8 - Bullet Through Arm

Wham! The pickup screeched around the cor­ner, smashed into their rear fender, and sent them flying across the highway. The driver drew paral­lel to them. Another man leaned out the window and pointed an MP-5 machine gun.

"Get down!" screamed McClane.

Zeus ducked. Machine gun fire raked the Mer­cedes. McClane lowered his head. The car swung out of control and swerved from lane to lane. A storm of bullets chewed up its roof, along with the interior. The other cars slid onto the shoulder to get out of their way.

They were covered in pieces of plastic, glass, and leather. A bullet scraped Zeus's neck. An­other sliced through McClane's arm.

"Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ!" Zeus screamed over and over again.

The barrage stopped abruptly. The pickup fell back. McClane guessed that the shooter had to reload. "Where's the fuse panel?" he yelled.

Zeus's hand was shaking as he pointed to a spot under the dashboard. "There."

"Pull the antilock brakes," McClane said.

"I don't know which-"

"Then pull them all!" he yelled. "Get down on the floor! Way down! This is gonna get ugly!"

He checked his gun. He kept one foot on the gas and readied the other over the brake. He watched the rear view mirror as the pickup tight­ened the gap between them again.

(...)

McClane stabbed the brakes, cranked the wheel, and threw the car into neutral. Doing eighty miles an hour, it spun around backwards and brought them face to face with the pickup cab. The two terrorists gawked at him. McClane stuck his gun out the window. He and the shooter both opened fire. Bullets ripped through the air in a lightning roll of gunfire.

The Mercedes slid past the pickup. McClane kept firing. He got a quick glance at the cab, saw an explosion of blood and glass. The pickup spun off the road. McClane swerved to avoid it and lost control of the car. The Mercedes flipped side­ways, rolled over and down the embankment, and slid to a stop on its roof.

Zeus opened his eyes and looked up at the floor of the car. "What happened?" he asked.

McClane struggled to free himself from his seat belt. "Got your Triple-A card?" he said.


- Die Hard with a Vengeance, Chapter 8