Loreto Run

Fast Action, Low Tech

“Hey Gui, why do you do it?” 

The sound of the engine roaring and the wheels shifting over the crevices in the desiccated ground wouldn’t drown out the question. Gui was enjoying the recent fame he and the other Runners were getting. He shifted gears, felt the wavering in the engine and the eventual windup. His buggy spurred forward. 

The fame had its benefits and Gui was not opposed to ‘cashing out’ with the on-site workers that were moonlighting intimate encounters for extra cash. There were plenty willing to do it for free but in Gui’s personal experience, you got what you paid for, and often more than you wanted. 

“Manuel, you got metal on your ass,” Gui spoke into the mic in his helmet. 

Gui felt the explosion more than heard it. 

“Ya, no, Gui,” came the response. 

Gui smiled as his wingman pushed his buggy in tandem with Gui. The new corporate espionage drones were more plastic than metal. A rival company was sending them to spy on the fracking facilities at Nuevo Loreto. Saguaro Ltd. Wouldn't spring for properly kitted security force so the community workers and union security decided to improvise. 

It was Manuel’s idea to kit out the buggies they used to move between the site’s buildings. He told stories of the crazy races of the facility’s namesake and the absolute nutjobs that drove the vehicles. Cranking up the engines was easy and throwing a jammer in the back was simple. The enemy didn’t like this. Interrupt the signal to their drones long enough and they shut down. This allowed the drones to be salvaged, researched, and eventually the perpetrators were identified. This led to lawsuits, and lawsuits meant a loss of money, something suits never handled well. 

Long story short, there was a technological arms race as the brains behind the drones and the workers of Nuevo Loreto squared off against each other. Then they started arming the drones, several drivers were killed. In response the drivers started hunting down the drone command vehicles and going after the operators. 

The other workers had started capturing the exploits of Gui, Manuel, and the others on private video or uploading the security camera footage to the nets. It was Gui and Manuel who found the first command vehicle and as it tried to escape Manuel tossed an improvised pulse grenade under its chassis flipping it over. As the occupants stumbled from the wreck Gui and Manuel fell upon them in a fit of rage beating them to death. The viewers were amused. 

Instinctively, Manuel and Gui split apart just as a trail of geysers ran between them. Gui checked his rearview mirror. Three drones mounted on monowheels were in pursuit. Gui identified the armaments of the left and right as some variant of non-projectile machine gun. The center sported some nasty looking spiraled cannon, like something out of an ancient science fiction novella. Gui did not want to find out what it did. He flipped a switch and a panel on the rear of his buggy popped open releasing a mass of caltrops in his dust. The drones dodged them. 

“Merde,” cursed Gui, “Manuel, we got upgrades, they can detect plastic.” 

“Si, camarada,” Manuel’s response came in through static and noise. 

The question was niggling the back of Gui’s mind. A dangerous prospect given the circumstances. Tiana’s family were food stuff distributors contracted by Saguaro, she herself, drove the food truck out to the long-range workers like Gui. Manuel and the others constantly teased him for crushing on her the way he did. 

They had been joking as she packed flautas for him and the others. Maybe it was the recent attention that pushed him forward, but he bragged to her about his stardom and that now that he was a bigshot, she should go dancing with him. She accepted. 

Early the next morning as she lay against him, her head cradled in his shoulder she had asked the question. Honesty was never prudent in these situations. He raised his hand toward the popcorn ceiling closing it into a fist as if he was clutching the wheel of his buggy. 

“Because it feels good,” he had said. 

“Hey muchacho,” Manuel’s voice brought him back to reality. 

“Pasémoslos por el guante,” said Manuel. 

Gui grinned, “Let’s test their upgrades.” 

Gui turned the wheel left while depressing the brake and the hard turn pushed his back into his seat. He floored the accelerator at the turn and sped off through the resultant cloud of dust. Their sensors would be clouded but he knew it wouldn’t shake them. Gui sped off towards the open desert with Manuel and the drones in hot pursuit. 

Since the Exodus and the Fall of the West, much of the landscape had been altered by nuclear fire. The Eastern side of Baja was no exception. The fire had warped the earth turning it into a twisted fantasyland. Manuel and Gui turned sharply to the right kicking up another cloud of dirt and ran their buggies down a natural dirt ramp into a hidden canyon. The fallout had soaked in deep here, it would interfere with the signal forcing the drones to rely mostly on internal programs. 

Good luck thought Gui as he and Manuel navigated the labyrinthine network of rocky pillars that made up the canyon known as the Gauntlet. The drones fired haphazardly at them striking the stone pillars and showering the two drivers in debris. 

“That’s right, keep following us, you soda bottles,” said Gui. 

A divide in the path forced them to split and since they grew up together Gui took the right, Manuel took the left. The two machinegun toting drones followed Manuel while the one bearing the funky cannon continued pursuing Gui. 

“Alright, you Boris Vallejo reject let’s see what you can handle,” yelled Gui. 

Gui shifted gears and pressed the accelerator to the floor, the buggy shot forward and Gui’s peripherals blurred. The drone matched his speed. Perhaps it was waiting for this. The moment Gui spared a look into the rearview he could see the ballpoint tip of the cannon begin to glow. A fiery beam seared above Gui’s head and he felt the heat through his suit and helmet. 

“Mother Mary,” Gui swore. 

They put a damn thermal energy cutter on a drone. Whoever these bastards were, they were insane. If that thing hit him, he would be talking to Saint Peter before he realized what happened. The passage of the canyon was two buggies wide, enough for him to swerve but not much else. Lucky for him the curves were constant, and hopefully, the drone’s targeting system wouldn’t get a clear shot. 

He needed to reach his destination, only he could pull of the stunt at the end of the passage. It was his passage, his gauntlet. He swerved to the right as an arc of fiery heat passed by him. Just one problem, right before the trick was a sharp curve, it’s what made it so dangerous. The sharp turn would slow him down and even if the drone didn’t turn him into sliced butter, he needed enough speed to pull it off. 

He dodged to the left avoiding another beam. Drive now, think later. The turn was coming up. It was a sharp L-turn where the passage narrowed. Gui decided to try a stunt he had seen in vids on the net. No time like now to try it out. As he reached the turn, he aggressively turned the wheel and pulled hard on the secondary brake lever. The backend of the buggy swung wide and panic engulfed Gui as his buggy began to spin uncontrollably. 

He desperately tried to regain control as the image of the drone weaved in and out of his field of view. The backend of his buggy struck the wall of the canyon and more panic ensued as he drifted up the curved edge of the wall itself. He managed to wrestle control of the vehicle and without thinking hit the accelerator. The back wheels spun out momentarily in the awkward position on the slanted wall before shooting forward. A blast from the drone’s cannon struck the spot he had been a moment later. Disoriented and desperate Gui threw all caution to the wind and held on to the wheel for dear life. 

The Trick was right in front of him. Who knew what natural or unnatural events took place to form it. When he and Manuel first saw it, their eyes had lit up in wonder and a desperate need to do the impossibly stupid. A wide stone edifice withered by time and the elements and hollowed out by the ravages of war had ultimately resulted in a crude loop de loop. 

Fiery beams seemed to encircle him and through the searing heat Gui cried out as his buggy entered the loop. The gravitational force held him to his seat, but a bizarre weightlessness creeped in, and he wondered if this was the end. 

 The wheels of his buggy stayed true as he made the full loop and continued towards the ramp leading up and out of the canyon. Adrenaline and glee overtook him as he looked through the rearview mirror. 

There are words for glorious triumphs built upon hubris that are suddenly shattered. Gui had no words to express what he was feeling when he saw the drone perform the trick perfectly and continue its pursuit. 

Pushing his buggy to its limits, Gui exited the canyon. The drone followed, blasting away with its cannon. Desperate options began filtering through his mind and a stubborn desire to slam on the brake just to annihilate the bastard even if he didn’t survive consumed him. The sound of laughter crackled over the mic in his helmet. 

“Manuel, you good?’ Gui asked, a slight relief knowing his friend was alive. 

Gui chanced a glance out his window to the left and saw Manuel’s buggy speeding forward with two drones on his heels. 

“Manuel don’t do it,” Gui shouted into his helmet. 

Manuel was heading straight for a nearby hillock and Gui knew Manuel, and even as the words left his mouth, he knew it was pointless. Manuel hit the mount of dirt at full speed and his buggy sailed into the blue sky with the drones following suit. 

“ARRIBA!” 

The clarion call could be heard even without the helmet mic. Gui watched his friend’s buggy float in slow-motion through the air. A quick mental calculation told Gui his friend would land right on top of him, he quickly shifted to the right to avoid calamity. 

Chunks of dirt and buggy parts flew all around as Manuel hit the ground but continued pushing forward. The two drones landed on their compatriot with a loud crash followed by a whump as some mechanism in the cannon overheated and exploded. Waves of heat and shrapnel struggled to catch the drivers but fell behind and receded. 

The two drivers came to a stop, less by choice and more by mechanical failure. Gui was certain his engine had fused into a solid hunk of metal and Manuel’s was literally emitting smoke. The two drivers climbed out of their vehicles and met each other in between them. They greeted each other with whoops and hollers and laughing and a hug. 

“Mariana, tell me you got all that,” Gui spoke into his helmet. 

Marianna squawked in, the sound of static and cheers could be heard in the background. 

“We got it Gui, we got it all. This one’s going viral across the system.” 

“Send the others to come fetch us, the buggies are fried,” Gui said. 

“Will do and tell my husband that I’m gonna kill him as soon as he gets back home.” 

Manuel was slapping his helmet trying to get his broken mic to function, Gui looked at him. 

“¿Qué dijo ella?” Manuel asked. 

“She said you better show as much enthusiasm as you did earlier, later tonight,” Gui lied. 

Manuel smiled. There was a spattering of cursing from Marianna coming through Gui’s mic that his translator auto censored. Gui ignored it. 

“Hey Marianna, is Tiana there?” 

Marianna stopped her tirade, eventually, long enough to say, “One moment.” 

“Hola,” a soft voice rasped into Gui’s ear. 

“Tiana,” Gui said smiling, “I do it because I like it.”