The Blaster Racers

Evony had a long, quiet, and peaceful walk home, nothing disturbing her at all, and Oliver watching her at a distance until she was safe and sound inside her uncles’ house.

She wandered into her new home and leaned against the front door, sighing deeply.

To the right was the living room, now dark and mostly silent, save for the man snoozing on the couch against the wall. Evony swallowed a chuckle, eyeing her father as he slept lopsidedly on the corner of the couch, his head slumped to the side and his mouth slightly agape, glasses having slid halfway off his nose. He appeared to be slightly sweat-spotted along his brow, his neat and combed-back hairs just a bit messier than usual, his jacket having been shed, and the sleeves of his white button-up rolled up to the elbows. He was a slightly out-of-shape man, not terribly so, but just enough to wear him out from whatever work he’d been doing on the house in her absence.

And, as she could see, much work had been done; her father and her uncles had cleaned the living room spotless, hung new curtains over the front window, and removed all the dirty dishes from the bar counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, the dishes all stacked and clean now, the surfaces all shiny and freshly wiped down, a faint hint of lemon cleaner still lingering on the air. They’d also hooked up Alejandro’s new 3DTV, added a cable box, repaired a single hole that remained in the living room’s roof, and finished it all off by adding a vase with a few plastic flowers to the middle of the coffee table.

Evony spared him a smile, then headed to the stairs before her, climbing them one creaky step at a time. At the top—as she’d expected—was a narrow wooden door to the right, the door to the attic, a room that her uncles had repurposed into a bedroom before her and her father’s arrival here in Silverhollow.

She pushed the door open, peering inside and observing her new bedroom. The ceiling stood high, stylishly shaped with a sharp and pointed incline matching perfectly with the home’s outer roof, a bed against the left wall, a small round window just above it, a dresser next to the bed, a desk opposite the dresser, and a larger window on the opposite side of the room, which overlooked the isolated path and the surrounding treetops all around the home. The dim, ominous glow of the early evening moonlight shone into the room cozily from either side, and Evony gently eased the door shut behind her, crawling into the comfortable embrace of the thick down comforters and resting her head to the pillow.

She lay in silence for a while, mulling over all the exciting things she’d experienced during her first day in Silverhollow—from fighting the mayor’s daughter to making a new friend at the diner, from impulsively rescuing the famous Osric Azarias to being suddenly and unexpectedly hired into an important position by him—it all ran though her mind in profound, vivid waves, every thought and emotion attached still lingering on her with the utmost of persistence.

She lay on her back for a long, thoughtful while, feeling excited in a way she couldn’t remember feeling since childhood, letting out a heavy cloud of breath as she gazed up at the splintery ceiling of the quiet, peaceful room.

But, eventually, the thoughts lulled her into a long and much-needed slumber.

Oliver hovered a ways above her only window, scanning the area around the house for a short while before eventually floating away, soaring off to return home.

The next day—Evony awoke to a late morning with the dim, fresh light of a winter sun peering into her room and shining over her, accompanied by a repetitive rapping on her door.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Evony groaned with agitation, crawling out of bed and drearily lumbering over to her door. She yawned as she unlocked it and pulled it open.

There stood Terian at the top of the attic stairs, staring back at her with a brow perked above his black rectangular sunglasses, his wide face wearing an expression that looked familiar to her, a pensive and curt paternal one. His short hairs were combed neatly back, and he now wore one of his nicest black suits, looking as if he was about to leave to somewhere important.

“No call, no text, no waking me up and saying anything?” Terian asked, cocking his head and perking his brow higher.

Evony stared at him vacantly. “ How old am I…?”

“Old enough to think of giving me some peace of mind,” Terian replied swiftly. “Where were you all night?”

“Here,” Evony said simply, waving over to the side, at her bed.

“No… before that,” Terian griped.

“I told you I was gonna go out and find a job.”

“Yes… and then you disappeared for the rest of the day until we were all asleep.”

“Then don’t fall asleep before nine P.M. like an old person.”

“We’d just worked all afternoon!” Terian exclaimed. “Look at me! I’m not built for that!”

Evony cracked a smirk and choked out a laugh.

Terian sighed, shaking his head and tossing up a hand. “Well… did you find a job or not?”

“Um… yeah, I did,” Evony muttered, looking down and wondering how much she ought to say about the wild events of the previous night. “Working for Osric Azarias.”

Terian gave her a surprised look. “Really? Doing what?”

Evony started to reply, pausing and swallowing roughly. Her eyes traveled back up to her father’s face, suddenly remembering everything about him; he was an activist through his writing, and he was not afraid to cover any topic that the mainstream medias never did, even with the dangers attached.

She let out a long, stressful sigh, looking down for a moment.

“Just seasonal work,” Evony shrugged.

Terian stared for a second, then nodded and pocketed his hands. “Good. Well… I’m about to go and talk to the editor of Beyond the Veil . I’ve got that job pretty much locked down now. One of his writers just quit suddenly, and another one up and left town. He really needs another truth-teller on his team.”

Evony gazed into his face, biting her lip and nodding. “M’kay. Well… good. I’m happy for you.”

“Happy for you too,” Terian said, pulling her into a quick hug. “Love you, kiddo. Seeya later.”

“Love you too. Seeya.”

Evony watched her father turn and start thumping down the narrow stairs.

“Hey… Dad,” she called.

Terian paused and glanced back up at her. “Hm?”

“When you… when you used to do interviews… how did you do all that?” Evony wondered. “How did you… find reptilians to talk to? And how did you learn about the local government doing little cover-ups and stuff…?”

Terian made a thoughtful face, glancing down to the side for a moment before replying.

“Well… it’s a lot of clue-chasing, event-connecting, and money-following,” he surmised. “And reptilians always had communes all around the outskirts of Starrylake. Plenty warm enough for them up there. All you had to do was visit.”

Evony nodded mildly, giving him a curious look. “The news always talks about reptilians like they’re all Alazar’s Army… and your whole goal was to make sure people knew that they weren’t all part of that group. You were basically undoing all the fearmongering. That’s why they sent people after you… because they didn’t want you contradicting the main narrative. Is that right? Did I get all that right?”

Terian made a slow, single nod. “Ah-huh. Well… that, and the fact that they didn’t like me speculating that the government was staging these attacks. I know that at least two of the bombings that happened in the past ten years weren’t done by Alazar’s Army. They were just meant to look like they were. That’s called a false flag… and corrupt governments will use methods like that to get a population good and angry at a specific group of people, for a wide variety of reasons, reasons that are usually attached to big agendas…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… listen,” Evony cut him off, swatting the air. “I just wanna know if… you’re gonna start doing the same thing here. I wanna know if you’re gonna look for new contacts, and dig into stories, and start finding proof of all that kind of cover-up stuff here in Silverhollow.”

Terian pondered on this for a second, then laughed and shrugged. “I hope so. Depends on what the editor of this publication is going to want to focus on the most… but he sounds like he’d fixate on all the same things I would, and I certainly don’t intend to stop telling the truth.”

Evony gave him a long, solemn stare.

“Okay,” she finally replied, turning to step back into her room. “That’s all I wanted to know…”

She closed the door.

Terian squinted up the stairs, making an odd face for a moment before he turned and walked down.

Evony paused and leaned back against her bedroom door for several quiet seconds, closing her eyes and letting out a heavy cloud of breath. During the time when they were uprooting from Starrylake and moving down south—she’d been quietly hoping that her father would ease away from the conspiracy topics in his newspaper writing, and that he would find calmer and more ordinary topics to cover in whatever publication he ended up working for here. But—it seemed that this simply wasn’t meant to be, and her ever passionate father was still determined to fight the system and their media to the end.

So—it only stood to reason that she would keep the details of her new job a secret from him.

If he ever found out about it—and if he decided to write about it—then he’d be painting a target onto his back all over again. It was better if she simply kept the details of her new job to herself as best she could.

And, as she stood here and dwelled on the idea of doing some investigating regarding everything that she’d learned from Osric yesterday—that spot out on the shore appeared in her mind, that place where the reptilians had attacked, and she felt as if she wanted to go and give it another look, just in case the attackers had left a clue behind that she hadn’t noticed the night before.

So—Evony broke into movement, finding her big travel bag beside her bed and pulling her clothes out of it. She took a clean outfit downstairs—had a shower—and emerged with a sleek black outfit on complete with a silver-studded belt.

Then—she placed a dark, thick beanie on over her damp hair, just before marching out of the house and heading into town, zipping her jacket up tightly as her boots flattened and kicked the deep snow about before her.

Evony strode down the main road, gathering a good look at the Silver Peaks Lodge in the daylight—just before diverting to the left of the stone stairway and following the very same path that she’d taken the afternoon prior. She walked on for a while—entering the woodlands, strolling down the dirt path, and marching across the snow until she finally appeared in the vast, open clearing at the shoreline.

The moment she began marching over to the area where the attack had unfolded last night, it just occurred to her that Osric would likely have advised against her coming here alone—but she couldn’t be bothered to care. It was broad daylight now, after all; there was nothing here for miles, aside from the far-off beach, the endless expanse of snow, and the distant seals bobbing about in large groups near the water’s edge.

Evony walked over to the area with the largest, messiest, and most clustered footprints in the snow, gazing down at them and seeing where all of the struggles had transpired the night before. Her eyes scanned along the snow, searching around every inch of it in search of anything that looked out of place.

Then—a hint of a sparkle caught her eye.

Evony slowly kneeled down over it, spotting something slender and silver peeking out of the snow. She reached down, hooked her fingers around it, and pulled it up—seeing that it was a key ring, one with several long keys dangling from it.

“Huh,” she uttered, squinting at the keys interestingly.

She stood, stuffed them in her pocket, and looked down again, her eyes landing on the many spots of blood sprinkled onto the surface of the snow, now frozen in place. This was the spot where the smaller reptilian had stabbed its hand into Osric—just before Evony had opened fire on it.

Her hand remained inside her jacket pocket, her thumb stroking along the cold key ring.

That small reptilian must have dropped these keys, right here at this very location—but she had no clue what the keys were for, why the reptilian had been carrying them, or if it would even be relevant to the investigations at hand. Still, it was worth making a mental note of nonetheless.

Suddenly—the sound of a distant, echoing scream began wailing from far down the shore.

Evony made a bizarre face, wheeling around and staring down the north end of the beach. She heard a man’s screaming—and it was growing quickly louder on the air.

In fact—an object was as well.

Evony’s eyes narrowed; something was barreling down the shore directly at her. It looked like a dot at first—but it became large enough to see within seconds, and it split into two. Yes—two things were racing across the snow, side by side with one another, both of them hurdling toward her at top speed.

Two shiny silver machines—long, slim, and shapely, with elongated black leather seats and large, craning handlebars—were positively flying across the snow with a propulsion system of two gigantic blasters where the wheels of a motorcycle would be.

One of them was ridden by a single slender man in a dark helmet, a transparent eye shield, and winter clothes—and the second one was steered by a larger and slightly chubbier man in the same attire, a small blonde girl riding on the back with him, and her arms were locked around his body, clinging onto him as they all soared across the snowy sandscape.

“AAAAAAAAAH!” the slender driver bellowed, his eyes wide and his face dramatic, leaving an echo of laughter in the air. “I CAN’T STOP! AAAAAAAAH!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” the chubbier one cackled in response, the two of them barely able to hear one another through the whipping winds around them. “LYING FUCK!”

“OHMIGOD—WATCH OUT!” the blonde girl shouted, pointing ahead. “SOMEBODY’S THERE!”

The slender man and the chubby man both snapped their heads forward—spotting Evony standing far down the open expanse.

The two traded quick glances—then slowly began to steer apart from one another, creating a wider space between them.

The super-speed vehicles shot across the landscape like two bullets—eruptions of snow in their wake—and they both blasted past either side of Evony with the velocity of two freight trains, making her gasp and stiffen in her stance, the wind beating past her as they whizzed by.

A rush of adrenaline flooded through her—then she whirled around, opening her eyes and gazing after them in shock.

The girl on the back of the second blaster—the tiny blonde Cally—turned her head and stared back over her shoulder, squinting through her transparent eye shield.

“HEY, STOP!” she hollered at her driver, smacking him on the stomach and motioning frantically behind them. “GO BACK! I KNOW HER! GO BACK!”

The slender driver and chubby driver exchanged faces again, then began to maneuver differently; they each drove off in separate directions, driving in a long, graceful circle alongside the beach and bringing both vehicles to a slow speed.

Evony watched the two strange vehicles break into a circle from a distance, observing as they steadied their blasters and began to turn back in the direction from where they came. She blinked, now looking puzzled again.

Why were those people turning around?

Evony swallowed, reaching into her right pocket and keeping her hand tucked inside it, fingers coiling around her handgun.

The two blasters cruised toward her, this time at a much slower pace, eventually drawing close enough to send the air all around her flying in every direction. The two propulsions on these vehicles seemed to emit nothing but extremely powerful air—and they continued to do so until both of the drivers parked sideways along the edge of the snow, just at the threshold of the shore. Both of the half-dome-shaped propulsions turned and faced downward, and they smashed to the ground with a dull thud the moment their drivers powered the engines off.

Then, all three people began to climb off both vehicles, pulling their helmets off and staring over at Evony.

Cally grinned, sprinting toward her at once.

“Hey!” she breathed exasperatedly, stopping a few feet away and combing her bangs back. “What’re you doing out here?!”

Evony gaped at her, her eyes shifting over to the two strangers, then back. “Ah… long story. Why’re you out here?”

“Racing!” Cally giggled, swatting over at her two friends. “They wanted to race their blasters!”

“Ah-huh,” Evony uttered, glimpsing over at them again. “And… what are blasters…?”

Cally dropped her arms by her side, staring at her incredulously. “You don’t know what a blaster is? They have them up north too! Oz Blasters are the most amazing recreational vehicles in the freaking world! There’s water blasters, and snow blasters, and dirt blasters—”

“They don’t have them up north,” the chubby man laughed.

“Ah… yeah they do,” the slender man uttered to him. “They just don’t have very many. The south has way more.”

“Well… no shit, the freaking inventor lives here, and they don’t ship them all over Concordia,” the chubby one chided. “The hell do you think is gonna happen…?”

“Ahm…” Cally took a few steps back, motioning to the slender man, then the larger one. “This is my brother, Thomas… and this is my friend, Javari. You guys… this is Evony. Say hi.”

The two of them stepped forward, offering a smile and a wave.

The slender one, Thomas, had a kind smile and a handsome visage, he and Javari both having large, expressive eyes, though Thomas’s were the same light color as Cally’s, and Javari’s were a shiny black. Another thing the two men had in common was their hair color—both black—but their styles and consistencies varied drastically from one another, Thomas with straight black hair that was combed away, a few strings of it now dangling over his face, and Javari’s was thick and wavy, tenting just above his eyes. Javari’s face was also more jovial than his friend’s, though just as friendly, and he had a tiny black beard at the end of his chin.

“I met her yesterday. She just got into town,” Cally told them, turning back to Evony. “Hey… did you end up getting hired? Are we gonna be work buddies?!”

“Y… well… sort of,” Evony stammered. “I did get hired there, but… I kinda got a… special job…”

Cally stared at her curiously.

“Osric needed a personal assistant, apparently,” Evony informed her.

Cally blinked and shot her a double-take-and Thomas and Javari actually did much the same just behind her, glancing at one another in surprise.

“Wait. Oz made you his personal assistant? ” Cally tried to clarify, raising a hand and giving her a look. “Are you serious? Because he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t do anything like that.”

“Well… he did,” Evony shrugged.

Cally, Thomas, and Javari all glimpsed at each other.

Evony’s eyes shifted between the three of them thoughtfully.

“Do you all know him?” she inquired.

“Yeah… you know I do, he’s my employer,” Cally laughed.

“Oh yeah… yeah, we know him,” Javari smirked and nodded. “He’s a good friend to the family… or to my dad and I, at least. He feeds us some pretty good ideas for gun models… and he’ll buy one of our best ones every once in a blue moon.”

“And… I know Oz by association,” Thomas smiled flatly, raising a hand and jabbing a finger over at Javari. “Because this one is never not trying to sell that man something.”

“Well… he buys it,” Javari scoffed, tossing up his hands. “Whaddoya want?”

The two of them spoke back and forth for a moment, and Evony stared at them quietly, her eyes fixating on Javari, and only just remembering who this person was. He was the brother to one of those mean girls from yesterday—a girl named Trisha—and he belonged to that family who owned the SAMs Corporation here in Silverhollow.

“Well’p. Hello. Welcome.” Javari suddenly sauntered forward, offering Evony his gloved hand. “Welcome to Silverhollow.”

Evony returned the handshake.

Javari then pulled her slightly closer, tilting his head and giving her a sly sort of smirk.

“Do you know why it’s called Silverhollow?” he asked.

Evony stared vacantly at him, shaking her head.

“Because… it’s… silver,” Javari revealed, motioning to all the snow around him, then gently jabbing both pointer fingers down at the ground. “And… it’s… hollow .”

Evony made a slow, strange nod. “M’kay…”

“All right… back away… that’s enough,” Thomas said, grabbing Javari by the shoulders and pulling him back. “You sound like a conspiracy nut who missed their medication.”

Javari whipped around and gave him a comically dramatic look. “And who’s to say I’m not? ”

Thomas gave him a long, blank stare, then made a single nod and turned away. “Fair point. Moving on…”

Evony and Cally snickered at them.

“They have a web show together,” Cally muttered over to her, motioning to the boys. “They’re super funny and charismatic.”

Evony nodded quietly.

Cally then turned and gave her a look of intrigue while Thomas and Javari continued talking.

“How come you’re way out here by yourself?” she thought to ask again. “We usually never see anyone walking around out here. That’s why people race blasters here.”

Evony slowly opened her mouth, sighing and pocketing her hands again. “I was just out for a walk before I go over to the lodge. He wanted me to start today, but he said I could show up whenever I wanted, so…”

“Sooo… you have some time to kill,” Cally smirked, a sudden twinkle in her eye. “You wanna ride a blaster?”

Evony stopped, wanting to reply, but falling speechless.

“Oh, you totally should,” Javari grinned. “You’ve never been on one before? You really fuckin’ should.”

“Highly recommend it,” Thomas agreed with a nod.

Evony stared at the three of them, suddenly feeling spotlighted. She hadn’t felt peer pressure ambush her in such a way since she was in school.

“I don’t wanna impose,” she uttered thoughtlessly.

“Nooo… not imposing , no,” Javari laughed, swaggering toward her and making a bow. “We are welcoming you, my lady. Welcome to Silverhollow. This is how we show you it’s not anywhere near as dead and boring as it looks here.”

“Yeah. That’s true. And hey… if this great big ball of attention-deficit fuckery doesn’t convince you,” Thomas remarked, gesturing around Javari while he smirked at Evony. “Then let me add; we can take blasters all the way up Mt. Crumpet, and they can go into flight mode.”

Evony’s gaze moved between them all again, feeling nervous and hesitant.

“I d…” she muttered. “I don’t have the, um…”

She motioned her finger around the helmet tucked under Cally’s arm.

“Oh. We have more.” Thomas snapped his fingers and spun on his heel, marching over to his blaster and reaching to the back.

Behind the elongated seat was a hatch—and he popped it open, pulling out a helmet just like everyone else’s, spinning it around atop his hand, and raising his eyebrows at Evony, cocking his head and smirking expectantly at her.

Now, with no further excuses to use, Evony let out a sigh, glancing briefly over at the dirt trail and back.

“I don’t know if I should right now… um…”

“Come ooon ,” Cally begged, tugging on her sleeve excitedly. “Oz said you can show up whenever you want!”

Evony gave her an uncertain look.

“Can I be back at the lodge by five?” she asked.

“Oh yeah! Totally!” Cally promised. “We have somewhere to be at five-thirty anyway, so that’s perfect.”

“Oh… oh, are we kidnapping her?” Javari said.

“Yeah.” Thomas stepped forward and nodded, handing the helmet to Evony. “We are.”

“Yesss!” Cally beamed, punching the air with delight. “Okay—you can ride with Thomas, and I’m with Javari. C’mon!”

Evony huffed out a breath, surveying the helmet before placing it on her head and strapping it under her chin, the transparent shield in front of her face looking fogged and smudged, so she wiped it with her sleeve.

Javari and Thomas marched over to their blasters and mounted them, Cally leaping on behind Javari. Evony sighed once more, draping a leg over the back of Thomas’s vehicle and sitting down on it, reluctantly sliding her arms around him.

Both of them started their blasters—and Evony swallowed a gasp, the mechanical beast beneath her suddenly roaring to life and jolting up from the ground as its propulsions unleashed explosions of air underneath them.

Thomas leaned forward, gripped his handlebars tight, and glared at the distant mountain that loomed over town from down south—the tall, craning, and snowy Mt. Crumpet.

“Three-thousand feet up, up the side of Mt. Crumpit,” he uttered in a low, comical voice that sounded both throaty and lisped. “We fly way up high to the tiptop to dump it! ”

Evony sputtered out a laugh, giving him an odd look from behind. “Is that a Grinch reference…?”

She gasped aloud; the blaster launched forward and she snapped her arms viselike around Thomas as the vehicle took off at a breakneck speed, Javari speeding along beside them.

At once—Evony was fully engulfed in sheer thrill and nothing else, adrenaline coursing through her as the two blasters shot across the snowy terrain along the beach.

Then—to shock her even more—Thomas hit a button on the center console of his handlebars, and something behind their legs snapped open on either side of the vehicle’s metal shell, two elongated wings suddenly constructing themselves out of nowhere. The machines entered flight mode—the propulsions erupting with fire rather than air—and both blasters ascended into the sky, whizzing off the ground and soaring across the open horizon with total, enrapturing freedom.