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Still In There | Shook Chapter 25 Part 5
Dyan coughed. The air was getting drier and thicker, and smoke tickled her throat, making her wheeze uncontrollably. The truck was getting hotter as the flames grew higher from the right side of the truck.
Maya was keeping the truck steady, as she could no longer use the breaks. She tried not to look over the highway rails to the many lanes of rushing cars below. They were headed straight for the bridge and the runaway truck coming from just beyond it.
Dyan put a hand on Maya’s shoulder. “Maya, let go of the wheel, it’s time to jump!”
Maya mumbled something.
“What!?” Dyan yelled over the roar of the engine.
Maya darted her eyes to Dyan. “Uh… I don’t know! I can’t!”
“What!? But we have to now or that truck will crush us!” Dyan started to breathe fast, getting a throat full of hot, cloudy smoke. She wheezed hard. Dyan closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. Then, avoiding the front window, she looked only at the girl in the driver’s seat.
“Maya,” Dyan said slowly. “We don’t have time for second guesses. Out of all the times I was scared of things you were perfectly fine. Why would you choose to be afraid now?”
“I’m scared to let go of the wheel! What if I jump too close to the truck and the back wheel runs me over!? Or what if I try to jump while still holding the wheel, and the truck leans and falls on me!?”
Dyan didn’t think about all those scary possibilities, and she fought hard to keep them out of her mind now. “You can’t think like that! We have to jump!” Dyan said. They were nearly to the highway bridge. Dyan kept her face calm, though she gripped the passenger chair.
“I… I just can’t!” Maya said, her voice wavering. Her eyes got shiny with water and she gripped the wheel, her mouth trembling.
Dyan wheezed, and held on to the driver’s seat tighter. “I’m scared too, but we have to jump Maya. It’s literally our only hope of getting out of this. Let go of the wheel.”
Maya shakily, slowly, took one hand off the wheel, then the other.
“Let’s count down from five. When I get to one, we jump!” Dyan nodded at Maya, and Maya gave her a weak smile in return.
Maya opened the driver door, nearly falling out of the truck as the door swung completely open.
This was it. The highway bridge was so close Dyan could see across it. It was a completely blank slate, except for the big yellow truck racing towards it.
Dyan stepped to the edge of the truck by the stairs, the end of her Converses jutting over the edge of the stairs. She stared at the rushing road below, all her doubts fighting a war with her will power.
“FIVE!”
Dyan jumped. Maya was at the stairs at the other edge of the truck, looking at Dyan.
Dyan went down a step. “FOUR!”
The runaway truck roared in front of them.
“THREE!” both girls yelled.
PPFFFT!
And with that, both trucks entered onto the highway bridge. The small hitch that came with the change of road made the truck leap. Both the girls screamed. The road became a tannish color and a silver railing was on each side.
The runaway truck was so close Dyan could see the inside of the dark windows. No one was in the driver's seat! There was no time for the rest of the countdown. There was even less time to explain that there was no time left for the countdown. Dyan yelled the only thing she could before it was too late.
“JUMP!” Dyan yelled at the top of her lungs, so loud her throat vibrated. Dyan leaped off the truck.
The jumping part happened so quickly that the only way Dyan remembered that she had jumped out of a moving vehicle was the pain that came after the jump. When she jumped, the road came closer and closer until it took up her whole vision, and then all she saw was black. She slammed into the rough, ragged road so hard, the rocks and dirt stabbed through her skin and pain exploded within her body, especially at her wrists and knees.
The pain was so bad she stayed on the ground with her eyes closed for a moment listening to the whirr of cars from the roads below the highway bridge. When the pain faded to be at least bearable, Dyan strained and got up, looking around for Maya. The road was empty, save two rolling trucks. Had Maya jumped? Dyan couldn’t see Maya anywhere, and this made her heart beat faster, causing even more pain to flow through her body.
Mr. Blue’s truck veered off the lane and slanted left just as the yellow truck came galloping straight for it. Dyan’s eyes widened in horror as the yellow truck collided with the side of Mr. Blue’s truck.
BOOM-CRUNCH!
Find out what happens next in the next part!
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