Rhetorical

The sand was humming.

THUMP.

I blinked, glancing up from the tablet. That wasn’t wind. That wasn’t a bike.

THUMP. THUMP.

Low and heavy.

“That kind of reminds me of…” I muttered.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

A piston slammed rhythmically into the desert floor, shaking the screen on my brother’s laptop, me and my brother Eli were watching a movie.

I sat beside him on the couch, chewing popcorn with my mouth open.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing at the strange metal device.

He didn’t look up, eyes glued to the screen. “It’s a thumper.” He said the word like it was common knowledge.

I yanked open the tablet “Ok… how do I use this thing…” switched to the geologic map.

The race grid lit up twenty bikes aligned, ready to fire off across the desert. Elevation data flickered underneath, greens bleeding into yellows, browns, and red. Ravines, dunes, crags. And—

There.

A sharp incline to the west. A mountain.

I looked up from the tablet and found squinted.

Two… sticks?

No. Thin towers standing upright.

Antenna?

“Fuck.”

I bolted.

The commentator’s voice roared across the loudspeakers.

“Three!”

I snatched the mic from the table. “SYLVAINE, WHATEVER YOU DO—DON’T MOVE.”

“Remotely detonated? Why?” I asked him.

He finally paused the movie.

Taking another handful of popcorn, I waited expectantly as he ate before answering my question.

The line cracked from the tablet.

“What?! You’re hurting my ear,” Sylvaine responded.

He grinned at me. “What do you think?” He asked me,

“I don’t know Eli, so you don’t have to do work?” I tossed a single corn into the air but it missed my mouth.

“Two!”

I was sprinting now, full speed across the camp, the earpiece buzzing in my head.

I looked toward the mountain—no sign of movement. But I could feel it.

Something wasn’t right.

“DONT MOVE UNTIL I GIVE YOU MY SIGNAL.”

I could see her through the tent gaps, crouched over her V2.

“Don’t move. Don’t twitch. Don’t flinch. NOTHING.” I yelled into the mic.

“One!”

I could tell the commentator was on the edge of his seat from his voice.

“GO!” The Sounds of the bikes taking off was the only thing I could hear.

I remember when he finally finished chewing his popcorn and looked at me.

“It’s remotely detonated so you have more time to run away of course.”