“Get down!” Roy barked, as more bullets ripped into the vehicle. From his position crouched in the leg well he saw them tear into the car, along the roof and even on the windshield, after having passed through the interior.

The car sped through several intersections, sometimes swerving around other vehicles stopped at a red light. Oncoming traffic screeched to a halt, and the air was alive with burning rubber and wailing horns. And always, the motorcycle followed, weaving through the obstacles with more ease then they could. Each time its engine roared, it grew louder, until it sounded as though it were just behind them. At any second Joe expected to see the rider just beside them, the assault rifle angled down into their car, and there’d be no escape this time.

“Joe.” Roy spoke calmly. “Take the wheel.”

“What? Are you kidding me?” he asked.

When he glanced up, he saw Roy was nowhere to be seen—the driver’s seat was empty. Yet still the car sped forward, without losing any velocity.

It was in cruise control, Joe realized. And Roy had vanished again.

The car moved straight enough, but within seconds their path would send them into the vehicles parked alongside New Hampshire Avenue. And at the speed that was set—it would be a horrific crash.

Joe gasped in disbelief. With desperation he lunged from the leg well of the back seat where he’d been crouched, and his hand took the wheel mere inches before colliding into the parked cars alongside. With that accomplished, he gradually slid his body into the seat. Taking control, he straightened the car in the lane, but kept the speed. All the while he tried to process what he’d just seen outside during his leap from the back seat to the front, for he’d caught a glimpse of it.

There had been a dark figure standing on the trunk of the car, posed like a surfer, facing the oncoming motorcycle and the rider it carried. Landon’s face was scarily calm as he brought his rifle up toward the man standing on the speeding car. But that man, poised on the car—Roy, of course—moved too quickly, lunging from the vehicle upon which he stood and into the body of Landon, colliding into him, and toppling him off the bike.

Joe kept the car moving straight and fast down the road, but he did take a brief glimpse into the rearview mirror. He saw the bodies of Roy and Landon rolling down the middle of the street, after a brutal, midair collision. The motorcycle shot down the road, sliding across the pavement, leaving a brilliant trail of sparks in its wake. It was the last thing he saw from either of them, because he kept the car speeding ahead, never stopping or slowing, and Joe hoped yet again he would just wake up and it would all be over, but he knew it wouldn’t work that way anymore.