Chapter 86: Highway Chase

Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Highway Chase

Chapter 86: Highway Chase

The heavy weapon thundered into the night, its roar nearly drowning out the engines of both vehicles. Axel Vance held his position against the damaged passenger-side frame while the sustained burst tore across the enormous truck running beside them. Behind him, Lionel Cosgrove managed the remaining ammunition while Carrie White covered her ears and curled deeper into her seat.

Rounds hammered across the eighteen-wheeler’s cab, hood, and forward bodywork. The windshield disintegrated, rusted steel panels ripped apart, and the grotesque animal-skull ornament mounted across the front vanished beneath the barrage. What rifle fire had barely damaged moments earlier was now being shredded fast enough that the supernatural truck should have become nothing more than an uncontrolled pile of wreckage.

Then the gunfire stopped.

For several seconds, the sudden silence felt almost unnatural after the deafening barrage. Only the engines remained, roaring side by side as Seth’s battered utility truck continued racing along the empty highway.

Axel stared at the vehicle beside them.

Its front end was destroyed.

Large sections of metal had been torn away, leaving deep openings through the cab and engine compartment, while the entire structure looked as though it had been dragged through a battlefield. Yet the enormous wheels continued turning at exactly the same speed.

The truck did not slow.

It did not drift.

It remained perfectly beside them.

"You have got to be kidding me," Dr. Seth Brundle said, glancing toward the wrecked machine before forcing his attention back onto the road. The excitement that had been on his face during the beginning of the chase disappeared. "A normal truck shouldn’t even have enough functioning components left to move."

Axel lowered the heavy weapon and studied the damage more carefully. Through several openings in the torn bodywork, he could see parts of the engine, pipes, mechanical assemblies, and something that absolutely did not belong inside an eighteen-wheeler. Dark organic tissue clung between steel components like muscle wrapped around machinery.

Something thick began leaking through the holes.

Dark red fluid.

Blood.

Lionel leaned forward between the seats and stared. "Okay, that’s new." His expression shifted between fascination and disgust as he added, "We’re being chased by a truck that bleeds."

"It isn’t a truck," Axel said.

Metal suddenly screamed beside them.

The sound came from inside the supernatural vehicle itself, as though its entire internal framework had begun twisting and reorganizing. Long streaks of dark red light appeared through the cracks in its ruined body, glowing brighter with every second.

Heat rolled across the highway.

Carrie looked toward the side window and immediately pulled back.

The eighteen-wheeler was changing.

Its rectangular front end distorted first, metal plates folding and shifting as the remaining pieces of the cab bent into impossible shapes. Flesh pushed through the openings created by Axel’s gunfire, spreading over the steel in thick cords while the trailer-like rear section seemed to contract and expand as if the entire vehicle were breathing.

Seth’s eyes widened.

"Is it actually transforming?"

The fear that should have accompanied that question never arrived.

Instead, fascination took over.

Seth leaned slightly toward the windshield, trying to see more clearly without taking his hands from the steering wheel. "This is incredible. Mechanical structure integrated with living tissue, autonomous locomotion, adaptive restructuring—"

"Seth!"

Axel’s shout brought him back.

"What?"

"Stop admiring it and drive."

"Right."

The truck beside them continued expanding.

Its chassis twisted while more dark red tissue spread through the damaged areas, linking pieces of machinery together like living connective tissue. The red glow inside the thing intensified until the seams between the steel panels looked like cracks across a furnace.

Axel felt something else as well.

Energy.

A huge amount of it.

The supernatural truck was not simply repairing itself.

It was building toward something.

"Seth, we need the heavier charge."

Seth glanced at him. "You mean the emergency stuff?"

"Yes."

Lionel immediately understood and reached beneath the secured mission gear in the rear passenger area. "I knew carrying half our New Mexico supplies across the country was eventually going to pay off."

Carrie stared at him. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Lionel paused.

"No."

Seth kept both hands firmly on the wheel while Lionel pulled a compact prepared charge from the remaining federal mission equipment. The exact details of the device mattered far less than what it could do, and none of them had the luxury of rebuilding or modifying anything during a highway chase. Lionel checked that it was ready and passed it carefully toward Axel.

Axel took it.

Beside them, the transformation accelerated.

The enormous vehicle barely resembled an ordinary tractor-trailer anymore. Steel and flesh had merged into a distorted moving mass, with mechanical pieces shifting beneath layers of red tissue while unnatural heat radiated through the night air.

Carrie pressed farther into her seat. "What is that thing?"

"No idea," Lionel replied.

Seth grinned despite himself. "Which is exactly why I want a sample."

"No samples until it stops trying to kill us," Axel said.

A loud metallic crack came from the monster truck.

Axel’s eyes immediately locked onto the sound.

A jagged opening had appeared in the center of the ruined hood.

It widened slowly.

The surrounding metal folded outward while the flesh beneath it stretched apart, creating something disturbingly similar to a giant mouth. Bright red light pulsed somewhere inside the opening.

Axel’s gaze sharpened.

There.

A possible weak point.

"Seth."

"I see it."

"Get us close."

Seth gave him a sideways look. "Again?"

"Again."

A smile appeared on Seth’s face. "You really hate this truck."

He adjusted their position and brought the battered utility vehicle closer to the transforming monster. The eighteen-wheeler immediately reacted, shifting toward them as though eager to crush the smaller truck against the edge of the highway.

Metal struck metal.

The utility truck shuddered violently.

Carrie gasped and tightened her seat belt while Lionel caught himself against the rear frame. Axel remained focused on the widening split in the monster’s front.

Closer.

The red glow inside the opening became brighter.

Axel waited until the two vehicles were nearly level.

Then he moved.

He leaned through the damaged passenger-side opening and threw the prepared charge toward the split in the monster’s front. The device disappeared into the red-lit interior and vanished behind layers of shifting flesh and metal.

Axel immediately pulled himself back inside.

"Move!"

Seth was already turning away.

The battered truck surged forward as he accelerated and created distance between them and the supernatural vehicle. Behind them, the monster seemed to realize something had entered its body.

Its transformation stopped.

The red light flickered.

Then the entire eighteen-wheeler lunged after them.

Lionel looked through the rear window. "It’s coming!"

"Of course it is," Seth said.

The monster truck accelerated with terrifying speed despite the amount of damage covering its body. Its headlights were gone, but the dark red glow beneath its twisted panels made it visible in the rearview mirror as it closed the gap.

Axel grabbed the dashboard.

"Everybody hold on."

Carrie curled forward and covered her head.

Lionel braced himself.

Seth kept the truck straight.

Then the night behind them turned white.

The explosion hit with a violent flash and a deafening roar.

A powerful shockwave slammed into the rear of Seth’s vehicle and lifted part of the truck sideways. The back glass shattered, sending fragments through the passenger area while the entire utility vehicle began sliding across the highway.

Carrie screamed.

Lionel ducked over her instinctively.

Seth fought the wheel.

The truck spun once.

Then again.

Tires screamed against the pavement as Seth corrected the direction every time the vehicle threatened to leave the road. After several terrifying seconds, the damaged truck finally straightened.

Seth hit the brakes.

The vehicle slid to a stop.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Smoke drifted through the broken rear window.

Carrie slowly lifted her head.

Lionel checked himself, then looked toward her. "Still alive?"

Carrie nodded shakily.

"Good."

Seth released the steering wheel and leaned back against his seat. Sweat covered his forehead, and his face had gone red from adrenaline and intense concentration. "That," he said breathlessly, "was incredible."

Axel stared at him.

Seth immediately corrected himself. "Terrible. Very dangerous. Definitely terrible."

Lionel snorted.

Axel opened the passenger door.

Behind them, several dozen yards down the highway, a massive fireball was slowly dying.

The supernatural truck had stopped moving.

What remained of it lay twisted across the roadside, its metal body torn apart and sections of flesh still burning beneath the shattered framework. Thick black smoke rose into the night sky while small fires continued flickering throughout the wreckage.

Something dark spread beneath it.

Axel narrowed his eyes.

Blood.

A large amount of dark red fluid was flowing from underneath the wreck, pooling across the pavement.

Seth stepped out behind him and stared. "That is absolutely biological."

Lionel climbed from the rear and looked toward the burning mass. "Please tell me we are not taking it home."

"No promises," Seth replied.

"You’re both insane."

Axel walked around to the rear of the utility truck and retrieved his enchanted chainsaw. The familiar weight settled into his hand as he looked toward the wreckage.

"We check it."

Lionel sighed. "Naturally."

Seth retrieved one of their remaining weapons and followed, his scientific curiosity already returning. Lionel armed himself as well and stayed several steps behind Axel.

Carrie remained beside the truck.

She looked toward the burning wreck.

Then toward Axel.

Fear was obvious in her face.

For several seconds, she seemed ready to remain where she was.

Then she opened the door fully.

Carrie climbed down.

She hurried across the road and caught up with the others, staying close behind Axel Vance as they approached the wrecked living truck.

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