Chapter 07: Canvas of Possibilities

Peg and Josie returned to Midnight Cruiser and while Josie grumbled about Miguel, Peg did her best to think of a way to reveal Miguel for the monster he really was. Despite running Miguel's words through her head, she worried that he was right. The church might not know everything he was doing, but they wouldn't risk bad publicity this late in the Derby.

“I knew he was an asshole but I didn’t think he was also some self righteous psycho.” Peg said as she sat at the edge of Midnite Cruiser’s coal bay.

“I wanna punch his face in!” Josie growled while stomping her feet.

“Yeah you made it very clear when you broke that table. The table cost most of our, or rather my, money just so you know.”

Josie apologized while stomping her feet a little softer.

“Either way, we’ll need to put a pin in the Miguel stuff for now and focus on the bramble.”

“Bramble? What’s that?” Josie asked.

Peg reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a piece of paper worn by time. It was quite fragile so she carefully unfolded it to reveal a map of The Great Stalk. Using her index finger she traced a line from the roots where the Derby began and all the way up the stalk until it was right below the clouds. The rest of the page above the clouds was unfinished but where her finger landed showed a crisscross pattern with the word ‘BRAMBLE’ written in parentheses.

“It’s a collection of thick vines tangled together covered in large thorns. To get to the finish line in the clouds we’d have to make it past these first.”

“That’s it?” Josie asked. “Between me and Midnite Cruiser we can cut through that junk like butter.”

“Not necessarily.” Peg replied, shaking her head.  “ Do you know what ‘Hard Green’ is Josie?”

Josie tapped her chin and thought for a moment. “Maybe? I feel like I heard it before at the factory.”

“That would make sense, it's quite valuable material. Most of the Stalk is made from it. It’s impressively durable, harder than most metals, and that makes it quite difficult to harvest and quite expensive. The road we’ve raced on is Hard Green and the bramble is too.”

“So you’re saying that stuff is going to turn us into that cheese with holes in it?” Josie asked.

“Well no, not exactly-”

“Donut maybe?”

“We’re not turning into food with holes!” Peg groaned while rubbing her temples. “What I’m saying is that we can’t just brute force our way through the bramble. We’d never make it out.”

Peg looked back at Midnite Cruiser and smiled.

“That’s why Cruiser’s so much smaller than all the other vehicles. There will be pockets we can find that we’ll squeeze through. The other vehicles will get torn apart or stuck but we’ll be able to slip through with minimal damage. As long as we don’t miss our shot we’ll be fine. Trust me Josie, I got everything planned.”

Peg turned to look at Josie expecting to find her trademark smile and confidence bursting from the seams. Instead she found something unfamiliar, Josie appeared deflated. She was looking down at the ground and mumbling to herself.

“I didn’t know that…” Josie whispered..

“Oh that’s not a huge deal. It’s so high up that most wouldn’t know-”

Tears started streaming down Josie’s face as she sat, gripping her legs and burying her face in her knees.

“There’s so much stuff we- that I don’t know,” Josie cried, unknowingly parroting the words of Peg’s assassin. She sniffled while wiping away tears but still not looking in Peg’s direction. “You weren’t the first team I talked to, didya know that?”

Peg shook her head.

“I went to a few different teams, big ones. A few of them wanted me as soon as they saw how strong I was but then I told them why I wanted to go up.”

“To go to the top right? See the clouds?”

Josie shook her head.

“I do want to see the clouds but…”

Josie pointed at Peg’s map but specifically above the clouds. The rest of the page was blank, as if the artist left the map unfinished.

“I want to go to the top, the real top of the stalk. Where no one else has gone. Everybody laughed at me, called me a dumb kid who believes in fairy tales. But then I overheard one of them mention you and how your team all got up and left so I went to find you.”

The silence filled the air around them and hung heavy. Josie couldn’t take it and her crying got louder as she did her best to hide her face.

“And I’ve always been strong! No matter how bad it got, I always took care of things! Always! But there’s smoke people and dramble or whatever you called it and I don’t know anything and I-”

Peg nearly spoke up ready to mention how Josie had taken out ‘Smoke People’ all by herself or how she handled herself running with all the other vehicles in the Derby, but she didn’t. Instead she listened while Josie sobbed and beat herself down about how stupid she was to think she could do this. This made Peg realize that from the moment she met her she didn’t see Josie for who she was. Past the incredible strength, infectious smile and laughter there was a scared little girl. A girl filled with the same fear that Peg took years to push past herself. She thought about the nights after losing her parents where she cried herself to sleep knowing that she’d be living her life without them. Peg walked over to pick up the map from the floor as Josie continued to weep.

“My mom made me this map when I was little. My parents knew there’s something above the clouds and they went missing trying to prove it.” Peg walked towards Josie. “But I know if I can get through the clouds I can finally find them. People laughed at me too and made me feel pretty stupid but it doesn’t matter to me.” 

She knelt down to meet Josie at eye level gently lifting her face from her knees. She lifted the map up between them, holding it by the blank portion and right before Josie’s eyes Peg ripped it cleanly in half. She then handed half to Josie who sat there mouth agape.

“My parents knew there was more to this Stalk, to this world than we know and they promised to uncover every corner they could. That’s why everything above the clouds is blank, because it’s a canvas of possibilities. Now I’ll make a promise to you. No matter what happens, even if we get separated, our goal is going to be reaching the top. We’ll fill this emptiness together and we’ll never have to be afraid because we’ll always have each other, Ok?”

Josie looked at the map and Peg and for the first time in their partnership was absolutely speechless. Thankfully, no words were needed when Josie reached up to grab her half of the map and tears welled up in her eyes again. These were not tears of sadness or embarrassment like moments earlier. Instead, these tears freed her and lifted a humongous weight off her tiny shoulders. She leapt into Peg’s arms, hugging her tightly with a big grin across her face. Once her emotions settled she looked up at her quizzically.

“So how we gonna’ get past the clouds?” Josie asked.

Peg looked down and smiled. “Well about that…”

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A familiar voice boomed over the loudspeaker cracking through the crisp early morning air. “WITH NO MORE DROP OUTS WE ARE HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THE FINAL 9 TEAMS!” 

Each team was named in placement order, with Josie & Peg’s ‘Midnite Cruiser’ coming in fourth and Miguel with the Church’s ‘Wings of Leo’ having a tight grip on first place. The announcer explained the final leg of the race, going over the same things Peg had spoken of earlier about the Bramble. Josie looked around from the coal bay and noticed other team’s decided to take the approach of adding more shielding to their vehicles to withstand the thorns. The starter pistol exploded for the last time and the final leg of the Millennia Derby began.

Mere minutes into the race, the fight for first place began. The hulking machines tried their best to rip and tear through the thick bushes of thorny vines but as Peg predicted they were either torn to shreds or immobilized within the bramble. Midnite Cruiser on the other hand was making light work of everything. While the others were focused on getting through the thick thorns, they were able to drive through the course with ease. Peg kept her eyes peeled until she noticed the exact pocket of space she wanted.

“Haven’t seen anything yet!” Peg yelled out from the driver’s seat. “Just keep loading up!”

They continued ducking and diving through the bramble, taking light scratches here and there as the entanglement of thorns grew tighter and tighter. While searching for the perfect opening, Peg noticed a small group of people who seemed to have fallen from their vehicle and into the bramble. Every bit of logic in her brain was telling her to keep moving and ignore them. However, her conscience vetoed her sensibility. In a split second decision, she veered off course to help them. 

As she approached, she realized the people in the bramble weren’t people at all. Body doubles had been arranged in gruesome positions, covered in what looked like fake blood. Peg cursed, knowing she’d been tricked. Before she could get back on track, a shot rang out and landed squarely into her shoulder. Peg screamed in agony as Midnite Cruiser grinded to a halt.

Josie had been busy shoveling coal, but the piercing sound had shocked her from her work. She jumped out of the coal bay and on top of Midnite Cruiser to get an idea of what was happening. Peg was clutching her shoulder as blood flowed freely down her arm. At that moment, she heard a rustling noise and saw none other than the huge ‘Wings of Leo’ emerging from the bramble. Standing at the coal bay, holding a pistol, was Miguel himself. Not only that, his pistol’s sight was locked squarely on Josie.

“You had every chance in the world to turn back,” Miguel menaced, pulling back the hammer. “But I can’t lie, I’m glad you didn’t listen.”

With a smirk, Miguel pulled the trigger. His aim was true and with one shot he landed a bullet directly into Josie’s forehead.

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To Be Continued

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