FICTION
A CHILL OF UNCERTAINTY On other occasions , during similar moments of race dominance , he would feel a chill of uncertainty course through his body ... he was sure he ' d left the back door unlocked .
Then there was the fear the television would explode because he ' d forgotten to switch it off at the wall . And the neighbour ' s psychotic dog would almost certainly get the cat this time .
Could a rogue meteorite really hit his house ?
At every race meeting , when there were two laps to go and Bert Day was leading the charge , the paramedic crews would fire up the ambulances and don the rubber gloves as they knew that soon there would be work to do .
And so it would come to pass that the loudspeakers would crackle out the message from a weary-sounding commentator ' Day is down at the hairpin ...'
Scattered caustic applause and cynical cheers would break out throughout the crowd .
Yes , Bert Day was well used to taking a fall , but the fall he was facing on this otherwise unremarkable day , had nothing to do with gas , unlocked doors or cats .
It was more the fire belching from the starboard engine of the chartered aircraft he and three other riders were sharing . " What ' s she like on one engine ?" a slightly rattled Max Chubb , open proddy champion , asked the pilot .
" It ' ll fly fine on one ," he replied nonchalantly over his shoulder , before adding ( with a less nonchalant tone to his voice now ) " but ... ahhh ...." " What d ' ya mean " but ... ahhh ?" Max asked . " But ... ahhh , the port jobbie went out about
20 minutes ago ." Bert leaned over to Max and quietly asked ;
" What do you think he ' s trying to say ?"
The pilot , an experienced old aviator , was unfazed by the fact there was more of the starboard wing now floating to earth behind his aircraft than there was attached to the fuselage .
He scoured the landscape below and summed up his options . " I ' m going to put her down ," he growled . " No kidding ?" Max replied . It was an odd time in the lives of the five aboard .
NO PANIC Even odder ( some may say ) was the fact that apart from the sound of splintering and tearing aluminium , and despite the dire circumstances which were escalating fast , there was no panic .
The consensus was , given that the pilot was the only one who had any idea what all the dials and buttons and levers did , that fate was in his hands and his hands alone .
The four racers , who had been on their way to an endurance event 600km away , were simply passengers in a rather bad dream .
They were laid-back blokes at the best of times but they all surprised each other with their nonchalance .
" At least we haven ' t got the bikes with us ," Lenny Denner ( leading 250 contender ) declared .
" That ' s true ... every cloud ' s got a silver lining after all ," Bert replied .
" We just finished doing a rebuild last night ... I ' d hate to think it was all for nothing ."
The aircraft jolted sharply to the left and tilted over . The pilot had spotted what appeared to be a clearing amidst the dense undergrowth . It looked like a dried-up river bed speckled with thatches of gorse and brownish grass .
" That ' s us ," he said as he fought to pull the ailing aircraft around .
" Have you set off the emergency thing ?" Bert asked as he gripped the sides of his seat base . " No ," the pilot replied abruptly . The four lads looked at each other before
Max leaned forward .
" I know you ' re a bit busy at the moment mate but wouldn ' t it be a good idea to flick on the old ' we ' re in the shit ' switch ?"
" I would if there was one ," he replied calmly .
Max nodded before repeating the pilot ' s line , only slower . " Ahhh , wake up and smell the roses lads ," the pilot snarled . " You wanted a cheap charter ? You got one ." As landings went , what followed wasn ' t all that scruffy . On a scale of one to 10 , the pilot ' s handiwork came in around the three mark . It would have been significantly higher had he bothered to lower the undercarriage .
The contrast between the explosive sounds of a poorly-maintained aircraft slamming into the earth at 120 knots and sliding some 80 metres then wrapping itself amongst a stand of small trees , and the absolute silence that followed , was startling .
THE PILOT SAID NOTHING The pilot said nothing ... which was as you ' d expect given he had been battered unconscious .
The four lads , shaken and aching after the pummeling , sat there for a minute before Max spoke .
62 KIWI RIDER