The Rally

 

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"Name please?" A young woman looked up at a tall man with dark hair and smiling brown eyes.

"Theseus Jamison Harper," he replied, his voice calm and modulated.

"Theseus Jamison Harper," the woman repeated under her breath as she quickly began writing his name on a paper already full of other names, "alright," she spoke normally, "you can go now," she finished gesturing to the mass of people men and women standing near a large screen.  

The tall man walked over to this wife a slim woman with shoulder length light blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. Her light pink dress flowed slightly with the warm summer breeze, she said nothing but her worried eyes said everything. 

"Don't worry Ayala," Theseus spoke softly as he held his wife close, "it's been twelve years and I haven't been picked yet."

Every year the government picked two men to participate in the rally, or it was more colloquially known as the rally of death. 

Every able person eighteen years old and up were forced to put their names in a drawing and one name would be picked at random to participate. In the rally, the person who was picked would ride in a blue and white formula one race car in a maze while three red formula one cars chased you around the maze, their sole purpose to crash into your car before you can gather all ten flags scattered around the maze. Only three of the many people chosen over the years had successfully outsmarted the red cars. 

No one knew why the government did this, but they knew being picked was virtually a death sentence.  

 "People of state nineteen! The rally will now start, with Philip Birk from state twenty-two," a voice boomed over a speaker, "afterward, the next person to participate in the subsequent rally next week will be chosen at random."

The screen at front flickered for a moment and then an image of the maze and the four cars appeared on the screen. One of them blue and the other three red. 

A beeping sound was heard signaling the ten-second head start that was given to whoever drove the blue car, then the other cars would start to move. 

Theseus snapped his fingers in dismay as he noticed that Philip had started out slowly for his first ten seconds. That could be a fatal mistake. Thankfully Philip had sped up in time and started cruising towards the nearest flag. Looking elsewhere on the screen he could see that the red race cars had already scattered and were making their way towards Philip's car. 

"I can't look," Ayala said as she turned and hid her face. Theseus silently comforted his wife as he watched what transpired on the screen closely. He already knew that this one was going to fail too, Theseus had seen the rally so many times that he knew all the ins and outs of it, what do to and not to do. 

Philip was on his third flag now, he had done fairly well so far, but he didn't seem to notice that two of the three red race cars were gaining on him and closing in fast. Then it seemed that Philip had finally noticed the two and frantically zoomed to what looked like a good turn and crashed into one of the red cars.

Then the screen went black.

A murmur of distress started in the front of the crowd and quickly moved its way through the whole mass of people. Ayala slowly looked up at Theseus who was still staring at the screen with a look on his face that only meant one thing. 

The screen flickered again and an image of a man was seen dipping his hand into a gray bucket almost overflowing with little pieces of paper all with the names of every eligible male in the country. Then he took his hand out, and unfolded a single piece of paper, looking up towards the camera he began, "Theseus Jamison Harper of State 19. You have been chosen for the next rally, you and your immediate family will be escorted to the capital within the next four hours," and the screen went black once more. The crowd turned to face a shocked Theseus as his wife started to sob. 

 

**

"Daddy you're home!" A little girl the gentle age of six with chocolate brown hair ran into Theseus's arms as soon as he and his wife walked in the front door of their house. 

Theseus ruffled his daughter's soft wispy hair and laughed, "How's my little Zinnia? Were you good while mommy and I were gone?" 

The little girl nodded her head vigorously, "Oh yes daddy!" then she reached up and whispered in her father's ear, "why is mommy sad?" 

Theseus became quiet for a moment and looked at his wife who was sitting at the kitchen table with her face in her hands, Theseus picked up his daughter and walked over to his wife, then he put Zinnia down and sat next to Ayala who was now quietly staring out the kitchen window. 

Taking his wife's hand in his he began, "I'm going to be the fourth."

"The fourth what?" Ayala asked confused.

"The fourth person to outsmart the government."  

"How do you know?" 

"I don't, but believe I have a good chance at winning this," Theseus replied tapping his temple with a smile on his lips. 

Zinnia, who had been listening, clambered up onto one of the unoccupied kitchen chairs and looked at her parents with a puzzled expression, "Are you going someplace, daddy?" 

"Yes my dear, in a few hours some people are going to come and bring us to the capital to be in a race one week from now. Then while we are there I'll be shown the basics of how to use the race car. After that, we'll come home," Theseus explained as simply as possible. She wouldn't be able to understand the gravity of this situation anyway. 

Zinnia nodded blissfully unaware. 

 

**

Theseus stood in front of the blue and white formula one car wearing racing attire, a helmet, and a smile. He looked to the crowd of anxious faces standing just behind the blockade, his eyes landed on his wife and daughter who were standing in the front their eyes fixed on him. 

"Everyone in your cars," a male voice bellowed over a loudspeaker. 

Theseus turned to the drivers of the red cars grinning and waved to them before he stepped into his assigned race car. 

"Ready, set--" and a loud beeping noise took the place of where the word 'go' would have been signaling his ten-second head start. 

Immediately, Theseus bolted forward making his way towards the closest bright white flag. He kept one hand steady on the wheel as he reached out and grabbed the flag off the wall of the maze. Glancing down to his radar for a second he could see that the three other cars had started to move and were starting to scatter. 

This would give him enough time to fetch the second and third. 

Theseus strategically snatched them, then as he made his way towards the fourth his heart started to pound, seeing that the red cars were just beginning to zero in on him. He swiftly turned a few corners grabbing the fifth and sixth flags. 

With four flags remaining, and the others still nearing Theseus knew he had to up his game. He had seen it many times if a contestant was lucky enough to make it this far the red cars always started becoming more aggressive. The downfall of the chosen riders at this point was because they didn't step it up themselves. 

Theseus mentally improvised a quick and safe way to possibly gather the seventh flag.  

Keeping an eye on the radar, he did his best to avoid the red cars and snatched the seventh flag. 

Three flags were left and two of the red race cars were in view, Theseus's heart was racing, he could feel the sweat forming. At this point in the rally, you didn't have enough time to plan. 

He would have to wing it from this point on. 

Theseus tried to shake off the growing fear as he swerved to the right just in time as a red car barreled full speed ahead to crash into him, just clipping the wing of his car. 

He missed the next flag, but staying alive was more important at the moment. 

Trying again, Theseus managed to fetch the eighth flag. Looking down at his radar for a moment he knew what he had to do in order to win the rally. 

He pressed the gas pedal hard leaving a sizeable cloud of exhaust gas in his wake, he knew this would keep his pursuers at bay. At least for just enough for him to reach the ninth flag. 

Fatigue had already started making its way into the very fiber of Theseus's being back when he had grabbed the fifth flag. Now, with one flag left and less than half a tank of gas, he would have to risk crashing into one of the other race cars to finish the rally. 

 One of the red cars was nearing the final flag from the front and two were riding his tail. Theseus gave the gas pedal one last powerful push and he rounded a corner. 

The world looked as if it were moving slowly as the last flag was in sight. 

Reaching out, he took the last flag. 

Cheering could be heard from the audience as Theseus leaned back in the seat absorbing the fact that he had actually succeeded. 

The blockade that kept the audience away from the maze was taken down and the crowd of people was walking towards him with Ayala and Zinnia in the lead. 

Exhausted, Theseus slowly stepped out our the car as his wife ran into his arms. 

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