the sponsor. I wanna try it out”
“But Lang, It hasn’t been tested!”
“I don’t care! You wanna win don’t you?” Jack nodded his head vigorously. “Then get it!”
“Okay Lang.” Jack ran into their pit building and came back carrying a medium sized, grey box. “But be very, very careful!”
“Whatever. Just install it.”
“Give me 5”
Lang counted in his head: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 then 2 more 1, 2 for the safety and roared away from the pits. A new, untested, prototype propulsion system installed.
It didn’t take long for Lang to catch up with the trigger-happy guy, and this time Lang wasn’t as worried. He could pass him easy.
Reaching under his dashboard he pushed the new, shining blue button.
Again. Again and again. Nothing was happening.
Desperately Lang pressed it once more.
VROOM.
COUGH COUGH
VROOOM
Lang nearly thought it was over but the engine kicked in again and he was off. The trigger-happy guy stared as Lang passed him by, rocketing at the constant 600km/h that the new prototype system produced. He was going so fast he nearly forgot to turn at the next corner. It was exhilarating!
Focussing once more, Lang looked ahead for the driver in 1st. There, about 500 meters in front.
Accelerating wildly, Lang covered that distance in just 4 seconds. He could win! The finish line was just around the corner and down the straight.
In a last ditch attempt to win, Lang once again swung violently up onto the track boundary. Sliding around so fast around the corner that the driver in first only saw a glimpse of a blur of him. Lang was around and even better; first. The straight went in the blink of an eye and Lang realised he’d won.
“I’ve come first!” He shouted. “I’ve won!” Lang grinned to himself.