Chapter 12 - Across the Chasm
The truck bounced violently as it left the dirt road and hit the wooden ties of the abandoned railway trestle. Below them, a sheer drop of three hundred feet led to the rushing black waters of the river cutting through the canyon floor.
"Hang on!" Tariq screamed, fighting the steering wheel as the truck’s tires rattled furiously over the uneven gaps between the rotting wooden planks.
Behind them, shouts of anger echoed from the roadblock as the tactical enforcers realized they had been tricked. Bright muzzle flashes lit up the canyon edge as a hail of gunfire chased the speeding truck across the bridge, bullets tearing through the sheet metal of the truck bed and shattering the side mirrors.
Clara shielded the elderly woman with her own body, pressing down onto the floorboards while keeping a firm, protective grip on the gray cloth bundle. Dust and wood splinters rained down inside the cab as rounds ricocheted off the reinforced steel frame.
"They're calling in air support!" Clara yelled over the deafening clatter of the tracks and the roar of the engine.
Through the rear window, the heavy military-grade drone that had chased them earlier crested the ridge, its twin searchlights locking onto the truck like predatory eyes. A soft mechanical whine signaled the locking sequence of a plasma-disruption charge mounted beneath the drone's hull.
Tariq pressed the accelerator down to the floorboards, the engine screaming in protest as they reached the final stretch of the trestle. Ahead of them, the bridge terminated abruptly at the entrance of a dark, abandoned railway tunnel carved directly into the sheer rock face of the opposite cliff.
"The tunnel's blocked!" Clara pointed frantically at a massive rockfall sealing the entrance.
"Not completely!" Tariq gritted his teeth, refusing to slow down. "My father blasted a secondary maintenance chute through the upper section of that seal years ago. We're going to jump it!"
Before Clara could process the sheer insanity of the plan, the drone above them fired its disruption charge. A searing bolt of blue energy struck the railway tracks ten feet behind the truck, vaporizing the wooden ties in a blinding flash of light and sending a shockwave that lifted the rear tires of the utility truck completely off the rails.
The truck flew through the air, suspended over the three-hundred-foot drop for a terrifying fraction of a second before slamming hood-first into the upper maintenance chute of the blocked tunnel.
Metal screeched against stone as the truck plowed through the rubble, finally grinding to a halt in absolute darkness.
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Silence descended upon the cab, broken only by the ticking of the overheated engine and the sound of ragged breathing.
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