Highway To Armageddon (52 page)

           
I really don’t want to do this, but it’s time for some tough love. I punch
Lance in his face, sending him stumbling back on his ass. Blood gushes from his
nose. I may have broken it.

           
 I don’t give Lance a chance to get back up. I lean on top of him and hold
down his thrashing arms.

           
“Lance, please, pull yourself together!” I plead. “I need you! I can’t do this
alone. Please, help me!”

           
Lance’s watery eyes focus on mine. I can see his madness finally fading away.

           
“Boom Boom, I…”

           
His eyes widen in terror.

           
“Boom Boom, look out!”

           
Lance shoves me aside and rolls to the other side of the chopper, just as a
barrage of bullets rip into the steel floor. I spin around to find Klaxton
marching toward us, her machine gun emitting a thin plume of smoke.

           
“You damn kids ruined my perfectly orchestrated plan! You’ve soiled my legacy!
Now you’re gonna die!”

           
Klaxton fires off more bullets. I leap through the gunfire and roll into the
cockpit.            

           
Klaxton unleashes another salvo. I flatten against the wall, narrowly avoiding
her shots. The barrage of artillery rips the control panel to shreds. Part of
it erupts in flames.

           
The fire spreads rapidly. I need to get out of the cockpit before it turns into
an oven. I’m already sweating like crazy.

           
I peek my head through the doorway. Klaxton is less than ten feet away. She
aims her gun at my head and fires off another shot. I barely move out of the
way in time.

           
Just when I think all hope is lost, the crackle of electricity reminds me I’m
not alone.

           
I leap back into the cabin just as Lance fires lightning bolts at Klaxton.
Klaxton ducks behind a filing cabinet.

           
“Let’s finish her,” I growl, cocking my gun.

           
We close in on Klaxton and prepare to blast her out of hiding.

           
That’s when the propellers decide to stall.

           
“That’s not good,” Lance groans, looking up at the roof of the chopper.

           
The lights flicker off, plunging us into darkness. The cabin remains somewhat
illuminated by the soft blue glow emanating from Lance’s glove and the raging inferno
in the cockpit.

           
Klaxton emerges from her hiding place. He face is red from the flickering
flames. She looks like a demon from the depths of Hell.

           
“Looks like this flight is about to end early. Sayonara, suckers!”

           
Klaxton barges past us, shoving us aside with her armored arms. She then leaps
out of the hatch door and drops out of sight.

           
“Holy crap, did Klaxton just commit suicide?” Lance cries.

           
We run to the door and peer out. Klaxton suddenly zooms in front of us. Her
exoskeleton has sprouted gleaming metallic wings, just like Rasputin’s. She
rockets toward the horizon like some sort of giant, mechanical bird.

           
An explosion in the cockpit sends Lance and me flying all the way to the back
of the cabin. An instant later the chopper goes into a nosedive.

           
Lance and I crash into a couple of cushioned, nailed-down chairs in the center
of the chopper. It’s the only thing that prevents us from tumbling into the
flaming cockpit.

           
Lance wraps his arms around me. “I’ve got you, Firecracker! Hang on!”

           
“Lance, I don’t think we’re going to make it!” I cry as we continue our plunge
toward Earth. “From this high up there’s no chance we’ll---”

           
“Don’t talk like that, Boom Boom!” Lance shouts, cutting me off.  He
pauses for a second, then blurts out, “I have to tell you something, something
I should have said a long time ago! I…”

           
Lance never finishes his sentence. We slam into a river and the entire chopper
vibrates, like a bomb has gone off. A wall of water immediately rushes into the
cabin.

           
“Take a deep breath!” Lance shouts as the water gushes up to our necks.

           
We both inhale as much oxygen as we possibly can, then close our mouths, just
as the freezing water rises past our heads.

           
The water is so frigid it feels like I’m being stabbed by a thousand daggers.
It takes all of my self-control not to open my mouth and scream. I clutch
Lance’s hand and we swim out the hatch door, out into the abyss.

           
For a second I’m so disoriented I can’t tell what’s up and what’s down. If the
sun were out I’d be able to see the light. With it being an overcast night it’s
dark in every direction

           
Lance tugs on my arm and points at the chopper. It’s slowly sinking. So that’s
the bottom. We kick our legs and swim toward the surface.

           
We don’t get very far, though. The chopper suddenly explodes underwater. Pieces
of debris whiz past us, slicing my arms and legs. One piece leaves a nasty gash
across Lance’s already bleeding forehead. He opens his mouth involuntarily,
then thrashes around as he starts to drown. I quickly lose my grip on his hand.
Matters are further complicated when the explosion creates an underwater
tsunami that sweeps us apart. I flip around in circles, losing all sense of
direction.

           
I immediately panic. I’m rapidly running out of oxygen and I don’t know where
the surface is. My lungs feel like they’re on fire. My entire body is wracked
by wave after unrelenting wave of excruciating pain. I feel like I’m in a dark,
watery tomb, which is only exacerbating my claustrophobia. And Lance is nowhere
to be seen.

           
Just when I’m on the verge of suffering a major mental breakdown, I notice
pieces of debris sinking past my head. I kick my feet and swim like mad in the
opposite direction.

           
Just when my lungs feel like they’re about to burst, my head explodes out of
the river. I gasp and thrash around. I enjoy my first few mouthfuls of
luxurious air before I focus on finding Lance. I spin around in a complete
circle to gather my bearings. The river bank is about 100 yards away. Pieces of
the chopper float past me, heading downstream.

           
“Lance!” I scream at the top of my lungs. “Lance!”

           
I don’t see him anywhere. Panic floods my body. I already lost Dagger, Arrow,
and Krystal. I can’t lose Lance, too. I’ll descend into madness.

           
“Lance!” I shriek. “LANCE!”

           
Something splashes out of the water about 20 yards away from me.

           
“Lance?”

           
I swim toward the thrashing figure. When I get within ten yards I make out
Lance’s shaggy purple hair. He’s alive!

           
I swim up to Lance and place my arm under his armpit. Blood pours from his
head. He doesn’t look good.

           
“Lance, are you okay?” I ask in a trembling voice.

           
Lance doesn’t respond. He closes his eyes and starts to sink back under the
water. I slide his right arm around my shoulder to prop him up.

           
“Hang in there, Lance,” I say, struggling to keep us both afloat. “We’re almost
there. Just hang on.”

           
After what seems like an eternity we finally wash ashore. I toss Lance on his
back and collapse to my hands and knees, my fingers sinking in the mud. I spit
out a mouthful of water and start hacking, freeing my lungs and throat of any
residual liquid. My entire body shivers from the icy river. If I don’t warm up
soon I’ll suffer from hypothermia.

           
I crawl over to Lance and cradle his head in my hands. His skin is ice-cold,
and his face has turned blue. His eyes are still shut and he doesn’t appear to
be breathing.

           
“Lance?”

           
I shake his head. He doesn’t stir.

           
“Lance! Wake up!”

           
I touch his neck. I don’t feel a pulse, but it could be because my fingers are
frozen. I press my ear against his chest, listening for a heartbeat. All I hear
is a continuous ringing sound. My eardrums still haven’t recovered from the
pulsating explosion in the helicopter.

           
I begin performing CPR. I clasp my hands together and press down on the area
above Lance’s rib cage, giving quick, powerful thrusts with my palms.

           
Nothing happens.

           
“C’mon, Lance,” I mumble, quickening the thrusts. Pretty soon I’m pounding away
on his chest.

           
By now I’m gripped in hysteria. “Goddamn it, Lance, don’t leave me! I can’t do
this alone! I need you! Wake up! Please! WAKE UP!”

           
I eventually keel over from exhaustion. I rest my head on Lance’s chest and
break down in sobs.

           
“Lance… don’t do this to me. Please… don’t leave me…”

           
A suffocating sense of hopelessness washes over me, robbing me of everything
but loneliness and despair.

           
And then he coughs.

           
I jerk my head up and stumble back. I wipe away my tears and whisper, “Lance?”

           
He coughs again.

           
“Lance!”

           
The ocean of despair has parted, as surely as the Red Sea parted for Moses. I
scramble over to Lance and begin applying pressure on his chest again. Lance
coughs some more, and an unfathomable amount of water gushes out of his mouth.
It’s like a pipe bursting underneath a sink. Lance crawls to his hands and
knees and continues vomiting up water, until it’s all out. The coughing
continues, but he’s alive.

           
I’m no longer alone.

           
Lance plops down on his butt and wipes his mouth. “Wh… what happened?” he
blubbers.

           
I respond by throwing my arms around him and squeezing him tight. Lance is
caught off guard for a moment, but he eventually returns the embrace when he
hears me crying.

           
“It’s okay, Firecracker. I’m alright.”

           
In between sobs I choke out, “I thought I lost you. I can’t lose you! First
Dagger, then Sally, then Arrow, then Krystal, then Dorothy…. If I lost you,
too, I was going to lose it.”     

           
Lance squeezes me tight and runs his fingers through my soaked hair. “Shhh.
It’s okay. I’m fine. I’m not leaving you, I promise.”

           
“I know that,” I say, burying my face in his chest. “You never leave me. You’re
always there for me, through thick and thin. I… I love you, Lance. I always
have and I always will. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

           
Lance continues to hold me in his comforting embrace. “I love you, too, Firecracker.
That’s what I was trying to say on the helicopter, before we crashed.”

           
I back away a bit and stare into Lance’s eyes. They’re completely different
from Arrow’s. Arrow’s irises were like milk chocolate. Lance’s are icy-blue.
But there’s a tenderness there, just below the icy surface.

           
“You have the most amazing emerald eyes,” Lance says, leaning toward my lips.

           
I don’t back away. In fact, I lean forward to close the gap. Our lips meet for
the first time in months and we engage in a passionate kiss. It’s different
from when we used to make out. This time we truly mean it.

           
Our lips remain pressed together for what seems like hours. We finally part,
but we remain entangled in a loving embrace.

           
“We were made for each other, you know that, right?” Lance says quietly, still
gazing into my eyes. “We’re both lone wolves who keep looking for love. We’ve
tried so hard to find other people, but it never works out. They always end up
getting hurt… or worse. It’s because of the nature of our work. No matter how
hard we try to deny it… to make it not so… destiny finds a way of bringing us
back together. I say we stop fighting destiny and just accept it.”

           
“You’re right,” I say, resting my head back on his chest. “We need to quit
dragging other people into our ruthless, brutal world. All we need is each
other. We were just too blind and foolish to see it… until now.”

           
A car engine rumbles off in the distance, causing us both to jump back.

           
“What the hell?” Lance grumbles. He holds up his right hand, which is still
encased in Mikhail’s computerized glove. The fingertips turn electric blue. I’m
not sure how he’s controlling it. It’s probably through the computer chip in
our brains.

           
I reach for my gun, purely out of habit. When I feel nothing hanging from my
waist, however, I’m reminded I’m unarmed.

           
Lance steps in front of me and points his glowing hand in the direction of the
rumbling engine.