Free The Biting Cold: A Winter's Horror Tale by Graeme Clark Page B

I'll lose momentum,' Peter said. 'It was probably Santa starting his rounds.'
    'No,' Danny paused as if what Peter had said was a genuine guess. 'It looked more like one of his elves.' Peter smiled at this but Danny wasn't joking, his face was ashen, and his eyes wide.
    Too many energy drinks.
    'I'm tellin' you Peter, there is something in the snow over there.' He pointed to the left of the cab. Peter glimpsed over but tried to keep his focus on the road, he saw nothing. The immediate area around them was only illuminated by the flashing beacons, no street lights this far from the town.
    'It was a dark shape, but it was moving, almost running, completely black except its red eyes,' Danny explained.
    'We are in the middle of nowhere, probably an animal of some sort.' Peter dismissed what Danny had seen as caffeine and sugar overload. Fields upon fields of animals surrounded them; it would be no surprise if they came across a few, even hit a few brave ones that darted in front of the scraper.
    Why would it be anything else?
    'Look, there are the lights of the Leadburn, we'll see what the police want and get this shift finished, OK?' Danny simply nodded. Peter was only focused on returning to Mary, poor, sweet love.
    As they approached, the light became brighter and brighter, an orange glow from the street lights around the junction showed Peter a line of cars, about ten were tailed back from the junction. A police car could be seen ahead on the junction; blue flashing lights mixed with the existing orange and yellow glows and gave this whole area an otherworldly feel. From the sky, Peter imagined, with the surrounding in complete black it would have looked almost like a UFO had landed. A policeman stood at the side of the cars and waved Peter onto the opposite side of the road, no cars approached and Peter pulled onto that lane to overtake. 
    'Better lift the scraper a bit, don't want to bury those cars,' Peter asked Danny. Peter rolled down his side window and h eard the crunch of newly fallen snow under the huge wheels as he continued up the wrong side of the road. It made him feel like an emergency service, the rules of the road don't apply.
    On reaching the junction the policeman took up a position at Peter's side. He pulled at his waterproof poncho and wiped drips from his glasses so he could see. His mou stache was speckled with ice and his flat cap ran water into his face. He raised his voice through the increasing winds.
    'We want you to go to Pe ebles and back, the Borders crews can't get anywhere near this road, they're busy on the Moffat road.'
    Peter ha d dreaded this; no way was he getting home now. He glanced at his watch, it was just passed eleven. No chance.
    'I'll need to check with base,' Peter said. He grabbed the handset from the radio.
    'No need, we've already checked with your control, it's OK.'
    ' Well I suppose yes then.' Peter returned the handset to the cradle, turned the volume on the radio up a bit and said to Danny. 'Guess we're going to Peebles then.'
    'Unless the elves get us,' Danny said.
    To build the momentum needed, Peter reversed a few feet back down the small incline with the gritter on full to give him grip on the new snow. He threw the gear-stick into second, Danny dropped the scraper again, turned the gritter off and Peter punched the accelerator, the huge hulk roared, the wheels spun slightly in their search for grip; the differential was locked and this helped the wheels search in unison. They found the grip quickly and the motor lurched forward. Once started, Peter knew it would be dangerous to stop. He really hoped they wouldn't need to, especially because of the elves.

Onward to Peebles
     
    It was ten miles to Peebles from Leadburn, on a normal, dry day in a car this could take ten minutes, fifteen if the road was busy. Over-taking opportunities were very few and far between due to its snake-like design and you could be stuck behind a vehicle for the whole journey. Tonight though,