Chapter 5 - The Edge of the Canyon
The sudden deceleration caught the pursuer off guard. The heavy SUV slammed violently into the truck's reinforced steel bumper, crumpling its own radiator grille and sending the shooter flying over the hood, bouncing into the dark abyss of the ravine below.
Sofia floored the gas again, fishtailing around a hairpin turn. Steam hissed violently from the pursuer's pierced cooling system, slowing it down, but the second SUV was already accelerating around its crippled partner, roaring up the grade like a battering ram.
""The bridge!"" Mateo gasped, pointing through the cracked windshield with a trembling, bloodied hand. ""One-lane wood. It won't hold both!""
Ahead, a rusted suspension bridge hung suspended across a hundred-foot canyon cut by the rainy season's torrents. Sofia didn't lift her foot from the pedal. The truck rattled onto the wet planks, the wood groaning and splintering beneath the weight.
Behind them, the second SUV hit the bridge deck at full throttle, determined to push them off the edge before they cleared the other side. Sofia reached into the pelican case between her knees, grabbed an old road flare, and struck it against the dash. Red sulfur flare light illuminated the cab in a hellish glow.
""Mateo! Fuel tank in the bed!"" she yelled.
""Done,"" the old man wheezed, understanding her thought. He had tied three spare kerosene cans near the tailgate.
Sofia tossed the flaming flare out the broken rear window directly into the open truck bed. The kerosene caught instantly, bursting into a wall of fire. The driver of the trailing SUV, blinded by the sudden inferno and panicked by the flames licking his windshield, swerved hard.
May you like
The SUV's tires broke through the rotted wooden railing. For a fraction of a second, its headlights pointed skyward. Then, with a sickening tear of metal and cables, it plummeted into the canyon, vanishing into the roar of the river below.
Sofia crossed the threshold of the bridge just as the burning timbers behind them collapsed into the void. Safe for the moment, but the fuel gauge on the dash was resting dead on empty.
