Torque 2 Infinity
Chapter 1: The Stage Begins
The sound of
the engine roared as Rayce progressively depressed the gas pedal with his right
foot. A smile slowly surfaced on Rayce’s face. With the moonlight slightly
hiding behind the clouds, a slightly dark golden car can be spotted moving
along the road at high speed. Rayce was having so much fun driving on the
highway that he can’t help but mutter out in excitement “Toyota Vios, I love it
so much!” Just a few hundred meters behind Rayce’s car, an upset driver can be
seen driving in a Toyota Camry. He realized that he has lost the race.Indulging
himself in his small victory, Rayce continued to drive on as he head to his
friend’s house.
As Rayce
slowly reverses the car into the garage, his friend Austin can be seen waiting
for him in front of the front door.
“You’re early!
You told me you’ll be here in 45 minutes. It has only been 20 minutes,” said
Austin with his arms folded.
As Rayce
walked towards Austin, he threw the car keys towards Austin and Austin just
barely manages to catch it with both his hands. “Hahaha. I was enjoying myself
too much driving your car.”
The two of
them went inside the house and sat down on the couch. Greeted by Austin’s wife
Laura, she brought three cups of coffee to them and sat together with them.
Taking a small
sip of coffee, Rayce said, “Thanks for lending me your car to drive today! I’ve
really missed driving my Toyota Vios back in Kuala Lumpur. I had a lot of great
memories driving it during the night.”
“Until your
boss decided to be an idiot and decided to transfer you here to work and you
had to sell off your car, right? Haha” said Austin.
“Well, that’s
what he said,” said Laura. “But you could have tried to import your car over
here.”
“I didn’t
really have a choice back then,” Rayce placed the cup onto the table in front of
him. “I was so poor and I needed all the money I could get to help me move.
Still, I love driving the car that I currently own. It’s second hand and I got
it at a very cheap price, and so far it has not cause me any car woes or
whatsoever.”
Austin laughed
at Rayce’s remark and said, “haha. No worries! Just ask me anytime and I’ll be
glad to lend you my car anytime! Just promise me that you won’t….” Austin
suddenly paused. “Did you guys hear something weird?”
Noticing that
Austin’s voice has took a sudden serious tone, both Rayce and Laura tried to
look around while trying pay attention to their surroundings. They could hear
voices of muttering outside of the house. Sounds of footsteps gradually grew
louder and when they heard the words “Break in”, the front door was kicked down
furiously and a team of armored policemen armed with machine guns stormed into
the house.
“KNEEL ON THE
GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD NOW!” yelled one of the policemen as
they pointed their guns at the trio. Frightened by the unexpected situation,
everyone jumped away from their seats, quickly kneel down on their knees and
placed their hands on their heads. With her whole body shaken in fear, Laura
was so scared that she starts crying. Her husband can be heard trying to calm
her down by offering a few words of comfort.
Holding a
tablet on his hand, the policeman went around and look at each of the suspects’
faces. Taking a deep look at Rayce’s face, the policeman confirmed that this is
his target and he signaled to his men to take him away. Two other policemen
approached Rayce and knocked him out unconscious. They grabbed Rayce’s arms and
dragged him away from the house, with the rest of the policemen followed them
and together they left the house, leaving behind Austin and Laura alone in the
house.
Feeling
concerned, Austin quickly stood up and rushed to the door; only to see that
Rayce was dragged into a caged armored vehicle. “Where are you taking him?”
Austin yelled loudly until he noticed that there are noises coming from his car
garage. A tow car was towing his car and taking it away. “Hey. Hey. HEY! Why
are you taking my car away?”
Totally
ignoring Austin’s presence, the policemen drove away, taking Rayce and Austin’s
Toyota Vios XP40.
“Your majesty.
We finally have enough participants.” A distinguished man placed a copy of a
report on top of the table.
“Good. Good. Dawson,
please get everything prepared.”
“As
you wish.”
“What happened
to me? Where am I?” these words surfaced on Rayce’s mind as he regained
conscious. His body felt so heavy that he found it difficult to move. He slowly
opened his eyes; the light slightly penetrate through his eyes, blinding him a
little. As he continue to open his eyes slowly while trying to adjust to the
light, he realized that he was lying on top of a bed. Soon, his nose noticed a
disgusting stench at the corner of the room. With his strength returning back,
he steadily tried to move his body to sit upright on the bed. His visions fully
recovered, he looked around the room: he was in a concrete room with no windows
and metal bars located to his right. At one corner of the room a stench and
dirty toilet bowl can be found. “Am I in jail?”
Soon two guards
appeared and approaches the jail bar. “Get up!’ one of the guard yelled while
the other unlocks the door. As one of the guards pulled Rayce up, the other
guard took out a large injection-stapler looking object and injected something
into Rayce’s neck. Rayce let out a small cry as he squirms a little from the
pain. The guard then shove Rayce to the front and both guards took out their
rifles and point at Rayce’s back while commanding, “Get moving!”
Left with no
other choices, all Rayce could do is comply to the guards’ orders so he stood
up and walk out of the cell together with the guards.
Rayce was led
into a large atrium and asked to line up together with the rest of the people:
two large groups of people were gathered together in the middle of the atrium,
the country’s flag were hang on the walls at the front of the atrium with a
talking booth in front of it. Everyone in the atrium was initially confused at
the situation that they’ve been placed in, but it surprises them greatly when
the king of the country, King Regis IV, walked onto the stage and stood behind
the booth. With great determined look, King Regis IV spoke, “Good evening, everyone.
Do you know why you have been brought here?” No one dared to speak a single
work: they were afraid that they might get punished after the ordeal they’ve
been through to be brought to this place. “Under Frudale’s Road Traffic Act
Chapter 68 Article 4, motorists who committed the offense of over-speeding over
the speed limit shall face the death penalty of head decapitation.”
Upon hearing
what King Regis IV had said on stage, everyone immediately knew the reason why
they were here in this white atrium hall. Fear and sorrow starts swelling up
inside their hearts knowing that their fate has been sealed, yet they wouldn’t
even dare to utter a single word or shed a single tear. Gloom and despair
surfaces over everyone’s faces and the atmosphere grew heavy and dark. On the
other hand, Rayce was completely dumbfounded: he never knew such a law exists
in this country after he has migrated from West Malaysia to Frudale. Even if he
did over-speed in Malaysia, he could always just try to bribe the police
officer or pay the fine of 200 dollars.
King Regis IV
continued his speech, “Despite knowing that such a law exists in this country,
you all brave souls decided to take the risk and drove past the speed limit. Fortunately
I, King Regis IV, am not merciless for overlooking your offenses. I am willing
to grant you mercy, you all have been given a chance to redeem yourself and
walk out of the death penalty. For the following three months, using the
vehicles that you’ve committed the offense with, you all will be competing with
each other in a one-to-one sprint race. Your opponent for each match will be
chosen randomly and whoever loses the match shall immediately face the death
penalty on the spot. Do not try to think of escaping either during the match.
Before you were escorted to this atrium, the guards have injected a nanobomb
into your neck and if you try to make your getaway we will trigger the
explosion and kill you with immediate effect. The bomb has an explosion effect
of 20m radius, so do not think that you will be able to survive the blast and
walk away free.
“Races will
take place during the night and during the day you all will be escorted and
locked in a large garage hall to carry out maintenance. You are allowed to
socialize with other offenders, however surveillance cameras are placed
throughout the garage with full-time monitoring so if you try to cause harm to
other participants or try to sabotage the vehicles we will immediately detain
you and give you the death punishment. Car modifications to increase horsepower
or power output are not allowed. You will be disqualified and immediately put
to death if such modifications are discovered upon inspection before each match
starts.
“The group on
my right are mechanics that shall be assign to each of you to assist you in
your car maintenance. Only one mechanics shall be assigned and you are not
allowed to swap or ask other mechanics to repair your vehicle. If you lose the
match, your assigned mechanic will also receive the death penalty and be put to
death the next morning after the match. If there are any car parts that you
wish to purchase or replaced for your car, your mechanic will have the
authority to supply you the tools, equipment and parts.
“Now that all
the explanations are done, you all have been granted one conjugal visits of 2
hours from anyone that you wish to say your last goodbye to. To all
participants, I wish you all best of luck.”
“Austin. Why
didn’t you tell me that such a law exists here?” the distressed Rayce stare
intently at Austin.
“Look man. The
law was only introduced two months ago. When it was introduced, a few people
did break the law but the authorities never took any action. It’s the same as
that law that was introduced few years ago. The one about males not allowed to
wear shorts in public. Despite that, the guys who wear shorts never did get any
fine or penalties. We thought it is the same situation as that so I’ve never
bothered telling you about it.” Austin explained.
The two of
them were sitting in a white room with a table located in the middle of it.
Security guards can be seen guarding the doors at each end of the walls. With a
huge concern on her face, Laura was sitting next to Austin, however she has
been quiet ever since she entered the room.
Austin
continued, “Do you think you’re going to have any chance of surviving this tournament?
I mean, you’re driving my car afterall.”
Rayce
hesitated for a moment before he could answered. “I’ve did a fair amount of
racing back when I was in Kuala Lumpur with a Toyota Vios, so I think I’ll be
able to manage it. Somehow.”
“Godspeed,
my brother.” Both Austin and Rayce leaned towards each other and give each
other a hug over the table to say their farewells. They both knew very well
that this might be the last chance they can see each other again.
The very next
morning, Rayce was lead into a large garage hall by two prison guards. About 20
workshop stations are set-up throughout the hall. Looking around, he has
noticed that both the participants and the mechanics have started working on
their own battle machines: Subaru WRX STI, Toyota Corolla Altis, Suzuki Swift,
Kia Optima and other sorts of make or model that he can’t seem to identify.
After about a three minute walk, he knew he had finally reached his station:
the Austin’s Toyota Vios was there in the small room with computers behind it
and various tools hanging on the partition next to the car. However, a
beautiful long hair blond girl wearing a blue cap was sitting on a chair next
to the car. With the guards leaving, Rayce felt compelled to introduce himself
to the girl thinking that he might have to work together with this girl for the
next few months. He walked towards the girl and took out his right hand.
“Hi. I’m
Rayce. What’s yours?” Rayce offered a handshake.
The girl
immediately stood up from her seat and point a finger towards Rayce – she was
in a foul mood. “Look here. I don’t see the point of us working together since
you’re driving this car.” She glared at the Toyota Vios. “I might as well just
wait here and die since you have no chance of winning using this slow automatic
transmission car.”
Rayce remained
silent for a while. He was trying to think of something to say back to the girl
but before any words could escape from his mouth, he was interrupted by the
prison guard.
“Rayce! Come
here and get your race details for tonight,” ordered the guard. Before Rayce
could grabbed the clipboard from the guard, it was snatched away by the blond
girl. She scanned over the details and as soon as she’s done, she threw it over
to Rayce, barely catching it.
“I knew it. With
such a strong opponent, it was futile to even think that we’ll have a chance of
winning,” exclaimed the blond girl.
Looking at the
papers, he knew immediately why the blond girl made that remark. His opponent
tonight will be against a car that’s known for its power and performance – the Subaru
Impreza WRX STI GC8B, the ultimate machine that has shook the world of rally
sports ever since it’s debut. Rayce can’t help but questioned himself whether
he’ll be able to live and see tomorrow after tonight’s match.
To Be Continued…
