Running Riot- Part 3
Posted By: Simon James<simonjames290@hotmail.com>
Date: 24 July 2003, 2:24 PM
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Part 3
Johnston was having a hard time fending off nine Ghosts. He just could'nt get a good shot with Sarge swerving the Warthog to evade plasma and wreakage on the highway. They were nearing an overpass that had fallen a decade ago. It blocked most of the road. They would need to slow down to get by, which would give the nine....eight pursuers a chance to hit to 'hog hard. The one Ghost that was hit fell to the ground and scraped the ground. It bounced twice and came to a halt.
Joe in the passenger's seat popped a hatch at his feet. Out of the compartment he pulled a SPNKR rocket launcher. He loaded both barrels and took aim. The target rectile in his HUD went red and Joe immedatly fired. The rocket streaked towards it's target. The Elite piloting it was either blind, distracted or very stupid. He didn't try to get out of the way until it was too late. The rocket hit and blew the enemy to bits.
Joe launched a second rocket at the next Ghost in his sights. But it's pilot was more alert then his comrade. He swerved and the slow-moving rocket missed. Joe went to reload but there were no more rockets in the compartment. It was obviously a last chance holdout. He threw away the launcher in disgust.
Sarge in the driver's seat also knew they were in for it. Unless he could find a way around the wreakage in front of him, they were doomed. He almost resigned to his fate until he saw a sign. It said 'Exit- 100m'. That was the answer. When the exit came up Sarge took it. The 'hog took the turn on two wheels.
The Ghosts were still hot on their tail, although one missed the exit. While turning around it hit an old burnt out hover car and exploded.The other Ghosts came up the long curving ramp after the 'hog. Because of the curve, they could not get off a clear shot.
At the top of the ramp was an intersection. On one side the bridge and the other side, where the highway should be, was a crater that Sarge that seemed to have overlooked. The only way was over the gap in the bridge. Sarge pulled the wheel that way fast and acclerated hard. If they hit the slight upward curve on the bridge with enough speed, they migh be able to clear it.
Even though the 'hog increased it's speed, the Ghosts managed to catch up fast. They were hot on the 'hog's tail and thought that they had their pray cornered. The kill was iminant.
The 'hog was fast approaching the bridge. 100 metres to go, 75 metres, 50 metres, 25 metres. Then they were in the air. Johnston continued to fire his gun, screaming obscenities to the pilots of the enemy craft. Joe held tightly to the side of the 'hog and Sarge held the pedel to the floor.
The 'hog's wheels spun in midair. They were almost to the other side. Behind them, only two of the remaining Ghosts attempted the same stunt. They also flew through the air, but with less success. Both crashed into the ground simataiously.
As the Ghosts hit the ground, the 'hog landed on the other side of the bridge. It's suspension almost bottomed out and they left big burn out marks where they landed. But they had succeded in evading the Ghosts. They were in the clear.
Two days later, they were still being pursued by the Covenant, but from a longer distance luckly. The only contacts were the occasional Grunt patrol and a Banshee yesterday. They had evaded it without much trouble and were sure it hadn't seen them.
They had stopped at a roadside rest place for an hour to eat some of the MREs Johnston had found. The roadside here was littered with more vehicular carcasses then usual. Some had been burned but a small percentage were more or less intact.
Sarge told the the others;"I'm goin' to look around for a while. How about you find some shelter, we made need to stay the night." The other agreed and Sarge went off exploring.
"So whats his name?" Johnston asked Joe. "Well, I'm not quite sure." Replied Joe. "I just call him Sarge, because hes been promoted and busted down so many times." Johnson nodded his understanding. The pair of them went back to eating the god-awful MREs. Joe had finished a tin of 'baked beans' and turned it over to look at the bottom. "The contensts of this can are not ment for human consumption." He said out loud. Johnston, who hadn't finsihed yet, held his up so he could get a look at the bottom. There was no writing on it, but Joe was laughing at him now.
"Ha ha. Thats funny, man." Said Johnston. He threw away the rest of the 'beans'. "I'm going to look for shelter, like Sarge said we should." He walked away towards some of the less damaged vehicles. They would make good individual sleeping compartments. Johnston approached the first. Through the rust on the side he read 'Ford.' He opened the door and looked inside. The vehicle retained much of it's original upholstry. Johmston leaned farther inside to test the spring. He knocked something on the passenger side dashboard and the glove compartment popped open. Out spilled papers and very old trash. Some of the papers were so old that they disintigrated when they hit the ground.
One paper in particular caught Johnston's attention. It was wraped in clear plastic and was in reasonably good condition. He pushed aside papers that covered it and saw familuar lines on it. He picked it up and crawled out of the car again. Inthe light he saw it was a map. A very old map. It still had New Toronto on it. That city had been destroyed 15 years ago. But it was still a map.
He looked over to where Joe was sitting and saw that Sarge had joined him. He ran over to them and presented the map. Sarge was exstatic "Good work, boy! Now we only need to find out where we are." Joe went over to a nearby roadsign. He can back. "It seems we're near a place called Sunderland. Off Hw 203." Sarge looked at the map in the fading light. He found the red line denoting Hw 203. He ran his finger along it and found Sunderland."We're here."He said, pointing."And the nearest city is....here." He said, pointing to a place labeled as Port Perry. "As far as I know, it is still in human hands."
So it was planed that the next day they would return to the road and take the short ride down to Port Perry. It would take only about 3 hours to reach it. So they three settled down in their own vehicles, with their map safley in the Warthog's glove box.
Author's note: I've been told that I should get this published. Do you think its good enough?
End of Part 3
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