by Gregory Loui
“We don’t know. Just that there’s gonna be something soon and there’s going to be an army of cops bearing down on our asses soon. Wait, actually, I think I heard this from Bones… Where is Bones and, um, what’s her name? The dwarf… Debbie?” asked Asshole, raising an eyebrow as he directed Gore to drive the Magnum Orcus under a massive boulder larger than her apartment complex.
“They are… indisposed,” growled Gore, looking away, clutching her heart in an attempt to stop the damned thing from aching so much. Please, not now… not for a long time, Gore growled to herself. Focus.
“Ah… my condolences,” growled Asshole as he pulled up beside Gore. The massive orc reached out to pat Gore on the shoulder. She stopped him with a glare. “Erm… well, I guess I should, um, continue guiding you to the temple…”
“That would be nice,” growled Gore, rubbing her temples and staying silent for the rest of the journey as Asshole guided the Magnum Orcus deep into the depths of the earth. She shook her head and glanced at Aunt Iron Tusk’s truck, where Marrow and the other rider, one of Gore’s countless cousins, sat. She couldn’t even remember the orc’s name.
Damn it, Gore shook her head again and clutched the wheel. No regrets. No turning back now. Continue down this path to the end. She had to see this all to the finish line. She had to finish this mockery of life.
“Welcome to the lost temple of Malakoran,” growled Asshole, pulling Gore from her self-pity.
A ray of moonlight slashing through the shadows of the rock ceiling, Gore blinked and narrowed her eyes, peering through the silver mist and swirling sands. Then her mouth dropped.
“Blight…” gasped Gore as the remains of an ancient orc temple loomed above the Magnum Orcus. Delicate spiderwebs of stone spun above Gore, bits of glass imbedded into the gaps to emulate the moons. “Beautiful…”
“Strange, is it not? To find beauty in such harsh environments… but indeed, is that not the greatest form of beauty? For a flower blooming in a greenhouses is just a product of capable hands while a flower flourishing in a radioactive hellscape such as this can only be described as a miracle,” murmured Asshole, chuckling and pointing to the center of the temple floor, where a gathering of criminals wandered around their vehicles.
“You should have been a poet,” said Gore, shaking her head and tearing her gaze from above to examine the people milling under a weathered statue at the center. A whole army of Warboyz and other criminals howled for blood.
Gore turned to what loomed above the army. The barest outline of an orc rose from the stone, trying to escape his eternal prison and raising a massive song-hammer high above his head.
“I tried. But you can’t feed yourself with words,” muttered Asshole, shaking his head. The massive orc pointed to an empty spot by the very edge of the gathering. “Now, since you finished last during the Toretto Trials, you will start at the very end of the start line.”
“Seems fair,” growled Gore as she angled the Magnum Orcus through the crowds to the start line, her lips twisting into a snarl. The Warboyz snarled back as they scampered out of Gore’s way.
“Good luck. Now, I got to go and help with the commencement.”
With that, Asshole started to ride off, dragging his two little siblings with him. Butt-monkey blew Gore a kiss as the small orc passed her. Gore gave him two fingers. She was in no mood for even the slightest joke.
“So it begins,” rumbled Aunt Iron Tusk, bringing her tow truck alongside the Magnum Orcus. She whistled. A moment later, Marrow and the other rider jumped onto the roof of the Magnum Orcus. “Good luck. You’re gonna need it.”
“I kinda noticed. But thanks… I need all the luck I can get,” growled Gore, closing her eyes for a moment, letting the Magnum Orcus’s rumble flow through the wheel into her bones, trying to draw strength from the fires hiding within the steel and elchite. If only…
Clenching her teeth tight and slapping herself once more, blood rushing up through her face, Gore sighed, “Let’s do this then.”
This would be her last race. Her gryphon song. Her last chance to redeem herself.
Gore would leave nothing left in the gas tank. Every ounce of gasoline. Every ounce of dragon blood. Every ounce of rage curling in her heart, Gore would pour out, let the fires within rush out to burn down this rotting world. And herself. Gore had no intention of returning. Her life meant nothing. If she could at least make her death mean something, perhaps it would be worth it in the end.
“Wait!” shouted a voice Gore believed she would never have the pleasure of hearing again. Gore blinked, not trusting her own senses, unable to even turn around. Her heart ached. “Wait! Stop you, idiot!”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Ready as ever
Wiping away tears, Gore turned around to see Debbie and Bones walking towards her, climbing down the rocks by the entrance.
“Wait, what?” asked Marrow, leaping off the Magnum Orcus to wrap Bones in a hug while Gore just sat there, gaping at the new arrivals. A thousand questions screamed in Gore’s head, but at least Marrow managed to asked one of them. “How’d you find us?”
“I got a good nose for this sort of thing,” laughed Bones as he rubbed his nose. His eyes locked with Gore. Clear. Gold. Without even the hint of toxic veins. “Besides, Asshole was kind enough to tell me some of the directions. Though I swear some of those turns were just to jagd with us.”
Pulling back around to come up beside Bones, smacking Gore’s brother on the head with his fist, Asshole chuckled and growled, “I was just testing you. If you got confused by a couple innocent errors…”
“Oh, shut up. I want to talk to my sister now. So everyone, would you all kindly jagd off?” growled Bones, glaring at everyone.
“Hey! What about me?” demanded Debbie as she punched Bones in the stomach. Gore’s brother doubling over in pain, his head resting on the sands, Debbie planted one foot on the orc’s head and growled, “Who jagding put you back together after all the shit you pulled? I deserve as much time with her as anyone.”
“But I was the one who convinced you to even come say hello to her.”
“Ah— that’s, um, not entirely false."
“No. Both of you… Just let me destroy my life,” murmured Gore, regaining her voice and composure for a brief moment, looking away, tears streaming down her face. She glared at the gathering of criminals. Her kind. Not a place where Debbie could follow. “Just let me put an end to this all. Let me make things right.”
“By killing yourself? No offense to you, Marrow, but—”
“Offense taken. So are you gonna race together or not?” asked Marrow as he jumped off the Magnum Orcus, taking the other rider with him. Then all eyes turned to Gore. “Well? What do you want, Gore?”
Yes, Gore screamed within her skull. A thousand yeses. She would take Debbie and Bones over anyone else in all the worlds. But Gore bit her tongue, unwilling to let her emotions get the best of her anymore. Unwilling to let the truth fly out of her tongue.
How could they possibly want her? How could they want such a broken and pathetic wreck of a orc? How could they return to someone who had caused them so much harm?
“But… I hurt you,” murmured Gore, slamming her forehead against the wheel. She closed her eyes and tried to wish away the tears as they formed at the edge of her vision. “I broke you, Bones, pushed you back into the bottle. And you, Debbie, I… Oh Blight, I can’t even begin to describe the pain I caused you. How could you ever forgive me?”
“Gore…” murmured both Debbie and Bones at once as they stepped forward, opening the Magnum Orcus and wrapped Gore in a hug. “I—”
“Wait, you want to go first?” asked Debbie, glancing at Bones and raising a eyebrow.
Bones blinked and sniffed, rubbing his nose as he muttered, “Oh, um… kinda, but if you want to go…”
“Then go, you’re her brother!” cried Debbie as she motioned for the orc to go forward.
“But you’re her… eh, what are you two?�
�� asked Bones, smiling and chuckling as he rubbed his chin. “A couple or…”
“Really really good friends,” growled Debbie, rolling her eyes. The dwarf jabbed her finger at Bones’s chin. “And don’t you dare—”
“Um, if I might have a say,” murmured Gore, a crinkled smile on her face, her eyes flashing gold.
“No, you don’t have a say,” hissed Debbie as she continued to glare at Bones. “Come on! Go! Talk to your damn sister!”
Bones sighed and then shrugged, giving in the unstoppable force known as Debbie at last. He muttered, “How do you deal with this, Gore? No. Actually, don’t answer that. It’ll be something nerdy, I’m sure.”
A bemused smile cracking her iron mask, Gore groaned and rubbed her temples. Blight… she missed these bastards.
“Look, do you want the short version or the long version?” asked Bones before Asshole shook his head and cuffed Bones on the back of his numb skull.
Grabbing Bones’s ear, Asshole growled, “We don’t have much time, you can fill her in later. Go with the short version.”
“Hehehe… inappropriate phrasing,” chuckled Bones as he slapped Asshole’s hand away. Then he sighed and looked Gore right in the eyes. Gore gulped as her brother beamed from within Bones’s clear eyes. “The short version is that Aunt Iron Tusk started to get me on the program and that went about as well as you would expect. But then, I got your letter… Fin and some elf chick with burn scars came by and purged everything from my system using ancient medicine and modern magic. Or vice versa.”
Gore’s eyebrows shot up. Tawny helped?
Bones rubbed his arm and muttered, “I’m still not at one hundred percent —kind of living off water, blood pockets, tiny bits of Blight bug, and sugar, lots of sugar— but I was good enough to escape Aunt Iron Tusk’s place and find Debbie. After that, we kinda chased you down. And here we are now. I’m sorry.”
“But why?” managed Gore through her clogged throat. “Why’d you come back?”
“There are way too many reasons but I think you already know the big one. We’re family, Gore. I couldn’t leave you… Look. You failed me. And… I failed you. We failed each other.”
“True,” gasped Gore, tears still leaking down her cheeks. The two siblings carved wounds into each other deeper than even a great dragon’s bite. “I’m sorry. For everything I did.”
“And I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you, all the times I’ve failed you. Over and over and over again. I didn’t deserve to be rescued. I didn’t deserve redemption. But then you came back to help me out when I—uh… when I… you know, fell back into the bottle,” muttered Bones, his eyes diving into black. Gore’s eyes followed him. “I can’t let you continue down the road of self-destruction by yourself. Not after I got so close to the end. There lies only ruin and death if you go alone. Please forgive me and let me help.”
Gore blinked away the tears as she tried to gulp down the damn lump in her throat.
“Thank you,” Gore managed to croak out.
“No prob, sis. Might as well try to act like an older brother while I still got my wits about me,” growled Bones as he pulled Gore into a tight hug. “Blight, you got big…”
Squeezing her eyes shut, pleading to all of time and space that this was real, Gore let her brother hold her for a long moment before she half-hissed, “Blight, you smell.”
“Hehehe,” chuckled Bones as he let go, ruffling Gore’s hair as he jumped onto the roof of the Magnum Orcus. “Now… I think someone else wants to talk to you…”
Then Gore turned to Debbie, looked into those big, brown eyes.
Before Debbie could speak, Gore nodded and murmured, “I am sorry. I am so sorry. Beyond words… If I could— I wish I could take back those words. I wish I could turn back time to before I got us into this mess.”
“Ooh, if you could go back in time, please make sure to tell me not to talk to my cousin Bob at the family reunion!” laughed Debbie, caressing Gore’s cheek as her eyes fell. Gore reached out and picked up Debbie’s chin, lifting her gaze back up. “I couldn’t let you go alone. Not after all that’s happened. Not after you rescued me. You don’t need to do everything by yourself. You’re not alone, when will you realize that?”
“But I…” gasped Gore before Debbie placed a finger on her lips, silencing her. A light touch but it held the weight of Gore’s world within.
Debbie smiled, her face breaking apart as she murmured, “No. Even if you stabbed me in the back, Aunt Iron Tusk and Bones told me that you had your reasons —even if they were kinda jagded up reasons. I was selfish and thought I could do things my way. I didn’t think about your position.”
“No. You did,” growled Gore, shaking her head. “You are the most selfless person I know. How could you possibly be selfish? I’m the one at fault. I—”
“How about we split the difference and say you both were at fault?” growled Aunt Iron Tusk, stepping out of her tow truck and leaning against the Magnum Orcus.
“That sounds good,” chuckled Gore, shaking her head and looking into Debbie’s eyes. She murmured her apology once more. “I’m sorry.”
She knew she was at fault. But she also knew she couldn’t fix this on her own. Gore had to trust in her friends, let them make their own decisions. She had to let somethings out of her hands.
“I forgive you. And I’m sorry. We’ll work through this together. After all, what sort of friend would I be if I left you alone when you march into certain death?” murmured Debbie as she flicked away one stray strand of hair. Then the dwarf blushed and looked into Gore’s eyes. “And well, I…”
There was that same look. That same look Gore had every time she looked at Debbie. How could she have missed the obvious?
Could she take the leap? Gore glanced at the statue of Malakoran. Then she glanced at the distant horizon. She thought of the coming race, of the possibility —no, almost certainty of her death.
Nothing left to lose.
“Yeah, I know,” murmured Gore before she could stop herself. She closed her eyes and summoned her courage. “Me too. But… I always thought you—urgh, never mind. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Well, it will matter when we win this damned thing,” murmured Debbie, lunging forward and head butting Gore in the forehead. Gore smiled and kept the dwarf’s flesh close for a long moment. Then Debbie let go and asked, “I hope you didn’t find our replacements quite yet.”
Gore glanced at Aunt Iron Tusk, her eyes asking her question.
“It is your choice. You three started this journey, went through the fires together. It’s only fitting if you three cross the finish line together,” murmured Aunt Iron Tusk, a grim smile splitting her lips as she pat Gore on the shoulder. “Whatever you do… do it with pride. For you are an orc. Remember that. Struggle is tempered into our soul from before birth. Adversity is our lifeblood. If you must choose a path, choose it with your heart steady as you walk down into the valley of death with your head held high! Make your mother proud. But most of all, believe in yourself for once.”
“I’ll try,” growled Gore, reaching out a hand.
“If that’s what you can do… do it with all your might,” growled Aunt Iron Tusk, almost crushing Gore’s hand in her massive claws.
“Thank you,” growled Gore as she turned to her two teammates. “You guys ready?”
“Of course,” laughed Bones, offering Gore a fist bump. She took it.
“What would you do without me?” asked Debbie. The dwarf lunged forward and wrapped Gore in a tight hug. “Let’s end this how we started it… together.”
Gore opened her mouth to speak—
“Um…” interrupted Asshole, jerking his head to the starting line, “The race is about to start soon. So… if you guys would kindly stop the emotional mastodonshit and get the jagd over there, I would very much appreciate your cooperation.”
“Oh, stuff it up your rear,” cackled Bones as he pulled back the hammer of the Dakka in a sharp p
ing. “I know you like it there.”
“Shut up!”
As she closed the door and eased her foot onto the accelerator, Gore chuckled. Though everything had changed, in a way, Gore’s world had fallen back to normal. If one could call anything in Gore’s life normal.
She smiled. If she was going to die, at least she would do it with a friend on one side and her brother on the other.
Then Gore turned to the starting line. As the Warchief stepped off the Blight-krieg and onto the statue of Malakoran, Gore readjusted her goggles and opened the Magnum Orcus’s panel. Her fingers then brushed against the Magnum Orcus’s wheel, pausing on the flower in the flames.
She smiled.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Grand Prix
“Welcome… Welcome! WELCOME TO THE GRAND PRIX!” roared the Warchief, raising his song-hammer high into the sky, mirroring the statue he stood upon. “Ah… good to see you all could make it!”
The crowd of criminals roared, the entire cavern shaking. Gore’s hands trembled but she just ignored them all as she focused on the path ahead. Out into the Blight, a desolate wasteland bathing in the moonlight, still as death. Rough crags and jagged spikes rushed out of the earth, forming a endless labyrinth into the horizon.
But the wasteland seemed almost small before Gore as she closed her eyes. The rumble of the Magnum Orcus flowed through her. The heat of the core washed out through the seams, filling Gore’s veins with fury and hunger for battle.
One last race. One last battle. Do or die…
Gore chuckled. No point in philosophy now. No point in contemplating her navel. No point in allowing her thoughts to stray. There was nothing she could do but ride. She would leave nothing else in the gas tank. Not her rage or despair or even hope. Everything she had, she would pour into the Magnum Orcus.
And perhaps that would be enough.
“For over five decades, the greatest racers in the world have gathered in this sacred land to test their metal against me! For money! For glory! For revenge! ALL HAVE FAILED! THEIR BLOOD HAS SERVED TO FERTILIZE OUR SACRED LAND!” roared the Warchief as Gore let go of her wandering thoughts and cleared her mind, focusing all her senses on the present. The Warchief strutted around the statue. Gore growled. “This time will be no different! The prize of five million dollar leafs awaits those who can not only survive but thrive against me!”