Curt screeched to a stop in the middle of the intersection so he could look both ways on Willow. He saw Nat’s truck about half a block down the street in the direction away from the commercial part of town. Turning the steering wheel hard, he headed in its direction. Off to the right on a lawn he could just make out figures in the darkness pummeling others who were sprawled on the ground. Lights in the surrounding houses were coming on in response to the commotion. That’s when he heard the police siren.

“Shit!” Curt yelled. As he pulled to a sudden stop behind Nat’s truck, he glanced in the rearview mirror. The blinking lights of a police cruiser were racing toward them.

“Get their asses into Nat’s truck,” Curt barked to Mike, who leaped out of the cab. Mike didn’t protest; the urgency of the situation was obvious.

Curt watched the police car approaching in the mirror. At first he thought he’d merely hunker down and stay out of sight until the cop exited his car and joined the melee. That would give him a chance to speed away and leave the troops to the fate they deserved. But then he got another idea. Having been to a half-dozen demolition derbies, he knew the best way to incapacitate another vehicle with your own was to back into the other’s front.

The critical question was whether the cop would pull up behind Curt as he expected. Fortunately he did.

The moment the lone policeman began to exit his vehicle, Curt put his truck into reverse and stomped on his accelerator, pressing it firmly against the floor. The truck tires spun with an ear-splitting screech before suddenly catching. The heavy king cab pickup lurched backward and gained considerable speed in the short distance between the two vehicles before smashing into the police cruiser.

Despite tensing for the collision, Curt’s head snapped back on impact. The sound was like beer cans being crushed and the siren, which until that moment had been piercing the night, went silent. The police cruiser’s hood popped open and a geyser erupted.

More important from Curt’s point of view was that the opened driver’s side door had been ripped off its hinges by its own momentum. It went skidding out across the road. The policeman, whose hand was still on the door, ended up face down on the pavement.

“Glory be,” Curt remarked. He put his truck into drive and stepped on the gas. At first the cop car remained attached to his rear bumper. By backing up a little and then going forward again, Curt succeeded in detaching the vehicles. Glancing into the street, he noticed the policeman had not moved.