Rental Wreckers
Previous Post - Arrival
“Fuck, it’s going already!” Jake yelled to Cody, and the two of them made a mad dash for the Vheego Travette. A frantic couple minutes passed as the two-liter inline 3 strained to start, but the instant it lit up, Jake had it banging on the rev limiter. “Come on, start building boost.” Jake said, watching the boost gauge while Cody slammed the lever into Lock for their rear differential. The instant the boost gauge climbed into the green, Jake dropped the car from Neutral into Drive and sprayed mud everywhere behind them, the 100-horsepower ex-rental car accelerating violently into the forest.
Being farther back than expected had advantages early on, as other teams had cleared paths through the jungle, and all Jake had to do was keep out of the ruts. Cody cackled as their turbo inline 3 shrieked and rumbled through the jungle, their car bouncing through trails and over chopped branches.
At the halfway point, however, Jake and Cody came to a complete stop, looking at the river in front of them. Cody nodded, then said, “Right. Time for the condoms. You get the computers, I’ll get the gas tank.” The two of them worked quickly, Jake disconnecting wires, pulling the cable looms up out of their usual hiding spots, and sticking the ECU and TCU to the dashboard, now wrapped in protective latex. Cody, on the other hand, was busy with making sure no water could get into their gas tank, and also dismounted the lower half of the air-box, so that it wouldn’t suck water into the intake.
“Let’s take it easy here. No point in drowning the car.” Cody said, getting back in. Jake nodded and started the Travette again, pulling the transmission down into Low and crawling in. Again, being a bit slow was an advantage, as they could see which paths were safer to cross with their relatively-low-riding rental car. The engine howled, three cylinders banging away at 4,000 RPM as the rear tires scrabbled for grip in the water, propelling them along as water sloshed through the interior.
“Come on, little shitbox. You can do it.” Jake said, feeling the steering wheel getting slushy as water intruded upon the power steering control module, though the car kept going. Once they crawled out of the river, however, Jake slammed the stick back into Drive and floored it, their turbo triple singing as they rushed to catch up with the others.
This rushing is exactly what caused them to ‘encounter’ the Shitbox Brothers and their Saetta, with Jake coming around a blind bit of dirt-trail, seeing the stuck vehicle, and slamming on the brakes. They slid into the back of the Saetta with enough force to knock one of the two over, and caused Jake’s foot to slip off of the brake pedal and hit the firewall.
Jake, as a result, rolled down the window, leaned out, and yelled, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, parking here!? You’re lucky that didn’t set off the fucking airbag or I’d make a god-damn convertible out of that shit pile!”
Cody rolled his window down, then said, “No, I don’t fucking care that you got your off-roader stuck. We’re in a fucking former rental car, we’ve made it this far, now move your asses! You’re blocking the fuckin’ road.”
As the windows went back up, Jake looked over to Cody and said, “Your turn to drive. I slid in the seat and kicked the firewall pretty hard in that crash. I’d keep driving, but it’s my right foot, so it’s your turn.”
The two of them shuffled about in the seats until Cody was driving, with Jake sitting in the rear bench, rubbing a slightly swollen ankle.
As soon as they got around the stuck Saetta, they heard an equally terrifying crash between some little vehicle and the limo full of Mad-Max-level maniacs. They heard a roaring chainsaw and yelling, so Cody punched it, their tri-cylinder terror roaring away from the chaos.
In the campsite, Cody set up a tent, then got out some of their prepared supplies and wrapped Jake’s ankle. He checked their phone and gave a grim smile. “Stage 1, 2 Casualties.” Cody said. “Looks like we’re a couple cars lighter. Then again, one of 'em turned theirs into a submarine and the other imitated a group-B rally car with a little tumble.”
“I’m surprised there’s only two casualties. I know we’re not exactly the meanest folk here, but even we gave serious thought to, well, ruining another team’s chances.” Jake said. “Seriously, if the air-bags had gone off, I would’ve chainsawed the roof off of their car.”
