Free The Mulligan Planet by Zachariah Dracoulis Page B

two twenty I could feel that the front
of the car was getting picked up by the wind that we were cutting
through, “Stabilising vehicle, feel free to continue course.” The
front of the car stuck to the ground again. At two seventy Wolf let
out a howl, “This is amazing!” the tablet flash once, “Approaching
current maximum speed, would you like to activate back burners
John?” I nodded, “Yes! Full speed car!” there was a loud whooshing
sound and the speedometer started flicking violently at three
fifty, “Holy crap!” my whole body was stuck to my chair, I didn't
know if I was holding the steering wheel to steer or to hold for
fear I’d get blown away if I let go, I heard a shout from my side,
“John! We need to stop! We’re gonna run out of road or pass out!” I
tried to nod but my head was quite literally stuck, I eased of the
accelerator, “Car! I need help stopping!” a click sounded and the
whooshing stopped, “Shall I deploy the chute John?” I was
struggling to close my mouth after I last spoke, “Yes please!” one
of my hands slipped from the wheel and flung back to smack me in
face. The car began to steadily slow, the speedometer spinning
backward, I could pull my hand from my face at one seventy as I
began to apply the brakes myself and we eased to an eventual
stop.
    I managed to lean on the door
handle in such a way to make it pop open at which point I slumped
lazily out onto the gravel, I could hear Wolf doing the same. I
managed to stand and stumble to the back of the car where I fell
again but the car supported my back as I did allowing me to be in a
roughly seated position, I heard Wolf collapse next to me, I
couldn’t lift my head and my whole body tingled. A few minutes
passed and then we started laughing, “That was possibly the most
fun I’ve had in two hundred years.” I flung my head backward to
rest on the car, there were three long lines of charred gravel
behind us as well as large billowing clouds of smoke, I looked at
the rear tire, which looked fine, and back at the road and started
laughing more, occasionally coughing huge lumps of air out of my
body, “I think the tires broke the road.” I heard Wolf shuffle
slightly, “Ha! They did too.” I started to feel warm in the
afternoon sun, “I think we should get back in the car.” There was a
grunt of approval from my side as I stood and proceeded to half
walk, half fall back into the car using the roof as a ballast. The
door closed automatically behind me, “Turning on AC, shall I put
some music on sir?” I adjusted myself in my seat and took the
relief of the air conditioner blowing cool jets of air into my
body, “Yes, some smooth jazz would be nice.” I pulled on my
seat-belt, my body was beginning to come back to life, the sound of
a deep saxophone poured out of the centre console, “Shall we
continue to weapons in the tutorial sir?” I looked over to Wolf who
was shaking himself out, “Yeah, that could be fun.” I nodded, “Yep,
let’s get started.” The tablet flash up and a display of the car
appeared, “In this vehicle there are a number of weapons ranging
from tactical immobilisation to lethal, from stun to high density
explosive, where shall we begin sir?” again, Wolf and I looked at
each other and smiled, “The explosives, definitely the
explosives.”
    “Very well sir,” a red trigger
popped up on either side of the steering wheel where my
fore-fingers usually sat, “please select a target.” I looked around
for something when I spotted a large rock, “that large rock over
there.” A red reticule circled around and stopped on the rock,
“That’s the one.” A quick beep rang in my ears, “Locked on, pull
the triggers when ready.” I grabbed the wheel, hovered my fingers
over the triggers, shot Wolf one final look and pulled the
triggers. There was a click and I felt the wheel vibrate as two of
what appeared to be miniature spears attached to a deodorant can
went hurtling toward the