2

Fred felt a surge of adrenaline go through his body, and stepped on the gas even harder. The car’s engine roared, as if yelling to the passengers that it wouldn’t take it for much longer. Dan turned around, and Fred caught a glimpse of his friend’s widened eyes, looking really worried. Dan stepped on the front seat and made his way through to the back seat.
“James! Wake up!” he shouted to the limp body of his friend, “Oh God, what’s the use of being able to heal people if you can’t fucking heal yourself? Roger, how much time ‘till the chopper gets here?”
“Really long bridge, that one… How can I get to that bridge Fred?” asked Roger, who waited for an answer for about a second and then went back to looking at the bridge. He stared at it for another of couple of seconds, while Dan shook him trying to get an answer, and then turned at looked at James. “James’ dying in 10 minutes…” he concluded and started sobbing.
“Oh holy shit, we’re fucked,” said Dan, looking through the front window and at Fred, then back to the front window, and then back at Fred.
Fred threw the cigarette out through the window and put both hands on the wheel. They were still on the freeway, so he took the next exit and headed towards the ocean. I just need to hide behind a big building or something, he thought. He turned right, then turned left and came to a dead end alley. He hit reverse and as soon as the car was back on the road, he heard an engine coming towards them from far away. His heart was pounding against his ribs as he made a complete turn and went back into the freeway. He had a plan.
“What are you doing Fred?!” shouted Dan, “They are gonna see us if we’re ON A FUCKING FREEWAY”.
Fred turned around and, trying to sound like he knew that they were going to make it, he said “I know what I’m doing”.
He made his way out of the freeway and took the nearest exit towards the hospital. Saint Piero’s Hospital was right in the middle of one of the most expensive and luxurious neighborhoods in town, and was part of one of the biggest shopping centers in the country. As a result to this, the streets were always crowded and the traffic was horrible. Fred counted on that.
He turned right, turned left and right once more and started taking off his shirt.
“Grab me. Dan, lift James up and put him on my lap, NOW!”
Dan looked at him and considered for a minute asking if he had gone insane.
“Roger, bro, I'm gonna need you to hug me from the back seat, ok? Just put your hands on my neck and pretend I'm caring you up, ok?”
Roger stopped sobbing and giggled, and jumped forward trying to hug Fred with the seat between them. Dan had managed to lift James up and thrown him on Fred’s lap, who was stuffing his shirt in one of his pockets.
“Ok Dan, on my call, you’ll take my—Roger, don’t hug so hard, I can’t breathe. Ok, Dan, when I say it, you’ll grab my shoulder, got it?”
“Oh shit, no. Are you crazy?” replied Dan, finally figuring out Fred’s plan, a little between amusement and shock. “You can’t do it, not carrying three other guys. You could die, or we could die, and I just fucking didn’t lift a thousand cars so you can kill me a couple of minutes later”.
“Great, thanks for the moral support; just do it, ok? Or you wanna burst all of your left hand’s fingers?”
“No, it hurts,” said Dan, “I’ll take my chances with you,” he concluded, smiling.
The last cars caught in the horrible traffic were only a mile away, and they could hear the helicopter really close now. Fred waited for another second, and stepped on the pedal as far as it could go. The car started gathering speed, heading toward the cars that were on a complete stop right in front of them. Fred grabbed the wheel harder with one hand, and put the other one on Roger’s arm.
“Dan, you better grab me now, we can’t rely on your good timing. And, Roger, whatever happens, don’t let go, ok?” said Fred, to which Dan replied by grabbing him and Roger nodding happily.
They could see the back of the head of the people sitting calmly, unknowingly, in their comfortable cars, not a care in the world. With one last look Fred looked for the hospital and found it a couple more blocks down the road, and instantly look back at the car in front of them. PMQ-2501 was the license plate. They crashed onto it.
The two cars collided with the horrible sound of metal being torn apart, and a second later they could hear screams coming from all over the place. Fred’s car was completely destroyed, and the BMW that was so unfairly hit was in a bad shape too. People came running to help the injured and started pulling out the doors. But there was no one in the cars. They were both empty.

1

"Fred, don't stop!" Dan shouted, "Roger, can we make it?!"
"Shit, we're not gonna make it!” said James rapidly, in a loud, harsh whisper, almost to himself, "Shit, shit, shit, shit!"
"Nah, it's ok, we'll make it. The traffic light will change to green in 3 seconds" said Roger calmly, "There, see?"
And, in fact, the red light faded quickly and below it a bright green light shone.
The car sped through the wide avenue almost at 90, while three out of the four passengers tried to hold on for dear life to some part of the ’99 Toyota. Roger just sat there, looking a little bit sleepy and staring blankly at the window.
“Oh God, look at the cars, we’re never gonna make it” said Fred, “There must’ve been an accident or something…”
A mile ahead of them the cars were completely stopped. A really big traffic jam took over the entire Creekshaw Avenue and there didn’t seem to be a way to avoid it.
James looked back through the backseat window and shouted “They’re still after us! Damn it Dan, just fucking make us go through!”
The car came to a stop, a couple of feet behind the nearest car and Fred and James turn to look at Dan.
“God fucking damn it man! Do something! I’d fucking do it, but as you can see I HAVE A FUCKING BULLET IN MY FUCKING STOMACH!” shouted James, going a little pale, which seemed almost impossible, as he was already white as a paper sheet.
“Yeah man, we can’t just stay here and wait for them to get us, we’ve never let ourselves be easy to catch,” said Fred, as if everything that was going on was a simple game.
“I’m fucking bleeding, I’m pretty sure that’s part of my lower intestine poking out, SO WOULD YOU STOP THINKING THIS THROUGH AND FUCKING DO SOMETHING?!” yelled James, who was so white you could almost see through him. He spat on everyone while shouting and then fainted, falling roughly on the back seat. Roger turned around, looked at him, pulled some of his hair out of his face and went back to his window-glazing activities.
“Oh God… Ok, whatever, but I am not responsible for what happens, deal?” Dan said to Fred, who answered with a grin and a nod. “Ok Fred, step on it when I tell ya…”
“10 seconds and they’ll be here,” said Roger, pretending his hand was a spider crushing down flies against the window. “9 seconds now…”
“Ok, ok, don’t go all smarty-pants on us, Roger,” said Fred, smiling, “Just watch out, ok? If anything happened to you Mom would killed me.”
Roger gave a small giggle, turned around and started poking James nose. Fred looked back and laughed at the view, but the smile faded in a second: the red and blue lights they had been running from were almost on them. He looked at Dan, looked at all the cars in front of them and thought Fuck it. He took out a pack of Lucky Lights and lit two at the same time. Might as well enjoy it.
Dan was now looking straight out the front window, looking at something that didn’t seem to be there, or just focusing really hard on the car right in front of them. He then lifted his right arm and closed his eyes. Pointing the whole arm to the sea of cars, he kept his hand loose, as if it wasn’t willing to be part of the tension that swept through his whole body. Then, the fingers went rigid, going up to the sky, pointing at the clouds above the cars. Dan kept his eyes closed and screamed as the tip of his fingers made little “pop” noises and exploded, spilling blood all over the front window. A second later the avenue was free of cars.
The first one to go up was the one right in front of them. As if commandeered by Dan’s hand, the car flew up, towards the clouds, although not making it that far. The rest of the cars did the same, going up and then falling abruptly onto the buildings nearby or the sidewalks or other cars. People screamed as they faced their deaths, and Dan screamed as his hand bled. Fred, who has just recovered from the shock of what his friend has just done, ‘stepped on it’, going below the flying cars, and trying to avoid the ones that were already coming down.
“Damn, you really like showing off, don’t you?” said Fred, “You could’ve just lifted us instead of going all Magneto on them…”
“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that, man?” said Dan laughing, clasping his right hand with the left one, trying to control de bleeding.
Fred sped up, avoiding the falling cars and going into the freeway.
“Come on now, wake up, wake up, Jamie… We are safe now, wake up, wake up…” said Roger, and as James didn’t answer, he slapped him. “Wake up I say! Oh look, a bridge…” and he started staring out of the window again.
“Phew, that was close man, although, next time, try not to over do it. Now we have to wait for your fingers to heal again before we can pull another one like that. And I bet that one’s definitely gonna be on TV tonight,” said Fred, driving fast at the freeway, looking for the right exit.
“Hahaha, yeah, but it was cool, you gotta at least gimme that… I think I just outdid myself man. Damn, I wish I had a camera right now. A Kodak Moment worthy of my fridge,” answered Dan, leaving all kind of modesty behind. “Oh don’t give me that look, you know I’m kidding. I was freaking out and didn’t think in just lifting us up… In any case, at least we won’t be seeing those guys again for a while.”
“Helicopter’s coming in a minute and 5 seconds… Ooh, another bridge,” said Roger, as if what he’d just said didn’t mean anything important.
Holy shit, Fred thought, now’s my turn.