Two Girls in a Truck

by Kai Miro

Glass exploded and Terra jerked the wheel, flinching at the sudden scream of pain in her ear and ringing and the truck spun and the world spun. Squinting, blood burning her eyes, she saw: a black SUV with an arm and gun in the open window spinning wildly to night-time skies, grass and trees and the rest of the highway as the few cars slipped by, their passengers lucky lucky lucky…

“Fuck!” Terra screamed, holding onto the steering wheel to center herself in the whirl. The Dodge stopped and all was silent. Terra turned, grinning in relief, in disbelief to see: Beth staring upward, eyes laser focused, her forehead cracked like a doll’s in the hands of an angry child, an indifferent God. Beth’s hand rested on her breast like she was trying to catch her breath. Any minute to choke out laughter. They survived another day, another night together.

Terra sobbed out an animal moan. She numbly wiped the blood on her face, smearing it in a war mask. She said, softly, like she had this morning in their bed, “Baby?”

There wasn’t an answer. The soul bird had flown away. Terra screamed, her hands wrapped around Beth’s beautiful face. Blonde hair burnt red, high forehead shattered and bone splintered, blue eyes looking outward inward, full mouth open as if to say something reassuring. Beth was the one who kept it together. Terra was the freak out. Beth slid forward, her head and shoulder now resting on Terra’s body. Terra barked out laughter and snotty tears.

There’d been talk of marriage. Talk of adopting kids. Dogs. Beth wanted a hobby farm. Goats and chickens and golden days and long hot nights and dandelion wine.

Shaking, Terra leaned Beth against the passenger car door. The shattered glass crunched beneath her head. Blood dripped onto the glass like melting snow. Trembling hard enough that she rattled, Terra looked out the cracked front windshield. It seemed several minutes had passed but it’d been long time warping seconds. The black SUV had traveled a distance away but was now swerved back in a U-Turn, facing Terra in her run-down Dodge truck.

The black SUV revved its engine, held back speed drifting its back wheels.

Terra laughed an ugly crow caw. Gang initiation. They’d left one alive. Terra whispered, “The wrong one, you assholes.” She shifted from park to drive with a stiff hard hand.

It was silent and still, not a single car on the highway other than the SUV and a rusty yellow Dodge truck. The shiny new black SUV mocked the truck with a blast of horn laughing.

Terra gunned her machine. The SUV screamed in greeting. Terra nearly collapsed the gas pedal under her boot. The truck shot forward, a singular light in the surrounding darkness. The SUV hummed forward, a dark figure leaning out the passenger window, weapon in hand. Terra headed towards the SUV relentlessly. There came a wild screeching as the SUV realized the truck wasn’t chickening out.

At the last moment, the SUV swerved to the right, off the sidelines of the highway. The truck gutted the left side of the SUV as it shot past. The shooter split in half like a water balloon hitting the pavement, his spine and intestines trailing the side of the SUV as his expensive sneakers dragged the highway. The SUV driver screamed, the windshield splattered in blood and gore. The SUV rolled back onto the highway, the speed of its turn knocking it side to side until gravity righted itself.

Terra shot down on the brake and spun the truck. It circled once, twice, rocked to a stop. It was a miracle but the truck’s passenger and door were still intact. Tears blurring her vision, Terra turned to Beth and said in wavering confidence, “This is their last time. They’ll not do this again.”

In her mind, she whispered, It’s a suicide mission but it’s our mission and we will prevail. We will prevail we will prevail we will FUCKING smear their guts all over the highway.

The Dodge roared, one foot on the gas, the other holding back on the brake. The soldiers of the SUV climbed out, loaded to hunt and score, some in front of the SUV, others using it for cover. Not their first rodeo.

Terra purred the truck, pulling up softly on the brake, slowly it crept, tiger sneaking. The men and boys fired guns. Lazily, speeding faster, Terra weaved the truck side to side. Bullets broke the front windshield, striking Beth and the seat and Terra. Terra felt tiny indescribable bursts in her chest and arm. She didn’t bother looking down. She was hit, it was all going to hell but them first.

Terra aimed her weapon at the front lines of the SUV. Curving the ride like a wicked scythe. Bullets and smoke flooded the cab. Something stung her cheek, another sliced at the side of her throat. Terra opened her door. Wind rattled the truck. Terra lifted her boot and slammed down hard on the gas while turning the wheel a hard spinning right. She tripped sideways from the Dodge, flying away like a soul bird soaring high. The truck tail swerved into the front end of the upended SUV and splattered the front lines of her enemies. The SUV rolled onto its back. Men screamed. The Dodge climbed the SUV like a hungry lover. It must have hit a gas line. Both vehicles exploded into flames. The flames spread as the SUV and Dodge crawled dying to the edge of the highway and onto the greenery.

Terra rolled and it was all amazement, she was alive and rolling, highway pavement scorching her bloody cheek and scraping her broken nose. Crying, Terra forced herself up to a sitting position. Everything hurt. Everything was numb. Everything was on fire.

A boy crept out of the bloody burning smear that use to be human beings.

He screamed, “You fucking bitch!”

Softly, Terra agreed. “Yes.” She wiped blood, snot, and tears from her face and waited.

It took a long dying night-time before the sun smoked up from the flames of the skies, but Terra watched the boy die with a smile on her face. Then, she sprawled out on the highway and waited some more. Sirens shrieked and the highway rumbled. Terra pressed herself deep into the warming pavement, hearing the tick tick tock of her blood and the cooling of her flesh.

Beth kicked her boots. Beth’s face was dark, silhouetted against a halo of sun and the blue and red lights.

Beth sang, “Come on, little darlin’.” Terra reached up and took Beth’s hand.

Kai Miro

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