LIFERS Chapter Three

Three

At the job interview, Vicky had been told that at just nineteen she’d be the youngest applicant for the position and not to be too concerned if she wasn’t successful in securing it. Well, five hours ago she left Columbia South Carolina to head for Washington D.C. where, in three days time, she starts her first Monday morning as the new assistant PA to the editor of the Washington Post.

As she slept on the front passenger seat, her closest friend, Jill Gordon, who tagged along just to get a lift to Richmond to go see her favourite band, was currently doing her share of the driving. Vicky’s infallible plan was to drop Jill en route and carry on to the capital alone, letting her friend make her own way home after the concert, and, up until a minute ago, that plan was ticking over just fine.

The humid North Carolinian August nights were no less uncomfortable than the stifling North Carolinian August days, and because Vicky’s old Datsun suffers an electrical fault that won’t allow her to use the air-con without the car cutting out, the roof had been pulled back the minute the Sun started toset. But at least the LED clock in the dash still worked, it read, 01:03am.

Even with the soft-top rolled all the way back, Jill felt little or no breeze from the car’s slow movement as she idled along the same stretch of road she used not five minutes ago, but going in the opposite direction. No lights, no road signs, no recognisable features, nothing, only pine trees followed by more pine trees on both sides of the road. If she was lucky enough to see a sign now, she felt sure it would read, “You are now entering Totally Lost. Please drive carefully”.

After running black fingernails through shoulder-length black hair for the tenth time in as many minutes, Jill finally realised just how lost she’d gotten them. She didn’t want to wake Vicky, didn’t want to admit to the cock-up she’d made, but there was no point in driving around just using-up gas. So, bringing the car to an almost undetectable stop in the middle of the road, she shook her friend by the arm.

‘Vicky, Vicky.’

‘Hmmnn.’

‘Wake up; I think we’re lost.’

‘What?’

‘I think I took a wrong turn,’ Jill said, her black thumbnail pointing backward. ‘Way back there.’

‘Impossible,’ said Vicky, eyes still shut. ‘We’re on eighty-five, and eighty-five goes all the way to Richmond. We can’t be lost.’

‘Well, we were on the eighty-five. Not now.’

‘So just turn around and go back the way you came.’

‘I did, several times, and now we’re even more lost.’

Vicky sighed, sat up straight and switched on the light at the top of the windshield. ‘Okay, give me the map.’

Jill pulled a map from the side compartment of her door, the type that looks like a book when you buy it, but opens out like a bed sheet when you need to use it.

‘Okay,’ Vicky said, the map taking up half the dash and windshield. ‘We left Columbia on I-seventy-seven heading for Greensboro.’ She traced the route with her finger. ‘Then onto the eighty-five, and if we stay on the eighty-five we go all the way to Richmond like I said, I drop you off and carry on for Washington.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘So why’d you come off?’

‘I got bored, so I thought if I came off for a while I could get back on farther along. I didn’t mean for this to happen.’

‘I know, don’t worry, we’ll find our way back. Now, which road did you take off eighty-five?’

Jill gave the map a studious look, there were at least five routes she thinks she could have taken. ‘Sorry Vicks, I’m not sure,’ she said. ‘It could’ve been any one of them.’

At that, Vicky folded the map and handed it back to her, then clicked open her door.

‘What are you doing?’

‘We can’t risk shutting-off the engine; it might not start again, so I’m just moving away from the car to see if I can hear any vehicles. If I can hear them it means we’re on one of the roads close to the highway.’

Jill leaned over and scanned the floor by Vicky’s feet, her eyes searching what little of the road was available to her.

‘What are you looking for?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Are you looking for snakes?

‘Well they freak me out, okay. They don’t have any legs but they can move really fast. And they bite.’

‘You're being stupid, there's no snakes here.’

‘Are you sure about that, it looks pretty dark to me, and snakes just love dark places.’

‘Perhaps they do, but hardly in the middle of a road.’

‘What if there’s one crossing the road?’

Vicky rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, if it makes you feel any better, stay there, I can do this on my own.’

‘No,’ Jill said. ‘I’m coming too.’

Twenty paces later they stopped.

‘But if I see just one snake I’ll─’

Vicky’s hand shot up. ‘Shush, we need to listen.’

Jill stood in silence, but other than the “Breep-breep” of amorous crickets, heard nothing. ‘I can’t hear any cars.’

‘No, neither can I.’ Vicky tilted her head in a bid to listen that bit harder. ‘Shit, we could be miles from the highway?’

‘Like I said, Vicks, I’m really sor−’

‘Shush, listen.’ The hand was up again.

‘Will you stop doing that?’

‘Listen,’ Vicky insisted.

This time both heads tilted.

Jill whispered, ‘What is it?’

‘Not sure, sounds like, woo-woo. There, woo … woo-woo.’

Jill listened some more, listened harder. ‘That sounds like a pack of dogs.’

‘A pack of what?’

‘Bloodhounds. And I bet they’re chasing someone.’

‘Chasing someone?’

‘It’s probably some psycho nut who’s just hacked his whole family to death, kids an’ all, and frail old granny, too.’

‘Now you’re just trying to scare me.’

‘Well they’re definitely dogs, and they’re definitely chasing someone, or something.’

‘Stop it, Jill. It’s just some dogs barking in the woods.’

‘What if it’s not? Remember, we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere, here. We could be surrounded by throwbacks that’ve been inbred for God-knows how many generations. Who knows what goes on this far from normal evolution? They could have two heads, or gills and webbed feet for all we know. And believe me,’ she said, pointing toward the trees. ‘If someone comes running through those woods wielding a blood-stained hatchet, I’m not hanging around to be his next victim.’ She turned, headed back to the car. ‘Well … are you coming?’

Still looking into the woods, Vicky nodded. ‘Yeah, coming.’

Still heading for the car, Jill turned to see she hadn’t actually moved. ‘Vickeeee.’

‘All right, I’m coming.’

Jill got to the car and slammed her door just as Vicky’s butt hit the seat. She put her foot down hard and fast causing the tires to screech and the car to fish-tail along the road. They both started laughing about the bloodhounds and inbreeds, and the throwbacks with two heads and gills, and the murderous mad-axe-man on the run.

‘Woo-woo. Woo-woo,’ Jill mimicked as she took her eyes off the road to look at Vicky.

There was a thud, the windshield cracked down the centre and Jill slammed the brakes on. Vicky reached for the dash to save herself as the car skidded across the road. Jill did her best to ride out the swerve but the slick tarmac allowed the wheels little grip as they careened toward the trees. The front left fender struck one of those trees bringing the car to a sudden, sharp stop. Jill’s head hit the steering wheel and the engine stalled leaving the place in silence, a silence even the amorous crickets seemed to have stopped to listen to.

For the initial few seconds, neither girl spoke as they stared through the cracked windshield to see the only remaining headlight fade into the black of the forest. Both wide-eyed, both rigid, both with short, panicked breaths, both realising something terrible had just happened, and both hoping to God the other one would say it hadn’t.