Honeybee

Chapter 23

It took the three men a few seconds to register that the truck had been started up. Jason could see them through the side window looking over at the truck with confusion on their faces. He slammed the truck into reverse and swung the steering wheel hard to the left as he backed out of the space. The men were now straight in front and Jason gave them a smile as he gunned the throttle and sped towards them. Their confusion turned to fear as they realised they were now the target. They jumped to the side and the fat man fell flat on his face as Jason hurtled past them. Springing into action, the two men either side ran for the other truck as the fat man stumbled to his feet. Within a few seconds they had the truck started and ready to go.

‘Go!’ the fat man shouted as he jumped in.

The driver slammed his foot down on the accelerator and the trucks wheels spun across the tarmac as they gave chase to Jason. There was no sign of him on the road ahead but there was only one road out of town and he was on it. For the next four miles there were no turnoffs on either side of the road. They could easily catch up, thought the fat man, and when they did, the escapee’s lives would not be worth living.

Jason hurtled down the road at just over eighty miles per hour. On a twisty country road, he had decided that that was fast enough if they wanted to live to see another day. Trees arched over the road making it dark and claustrophobic. He checked the mirror and noticed the other truck just rounding a bend. There was nowhere for Jason to go apart from straight on or back into the village. He considered his options for a moment. He could put his foot down and try and lose them or he could confront them and try to fight them off. And then a final thought came into his mind. He could swing the truck around and charge past them, they wouldn’t expect him to be coming back the other way and he would gain crucial seconds or more if he could somehow cause them some damage. A sharp right hand bend loomed up ahead and Jason made his mind up to follow his crazy plan.

‘Hold on.’ He said with a grin, ‘Time to lose these guys.’

Amanda was expecting him to speed up and was caught totally unaware as he hit the bend and pulled the handbrake. The rear wheels locked and he yanked the steering wheel to the right. The truck spun around and he slammed his foot on the accelerator to pull it out of the skid. As they hit the straight road again, they could see the other truck about half a mile in front and coming fast.

‘What are you doing?’ Amanda shouted.

‘Trying to escape.’ He replied calmly.

Steering over to the right side of the road, he sped towards them and flicked the headlights to full beam. The two trucks were going head on and no one was backing down. Jason just hoped his guess was right and they would back down. He grinned like a maniac as he saw their faces looking scared and he mashed the accelerator as far as it would go. His guess was right, at the last second the driver of the other truck swerved onto the other side of the road, the wing mirrors clipped each other and burst into thousands of pieces, scattering glass and plastic all over the road. Jason never let up and hurtled back toward the village, constantly checking the rear view mirror. The other truck was nowhere to be seen as they passed through the village and back out the other side.

And then they saw it.

And then Jason’s hopes faded.

The road ahead was blocked. The same road Jason had driven down earlier today. A tree trunk the size of lorry lay across the road with no way past. It wasn’t a fallen tree, this trunk was old and had been dragged there by a truck or tractor.

‘Well,’ Jason said, ‘doesn’t look like we’re going that way.’

Swinging the truck around for the second time in the last few minutes, Jason calmly straightened up and then reversed up to the trunk. The other truck came wildly down the road and then slowed very slightly when they saw Jason. Revving the engine, he prepared for another game of chicken and checked that the headlights were still on full. With any luck, it would be enough to blind the oncoming truck. They were close and at the last minute, Jason pulled away, the wheels struggling to get a grip on the damp road. He pushed the clutch in and changed to second gear, the wheels gripped and the truck lunged forward. This time he knew the oncoming truck wouldn’t back down, so he casually steered onto the other side of the road and smiled as they hurtled past. They looked at him in a mixture of confusion and anger and then he heard the crash. Stopping the truck, he looked in the mirror and saw the three men crawl out of the truck. Getting out of his truck, Jason watched as they staggered to their feet and looked over at him.

‘Sorry!’ He shouted. ‘Forgot to tell you the road is blocked.’

The smirk fell off Jason’s face as the fat man raised the automatic rifle and aimed directly at him.