Clear Days To The Front

The experience is new. They all are no matter where in the country one takes place but when it's dark. Dusky dark and night is night only because of the time the sun has set, strange things happen in a place that has no voice to speak nor breath to breathe and it moves fast. Very fast with protection from the outside world only for moments.

"I need a new car." O'ryan Rex said as he looked in the rear view mirror at the truck that filled it's view. The radio singing one of it's many voices while the vents blew surprisingly cool air out of them. The lights from the truck are angry for such a new model of automobile to be on the highway. Look around and it's still year 2000 but this truck isn't twenty-one years old. Who is under the wheel bought it today. O'ryan Rex can tell. He's never seen that shape of headlamps before. It gets closer.

"Is this fucker going to bump me in the ditch or what? Why won't he just go around me?" asks O'ryan while trying to look in front of himself and behind himself too. Only one could work at a time but he wasn't thinking. The thin oncoming traffic sped in his favor. There hardly was any.

"I'm not pulling over if that's what he thinks.' O'ryan said, turning off the radio and dropping the window. He puts his hand outside the car and waves frantically for the vehicle to pass.

The rearview stays full of new low beam headlamp light. The truck revs closer. O'ryan snatches his arm back inside and grabs the wheel. A vehicle flies by going the opposite way, scares him.

"Pay attention. Please. Pay attention please." he recites over and over.

"If this fool don't come by me, I'm calling the law." said the frantic driver of the sedan that did as it was commanded to under the rule of a driver on his way to the store.

It's darker. The road is lonelier now that they have travelled deeper into the country.

"I should have stayed home." he said, hand on his cellphone, flipping it open and closed. It's soft snapping shut takes over the quiet of the car now that the radio is off. He flips it and leaves it open, ready to hit ICE.

The truck never drags down it's presence behind the sedan. It keeps up with the old highway model that is lit up from the back. The inside full of headlamp light and a head appearing to stay steady but a hand filled with cellphone adjusting the rearview mirror makes no hidden movements to hide what it's doing.

"Pass me! Jerk!" O'ryan Rex yells out the window, not caring if he can be heard or not with the wind created by his sedan beating him in his face. Slapping him in his mouth and knocking itself into his drying eyes.

"Following me! I'm calling the cops!" he yells to the follower.

O'ryan Rex starts to tap the emergency button on his cellphone. The trucks horn blasts a short sharp beep. It gets his attention. He looks in the rearview mirror and a bright signal light fires up the drivers side of the road.

The truck slips out of place leaving a black cavity behind the sedan as it smoothly moves by O'ryan Rex on the dark road. He follows the new model vehicle, raising his window and cutting off the thick air flow. Sitting low compared to the truck, O'ryan glimpses the area before the lane change. They're here.

The truck gets in front of the sedan and is lit up without aggression playing a part in it. The trucks passenger signal light shuts off and brake lights fill O'ryans eyes. He follows the instructions and slows down upon entering the city limits of the country store location that has his interest tonight.

"Fucker." said O'ryan, not realizing that nothing happened. He presses the emergency button on his cellphone and talks to the responder.

"It's in front of me now." he says, passing his turn off. Following the stranger.