The Darkest Minds
Page 32

“That’s one,” I heard Liam say. I turned back, fully expecting to see Rob’s gun trained on me through the blown-out back windshield of our van. Only, Rob was behind the wheel.
Cate was the one in the passenger seat, a rifle steady between her hands.
“Please, just let me go,” I said, grabbing Liam’s shoulder. “I’ll go back with them. No one has to get hurt.”
“Yes!” Chubs said. “Pull over, let her out!”
“Both of you shut up!” Liam said, throwing Black Betty into the right lane and then back into the left. The SUV followed us, more than keeping up. I couldn’t tell if we had slowed down, or if they had somehow gunned it harder, because in the next breath, the SUV rammed into us, and not even the seat belts could keep us from jerking forward.
Liam muttered something under his breath, which was lost in the sudden onslaught of heavy rain. He rolled down his window and threw a hand outside, as if to motion for the SUV to go around us.
“Do something!” Chubs shouted, bracing his hands against the steering wheel.
“I’m trying!” he said. “I can’t concentrate!”
He’s trying to use his abilities. The realization crept up through my terror.
The fat droplets splattering the window blurred the trees around us, but Liam didn’t bother with the wipers. If he had, he might have seen the other car blazing toward us from the opposite direction. Its horn screeched to life and woke Liam from his trance.
The minivan swerved back into the right lane, narrowly missing a head-on collision with the sedan. If that little car hadn’t slammed on its brakes, the SUV would have plowed right into it, too. Both Zu and I whirled around just in time to see the SUV swerve back into the right lane. Rob managed to recover quickly, and they were speeding toward us again before we had a chance to catch our breaths.
“Liam,” I begged. “Please, just pull over. I won’t let them do anything to you!”
I don’t want to go back.
I don’t want to go back.
I don’t want to…
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Green!’ Liam’s voice cut into my thoughts. “Can you drive?”
“No—”
“Can you see better than Chubs?”
“Maybe, but—”
“Great!” he said, reaching back for my arm. “Come on up to the captain’s seat.”
He snorted, even as another bullet pinged against Black Betty’s metal skin. “Come on, it’s just like riding a bike. Right pedal is gas to go, left is brake, steer with wheel. That’s all you need to know.”
“Wait!” But apparently, I didn’t get a say in the matter. He swerved back into the left lane just as the SUV came up for another tap. Instead of speeding up, his foot came down hard on the brake. Black Betty skidded to a halt, and the SUV blew right by us.
It happened too fast for me to put up any kind of fight. He unsnapped his seat belt and pulled me toward the driver’s seat just as he stood from it. The car rolled forward on its own accord and I panicked, slamming my foot down on what I thought was the brake pedal. Black Betty leaped forward, and this time I was the one that screamed.
“Brake is on the left!” Liam flew against the dashboard as the SUV recovered. I heard its tires scream as Rob turned the truck around and kicked up the speed. “Hit the gas!”
“Why can’t he drive?” I asked in a strangled voice.
Chubs pushed the passenger’s seat back far enough for him to climb over it into the back, and Liam took Chubs’s seat.
“Because,” he said, rolling down the window, “he can barely see five feet in front of him. Trust me, you don’t want him to drive, darlin’. Now—hit the gas!”
I did as I was told. The car sprung forward again, sending my heart up into my throat. The wheels spun against the wet asphalt.
Liam was half hanging out of the window, half sitting on it. “Faster!” he said.
The rain fell thick and heavy, but the SUV’s headlights pierced the mist as I drove the van straight toward them. We were going so fast that the steering wheel shook in my hands, jerking around like it had a life of its own. I bit back a frustrated scream and tried to let up on the gas, but Liam wasn’t having it.
“No, keep going!”
“Lee,” Chubs was hunched over in his seat. “This is insane—what are you doing?”
He had been so quiet that I’d almost forgotten he was in the van. With the speedometer creeping past eighty, ninety, ninety-five, I wasn’t remembering much at all.
And that’s when it went to hell.
There was a horrible bang—a thousand times worse than the sound of a balloon exploding—and the van was spinning, the wheel dancing right out of my hands.
“Straight!” Liam was shouting, “Straighten out!”
“Sh—!” The wind was knocked out of my chest by my seat belt, but I fought against the natural turn of the wheel long enough to get us heading straight again. The car tilted back, leaving a trail of sparks on the road behind us. We were staring the SUV down again, making a second head-on pass at them.
“Keep going toward them—don’t stop!” Liam yelled.
But the tire, I thought, my hands strangling the steering wheel, the tire…
Chubs had reached for Liam’s legs, steadying him before he could go flying out the window. “Let go!” he snapped. “I’m fine, I’ve got it now!”