Poison City

Captain Ko and the one-legged man were beginning to lose their advantage of leaving the scene early. Their pursuers were driving obviously new and well-maintained SUVs and trucks, while they were driving an older model of a common brand sedan. Even when Captain Ko floored their gas pedals a couple of times, the rumbling of the engine still did not match the acceleration and speed they were getting.

“Fuck this car. The owner probably loves it being stolen.” Captain Ko cursed once again as he made an illegal sharp right turn at a crossroad, through explosive honkings from other cars, to get into a narrow single lane road.

“I still know how to hotwire a car, if you can find a spot with lots of cars I can try to do it. ” The one-legged man grunted: “But no promises, thanks to the South-Westerners the cars are getting harder to steal without getting the keys.”

“Yeah I know. And we’re not exactly in areas with easy cars to do that.” Captain Ko looked around him.

The road was narrow, and only slightly winding. On both sides were mostly grass and dirt, with some dirty ponds sprinkled around. They were in the cross section area between the Southern Districts and the Northern District, and soon they would cross the edge around Lake Aqiu and into the general area of the Northern District.

This maneuver worked, the pursuing cars did not expect them to take this sharp a turn, and only three cars managed to follow, the rest of them were either left in their way or even crashed into the sides of the original road. Of the three cars that managed to follow, one of them crashed into an incoming car and was thrown in the ditch.

“How long is this road?” The one legged man looked through the back window.

“I’ll just make another quick turn soon, hold on.” Captain Ko shook his head: “Just keep an eye out for anything, okay?”

Before the one-legged man could respond, Captain Ko already made the turn. It was a fork in the road where he turned left, and headed into a narrow path with less lights than the others.

Dirt walls piled on both sides of the road, crooked trees swayed from the night wind. For most of the road the only light sources were the moon and the headlights. There were no other cars in front of them, so Captain Ko could just push his speed way past the legal limit. The only concern he might have would be if there were any police cars hiding in corners trying to ding the speeders.

“They’re catching up.” The one-legged man looked back and said. “It’s dark all around, maybe we should ditch a car and find a place to hide?”

“I can’t stop now, we’re almost at another turn anyway.” Captain Ko took a swift look at the rearview mirror. The Headlights of two cars could be seen from a great distance in the dark. No doubt the pursuers were still on their tail. They needed more time and more distance to actually hide.

If his memories would serve, there was another fork in front of them - a small detour one could take when heading toward the central areas of the Northern District. This was a new path carved from the previously somewhat deserted plain, to connect to some new apartment complexes and communities in the area.

“Okay, do you have any other plans besides getting away from them and sending all the related dirt out?” The one-legged man asked as he counted the shells he carried: “I don’t know who you’ve entrusted those files to, but I wouldn’t count on any of them. It would be a better case if they just threw your shit into the garbage.”

“No worries, I am not counting on any of them.” Captain Ko chuckled: “I just want their enemies to have more arrows in their quivers.”

“And even if those arrows may point to ordinary people one day?”

“ - my friend, you know we don’t have that luxury.” Captain Ko sighed.

Newly established, but still somewhat cheap looking single family houses and townhouses of similar designs began appearing on both sides of the road. New neighborhoods, transplant neighborhoods. A few light posts stood on the outer range of the neighborhood. Out of five or six of them, only three were lit up, while the rest did not even have bulbs. At least from the looks of everything this neighborhood was very sparsely populated.

The rumbling of engines exploded from the left side. A black SUV burst through the dirt and grass piles from on their left. Captain Ko plunged his feet on the brake but it was still too late - the nose of the SUV rammed right into the head of their car. Their simple old sedan was in no way built for this kind of impact, and within the span of seconds they were derailed, thrown into an empty townhouse building on the side of the road.

The moment their car got diverted from their original direction, Captain Ko had activated his Qi to protect himself while clutching the lead box tightly to his chest. The one-legged man activated his Qi as well, though his was considerably weaker.

The entire car tumbled on the ground and went through the side of the building, into the kitchen area. The moment the car stopped moving, Captain Ko coughed and cut the seatbelt with his fingertips and kicked open the car door.

The one-legged man coughed, unfastened himself and tried his best to push the door open. But he was too weak to do so. Captain Ko pulled the door open for him, carried him out of the car and tried to head into a different building.

“No - I can’t. Just go without me.” The one-legged man touched his left waist then took a look at his fingers - they were covered in blood.