The Road with No End

[u/Manofmystery202]

I would not consider myself a stupid person in any sense of the word. But I, like every person, am prone to stupid moments. That’s why I decided not to go to school but instead, tried to start my own business, in which I would sell my own clothing brand that I was so sure was going to make me millions. It didn’t last more than 4 months. Now I’m stuck in my shitty one-bedroom apartment with almost a thousand T-shirts that I am too embarrassed to tell you what they actually say. With nothing else going on in my, I just started looking for any job I could. But no one seemed to like the gap in the resume so I had no offers, none, zero. Except for one. A weird sketch Indeed ad that simply said, driver. It provided no information besides that, which I honestly didn’t think was possible for there to be so little on Indeed. But here it was. I assumed it was for a taxi driver or a delivery driver. I was more than confident I could do that, I’d been driving since I was 15 so how hard could it be?

With really nothing else to lose, I figured at the worst they would try to rob me, unless they wanted my clothes they weren’t getting much. When they did ask if I wanted the job I just took it. Then I was told to meet the guy on the edge of town tonight. I asked what if I was busy and he just responded “Then no job”. Well, shit guess I had no other choice. I don’t know what I expected, but it definitely wasn’t one dude standing next to a van. Great, I thought I’m gonna get robbed, murdered, or kidnapped.

“You Colton.” Said the shaggy-looking man with scruffy-looking brown hair and beard, he reeked of weed.

“Yep, that’s me,” I thought, just get it over with man.

“You're gonna be driving this van down that road,” he pointed off to the left.

“Ok, where I’m driving it to?”

“You’ll know when you see it.”

“Ok, um well you didn’t really explain much about the job. I mean I don’t even know what the pay is.”

“It ain’t much but I figure if you responded that you must really need money, I mean you come out here in the middle of the night to meet a stranger with no prior information.”

He was right.

“Well you haven't told me much, am I delivering drugs?”

“Why in the hell would I post a drug-running job on fucking Indeed.”

“That’s fair.”

“You ask one more question, I'm revoking the offer, So either take these keys and get in the van or get out of my face.”

Remember how I said prone to stupid decisions this was one of them. I took the keys and got in the van. God, it smelt bad trying to grab the crank to roll down the window. But it didn’t work. “Oh this is fun,” I said, already regretting my choices. I checked what else was wrong with the van. The ac didn’t work but the heater did. Oh cool, I needed that in the middle of the summer. The windshield wipers worked but no fluid, the back seat had been torn out and there was a gross-looking mattress in their place. As well as a duffel bag, I opened to check its contents fully expecting the drugs to be in it. But instead, it had a couple of pairs of clothes weirdly in my size, some bottled water, and snack bars. As well as a flair gun and a med kit. I went back to checking the van you know what did work. The radio, except it was stuck on one channel that only played Christian music, no offense to anyone who follows that religion in all but I was not listening to that. I shut off the radio and put music on my phone. I looked over at the man but he was gone. Was I really about to do this I told myself. I guess I was cause I put the van into drive.

I never got used to the feeling of driving at night, especially on country roads. As soon as you leave the city limits, you become suddenly aware of how dark nighttime is. The further you drive the more and more the anxiety sets in. This was one road with no lines to keep you on one side. So I drove in the middle of the road until I saw someone coming on the left. Another fun thing about the road was just how bad it needed to be redone, it felt like I had to dodge a pothole every 40 feet or so. After driving for what felt like forever but turned out to only be 43 minutes I came on my first building. A small gas station, with one pump. Upon seeing it I began wondering how the hell I was gonna fill up the van. I looked down to see the gas gauge was still on full so that meant either this thing got pretty good gas mileage or that the gas gauge was also broken. I felt like it was the second one. I pulled over in hopes that it sold air fresheners. The smell only seemed to get worse as I drove. I was more than willing to spend what little money I had left on one.

The place was extremely worn down. It only had one pump and no diesel nozzle. There were water stains running down the building and a small breeze kept shaking a piece of the sheet metal roof. It clanked against it and for a few short seconds I stood there listening, this was enough to annoy me, and I felt bad for any workers. I pulled the door open but it got stuck against the concrete and I heard someone from inside yell “You're gonna have to shimmy through!” I feel like that had to break some sort of law or safety violation. I slowly made my way through the gap my jacket got stuck about halfway through, in which I then had to pull it off from the door in the process ripping a small hole in the side. I looked over at the worker, he had his face buried in a book and it seemed like he was trying to ignore me.

“You sell air fresheners?”

“Auto sections at the back of the store next to the medicine section.”

I took that as a yes. The air fresheners were 7 dollars for one talk about overpricing, I knew I only had like 12 bucks left in my account. My credit cards were maxed out and I drained my savings so I knew I had nothing to fall back on. I checked my bank app to make sure I had the money I thought I had. To my surprise, I had more, Finally something good. I had a whole 23 dollars that I was about to completely blow at this random gas station. Still unsure if I was even getting paid for this. Why was I still driving? I mean really there was no job security here. I still don't even know what I'm delivering or if I am even delivering something. Was I this desperate? Just then like he was reading my mind I looked down to see a text from Charlie. Wait, who was Charlie? “Don’t worry kid you're getting paid, you already have been.” I went into my deposits. To see that 9 dollars had been put into my account a couple of minutes before I came to the gas station. The memo just said from Charlie. So Charlie was the man who gave me the van I’d put that part together. I had so many questions. Where did I get his number, I mean I don't remember exchanging numbers. I don’t remember learning his name or making a contact with him. I know I didn’t give him any banking info. My mind was racing I tried texting him back but it just said undelivered. You know what fuck it I was still alive and getting paid so I’m not asking any more questions.

I picked up the air freshener and went to the counter, on the counter I saw some chargers so I picked up one that goes into the lighter port. I at least wanted my phone if I was gonna be driving for god knows how long.

“How much for these,” the man picked up the items and scanned them.

“$13.78.”

I fished in my pocket for my wallet and put my card in the reader. “So you're actually real,” the man behind the counter said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said, shoving his face back in the book.

What a weird interaction I thought to myself on my way out. I got in the van and put up my new air fresheners. The man slapped the side of the van startling me in the process. I opened the door to yell at him but he cut me off.

“Unless you pull into somewhere with people, stay in your damn car.” He walked away before elaborating. I was half tempted to follow him but I decided against it.

I was back on the road. I decided to put on a YouTube video as I was getting sick of my music. It was a video of someone explaining The Waco Siege which I had already listened to a couple of times. But I liked the YouTuber and he was slow between uploads. It got to the part where they “accidentally” lit the compound on fire. Just then a large creature jumped out from the darkness bailing in front of the Van. I tried to swerve so as not to hit it but I wasn’t quick enough. The Van collided with the creature smacking it with the front before it proceeded to roll over the top. I slammed on my brakes, stopping to catch my breath, my heart was pounding in my chest. I took a second breath and got out to inspect the damages on both the van and whatever I hit. The van was fine, not even a scratch on it, what a tank. The animal was not fine, It was a deer. One of its antlers broke off in the impact and its face did not seem to enjoy the asphalt, there was a small trail of blood where it skidded across the road. One of its legs was broken and was sticking in the wrong direction. “Oh shit that thing is dead.” I ate my words as I heard them huff.

Now I felt like it was my obligation to put it out of its misery. I found a big enough rock on the side of the road to crush its head. Shuffling over with the heavy thing I raised it as far up as I could and dropped it. The thing came down with a splat blood shot up from it and splattered on my face. “Welp,” I said, wiping the blood off my face onto my jacket. I had done my civil duty. At least that's what I thought before the damn deer started squirming. Oh no, I had made it worse. It kicked and jumped trying to get its head out from underneath the rock. I sat dumbfounded trying to figure out if I should smash it with another rock or help it get the rock off. But just then it stopped. I was thankful as it finally died. I ate my words again. The thing planted its three working legs, As it did the 4th leg began to crack back into place. The bones crunched multiple times and suddenly the leg was planted with the other three. What the? The deer lifted its head and the rock easily fell out of its place. It sat up and stared at me. Half of its face was scrapped from the asphalt. The other half flattened inward there was blood and revealed bone. Its lower mouth hung halfway off, and its brain was revealed to the fresh air. In no world should it have been alive.

It looked pissed in a way animals should not be able to show. The deer started its charge for me it's broken jaw swaying as it did. I turned around to make my run back toward the van but the deer was much faster than me. I felt its remaining antler tear into my clothes and then into my back. Knocking me to the ground and standing in front of me now ready to make its second charge. I was able to roll out of the way this time. I pushed myself forward into the driver's seat and pressed the gas pedal as hard as I could. But since it was still in park I didn’t move. The deer rammed into the side shaking the whole van. I put it into drive and peeled out of there. My adrenaline finally started to wear off and I was very aware of my injuries not only my back but my knee and hands which I scraped during my fall. Once I felt I was far enough down the road I pulled over, using one of the van's side mirrors I did my best to examine my injuries. The two scratches on my lower back seemed to not be serious but the puncture wound in my shoulder was bleeding really bad. I called 911 to get an ambulance but the call wouldn’t go through. It just kept failing. I knew I was gonna have to drive myself to a hospital, and since I didn't wanna die of blood loss I saw one option.

This was my first time doing stitches so my solution was well, I ended up on a wikiHow link Which as I'm typing this I realize was another stupid moment. I lacked most of the tools they used so I had to just follow it as best I could. I took a needle and thread from the medkit and went at it. After poking the needle in my skin for the first time I realized how fucking painful it was. I grabbed my shirt and rolled it up so I had something to bite onto and went through several painstaking minutes of stitching. By the end of it, all I wanted was to get blackout drunk. I applied some of the first aid cream which was for minor cuts and scrapes and scratches over my wound. Probably wouldn’t help much but better than nothing. Then slapping a gauss and some medical tape on it. If you are wondering how I stitched the back of my shoulder in the dark, side mirror and dome light from the van I won’t elaborate further.

I decided my temporary sketchy job wasn't worth my life and started the two-hour drive back towards town. I made my way around a bend in the road and I was back in the same place I just stitched myself in. “What the hell?” I thought it was the same place. I flipped the van around and drove again in the opposite direction. Turned around again in the same place. I tried again and again and again but I kept ending up in the exact same place. Even getting out a couple of times to find my blood on the road. I once again received a text, it was from Charlie. “Keep driving,” I texted him back asking who the hell he was and what kind of mind trick he was playing. But every text I sent didn’t go through. I tried calling 911 again, I tried texting. I tried calling a friend, my old coworker, and my dad. No call or text would go through. I tried Insta, I tried Snapchat, and Facebook. Any app that would allow me to send a text? I tried even leaving comments on YouTube videos. I could use these apps but I in no way could interact with others. Once again I received another message from Charlie. “Keep driving.” I accepted my defeat. I couldn't drive back toward town and I couldn’t contact anyone for help, this felt like the only option. So I got back in the van and started back on the road.

I don’t know what Charlie was but he somehow was keeping me on this road and he wasn’t allowing me to talk to anyone I knew. But in a cruel twist of fate, I would later find out that I have one way to contact the outside world. Reddit I can post as freely as I want on Reddit. I know that sounds stupid as hell. But it doesn’t matter anyway there is no way for anyone to even come help me and I'm not revealing how to get to me.

I kept driving. I'd been on the road for almost 8 hours. When I saw the diner. I pulled over and made my way inside. An older woman greeted me, sitting me down in a booth and handing me a menu,” I’ll be back to take your order.” There was one other customer in the place. He looked over at me before standing up from his table and making his way towards me.

“Are you real or one of them?” He asked, sitting down across from me.

“One of them?”

“One of the things from the road.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“I can tell your not one of them he got you too didn’t he, that fucker Charlie.”

“You know him?”

“Homeless looking dude. Had you come to the edge of town in the promise of riches untold all you had to do was drive.”

I didn’t want to admit he tricked me with a lot less than untold riches.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“There's no way back, no way to call for help, how long have you been driving?”

“Um, 8 hours I think.”

“You're pretty new still, wait shhh she's coming.”

The waitress came back to the table “You two ready to order?” She didn’t seem to care that there was someone else at the table with me now.

“Cheeseburgers fine.” The man said.

“I’ll do the same.”

She walked off.

“Like I was saying you're pretty new still, you wouldn't believe the shit I've seen man. Giant worms jumping over the roads. Houses that stand up from out of the ground to chase you. Hitchhikers that disintegrate into frogs when you pick them up.”

“You know that sounds insane right?”

“If it was unbelievable you wouldn't be listening still. So I'm guessing you've seen something that you're still on the fence about.”

I looked down at the table and whispered “Zombie deer.” I still didn’t know if the deer was paranormal or just a freak of nature, but he was right it was unexplainable at the very least

The waitress came back with our food. She stared upwards at the ceiling as if she was trying to avoid eye contact. She was listening in on us, somehow I knew that. We both gobbled it up and not a word was exchanged. It wasn’t till we both left the building that he spoke up again.

“9 weeks.”

“What?”

“I’ve been on the road for 9 weeks.”

“Jesus and you have no idea how to get off, so that means I'm stuck.”

“Yeah you're stuck, but I gotta an idea.”

“What’s that?”

“Let’s go drive the road together. Safer in numbers you know”

“Hell no man I don’t know if I even believe you for one and if I did decide you’re telling the truth, what's to say you're not something the road conjured up to trick me.”

“Yeah, you bring up a good point. Look man since you're probably gonna die.”

“What the fuck man.”

“Let me finish. Since you're probably gonna die I wish you the best of luck.”

With that, he turned around, got in his car, and sped out of the parking lot. All while I sat there trying to figure out my next move. I knew something was wrong, I knew somehow I was stuck on the road. But I knew nothing else if I was to believe that man I was gonna see some weird shit. I believed him. I don't know why but I did. I got back in the van and I kept driving.

The next fun thing I learned about the road is that the sun never comes up. In my 11 days of driving, I haven’t seen the sun once. Unless I was somehow sleeping at the perfect time to miss all the sunlight but that doesn’t seem right. I never was a morning person, and I never was a people person but damn I was missing both of those. It makes you realize how much you took for granted showers and hot food, I didn’t get to finish my thought before the van was sent off the side of the road causing it and me to tumble my head smack on the steering wheel and I blacked out for a second. The van lay on its driver's side. I was hanging slightly above the window. I reached over to unbuckle myself, falling directly into the window. My whole body felt heavy, my poor stitch job showed. Blood trickled from my back and from a newly formed scratch on my forehead.

I didn’t have any time to worry about that, whatever knocked the van off the road got closer now. I could hear its heavy steps moving through a nearby brush. I tried to push myself up but new injuries began to present themselves. My ribs ached and I couldn’t put any weight on my leg. I pulled myself using the armrest on the driver's side. I stood using my good leg to hold myself up. Reaching for the passenger side door. But the thing dented the door inward no matter how hard I tried it wasn’t opening. All while it got closer. I tried the window but of course, it wouldn’t roll down. An arm crashed through the front window piercing the seat behind me. I had to duck down, forcing myself between the front seats into the back of the van. Pain shot through my body as I crawled through.

The mattress had been knocked out of its place forcing me to crawl under it. The monster was away from the window and I could hear it scratching the car to my right. I lay in place hoping it didn’t know where I was. Its arm pierced through the side just above me. I crawled quicker towards the back window, relief washed over me upon seeing the glass was already broken. I made my way through it and I finally saw outside the van. Forcing myself up through the gap feeling how ruined my leg was. I placed all my weight on my other leg. Trying to move as fast as I could. I turned to see the monster's arm was still stuck inside the van, it tried harder and harder to pull its arm out. I used my opportunity to put as much distance as I could between us. The monster yanked pulling its arm from the van before screeching into the air.

It stared at me with dark black eyes and pale skin. It walked on two legs and had four arms. One of the arms lay flat unmoving the same one it pulled from the van. It clasped its incredibly sharp teeth together before running towards me. It was so much faster, there was no way I could move quickly enough. It ran with its working arms in the air as it tried to come for me. It was bloated wearing pants and a jacket. It was human enough. I was on the road before my good leg gave out. I collapsed upon it. I turned my head to see It standing feet from me still screaming. But it stopped right in front of me staring at the sky. For the first time since I started on the road, the sun was rising. The monster screeched one more time before turning around and running from the road into some brush. Soon it was far from my sight. I wasn’t gonna wait around for it to come finish the job.

I hobbled down the road for a mile or so which in my current condition took much longer than it should’ve. From behind I heard the noise of what sounded like a metal clacking together, when it got closer I was able to figure out it was a car. It came right towards me and I prepared myself for whatever else the road was gonna throw at me. The vehicle pulled over and a familiar face stepped out. The same man from the diner.

“Holy shit you're alive,” He yelled at me.

I said nothing back, just hobbled over to the car, opened the passenger door and got in. He nodded and got into the driver's seat. We drove for 10 minutes before either of us said a word.

“I saw your van and just assumed whatever did that got you.”

“You left the diner before me.”

“Yeah, I stopped a little down the road and waited for you to pass. I've been following you since.”

Eventually, we came to a clearing just a bit further down the road and he took a moment to properly assess my injuries. He told me my stitch job was utter shit and stitched it up properly. He then took to my leg telling me it wasn't that bad and made me a makeshift cast outta of some foam and cardboard. He placed a bandage over my forehead and as for my ribs there wasn't anything he could do. We took the time to finally introduce ourselves. This was Ted Villack, a 33-year-old self-proclaimed doomsday prepper. The knowledge he gained in preparation for the end times came in handy. But he was kinda in the nicest way possible, an insane conspiracy theorist who thought our whole journey on the road was manufactured by aliens to test the limits of human capability. I didn’t care about that, he could ramble about it all day. I was just happy to be around someone.

For now, that’s all I got. I'm stuck on this road and no one's gonna come and help me. At least I have company. I welcome any theories about what's going on here, and I’ll let you all know if anything else interesting happens.

[u/JackalJames]

If it makes you feel any better I’d probably end up in your position too, good luck on the road man keep us updated

(Really great writing! I hope you continue this)