section7mfu | Not Like the Movies - Short Affair

Prompts - Rupture/Red
Word Count - 458

The assignment had gone without a hitch, right up to the point of escape. A couple of Thrushies had taken umbrage at the two U.N.C.L.E. agents making off with the plans for a new weapon, and had opened fire as they sped away. Several bullets struck the car but, luckily, it seemed as though they’d gotten away relatively unscathed.

However, less than a mile down the road, the car began to slow down. A glance to the fuel gauge told Illya that they were running on empty.

“The gas tank must have been ruptured,” he told Napoleon. “We’ll have to abandon the car and find another mode of transport. If I remember the map correctly, there should be a railway station two miles along this road.”

“How come we didn’t blow up?” Solo asked, as he got out of the vehicle. “There’s always a massive explosion when a car gets hit by a bullet in the movies.”

Illya gave Napoleon a look of pure incredulity, and just about managed to keep himself from sighing.

“This is real life, Napoleon,” he replied. “While there is an infinitesimal chance of that happening, the odds against it are astronomical.”

Solo appeared to be almost crestfallen at hearing that.

“Would you prefer that the vehicle had exploded? Bearing in mind that we would have gone with it?”

Solo shrugged, not wishing to admit that it was the shattering of a Hollywood illusion which had upset him.

“Come on,” he urged his partner. “We need to get on a train before the bad guys realise we haven’t gone very far.”

The two men continued their journey on foot, and in silence. They’d only gone a short distance when their abandoned vehicle unexpectedly erupted into a large fireball, accompanied by a loud ‘whoomph!’. The resultant shockwave knocked the agents to the ground.

Covering their heads, Napoleon and Illya rolled away from the falling debris which was almost all that was left of their red Dodge Charger. When the dust finally settled, they sat up and watched as the rest burned.

“That should not have happened,” Illya stated. “That could not have happened.”

“How do you explain it then?”

“As I said, the odds of it were astronomical,” the Russian replied. “But, if by some miracle, we were unlucky enough for it to happen to us, it would have been immediate. It has been many minutes since the car was hit.”

“In that case, we have a problem,” said Napoleon, solemnly.

“What is that?”

“If this is impossible to explain, how are you going to put it to Mr Waverly?”

“As senior agent, that is a problem for you to solve,” Illya told him, before climbing to his feet and walking away from the wreckage.

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