Chapter 10: So Close, Yet So Far Away
     However, my perfect romantic moment was interrupted by the sound of a gun’s hammer being pulled back.  I opened my eyes and saw Krista aiming her gun at me.  “I’m sorry, Dave, but I need this wish.”
     “I understand,” I said, leveling my own handgun at her.  “But I need it, too.”
     “I don’t want to shoot you, but I will,” she said.
     “No you won’t,” I said, hitting the switch I had Torque install the clutch.
     The sun roof of my car rolled back, and Krista went flying out in an ejector seat.  “You asshole!” she screamed, as she flew up. 
I quickly peeled out and drove away, just as she started shooting at me.  “Thanks, Torque,” I said into my headset.  “I knew she’d turn on me.”
“No prob,” he replied.  “I always wanted to build one of those.”
Then, Calypso cackled, and announced, “It appears we have one more contestant.  Now, it is Specter versus Grasshopper.”
As Krista landed, she raced behind a pile of junk.  Before I could figure out what was going on, I saw a heavily modified, green dune buggy race up and over the pile of junk.  Suddenly, rockets in the back fired up, causing it to crash into my car.  As my car slid back, I noticed the there were spikes on the front, causing extra damage.  “Damn it!” I screamed, slamming my car into reverse and pulling away.
As we separated, I whipped back around and drove away.  “I know every one of your moves, Dave,” Krista said.  “There’s no way you can win.”
“Wrong,” I countered, “You only know the moves I showed you.”
I yanked the e-brake, and pulled a 360ᵒ.  Halfway through, she raced past, so I ended up behind her.  I poured on the machine guns, now missing my co-driver.  I fired my last Fire missile, which smashed into her rear end.  Her buggy shook with the impact, which opened up an opportunity.  I hit my turbo, and accelerated right into her car.  As I hit, Grasshopper went rolling and crashed into a mound of decaying cars.  However, her car rolled back onto her wheels, and she came flying at me again.  Again, her car hit, but this time she fired her machine guns, which ripped through the weak spots in the armor on the car.  “Damn it!” I yellowed, driving away.
I raced through the wreckage, taking stock of my dwindling ammo supply.  I didn’t have time to stock up; now I wish I had anyways.  I had a homing missile, a Zoomy, and a power missile, plus my special.  The odds were not in my favor.  I cut a wide turn, and I could hear Krista racing over the junk to ram me.  I whipped around and fired by power missile, right as Grasshopper launched into the air.  The missile hit home, obliterating the unprotected underside of the dune buggy.  She went flying away in an explosion of smoke and fire, skidding to the side of Calypso’s throne.  I drove what was left of my car to in front of him, stalling out as I got close.  As I exited my car, the driver’s door fell off, and I removed my head set.  I stood before Calypso, noticing the plethora of guards with AK47’s.  I also noticed the look of fury on my host’s face.
“You killed my daughter,” he said, simply.
I glanced back at the wreckage, and saw her door fly open.  She got out of the car, broken and injured but alive.  “No, I merely eliminated her car,” I sad, thankful I was right.
“Fine, you get to live,” he said, motioning for his guards to go help his daughter.  “As the winner, you may claim your prize.”
He snapped his fingers, and two men drug my father out from the back of a security truck.  He shook off the guards, and said, “Dave, just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Hi Dad,” I said, crossing my arms.
“You stole my car, destroyed, and caused  your mom so much anxiety, she OD’d!”
“She was bound to do that, anyways,” I countered, strangely feeling confident.
“Now get your ass over here, so I can kick it so hard, you won’t sit down for a century!”
“I don’t think so, Dad,” I said, pulling out my .45 from my waistband.
I saw the guards aim their guns at me, but Calypso waved, and they stood down.  He understood that this was my prize.
“Oh, Mr. Tough Guy is gonna shoot me,” he said, and then he broke out laughing.  “Put the gun down, Squirt.  We both know you couldn’t kill anyone.”
“Wrong again, Dad,” I said.  “Why do you think I’m here.  See, I just won a game, that involved killing a bunch of people.  Sure, it felt bad at first, but now, I think it feels pretty good.  However, no one would be as satisfying to kill as you!”
Then, I lowered the gun and shot him right between the legs.  He keeled over, holding his hurt area.  I walked up to him, kicked him in the side, and aimed the gun back at his head.  “However, I had to make you suffer at least an iota that I did,” I said, pulling back the hammer.
“Mercy,” he said, in a soprano.
“Hell no,” I countered.  “You never gave me any.”
Then, I put a bullet into his brain, and felt better than I had in a long time.  I put the safety on, holstered my weapon and went to check on Krista.  Calypso’s guards had brought her over, and I wrapper her arm around my shoulder.  The guards left me, as I helped hobble her over to her father.  “I thought you’d hate me,” she said, wincing in pain.
“Nah,” I said.  “I knew that you’d kill me, unless I eliminated you first.  Next year, we’ll kick their asses again, and then you can have your prize.”
She smiled at that, but winced as it hurt.  “Yeah,”  she said.  “That’d be great.”
Then, we stood in front of Calypso.  “So, Dave, now that you have claimed your prize, what are you going to do?  It seems both of your parents are dead.”
“I dunno, maybe get a job or something,” I replied.
“And Krista, it seems you have escaped from the hospital.  Maybe you need to return.”
“Fuck that,” she said, standing on her own.  “I’m fine.  All I need is some time and my car.  You’ll see me again next year.”
He laughed.  “Guards,” he said signaling.
Then, we did the stupidest thing ever.  We ran into my car, luckily coaxing it to start and sped out of there, while dodging bullets.  As soon as we hit the next town, we stole the first car we could and get going.  When we finally felt safe, Krista said, “Well, I guess that was a colossal waste of time.”
“Not really,” I disagreed.  “Just a bad first date.  I promise the next one will be better.”
She laughed, and curled up in the passenger seat.  “Wake me in a couple hours,” she said.
“Ok,” I said, turning up the stereo.  “I wake you at the next junkyard.  We’ll need parts if we plan to enter next year.”
“Ok,” she said, yawning.
I drove on into the sunset, happier than I had ever been in a long time.