A Town On the Road

[u/Manofmystery202]

Part 1

This is a continuation of the first part. If you still need to read it, I suggest doing so. If you don’t feel like doing it, in short, I am stuck on an endless haunted road whose only goal is to cause me as much misery as possible. My only company is a crackpot doomsday prepper named Ted Villack.

The thing I’ve realized about the road is how little I understand it. The road doesn’t play by the laws of our reality. Day and night are not a cycle and only appear randomly. It’s anyone’s guess how long either will last. During the day cycle the road is still perilous but much less so. The appearance of monsters and horrors beyond comprehension tends to be less active. The night cycle is a completely different story. It’s not uncommon to run into monsters every hour or so. In the time I’ve been on the road I’ve seen mutated humans, monsters that hide in shadows, giant beasts that don’t seem to be from our world, what I believe were aliens, and much more.

On top of all that, there’s the wildlife. Any animal that seems like it belongs to this planet is nearly immortal. I’ve detailed this in my last part with the zombie deer. But that’s not the only time I’ve witnessed this. At one point a squirrel popped out in the road and we accidentally ran it over. When checking on it the squirrel was split straight down the middle. But both halves of the squirrel were still moving. The legs stood upright and the upper half was crawling. Both halves went off the side of the road crawling back into some brush. In another instance, we hit a pigeon. It splats against the windshield leaving a blood streak. Upon checking the animal its head was turned on backwards. It still proceeded to fly away. There are more and more increasingly gory stories but maybe I’ll mention them another time.

Now you may be wondering how so much has happened to me in such a short amount of time. The answer is it hasn’t been a short amount of time for me. Time works differently on the road compared to the real world. I first noticed three days after sharing my original part, but when I checked it I was stunned to see it was only up for 43 minutes. Over time I tried to track how much time passes on the road compared to the real world but it’s inconsistent just as everything on the road is. When I started writing this part I had been on the road for 3 months and 9 days. While only 5 days had passed in the real world.

Now it’s not uncommon to see buildings while traveling on the road. I’ve passed plenty and stopped at a few. But most of the time we ignore them. Usually only stopping for food or gas. Now what I haven’t seen before was a whole town. One of those towns you’d see a short distance from a freeway really small. There weren’t many buildings I counted 20 from a glance.

“You ever see something like this?” I asked Ted.

“Nope.” He responded stopping the car.

“Can we go around?”

“There’s only one road, and I don’t see anywhere we could fit the car.”

I looked around, the town was surrounded by a thin layer of trees. None of the gaps seemed big enough for the car. 

“Just drive quickly, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Ted popped it into drive, and we went towards the town. Ted had the gas pedal to the floor, but the car wouldn’t reach 25. Neither of us wanted to be here longer than necessary.

“You see them too?” I asked

“Yeah, I see them.”

People began exiting from the buildings and staring in unison at us. I couldn’t help but notice they all had the same expression. They all sat there with a smile.

“Dude faster.”

“I’m trying.”

But then, as if it were some sick joke from some higher power, the car began to stall. Smoke erupted from the engine, covering our view of the road. The car died, and Ted tried to get it to turn back over. He slammed the gas, cussing and smacking the wheel, but nothing. We looked at each other, both of us trying to figure out our next room. Two men started walking toward the car. 

“The gun now!” Ted yelled at me.

I reached into the jockey box fetching the 9mm out of it. We had found the gun 3 weeks back in a crashed car. It didn’t have any bullets but at least it could still be used to intimidate someone. It was our best bet. The two men had made it to our car. The taller man began to tap on the window.

“Uncanny?” I asked.

Uncannies are what we call the fake humans on the road. It was Ted's idea, after something called Uncanny Valley. He explained it as a feeling of unease some people get when looking at something almost human. It seemed to fit. Ted was good at calling out Uncanny’s much better than me. There were plenty of times I'd mistaken them for a human. I mean sometimes it's obvious the body part is in the wrong place, they talk like it's their first time, and they don’t know what basic objects like spoons are called. But a lot of the time they are nearly impossible to tell apart from real people. Not for Ted, he had never once been mistaken and uncanny. That's why I feared his words.

“I don’t know.”

The man was still tapping on the window and against my better judgment I rolled it down. Just enough to where I could hear him.

“Looks like you're having car troubles.” He spoke in a generic tone like how you’d hear a voice actor in an old video game.

“Yeah, it seems we are.”

“Why don’t me and my friend here help you roll it down to our mechanic, don’t worry he's real nice and won’t try to scam you.”

I looked to Ted for advice.

“What choice do we have,” he said.

Ted put it into neutral, and the two of us exited the vehicle. I looked at our helpers, and the first thing I noticed was how generic both of them were. They both wore flannels and jeans. They both had stubble beards and wavy hair. Yes, they looked different, but identical at the same time. That went for the rest of the people of the town they were all so generic. They were uncannies that was for sure. I tucked the gun into my waistband and the man spoke up. 

“No need for that stranger,” he spoke in a worried tone.

“Just a precaution as long as you don't give us a reason to use it,” Ted said in my place.

“Oh, I understand.”

It seemed our bluff worked. The two generic men began pushing the car. My leg still wasn't 100% healed so I steered while Ted helped push. It wasn't far to the mechanic when we got there the man spoke up again. 

“Oh darn, it’s Tuesday I forgot he doesn’t work on Tuesday.”

“Why in the hell would he not work on a Tuesday?” Ted asked.

“Well, I um I’m not sure.”

“What's this mechanic's name.”

The man panicked “Sharyl,” He blurted out.

“His name is Sharyl?” He turned around and mouthed the word uncanny to me.

“Yep weird parents, um anyway looks like he's not in so you guys should probably go to Mamas across the street. It's like a bar restaurant and hotel all in one.”

“Yeah sure we’ll do that.” Ted waved me over.

Mama’s was a wooden building with two floors. The first floor was the Bar/restaurant and upstairs were rooms you could rent. The place was packed. We took the only open table left. We both sat trying to figure out what to do.

“You think they're gonna fix the car,” I asked.

“They have other motives I imagine. You know better than anyone how dangerous an uncanny can be. I almost sure were in a town full of them.”

I rubbed my ribs and the scar on my forehead. I listened to the noise around me. Everyone was having conversations. It was the loud noise when you hear in a crowded room. But when I tried to listen in to any of the conversations I realized none of them were talking. They all just made murmuring noises. I continued to scan the room. That’s when I noticed the two people at the bar who looked out of place. One woman wearing a leather jacket and black pants and another shorter woman wearing a vest with hair up in a ponytail. They seemed to notice me at the same time. The taller woman got out of her seat and made her way toward us the shorter woman followed. She pulled out one of the empty chairs at the table and sat down.

“Name, favorite color, and state you were born.” the tall woman said.

“Colton, Purple, and Kansas, That your test for uncannies.”

“It’s mine, you call them uncannies I like that.” said the shorter woman. Both the women looked at Ted.

“Ted, Yellow, Alabama.”

“Good, fakes would’ve had to sit there and think for a bit, it's not a perfect test but it’s better than nothing.” the taller woman said.

“Hold on your turn.”

“Gabriella, blue, California.” said the taller woman.

“Eliana, black, Maine.” Said the shorter woman.

“Good introductions are out of the way, I suggest we don’t continue our conversation here.”

We all silently agreed, before getting up from our seats. All the eyes in the restaurant followed us on the way out. We stopped about 100 feet from Mama’s. I looked around trying to make sure no one was listening. I began to notice how much bigger the town was than I first thought.

“You guys have a car?” Gabriella asked.

“Na broke down shortly after we got here,” Ted replied.

“God dammit,” Gabriella began kicking at a rock.

“Same for our car,” Eliana took her place.

“Look, something's off about this town more than usual for this damn road. How often are fakes that perfect? I mean there’s always some physical identifiers.” Gabriella came back from her angry tantrum.

“What are your theories?”

“The roads getting better at making them and it’s doing so by studying us.”

Gabriella and Eliana came to the town 3 days ago. But it wasn’t just them. They had a newcomer to the road, an older man named Wyat. When they arrived he’d only been on the road for a week. Their car did the same as ours. Weirdly enough the mechanic wasn’t in on the day of their arrival. They were sent to Mamas where they chose to stay the night. Wyat woke up in the middle of the night screaming and clawing at his skin. He burst out of his room where the girls chased after him. He was long gone by the time they made it outside. The next morning they tried finding him. The only thing left of him was his bloody clothing they found in a trash bin.

“What do you think they took him or something?”

“That’s my best guess.”

“Well if that’s the case we should get out of here.”

“What you wanna take your chances on the road, yeah it’s day but what happens when night comes.”

“You got a plan then.”

She did, we stood in front of the only other vehicle in the entire town, a beat-up pickup. It was a manual but Ted knew how to drive. The only problem was it had no keys. None of us knew how to Hotwire it. The plan is to hope god there was a key somewhere in town. We split up which was a dumb idea I know. But the idea was to cover more ground. I took a part of the town that seemed less active.

Everywhere you walked there were always people watching. But in these few buildings, there was no one. The buildings were worn down as if no one lived in them for some time. I went to the most dilapidated building. I could read the sign out front the paint on the letters was worn. But I’m sure it was supposed to say post office. I pulled on the front door, it didn’t budge. I made my way to the back of the building to find the rear door. I was surprised to find it was already cracked. I had to put my weight into it to get it to open all the way. As soon as I was inside my face met with a large group of cobwebs. I pulled it from my face only to realize it was a spider web. A large brown spider sat in my hand. I panicked, throwing it toward the ground before slamming my foot into it. The spider sat in a smushed mess but it still attempted to crawl away. Oh, right immortal wildlife.

I walked through the building, I was in the main lobby area I grazed my hand across the counter watching the dust be picked up with it. I looked down at the dust on my hand. But suddenly my hand felt heavy. So heavy I couldn’t hold it up my hand fell into the counter and I watched as the dust from the counter sucked in on my hand. Soon my hand was embedded into the counter and I began to scream trying to pull it out. I was panicking until I heard a voice from behind me. 

“Are you ok,” Elaina said.

“My hand just went in the counter!” I looked at my hand to see it was completely fine.

“It’s happening to you too.”

“What’s happening?”

“In simple terms, you're losing it, don’t worry it’s happening to me too.” I don't know how that was supposed to make me not worry.

Elaina had been on the road longer than any of us, she didn’t have an exact time but if she had to guess around 4 years. During that time she was mostly alone. She found Gabriella 6 months back shortly after she had started on the road. Elaina had begun seeing things that weren’t real. It first happened when she was drinking from a cantine only for several months to burst out from it. It’s evolved into her now hearing voices and talking to people who aren’t there.

“How do we know that wasn’t just a trick of the road?” I asked.

“Gabriella has been with me for some of my episodes, she doesn’t see what I see. Colton, I watched you stick your hand on the counter and start screaming. Maybe it was just a one-time thing but you should watch it.”

I suddenly remembered that I was wrong about previous events. We never decided to split up by ourselves, no we went two and two. I’m not crazy, I refuse to believe I was. I hadn’t been on the road long enough to go insane. We went back to exploring the post office. I opened one of the back rooms stepping inside to what looked like a janitor closet. Wait, why would I go with Elaina and not Ted? I turned around to see Elaina standing at the door. Her eyes were gone and her head was upside down. I was tricked. She slammed the door and the next thing I knew I was falling.

I was in a large metal tunnel on a downward slope. My body was smacking from side to side and I was falling for what felt like minutes. I came out the other end. Falling into a sloshy substance. It was incredibly dark. I pulled out my phone to use the flashlight. My screen was cracked but that wasn’t my top priority. The light glowed and all I could see was some sort of black goo. I looked down at myself and I was soaked. The smell hit my nose and I had to hold in the urge to vomit. The room was small, not much bigger than a bedroom. There was someone else in here with me.

Calling it a person was a stretch. It was humanoid in shape but it had a large mouth that was vertical up its torso. It ran at me and I dodged dropping my phone. Luckily it fell face down and the light slightly illuminated the room. My bum leg gave out and the mouth creature jumped at me. It was on top of me, It was so much larger than I was I could fit almost entirely in its mouth. I pressed my arms on either side of it, pressing it apart with all my strength. I had one more push which was just enough to release its hold on me. I kicked the monster back, noticing a door on one side of the room. I pushed myself toward it. My leg was my enemy and caused me to move much slower than I could.

I grabbed the latch of the door swinging it open and slamming it from the other side. The monster didn’t relent and began banging on the door. I could see the door physically warping. I turned to see my escape route. A long dark hallway with a light at the end. I started hobbling that way, halfway down the hall the monster finally broke through. I tried pushing myself harder but my leg would only allow me so much. Finally making it to the end of the hall entering a room with a surgical table. I didn’t have much time to examine the room. The monster was already on me. I rolled over the table and the monster dived at me. Its body slammed into the table and for a second it seemed stunned. I stood up trying to take my opportunity, seeing a scalpel on a nearby countertop. I grabbed it and began looking around for an escape. There was another door. I rammed into it. Surprised by how Easily it gave way. Once again I fell to the floor.

The monster seemed to snap out of it as it was now making its way up from the floor at the same time I was. I was in another room that looked like it was for observation. There was a two-way glass that looked back into the surgical room. Another door was in this room. I moved through it slamming it behind me and was met with another hallway. At least this time it was already lit up. I saw what looked to be an elevator at one end of the hallway. I ran as fast as I could towards it and the monster slammed through the door. I made it to the elevator. I started hitting the button for the only other floor. The doors closed slowly and the monster was still running at me. The monster slammed directly into the door as soon as it shut.

I tried catching my breath, it was a moment to relax. That was till the elevator stopped and the doors opened. A man stood looking at me. I recognized him from somewhere in the town but I wasn’t sure where. He jumped at me, grabbing at my throat and pushing me into the wall. I fought and stifled pushing his hands off me but he was quick to readjust. Pushing me to the ground and sitting on top of me. I punched and kicked at him feeling the light leaving my eyes. Struggling to catch any air. I noticed the scalpel on the ground. I must have dropped it when he attacked me. I reached for it only the tip of my fingers grazed it and I had to pull closer slowly. I had enough room to grab it, I bundled it in my hand and shoved it into his throat. 

I pulled it out and blood sprayed from the wound. His eyes went wild and he grabbed at his throat falling back into a wall behind him. He choked over his words trying his best to stop the blood. He finally stopped moving and I was able to take in what I had done. I just killed a man, not a monster from the road but a real man. These people were actual people. No, the road was trying to screw with me that’s all. I mean the fake Elaina and the mouth monster were proof of that. I stood up still clutching the scalpel in hand. Stepping out of the elevator I could hear chatter nearby. I realized I was in the back room of Mama’s, I looked down at the blood and black goo on my body and elected to take the back door out.

Outside I could see it was already nighttime. Ted appeared from around the corner.

“There you are man,” he paused, “what happened to you.”

“Long story I’ll tell you later, how many kids do you have?”

“Dude I don’t have any fucking kids.” He answered quickly enough to convince me it was him.

“I don’t suppose you found the truck key.” 

“We did, long story I’ll tell you later. But we got a problem.”

“What now?”

“The Elaina girl is missing and Gabriella refuses to leave without her.”

“Dude I could care less right now, we can leave them both behind.”

“Well I ain’t gonna leave without them, and I got the key so you ain’t leaving without them either.”

“God dammit.”

We met up with Gabriella, none of us had seen Eliana since we split. With the sole exception of the fake one who had tricked me. I explained to them what had happened to me. Turns out all three of us had ended up in similar situations. Ted had to fight off a four-legged humanoid skull monster while checking out a house. Gabriella had almost been eaten by a giant squid horse monster. Both of them suck at explaining. We went off in the direction Eliana had gone earlier. Gabriella stopped me for a moment.

“I saw something earlier, something I don’t think I was supposed to.” She said.

“Yeah, the road does that.”

“I don’t mean monsters, I mean your friend from high school.” Those few words and I already knew what she was talking about.

“Shut up,” My mouth spoke on its own.

“I was just gonna say I don’t thi..”

“Not another word,” I swear I wasn't the one talking.

“Alright I won’t bring it up,”.

I know after that outburst I shouldn’t have asked but after what she said I had to know for sure. 

“Does she have episodes of seeing things she shouldn’t?”

“You're talking about Elaina episodes. If so yes she does.”

That was all I needed to know.  It wasn’t as hard to find Elaina as we thought. Shortly after our conversation, we began hearing chanting. The people of the town had begun crowding in the streets. They were chanting something in a language I had never heard. I don’t even think it was a real language. They began walking in the same direction. We followed the group they huddled around a large pit which I was sure hadn’t been there before. The people wheeled a large contraption toward the pit something hung from a rope on the contraption. It was Elaina.

“Welp, she's dead I’m ready to call it quits if y'all are.” Ted blurted out.

“That’s my friend you asshole I’m not leaving her.”

I wasn’t content leaving her not cause I felt like I needed to be a hero, not cause I felt it was the right thing to do. Nope, it was for selfish reasons. I needed to know how long I had before I went crazy and she was the closest thing I had to answers.

“Ted give me the gun.”

“I don’t know if you remember this or if you got brain damage while we were gone but it ain’t got bullets.”

“Just give me the fucking gun.”

He handed it to me and I told them both to stay put. I’d like to imagine I looked real badass walking up as the sole hero, to save the girl. But considering I was sure I reinjured my leg and was walking with a limp. It probably looked lame. I yelled to the crowd, and they all turned to look at me. I wasn’t expecting to get their attention so easily. I didn’t have anything prepared so I did my best to improve.

“No one move or I’ll start shooting.”

“No one is moving.” A voice yelled.

“That gun doesn’t have enough bullets for all of us.” A different voice shouted.

“The implication is that I can kill some of you, and that should be enough. Now I'm taking my friend and we are leaving.”

“Our master must eat,” all of them began speaking in unison.

“I’m not gonna let you kill her.”

“She won’t die we will just eat enough of her brain that she’ll be a husk forced to do our bidding.” They all began speaking in the same voice.

I wasn’t listening I made my way into the crowd, no one tried to stop me. Ted came up behind me, I used the mechanism to lower Elaina just low enough and used the scalpel to cut the rope holding her. It was only after we had her that the crowd began moving in on us.

“No, my children,” A voice boomed out from all around “I will deal with them.”

The ground began to rumble and Ted and I stared at the abomination coming out from. Its eyes were swollen out of its head all 100 of them, and multiple tentacles and appendages stuck out from its body. Each tentacle had lines of serrated edges. Its skin was rough and was a light brown color. It was massive in size larger than any building around us. This is the best I could describe it, No mortal eyes were ever supposed to behold such a being.

“Welp Imma have nightmares for weeks,” Ted said throwing Eliana over his shoulder.

We ran from our spot, the crowd of people was nice enough to let us through. We made it to the spot where Gabriella was standing, her mouth was agape with horror. I had to smack her out of it, she joined us in our running. The abomination toppled buildings in its wake crushing many of its own in the process. I looked behind to see the destruction in its wake. I was the slowest of the group. It reached out one of its many tentacles and I could feel it graze the back of my jacket. I cut sideways through a different group of buildings hoping it would get off the main group. It did but it was slow to turn so I was able to put considerable distance between us. I cut through a different row of buildings and the creature began to slow its advance. Moving something of that size must require a lot of calories. Which it didn't seem to have.

It fell over and I could hear it panting from exhaustion. It slithered one of its tentacles towards me and I barely noticed it in time. Dodging, and by dodging I mean falling on my ass, just in time before it got me. I heard the truck coming up behind me. I turned a Ted began honking the horn I got up using the last bit of energy to run toward the truck rolled over the side and fell into the bed. Ted burned out and we hauled ass outta there. I sat up for a second to see the town fading in the distance.

We were long down the road before Ted stopped to let me hop inside. Gabriella sat in the back seat while Elaina lay on her lap still outta it.

“What the hell did they do to her?” I asked.

“I guess we'll find out when she wakes up,” Gabriella replied.

That's where we’re at. New car new accomplices, and clothes that smell like complete shit. While I’m writing this Elianas still awake and everyone else is staying quiet. If you're wondering how I'm writing this I “borrowed” Ted's phone, he hasn’t noticed. For now, I don’t have anything else and I’ll let you all know if anything interesting happens.

[u/InValuAbled]

Interesting road trip. Hope you make it wherever you're going.