It was nearly 5 in the morning when they finally got off the plane in Warsaw International. The flight took half an hour; they spent just as long getting through customs, most of the time spent validating Alanna's special press visa and convincing the immigration agent that yes, Sachiko did need to get her exit visa, and yes, it did need to be right now.
"If this is the second easiest Eastern bloc country to get into, I can't imagine how painful getting into an actual Soviet state would be," Sachiko commented quietly when they were alone.
"It's a lot like losing a knife fight," Alanna explained, perfectly deadpan, "although usually not nearly as safe."
Sachiko could believe it.
According to Alanna, their first order of business was travelling farther south to Wroclaw-- the only Polish stop on the Transeuro East line. From there, of course, he could've gone anywhere, but it was definitely a start. The quickest way to get there from Warsaw was by car, she continued to explain to a sleepy Sachiko; there was no airport anywhere nearby, and the mountains in the way made it impossible to travel by train.
They rented a rather blocky looking, distinctly Soviet car from the single rental at the airport, and flew off into the countryside. Sachiko tried looking at the rear bumper before they left to see what the name of it was, with no luck discerning the characters; she couldn't tell if they were Cyrillic, or if she was just that tired.
"Take a nap," Alanna finally suggested. "Map says it's going to take two hours to get to Wroclaw, it's nothing but forests and mountain passes all the way through. You might as well sleep."
"If you say so," Sachiko said, yawning. She'd been awake for nearly a whole day, excluding her brief nap on the plane; even though they were driving into the sunrise, she fell asleep nearly instantly after she closed her eyes.
When she woke up, her head was resting on Alanna's shoulder.
"Wake up, Sachiko. Come on, you have to wake up now," was what she woke up to, Alanna nudging her slightly.
"Hmwha...?" Sachiko murmured, pulling herself upright. She looked over. "Uhm... sorry...." She rubbed her eyes, then yawned.
"Good morning," Alanna said with a smirk.
"Ugh... what time is it?" Sachiko grumbled.
"Time to find out who's blocking the road around the corner," Alanna said, pointing at the map on the car's dashboard. The screen had a little blinking icon marking an obstruction on the winding mountain road, not far ahead from their car's marker. "I would've gotten out and looked myself, but you were stopping me from getting up."
"Ah... uh, sorry," Sachiko quickly said, awkwardly.
Alanna laughed. "It's fine. Sleep well?"
"Uh," Sachiko missed a beat, adding after too long of a pause, "Until you woke me up."
"Well, come on. Let's go see what's in the way," Alanna said, opening the driver side door. Sachiko yawned again, and got out on her own side.
She took a step out then immediately jumped back, surprised. There was barely a metre of space between the passenger side of the car, and a sharp drop off the side of the mountain. After reassuring herself she wasn't going to lose her footing, she looked over the side; the mountain road passed over the most beautiful valley she'd ever seen. In fact, the whole countryside, aside from the dirt road they were on, was overwhelmingly a wonderful green. Grass, trees, rushes growing in a distant river.
Sachiko couldn't help but find it incredibly striking; she'd been used to living in the city all her life and was blown away by the beauty, but most of all, she was struck by the amazing contrast. Just twelve hours ago, she was in the middle of barren desert, surrounded by heavy shelling and even heavier rain; now she was staring at a beautiful valley on a quiet, sunny day.
"Hey! Let's go, Sachiko!" Alanna yelled, breaking the peace.
"Coming...," she replied, walking carefully around the car, catching up with Alanna. The two walked down the dirt road, finding out what the obstruction was the moment they turned the corner; an old, run down van was sitting in the middle of the road.
"Wow!" Sachiko exclaimed, equally amazed at the sight. It looked like it was older than her, possibly even by a decade or two. "Look, Alanna... it has wheels!"
"Yep," Alanna said, nodding. She was less impressed; she'd seen plenty of old cars before, and was more concerned with how they were going to get past.
Just then, she saw a boy-- he couldn't be older than 13-- come around from the side of the van, his attention seemingly attracted by their talking. He shouted something at them in a language neither of them seemed to understand; presumably Polish.
"<Do you speak Russian?>" Alanna asked.
"English only," the boy responded, with a thick accent.
"Even better," Alanna said. Sachiko noticed that she was still speaking with a slight Russian accent, rather than her usual subtle Texan drawl. She wondered if it was intentional or not. "I'm Alanna, she's Sachiko. What seems to be the matter-- car problems?"
"Yeah," the boy said. "My name's Lukasz. Pleased to meet you!" He shook both their hands, enthusiastically. After that, he explained, "The back wheel's stuck on a rock; I can't get over it in any gear."
"Gear...?" Sachiko repeated, puzzled.
"Hush," Alanna said, elbowing Sachiko gently. "How can we help?"
"You look strong. Can you help push? It shouldn't be too hard... I just can't do it myself and drive at the same time," Lukasz said.
"Not a problem," she responded. "Get in, we'll give it a shot."
The boy grinned widely. "Thank you!" he said, scrambling to get back into his van. With an unexpected whurring noise, the engine started up.
"Doesn't he seem a bit young to be driving that?" Sachiko asked, following Alanna to the back of the van.
"By our standards, maybe," Alanna said, putting her hands flat against the van and bracing herself. "Life's different here."
Sachiko followed suit, and the two started to push, the back wheels spinning futily. "You don't say," she said. She grunted a bit, pushing with all her strength; after a few seconds, the wheel caught hold, and the van suddenly lurched forward. Sachiko fell forward, her footing not quite as secure, but Alanna grabbed her by the hand at the last second.
"Aha... thank you," Sachiko said, gaining her balance.
"Thank you very much!" Lukasz shouted at the two of them, leaning out his window.
Alanna waved at him. "No problem!" she shouted back.
She turned around, heading 'round the corner and back to the car, with Sachiko in tow. Sachiko murmured something, and the two got back in. Alanna started the car back up, and lifted off, slowly advancing around the corner and flying harmlessly over the rock that the boy had gotten stuck on.
"You'd think the road would be clear," Alanna thought out loud. "Surely there's enough wheeled traffic along here that someone would keep it passable."
"Hm," said Sachiko, "I wonder why."
They drove on for another few minutes, Sachiko staring out the window into the valley below as they went past, slowly. As the car drove along, it went slower, and slower, and slower, until it finally hit the ground with an unpleasant thud. Both of them jumped up as the car fell, hitting the seat hard.
"Owowow," Alanna cursed, rubbing her sore bottom. "What the fuck was that?"
Sachiko winced, and pointed at the dashboard-- at the little needle pointed to E instead of F. "No juice," she said.
"What? Oh, come on!" she shouted. "It was full when we left!"
Alanna grumbled, slouching back in her seat, thinking of what to do next.
"So what now?" Sachiko asked.
"Well, I don't think we can just get out and push," Alanna said, regaining her cool. "Now we hope that there's a village nearby large enough to get a tow from."
She looked at the map on the dashboard, looking for the closest black dot to where they were; she found one and tapped it, information for the village popping up on the screen.
It was a village named Lubomierz, just 10 kilometres in distance away, and only a 20 kilometre drive off. With a population of 153 as of 2091, it seemed large enough that it would hopefully have some sort of auto repair shop; unfortunately, the map wouldn't give her any more information than that.
Alanna picked up her purse and rooted through it; Sachiko just sat there quietly. She found the big, red phone she was looking for, and pulled it out. It was incredibly scuffed, the plastic worn down; underneath the black and white screen, in a recess, was a dial with 10 numbers on it. Alanna pulled out the long antenna and put it to her ear.
"That's... unusual looking," Sachiko commented.
"You can sometimes get reception on an American phone out here, but not for lack of the Soviets trying," Alanna said. "It's easier and cheaper to just get a Ukrainian one on loan."
"Why's that?" she asked.
"Well, they claim it's unintentional. In reality... well, no Soviet-produced phone is capable of making or receiving an encrypted call. It makes it much eaier for them to record phone traffic that way," Alanna explained. In another place or another time, it might've sounded like a crazy conspiracy theory; but Sachiko could believe it. "Now, excuse me for a second... I need to get us a tow."
Alanna pressed a button on the side of the phone. "<Operator,>" she said in Russian, waiting for it to ring. "<Russian. Okay.>" Another pause as she was redirected. "<Hi. Yes, I'm stranded, 20 kilometres away from Lubomierz, without any fuel. Is there anywhere nearby where we can get a tow into town? Yes, I can hold.>" She tilted the mouthpiece of the phone away from her face, muttering. "Please say yes please say yes please say yes please say-- <Oh, yes? Okay, thank you. Yes.>" She waited as she was redirected again.
"<Hello? Hi, I'm stranded on... Mountpass D-12. Just 20 kilometres away. Our car seems to have run out of-- what? Oh, no, I'm not. Yeah, we're just passing through. Oh? Thank you, you're too kind. Okay. Thank you. Bye!>"
"I couldn't understand a word you were saying," Sachiko said, "but you seemed pretty enthusiastic right near the end."
"He said he'll come and bring us into town right away," Alanna answered. "There's a mechanic right in that village, he seems pretty nice."
"Great," Sachiko said. She opened her door, "I'm going to go stretch my legs while we wait."
"Sure. There's plenty of time."
Alanna and Sachiko hopped out of the truck, in front of the garage
entrance. Their car rested on the large flat bed section of the truck, held
on by a single hook clamped onto the front bumper.
The mechanic leaned out the driver side window of the rusty cab, saying something in Russian to Alanna. She nodded, glanced at Sachiko, and responded. He seemed to pause to think for a second, then enthusiastically said something to her. Alanna nodded again, seeming satisfied, and said something equally incomprehensible to Sachiko's ears, waving at him. She started to turn away, motioning for Sachiko to follow.
"Good bye, girls!" the man shouted at the two of them, excercising nearly half of his English vocabulary.
"Thank you!" Sachiko replied, waving; hoping that surely those two words would be in the other half.
The mechanic started to back the truck into the garage, and Sachiko followed after Alanna, who was leading somewhere.
"What did he say?" Sachiko asked.
"He said 'good bye, girls'," replied Alanna, dryly.
"Er. Yes. I got that," she said, oblivious to the joke. "I meant, before."
"I told him neither of us had eaten this morning," Alanna answered, giving up. "And I asked where would be a good place to eat. That's where we're heading right now."
"I see. And, uh, what is that?"
"I have no idea what it's called, the name was in Polish," she said, adding, "I don't know a word of Polish. So, fingers crossed."
Alanna led the way, Sachiko following closely. They walked down a dirt road-- all the roads in this town were dirt-- unimpressed by the condition of the houses along the side.
It took ten minutes of walking along dirt roads, passing by the occasional wheeled truck along the road, before they arrived at the restaurant the mechanic had recommended to them. Or at least, Alanna could only assume it was; he had said she could recognize it by a "blue sign."
Alanna had imagined a big neon storefront display, with the restaurant's name in big, glowing, blocky letters, maybe with a phone number underneath and a few words of Russian, just to be trendy. And when she realized that no small Polish town was going to have neon lights of any kind, she still figured it would be at least an illuminated sign; not bright enough that it glowed, but the sort that you find on American convenience stores.
But all expectations were disappointed. She stood staring at what had clearly been a home at some point, barely renovated at all, with a fold out chalkboard sign in front; at the the top of each side, was a little wooden sign that said something in Polish, painted blue. Or at least she assumed it had been painted blue at some point; the sun left it so faded that she wasn't sure if it actually was, or if it was just a trick of the light.
"I think that's it," Alanna said, with absolutely none of the usual certainty in her voice.
"Uh," Sachiko said, noticing instantly. "How can you tell?"
"Well, judging from the writing on the chalkboard... it seems like it's a restaurant," she said awkwardly. "I know I followed the directions to the letter."
"I thought you said you didn't know a word of Polish," Sachiko said, unconvinced.
"Well, some words in Polish are similar to ones in Russian," Alanna said, unconvincingly.
"I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that's not Cyrillic," she responded. "How can you even tell?"
"Oh, enough!" Alanna said in a raised-- but not agitated-- tone of voice, grabbing Sachiko forcefully from behind.
"Ah!" she cried, startled.
"Come on! Only one way to find out," Alanna announced, pushing her through the door.
An hour later, they both walked out with significantly less enthusiasm. Sachiko found the food mildly offensive at best; once they had left the building and were out of earshot, Alanna couldn't find any way other than "fuckin' awful" to describe it.
"Welcome to Polish peasant town," Sachiko grumbled.
"Sorry."
Sachiko kept walking, but Alanna grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"Back to the garage," she said.
"The garage is that way," Alanna replied, pointing her in the right direction.
"Ack. Thank you."
They headed back. it was only after a few minutes that they realized that they were not, in fact, actually heading back. All the wooden houses looked the same, so it took them both longer than they should've to realize that none of them actually looked familiar.
"Oh, great," Sachiko grumbled, giving Alanna the dirtiest look she'd ever seen from her. "Now we're lost."
"Sorry!" Alanna quickly replied, making a little mock bow. It was the cutest thing Sachiko'd ever seen; she tried to stop herself from giggling, and failed.
"Fine, fine...," Sachiko said, shaking her head.
"We'll keep going ahead, ask the next person we see for directions, and pray they speak either English or Russian, okay?"
"Japanese or French works too," Sachiko added.
"Hey, I took Latin in college! So if anyone speaks that, we're also covered," Alanna said, starting to walk forward again.
"Oh, that's just cruel!"
They turned the corner, ending up on a much busier major street. It wasn't packed, but it seemed to be the home of the marketplace. Alanna started to scan the street, looking for people who seemed like they might be bilingual. She was about to approach someone when she was interrupted.
"Hey!" a voice yelled from across the street. It was the boy from earlier; unloading crates full of potatoes from his van. "It's you two!"
"Hi!" Alanna yelled back. The boy put his crate on the ground, running up to them, a big grin on his face.
"Good to see you again!" Neither of the two women could help but smile, both failing to not find his excitement adorable. "What are you two doing in town?"
"Oooh," Alanna started, rubbing the back of her head embarassedly. "Actually, we ran out of fuel."
"Oh, that sucks!" Sachiko covered her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter at his exclamation.
"Say," Alanna said, "We got a tow into town with the mechanic, and we just got lunch, but now we're sort of not sure how to get back."
"What she's trying to say is she got us lost," Sachiko said, dryly.
"Yeah, that," Alanna reluctantly confirmed.
"You want me to show you back? Okay-- Adamski's garage is just a... a... a...," he looked up, stumbling for the right English word. "A... brick away?"
Alanna grinned. "A block, you mean?" A look of realization came across Sachiko, who had been utterly confused.
"Yeah! A block away. I'll show you," he said.
"Well, then, lead on, sir," Alanna said playfully, extending her hand. He laughed, and started to lead off, holding her hand. Sachiko felt just a twang of jealousy.
"Wait," Alanna said, stopping. "What about your potatoes? Is it okay to just leave them out?"
"They'll be fine," he said, shaking his head. "It is just potatoes."
"If you say so," she shrugged, and he tugged on her arm, leading them away.
He led them back to the garage. The big door was open, several cars, including their rental, sat inside. The mechanic was partially underneath an old, slightly rusty looking truck propped up on blocks; it was old, but not quite old enough to be wheeled.
"Okay, I have to get back now," Lukasz said, letting go of Alanna's hand. "I will see you later!"
"Bye!" they said together, Alanna waving.
Alanna went into the garage; Sachiko slumped against the nearby wall, not bothering. There's no point, she thought. She watched as the boy walked away, going back to work; pondering. She and Alexander had never had to work at his age, and she was certain that at 13, the thought of having to work for a living never even crossed Alanna's mind.
She grabbed a nearby pebble and threw it across the road. It landed in a bush.
"Hey," Alanna said, appearing beside her. "You're really cute when you're brooding, you know."
"Um." Sachiko looked embarassed. "So, uh, how's the car?"
"One of the power lines was cut and the resistors are all blown," she said. "It's the closest thing you'll ever have to a leaky battery."
"Geeze," Sachiko said, wondering what could cause that. "Sabotage?"
"Hah!" Alanna laughed, shaking her head. "I might like to act like a big shot reporter, but I'm pretty sure I'm not important enough for someone to try to ruin my car. Unless you've got some enemies that you're not telling me about!"
"Yeah, right," Sachiko said, grinning.
"You do, don't you? Gasp!" Alanna feigned shock, being overly dramatic. "Secret agent Sachiko, undercover in the Communist state of Poland... comfronted by a Soviet agent who knows her secret! Can she survive in the horrible wilderness of small town Poland?"
Sachiko laughed. "Is it so obvious?"
"Well, seriously, it's more like it's just a shitty Soviet car. It could've been 'leaking' for hours, we weren't exactly going very fast."
"So when'll it be fixed?"
"I told him to get it done as quickly as possible; we'll just have it traded in when we get to Wroclaw, let someone else worry about it. It's not that far off."
"So...?"
"It's ready now, really. But he said he was sorry about the food we got earlier-- Christ that stuff was awful-- and he wanted to make it up for us. Invited us to his home for dinner tonight. I couldn't refuse."
"So long as it's better than that soup," Sachiko said, shuddering.
"He said he'd get his wife to make her world famous perogis, just for us," she said, "So that seems encouraging."
"Are they actually world famous?"
"I dunno. His Russian isn't that great," she said. "Oh, and he also said to invite Lukasz. Nice guy."
"Nice kid," she said. "Can we take him home with us?"
"Home? What's that?" Sachiko asked.
Alanna dropped the box of potatoes with a loud thud. It was a whole lot
heavier than it looked; she seemed amazed that normally the kid would be
carrying them all.
"Okay, that's good," he said. "Thank you for helping."
She smiled, leaning against the wall. "No problem."
Lukasz closed the door slowly, then started walking around, seemingly aimlessly. He started to say something, then stopped, then turned to Alanna; stopping again.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"It's... uh... Miss Alanna, can I ask you for something?" he stammered, glancing around to make sure nobody else except for Sachiko was listening.
"Go ahead," she said. She walked over and crouched down, making herself at eye level with him.
"Can... can you take me with you? To Europe?" he blurted out; Alanna could tell, he had a hard time bringing himself to ask. "Please, I won't be a bother, I can give you what money I have... it is horrible here."
Alanna sighed, forcing herself to try to smile reassuringly for him.
"I can't, sweetie... besides, if I did, I'm sure your parents would worry."
"They're dead," he told her.
"Oh...," Alanna said. "I'm so sorry."
"Mama died giving birth to me. Papa... died of a fever, when I was 7," he said, his eyes watering. "I heard, Papa could've been better if only he'd had the medicine he needed... in England, or America, or anywhere but awful here, he would've gotten it! Here we have nothing."
"There there," Alanna said, hugging him. "I'm sorry. I can't."
"Why not?" he stammered, starting to sob.
"It's just... not possible," she said, glad he couldn't see her start to frown. "They won't let us through the border with you. It's... it's not right, I know, and I promise, if we could, I'd go out of my way in a heartbeat. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Alanna hugged him tightly.
He started to say something, then stopped; he couldn't do anything but cry. Alanna held him closely for as long as he needed.
Sachiko sighed, wishing there was something she could say to help out Alanna; she felt bad for the crying boy, and knew that Alanna was right. After a few more moments of her apologizing and comforting him, he seemed to be calming down. Sachiko just watched, admiring Alanna's kindness towards Lukasz.
Sachiko was grateful that Lukasz was still childlike in one way; he was
up and cheerful again by dinner.
"Please tell her, these are great!" Sachiko said, her mouth half full.
"Sure," Alanna said with an amused, but resigned sigh. Dinner had been an absurd mess of trilingualism: Lukasz could speak to everyone well enough to get by, but not well enough to translate; Adamski could speak to Alanna in Russian but not to Sachiko, and all Adamski's wife could understand was Polish, which neither of the two foreigners knew. To pass on the message, she had to translate to Russian to tell Adamski, who had to translate to Polish to tell his wife.
It had been like this ever since they'd arrived in his house.
"It's like a game of telephone," she said to no one in particular.
"<Eh?>" Adamski asked.
"<I said, it's like a game of telegraph,>" she replied, in Russian, knowing full well that nobody would get the joke.
The communication nightmare got a bit better as everyone started to dig into their meal, if only because people were talking less. Sachiko felt like she was missing out on every conversation; Alanna's attention was constantly being pulled between either Adamski or Lukasz, and as much as she wanted to, she wasn't sure how to talk to Lukasz. Even less so after he'd broken down crying earlier.
"Shoot, it's getting dark," she told Alanna.
"Not as dark as it was when I found you," Alanna responded coyly.
"<What's that?>" Adamski asked.
"<She said, it's getting dark,>" Alanna told him. "<It should be fine.>"
"How about fuel? Is the car full?" Sachiko asked.
"Yeah, he said so earlier," Alanna replied. "We should probably be heading off as soon as we're done."
Lukasz said something to Adamski in Polish, and they had a brief bit of back and forth.
"You should stay the night!" Lukasz said enthusiastically.
"Oh, really, it's not necessary...," Alanna shook her head.
"<It's no problem! We have a spare room-- anything we can do for travellers in need.>" Adamski told her.
"<I'd much rather keep going, I'm--,>" she stopped. She was going to say "not tired at all", but was interrupted by a uncontrollabe urge to yawn. "<Okay, maybe not.>"
"Say, Alanna," Sachiko said, "When was the last time you slept, anyway?"
"In the car, on the way here. But... I guess I could use a night's sleep on a bed."
"Well, I don't want to be a burden on yet another person...," Sachiko said, suddenly becoming self-conscious.
"He offered," Alanna replied.
"<Really, it is no problem. We hardly ever get visitors here,>" he said.
"<Well, I can't refuse that,>" Alanna said with a smile. Sachiko hadn't a clue sure what she was saying, but she could swear that the Texan accent was creeping in.
"<Wonderful!>"
At that point, Adamski's wife cut in and started to talk to him in Polish. He presumably explained to her what they were talking about, and she seemed happy enough to give the two a bed for the night.
The evening passed by pleasantly enough; Lukasz went home after dinner, but not after receiving an affectionate goodbye from Alanna. Before they knew it, it was pitch black; given the opportunity, both decided to go to bed early, having gotten barely any sleep in the past day.
There was only one bed in the bedroom, unsuprisingly; much to Sachiko's relief, Alanna let her have it, while she slept on a cot.
"Good night," Sachiko murmured, turning to face the wall. She fell asleep the moment she closed her eyes.
She had a dream about flying on a plane, which led to one about flying with wings that had sprouted from her back, which then somehow led to an incredibly embarassing dream about Alanna. In her dream, they hadn't gotten any farther than kissing when she was woken up by the sound of voices in the room.
"Ergh... wha...?" she grumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"Look, just back away now, Lukasz," Alanna was saying. "We'll just forget about it all, okay?"
Sachiko tried to figure out what the hell was going on; Lukasz seemed to be standing in the bedroom with the two of them. A gust of wind blew in, and she realized that he was in front of an opened window.
"No! You lied! You're so selfish, stupid American woman!" he shouted. "Give it, now!"
"Come on, Lukasz, be reasonable," she said, starting to approach him.
"Shut up!" Lukasz screamed. It was at that point that he pulled out a gun on her.
"Holy shit," Sachiko said, shocked completely awake at the sight of the pistol.
"Lukasz! Don't do something you'll regret, Lukasz," Alanna said; her point didn't seem to be getting across.
He was looking around, his gun still trained on her, scanning through the room. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for; her expensive purse. Without taking his sights off her, he walked over to it, picked it up, and backed away to the window.
"You could've just helped me!" he said, looking on the brink of tears. Alanna stood still, unable to do anything but watch in horror as he slipped out the window. Once he was out, she ran to the window to see where he was going; he was heading into the garage.
"Shit," Alanna said, adding, for good measure, "shit, shit, shit, shit! Everything's in there, my money, my phones, my ID... we have to catch him!"
She rushed towards the door, and Sachiko scrambled to get out of bed, following.
"But isn't your wallet bio-locked?"
"Yes, but my car keys aren't; and he doesn't know that," she said, rushing down the hallway. "If I'm stuck in the fuckin' Communist bloc without any ID to prove I'm American and without money...," she trailed off. She didn't want to think about it. Not far away, they both heard the sound of a car taking off, knowing that it had to be their rental.
Alanna was about to knock on the master bedroom door, but seemingly decided against it, instead opting to just open it and rush in.
"<Adamski! Adamski, wake up!>" she shouted at him in Russian as loudly as she could. Already partially awake by the shouting just seconds earlier, he groggily sat up. "<I'll explain later; I need to borrow your fastest car, right now!>"
A gunshot fired in the night, nearly hitting Alanna by inches; followed
by a pinging noise of the bullet bouncing off metal. Sachiko held onto her
tightly as the tractor sped forward, defiantly chasing after their own
rental car.
"Five," Alanna said.
Lukasz turned around a sharp corner on the mountain road, and Alanna swerved to do the same. Sachiko was terrified; it went on only two wheels for a good second during the turn, and it felt like they were about to fall off entirely.
As they got around the corner, another shot was fired. This one missed them entirely.
"Six," Alanna said, an air of confidence in her voice. "He's out."
Suddenly she slammed her foot on the gas, accelerating even faster. They started to clear the distance, the tractor rapidly gaining on the car. Lukasz leaned out his window, and tried shooting again; the gun went click and nothing else happened.
The boy cursed in Polish, and started to speed up, too, his car quickly shooting ahead, swerving to just barely make the next corner on the winding mountain road.
"At that speed, will we even be able to catch him now?" Sachiko asked, worriedly.
"Oh yeah," Alanna said, with a confidence to her voice that Sachiko didn't understand. "Definitely."
A good twenty seconds later, they turned the corner, and Sachiko found out what Alanna meant. Not far ahead, the car was sitting on the ground, right in front of the cliff face straight ahead.
"Patchy repair job, remember? It's kinda hard to brake when you've run through the battery," Alanna explained. She stared at the crashed car; the bumper seemed to be smashed in somewhat. "Thank god he ended up hitting a cliff, rather than falling off one. He should be safe," she said.
"Yeah...," Sachiko muttered.
Alanna glanced down briefly, remembering where the right pedal to press was, then put her foot down, stopping a few metres away from the car. She hopped off, with Sachiko following closely behind.
"Come on, out you get," Alanna said sternly, pulling Lukasz out of her car. He seemed disoriented, but still conscious. He grumbled something as she walked him away, supporting him on her shoulder. She let him down slowly, letting him rest against the cliff, closer to the tractor. "Sachiko, can you look after him for a few minutes?"
"Yeah," she said, sitting down beside Lukasz. He seemed to be on the verge of tears.
He muttered something, lapsing from Polish to English; all that Sachiko could make out was "I'm sorry." She edged closer to him.
"Stupid," she said with a sigh, putting her arm around his shoulder. Despite what he'd done, she couldn't bring herself to be angry at him. She pulled him closer as he started to cry.
Alanna stood a few metres away, looking away as she talked to the phone. "<Yes... Adamski? I'm really sorry about waking you up, but we're going to need a tow. Again. Lukasz is here, but there's not enough room to bring him back in on the tractor you loaned us,>" she said. After a moment of silence on her end, she replied, "<Yes, sure, I'll explain....>"
Adamski eventually arrived to bring them back. Nobody said a word throughout the entire trip into town.
Sachiko and Alanna left early the next morning.