16 Race!

The two cars were in a race. The Hummer was more two hundred meters when the Ford Raptor started to run. But the enemy has now reduced the distance to one hundred and ninety meters.

"My name is Nolie... I'm so sorry for adding to your burden.. also, thanks a lot," he said to Elena.

"I'm Elena. Glad to meet you. Actually, you're a help than a burden... Can you please shoot the car behind us?!" Elena replied with a loud panicking voice.

"Uh, yes, yes! Fortunately, I brought many magazines with me."

"Yeah, I noticed that you're carrying more bullets than usual. You're really prepped up for war."

Nolie was embarrassed since he remembered that it was really because of his cowardice that he was bringing many bullets.

The Raptor was now one hundred and seventy meters. But Nolie was already aiming at them. He fired his rifle and the enemy panicked. Their car swerved and slowed down a bit. Nolie continued to fire more but he stopped as soon as the enemy returned with gunshots.

"Janoy, Ato, keep ducking!" Elena shouted at them.

Nolie was frightened and he returned to his seat. His hands were shaking. Moments passed and nothing happened except that the Raptor was maintaining a distance.

Elena kept on looking at the side mirror. Moments later, Elena saw that the Raptor was accelerating and closing the distance. Nolie saw it and positioned again his rifle outside the window.

Nolie pressed the trigger hard and bullets rained. But a much more rapid and powerful gunshots came from the enemy car. It's a machine gun!

While the pick-up was slowing down a while ago, the other man climb to the back to use the machine gun mounted on it.

Many bullets hit the humvee's back and the window shield burst. Nolie retreated and ducked.

"WaaaahhhhH!" the boys were screaming. Hundreds of broken pieces of glass spattered on them!

Nolie worried about Elena. She might have been hit! But he felt the car accelerated more to its maximum and didn't swerve. He raised his head a bit to check. He was surprised Elena didn't ducked.

"Just duck!" Elena shouted. "Don't worry about me!" she added.

Nolie realized just now that there's a glass at their back and it's resistant to bullets. Elena actually made prior preparations to events like this. In particular she made few hacks on the humvee by putting a bullet-proofed glass right at the back of the driver seat.

Nolie realized that the protective glass didn't fully extend to where he was seated – the front passenger seat. Hence, his back was not completely covered by the glass.

The distance of the edge of the glass to the right side wall of the car was eight inches. This explains why he didn't noticed the glass when he reached for the rear door's lock back when they were at the checkpoint.

Whereas, the edge of the glass at Elena's seat was only two inches from the wall. Hence, she's more protected than Nolie was.

"Just duck!" Elena repeated. Nolie understood why Elena was telling him to duck. Bullets might hit him at the right shoulder anytime.

Moreover, the height of the glass didn't reached the ceiling of the car. There's two-inch gap between them.

"The body of this car is safe from the inside. I've attached bullet-proofed glasses around. You'll be safe if you just lower down your he—"

Elena didn't finished as bullets rained on them again and many pierced through the body of the Hummer. The car's body incurred holes. But no bullets reached Janoy and Ato. They were safe inside.

"There must be a reason why she seemed prepared for this situation," Nolie wondered and at the same time admired Elena's readiness. He realized she's not only pretty, she's pretty smart too.

He stared at Elena's face and she looked more beautiful than before. Instead of ducking, Nolie said,

"We need to fire back. This time we will hit them hard." Then he moved his butt closer to Elena and positioned his M16 rifle right after the edge of the bullet-proofed glass.

"Boys, keep ducking!" Nolie shouted and fired his rifle as much as he can.

He felt so inspired doing so. The enemies were puzzled why their machine gun was ineffective. Now they realized that they're more in the disadvantage.

Nolie succeeded a bit. The Raptor's front windshield burst. The pick-up swerved and slowed down.

"I hit them. I hit them!" Nolie excitedly announced his accomplishment while at the same time moving a bit his body towards Elena. Elena smiled at the good news.

Meanwhile in a wall of an abandoned two-storey house in Quiet Lake town, Guntira was sitting and had been watching the two cars racing since a while ago.

He's now in Quiet Lake town since, out of boredom and having nothing else to do, he followed the fighter jet to see where it crashed. He did this just to kill the time. At least, for him, it is the most exciting thing to have happened so far.

The next most entertaining thing he saw in the town was the pick-up chasing the humvee. It made him decide to linger a bit in the town.

But now, he's disappointed since the pick-up had slowed down and the men appeared to have no plan anymore of pursuing the humvee. He knew that the men in the pick-up were on his side.

He decided to do something entertaining to remove his boredom. He'll going to interfere in the little game the two cars were playing, so he thought.

He wanted to give the Maharlikans another show. He agreed to come to Maharlika, not only because of the hefty payment offered to him, but also because he was promised to fight someone who can give him the thrill he'd been looking for.

"I think they're not following us anymore," Nolie said. Elena looked at the side and rear-view mirrors and can see that the pick-up was already far away.

Elena felt relief. He checked again the rear-view mirror and confirmed that the pickup, though still running, was increasing its distance from them.

"You can now come out," Elena told the kids. She knew that their situation was really uncomfortable. Janoy and Ato raised their head and looked at the back and then around.

At the right side of the road was where most of the houses and buildings were lined up. There were not really many of them since this was a rural place and the highest building was just a three-storey.

At the left side was an alternate array of corn and rice fields, trees, bushes, grasses, and creeks. And at the background were hills and mountains.

They can still see the pick-up but it's already quite far. They were very happy with the situation now. They can't believe that they've survived!

Elena was also really thankful that Nolie unexpectedly joined them. No matter how she thinks of the situation, it would have been impossible for them to survive had he not joined them.

Elena has now decreased their speed for safety. But moments later, the pick-up suddenly appeared! It was speeding at maximum velocity to catch up.

The reason why it stopped a while ago was because the driver was hit in the arm.

The other man needed to replace him and they have to stop since he can't crawl back to the driver seat while the car was running because he brought with him a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG).

The previous driver moved to the other seat. Then he tied a cloth around his upper arm, after which the other handed to him the RPG.

What was alarming was that the weapon was an RPG-7. It was fitted with a 105 mm high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead. This explosive is so powerful that it can easily penetrate the thick metal body of main battle tanks!

If the Hummer is hit by it's grenade, it will be totally damaged. And there is nil chance for the passengers to survive.

The pick-up was now around two hundred meters away. It was quickly catching up because of its powerful engine and because the Hummer was moving at a decreased speed.

Elena looked once again at the rear-view mirror to check the back. She's smart so she was naturally cautious too. But she didn't see anything that was following them!

Now, she's a lot more certain that the pick-up had, perhaps, returned to the checkpoint.

But at an instant after Elena turned her eyes, the pick-up appeared! Elena didn't saw the pick-up because she glanced at the mirror just after they've passed an elevated part of the road.

The elevation was not that high so that she didn't mind it. However, it was high enough to conceal the pick-up from her line of sight.

Now the pick-up was around one hundred meters away. The RPG was already firmly aimed at them!

The pick-up quickly decreased the distance to ninety meters! The man now positioned his finger on the RPG's trigger.

"LOOK OUT!" Nolie shouted to Elena to avoid the concrete debris on the road.

"Yes, I've seen it already. Don't worry," Elena replied just after the vehicle passed over the cement block. Nolie sigh.

The enemy had decreased the distance to less than eighty meters then they fired the RPG! Propelled by the rocket built on it, the powerful grenade flew at high speed.

The humvee passengers still knew nothing of it. Any moment from now and the grenade will send them to their graves!

But something startled Elena and Nolie. Their eyes opened wide. There's a man standing in the road directly in front of them! The man will surely be hit by the Hummer. He will be killed!

But he seemed to have not seen the car since his body was bent forward. His head will hit first the car.

"NOOOO!" Elena screamed.

"BOOM!!" the grenade created a powerful explosion.

Elena and the others were stunned! The rocket grenade missed the humvee! Elena was able to made a hard left and avoided the man in front them!

It was just a split second before the grenade explosive hit the car. But the rocket grenade flew passed them and, instead, hit the man in the road directly at his head.

The man bounced several times in the road before his body was smashed in the concrete wall of a commercial building, which was over fifty meters away from his original location!

The force of the impact caused the wall to have many cracks.

The man in the road was no one else than Guntira! Moments ago, he jumped and landed in the concrete road over thirty meters in front of the speeding Hummer.

He wanted to startle the passengers inside the vehicle. And he bent his body forward, intending that the car will collide with his head, because he wanted to show how tough his shiny head was.

Elena and her companions have no idea what just exploded. The explosion was so strong that it even shook the car!

An instant after, the Ford Raptor swerved violently. One of its tires hit a concrete debris in the road. It veered to the right and ran over a concrete wall that has fallen in the side of the road.

The concrete wall, about the size of two tables, served as ramp causing the pick-up to jump. The pick-up reached six meters high before it descended and landed at Guntira, slamming its bumper against his torso.

Guntira was sandwiched between the car and the building's wall. A moment after, the wall collapsed and Guntira was buried by the heavy concrete blocks. The front seat of the pick-up was also crushed.

Under the rubble, Guntira seemed to have lost consciousness. He's not moving and his eyes were closed.