The final race was the most elaborate track yet. The eight pods of the red and green teams were lined up on a street. Towering above them were skyscrapers, hundreds of them spreading as far as A11_4_ON3 could see. They were covered in neon lights and signs, advertisements for things he didn’t recognize: strange types of soda, movies, TV shows that he hadn’t heard of. Even though it was nighttime, the city was brightly lit by the glow of the neon lights and signs plastered all over the place. Just trying to take it all in was giving him a headache.
“Congratulations!” It was the Game Runner again. “You’ve all made it to the final race! I’d like to welcome you to Speed City. To win this race, you’ll have to be the first team to leave the city limits. As you can see, right now you’re in the middle of downtown, and this city is quite large. But don’t worry about finding your way. The track will guide you to where you need to be.”
He smiled. “I should warn you that it is currently rush hour and there will be other cars on the road. If you hit any of them, you can damage your pod—even put it out of commission. If that happens, once again, you’ll be placed in the lowest possible position of the race standings.”
He began to fade away, and he nodded to them. “May the best team win. Racers, to your marks!”
“Does anyone else have a sinking feeling that we’re about to lose this race?” STR33T_WIZE asked as they started their engines. The countdown began.
“They’ve got way more upgrades than we do,” Z1P_ZAP agreed. “Is it even possible for us to win?”
“We won’t know until we try,” ECHO said.
A11_4_ON3 took a deep breath. “Watch each other’s backs. We don’t know what weapons they have.”
ECHO actually laughed. “So now you’re a team player?”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t really have a choice, do I?”
“We’re better racers than any of them,” Z1P_ZAP said. “As long as we’re not working against each other.”
“Fair enough,” A11_4_ON3 agreed.
“Let’s do this!” STR33T_WIZE said.
“Ready?” ECHO prompted.
A11_4_ON3 quietly cleared his throat and actually joined in this time when they shouted, “In it to win it!” He had to admit it felt good to say the familiar words again.
THREE TWO ONE GO!
The pods took off.
The Game Runner hadn’t been kidding. It really was rush hour. The racers had to swerve and dodge around cars all over the road. Every time A11_4_ON3 thought he was about to hit a stretch of open road, a car would switch lanes right into his path and he’d have to shift lanes himself to avoid a collision. At least there was a median that would keep them from accidentally crossing over into oncoming traffic, but not only did they have to worry about hitting the other cars, they also had to be mindful of the other pods. The road was fairly narrow—only three lanes wide—and there were eight pods all fighting for position.
The green team took a commanding lead right away. Their pods were faster, handled better, and had weapons that the red team hadn’t seen yet. Without the two speed upgrades, STR33T_WIZE and Z1P_ZAP fell behind ECHO and A11_4_ON3.
“Well, this doesn’t look good,” Z1P_ZAP said. “They’re getting farther and farther ahead of us.”
“Their faster pods mean they need faster reflexes,” ECHO pointed out. “The faster they go, the less time they have to react to traffic. Their chance of hitting another car is a lot higher than ours.”
“So is their chance of winning the race,” STR33T_WIZE said.
“We’re not beat yet,” A11_4_ON3 reminded the team. “They could make a mistake, or there could be another challenge we don’t see coming, just like on the glacier.”
“Didn’t they beat us on the glacier?” STR33T_WIZE said. A11_4_ON3 felt his jaw clench. He’d been hoping no one would point that out.
“Just do as well as you can,” ECHO said.
There was a very real chance for the green team to make a mistake. Dodging around cars was hard at the red team’s speed, and ECHO was right—the green team’s higher velocity increased the chance that one of them would strike another vehicle.
The track itself wasn’t particularly easy either. On straightaways, drivers had to worry about rear-ending or sideswiping the other cars on the road, but the track also made sharp turns at intersections. There was so little space on the road that A11_4_ON3 had to slow down to make the turns. It didn’t help that, while making a turn, it was impossible to see where the cars were in the road around the curve. Several times, he nearly smacked right into the back of a car as he was coming out of a curve.
After nearly a half hour and dozens of turns, he caught a glimpse of a green pod making a left at the next intersection. Was it actually possible that they were gaining on the other team? The sheer number of turns was probably forcing the green racers to take the track a little more slowly. Their increased speed wouldn’t do them a lot of good within the downtown area.
“Did you see that?” he asked his team, although he knew that only ECHO would have had the opportunity to see the green pod. STR33T_WIZE and Z1P_ZAP were still tailing them.
“See what?” ECHO asked.
“A green pod! They’re not that far ahead of us, only a block or so.”
“Okay,” ECHO said, “let’s see if we can push it a little faster.”
A11_4_ON3 pushed down on his throttle, and during the next turn, he didn’t let up. He took the curve faster than he probably should have, but the strategy was working. He got a longer glimpse of the green pod ahead of them before it made a sudden right.
At each turn, he nearly jumped the curb or plowed into a building. There was no way to catch the inside of the curve. The handling on his pod wasn’t good enough to make the turn efficiently at this speed, but he kept the throttle down.
“High risk, high reward,” he muttered to himself. Going anything less than full speed wasn’t an option. The entire red team had to gain a lot of ground, and they couldn’t just rely on the green team making an error.
“I saw him this time,” ECHO said, rounding another curve. “We’ve got to go as fast as we can. It’s going to be tricky, but there’s no room for playing it safe.”
A11_4_ON3 nodded. “Agreed.”
“Then let’s make it happen,” Z1P_ZAP said, followed by a “Woooooo!” from STR33T_WIZE as his pod started to speed up.
The city was huge. It took forty-five minutes before they reached an area where they could even see the tops of the buildings from the ground, but as they approached the edge of the downtown, A11_4_ON3 could see all four green pods not too far ahead of them.
Their team still had a chance.
He locked his eyes on the green pod that was farthest back and tried to mimic its path. He was taking the same winding ways around the cars and slowly gaining on the racer. ECHO was right behind him.
Then his heart sank all over again as he saw where the first three green pods went. “We’re in trouble.”
“What’s up?” Z1P_ZAP asked.
“We have to go on the freeway,” he replied.
“They’re going to have a speed advantage again,” ECHO said.
“Yeah, but it gets worse.”
“Oh no,” she said. She must have seen where the green pods were going. “The entrance to the freeway is blocked. We have to go up an off-ramp.”
Z1P_ZAP started, “Doesn’t that mean—”
“Yeah,” A11_4_ON3 said. “We’ll be driving into oncoming traffic.”