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Arthur

Iwas still holdingmy own against Gregor, and I don't think he expected that. The balance of power had shifted. He now knew that those little tricks he tried playing on me at the start of the race weren't going to work, and was now racing seriously against me. I could feel the fury in his driving. It was aggressive, but precise. He would push it to the edge, and in order to beat him, I would have to also. I couldn't afford to make a singlemistake.

"You're fine,"Perry said. "Keep your speedup."

Hearing his words encouraged me.I knew I could rely on him. It was one less thing to have to think about. I increased speed, ignoring the reflex of fear as the controls vibrated from the water on thetrack.

Ineededas much speed as possible for The Walls, in order to maintain grip in a vertical position. I could see the obstacle just ahead, coming up fast. Then, Gregor accelerated and pulled ahead of me. I did the same. He tried to block me from gaining more speed, but I wasn't going to have it. Instead of slowing to avoid hitting his rear tire, I accelerated and bumped into it. Our bikes wiggled violently, and I managed to correct it. Gregor did too, and quickly pulled away from me, taking the left path. I took the right, and we both curved up onto the parallel walls, riding completelyvertically.

Icould feelthe rain water gushing down the sides of walls. My pulse raced. Did I have enough speed to maintain this? Had I just fucked myself over? I glanced up and saw Gregor on the opposite wall. His bike was slowly drifting down. We were both having trouble maintainingtraction.

"Tilt down,"Perry said calmly. "Usegravity."

Irealized he was right.I made a quick calculation in my head and then let the bike drift down the wall as I kept on the accelerator. My downward trajectory gave me enough speed to maintain traction and keep me up on the wall. I saw that Gregor had gotten the same idea, too. Right before my bike was about to drop off the wall, we hit the end of the obstacle, and the track curved back horizontally and put me back upright. The tracks re-combined, and Gregor appeared back on my leftside.

"Thanks,"I said toPerry.

"This is it.Final stretch. Increase by ten. Full speed into TheForest."

Iwas surprised.He'd always been conservative about The Forest, advising me to enter cautiously. "Full speed," Irepeated.

"You can do it."

Igrinnedand hit the accelerator. Gregor had the same thought, and matched my speed. It seemed like the race was going to come down a matter of milliseconds. Neither of us had budged atall.

I'm goingto win this. Perry and I will be together.We're going to have our babytogether.

Ientered the last straightaway,and the world streaked past my windshield, a brilliant blur. As my speedometer climbed to its max, I felt that amazing sensation of excited calm that I could only get when at such speeds. It was a high, the flirtation of being on the verge of losing control. This used to be the ultimate sensation, one of the reasons why I raced. Now I realized that I didn't need it anymore. I had something so much better. Every moment I spent with Perry was more thrilling thanthis.

Ahead,I saw the towering concrete pylons of The Forest. This wasit.

Ientered.Perry had gone silent to let me concentrate. I edged as close as possible to the pylons to avoid having to make costly, speed-sacrificing corrections with mytrajectory.

My screen flashed redwith a sudden collision warning, and I turned to see Gregor hurtling towards me from theside.

"What the fuck!"

Ijerkedthe controls and dropped my speed just enough for him to fly past me. He curved around the oncoming pylons and came back at me on the other side, again aiming to hitme.

"Arthur!"Perry shouted. "That bastard is trying to knock youout!"

Iswerved around a pylon,using it as a shield and forcing Gregor to split away from his attack. He came again, and I just barely dodged him and came within spitting distance of apylon.

"Shit,"I said. "He'sinsane."

Red filled my screen,and Gregor seemed to emerge from nowhere, flying towards me as the pylons whizzed by. I tried to avoid him, but his front tire impacted my rear tire, sending me into aspin.

Perry shouted, "No!"

The world blurred around me.I knew I had seconds to react. I pushed the brake and jammed down on the controls, switching to reverse. I engaged the throttle, and my bike emerged from its spin—backwards. I was driving backwards through thecourse.

"Shit, shit, shit,"I muttered, swerving around the oncoming pylons. Gregor was just up ahead. I accelerated, and came up on his side, still riding backwards. I could only imagine the shock and fury he must've had seeing me come up on him riding in reverse. He brought his bike at me again, but this time I was ready. I hit the brake and swung my bike. My tires screeched as I spun back around, and his wheel narrowly missed hitting mine. I was facing straight again and I narrowly avoided a blur of oncoming pylons, moving my bike around them with the slightest turns. I gritted my teeth as one grazedme.

Gregor had not been solucky. When I'd dodged his attack, he'd flung by me and just barely clipped the side of a pylon. He was fighting to get control over his wobbling bikenow.

"Eject,"I whispered. "You maniac, you're going tocrash."

In my sidemonitor I could see him barely missing the pylons. He'd been thrown off his rhythm. There was norecovering.