Mike Mullin - Ashen Winter

I grabbed the bolt cutters and started chopping chain-link as fast as I could. We needed a huge hole to accommodate Bikezilla. Luckily we were far enough south of the guard shack that we couldn’t see it and, presumably, couldn’t be seen. I finished up the hole, stomping flat the huge piece of chain-link I’d cut out. Darla nearly ran me down in her haste to push Bikezilla through. She didn’t stop, either-I had to stow the bolt cutter and remount the bike while it accelerated away from the fence.

As we approached the steep slope down to the river, Darla didn’t slow down. If anything she was speeding up. I yelled and tried to back off my pedaling, but the pedals on Bikezilla were ganged together-I had no choice but to keep up with Darla’s frenetic pace. And all the brake controls were at the front of the bike.

“Hold on!” Darla screamed, and we were airborne. The back end of the bike hit the slope with a thump. Then the front end slapped down, and I was pitched forward, my head thudding into Darla’s back.

We careened down the slope, totally out of control. When we hit the ice at the bottom, the front ski flexed almost forty-five degrees, but nothing broke.

And just like that, we were out on the river ice. We still both stood to pedal, but slightly slower than before.

“I’m going to head south,” Darla grunted. “Cross the open part of the river somewhere out of sight from the lock.”

“Sounds good,” I yelled.

“You think we’re in the clear?”

“Yeah.”

Then I heard an engine rumble behind us.

I glanced back. A Humvee was rolling down the embankment we’d just flown down. The slope was so steep it looked like the truck would tip forward and tumble down end over end, but it didn’t-unfortunately.

I redoubled my efforts at the pedals. Darla veered left. The ice was slick and fast, dusted here and there with a little snow. We were moving quicker than we ever had on Bikezilla. Still, I didn’t think we’d be a match for the truck.

We pedaled south on one of the dozens of frozen lakes that lined the Mississippi. As we raced for the far bank, I looked back. The Humvee was down the embankment, accelerating toward us across the ice. It veered slightly, so I could see the passenger window roll down and a rifle barrel emerge. Chips flew from the ice around us as bullets struck, and I heard the rattle of automatic gunfire.

I screamed, “Darla!”

“Shoot back!”

I twisted and tugged at the shotgun. Freeing it or the assault rifle from the ropes one-handed was hopeless. I couldn’t quit pedaling and I couldn’t twist back far enough to reach both hands into the load bed. I snatched the pistol instead.

I aimed at the Humvee closing fast behind us. The passenger’s head, covered by a black ski mask, was out the window now. He withdrew into the vehicle as I pointed the pistol at him. Two bullets. I waited. We were less than halfway across the lake, and the Humvee was closing in fast, seeming to swell in size even as I watched it approach.

The rifle barrel appeared again in the window. I pulled the pistol trigger. Nothing happened. It wouldn’t even depress. The safety-I’d forgotten the safety. I poked it with my thumb, trying to snick it off without dropping the pistol as a new fusillade tore up the ice around us.

I pulled the trigger again. Click. Nothing happened. I’d forgotten to rack the slide. I brought the pistol back in front of me, took both hands off the handlebars for a second, and jerked back the slide.

The truck was right behind us and a little to our left now, still accelerating-preparing to turn us into a hood ornament. The passenger was hanging his head out the window again. I took aim and fired.

My shot whanged off metal. The passenger and rifle withdrew. The truck was almost on top of us. “Darla!” I screamed.

She cranked Bikezilla into such a tight right turn that half of the rear track lifted off the ice. I leaned into it, hoping to keep us upright. Our pursuers tried to mimic our turn but spun out, quickly turning three full circles as they slid south, away from us.

Darla straightened the bike and the back end thumped onto the ice. Now we were headed roughly northwest, in the middle of the lake, and the closest bank was probably ahead of us.

We flew several hundred yards before the Humvee came out of its spin and started accelerating toward us again. My neck worked overtime twisting backward every few seconds. I couldn’t figure out what they were doing-they were way out to our left and behind us, not on a direct route to intercept us.

When the Humvee pulled even with us, about one hundred yards to our left, it became clear what the driver was doing. He drifted into a long turn designed to intersect our course and splatter us all over the ice. There was no way we’d make it to the trees at the edge of the lake. The passenger leaned out his window and started firing at us again.

“Darla!” I yelled again.

“I’m on it!” she gasped, but she kept us on the same course, still pedaling like mad.

I aimed the pistol again. Click. Nothing happened when I pulled the trigger. I pulled it again, but the trigger wouldn’t even depress. Did I need to rack the slide again? I tried it, and a bullet flew out-a dud, I guessed.

We raced toward a deadly crash. Sixty yards. . forty yards. The passenger aimed his rifle at me. I was out of bullets. I pointed the pistol at him anyway, and he flinched. Twenty yards. . ten. I threw the pistol at him, catching him right in the eye. His shots flew wild. Every one of my muscles tensed for the impact.

“Darlaaaa!”

“Stop! Now!” She slammed on the brakes and jammed the pedals to a stop so abruptly that it hurt my ankles and knees. We skidded along the ice. The Humvee shot by in front of us. Our front ski missed their rear tire by inches.

“Go! Go!” Darla yelled as she turned Bikezilla directly toward the Humvee. It was braking-the tires carving two shallow troughs in the ice. We picked up speed, heading directly toward the truck’s back bumper.

I thought I understood what Darla was doing. The Humvee would have to turn in a wide arc to get lined up to try to run us down again. By then, maybe we could make it into the woods.

But the driver wasn’t cooperating. He skidded to a complete stop, almost putting the nose of the Humvee into the woods. But instead of turning around, he started backing up. Straight toward us.

“Christ!” Darla screamed. “Male drivers!” She kept accelerating directly toward the Humvee as it raced backward toward us. Playing chicken with a truck fifty times our size didn’t seem like a great idea to me, but I wasn’t in the driver’s seat. And Darla had dodged the truck twice now-one more time and we’d make it to the woods.

“Yeeaaah,” Darla screeched a banshee wail. “Faster!”

I was already white-knuckling the handlebars, pumping for all I was worth. A drop of blood oozed out between Darla’s right hand and her handlebars and was whipped past me by the wind.

The back of the Humvee loomed. I wanted to close my eyes. I couldn’t close my eyes. At the last second, Darla swerved left. The driver of the Humvee swerved, too. The truck’s front quarterpanel sideswiped Bikezilla’s load bed just behind my right leg.

We were thrown into a spin. I was sure we’d roll, but Darla steered into the skid, pedaling like mad, and somehow kept us upright. She shot between a pair of trees that were too close together to admit the Humvee.

We were racing along a tiny frozen creek, forest lining either side. I looked back and almost got knocked off the bike when an overhanging branch smacked me in the side of the head. I didn’t see any sign of the Humvee.

Both banks of the creek were overgrown with leafless bushes and trees. I had to watch Darla carefully; when she ducked, I had a split second to follow or get whacked by a branch. Several times Darla threw an arm up to block them instead. The branches were dead and shattered easily, bits of dry wood spinning away as we whizzed past.