Consumed

Jordan started swerving through the streets again.

The SUV’s rear bumper crumpled when the white pickup truck trailing it banged into it. Her leopard-headed grandmother roared with delight as the hunt was now on.

The pickup hit the back corner of the SUV and Jordan quickly realized she had few options. Any move she made to get away from that pickup, nothing worked. That thing seemed to have more power than the SUV did and it seemed sturdier too.

The turnoff for the highway was coming up. That difference in power was going to be fatal on the road ahead. Jordan’s fear grew the moment she looked at the fuel gauge.

A quarter tank was all she had to work with. Outlasting the pickup wasn’t an option either.

Jordan looked to her right. Grey was still holding onto that grip next to her. She looked to Jordan with no small amount of worry… but also a little smile.

She wanted to believe everything was going to be alright. But she’d have to find a way to make it so.

The SUV rumbled onto the highway with the pickup not far behind. The pickup turned on its high beams and Jordan couldn’t look into the rearview mirror anymore. The burning hell of Bolloron was fast leaving her but FELP still gave chase.

“Grey!” Jordan shouted. “Any idea how to take out a car?”

Grey gave it a moment’s thought. “One. But it’s dangerous.”

The back windshield shattered and Jordan heard a gun fire. Karen and Grey both stayed low while Jordan swerved to keep Debra from getting another good shot. As she weaved, she listened to Grey about her ‘dangerous’ idea.

Jordan finally stopped swerving. The SUV drifted off to one side of the road and jerked itself back to straight.

The pickup began speeding up…

She would only get one chance at this. Without a word she pressed down on the brakes.

The SUV slowed down and let the pickup pass. Then Jordan started speeding up again.

When she’d gotten enough speed, she swung the SUV hard into the side-rear and kept the SUV sharply speeding into it. The pickup truck started spinning on the road, going all the way twice before crashing through the guardrail and careening into a retention pond.

----

Grey had called it the ‘PIT Maneuver’. Precision Immobilization Technique.

She said she’d seen it watching police chase videos on television growing up. It was a move policemen used to end high-speed chases, she had told Jordan.

Jordan had long brought the SUV to a stop, with all three women inside coming around to look at the crashed pickup truck in the retention pond. The truck was a mangled mess. One of the headlights had been ejected from its casing and sent God knows where.

No one said anything. Everyone stared at the truck, unsure if anyone could have survived that. Or perhaps, afraid that something could.

Karen went back to the SUV first, lingering only to make sure that Jordan’s gauze was staying on. Grey stayed a bit longer, enough to squeeze Jordan’s hand.

Jordan prepared to turn back when she saw the door to the pickup be flung open. In the darkness she saw something emerge.

It stepped in front of the remaining headlight. A completely fur-covered humanoid with cat ears and a tail, with no human features left on its face. A two-legged leopard covered in whatever was left of what her grandmother had been wearing.

The beast snarled from below. It looked up at Jordan, its hairs raised on end.

Jordan looked down, then to the burning town in the distance. All that would be left of it in the morning would be dust and echoes. It would only live on as a memory.

She returned to the SUV, locked the doors, and started the SUV back up.

Karen leaned forward and looked to her daughter. “Are you alright?”

“No.” She buckled her seat belt before putting the gear in reverse to reorient them on the road. “I’m not. Let’s go. There’s nothing left for us here.”

Something heavy crashed into the side of the SUV, rolling it over onto the roof and back onto the wheels. All three women screamed as they jostled about in their seats. As their car shifted back onto its wheels, Jordan looked in the sideview mirror.

The leopard woman had somehow raced up from the retaining pond and thrown itself into the car with impossible force. She was starting to move towards the vehicle again and towards the broken rear windshield.

Jordan didn’t hesitate. She pushed the gear into first gear and started accelerating. In the rearview mirror, the leopard gave chase on all fours.

And it was gaining.

Jordan shifted into second gear. She had no good answers for what would happen if the leopard got in. At best they had a tire iron.

By the time the SUV went to third gear the leopard finally started being left behind. It tried one final leap to get in, only to tumble and fall short.

Jordan couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. The leopard grew smaller and smaller in the rearview until finally vanishing into the black abyss of night.

She had left home for the last time.