Team Twin-Snail
Before the Stage
“Wonder why they kept having to tell everyone to stay away from the tracks.” Scott said for the eleventy-fifth time.
“Because of idiots like you.” Luke said, having lost his patience after the third explanation. “Seven feet. That gives more than enough room for a locomotive and its consist to pass us without risk of us getting hit by either the train itself, debris from the train, or any odd-sized non-standard cargo. And we’re maintaining that, because a car, even one so heavy as this, will lose against even the smallest of trains.”
“We weigh a little more than 2 tons.” Scott said.
“And a small locomotive weighs about 120 tons more than us.” Amy said. “Simple physics, doesn’t matter that we’ll be bombarding across the rough road at around 100+ miles per hour, a locomotive moving at half a mile per hour will still win that fight.”
“Plus, the closer you get to the tracks, the rougher the ride will be anyway. It’s gonna be bad enough with loose ballast on the road, but right next to the tracks, there’s tons of the stuff. It’ll be like riding in an industrial paint shaker.” Linda added. “How is it everyone else gets it, but you don’t?”
“I may have flunked physics in school.” Scott said after a few minutes.
“Well, that explains why you’re in interior design.” Linda quipped.
“Enough fighting, let’s get on the move.” Luke said, as they headed toward the starting line.
Day 2, Leg 7
“Think it’s gonna be an appropriate stage for your choice of music, Luke?” Amy asked, as Luke waited for the flag to drop.
“All flat ground, for the most part, but we’ll be traveling at very high speeds… I think it’s time for Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, then.” Luke replied, starting the song.
The flag dropped, and Luke floored it, spraying gravel behind the car as the engine roared, the gearbox gremlin making quick work of the gear changes, and the lights all turned on, casting a dire warning to anyone nearby that they were coming, get out of the way.
Luke blared the horn, the first time anyone had heard the Sinistra’s aftermarket air horn, the blast echoing across the dam, only barely louder than the cannon-fire coming from the exhaust. It still made Amy and Scott flinch, with only Linda having seen Luke installing it before they’d headed out for the first day.
“Why would you do that!?” Scott yelled from the back seat. “What was the point of putting a truck horn in here!?”
“Stock horn didn’t work. Figured it was better to have a horn than not to.” Luke said, the car still accelerating down the mostly-flat road, only being slowed down as Luke made the turn onto the railroad maintenance road.
The first pothole was a wakeup-call to everyone in the car that the road was worse than it looked. The clatter and bang of chunks of railway ballast pounding against the underside of the car, the rear valance, the gas tank, and what was left of the exhaust all ended up making everyone in the car a little nervous, especially as a larger piece got kicked into the bottom of the fuel tank. It sloshed the fuel and sent the car into a series of 90-mile-per-hour tank-slappers, though Luke managed to recover without losing much speed, nor much time.
They made it to Jademount without much more going on, other than more clattering and banging against the chassis from the debris scattered around the road.
Day 2, Leg 7 Aftermath
“That was some wicked driving, Luke!” Scott said. “How’d you get out of the tank-slappers?”
“Simple physics. It was caused by a weight shift, so I had to counter the shifting weight without over-corrections to avoid spinning out.” Luke said.
The rest of their resting time was spent topping up fluids, wiping dust off of the car, and cursing as they found out one of their two ceramic bricks had been smashed and left in pieces all over the maintenance road.
“Damn it. Now we only have one cooking brick to work with.” Linda said.
Car Condition:
Functionally identical to the previous leg. Very dirty. Air horn air tank is almost empty. Fluids topped up again.
Team Condition:
MRL +14 overall. Feeling lucky. Confident in their chances of success, though keeping in mind that there’s every chance that they might not make it that far.
