The Road
Thhhommm…burrrrrrr…thhhommm…burrrrrr…thhhommm…burrrrrrr
Thats the sound the sound the tires on the road made. A
continuous drone, only broken by the regular sound of he
street light poles zooming by.
God, I hated these long night time motorway drives. There
shear monotony of them was enough to drive you mad. Mile
after mile of the same road, the same central reservation,
the same lights.
Some times I hit an unlit section, the change was nice for
a few moments, but the boredom soon set in again. The sound
didn’t change, the only thing that did was that now the red
lights in front of me became little paired islands in the
darkness. My own headlights casting two pools of white
light ahead of me.
I looked at the clock again, only 3 minuets since I last
looked, only 3 miles closer to the end of this never ending
journey.
I looked back up at the road. It was empty. It was the only
one traveling this route tonight. That seemed a little odd,
I wondered why that should seem odd. I didn’t know, but it
distracted me for a moment from the crushing boredom of the
journey. Of course no one else would be on the road. Why
would any one else be heading for my destination.
A head I could see it now, the dark twisted form of the
tower, silhouetted against the dark red sky. The ever
present red glow from the sky cast no shadows, just an all
pervading gloom. Everywhere was in shade, but there where
no actual shadows. It was not a nice place to be. But I
would not be here for long. Just a little while longer and
I would be at the tower gates. Not that I looked forward to
that. If the waste lands around the tower where un-nerving
the tower was down right….
I didn’t want to think about that, but getting to the tower
and unloading meant that I could leave. That had to be a
good thing, to get back home.
The tower was a little closer now. The lands closer to the
tower where more broken and desloate than even those I
drove through now. The road was well worn, pot holes
covered it’s surface. I had to slow down, I didn’t want to,
but I had to. To have to change a tire here, well that was
something that I hope I never had to do.
Either side of the road, the ground was broken and dusty.
Nothing grew here now, although somethings once did. The
twisted forms of long dead tree trunks littered the
landscape. This had once been a forest, but the trees, it
seemed, did live happy lives. Their trunks where twisted
and gnarly. The few branches that where left on them, look
like they where frozen in their last, desperate attempt to
escape their agony.
Maybe it was a good thing that the forest was now dead.
No, thats no right. There is no good thing here.
The road was now gone, there was no more tarmac, the
potholes had broken it up completely. Just a dusty track
marked the route to the tower. I was close now. Distances
where hard to judge, the tower always seemed to come up
suddenly on me, but I knew I was close. I could feel it.
The journey was almost over. I would be there soon and
then…
A new sound broke the monotonous drone of the tires. It was
a deep rumbling sound. This was new, I’d never, in all of
my trips here heard anything beyond the sound of the road.
Nothing lived here, except…well they weren't really living.
The sound moved closer. It was not a continuous rumbling,
it came in pluses , like burst of a hart beat. I looked
around, the was nothing ahead of me, but behind, in the
rear view mirror I could see swirling black clouds of
smoke.
The sound got louder. What ever it was seemed to be above
me. The sound was more distinct now too. It was the sound
of a horse galloping. Suddenly it was there by my side. It
dropped down in to view, a fiery skeletal horse and riding
it was one of them.
I’d never seen one outside of the tower. It looked at me
with that burning look of hate and distain they always gave
me. They hated us, I’m sure, but they needed us as well.
Why else where we aloud to find our way to a from this
place. No one else could.
I tired to remember that they needed me and that it
wouldn’t do anything to me because of that. I wasn’t
convinced my self. What if they had found another. Would I
be replaced? If I was then what was to stop them having
there fun with me?
I looked at it. I was smiling it me I was sure, it had some
evil scheme on it’s mind. But what could I do. This place
was theirs and theirs alone. I could out run from this
thing. But I was sure it was going to do something.
I glanced at the road ahead of me. The tower was very close
now…
I never saw what I hit. I saw something on the track and
hit the breaks hard, but it was to late. I was to close. I
was already trying to steer around the thing went I hit
it…
The van swerved as I simultaneously hit the breaks and
steered hard to the right. For a few seconds the van was
facing the wrong way down the motorway, but the spin
quickly turned me back in the right direction. There was
nothing in sight either ahead or behind me. I’d not hit
anything.
I brought the van to a halt on the hard shoulder.
I was soaked in sweat and shaking like a leaf. I opened the
door and stumbled out on to the road. The cool night air
hit me and I threw up. Still shaking I sat back down in the
van. What the hell had happened. I was driving down the
motorway then one moment then the next I was…somewhere
else. I was sure it wasn’t a dream. It hadn’t felt like
that, it was real.
I sat there for a long time before I could bring my self to
drive again. I stopped at the next service station.
Maybe it had been some sort of weird dream like
hallucination brought on by lack of sleep, I don’t know.
But I do know that I did hit something in the van that
night. What else explains the damaged left front bumper?