Casting Shadows: Upside Down

"Glove box," Tom said.

I grabbed the dash just in time to brace myself for another wild swerve through oncoming traffic as Tom continued to accelerate trying to put distance between us and Olivia. My fingers caught the catch and the door fell open into my lap. Inside, I found a 9mm handgun with four extra clips and a box of ammo. I glanced at Tom wondering if he had been expecting a war. I grabbed the gun without comment.

The safety released underneath my thumb and I twisted around to get an idea of Olivia's exact location. Far too close for my comfort I decided, getting a good look at the front grill of her SUV and her maniacal grin behind the wheel. With all the swerving Tom was doing it was going to be impossible to get any real aim on the vehicle, but I thought it might slow her down if I took a couple of shots. I ejected my seatbelt and turned completely around in the seat, taking the gun into my left hand and trying to get a firm grip despite the awkward feeling.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tom asked, when he realized I had turned around.

"Just drive and try not to hit anything," I said.

"V, you're not in charge over there," Jack's voice said, from Tom's phone on the dash.

"Shut up," Tom and I said in unison.

I leaned out the busted window and squeezed off two shots hoping to get lucky and take out a tire. The first shot threw sparks off the fender and the second sparked the road. I nearly dropped the gun as Tom maneuvered through another group of cars, but I managed to get my arm back inside and adjust my grip. I glanced over my shoulder and as soon we were free of the traffic I leaned back out the window and squeezed off another three rounds. They missed, none getting any closer than first two, but Olivia was getting much closer. I pulled myself back in realizing she was going to hit us and grabbed the seat back just in time avoid getting tossed when the bumpers connected.

"Hold on!" Tom yelled.

I glanced over my shoulder and wished I had not. A wall of oncoming traffic was headed straight for us and Olivia was moving in for another hit. I had no idea what Tom had in mind, but decided I had better do what I could to secure myself. Turning to face the seat back I buried my face in the headrest, engaged the safety on the gun and hugged the back of the seat as tight as I could manage.

Olivia hit the right back corner of the bumper and the car started to spin, tires squealing with dark gray smoke filling the air around the car. I held tight as we spun around like a merry-go-round on a collision course. Tom grunted as he fought against the spin trying to regain control of the car. Almost like a miracle the car stopped spinning for a second and I almost lifted my head to see where we had ended up.

"Ah, shit," Tom said.

An instant later we were flying in the air, tumbling like a tossed coin. The roof compacted in on us when we smashed down onto the highway again. I lost my grip on the seat and fell against the roof, wincing as my back and backside impacted the crumpled surface. Tom's head hit against the roof with sickening crunch and blood began to pool.

"You do realize cars are supposed to keep their wheels on the road?" My mysterious girl said.

Her timing was impeccable as always. I guess I am getting used to her popping in and out of my life because this time I did not even jerk at the unexpected sound of her voice emanating from somewhere just beyond my field of vision. I twisted trying to see her, but I was somewhat stuck in position, staring at Tom and from the corner of my eye I could see the gun which had slipped from my grip. Tom was staring back at me, wide eyed but fortunately conscious. Shaking off the disorientation of the accident, I focused on the immediate problems and decided I did not have the time to entertain the girl. I scrambled to reach the gun expecting it would only be a short time before Olivia or her thugs were on top of us.

"You alright?" Tom asked.

"Better than you I think," I said. "Can you get your seatbelt off?"

Tom reached up toward the release for his seatbelt and gave up after tugging on the belt a couple of times. I pulled myself along the rooftop a few inches, getting closer to the gun and was then able to see out the smashed back window. The road beyond was one giant accident. Cars were sideways, right ways, smashed and smoking. People were only just beginning to shake off the daze and open their doors. There was no sign of Olivia or her SUV in the narrow stretch of road I could see. It was either a very good sign or a very bad one. Grabbing the gun I decided I did not want to wait around and find out.

"Tom, Virginia, somebody answer me," Jack's voice demand from the speaker of Tom's phone, hidden someplace behind me.

"We've got some trouble here Jack," Tom said. "V, if you can get to my boot, there is a knife in there you can use to cut my belt free."

"I hardly think this is a good time to be taking your pants off," I said.

Tom laughed a little. I smiled at the image in my head despite the situation. Like an accordion I wriggled my body back toward the front of the car, squeezing through the narrow space between the two seats. There was not enough space to turn around and get my head facing the right way to even make an attempt at Tom's legs. I was able to get myself far enough back that we were eye to eye again although it was somewhat awkward with him being upside down and all.

"What's your situation?" Jack asked.

"You need to hurry," The girl said.

I huffed, annoyed with all the voices placing demands on a situation they could do nothing about. Closing my eyes for a moment I decided I needed to get myself out of the car and from there I would have a better chance of helping Tom get free. The passenger window had been shattered early on in our encounter with Olivia, but the way the car had crumpled the space remaining between door and roof was a mere fraction of what it had been.

"Is there enough room for me to get out through the front?" I asked.

Tom pushed his hands against the roof of the car and twisted himself to see passed my legs. The amount of blood underneath his head was beginning to worry me, but I figured it would be a bad idea to mention it to him until there was something we could do about it. I tried to twist my own body to the side a little, hoping to give Tom a clear view, but the space inside the car was too tight for moving more than a few inches in any direction.

"It looks tight but I think you can make it," Tom said.

"Good," I said.

I pushed myself in short movements toward the front, trying to feel my way with my feet. Progress was slow but I suspected once I got about halfway out, things would start moving a little faster. Closing my eyes I focused on the sensations in my body trying to determine which muscles to move. Parts of me had gone numb and other parts were wishing they had. I opened my eyes deciding it was probably better if I did not feel too much. The girl was there as soon as my eyes came back to focus, her face only inches from my own, making me jerk in surprise.

"They're coming for you and I can't stop them," She said.

"I don't know if it's a good time to mention it or not," Tom said, "But did you know your skirt is only covering your waist?"

"Figures," I said, to him or to her or to both of them.

"Would one of you tell me what is going on?" Jack asked, sounding more annoyed than concerned.

Tom and I shared a shaking of heads and a smile that told me we both wanted to say precisely the same thing to Jack. It was probably my unintentionally bare bottom which caused me decide against it or maybe it was the frightening face of the ghostly girl right in front of me. Either way I just continued inching my way out of the car and kept quiet.

"No," Tom replied for both of us.

"I'm not kidding around Tom," Jack said.

"Neither are we," Tom said. "The car's a total wreck and V's trying to get out while I'm stuck here. I've got no idea where Stratford is but it's a good bet she's in better shape than we are. So unless you're going to magically arrive here in the next 60 seconds, shut the fuck up and let's us do what we need to do."

"Thank you," Jack said. "Now was that so difficult?"

I did not need to see Tom's face to know he was thoroughly disgusted with our boss and his friend. The differences between the two men were never more obvious than right then with one focused on the practical reality and the other focused on gathering information. I was definitely glad Tom was the one with me in the car because I think if it had been Jack I might have been trying to strangle him rather than save his ass.

"Kyra," Jack said. "Have you got any satellite intel for them?"

I kept pushing my way out. My legs scraped against shards of broken glass and I could feel their tiny bits sticking into me and ripping against the skin with every minute movement. My feet could feel the heat of the engine which I took as a sign I was at least partly out of the car. The girl continued to stare at me in the eyes with a look of desperation in her own. I could only imagine what she was afraid of happening to us, not that I was eager to find out. There only so much I could do though and I knew panicking would be of no use at all.

"The whole area is blacked out," Kyra said, joining the party call. "I've got nothing since about the time of their initial impact."

"Can you extrapolate where the black SUV ended up?" I asked.

While waiting for a response I kept pushing myself out of the car. A small pause in the conversation made me wonder if Kyra was sitting at her computer looking to Dr. Michaels for permission to answer my question. The very thought made my blood boil even though I had no evidence it occurred beyond the prickling intuition in my gut. I shoved a little harder than I had been and felt my butt scrape against the outer frame that once held the windshield in place. I grimaced as my bottom had a new reason to be sore with the prickles of broken glass adding their own unique discomfort.

"Anything Kyra?" Jack asked.

"I think it might have gone off the road into the gully," Kyra said,"But there is something else. I picked up a chopper coming into the zone just before the signal when out."

"Track its source and relay it to my phone," Jack ordered.

I was starting to make more progress with the lower half of my body outside the car and my legs finally able to help me move. Tom was starting to get a glazed look in his eyes, although I was not sure if it was from the loss of blood or the two fingers he was staring at that had found the pool of blood. He blinked and his eyes flickered from his fingers to my face.

"How bad?" He asked.

"Bad enough," I said.

"Tom," Jack said, "Do you think you can hold them off for thirty minutes or so?"

"Not a chance," Tom said. "We've got a problem here."

"What kind of problem?" Jack asked.

"I'm losing a lot of blood here and I pretty much can't move," Tom said.

Our eyes locked on each other and even upside down I could tell he knew his odds were diminishing with every passing second. The girl even appeared saddened by the situation although she said nothing more. I was almost free and despite knowing that freedom was the only chance either of us had, part of me was hesitant to make the final push, leaving Tom alone.

"Virginia?" Jack said.

"I'll get him out," I said. "As for the rest, I'll do what I can but without some help I'm only delaying the inevitable."

"I'm not even sure how long I can do that," I muttered more to myself.

With another push of my hands my entire body was outside the car and underneath the hood. I rolled toward the outside of the car on the driver's side, hoping it would provide me with some protection if Olivia was approaching. The girl disappeared from inside the car and reappeared, standing next to me as I came to a kneeling position just next to the remains of the car's fender.

"You should leave him," She said.

"Not happening," I said.

"Did you say something?" Tom asked.

"Not a word," I said. "Give me a minute to see if I can get this door open."

"That would take some serious power tools and unless your packing something I couldn't see..." Tom said.

I managed to ignore the insinuation although I think my cheeks might have blushed a little. My hands smoothed the rumpled material of my skirt down so it was once again covering more than my waistline. I leaned down next to the window, pushing my head and right arm through the tiny space remaining. Feeling my way up his leg, my fingers came to the top edge of his boot. Stretching my reach to the limit, I still couldn't quite get inside his boot.

"You can't reach it can you?" Tom said.

"I'll get it. I just have to get a little closer," I said.

"You should go," He said.

"What?"

"Go," Tom said, "While you still have a chance."

"He's right," The girl said.

"I can't just leave you here," I said.

Whatever response he would have given was lost when a hand grabbed hold of my leg and yanked, pulling me back out of the car. I twisted in time to catch a boot in the gut and my left hand lost hold of the gun for a second time. A rough hand grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up off the ground only to have another fist send me back against the car. I gasped for air and blinked in the sunlight trying to see the face of my attacker.

A fist came into focus just in time for me to duck. The hand clanged against the side of the car and I pushed myself off, blindly charging the owner. My head and shoulders connected with the soft middle of a much larger person and I knew it was not Olivia at that point but undoubtedly one of her hired hands. The two of us fell as one onto the asphalt and rolled until he brought us to a stop, pinning me beneath him.

He reached behind himself and unsheathed a knife, glistening in the sunlight and sharp enough to split hairs just by looking at them. I decided I really did not want to know what he planned on using the knife for, especially since I had my own ideas in mind. I brought my knee sharply up into groin and a moment later, butted my forehead into his nose. He gurgled a howl as blood spewed from his nose. I shoved him off me and rolled to my feet expecting the fight was far from over, but he remained on the ground, his hands uncertain whether to cradle his nose or his balls. He dropped the knife on the ground and apparently forgot I existed.

I grabbed the knife and ran back to the car. A gunshot echoed in the air behind me and a pinch grabbed me in the back near my spine. My feet stumbled and I fell, face and chest into the side of the car, dropping down to my knees an instant later. The knife dropped from my hand to the ground and I stared at it not understanding what was happening or why I could not breathe. Numbly, I pawed at the knife with my hand and pushed it into the car, hoping Tom could reach it on his own.

The pavement reached up and slapped the side of my face. Oddly, there was no sound or pain, just the close up view of the pavement next to my eye and inside the car I could see Tom staring wide-eyed at me as his fingers brushed over the handle of the knife. Our eyes met for a long moment while I struggled to suck in much need air, but my body simply was not responding. Everything was numb and silent and then the world went dark.