1 Chapter 01

"That looks like a nice crop of barley there, eh" said Salty Bob. He was in the back of a 1964 International pickup truck.

"Aye, you're right Bob, that does look like good picking" replied Captain Tractor. "Turn to that field there" Captain Tractor said to the driver. The pickup turned off onto a dirt road and into the barley field. "Alright boys load her up."

"Hey, what are you hooligans doing in my crop" yelled an old man from a house across the road.

"Drive man drive!" yelled Captain Tractor. The rest of the crew loaded the barley and got onto the pickup.

"Get back here you hooligans" yelled the old man shooting at the pickup with a shotgun.

There I was, walking through a field with my friends. Let me introduce myself, I'm Zach Tanner,I'm sixteen years old, I live in the prairies of Alberta and this story is about a find that changed my life.

We were walking through a field, we were all chatting about the news last night until we came upon this abandoned barn. "You guys hear about the news" James asked. James, he has been one of my closest friends since kindergarten.

"Ya that Captain Tractor got my Uncle's field last night." replied Debbie. Debbie, we've been friends since we were three.

"I'm sorry to hear that, if there is anything we can ..." I got cut off.

" Guys hold up, what is that?"Asked Roxanne. Roxanne, my best friend and girlfriend. She pointed to an old structure in the field ahead of us.

"It looks like an old barn," said James. He started walking toward it.

"Well in that case let's go explore it" Debbie said as she ran towards the barn shoving James out of the way.

"Why not, we have the whole day" I said. We all ran after Debbie into the barn but I turned back to see Roxanne was looking hesitant. "What's wrong" I asked her.

"What if we get caught and we taken to the RCMP station," she said. She looked into my eyes very anxiously

"But what if there is some sort of treasure in there and you miss out on it" I said to her taking her hand in mine and looking into her eyes.

"You're right I should I go, especially with the chance of a treasure," she said giving me a short kiss. We both hurried after Debbie and James.

"Finally, took you guys long enough" Debbie whined. She was tapping her foot against the ground excitedly.

"Come on all ready, lets just open it" James said anxiously.

"Alright just calm down" I said to James. I pulled the door aside and what was inside all made our jaws drop in amazement. " No. Flipping. Way." I said in amazement. Inside the barn were four cars. "This is amazing, right there is a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge, that whiteone with blue racing stripes next to it is a 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350, and you see that blue one next to it, that's a 1969 Dodge Super Bee and the beauty of the bunch, a blue 1970 Plymouth Super Bird, there is just something about that wing that makes it so amazing" I said.

"You know all this how?" questioned Roxanne. She arched her eyebrows questioning me.

"I grew up around cars all my life, my grandpa and my uncle always took me to car shows and I even got to ride in an old Mustang a few years back." I said to Roxanne.

"I think we might have some new rides" James said excitedly. He started checking out each of the cars.

"I call dibs on the orange one" yelled Debbie as she ran to the GTO. She pushed James out of the way to get to it.

"There probably isn't even any ke..." James got cut off as the GTO roared to life. Debbie was revving the engine, listening to the hypnotic sound.

"It. Sounds. Amazing" said Roxanne. She took out her phone and started taking pictures.

"I know right" I said. Roxanne excitedly ran to the Mustang, turned the key and revved the engine.

"How many horses does thing have" asked Roxanne. She ran her hands over the steering wheel mesmerized by the feel.

"Based around the year I'd probably say about 306 horses" I told her. I started checking out the cars that were still available.

"Heck yes" Roxanne said excitedly. She started looking through the glove box looking for who knows what.

"I like the look of this one" James said as he ran his hand over the roof of the Super Bee.

"I was hoping I'd get the Bird" I said hopping into the driver's seat. I turned the key and the let bird out of the cage.

"The what" Roxanne questioned. She was holding an old receipt and crumbled it up.

"The Bird, as in Superbird, the souped up version of the Plymouth Roadrunner. The Superbird was built to race in NASCAR, having 425 horsepower stock, and the wing and nose cone come stock as well" I told Roxanne, her eyes lighting up at what I just told her.

"Can we go cruising already?" whined Debbie. She put the Charger into drive.

"You had me at cruising" I yelled as I revved the Superbird.

"We should have a race" said James. He drove out of the barn and we all followed behind him.

"You know what I think we should" said Roxanne.

"Alright then, the winner has to pay for lunch," I said.

We all drove our cars to the dirt road and got lined up. "On the third honk, you launch" said James.

The first honk sounded, we were all revving our engines and some of us had our hands on the stick, some of us with our foot on the clutch or others had hands on the shifter. Then the second honk sounded and my hand was gripping tighter on the stick. The third honk sounded, I immediately put it in drive, I was certain I was going to win.

Debbie was in first with her GTO, Roxanne in second with her Mustang, I was in third with my Superbird and James in last with his Super Bee. James was getting farther behind as I put my foot on the gas. "See you later James" I said to myself. I was neering ever closer to the white dot in front of me. "I've got you now Roxy" I said to myself. I slammed my foot down on the gas and went flying past Roxanne.

"Wait, what but how" questioned Roxanne. She looked in her rear view and saw James getting closer, so she put the mustang into fourth gear and sped towards the two dots in front of her.

"I wish I picked that Superbird when I had the chance" whined James as he saw Roxanne speed away just as he got closer. "They must have suped up engines, mine must still be an engine stock" he whined even louder.

"Ha I'm going to win" said Zach. He passed Debbie almost immediately. I looked back and saw that Debbie and others were stopped. I looked ahead and saw a vehicles making a roadblock ahead. I slammed on the brakes and I stopped about half a foot in front.

"What's going, why are we stopped" Roxanne asked me as she pulled up to where I stopped.

"Look in front and find out" I said to Roxanne pointing to the roadblock in front of us. I put my car into park.

"Holy smokes, what is going on here" Debbie said pulling up to us. "Wait i know these trucks, they belong to the Prairie Pirates that stole my Uncles crop last night" said Debbie

James pulled up the group after another five minutes and said "I should call the RCMP, these pirates have caused enough trouble" He called the RCMP and they got there in less than minutes.

"What seems to be the trouble here kids?" said the lead officer looking at the trucks.

"Oh my goodness you found them," said the lead officers partners

"You kids need to get out of here, these are dangerous people, you could get hurt" said the lead officer.

'Fine we'll get out of here, come on gang" I said winking at roxanne and the rest of the gang. We went back to the cars and pulled them into a huddle. "Here's the plan we follow them in one car, make sure it is the quietest one though, so we follow them and take back the barley to Debbie's uncle, let the mounties handle the pirates and boom it's a win win" I said.

"Are you sure this is going to work, what if we get caught taking back the barley" Roxanne said looking at me nervously and tears forming in her eyes. "I don't want to lose you Zach to some stupid Praire Pirates"

"James, Debbie could you leave us alone for a bit" I said to them, they nodded and walked off. "Roxanne come to my car for a second, please" I nodded my head toward the Plymouth. I opened the passenger door and let her in. "Roxanne, I get you're worried about me but I'll be fine, we're just taking the barley not taking on Captain Tractor himself" I said trying to ease her into the idea"

"I know but what if they catch taking the barley, the Mounties or the pirates?" Roxanne said with a nervous expression on her face.

I took her chin in my hand and raised it so her eyes met mine, tears forming and glistening of her emerald green eyes. "Don't worry babe, I won't let anything happen and especially, especially won't let anything happen to you" I said to Roxanne, quickly followed by a reassuring kiss.

"We should probably get back to the others if we want to carry out this plan" Roxanne said blushing.

The two returned to Debbie and James. "Finally we get started. I've been thinking we can't exactly take one of our new cars, so I was thinking we take them to my uncle's farm and hop into his truck" suggested Debbie.

"Brilliant as always Debbie, we should make our way over to your uncle's farm drop off the cars and hop into the truck, only questions are, who's driving and who's sitting upfront or in the box." I said.

"We'll decide when we get there" said James running to his Super Bee. "Race you there"

"You're on" Debbie said starting up her GTO.

And soon we were all on our way to Debbie's uncle's farm.