Nick had never run so fast in his life, he was sure of it. His legs were sure of it, too. He could feel his calves burning and his feet screaming as they hit the pavement with intense velocity, carrying him through the streets. He had rushed to the curb after AJ's bidding to go, and found that there were no cabs out there. He'd waited only a moment, and became inpatient and exploded forward in a burst of energy unlike anything that he'd ever experienced. Adrenaline, he guessed. He'd originally only planned to run until he saw a cab, but after he breezed by several that were stuck in gridlocked traffic, he'd thought better of it, and decided to continue on foot as fast as he could.
He rounded the corner and the hotel came into view, and that made him speed up even harder. So fast, in fact, that he didn't even pause as he ran into the parking lot of the hotel....without looking....just as a car came careening around the corner of the hotel.
HOOOOONNNNNNNNK!!!!!!!!!
Before Nick even knew what was happening, he was struck in the side and he felt an almost weightless feeling come over himself as his body rolled across the hood, windshield and roof of the car before flying off the trunk and landing on the cement parking lot behind it.
About a million things went through Nick's head in that moment after he hit the pavement. First, he thought that he felt broken. For such a fall, he was sure he must be, but he couldn't quite feel where he could be as he wiggled all his limbs slightly. He groaned and rubbed his head as pictures bubbled up into his mind, like a crazy photo album he hadn't looked at in awhile. He thought about his Mother of all people, and about Brian and the fellas and the first time their single got played. A few fans faces popped up in his mind, and the plane from the Around the World in 100 Hours tour they'd done in 2000. He thought of Aaron, and the time Aaron had fallen into a swimming pool in the backyard of their house in California when they were all kids. He thought of his grandparents and his Grampa Doug going fishing and his horror that Grampa D would kill a fish... he thought of Layla and his guinea pig, turtle, thirteen goldfish and lizard back home. Then he realized what he was doing. 'Oh my God,' he thought, 'Is this my life flashing before my eyes? or did I forget to take my ADHD medication today?'
He didn't really have enough time to ponder it, though, before he heard Bryant's muffled voice. "NICK!!!!!!!" Nick looked up at the car. Bryant's face and hands were plastered to the back window. "NICK!" He struggled to his elbows, as the car, a hatchback midnight blue VW Golf, license plate XLM86411A, stopped at the exit of the parking lot.
"BRYANT!!" Nick shouted, shocked. He saw a panic in Bryant's eyes and knew Agent Bryant wasn't in that car by choice. "I'M COMING BRYANT!!!" He winced as he got up, aware that his knee was extremely sore, and attempted to run towards the car, all thoughts of going inside to get the stuff as AJ had commanded flying out of Nick's mind. He lurched forward, intending to run after the VW as it pulled out into the gridlocked traffic, but only made it three steps before his legs gave out on him. He stumbled forward, hit the pavement again, and scraped up his hands pretty good. "Fucking ow!" he shouted, as pain shot up and down his leg in every which way as his knee cap hit the cement. He grabbed his knee, rolled to one side, and sucked in his breath. "Fuckin' A..." he moaned. He watched as the car sat in traffic, Bryant now watching out the side window.
Nick struggled up to his feet again, deciding not to run this time, and favored his right side as he limped to a cab that was waiting by the door of the hotel. "I need a ride," he yelled as he climbed into the car. The driver looked back at him. Nick pointed, "Follow that VW."
"The one that just hit you?" the driver asked in surprise, "Man, maybe we should call the cops or somethin' instead."
Nick whipped out his badge, "I AM the cops in this situation. FOLLOW HIM."
So the year before, Nick had rode in the car with Agent Bryant to a taping of Good Morning America through downtown New York when they were running late, and he'd sworn at the time that Bryant was the craziest driver he'd ever ridden in the car with or ever would. However, he hadn't met this cabbie yet when that happened. And that belief... well, it was about to change.
The traffic was stand still on the street the hotel was on, worse than New York City. See, in NYC, unless there was a traffic accident the cars pretty much moved, at least... however, this was literally bumper to bumper and moving about an inch every fifteen minutes or so. Nick shuffled impatiently in the backseat, clutching the headrest in front of him with nerves, gnawing on his lower lip. The VW was only six car lengths ahead, and easy to spot, despite the over abundance of VWs in the traffic. Nick was literally on the edge of his seat. He kept having to restrain himself from leaping out and running up to the car right there in the middle of Berlin city traffic.
"So... you gonna arrest the guy for running you down?" the driver asked curiously.
"No, not for running me down," Nick answered. He paused, "Well, yeah that too, but mostly because he's wanted for kidnapping and like seven counts of murder and stuff."
The driver's eyes widened, "Wait, what sort of 'gent are we following here?"
"The bad sort," Nick replied.
"SHIT this is like an action movie!!" shouted the cabbie excitedly.
Suddenly, the blue VW slammed on the gas, broke out from the traffic and onto the sidewalk. Pedestrians were leaping out of the way, and before he could comprehend what they'd done, the VW turned down an alley way that was so skinny the tiny car barely fit through. Nick's jaw dropped, "NO! Shit!!" he leaned over the seat. "WHERE'S THAT COME OUT?" he cried into the cabbie's ear, pointing at the alleyway.
"I don't know," the cabbie replied, "Let's find out, shall we?" he grinned wickedly. Before Nick could ask what he meant, he blasted his own gas pedal down and the car shot out of the traffic jam, also onto the sidewalk, and with a jerk of the steering wheel, the cabbie recklessly veered towards the mouth of the alley.
"Fuck dude you ain't gonna fit in here!" Nick wailed in shock.
Instead of stopping, or slowing down, or anything, the cabbie crowed with delight, like a big psychotic rooster. "WOOOOOOOT WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nick's eyes widened as the cab honked his horn and the car hit the two buildings, knocking the side mirrors off with a blast of sparks and the car shot through the alley, catching up quickly to the VW, screeching like fingernails on a chalkboard the entire way through. The car shuddered all the way to the other end and Nick covered his eyes.
"Jesus Christ dude are you fucking insane?" Nick shouted. The car popped out the other side of the alley, onto an empty side road, following the VW closely now. Nick felt like his limbs had turned to jelly. He was shaking uncontrollably.
"Eh-- Insurance will pay for it," the cabbie replied, "I always wanted to be involved in a high speed chase."
The blue VW turned a corner sharply and suddenly, tires squealing and tires lifting up off the pavement. Nick ducked down as the cabbie followed recklessly. Several car horns blared as the yellow cab flew in their path following the blue VW. They swerved as the two traffic violators plowed forward without slowing. The cabbie threw his entire body into willing the car to turn, and Nick could feel they were two wheeling the corner. He felt his stomach flying around inside him and squeezed his eyes as tight as he possibly could, so tight he was seeing little rainbow confetti sparks behind his eyelids.
When the car settled back down on it's axis and stayed that way a few moments, Nick dared to peek over the edge of the front seat cautiously.
"God this is great!" shouted the cab driver, pulling onto a highway ramp, "Fantastic! Brilliant!!" He glanced at Nick. "Hey, you okay kiddo?"
"I'm gonna puke," Nick murmured.
"Well... don't look down then," the cabbie answered as he merged into the highway traffic and the car sped up...faster and faster and faster and faster...
Nick watched the speedometer, feeling his stomach lurch. "DUDE! What the hell're you thinking?!!" he cried as the needle approached, then passed 100mph.
The cabbie chuckled, "Welcome to the Autobahn my friend."
"Shit," Nick ducked back down behind the seat, covering his face with his hands, unable to watch certain doom fly into his face like this. He wasn't sure how long he was ducked down, but it'd been quite awhile before he was able to rip himself away from his mantra of 'everything's fine, everything's okay' that he had going back there... and that was only because the car slowed down... paused... then stopped and the cabbie mumbled.
"Shit."
Nick sat up. "What? What's wrong?" He looked around himself. They were in a fielded area, surrounded by dirt roads and quaint looking little farms.
"I can't see through all this dust."
Nick looked out the front window. They'd pulled onto a very narrow dirt road, embanked on either side by deep, marshy bogs. There was barely enough room for one car to drive. He looked at the driver and hoped he could drive a straight line otherwise they'd end up in that swampy murk. "Just follow the dust," Nick suggested.
"I am," the cabbie replied, "but I can't see for shit what's going on up there."
"Hurry," Nick pleaded.
Suddenly, in the settling dust, barely visible, was the VW. Stopped. The cabbie slammed his brakes on. The brakes screeched, sending Nick slamming into the seat and the cabbie into the wheel as the car swung about in a 360* like cop cars in the movies. Nick yelled, the cabbie crowed psychotically excited, and the car flew forward, before finally coming to a stop..a mere breath between it and the VW's back bumper, and somehow still on the road. Nick sat petrified a moment, as did the cabbie, as the dust settled on the windshield and hood of the car, both their jaws dropped, eyes opened wide and staring forward out the window. Nick couldn't feel anything at all in his entire body, all the sensation was gone, he could barely recall how to breathe, he felt like everything in him was made of chocolate pudding.
"THAT WAS SUH WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" shouted the cabbie.
Nick looked at the guy, "You're really seriously,.. you're.. you.." Nick couldn't even come up with words for how deranged the guy was for enjoying that. He struggled to push open the door, his muscles felt all weak and weird like how he imagined Gumby feeling. He made a mental note to never, ever, ever take a cab with this guy driving ever again no matter what the situation. If Bryant had been in the car through all that, he thought, he'd have agreed, too, and totally understood. Nick's knee shot pain up his leg when he stepped out of the car, but he ignored it, gritting his teeth and stumbled around it to the front of the VW. He squinted into the distance.
"Looks like the ride ends here," the cabbie announced, climbing out as well. The guy patted his car. "Bessie, ya done good."
Nick wasn't quite sure how to handle the idea that a guy who drove like THAT had named his car Bessie. He reached for his wallet. "What do I owe you?" he asked.
"You kiddin'?" the cabbie asked, laughing, "You don't owe me a damn thing. That was the finest bit of drivin' I've ever done and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope you kick your killer's ass, by the way."
"Thanks," Nick said, putting the wallet away. He hadn't really wanted to pay for the near death experience anyways.
"No, no, thank YOU," the cabbie answered.
Nick wandered away, leaving the guy there to figure out what to do with himself, and limped in the direction the road was going. Suddenly, he noticed something shining in the sand and he hurried as best he could and knelt down beside it. There, laying in the dirt, was Agent Bryant's FBI badge. He picked it up. Bryant never went anywhere without it. That meant that this was purposely dropped to show him he was going the right way. He looked up in the distance, and that’s' when he spotted it... a clear track dug in the sand by a dragging shoe. Agent Bryant was helping Nick... Hansel and Gretel style. He was genius. Nick stood up and began hobbling along, following the track.
-----
Agent Bryant walked along, gagged into silence, and prodded along by his own gun. He frowned. Behind him, the Masquerade Murderer chuckled. "I guess your little badge came in handy after all, 'ey?" he teased. "Leading your right hand man right where I want him..." he continued on, dragging one foot in the sand as they walked, leaving behind the trail Nick was now following. Far off in the distance, they could see Nick limping along behind them, trying to catch up. "We're almost there," the murderer stated, "Nick's going to be in for a little surprise when he catches up, huh?" he smirked evilly, "I'll make sure he's given a nice reception though."
Saving the Day for Blondes 2: The Amazing Story of How Nick Apprehended The Infamous Masquerade Murderer Without ANY Caffeine In His Body! by Pengi
