Chapter 22

Wednesday 9th December 1998

After what seemed like only a handful of lessons, Kendal had taken her driving test, and in her own words, “totally aced it”. Brimming with excitement over a whole new world of potential, she’d insisted on picking me up for school the next day.

I’ll be honest. Considering Kendal’s attitude to most things in life, I was expecting her to put thrill over safety. Put simply, I was expecting the car journey to be more like a rollercoaster ride.

Of course, that was completely misguided of me. At 8:09am, she pulled up outside my house in a red Vauxhall Astra, beckoning me in. And the drive was pleasantly smooth. I’d focused too much on temperament and not enough on Kendal’s apparent proficiency at quickly picking up new skills. After all, she wouldn’t have passed her test driving like a maniac, would she?

“Here we are!” she’d declared as we parked by the school. “Toldja you’d be safe.” And she patted my head for good measure, which made me feel equal parts patronised and precious.

(I’d like to add, I hadn’t voiced any concerns: she was the one who had boldly insisted that the trip would be anything but frenzied and hazardous. I don’t know what it says of either of us that she felt the need to voice that…)

Shortly after 3pm, Kendal led us – minus Harriet, who had opted to head home herself – to her car. We wouldn’t be going straight to Dakota’s, of course, instead taking a drive around town.

“I don’t wanna sound like I’m obsessed or something, but we really do need to get our homework out of the way…” Dakota spoke with a tone I can only describe as the verbal equivalent of someone handling priceless artefacts.

“We’ve gotta drive while it’s still light out!” Kendal insisted, coming to a stop at a set of traffic lights.

“Driving in the dark is forbidden,” I teased, which got a chuckle out of Zahid.

“Road-vampires, right? I hear they’re a menace this time of year,” he added.

“Mean boys!” Kendal audibly pouted. “What’s the point in us driving around in the dark? You can’t see things as clearly.”

“We live in this town, Kendal,” Zahid muttered. “We’ve seen it all before.”

“Ah, but have you seen this road?” she asked, driving onwards through green lights and turning left into a cosy suburban road.

“Yes. I have.”

“Me too,” I added. “But I mean, not much, so-”

“See?” Kendal interrupted me.

“I’ve never seen it,” Dakota noted next to me, “but we could do this at the weekend or something…”

“Time waits for no group of friends and one of them can drive now,” our chauffeur spoke philosophically.

You may be wondering if Bao was with us. He was, sat in the front passenger seat, but his attention was completely focused on the cassettes he’d brought with him. Knowing in advance that Kendal would be driving to school, he made the decision to bring in a large bagful of potential tapes to stock the car with. At that point, he was deep in the process of figuring out how many could fit in the glove compartment and which ones to prioritise.

“Anyone else find this weird?” I asked, before clarifying, “in a good way.”

“Before I answer, lemme check what part of it you’re talking about,” Zahid replied.

“Kendal’s driving… not an adult, one of us. Driving us around. It’s different.”

“Not gonna lie… yeah.”

He smiled fondly.

“Feels good.”

“Wait, that doesn’t mean you’re gonna have me drive you guys around… like, forever… right?” Kendal quizzed us with sudden unease.

“I’m gonna learn to drive at some point. When I can afford something cool.”

“A Ferrari,” I quipped, “with your Lokon emblem as a decal on the front.”

“Sure, if we rob a bank or something…”

“Hey. That’s not a bad idea…” Dakota spoke up, smirking playfully. “No one can see our faces. It’d be the perfect crime.”

“Except they’d know it was the Painters…” I reasoned.

“Spoilsport!” she heckled with a smile.

A moment later, the car jolted sharply.

“Aah! What the heck?!” Kendal screamed, while the rest of us tried to recover from the shock of the impact.

“Did we just hit a pot-hole or something?” Bao piped up – seemed like the jolt was enough to shake his attention free of the cassettes.

“I don’t think it was, but…”

Kendal fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of the engine filling the air. I peered past her headrest to find her looking in the wing-mirror.

“Wheel thing following us.”

“Wheel thing…?”

It seemed like I turned to look out of the rear window at the same time as Dakota and Zahid. A short stretch behind Kendal’s car, keeping pace with us, was…

Okay, bear with me on this description…

Two large wheels stacked on top of each other, seemingly bound together by metal beams with their ends at each wheel’s axle. From what I could see, as the bottom wheel rolled forward, the top wheel spun backwards. Whether the top one was acting as an engine for the bottom one, I wasn’t sure. Honestly, that wasn’t at the top of my mind at that moment.

“Okay, yeah, wheel thing,” I nodded while staring out at it miraculously keeping both balance and hot pursuit.

“How would that have shaken the car up so much?” Dakota queried, leaning her head forward a little for a better look.

“Don’t think I wanna know,” Kendal remarked, accelerating slightly.

“It’s speeding up too,” Zahid observed.

Another two wheel things became apparent; perhaps always there and simply unnoticed until now, perhaps only manifesting discreetly that moment.

“And it’s got friends,” I added to Zahid’s intel.

“Damn it! I just wanted to drive in peace!” Kendal growled while revving the engine up some more.

A moment later, the car slowed down.

“End of the road, end of the road…”

Kendal’s testy muttering (and the tick-tick of the indicator) made it clear without even looking that she was now checking both ways for oncoming traffic. Our pursuers showed no sign of slowing down to retain their distance, approaching fast.

“Left we go!” she bellowed, slinging the car around the corner and almost throwing us all with the inertia. I leant into the door, and Dakota leant into me, her back pressing into my chest thanks to us both having turned to look out of the rear window.

Of course, Zahid rolled into her in turn, so she was momentarily sandwiched between us. But while he quickly hoisted himself off of her, she remained on me.

“A-bleh, you- ah-” I stuttered aimlessly, practically feeling the blush in my cheeks. In short order, she moved away, giving me a sheepish smile and… I’m sure I wasn’t imagining it… a blush of her own.

All of that took about five seconds, by which time Kendal had accelerated again.

“I’m gonna try and get out of town, find some long quiet roads I can go full-pelt on,” she informed us.

“Like an inverse Tracy Chapman,” Bao commented.

“And then what?” Zahid snapped at Kendal. “We have to fight them!”

“Okay, I’ll just pull up here and we’ll all get out while they catch up with us and do whatever they’re gonna do!”

No sooner had she said that then one of the wheel things ejected a bolt of crackling electricity from the point where its two components met, seemingly propelled outwards. The bolt struck us at incredible speed, jolting the car once again.

“Definitely the wheel things attacking us, Kendal!” I shouted out, and she growled.

“If they’ve actually dinged my car, I swear…”

She changed gears and accelerated again.

“Who here knows the best path out of town? Fewest stops.”

“No guarantees, but I might be able to guide you as we go,” Zahid told her, turning away from the rear window and leaning into the front half of the car.

“Great! Bao, got any driving music? I need pumping up.”

“Oooh, yeah, I’ve got you covered!” he replied chirpily, followed by the rustle of him rummaging through his tapes. A few moments later:

“This is from a Japanese show I watch. It’s all about racing, so…”

“Perfect! Load it up,” Kendal commanded, eliciting a groan from Zahid… and then, a moment later:

“Turn right here, then keep going!”

“Got it!”

As Dakota and I kept watching the wheel monsters in their hot pursuit, it dawned on me too late that we would be taking another sharp turn.

The car only slowed a little before veering around the corner, throwing me into Dakota. With Zahid leaning forwards now, she simply slid behind him.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” I joshed as we righted ourselves again, then immediately realised how lame that was. “No, err-”

Electronic music started up abruptly, accompanied by revving sounds.

“Aaawh yeah,” Kendal purred. That was the sound of the thrill-seeking girl I knew.

The music kicked in full-pelt; Kendal accelerated still further.

“Bao, grab your weapons and use some Lokon-magic on our Paintermobile.”

“Nope, that’s it, I’m getting out,” Zahid groaned, before muttering “Paintermobile…” in disdain.

“Roger!” Bao spoke excitedly by comparison. A few seconds later, a flash of yellow hit my peripheral vision. The wheel things seemed to sense this, moving in tight zig-zag patterns as if agitated.

I glanced at Bao. He had his blades wedged into the glove compartment. A yellow aura was enveloping the car.

Suddenly, the song burst into full breakneck speed.

Kendal threw us around another corner. The tires screeched. The wheel things leant at an excruciating angle as they veered after us. Dakota and I collided once again.

We hit a long stretch of road. Kendal chuckled deviously as the car hit speeds I’d never experienced. The acceleration pinned me to my seat.

“End of the road, turn left,” Zahid instructed.

One of the wheel things launched another bolt at us. Whatever Bao had done seemed to shield us, as it deflected off and hit a lamppost.

Vocals now blaring. Volume loud. Bao singing along.

“Alex, you’ve got company.”

I turned to see what Zahid meant. A wheel thing was now racing alongside us. It veered away a little, then back, slamming into the side of the car.

As it peeled away again, I unwound the window as quickly as I could. I stuck my hand out, summoned my sword and blasted my costume on, just barely managing to strike at the monster in time. I only hit one of its connecting beams, but it snapped like a twig. Destabilised, the oddity spiralled out of control and out of sight.

“Yeah! Take that!” I hollered after it.

“Nice work!” Dakota applauded me. “Now if you can get the other two, we’re golden.”

I gauged the speed we were travelling at.

“I don’t see how I can do that without dying…”

“Running in the 90s~!” Bao sang along energetically.

“Left, Kendal!” Zahid bellowed; she took the sharpest turn I’ve ever felt and I almost flew out of the window even with my seatbelt on. I bounced back in a moment later, my eyes practically rolling around in their sockets from dizziness.

“What next, Zahid?”

“Err… Bao, turn the music down, I can’t think!”

“Two wheelies still on us like flies on muck,” Dakota added to the fray.

“Bao, leave the music up! I’m enjoying it! I’ll just…”

I’d recovered enough to witness Kendal zooming straight through a red light.

“Are you crazy?!” Zahid roared.

“I’m driving in the 90s!” Kendal snapped back.

“I don’t care what decade it is-”

“It’s a street-racing show anyway so…” Bao interjected.

“We need an actual plan,” Dakota pointed out. “Is there anywhere we can go to get the upper-hand?”

“What about that really big field where they do kids football matches at the weekend?”

“Yes, Bao! I think I know where that is from here, too!”

Kendal took a sudden, sharp right turn. I did my best to keep my sword from stabbing into Dakota or Zahid as we all leant leftwards.

“Shouldn’t take two minutes if I drive fast!”

“What do you think you’re doing right now?” I asked in bafflement.

I want to say she was right, but it was hard to judge the time when we were rocketing down the roads. For all I know, it was barely thirty seconds. We reached the field with the song still playing, and Kendal gleefully drove onto it. Typical British weather hadn’t done the field much good, as it was as much bare soil and mud as it was grass.

The two remaining wheel things were still hot on our tail.

“Plan now?” Dakota asked tensely.

“This!”

Kendal slammed the brakes on abruptly, bringing the speeding car to an almighty halt. We barely had time to recover before the wheel things slammed into the rear of the car, ricocheting off of the yellow aura encompassing the vehicle. Without missing a beat, Kendal drove the car forward and took a sharp turn, looping back around and heading full-speed for the reeling monsters.

One managed to dart out of the way. The other had no such luck. The collision with the front of Kendal’s car, and subsequently being ploughed for several metres, was enough to make it fall apart completely. Its components began to smudge away as Kendal swung the car around, aiming for the remaining wheel thing. It… appeared to be facing us, as much as it had any kind of distinction between front and back.

“Oh man, Mexican stand-off…” Bao muttered in excitement.

“Yeah, this song really sets that tone…” I jested. Dakota, Zahid and I were all peering through the space between the front headrests now.

Kendal revved her engine. The wheel thing likewise spun its tires.

All at once, we charged for it and it charged for us; Kendal yelled out a battle-cry, the rest of us yelped out like we were on a rollercoaster, and with one almighty collision, it was over. The top wheel of our opponent, having burst off, appeared to roll right along the top of Kendal’s car and off down the field, slowly vanishing into thin air as the rest of it did the same.

The song came to an incredibly-timely end.

Bao withdrew his blades from the glove compartment tentatively, as though uncertain that we were definitely in the clear. He hit stop on the car’s stereo.

The near-silence punctuated Kendal’s satisfied sigh.

“Driving is the best!”

…

As crazy as that chase had been, homework had never felt so dull as it had coming off the back of a massive adrenaline rush. Even Dakota seemed unenthused, despite her repeated assurance that it was good for us to finally get on with our homework.

We were still at Dakota’s come 6pm, at which point Kendal awkwardly put the local news on. Sure enough, one of the top stories was of a bizarre car chase that had occurred, with unusual stacked wheels chasing after an unidentifiable car.

Apparently, the Lokonessence aura that Bao had charged the car with had the same effect as our Painter gear, masking the crucial details.

Kendal was relieved that she wouldn’t have to face repercussions for her wild driving. I didn’t have the heart to point out that the car was perfectly identifiable for the first minute or two of the chase…