FICTION

After burying their hapless pilot then deciding that the only way out of their predicament was to build a motorcycle , ' Happy ' Burt Day and his band of beleaguered production racing misfits had their hands full . But was building a bike and trying to ride it back to civilization the right thing to do .....

WORDS : Moroney ILLUSTRATIONS : ‘ Douglas ’

' NICE day for a spot of cross-country ,' Lenny declared after unleashing a yawn and a stretch which threatened to dislocate his arms from his shoulders .

The morning was mild with high cloud . No sign of rain , which came as some relief to the lads as the tyres they had bolted and screwed to the mechanical brute they had created were effectively slicks .

Max was saying little , which Bert first twigged to .

" Bit quiet Max ... were you starting to like it here ?" he chirped with a laugh .

" Someone ' s going to have to get to like it here ," Max replied .

" Listen up lads ," he shouted , before going through what could only be described as a plausible explanation as to why only three of them were going to be riding their way out . It basically came down to weight factors and fuel .

There was silence for a while until Bert looked up and said he ' d seen a film once where there were a group of bloke stranded in a desert ... and how they had to draw straws to see which one would have to stay behind , and hope like hell his mates would make it through and send help .

Nod kicked away at the ground and said that wouldn ' t work . " Why not ?" Bert asked . " We haven ' t got any straws ," Nod replied . Lenny suggested paper-rock-scissors , while Max tried to float the idea of four folded pieces of paper ... one of them bearing the words ' no ' while the other three had a ' yes ' on them . But the arguments and anguish that Max could see coming , and which had deprived him of sleep the night before , did not emerge . What did emerge was a solution . It came in the form of Nod . " I ' ll stay ," he said quietly ... repeating it after

KIWI RIDER 65