"So where do you figure we are?" asked
JTR.
"Good question," said Jorge as he reached for his
map, "We couldn't have gone too far."
"Well obviously not," commented JTR, "I mean we
are traveling south on the only north flowing river in the southern hemisphere."
"Right," said Jorge as he unfolded the map, "Looks
like... looks like we're right about here, near the Sudan border."
"Wow," said JTR, "We are making good time."
"Yep," said Jorge, "Well... why don't we go wake
up the rest of the crew and have some breakfast."
"Sounds like a pla-" JTR didn't have time to finish
his sentence as some one had grabbed he and Jorge from behind. It was Anson and Goodyn.
"Sorry guys, but this is a race," said Charles as
the chloroform began to take effect. JTR and Jorge blacked out.
JTR's eyes began to open. The sunlight stung
a bit so he rolled over and dizzily sat up. Jorge was sitting next to him.
"Oh, man," said JTR, "My head is killing me."
"Yea," said Jorge, "Mine too."
"Hey," said Amos as he walked up holding his head,
"What's going on?"
"I don't know," said JTR.
Jerry Adonis came walking up, "Hey guys, all the
engines are dead."
Jorge and JTR looked at each other, "Wait a minute..."
"What?" said Amos.
Brian Hassett came running up, "We're all acounted
for except team Sheriff's Car and their truck."
Cason came runing up, "Um, not to be the barer of
bad news but we've sprung quite a few leaks down in the hold."
"What is going on?" asked Jerry.
JTR stood up very calmly, "Okay... nobody panic.
Charles and his deputys chloroformed us all, killed the motors, punched holes in the bottom of the boats to limit mobility,
and we've been drifting back towards Cairo this whole time."
"What!?" yelled Cason, "Where the hell did he go,
we're in the middle of a river."
"My guess would be he pulled over to the side and
got on the road over there," said Jorge.
"Wait," said Jerry, "If there is a road running
next to the Nile who decided it was a good idea to travel up river to get to Kenya?"
JTR, Cason, Jorge, and Amos looked at each other
and then shrugged.
Jerry sighed very heavily, "Okay, well we better
get to work before we all sink into the Nile."
"Yep," said Jorge, "After all we don't wanna be
crocodile food."
All the color drained from Jerry's face, "What?"
Charles stepped out of the Deluxe with an ear to
ear grin. Jimbob and Skycam had been asleep all morning, his master plan had gone off without a hitch, they had made
great time, and with a little luck all the other teams had floated back to Cairo by now. Yes, things were finally looking
up.
Team Sheriff's Car was in Khartoum the capital of
Sudan. They had stopped at the Shurhada Market to resupply.
"Anson," said Charles, "Get everything on the list
and get back here."
"Hey," said Goodyn, "I need to stretch my legs and
Jimbob's just woke up and he's kinda cranky so we're gonna go for a little walk."
"Okay, just don't be gone long," remarked Charles.
A few minutes later Anson had collected everything
on the list and he and Charles had finished loading it into the truck.
"Okay," said Charles, "Now where are Goodyn and
Jimbob?"
Just then a group of kids came running by yelling,
"Haboob! Haboob!"
"What's a haboob?" asked Anson.
"Hey guys," said Goodyn as he came walking up, "We
got problems."
Charles sighed, "Where is Jimbob and what has he
done now?"
"What? No..." said Goodyn, "I can't believe
I'm gonna say this but Jimbob hasn't done anything."
Jimbob came skipping up, "Look what I bought!" he
anounced proudly brandishing the paw of a dead monkey.
"Is that a monkey's paw?" asked Anson.
"Yes it is!" proudly proclaimed Jimbob, "the guy
I bought it from said it used to belong to an old fakir and that it'll grant me three wishes but I got him to let it give
me five wishes instead and the last guy that had it eventually wished for death or something I wasn't really listening."
"Forget that," said Goodyn, "The real problem right
now is that!"
Charles and Anson turned around to an amazing sight.
Slowly creeping toward them through the city was what appeared to be a massive wall of sand. It must have been close
to a mile high and probably sixty miles wide.
"Holy crap," said Anson, "What is that?"
"A sand storm," answered Charles, "Everyone get
in the truck. I'm not gonna let this slow me down."
"I don't think that's such a good idea," said Goodyn,
"We should probably take shelter."
"Okay, we'll put it to a vote," said Charles.
Charles voted to continue through the storm and
Anson, Goodyn, and Jimbob oppted to find shelter. They headed for a near by bar just as the haboob was coming over.
"Hey what about Skycam?" asked Goodyn.
Anson spoke up, "She's still asleep in the truck...
she'll be fine."
They stepped into the bar and everyone's eyes traveled
over to the four new american people in the room. Charles stood at the lead with a big smirk on his face.
"Looks like some one's been down here with the ugly
stick," said Charles very loudly.
Anson and Goodyn shrunk down behind Charles as they
had noticed the bar was full of foreign dignitaries.
Suddenly a mexican man came walking up to Charles
and said, "Hey! We ain't ugly essa!"
"Yes you are," said Charles, "Don't argue with me."
"ˇUsted hijo de una ramera!" said the mexican as
he pulled his gun. Charles pulled his gun too. The man playing the piano began playing the theme from the good,
the bad, and the ugly. There was a giddy moments pause before Charles and the mexican both started firing madly.
The rest of the bars occupants, foreign dignitaries included, pulled guns and also started firing. A good old fashioned
bar brawl / gun fight had broken out.
Charles was standing out in plane sight in the middle
of the bar firing in every direction, Anson was hiding behind a table for cover, and Jimbob was running up to people, pointing
at them, and yelling, "BANG! YOU'RE DEAD!"
Goodyn was using a table for cover when he noticed
that about a million glasses and barrels of alcohol had been shot to pieces all around the bar. It began to occur to
him that they could have a very explosive situation on their hands. Just then he noticed a very calm and collected man
over near the bar begining to light a cigarette.
"No!" yelled Goodyn. Charles and Anson turned
to see the man pull out the match.
"Don't light that!" yelled Goodyn, but it was too
late. Charles, Anson, and Goodyn made a break for the door just as the alcohol ignited and the bar exploded.
Seconds latter Charles, Anson, and Goodyn stood
out in the pitch black of the haboob staring down at the hole in the ground where the bar used to be. The thirty
mph winds blew down on them rain that contained a conciderable amount of dust.
"Kinda poetic that it would be raining mud on the
day Jimbob died," said Charles.
"How is that poetic?" asked Goodyn.
"Wait," said Anson, "What's that?"
Something was moving in the debris. Jimbob
poked his head up out of the debris looking very thrilled.
"That was AWESOME!" yelled Jimbob, "Can we do it
again?"
Charles rolled his eyes, "Everyone get in the truck.
We better just ride this out."
Team Save the Kittens, team T&T, team 2XW, team Arizona Heart,
team Save the Silence, and team Save the Trees had managed to fish themselves out of the Nile. They had drifted quite
a ways back but not as far as Charles had hoped. They found themselves in a city on the west bank of the Nile called
Girga. Owens was walking back to his team in a huff.
"We've got well over two thousand miles to go before we get to
Nirobi," said Owens, "Charles, that rat bastard."
"Load up guys lets roll," shouted Jerry as team 2XW piled into
the Pikachu Bug. They peeled out followed by the 4Runner, the Box Car, the Microbus, and finally the MultiCAT.
"JTR," yelled Cason, "JTR lets go!"
"Where is he?" asked Tom.
Just then JTR came walking up to Latisha from the bank of the
Nile. JTR was carrying a rather large burlap sack.
"JTR!" said Cason, "Where have you been?"
"That's not important," said JTR.
"What's in the bag?" asked Tom.
JTR looked left, then looked right, and finally said, "That's
even less important."
They all looked at each other and then shrugged.
"Okay," said Cason, "Anyway get in lets go. We're behind
thanks to that backstabing jack ass, Charles."
"Chill out," said JTR, "Lets get something to eat before we go."
"We don't have time," argued Cason, "Charles is way ahead of us
and everyone else will be too if we don't go."
"Eh..." said JTR, "We'll catch them."
"JTR," said Cason, "Do you understand at all how racing works?"
"Well duh," answered JTR, "I used to race for MASCAR."
"You mean NASCAR," said RJ.
"No," said Jorge, "He means MASCAR... the Mexibrookian Association
of Stock Cars."
"Yea," said JTR, "and let me tell you, the secret to racing success
is more than just a car with a whole mess'a decals on it and a good publacist. The real unsung hero behind every racer is
the pit crew. Jorge was my crew chief. You know if it wasn't for the efforts of Jimbob, Bobby Joe, Joey Jim, and
Jimmy Joey I'd'a been up crap creek with a cow pie for a paddle."
Jorge chimed in, "Yea, together those boys worked with all the
precision of a perfectly tweeked four barrel carborator. Each member did a job at top speed without stepping on anyone's
toes."
"Yea," said JTR, "Those boys were good. If only Jimbob hadn't
talked them into chasing that papper cup onto the speedway that time."
Jorge sighed, "I'll miss those boys."
"Anyway," said JTR, "Point is there is more to winning a race
than driving faster than everyone else. It's about taking care of your equipment."
"I see," said Cason, "you mean we need to get Latisha in tip top
shape while the rest of the racers are killing their cars to catch up to Charles."
"What?" said JTR as he tossed the burlap sack in the back of Latisha,
"Sure whatever, you and Dad get right on that. Jorge, RJ... follow me we've got a little mission to go on."
Cason, Tom, and Mustard watched JTR, RJ, and Jorge disappear over
the hill before they got to work on Latisha.
Charles sighed, "When is this stupid sand storm gonna be over?"
"I'm bored," said Jimbob as he fiddled with his new Monkey's Paw,
"I wish this stupid storm would stop. AHHHH!!!!" Jimbob threw the Paw across the cab and it binged Charles
in the head.
"What!?" yelled Anson in surprise.
"The Monkey's hand just moved," said Jimbob.
"Jimbob don't throw stuff in the car!" yelled Charles.
"Hey," said Goodyn, "Listen..."
They all looked around and noticed the rain had stopped.
The sand that had been swirling madly around the deluxe was dead still in the air.
"That's kinda creepy," said Goodyn.
Just then all the sand that had been in the air suddenly
fell out of the air. Khartoum, Sudan and thusly the Neon Pink Chevy Deluxe Monster Truck and all it's occupants
were burried beneith a mile of sand.
"Well... crap," said Charles.
"There they are," said JTR as he crawled through the tall grass
with Jorge and RJ.
"Are those Oxen?" asked Jorge.
"Yea," said JTR, "Bessy will love one of those."
"Who's Bessy?" asked Jorge.
JTR paused for a second, "Uh, nevermind. Just help me steal
one of those Oxen."
"So we're gonna be egyptian cattle rustlers," said RJ, "Neat!"
"Neat ideed, RJ," said JTR, "Neat indeed."
They began to slowly crawl through grass toward the nearest Ox.
"Okay," said JTR, "Now!"
JTR, RJ, and Jorge lept into the air and grabbed the nearest Ox.
It kicked and screamed until finally Jorge emploied an ancient Mexibrookian hunting technique and sucker punched it in the
side of the head. The Ox went down like a tone of bricks.
"Hey Cason," said Tom, "I think I see them coming back."
Cason rolled out from under Latisha, "Great... just in time to
miss all the work."
JTR was leading two Ox on a leash and RJ was limping.
"Why do we need two Ox?" asked Cason.
"Well," said JTR, "We're gonna eat one Ox. The other
is for Bessy."
"Who's Bessy?" asked Cason.
"Who's Bessy?" repeated JTR, "I'm glad you asked."
JTR reached into the back of Latisha and untied the sack.
Out plopped a sixteen foot long, twelvehundred pound Nile Crocodile.
"So Bessy is
a Nile Crocodile," said Jorge, "Cool... anyway, I'll fry up the other Ox."
"Okay," said Cason rubbibg her forehead, "We'll eat, take a nap,
and get back on the road... oh and JTR Bessy's gonna have to ride in the secret room under Latisha."
"Okay," said JTR as he scratched Bessy's belly. Bessy wagged
her tail and kicked her back leg. JTR giggled.
The teams looked like a great convoy driving
down the Cairo to Cape Town Trans-African Highway. They were, respectively, Team Arizona Heart, Team Save the Silence,
Team Trees, Team 2XW, and Team T&T.
“But it’s a dry heat,” said Brian Hassett on the phone. His wife had called exactly 42 minutes ago
and had been trying to shove the entire amount of time they had been racing into a small amount of time. Needless
to say, it wasn’t working. She had told him about many things he didn’t particularly care about.
“Sheeeeeeeeeeshh… sheeeeeesh… wha… Hon… I……. breaking…… gotta go love
you!” Brian said as he hung up on his wife. His connection was fine, he was tired of hearing about a life that
didn’t involve wildebeest stampeding onto the road. This is precisely what all the rest of the teams were thinking
about as well.
The ground shook, rumbled, quaked, and all the other things the ground does when a wildebeest herd is running on it. The beautiful
and terrifying scene was enough to make a poet cry, or a team of grown men and women scream. This is precisely what
the members of each team were doing at the moment.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” they all said as the stampeding herd of wildebeest swarmed all around the cars.
Luck was on their side however because the herd stampeded in a southish direction. The convoy was now for lack of better
terms, part of the herd. Which suited them fine, since they were still alive and fully capable of some more screaming
if nessisarey.
Kim kept bouncing from one side of the T&T’s van to the next, she had a camera and was not about to let an entire
herd of wildebeest escape its range. All manner of pictures were probably taken, wildebeast: butts, tails, hooves, horns,
faces, and someone who looked like Nicolas Cage. After a while the wildebeest turned off an exit that said “Watering
Hole.”
Team 2XW had somehow managed to
get in front of the group, and as they drove along Mike Savage, moving and twisting the map he bought at a dollar tree in
Cairo, said, “Hey I don’t see anywhere on here that there should be a mountain up ahead.”
“Let me see that!”
Jerry said as he yanked it away.
“Looks like he’s
right,” said Stingray as he peered at the map.
Bryars who was driving said, “I
don’t think that is a mountain.”
As they got closer it looked less
and less like a mountain and more and more like a sand dune. Finally they pulled up to the giant mount of sand that
had been caused by the dissolved sandstorm.
Owens stepped out walked up to
it, put his hand on his head and said, “So how do we get around this?”
After feeding Bessy JTR realized
that eating while watching a crocodile eat wasn’t that great of a plan. It went down alright, just it always felt
like the food wanted to come back up and make sure it wasn’t going to have the same fate as the ox.
They had been driving for a good
while, and having not seen anyone or anything for quite some time. Although they were behind in the race everyone was
pretty calm. Ox must just have that kind of effect on you, though JTR.
As he drove along
the scenery of Africa astounded him, it was just great. I should come out here and film something, he thought.
Then something caught his eye, there was a man standing along the road just a good bit. He was clearly signaling he
wanted a ride. JTR could tell he had to be very strange. He just couldn’t peg it down as to what.
He asked RJ, who was riding shotgun, what he thought.
“His ugly yellow and green Hawaiian t-shirt,” said RJ.
“No that’s just bad taste,” said JTR.
“Maybe it’s those hot pants he’s wearing?” pondered RJ.
“No, strange thing to wear in Africa but that’s not it,” JTR replied.
“Maybe it’s the goofy hat he has on?” RJ said with an inquisitive
look.
“Ah! Yes! That’s it! Except I don’t think he’s
wearing a hat,” JTR slowed down and rolled down the window and shouted, “Where ya headed?” The man looked at him and then Latisha.
He said, “Hi my names Cheteranious Mulbaxton the Fifth,” he typically
started that way so a person couldn’t just leave him thinking of a stranger. At least they might feel some guilt
about leaving a man named Cheteranious behind, as apposed to leaving a no named stranger.
“Anywhere but here, do you know the way to Stratoganulus six? I really miss that place lots of good drinks and even more good women.”
“Uh never heard of it. Say what was your name again?” asked JTR.
Cheteranious replied, “You can call me Chet, everyone else does, I hate it and
that is why I must leave the planet,” a smile crept along his face.
JTR noticing where this might go said, “Well we are kinda full up in here, good
luck with that, here’s some water.” As he tossed some water out to Chet he rolled up the window and sped
off.
Charles, Anson, Goodyn, Jimbob,
and Skycam had been digging a hole out of the sand. If you are wondering how they kept it stable so as not to collapse
on them, it was Jimbob's spit. As they reached the top, they finally saw daylight. Charles poked his head out.
They were about halfway up the giant sand mound; he looked down and grumbled under his breath.
“Damn! Ok you guys
get the truck ready to go they caught up with us.”
Cheteranious Mulbaxton the Fifth
was holding a 2 liter bottle of water. He took a sip.
Nice of them to leave this with
me, he thought. He put it in his bag next to his towel, and a mug featuring the pyramids. That was one of his
favorites.
Strange that Humans still haven’t
figured out how to make those things fly. We left a perfectly good instruction manual and all. Ah well, maybe
it’s for the best, he thought as he rummaged through the bag. He stuck out his thumb once again and caught a ride
with the nearest flying saucer and promptly left the planet.
Teams Arizona Heart, Silence,
Trees, and 2XW were steadily climbing the sand dune. Charles stood half way up the dune yelling at Anson, Goodyn, Skycam,
and Jimbob to hurry up as they tryied to pull their Monster Truck out of the sand. Team T&T had driven up to the
sand dune and inspected it.
Kim insisted that they follow
the rest of the teams up the side. But eventually it was put to a vote and they decided to turn on their Sesame Street
Video to get some advise on the situation.
"See see!" Screeched Girl
Taylor, "You can't go through the rock, you can't go under the rock, you can't go over the rock, so you go AROUND the rock!"
Taylor and Taylor exchanged high
fives. The engine roared to life and sped of with Kim inside yelling, "But it's not a rock! It's a sand dune!"
Team Kittens was moving along
at a good relaxing pace. Tom and Mustard were driving and enjoying the day.
"Umm....", started JTR.
Cason, who was dozing in the sun,
opened one eye and looked at JTR. Jorge pulled his hand inside the window and turned towards JTR.
RJ said, "What?"
"Uh... I'm kinda board."
Cason sat up.
JTR continued, "Uh... I wanna
catch up with the other teams so we can all get back to the excitement." JTR looked around at them all.
Jorge asked, "Is it really that
or do you just wanna find a reason to let Bessy out and show her off to everyone?"
"Psh! No," JTR looked away,
"... Yeah."
"That's good enough for me!" yelled
Cason and she jumped up and ran to the front of Latisha.
"Sir I am taking over control
of this vehicle!"
Tom laughed and saluted.
He slid out of the seat and Cason slid in. Mustard sat on the dash.
"Okay girl let's go!" Whispered
Cason and Latisha instantly picked up speed.
JTR threw his head out the window,
"Yeeeehawwwwwww! Nirobi here we come!"
Team Sheriff's car had finnaly
gotten out of the sand and was headed to the top of the dune. Unfortunatley the other teams had caught up in the process
and it was a race to the top. Team save the trees was the first to the top because all they had to do was carry their
box car to the top, whereas everyone else had to push their cars up.
Unfortunately once they got to the top
and started to go down the other side they found out that they would only roll about 30 feet then sink in the sand.
So they finally decided the best thing to do was to roll the box car down the hill then walk down after it. Without
all of them in it, it rolled real well. Almost to well, it rolled until it hit the first obsticle a half mile away.
Team 2XW was the next to the top.
"Quick everyone jump in so we can fly
down the other side!" yelled Stingray. Bryars however fainted because of the heat. In the time it took for the team
to get him in the car the other teams had made it to the top as well. Now it was a race to the bottom.
"What is that?" asked Tom as he looked
out Latisha's front window.
"Looks like a Giant sand dune created
by a recent sand storm," said Jorge.
"Yeah," piped in JTR.
"How can you tell?" asked Cason.
"Watched the news this morning... 95%
chance of sand storm," replied Jorge. Cason turned and looked at JTR, Jorge, Tom, and RJ. JTR and Jorge simply
nodded, Tom shrugged, and RJ was playing with a yo-yo he had found in his pocket earlier. Cason turned back and squinted
up at the top of the sand dune.
"Looks like the other teams have made
it here already and are about to make it to the other side. If we hurry we can beat them! So everyone hold on!"
"Wait! How are we gonna get over
it? At this speed we are just gonna crash into it," said Tom.
"Oh don't worry. Remember Latisha
has half a dog brain. She may not have feet but she sure can dig!" replied Cason. Team Kittens quickly strapped
themselves in.
"So... she is gonna dig through the
big dirt pile, with what her tires?" asked a concerned looking RJ.
"Don't worry I got her the special all
terrain grip tires!"
Team Kittens and Latisha hit the
side of the dune. They were off tunneling under the dune.
The teams at the top on the dune
all started their decent. They swirved to avoid soft patches, Team Save the Trees members, and eachother.
As Sheriff Charles swirved to
miss hitting a Save the Trees member he accidentally hit a soft spot. Suddenly the sand started to shift and slide down
the dune.
"It's a sand avalanch!" sreamed
Brian Hassett just before he and his team was swallowed by the wall of sand. The wall of sand engulfed each team one
by one until only Team 2XW and Save the Trees were left running for their lives.
Team Save the Trees found that
they could slide down the dune really fast. Faster than the vehicles because Team 2XW was falling behind them.
They escaped the sand and slid off the dune for a long ways until they were almost to their car.
Team 2XW was not so lucky.
They were swallowed by the sand just before they reached the bottom of the dune. But before they were engulfed in sand
they saw a yellow strech hummer with a white roof burst through the sand at the base of the dune and speed off.
Jimbob looked out the window of
the '47 chevy delux monster truck, "We're back in the sand again."
"Yessss!" cried Team Kittens in
unison.
"We made it! And the great news
is, we'll be in Nirobi in about an hour!" said Cason triuphantly. JTR grinned, then something caught his eye.
It was a box car that looked like it had smashed into a cactus. He thought about it for a minute then shrugged.
He probably would have hit it too, just to make sure it wasn't a mirage.
Thirty minutes later teams 2XW,
Silence, Arizona Heart, and Sheriff's Car were working hard to free themselves from the sand. Most of them had shovel
in hand and were digging feverishly to get their vehicles out.
Jimbob, however, found himself digging with the
monkey's paw as he couldn't remember where he had left his shovel.
"Man," said Stingray, "I'm parched. Hey Savage,
toss me a Gatorade!"
Savage went to open the cooler and a shovel came
springing out knocking him out.
Jimbob thought to himself that his shovel would
turn up eventually. He countinued digging with the paw when he suddenly remembered something. The paw granted
wishes.
"Dag Gummit!" yelled Charles, "Stupid sand!"
Jimbob looked over and saw Charles emptying sand
out of his shoe.
Charles continued, "Man I can't believe JTR and
them avoided this. It ain't fair I tell ya!"
"Yea, I know," said Anson, "But what can you do?"
"I wish something would slow them down," remarked
Charles.
Suddenly Jimbob had an idea. He held the paw
up and said, "I wish I may, I wish I might when I wish upon a star... how bright my eyes will be... now I have to pee!
I wish we all had some sugar!"
Latisha was within sight of Nairobi. Cason
had the petal to the metal when suddenly Latisha's engine shut off.
"What the hell?" said Cason.
"What happened?" asked JTR.
Moments later JTR, Cason, RJ, Jorge, and Tom were
standing around Latisha with the hood up. Mustard came crawling out of the engine and began squeeking madly.
"Okay," said Tom, "Mustard says he found some sugar
in the fuel filter."
"Ah crap," said Jorge.
"What?" asked RJ.
"Sugar in the engine..." said Jorge.
"That urban legand," said Cason.
"It's not a legend," said Jorge.
"What's the big deal?" asked a confused RJ.
Jorge turned to RJ, "Sugar in the fuel tank dissolves
in the gas and travels down the fuel line to the engine. The heat melts the sweetener into a dense sludge that gets
into every nook and cranny of the engine. The sucrosed engine seizes and halts and when it cools the sludge hardens
into rock."
"Not true," said Cason.
"Yes, it is," said Jorge.
"No," said Cason, "Sugar doesn't dissolve in gas.
The sugar stays intact. In the end of the pickup tube in the gas tank is a sort of sock that prevents anything not liquid
from getting through. Further up the line is the fuel filter and anything that gets past the sock does not get past
that."
"Well," argued Jorge, "What's wrong with her then?"
Cason glanced at the engine, "If there's a little
sugar in there then it probably clogged the fuel filter. Changing the fuel filter a few times could fix the situation."
"And if there's a lot of sugar in there?" asked
JTR.
Cason paused for a second, "Well, in that case we'd
have to remove the gas tank and dump it out."
"Great," said Tom, "Well, we better get to work."
Charles and his team along with team Silence, Arizona
Heart, and 2XW stood looking up at what had been a mountain of sand. It was now a mountain of sugar.
"Sweet!" said Jimbob and Skycam.
There was a brief pause before Brian started laughing
histerically.
"Sweet," he laughed, "It's a mountain of sugar and
they said sweet."
"Shut up," said Charles, "It wasn't funny," he then
whispered to himself, "He he he... they said sweet."
Charles and Skycam had begun making sugar angels
as the rest of the teams discussed the new situation. A giant mountain of sand turning into sugar puzzled everyone.
Except, of course, Charles and his team. They suspected that Jimbob and the monkey's paw had something to do with it
but they didn't say as much.
"Okay," continued Owens, "This doesn't change much.
We still gotta unearth... or unsugar our cars."
Stingray interjected, "Well we better get a move
on. I'm pretty sure before to long this is gonna start to attract all kinda animals."
"Pssh, right," said Anson, "What kinda animals would
flock in masses to come get sugar?"
Just then they all felt the ground begin to rumble.
They all paused and scanned the horizon for what was making the ground shake.
"What's that?" said Charles.
Skycam and Jimbob sat up out of the sugar and began
to look around. They were all becoming a little frightened. Suddenly Goodyn's gaze fixed on the horizon.
"Sweet merciful goodness..." he said.
There was a shadow slowly creeping towards them
from beyond the horizon.
"What is that?" asked Brian Hassett.
"Dorylus," said Goodyn.
"What?" said Charles.
"Dorylus," repeated Goodyn, "Siafu... Safari Ants!"
"Ah, crap," said Jerry. He turned to Savage
and Bryars, "Get that car outta the sugar!"
But Savage and Bryars already had shovels in hand
and were digging like crazy. Save the Silence, Arizona Heart, and the rest of 2XW snapped to it.
"Do you have any idea how many ants it would take
to make the earth shake like this?" said Anson as he turned to get back to work.
Goodyn and Charles stared at the coming army of
ants for a moment longer before turning to help.
Every member of every team dug frantically for a
good ten minutes occationally turning back to see how much closer the ants had gotten. Everytime they looked back and
saw how much closer the ants were they began digging more frantically.
"How we doin' over there!?" yelled Owens.
"Almost!" yelled Jerry, "Keep diggin'!"
Anson looked back, the ants were all but on top
of them, "Charles!"
"I know!" yelled back Charles.
"Hurry!" yelled Anson.
"I know!"
"I mean it!"
"Shit," muttered Charles as he drew his gun, "Keep
diggin'!"
Charles lept on top of the partly uncovered car
and took aim.
"Hey Jerry!" yelled Charles, "Get ready! They'll
be all over us in a few seconds!"
Jerry grabbed a lighter and a can of hairspray.
A couple of team Arizona Heart's members had fire crackers in hand and ready. They all stood waiting. The ants
were almost to them. Charles eyes were fixed on the ants down the barrel of his gun. He stood unwavering.
Jerry flicked on the lighter. He shot a glance over at Charles. The ants were crawling over eachother to get to
the sugar.
"Got it!" yelled Owens.
"Got it, Charles!" yelled Goodyn.
All the teams had uncovered the cars enough to get
in and try to escape. Everyone but Charles and Jerry crawled into there cars. All four motors came to life and
all the car's back tires began to spin madly fighting the sugar they were still partly sunk in.
The ants were so frantically moving forward that
they had become like a wave moving forward toward the cars.
"Come on! Come on!" yelled Owens as he pressed
the gas as far down as it would go.
"Brace yourselves!" yelled Jerry. Everyone
in the cars looked up just in time to see the sea of ants slam into the front of the cars. Charles started popping off
rounds with surprising accuracy. Jerry let loose with his make shift flame thrower. Team Arizona Heart began throwing
fire crackers out the windows.
Team Arizona Heart's 4Runner was slinging sugar
and ants into the air as they tried to gain traction and free themselves from the sugar. Jerry had cleared a huge area
around the Pikachu Bug with the fire. Charles could only shoot so many ants and they started crawling up on the car.
"Oh crap," said Goodyn, "Roll'em up."
They all began rolling up the windows. Jerry
noticed that Charles was about to be in serious trouble.
"Come on guys they need our help," said Jerry, "Theres
all kinda flamable products in Borden's old suitcase!"
Team Silence had silently escaped the sugar and
thrown the car into reverse. They were almost back to the top. The ants had begun to crawl into the 4Runner through
the engine and air conditioning vents.
"Oh man!" yelled Brian as he and the guy in the
passenger seat began stomping at the ants.
Stingray and Bryars turned to go help Brian and
his team. Jerry, Savage, and Owens were clearing an area around the Deluxe when suddenly it came loose.
"Get in and go!" yelled Owens, "Come on Jerry!
We gotta get back to our car!"
Owens turned around but their car was gone.
He searched frantically but couldn't see it.
"There!" yelled Savage. The Pikachu Bug was
down at the base of the sugar mountain and moving away. The ants had picked up the Bug and were hauling it off.
"Hey Charles, we may need a ride!" yelled Jerry.
But when they turned back the Deluxe was gone. They searched around. The Deluxe was speeding away squishing millions
of ants.
Charles still stood atop the Deluxe, "So long, losers!"
The ants were enclosing the circle around Jerry,
Savage, and Owens. They were all running out of fuel for their flame throwers. First Savage's went out, then Jerry's.
As the last of Owens hairspray ignited a few ants
Owens dropped the can, "Gentlemen... it's been an honor racing with you."
Suddenly the 4Runner came roaring through the ants.
They drifted in a circle around the three wrestlers and came to a stop.
"Get in!" yelled Stingray and Brian. Jerry,
Savage, and Owens lept into the truck.
As they sped off Brain glanced in the rear view
and saw the MultiCAT decending the sugar mountain to go around the ants. They sped down the hill and noticed a tiny
squished burnt Cadillac Escalade grill floating in the sea of ants. As they drove by it Savage reached out the window
and grabbed it.
Team Kittens, in the mean time, had decided that
rather than try and fix it themselves they should find a shop to take Latisha to. They had thrown her into nuetral and
were pushing her into Nirobi, Kenya when Teams T&T and Save the Trees came driving by.
Guy Taylor waved as they passed. JTR and RJ
waved back.
Team Kittens was pushing Latisha down Nairobi Road.
Soon they found themselves at Auto Assure. Within no time Latisha was running like a dream. They had tired themselves
out during the push so they decided to stay in Nairobi for the night.
They had checked into the Sentrim Hotel & Lodges and were
readying for bed when there was a knock at the door. JTR got up and crossed the room. He opened the door.
"JTR!" came the voice of Danger James.
JTR paused, "DANGER!"
All the doors on the hall swung open. People frantically
ran from their rooms screaming and carrying their belongings.
Danger James sighed, "Every time..."
James had three people with him and JTR invited them all in.
"Jorge!" said James.
"Danger James," said Jorge, "What's up?"
"Cason," said James.
"James," said Cason.
"How are you?"
"Fine. You?"
"Fine."
JTR broke in, "So who are your friends?"
"Oh, sorry," said James, "Where are my manners? These are
my students. It's my new Learning form Life program. We're studying abroad. This is Bryan from the University
of Tennessee, Sarah from the University of Georgia, and... from University of Central Florida, Gloriana."
"Hello, JTR," said Gloriana, "James talks about you alot."
Danger James jabbed her in the side and whispered, "Shut up."
JTR smiled, "Gloriana... I think I've made a new best friend."
At that moment RJ stepped out of the bathroom, "Who are you?"
"I'm Danger James," said James, "You've known me for years."
"Oh," said RJ, "That's right."
"Stop the Car!" yelled Owens.
Brian slammed on the breaks, "What? We're just three miles
from Nairobi. Charles is only a little ahead of us. What's the hold up."
Owens' eyes narrowed, "We're goin' back."
"The hell we are," said Savage.
"We gotta have a car," replied Owens.
"We can get a better one."
"Savage! It's a matter of pride. I will NOT lose
another car. We're gonna track down those damn ants and get our damn car back!"
Jerry paused for a moment, "Owens is right. I'm tired of
losing every damn vehicle we get. It ends now."
Moments later team 2XW was standing in the desert watching Team
Arizona Heart's tail lights disapear in the distance.
Team Kittens had been chatting with Danger James and his students
for a couple of hours. It was getting late and after all there was a race to be run so they decided it was time to turn
in. Also James and his students were going to the National Museum of Kenya to see the full remains of a homo erectus
boy. But before they parted ways JTR suggested they all get together in the morning and have breakfast together.
"Man," said Jorge as he climbed into bed, "Who'd'a thought we'd
meet Danger James way out here."
"Yea," said JTR, "and his students were really nice too.
I think that Gloriana girl could really get along with this crew."
It was late when Team Sheriff's Car pulled into Nairobi.
With all the ground lost they decided to continue driving right on through. Team Save the Silence and Arizona Heart
rolled in not too long after and settled in for the night.
Early the next morning teams Save the Trees and T&T rolled
out of Nairobi. Team Kittens awoke early and made their way to the Steers Restaurant. Danger James, Gloriana,
and his other students arrived shortly thereafter.
Glo was giddy with excitment. She couldn't wait to get to
the Museum and see the homo erectus boy. Apparently Glo had taken a recent and, as she admitted, probably short lived
interest in the early Pleistocene. Team Kittens had little to no interest in the Pleistocene Epoch of the Geologic time
scale. As such the conversation turned to the race. The three
students each starting firing questions at the team.
"What was it like competeing in the Roman Coliseum?"
"How awesome was it to find out the Devil's Marbles were actually
giant Rainbow Snake eggs?"
"How awesome was it that you guys got to fight vampires in the
pyramids?"
Danger James broke in, "Well, above all... let me be the first
to congradulate JTR and Cason on being knighted."
"What?" said Cason.
"You guys got knighted," said James.
"The Most Noble order of the Garter," said JTR.
"Oh yea," said Cason, "Thanks."
"Well, to answer the rest of that," said Jorge, "The Coliseum
was pretty cool."
"Yea," agreed RJ, "The vampire stuff was kinda scary though."
"I don't know anything about any Devil Marbles though," said Cason.
"I remember a giant snake of some kind though," said JTR, "We
fought it back in Australia."
"Oh wait," said Sarah, "That was team 2XW."
They conversed and chatted
for a while longer before Team Kittens decided it was time to press on. It was time to make up for lost time. They put the
petal to the metal and started flying down the roads.
Cason plugged her I-pod into Latisha and tuned it to an XM Radio
station covering the race. Team Sheriff’s Car was leading the pack. They were passing through Gaborone, Botswana. Teams
Save the Trees and T&T were a couple hours behind. Team Kittens was in the middle of the pack. A couple hours behind Team
Kittens were Teams Save the Silence and Arizona Heart. The last anyone had seen of Team 2XW they were disappearing into the
Kenyan desert.
Almost 1,500 miles and 18 hours later Team Kittens found themselves
in Mahalapye, Botswana. They found a hotel and settled in for the night. Teams Silence and Arizona Heart settled down for
the night in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. They had left Nairobi kind of late that morning and didn’t feel like driving over night.
Truth is most of the teams were becoming a little sleep deprived. Teams T&T and Save the Trees had gotten to the border
of the Republic of South Africa at night. They were a little weary of starting this leg of the journey at night so they turned
around and found a place to stay in Gaborone.
Charles and crew had barreled right on into South Africa and stopped
for the night in Upington, Northern Cape South Africa. As a result Team
Sheriff’s Car had been the first to arrive in Cape Town the next day.
They got stuck in the Cape Town International Airport. Charles
was having the worst day ever. First of all they weren’t aloud to use the curbside check-in kiosk because Jimbob looked
suspicious. Charles tried to remind Jimbob that he didn’t have to take that crap because he had diplomatic immunity.
“But I don’t remember getting my flu shot?”
said Jimbob. The horrors continued when they finally got to the counter. They had to call a supervisor and it took 15 minutes
to get approval to give them the boarding passes. Next Anson got singled out for inspection. He had to spend thirty minutes
in a waiting room before going through forty-five minutes worth of Q&A. Charles, Goodyn, Skycam, and Jimbob had to wait
while this was going on.
Unbeknownst to Charles and Goodyn, Jimbob and Skycam snuck under
the passport control desk. They basically crawled under the gate to go look through the toy shops. Charles and Goodyn had
no idea where they had gone. Unfortunately Anson would be detained another thirty minutes while airport security searched
through the Deluxe.
Jimbob and Skycam tickled their curiosities at the toy shop and
decided to come back and find Charles. As they tried to crawl back under the gate they got stopped. Charles and Goodyn argued
with airport security until Anson showed back up. It was then that Jimbob finally admitted to his immunities.
They finally got to the international lounge only to find that
Jimbob had once again disappeared. They searched the airport high and low but couldn’t find him. Finally Goodyn discovered
that Jimbob had stepped outside the airport. Goodyn started madly waving his hands trying to get Jimbob’s attention.
Goodyn did not want to go outside the airport but their flight was coming up very soon and they needed Jimbob. Finally he
bit the bullet and ran outside to grab him.
Goodyn got outside and started looking around wildly. Jimbob had
disappeared again. Goodyn turned and looked back into the airport. Jimbob was bypassing all the security. Now that they knew
about his immunities Jimbob could walk right past everything. Goodyn walked back into the airport. Jimbob was out of sight
now. Goodyn tried to bypass security too but they wouldn’t let him. It was then that he realized there was a security
line fifty yards long.
“We may miss our flight,” said Anson.
“What else can go wrong?” said Charles.
“You know, we really
should have asked them to take us closer,” Savage said as team 2XW slowly walked towards the giant mound of sugar in
the distance.
“Yeah but they never
would have, they were to close to the others to turn around,” Jerry said.
“Hey I see a truck!”
yelled Bryars.
In the distance a Humvee
crested the horizon. The truck bounced around on the rough desert road. Sarah, Brian, and Glo were riding along,
they had let Danger sleep thinking they were heading for the Nairobi National Park.
“Ohh I see them!”
exclaimed Sarah. From the back
they heard Danger stir.
“Are we there yet…
why are we in the desert?” Danger said as they got closer to team 2XW.
Glo and Brian frowned a
bit and looked at Sarah who smiled and said, “Have you seen Jerry Adonis, I have totally got to get his autograph, and
I think we should help them out, they did just lose their car again.”
“Great. Let’s
just hope they don’t steal ours,” Grumbled Danger.
“Hey they’re stopping!”
shouted Stingray.
The land rover pulled over Sarah
stuck her head out the window and shouted, “Hey we’re here to help you find your car.”
“So ants carried your car
away?” Danger asked, after team 2xw recalled their encounter.
“Yeah weird I know, I guess
since it was covered with sugar they just took it,” Owens said.
After another 30 minutes they
came to the foot of the sugar mountain, and began looking around for the hole that the ants had come from. After finding
the ant trail, they followed it until it ended in a large hole that led to a cavern below.
“Ok here’s the plan
we go down, follow the ants and maybe we will find the car,” said Savage.
“Hmm ok, lets go,”
said Danger, “wait hey we need some people to stay behind to watch the Humvee, lets see Brian and…”
All of team 2XW except Bryars
shouted, “Bryars!”
The rest of team 2XW and Sarah
and Glo had already slid down the ropes, Danger was about to slid down himself when Brian shouted, “Professor James
what do we do if the ants start attacking us?”
Danger shouted back, “Spray
them with Windex!” and slid down into the cavern.
“I guess
we just keep following the ants,” Savage said as they set out following where they could. They had been following
the cavern for a little more than 20 minutes, passing through many different rooms, some were large enough for a three story
building and others were so small they had to walk single file and duck to get through.
Finally they reached a large room, with a large waterfall with a large opening in
the ceiling of the chamber. In an open area they saw small canals feeding water to a grove of fruit trees. Glo
was the first to reach the spot where the ant trail suddenly dropped off in a hole no bigger than a lunch box.
“Um… I don’t think you could put a car down that hole. Looks like
we hit a dead end,” she said as the others joined her.
They looked around for another ant trail, or at the very least a way out. Finding
none they explored the fruit trees. They had collected up some passion fruit, and bananas, and a few pineapples.
As they sat eating near the waterfall, suddenly they heard a voice behind them shout,
“Wem die Hölle Sie sind!”
They swiftly turned around, and saw a large man carrying an AK-47. who shouted, “Setzen
Sie Ihre Hände oben, Sie sind mein Gefangener.”
The whole group raised their hands,
simply out of fear of the AK-47.
Glo said to the man, “Sie sollten
Deutsches, zu sprechen stoppen, anscheinend ich sind das einzige wer es kennt, gefallen so sprechen Englisch,” smiling.
The man looked confused and then said
in broken English said, “You my prisoners, come with me.” He motioned the groups towards the falls.
They turned towards the falls and the man spoke into his walkie talkie and said, “öffnen Sie die Falltür, wir haben
Besucher.”
They heard a voice over the radio respond,
“Was bedeuten Sie uns, Besucher zu haben, das es ist?”
The man replied back, “Ich habe
keine Idee, die sie sind, aussehen wie Amerikaner, hübsche Mädchen zwa.”
They heard the reply, “O.K., die
Tür jetzt öffnend.”
They turned to the falls and watched
as door slowly opened outward blocking the main flow of the falls, within the door were two more men, each armed, who walked
forward guns pointed at the group. The first said, “Machano, wo Sie fanden sie?"
Recognising that Machano must have been
the man that captured them the team watched as he said, “Ich hasse diesen Namen, wenn nur meine Mutter kreativer gewesen
war, aber Blick an Ihnen Malawa, Blumen, wie von einem Namen für einen Mann der dumm ist?”
Malawa, the first of the new men laughed
a bit and said, “Mindestens wir werden nicht Chikandino, O I Liebe genannt, die nicht Sie heiß und würzig?”
He laughed at the second man.
Chicandino, the second man from the
door rolled his eyes and said, “Sie Kerle saugen, wie Ihre Mütter.” The three of them stared at each other and then busted out laughing.
Jerry Adonis, clearly aggravated,
asked, “Ok what is going on here?”
The men stopped laughing and Machano
told them to move down into the door. The three men escorted the team down the hallway from the door into a large room
filled with men and women sifting through boxes. At the far end of the room was a poorly built wooden deck with computers
and other equipment. To the far right they saw 2XW’s pikachu bug being pushed on a cart outside a large hanger
door.
“Hey there’s our car!”
shouted Savage.
Machano stuck the gun into his
back and said, “Quiet, keep moving.”
The three men moved them to a
cell and shoved them into it. The team watched as the three men went up to a tall white man who appeared to be the leader
and pointed towards them.
“Ése sería su líder,”
Danger said to Glo, “Let me guess
you don’t speak Spanish?”
“Nope,” said Glo.
Danger sighed and said, “Ok
by show of hands who speaks another language besides English, preferably German or Spanish.” Stingray was the only one,
who said something in Japanese. Everyone looked at Stingray with dumb founded looks.
Stingray shrugged and said, “
I said, I am fluent in Japanese but I guess that doesn’t help us does it?”
As they were about to comment
on Stingray’s language skills, one of the guards came over to the cell and said, “Who is in charge?”
The group looked around and everyone
pointed a finger at Adonis and James.
The guard angrily gruffed, “How
do you have two leaders? Fine I'll shoot one them and have one leader.”
As he raised his gun towards Adonis,
Jerry quickly pointed at Danger and said, “He's the leader!”
The guard frowned and said, “See,
was that so hard.”
The guard led Danger to the deck,
showed him a chair and said, “Sit.”
The head man after yelling at
a worker came over lit a cigarette and said, “Willkommen, also wer Sie sind und warum Sie hier sind?”
He looked at Danger, shook his
head and smiled and said with a German accent, “Forgive me, I’m accustomed to speaking the pure language.
Who are you?”
Danger responded, “I am
professor James of Auburn University Montgomery and those are my students, we must have taken a wrong turn, if you guys would
be so kind as to escort us off of your property we would be happy to act as if this never happened.”
The man drew on his cigarette,
and said, “Ahh, so you and your students…” he paused pointing at the group in the cage, “were just
exploring a cave with ants running along the floor, let me guess this is some sort of biology study. I am sorry to inform
you that we can’t just let you go.”
Danger said back, “Now wait
look, my university doesn’t even know we are here, we were supposed to be in the lab today but I decided to bring them
out, please we don’t even remember how we got here.”
The man continued to smoke and
said, “Yes, yes, I know your story, but I don’t see a professor and his students, I see team 2XW and some tag-a-longs
trying to get their car back.”
The man smiled and said, “Where
are my manners my name is Adel Berg…” one of the workers came over with a sheet of paper and handed it to Berg,
he quickly scanned it. “So part of your story is correct, professor Danger James blah, blah, blah, notable for
finding a solid silver idol of Kukulcan in Mexico. Also you have been deported by three countries, Kazakhstan, Peru,
and Madagascar for grave robbing. And you have a warrant for your arrest in the kingdom of Thailand for fraternizing
with a princess.”
Danger smiled.
“You have been a very busy
man,” Berg said as he handed the papers back to a guard. “This leads me to believe that you could very well
be here by accident, but the wrestlers, they have to stay. You see we need them for our mission, we plan to use their
car to win the 300 million and further our cause.”
Danger replied, “and what
would that be?”
Berg laughed and said, “Making
sure team 2XW wins this race, we have been watching the race and 2XW is our favorite. So I and my friends are going
to fly you and the team to Nairobi, and every checkpoint after that.”
Danger happily sighed, “Ohh
thank God, and I could have sworn you were diamond smugglers.”
Berg stiffened a bit, “But
we are diamond smugglers, that’s how we can afford the plane. And like you said you don’t know where we
are anyway. Come, let’s go and get your students and the team out of the cage.”
Berg walked Danger over to the
cage and unlocked the door. As they walked out he smiled and said, "Sorry for the mix-up, we get a lot of government
agents out here, so we have to play it safe.”
He started walking towards the
pikachu bug and the hanger. Within the hanger they saw some of the men loading boxes covered by tarps into the plane.
“What’s in those boxes?”
asked Glo.
Berg replied, “Oh nothing
important, just some of the diamonds we’re selling, we can’t very well put all of our eggs in your basket can
we?” They continued to walk
towards the bug, and Berg continued to talk, “If you look you'll find that all of your items are there, and if you are
ready we will be lifting off in about five minutes.” He turned to some of the workers, “He geben Sie
Idioten acht und laden dieses Auto, also können wir gehen,” he turned back to James, “If you're hungry we
can get you something to eat, but if you guys are going to be on time we should really get going.”
The workers loaded the pikachu
bug into the plane, while Berg ushered the teams into the door to the passenger area. The passenger seating, if it could be called that, was essentially two benches going down the
side of the plane with a series of toolboxes lining the middle, with an open doorway to the cockpit. Near the cockpit
were two men each with a gun to his side. Separating the cargo bay from the passenger area was a thin wall and a door.
“Spared no expense,” Danger joked to Adonis as they walked in.
Adonis muttered under his breath, “Yeah, five stars right here.”
They all sat down in a spot on the benches and used the leftover cargo straps for seat belts. In the cockpit the pilot
was warming up the engines, the outer door closed.
After a few minutes Beg came in from the Cargo bay and motioned to the pilot to go. The pilot taxied onto a rough runway
and they took off.
Over the noise of the engines David Owens shouted, “How long till we get to Nairobi?”
Berg motioned one hour. The team and the students decided to take a short
nap. Danger picked up his bag and headed towards the cargo bay.
Danger walked into the cargo bay and went towards the pikachu bug. As Danger
opened the pikachu bug to put his bag away he saw a crate in the far corner with just the tip of a design. He walked
over and lifted the tarp that was over the crate and it was a large eagle perched upon a Nazi swastika. He heard a gun
cock behind him and he turned to see Berg and two of his men.
Danger pointed and sneered, “What
the hell is this?”
“What does it look like?”
Berg said as he grinned, “and you call your self a professor. My operation has been taking care of former SS and
Weremacht soldiers of Hitler’s Third Reich for years. You see my grandfather fought for the fatherland, and died
a very poor man. I intend to see that does not happen to others, and along the way I am making my fortune. These
Africans don’t have a clue, they think I’m going to find diamonds for them or something. This leaves me
the nasty prospect of killing you. But that can be easily arranged, you see tragically the cargo doors opened and Mr.
James’ restraints were defective, cheap African maintenance you know, nothing I or the team could do.”
He reached over and pressed the
door release button, an alarm sounded and the door began to open. The other crewmen raised their weapons.
“Just think,” Berg
started, “your accident will more than likely cause stricter regulations for airplane safety in Africa. I’ll
even donate a small portion to the new cause, name it after you and everything. Auf Wiedersehen Danger James it was
a pleasure.”
Danger just glared at Berg.
“Really Danger I can have
them shoot you if you would like, make it easier on us all,” Berg said as he raised a hand to signal the crewman.
The loading door was almost half way down now, Danger could see the tan grassland outside nearly 3000 feet down.
“So you have this all planned
out, don’t you? But I know something you don’t,” Danger said as he started to raise his hand.
“And what would that be?”
Berg said ready to signal.
“This!” Danger yelled
as a shotgun appeared in his hand. He fired at the bewildered crewmen, hitting both with the buckshot. And just
as suddenly, the plane jerked upward, sending both of them flying around the cargo bay.
In the front of the plane
everyone turned at the sound of the gunfire. The
co-pilot jumped up and brought out an AK-47 and pointed it at the team and the students and yelled, “Sitzen
Sie das Bumsen hin, oder ich töte jedes von Ihnen!”
At the same instant the pilot caught
sight of a radio tower and nosed up to avoid it, causing the standing co-pilot to hurtle to the back of the plane. Slamming
into the inner cargo bay door.
The AK’s fell out the open
cargo ramp and Danger’s shotgun fell to the rear corner. He grabbed a nearby chain and started pulling himself toward
the door to the cabin of the plane. As he reached the door frame, Berg grabbed his ankle. Danger kicked at his
hand and face, and just as suddenly as the plane rose it dove forwards, causing Berg to land on top of Danger in a heap.
The pilot, fearing the plane would
stall, over compensated and sent them into a dive. This caused the unconscious guard to now fall towards the cockpit. Adonis and Stingray reached out
and missed him by just a few inches. The co-pilot struck the pilot chair just as the pilot got the plane leveled out
again. The impact caused him to lurch forward, hitting the dashboard of the plane, knocking him out. By luck he
had pressed the auto-pilot which kept the plane level.
Savage and Stingray ran up and checked the pilot and shouted,
“We got a big problem!”
When the plane leveled out, Berg and
Danger stood up and glared at one another. Danger threw the first punch, striking Berg in the mouth. Berg rocked
back a bit and then came back with his own, knocking Danger back. Berg picked up a pipe and walked towards Danger smiling.
“I have to know, where did you
get that shotgun?”
Danger looked around for some type of
weapon, all he saw was a brake on the floor for one of the crates, “Cason Jones showed me how one day while she was
drunk, and I figured what the hell,” he pulled the brake causing a crate to hurtle directly at Berg, who never
saw it coming. The crate hit him right out of the cargo bay door. Danger stood looked out the door and sat down.
Glo burst in and shouted, “The
pilots out!” She looked around and said, “What the hell happened?”
Sarah and Owens were in the pilot
chairs, trying to raise someone on the radio, and kept getting a Kenyan farmer who was ordering a big Mac with French fries
and an apple pie. As Danger came up he saw the entire group huddled around the cockpit.
“We checked no parachutes,”
Savage said.
“Does anyone know how to
land a plane?” Danger asked.
Everyone shook their head.
“Ok I’ve got an idea.
Look the pikachu bug is rigged with a cargo chute, why don’t we just load up into it and push it out?”
Glo looked around and said, “That’s
a stupid idea Dr. James, but since it’s the best we have I guess it’ll have to do.”
Adonis raised his hand and said,
“Um, we have another problem with that, the bug barley fits the five of us, there’s no way all of us can fit.”
“Ok so we need to find something
else,” Danger said.
Stingray spoke up, “Hey
why don’t the team and I go down there get every thing ready, look around for some other chutes or something, you and
your students can try and see what you can do up here.”
Team 2XW walked towards the cargo
bay. Danger, Brian, Sarah, and Glo looked at the instrument panels to see if they could find some form of direction.
As they searched the panel a small red light blinked.
“What’s that mean?”
Sarah asked.
“Looks like it’s a
warning that the cargo door is…” Danger turned and ran towards the cargo bay, and just as he opened the door he
saw Team 2XW and the pikachu bug fly out the door, chute opening and safely float towards the ground.
“Oh Shit!” Danger
said as he stood in the doorway.
