The sun crept its way lazily down the horizon, leaving the sky painted with a valiant orange. Cricket usually enjoyed this time of day and often would sit out in the grass and watch the miracles of the Universe play out. But, tonight was a different kind of night. Tonight was the night of her very first Zerk Race.
“You know you don’t have to do it,” King said in a persistent manner. “It’s not like you have anything to prove to me, or your family.” Cricket stood up from her chair with one swift jump, obviously angry with her best friend’s comment. She didn’t respond with any words. Instead, she walked over to her kitchen table, took a rubber band in hand, and slingshotted it towards his head.
“Ow!” King jumped out of his chair when the rubber band made a red mark on the soft patch of flesh near his right eye.
Cricket crossed her arms and sat on the edge of her table. “I have everything to prove. I am the youngest person and the first female to ever participate in this race. How am I supposed to back down? Plus, I want to. Why else would I have applied to compete?” Her deep brown eyes, filled with determination, glistened with confidence.
King moved towards her, still rubbing his eye. “I know that, but it’s dangerous. We know what happend to Darius and I do not want that to happen to you.” She stopped to consider this for a moment, but almost instantly eradicated the thought from her mind. She was not one to back down. The way she see saw it, she made a commitment, therefore she would follow through. Cricket felt as though she was supposed to do this, possibly to show the women of the world that they could achieve anything.
Or possibly to avenge her brother’s death...
Darius died three years prior to this day via being lost in the desert due to an engine “malfunction”. But Cricket refused to buy it. Sayer, a boy of just seventeen at the time of Darius’s death, had a long lasting grudge on Cricket and her brother. For what, Cricket had no idea. However, he did race in the race that her brother had perished in. She could have sworn she saw him near her brother’s speed hover. Whether it was sabotage or not, she could never let that incident pass. Nothing would change the fact that her brother was dead, but she could avenge him. That was the whole point of her even racing.
King placed his hand gingerly on her shoulder. “You know I’m only saying this because I care about you, right?”
“Of course I do. That’s not going to change anything though. In fact,” she turned her head to face the electronic clock sending off the inevitable glow of death. “I’m already supposed to be down by the starting line.” Cricket grabbed another rubber band and tied her thick black curly mess into a tight ponytail. She then reached for her old worn out leather jacket and headed for the door. “Are you coming, King?”
Reluctantly, he pulled on his boots and scooted out the door with Cricket.
The sun had completely set by the time they reached the starting line. Cricket’s speed hover was parked alongside the rest. The previously hot day had apologized with a pleasantly cool night, something ideal for the hovers’ engines. People bustled around them, pretending as though Cricket and King were just part of the mist that was starting to settle. They were pushed around by the masses of people trying to make it to their hovers or make it to the stands with a chance of a good seat to watch the take off. A giant clock towered thirteen feet above them, with the countdown to this year’s Zerk Race. Seven Minutes.
“Ready?” King leaned over to Cricket once they had managed to reach her yellow hover with orange stripes.
She simply laughed and shook her head. A girl of only sixteen, the youngest person in this competition and the only female, she knew with every atom in her body that she had no chance of winning, and that death could be a possibility for her in the next ten to twenty minutes.
“You know...” King tried to continue, but an official ran up before he could finish.
“Cricket Jones?” He asked.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“Board your hover. We will be starting shortly.”
Her stomach dropped as he moved on to the next racer and his hover. She held her ebony hands in front of her and watched them shake. I can’t do this. I simply can’t do this, she thought to herself. But, she could just hear Darius’s voice in her mind. You were always the tough one, he’d say. If anyone was meant to win a Zerk Race, it’d be you.
Her brother’s voice echoed through her mind in a haunting manor. She had to do this, despite the fact that her courage was decaying by the second.
“The race will begin in exactly five minutes.” The man on the megaphone blared through the ears of everyone within a ten mile radius. He then promptly went on to explain how the race worked as Cricket pulled on her helmet and boarded her hover. “This year we have set up a terrain resembling a desert.” A desert? This had to be some kind of sick joke. Darius had been in a desert when he died.
The man continued to speak, but Cricket started to tune out. She had known all of the rules by heart ever since she was a toddler. Plus, the stuff the man was saying was starting to scare her. Instead of listening to nonsense that would just make her even more nervous than she already was, she decided to observe the riders around her. What kind of posture did they have on their hovers? Did anyone look particularly in control? Was there anyone who could look like a threat?
Then she saw him.
Sayer was three places to the right of her. He looked confident and prepared. What if he won the race? What if she died? Just looking at him made her feel sick. She had to look away, but just as she tried to bring herself back to focus, his haunting blue eyes met hers.
“Racers,” the megaphone blared, ripping Cricket back to concentration. “Remember that if any foul play is detected by the end of the race, it will mean certain disqualification and possible legal action.” She scoffed at this. There was no disqualification when Darius died. No legal action had taken place. Those rules were the only rules that weren’t enforced.
“With that,” the man said, wrapping up the lecture. “Racers to you mark...get ready...” Cricket was most certainly not ready. Was this all really happening? She was about to make history. “Five...four...”
Stop Counting.
“Three...two...”
Deep breaths.
“One...”
You can do this. You’re ready for this.
“GO!”
Cricket gripped her hover’s handles and slammed on the gas. She took off, flying past the crowds of people, cameras, and King. About six out of the fifty hovers were currently ahead of her, which was pretty good for now. But, the problem was that Sayer was one of them.
He swooped in between  two canyon walls that seemed to sneak up on the riders. Cricket mimicked his technique and waited for the sound of crashing behind her. She knew that not everybody was going to make it past the first marker, which essentially was the start of the race. About thirty more hovers made it through the canyon before she heard the BOOM!
She peaked at her mirrors only to witness countless hovers piling up upon each other, with smoke billowing up from their exploding engines. The only thought that seemed to cross her mind was of Darius. He had died in an explosion like that. But, he was much farther into the race. At least this crash happend close to the starting line where medics could rush to the rescue. They at least stood a chance, while Darius had not.
It only took about a minute for her to rush past the canyon walls. She sped into an open space, with sand as far as the eye could see. Cricket’s heart sank. This was the last landscape that her brother saw. The sand spread on the ground, while the stars above painted the sky. It wouldn’t have been an awful last thing to see
Even though the sun had already set, the desert seemed blazing hot. Typically deserts were quite cold in the evenings, but the people who designed the terrain must have wanted as many dangerous aspects as possible. These temperatures, unlike the ones back at the stands, were not only dangerous for her body, but for her engine as well. She had to be careful of how fast she went so that her hover wouldn’t over heat.
Ahead, Sayer was taking the lead. Cricket was about three from the front, and she intended on staying in her position for now. Her speed wasn’t working her engine too hard yet, and the people ahead of her would most likely have engine failure within the next few minutes or so. They were going way too fast for this heat.
The hovers behind her were struggling to keep up with the pack. Most of them seemed young and inexperienced with racing in general. She almost laughed. Wasn’t she also young and inexperienced with racing? Sometimes it was funny the way she thought of people, even if they were incredibly similar to herself.
The heat of the sun continued to blast her body. Dehydration would soon be something that she was going to have to deal with. Also, heat stroke was something she was going to have to worry about. With her leather jacket and long pants, it would probably strike her sooner than later. Cricket could only hope that Sayer was experiencing troubles out there.
He was not going to beat her. She was going to win this. Deep inside of her heart, she knew that she could win, even if she doubted it at times. Darius could have won, but he wasn’t aggressive enough. Cricket knew that to win this, to take home the prize and the glory, she needed to be aggressive towards the others. She was done playing polite.
After a few more yards, Cricket observed her surroundings, making sure everything was clear. Nothing would be worse than plowing into a canyon at this point. With great care, she shoved her foot on the gas and sped faster, faster, faster towards her challenge.
Sayer was going slower than she had expected, as she drew nearer. Normally, she would have thought that if he saw her speeding towards him, he would be forced to speed up, too. Cricket just wished that his engine would go out.
Then it hit her. Maybe, with all the luck in the world, that was what was happening. He wasn’t speeding up because his engine was failing. It was almost bitter-sweet to her. He would be stranded out here, but she would win.
She had to snap out of this. It was a distraction and distractions get you killed in the Zerk Race. After all, that’s probably what happened to Darius.
Up ahead Sayer continued to slow down, and after a moment smoke started to billow out of the front of his hover. Several thoughts flipped through her mind. One of them being something she never thought she’d do.
As soon as Sayer’s hover dropped to the ground, it flipped over violently a few times in the hot smooth sand. She could see his now broken body lying a few feet away from his craft, but he was still breathing. He was still alive.
When Cricket reached the crash site, she lowered her hover, and stepped off. The other competitors sped on by, a few of them looking back at her, knowing that she was insane. No one ever pulled over for another driver. Ever.
But she did.
Cautiously, she approached her adversary. He was conscious, but looked badly injured and weak. Blood oozed out of cuts on his face. A little bit of bone peeked out out of his left leg, while his right leg was mangled. The softness of the sand saved his life. Between the hover and pavement, he would have been torn apart.
“Cricket,” he barely croaked. She looked at him with neither pity nor sympathy.
“Hello, Sayer,” Cricket said with a wide smile.
“Please,” he trembled. “Help me.”
“Why?” She spat acidically. “You killed my brother in a race just like this. Why on Earth would I help you? You can die here and suffer like my brother did.”
“I swear!” Sayer screeched, obviously frightened that his life would soon come to an end. “I never did anything to hurt your brother. We competed a lot in school, but that was it. I never did anything to hurt him.”
Cricket smiled a cheshire grin. “At least I know that you don’t lie.”
“What?”

“I killed him.”