Sarah scrambled frantically through the narrow opening, splashing heavily into a deep puddle of oily mud. Caleb followed closely behind, grunting loudly in pain as his injured shoulder hit the tight doorframe. They were finally outside, hidden securely behind the massive workshop.
The rain was absolutely torrential now, a freezing, blinding curtain that soaked them to the bone instantly.
“They’ll expect us to run straight for the woods again,” Caleb hissed, pressing close to her to be heard over the storm. His face was pale from the injury, exhaustion and pain etched deeply into his features. “We absolutely aren’t doing that.”
He led her quickly along the dark back wall of the shop, heading towards a separate, much smaller shed she hadn’t noticed during her panicked arrival. He keyed open a heavy padlock with badly shaking hands. Inside sat two sleek motorcycles—not the gleaming, heavy chrome cruisers he usually fixed for his paying customers.
These were rugged dual-sport bikes, ugly, functional beasts built explicitly for dirt, deep mud, and extreme evasion, painted a stealthy matte black.
“Can you ride?” he asked breathlessly.
“A bicycle?” she replied, terrified.
“Close enough. Clutch is the left hand, throttle is the right hand. Shift gears with your left foot. First gear is straight down. Just let the clutch out very slowly and give it some gas. Don’t fall off.”
He swung a heavy leg over the larger of the two bikes and aggressively kicked it to life. It roared with a throaty, incredibly aggressive bark that immediately drew shouting and attention from the front of the workshop. The intruders knew they were escaping.
“Go!” Caleb yelled at the top of his lungs over the screaming engine noise.
Sarah mounted the slightly smaller bike. She had watched her mother—no, Margaret—drive an old manual transmission farm truck for years. The basic mechanical concept was there in her mind.
She pulled the clutch lever in, stomped down hard on the shifter, and twisted the sensitive throttle. The bike lurched violently forward, nearly throwing her clean off the back seat. She wobbled wildly for a terrifying moment, her feet dragging through the thick mud, but she somehow managed to keep the heavy machine upright.
Caleb peeled swiftly out of the shed, throwing a massive rooster tail of wet mud directly behind him. He didn’t head for the obvious safety of the long driveway. He headed straight across the open field, directly toward a dangerous barbed-wire fence.
Sarah followed blindly, absolutely terrified, the engine screaming in protest beneath her. Just as she thought Caleb was going to crash horrifically into the sharp wire, he stood up on the foot pegs and hit a small, concealed earthen ramp she hadn’t seen in the dark. The bike launched smoothly into the air, clearing the dangerous fence easily.
Sarah hit the very same ramp a split second later. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, holding on for dear life. The bike slammed down incredibly hard on the other side, painfully jarring her spine, but the high-end suspension soaked up the worst of the brutal impact.
They were in the neighbor’s expansive pasture now, tearing recklessly through tall, incredibly wet grass. Behind them, bright headlights suddenly flared in the darkness. The black SUV was coming fast around the shop, brutally tearing down the remaining fence in relentless pursuit.
“Keep up!” Caleb yelled loudly into his integrated helmet mic. He must have slapped a tactical helmet on at some point in the shed, though Sarah was completely bareheaded, the freezing rain stinging her face like tiny needles.
They aggressively hit a paved county road, Route 9, a terrifying mile later. Caleb didn’t slow down for a second. He leaned hard into the sharp turn, accelerating dangerously onto the slick blacktop.
Sarah followed his lead, her small amount of confidence growing slightly with every passing second she didn’t crash the bike. The heavy SUV hit the paved road seconds later, its massive engine roaring as it gave aggressive chase. It was significantly faster on the long straightaway, rapidly gaining ground on them.
“They’re going to ram us!” Sarah screamed in sheer panic, though she knew Caleb couldn’t possibly hear her over the wind.
Caleb looked quickly back over his shoulder to assess the distance. He reached deep into a waterproof saddlebag on his bike and pulled something out. He deliberately slowed down, letting Sarah safely pull ahead, perfectly placing himself directly between her and the aggressively pursuing vehicle.
The heavy SUV was right on his tail fender now, dangerously close. Sarah watched in utter terror in her rearview mirror as the passenger leaned aggressively out the window, a heavy deterrent device raised in the blinding rain. Caleb didn’t waver or panic.
He pulled a high-powered, military-grade strobe flashlight from his jacket. With lightning speed, he aimed it backward and activated the intense, blinding beam directly into the SUV driver’s eyes. The piercing, disorienting light flooded the vehicle’s cabin instantly.
The driver of the SUV panicked entirely, completely blinded by the brilliant strobe. He swerved violently to the right to avoid a phantom collision. The heavy, top-heavy vehicle immediately hydroplaned on the deeply rain-slicked asphalt.