AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now that the race was about to jump off, the thrill began to kick in. Energy began to crackle and spark inside of her, adrenaline, so much so that her fingertips began to tingle. She squirmed and shifted on the seat of her bike, itching to hit the accelerator and start burning off that energy with dangerous levels of speed.
Forgotten was her Tuesday Outfit. Forgotten was her office life at the FBI. Everything, her whole world, was now caught up in the whirlwind of energy spinning around inside of her and making her heart pump like there was no tomorrow. Piper the Wild Child, begging to burst free.
“Go!” the organizer shouted, and dropped the flag.
6
Once the flag dropped and world dropped away, all that existed was the sudden pull and tug of rapid acceleration as the bike shot forward, threatening to tear off into the night from underneath her and leave her behind. It felt like she was hanging on to the handlebars for dear life, dragged through the night by an out of control animal hell bent for leather.
Piper forced down the feeling of her heart flying up into her throat and gripped the bike tightly with her legs to get it back under control. The first stretch of road was straight as an arrow, as promised, but she could already see the twists and turns that the organizer mentioned coming up. If she didn’t have total control over her bike, those twists and turns would be the end of her.
Still, she’d been on roads like this plenty of times before, taking them at dangerous speeds. Those years of tearing it up on dirt bikes like she’d just told Pony about had been followed by more high-speed hijinks over the years, and now, Piper put that experience to good use, leaning into the bike to take the turns, forgetting about throttle and brake and steering as separate entities, but letting it all meld into a single instinctive action.
It was tough to get the hang of it with so many other bikes so close to her. She was used to doing this alone, with plenty of room to maneuver as she needed to. Now, with all the otherracers, she had to modify her natural driving habits to avoid colliding with them.
At some point, though, she was going to have to stop merely keeping up with the others and start passing them if she was going to win. As if reading her mind, Piper could see Pony slide forward through a gap in the racers in front of them and pass the first one.
My turn, she thought, and watched for another opening in the group in front of her. It came on another curve, which forced two of the other racers apart, and Piper gunned the throttle, leaning in hard to shoot past the closest racer.
Her jolt of speed took her up to and then even past Pony, who, shortly after, leapfrogged past her and then another of the racers ahead of them.Not so fast,Pony, you’re not the only one with moves, she thought, watching for her next opportunity and then seizing it to speed past both Pony and another of their competition.
It turned into a little unannounced game between the two of them, each of them trying to outdo the other, barely slipping ahead, only to be passed by a few seconds later. It was almost as if they were flirting with their movements, playing a high speed game of tag as they fell into perfect rhythm with each other.
Soon enough, Piper pulled ahead and found herself in a wide gap between her and the last three riders in front of her. Pony pulled up next to her, matching her speed.
She wondered why these riders had been able to stay a bit ahead of the pack. In the time it took to close the gap, Piper recognized the bikes in front of them. It was the methheads, the tweakers who had given her and Pony a hard time, all three packed tightly together in a group.
Time to hurt your feelings, fellas, she thought, and made her move.
As soon as she tried to pass on the left, two of the tweakers shifted to block her move. Even when she tried to slide right, the close pair of bikes was able to continue blocking her path, keeping her from getting past them.
She was forced to fall back slightly. Next to her, Pony tried to make his move, only to run into the same problem. A pair of the tweakers shoved themselves into his path, almost dangerously so, forcing Pony to back off and hang back from passing them.
Son of a bitch. No wonder these three were in the lead. With three of them working like this, they could easily block any of the other riders from getting ahead, keeping better racers from getting the chance to get in front and leave the tweakers behind.
They were all forced to slow down some as they passed the old stone farmhouse at the top of the hill. As instructed, Piper bore to the left, and the road went from an incline to a decline.
She took advantage of the brief decrease in speed to risk a glance back. The rest of the pack was far behind them, leaving only her and Pony to challenge the tweaker trio as they sped down the hill toward the finish.
Piper had no doubt that she and Pony could out-run the tweakers in a fair race. But with the three of them working together to block her and Pony, it was likely that she’d stay bottled up and held back.
It was infuriating. Every time she or Pony tried to get past, two of the three would stay stubbornly in the way.
Pony pulled up next to her again, and even in the dark, they traded a look. Piper knew what he was thinking, knew it without a word being spoken, and this time, when they made their move, they did it simultaneously.
She broke left while Pony broke right, in flawless rhythm with each other. Piper could see the tweakers first try to blockher on the left, and then, when Pony made his move on the right, they hesitated and then tried to go right to block him.
They couldn’t block the both of them at once, though, and in their attempt to do so, a gap opened up on the left that Piper zipped through like a high speed bullet.
Once she was through, she sensed rather then saw one of the tweakers try fruitlessly to bump her, only to slide though the air where she used to be as they hurtled down the hill. Now, a gap was opened that allowed Pony to get past them as well.
Now the game was changed. Now the trio behind her had to try to win based on skill and speed, and try as they might, they simply couldn’t keep up.
Piper poured it on, seeing in her rear view mirror that she was pulling away from the tweakers steadily as they thundered down the hill. The only bike close to her was Pony, who was right on her heels.
He kept edging closer, hugging the turns with expert precision, but Piper’s lead was such that he didn’t seem to be able to make up the distance. She’d been able to slide ahead of the tweaker trio first, and now, it became a race to see if Pony could overcome that lead before they reached the finish line that was rapidly approaching.
Piper could see the spectators at the finish line shouting, waving flashlights in the dark night. It was so close, so close ahead, but Pony was gaining and she was determined that this race was going to be hers.
