PART 23 - THIN ICE

 A drum couldn't compete with the sound that came from the roof. The dents formed were almost a punch further from ripping the whole roof apart. My ankles, swiveled through their joints, slipping through the pedals, which moved the car in every direction that a compass could point. Air passed out of me faster than a pricked balloon with a pin. The air seemed to get thin, each time, the tension built through my pressurized arteries and veins. I clenched onto the steering harder than the friction screeching tires did on the ground. The smell of burning runner was able to get to smear its stingy sensation through the van, and I coughed my eyes out until they could camouflage in the with red roses. With the chaos that brewed, I thought it was only the punches that could surprise me until, I heard a female voice come from the back of the van. My neck stiffened, as well as, increasingly eager to turn and see who was also in the car. I ignored the noises and tried to focus on the road. The van suddenly felt like it had lost, a ton of weight and the speedometer, was happy to let me know, I could move at a much faster pace with the car. Some of the citizens of the city, began to look at the van in complete surprise of what was happening. The side mirror, offered a view, that I tried to gaze at with an eagle's precision. The faint view of a body of a person crawling up from the ground look towards the direction of the van and was coughing. Some of the citizens looked to helping him and trying to get him up.

"Ahh...Ungh" A sluggish and exhausted Nicholas, began to make his murmurs and sounds, as he held onto the side of the van. "Wooow...HAHA! Look at this guy!" The female voice that I heard in the car suddenly jolted the van with an unexpected excitement that threw off my concentration for a slight second. I looked back to see, and it was the lady that I met at the club. "Huh?? What? What... How??  Whaat?!" Complete shock grabbed me by the neck and strangled my words. Her drunk state, only seemed to be entertained by Nicholas' sluggish and exhausted, murmurs and erratic movements. She moved closer and closer to the front, with her can of liquor, that generously poured all over the back of the van, due to her stagger and shakiness when holding her can. "Move! Move!" I tried to brush her off, in order to focus on the road, as she became a menace, towards trying to get my control on my already shaking driving.

After a few minutes, Nicholas started to awaken and talk comprehensive sentences, and speech that could make sense. The joy that captured me, could be shared around the world to make everyone happy, as the lady finally, left me alone, and succumbed to her liqour and passed out, as she didn't seem to be entertained by Nicholas' sober state. "Eyyy Nicholas! Whats up?! Good morning uhm oh a evening?!" I said. "Huh? Who are you? Where are we? Where are we going?" Nicholas asked his questions. "Uhm, well, uhm, I'm Timmy, and yeah, I;m Timmy" I replied. We traveled through the outskirts for sometime and the base was still a few kilometers away. In a span of a second, I wish, my eyes had fooled me. I drove past a small path, and doubted, if I had just seen James, Susan and Mary.