"The Rest Stop"

Dave hated that he had to take them on a family vacation. But he didn't realize that it would be terrifying.

“The Rest Stop”

By Cody Williams

 

1.

            Dave Rogers began packing the mini van full of all the essential (and on occasion unessential) items that his family “needed” for the trip. He his wife Marsha and their two kids, Dave Jr. and Sally, were going on vacation to the family owned cabin. “The Cloud 9 Cabin” as Uncle Hew called it, was in the Appalachian Mountain range and was about a two hour drive away.

            In first was Dave’s and Marsha’s suite case. The suite case had a navy blue body with gray on the sides. It was about the size of their twelve year old son and felt as if it weighed twice as much. He lifted it up off the ground and dropped it on the bottom of the trunk smashing his fingers.

            “S**t!” Dave screamed as he began sucking on his fingers. He shook his had through the air to shake off the pain. He reached back into the trunk and pushed the suite case as close to the rear seat he could.

            The next item to go in was the duffle bag of his son, David Jr. It was just a small black duffle bag with two changes of clothes in it. David Jr. is not exactly known for being the cleanest twelve year old boy ever.

            Finally loading was the three suite cases of his teenage daughter Sally. Sally was the type of teenage girl who was very high mantanince. She was the captain of the cheerleading squad and was dating the star quarterback of the high school football team. Sally was known as the most popular girl in school. She had long blonde hair and a nice slim body.

            Sally liked to dress according to the mood that she is in. In one suite case were her happy clothes, in the second were her angry clothes, and in the last one was her typical twenty pair of shoes. He threw her three hot pink suite cases in the trunk and slammed the door as it was barely able to close.

            “Alright we are all loaded up! Let’s hit the road!” Dave said as he whipped sweat off of his forehead and while leaning up against the trunk door.

            ‘Yeah, lets get in the car and drive me insane.’ Dave thought to himself. ‘I can’t wait to waste three hours of my life driving to that God damn cabin! We will have to stop every God damn ten minutes and the think of Junior and Sally “not touching” each other is going to put me in the f*****g nut house!’ He continued thinking.

            Dave Jr. was the first of them to walk outside. He had short black hair and was the average size of a twelve year old boy. He had earphones in his ear that were connected to his PSP as he was playing the MADDEN NFL FOOTBALL game. Not looking up from his PSP, Jr. got into the passenger’s side of the back seat and slammed the door shut not saying a word to his father.

            Sally was the next to come out. She was wearing navy blue skinny jeans that hugged her bottom perfectly. She was also wearing a short white tank top showing off her belly button ring. Sally walked to the driver’s side of the car and got into the back seat. She slammed the door shut as she didn’t say a word to her father either as she was too busy texting her boyfriend “what a miserable time” she was going to have on the trip.

            “Come on Marsha! Let’s go!” Dave yelled as his wife who was in the bathroom. Marsha opened the door of the bathroom, flushed the toilet, and walked out when she realized that she had misplaced her keys.

            After about fifteen minutes of looking for her keys, Marsha found them on the kitchen table in plain sight. Dave began to get frustrated as he began to turn red. He placed his hand over his face and turned around and got in the van behind the steering wheel. He reached into his right front pocket pulling out the keys to start the van. Marsha walked out of the front door and got into the mini van. She buckled up her seat belt and looked at everyone.

            “Everybody needs to get out and go to the bathroom now!” Marsha said to all of them.

            “I already did!” Dave said as his patience began to grow shorter and shorter. Marsha looked back at Junior and Sally.

            “What about you Junior and Sally?” Marsha asked. They both ignored their mother and cracked up the volume on their devices. She turned back around and nodded to her husband. Dave turned the key to start the engine. He pulled the gear shift into REVERSE and backed out of the garage and driveway into the small road that they lived on.

 

2.

            ‘I must be completely insane for agreeing to take them to the f*****g cabin!’ Dave thought to himself. Marsha reached over to the CD player putting in a CD that read SOUNDS OF THE OCEAN. ‘God damn it no!’ Dave thought to himself dreading what was about to assault his ear drums. As the music began to play (if you call that music) Sally and Junior cranked up their devises to the maximum volume making a horrible mixture in music.

            ‘It sounds like whales getting raped!’ Dave thought to himself as he began go glow even more red and purple veins began popping out on his fore head. The sound made David want to slam his heat through the windshield.

            After about a fifteen minute drive of what Dave would describe as complete torture, Sally turned off her paused the song playing on her iPhone and threw it onto the seat.

            “Mom, what the hell are you listening to?” Sally asked her mother with frustration.

            “First of all, watch your language and tone with me young lady! Second of all, it is the sounds of the ocean.” Marsha said answering her daughter. Sally unbuckled her seat belt and leaned forward grabbing her dad on the shoulder.

            “Dad, I need to take a pee!” Sally said to her father. Dave rolled his eyes.

            “I thought your mother told you to use it before we left the house!” Dave said. Sally then rolled her eyes.

            “Well, I didn’t have to go then!” Sally said in her typical sassy teenage girl way. Junior then turned off his PSP and took off his ear phones.’

            “Dad I need to take a leak!” Junior said.

            “You got to be f*****g kidding me! Your mother told both of you to use the bathroom before we f*****g left the God Damn house!” Dave screamed at the kids.

            “Well, I didn’t have to go then!” The two kids replied in unison. Dave’s face began to glow as red as the devil.

            “Hey honey, it might be a good idea to stop! I’m beginning to get a little bit nocuous.” Marsha said to her husband while pointing at a blue sign that read REST STOP NEXT EXIT!

            “Fine! We will stop at the rest stop, but we will not be stopping again the rest of the drive there!” Dave said angrily as he began to grind his teeth. He took h hard right to Exit 5B. Dave followed the sign that read CARS and parked in the parking lot. Dave angrily forced the automatic transition into park and turned off the engine.

            Marsha, Junior, and Sally each opened their doors and walked into the bathrooms of the rest stop.

 

3.

            Dave sad in the mini van for nearly twenty minutes.

            “How long does it f*****g take to take a piss or a s**t and to throw up?” Dave asked himself angrily. Dave picked up his iPhone 6 and called the number of his wife Marsha. The phone rang for about thirty seconds before the voice mail finally answered it.

            “Damn it! Pick up your f*****g phone!” Dave yelled angrily as the pushed the red END button on the screen and hung up. Then Dave decided to call his son Junior because if anyone could understand his pain it would be him. It just like his wife’s, rang for about thirty seconds to the tune “Ace of Spades” by Moorhead before being answered by the voice mail.

            “Damn it! I wish that they would f*****g come on!” Dave yelled at the top of his lungs.

            “There is never a moment when she is not on the f*****g phone. I’ll give it a try!” Dave mumbled to himself as he picked up the phone once more. He didn’t like to talk to her much. It seemed as if everything he said was taken the wrong way. Just like with Marsha’s phone and Junior’s phone, the same happened.

            “Damn it!” Dave screamed as he threw his phone into the passenger seat next to him with anger.

            Now after about thirty minutes, Dave began to get concerned.

            “Maybe something has gone wrong. I better go see what the f**k is going on!” Dave said as he opened the door and then slammed it shut and walked over the buildings holding the restrooms.

 

4.

            As he started walking towards the building he began to look around. He glanced over at a group of bikers who were staring at them and saw that they had a strange mixture of the faces of human and that of an ape and that their eyes were dark as coal. He looked away and then looked back towards them. Their faces were normal. He shook his head and continued walking along the sidewalk.

            “I must be tired or something. I could have sworn that they had the faces of apes.” Dave said to himself now crossing the halfway point from the van to the buildings.

            First he reached the entrance door of the Men’s restroom. He opened it and walked inside. He noticed that the room was empty except for the handy cap stall at the end of the room. Knowing that his son liked to be a prankster he walked over the stall and knocked on the door.

            “Okay son, joke’s over! Let’s go!” Dave said to no reply. He reached into his pocket pulling out a keychain with a mini screw driver on it and placed the flat heat in the joint unlocking the door. He pushed the door open revealing a silver backed gorilla on the toilet.

“AHHH” Dave screamed as the gorilla began to growl. Dave began running and the gorilla followed. Then a strange wind came through the restroom. Dave reached the door and looked back to see that the gorilla was no longer there. Dave took in a deep breath and slowly walked out of the restroom.

“You were just imagining that! That didn’t really happen!” Dave said trying to convince himself as he whipped the sweat off of his fore head and walked over to the ladies room. He picked up his shaking hand and knocked on the door of the women’s restroom. Nobody answered. He took another deep breath and walked into the ladies room.

“Marsh! Sally!” David began crying out until he noticed that he ladies room was a jungle. He could hear something began to move around in the bushes. Dave the saw the yellow eyes of the gorilla watching him from the bushes. He slowly walked back to the door and ran out.

 

5.

            Dave, now dripping in sweat, walked over the wooden pick nick table and sat down on it.

            “What the hell is going on?” David asked himself while pulling out a pack of cigarettes to calm his nerves. This was the first cigarette that he had had in nearly two years. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a lighter. He pushed down the red button and lights the cigarette.

            “Oh baby!” He whispered to himself as he exhaled a puff of smoke. The he saw and elderly janitor walk by. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and placed it on the edge of the table. Dave stood up from the table and walked over to speak to the old man.

            “Hey Mister!” Dave said attracting the attention of the old man. The old man turned around. He was slightly overweight and was wearing a dark blue jump suite.

            “What can I do for you sonny?” The old man asked Dave. The old man smelt as if his skin was rotting on top of him.

            “Yeah, my son, daughter, and wife went to the bathroom and never came out. With us being the only ones here, I was wondering if you had seen them.” Dave said the old man. The old man shook his head no and looked up at Dave.

            “They’re probably lost!” The old man said to Dave. Dave rolled his eyes.

            “No s**t! I figured that out!” Dave said to the old man. The old man shook his head again.

            “No, you don’t understand. What I mean is LOST!” the old man said again.

            “What do you mean by lost?” Dave asked as his curiosity began to rise.

            “I mean this is the Exit 5B rest stop and it has always had “thin spots.”” The old man said.

            “What do you mean by thin spots?” Dave asked as he made air quotes around the words thin spots.

            “A thin spot is where a dimension bleeds into another.” The old man said as Dave rolled his eyes in disbelief.

            “Thin spots? That’s a load of bull s**t!” Dave said to the old man. “You mean to tell me that my wife and my kids are in some random alternate universe?” Dave asked the old man thinking he is crazy.

            “Not random! It’s called Pilea!” The old man said! “Pilea is a place where apes rule the earth and humans are just cross breeds between ape and man. It is a horrible place! If you enter the dimension, the chances that you will ever get out are greatly decreased.” The old man added. Dave shook his head and began laughing at the old man.

“Oh no!” the old man screamed as he pointed towards the sky. A hard wind began to blow again as Dave looked up at the gray clouds. After the wind had stopped blowing Dave turned around.

“So you were saying…” Dave began until realizing that the old man had disappeared. Dave looked around for a while until realizing that the old man was nowhere to be found.

Dave walked back to his pick nick table and sat down on it.

“The crazy old bustard doesn’t know what he is talking about! He is just trying to scare me.” Dave said as he picked up his cigarette and finished it.

 

6.

            “They have to be around here somewhere.” Dave said to himself. He stood up from the pick nick table and began walking towards the minivan as he flicked his cigarette into the bushes. When he reached the minivan, he got in it.

            “I’ll just wait here for a moment and see if they show up.” Dave mumbled to himself and he reclined his seat back. He cracked his neck and drifted off to sleep.

 

7.

            Dave woke up from what was supposed to be a ten minute nap as the glare from the two suns peaked through the branches of the trees shining in his eyes. He placed his hands over his face and yawned. Then he noticed that that his hands were twice as hairy as before. He looked down at his feet noticing that he now had a thumb on his feet. He did not understand how, but it seemed as if Dave had turned into an ape.

            Dave got out of the van, stood up, and began to look around in wonder. He noticed that something (or someone) was moving around in the bushes across from him.

            “Hello? Who’s there?” He asked in fear as he slowly began to walk over to the bush. Nobody answered him. It seemed the closer he got to the bush; the more he felt as if he was being watched…or hunted. Dave looked over his left shoulder to see if anyone was behind him. Nobody. As his heart began to race he continued to get closer to the moving shrub when the large silver back gorilla came out from behind it. Dave ran deeper and deeper into the forest. He could feel that the ape was getting closer and closer. The ape tackled Dave and began eating his face. Screaming, Dave woke up in the minivan.

            “It was only a dre…” Dave started as he realized that his hands are twice as hairy as before. It seemed as if his worst night mare had become true.

 

8.

            Dave sat in the minivan for several moments when he realized that the bush in front of the van began moving just like in the dream. Dave’s heart began racing like a racecar as he opened the door and walked over to the bush.

            “I don’t know who you are, or what out want, but just leave me alone!” Dave yelled.

“Honey?” The voice coming from behind the bush was that of his wife.

“Marsha am I glad to see…” Dave began as he saw that stepping out of the bushes was the silver back gorilla and their children who were also gorillas. Not believing what he was seeing, Dave’s mouth dropped open.

“Can we go now dad?” Junior asked getting into the minivan.

“Yeah let’s get a move on!” Marsha said also getting in. It seemed as if their memory of their previous life was gone. Suddenly Dave couldn’t remember why he was so angry in the first place. Dave got into the van and started it driving off into the sun set.

 

Copyright 2013 by Cody Williams

Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS

A division of TTP Entertainment

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Author's Note

This is a bit longer than some of my other work, but I feel that it is very good. So leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

-CW

Reviews

[Astro]

Again a great piece with overtones of 'Twilight Zone' or 'Creepshow' episodes. I have two problems with this piece however from the standpoint of editing. Usually, I can handle spelling errors but in this piece they are so prevalent that it was tough for me to enjoy, that goes for grammar as well. The other problem that I have with the story is 'Dave' and specifically his dialogue. First internalization should stand out somehow to let the reader know that it is a thought not a part of speech, so italics is one suggestion. Secondly, you shouldn't have to put an exclamation point on everything that he says or does it get's less and less useful in portraying a man who is stressed out. So watch the overuse. This is a seriously dysfunctional family you have here with the mother pulling "Saintly" rank on the children while the father is free to swear at them like a sailor. One more thing with regards to rewrites of this piece. A man who has not smoked in 2 years will not have a pack of cigarettes at the ready, so delete this part or make it more plausible like he grabbed one of his wife's from her jacket, not purse she probably took that with her. ;)

All in all, I love the sci-fi horror feel of the setting and the helplessness of the Father who obviously needs a vacation...from his family. Good job.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks so much for reading and helping Astro! Have a good one!

-CW

[Astro]

You're welcome have a good one yourself.

[Nia Hope]

Definitely very interesting and rather unexpected. I like that about your stories though. Keep surprising me :)

[Cody Williams]

Thanks again for reading!

-CW

[Prritiy]

He shook his had through the air to shake off the pain. -''hand''
.
3. Dave sad in the mini van for nearly twenty minutes.- ''sat''

a few like this

but your imagination is awesome, churning out stories that one holds on the breath and completes. the ending reunion but still can we call it happy or is it happy that they have forgotten all worries.... :)

best wishes

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading!

-CW

[Prritiy]

you are welcome

[TL Boehm]

This definitely read like an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone worthy piece - especially the ending where they become a different "themselves" in an alternate universe. Very creepy.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for the review!

-CW

[Trace]

Interesting story telling here. If you have time, go back and proofread for spelling and grammatical errors. (there are several) I guess if this happened to me, I would go take a nap too. (or at least try to wake up from one) Trace

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for taking the time to read it!

-CW

[L.Edward]

Whoa what a nightmare trip. Like something out of the twilight zone! Cool shot of surreal dread and craziness.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for the review!

-CW

[L.Edward]

Your welcome!

[Dayran]

A story that has been carefully steered into an experience of mind states. A man loses touch with his family ... in a call of nature experience that is symptomatic of more. Obviously he doesn't go there ... not even in his thoughts ... in the sharing of his family members' toiletry needs.

It is atypical of a man and certainly true of fathers. But in creating such an avoidance he steps into a void that fills him in on an alternative experience ... perhaps borrowed from evolution itself. Very clever Cody. Here's a handling of issues most experts and X file enthusiasts have only dreamt about. Perfect!

[Cody Williams]

Thanks so much for the review!

-CW

[Riding the Rainbow]

I'm sorry Cody but I didn't understand the ending...

[Cody Williams]

That's okay, there is a reason the old man said that people usually never find their way back. It's because they forget where they come from in the first place. Thanks for taking the time to read it! It is a bit of a complicated story.

Thanks again!

-CW

[Riding the Rainbow]

**facepalm** Thank you for explaining it to me!!

[Cody Williams]

No problem at all! Sorry for the confusing ending!

[Angel]

See, now that's why I saved your read request till in the morning rather than reading it before bedtime last night! I've learned...
This is awesome. Your imagination must be working overtime!
There are a few "mechanical" errors...like spelling, or sentence structure...that junk is easily fixable...but the story itself is fabulously frightening.
I've said it before...look out Stephen King...our Cody is creeping up behind you!!



No...never again will I read you just before bed time....never, never, never never nevernevernevernevernever...

[Cody Williams]

Thanks a lot for the review! I am currently working on a Halloween story that I am planning on posting in early October. I'll probably have a couple more go up between now and then. Stay tuned!

-CW

[Angel]

I'm planning on having a Halloween contest...my birthday falls in October, so it'll be a double whammy...
I know you'll have something extra-creepy for me....but I will only read YOUR stuff when the sun is shining....

[Leslie Philibert]

A good write that I have scanned. Perhaps you need to take more time to introduce the characters,you seem to be in a rush to define them ( like this.... He and his wife Marsha and their two kids...). Does the reader have to know that right any way ? Keep the reader guessing more, so he thinks who is Marsha? ..make the reader work more, be a little more enigmatic.A good write !

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for the review!

-CW