Dark Roads

A college girl and her boyfriend driving home find themselves being pursued by a mysterious truck.

A lone red car drove down a solemn mountain road as the sky was beginning to darken.  Nighttime was coming near, though the sun was still visible.  The driver of the car, Andrew Jones, squinted at the road ahead as he drove the car over the windy hills, hoping to get both himself and his girlfriend home before dark.

Andrew was a tall, thin young man, and was a junior in college.  He had untidy black hair that was laying in a messy heap on top of his head, and wore a pair of glasses for driving.  He had his right arm around his girlfriend, Amy, who was also a junior, and who had long blonde hair and sunglasses, even though it was not the least bit sunny out.  They had met just last month, as Andrew had transferred to the college only about a month ago.  Despite not having known each other for very long, the two liked each other a lot and felt as though they were matched very well.

“How much longer do you think it’ll be?” Amy asked, looking at her cell phone for the time.

“Probably about two hours,” Andrew replied, glancing at his watch.  “Don’t worry, we’ll be back in time for you to finish your English paper.”

“Don’t remind me,” Amy said, frowning.  “This’ll suck; it’s due tomorrow and I haven’t even started it yet!”

“Don’t worry,” Andrew said.  “I’ve pulled a lot of all-nighters and pretty much all of my papers have turned out fine.”  His eyes darted towards the rearview mirror, and in it he saw a white pickup truck behind them, which appeared old and dusty as though it hadn’t been washed in months.

Andrew lowered his hand to the radio, flicking it on and flipping to his favorite rock station, then laid back in his seat.  He was glad to have no work to do when he arrived back; rather, he and his friends were having a movie night, which he was looking forward to.  He was happy that, after a long day of driving around and hiking in the mountains, he could rest when he returned to his dorm.  Only two more hours, and he could finally relax.

A long amount of time passed without any talk between the two friends, as they were both somewhat exhausted from the long day.  Andrew kept the radio turned on, as it was one of the only things keeping him alert and focused on the road.  The sky had become even darker, and in less than an hour it would most likely be night time.

Andrew suddenly felt a pang of thirst in his throat, a feeling he had gone the entire drive back without having so far.  He remembered that there were some water bottles in the back seat of the car.

“Amy,” he asked.  “Can you grab me a water bottle?”

“Sure,” she said, turning her head to stare down at the floor behind her, then saying, “I don’t see any.”

“Damn,” Andrew said, scowling.  “They must have rolled under the seat.”  He turned around in his chair, reaching into the back seat and underneath the car seat, and keeping one hand on the steering wheel.  After a few seconds of fumbling around, he finally felt something small and plastic, and grabbed it, pulling it out.  As he lifted his head up and began to swivel his body back so he could see the road, something behind their car caught his eye.  It was the white truck that he had seen in his rearview mirror about an hour ago, and it was still on the road right behind them.

“That truck,” Andrew said, staring at Amy nervously and pointing behind them.  “That truck’s been behind us for at least an hour.”

“It has?” Amy said, gazing back at it.  “Yikes.  Do you think-”
“I don’t know what their deal is.  Let’s try and speed up a bit.”

“Okay, but don’t speed!” Amy said.  “We really need to get away from him; we don’t know what kind of weirdo he could be.  Did you hear about that murderer Ed Fields that escaped the local prison about a month ago?”

A nervous expression grew on Andrew’s face, then he responded,  “Yeah.  But don’t freak out yet, we don’t know for sure if this guy’s following us.”  And at that moment, Andrew steadily began to increase speed.  Over the course of minute, the speed of the car rose from about 50 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour, and he continued to increase it.

“Careful Andrew!” Amy said, looking back at the truck, which had fallen behind them.  “I think you’re losing him.”

Andrew put his foot farther down on the pedal, and rose his speed to 70 miles per hour.  He didn’t want to listen to Amy; he wanted to get away from this potentially dangerous truck.

“Slow down!” she said angrily, but he ignored her once again, bumping his speed up to 80 miles per hour in just a few seconds.  The truck was now a tiny speck off in the distance that he could hardly see, but he wouldn’t stop until it was entirely out of his sight.

The speed rose to 90 miles per hour, then to 100.  Andrew felt exhilarated, speeding his car across the mountain roads.  His heart thumped and his skin secreted sweat, and he turned the radio up, blasting it at full sound.

“Slow down now!” Amy yelled, turning the radio off and yelling in Andrew’s face.  “You’re going to crash the car, dumbass!  That truck is gone!  It’s-”

Her words were interrupted as the sound of another vehicle speeding filled their ears.  The two of them looked back and saw the truck, bolting towards them at a pace at least as fast as theirs.

“No way...” Amy said, beginning to shake nervously.  Andrew upped the speed to 110 miles per hour.

“Stop!” she yelled!  “Slow down and let him get in front of you!”

“Are you nuts!” he yelled.  “We’re screwed if we do that!”

“No, look!” Amy said, pointing at the road ahead.  “There’s a fork in the road!”  And indeed, there was; the road went on straight ahead, staying on the ground, and a second, smaller road branched off to the right, winding up a mountain.  Andrew dropped his speed quickly, and the truck did not; it sped past his car, and the two unsuccessfully attempted to catch a glimpse of the driver’s face.  He continued on the road ahead, and and Andrew swerved the car to the right, merging into the other road and going up the mountain.  They were free from him.

“Yes!” Andrew yelled, jumping up and down in his seat.  “Goodbye, a*****e!” he yelled out the window, but the truck was already too far away to hear him.

“I’m so glad we did it!” Amy said, clapping her hands excitedly.  “If that was that Ed Fields guy in that car, we would have been screwed!”

They drove on down that road, feeling relieved.  At first, the two felt lost, but Amy managed to get directions on her phone.  This road took a little longer to get them back to their college than the other one would have, but they were thankful to be safe.

About an hour and a half went by, and Andrew finally reached their town.  It was a quiet, cozy little town that the college was located right in the center of, with lots of old brick buildings and small homes surrounded by oak trees.  Finally, the college parking lot came into view, and Andrew pulled in and parked the car.  He and Amy stepped out of the car, and the two kissed.

“I’m so glad we made it out okay,” Amy whispered to Andrew, and he smiled.

“Yeah, I knew that son of a b***h wouldn’t get us,” Andrew said, and laughed.  He took his girlfriend’s hand and together they started to walk back to the dorm.  As they walked away from their car, Amy gasped and pointed at something.  Andrew started in the direction she was gesturing, and saw what it was.

The white truck, dirty and rusty as ever, was sitting in front of their dorm with its motor running.  The front window was shaded dark, so that they could not make out the drivers’ face.  Nobody else was in the parking lot, as it was late at night.

“Run!” yelled Andrew.  “Get back in the car!”  He and Amy started to run for the car, but the truck began to speed after them.  Andrew grabbed the car door and flung it open, leaping in, and started the engine as soon as Amy got in as well.  He began to back out, but was too late; the truck was behind them, blocking their way out.

“You son of a b***h!” Andrew screamed out the window, and honked at the truck.  Suddenly, the door began to open, and a shadowy figure stepped out.  It moved towards their car.

“Get back!” Andrew yelled.  “We have a gun, a*****e!  Get back!  Get back!”

The shadowy figure tapped upon the window, and Andrew screamed at him more.  Amy screamed, “He has a gun!”  Andrew could see that, indeed, the person outside of the car was holding a gun.

All of a sudden, the door was flung open, and Andrew remembered that he’d forgotten to lock the door.  The person grabbed Andrew, yanking him out of the car, and flung him to the ground.  He tried to get away, but the person holding him was too strong.

“Stop!” Amy screamed, and ran towards the shadowy figure.  At last, she saw the person’s face.  It was an older man, appearing to be in his fifties, who wore glasses and had a huge, muscular body.

“Stand back!” the man yelled at her.

“I won’t!” she screamed!  “You’re going to kill my boyfriend if I don’t!”

The man reached into his coat pocket and pulled something out.  Amy expected it would be another weapon, but it was actually a small wallet.  He flipped it open and flashed it in Amy’s direction.

“I’m Joe Phillips, undercover policeman,” he said, and Amy gave him a stunned look.

“But-why...why do you have Andrew?” she asked.  “Why would you come after us?”

“Andrew?” he asked, puzzled.  “I can tell you one thing: your boyfriend’s name isn’t Andrew.  He escaped prison just a few weeks ago and has been hiding in this town under a false identity.  His real name is Ed.  Ed Fields.”

Reviews

[Becky Clancy]

A very nice job you have done here, if I would change one thing, I would make the font a little bit bigger so that if people who don't have good eye sight anymore can enjoy this masterpiece you have here, Good job, Thomas :DDDD

[SajaiVip !]

wow you are a really good writer