Run

A man has to run for his life

This story is still ongoing and not completed as of yet.

 

 

 

Run

 

 

           

Heat shimmered off the blacktop of the highway as Fred strolled along in an attempt to hopefully flag down any passing motorist in order to get to a gas station. His car had run out of gas a few miles back and the temperature was well over a 100 degrees. Sweat ran down the back of his neck and his underarms were drenched with perspiration. The salty wetness was running into his eyes in which he wiped away with the back of his forearm.

He was on his way to a convention in Las Vegas and knew he was probably going to be late since he was to be at the convention by 8pm that day. There had been no vehicles driving by since he started walking along the highway about 1 ½ hours ago. Looking around, there was only the broad expanse of sun parched sand and minimal vegetation. Fred wished that he didn’t have to go to this convention since he did have other plans that wouldn’t have been work related. His boss stated that this was important to the company and not to mess it up or he would be looking for other employment. Fred had been with this company for over 6 years and had gone up the corporate ladder quite quickly and was making a decent living with his wages. There was no woman in his life and he lived in a modest apartment in Memphis. He was a bit plump around the midsection and had a receding hairline. His glasses hung down at the end of his nose and would slip off he didn’t push them back. He was in his late forties and thought he would die alone.

            Lifting a bottle of water to his lips in which was warm at this time from carrying it since he left his car at the side of the road hours ago. Looking over his shoulder, he thought that he could see the sunshiny glint of an approaching car coming down the road. Sticking his thumb out, Fred hoped that the driver would not pass him by. The loud rumble of an unkempt muffler preceded the automobile. It sounded like a tank was roaring down the road. As the vehicle approached, it slowed down and stopped beside him. The driver was a young woman in her mid twenties. Her shirt was tied at the waist and she wore the skimpiest shorts that he had ever seen in the longest time. Her chestnut brown hair hung down over her shoulders in sweaty clumps. “Can you give me a ride to the next available gas station that you come across?” asked Fred as he leaned in the window. The woman replied “sure, hop in”. The car door squealed on its hinges as Fred opened it and could feel the car sag on its springs as he sat in the seat beside the woman. As he slammed the car door closed, she stepped on the gas: the car roared to life as the muffler shuddered underneath the car.

“Where you headed to?” asked the woman. Fred replied that he was on his way to a convention in Las Vegas and predicted that he was going to be late for it. “Well, my name is Jeanette” said the woman. “The next gas station is about 12 miles down the highway in a small town called Moapa Town” explained Jeanette. “That will have to do then” replied Fred.

Looking out the window at the passing terrain, Fred wondered what it would be like to bed this woman since he hadn’t had sex for a few months. The last time he had sex was with a prostitute that he paid $75 for an hour and had to get medication for the bugs that she left with him. “Where you heading to?” asked Fred as he turned his head and gazed at her young body. She replied that she was heading to Overton and that giving him a ride was not a problem since the gas station was along the way.

Fred looked at the clock on the dashboard that read 3:42pm and thought to himself that if he wasn’t at the convention by 7pm that he would be fired. Why couldn’t his company have provided him with plane tickets to get to Las Vegas instead of having him drive all the way? “Cheap a******s!” murmured Fred as he turned his head again to look out the window. “Did you say something?” asked Jeanette as she briefly looked at him. “Nah!” said Fred as he turned his head towards her again. He couldn’t get the image out of his head of having sex with her which was making his manhood stir in his pants.

The car continued rumbling down the road and Fred’s eyes lit up as he saw an upcoming sign at the side of the road that showed the gasoline symbol and 8 miles ahead beside it. The car, which was a Trans Am had seen better days. Spots of rust covered the rear of the mirror and body of the car as well there was a dent in the passenger side door. There were various rattles and thumps with each bump in the road that was driven over. Looking out the windshield, Fred noticed that a start of a spider web crack was forming in the view of the driver and would need to be fixed or the window replaced.

The wind blew in through the windows making the heat a little more bearable but was making Fred’s eyes sting and water. As he wiped the wetness from his eyes, there was an earsplitting pop as one of the front tires blew out. The car crossed the center line and into the other side of the road. Jeanette was cursing under her breath as she tried to over compensate to get back onto the other side of the road. This didn’t work as the one front tire dug into the asphalt tipping the car up and over. The car rolled multiple times as both Jeanette and Fred were screaming hysterically. Fred’s life flashed before his eyes thinking that he was not going to live to see tomorrow. The crunching and grinding of metal was ear shattering and shards of glass was flying through the air embedding itself into the seat upholstery and the skin of both Fred and Jeanette. The seatbelts dug into the shoulders of both of them with each flip that the car made. Finally the wrecked automobile stopped flipping and rested on its roof. Fred groaned as he could feel that his shoulder was dislocated and looking over his left shoulder at Jeanette, he could see that her eyes were closed and blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth. He tried shifting so as to undo the seatbelt, and screamed in agony as his shoulder reminded him that there was something wrong. Fred gritted his teeth as he managed to get the seatbelt undone and almost passed out from the excruciating pain as he landed on his head and shoulder. He tried maneuvering so as to attempt to assist the unconscious woman out of her seatbelt. Fred called out to her in an attempt to possibly wake her up in which there was no response. Reaching out his good arm, Fred managed to get the seatbelt undone and tried not to have her land on her head as he had, but was of no use as she landed on the roof of the car in a heap.

Fred inhaled the smell of gasoline and knew he had to get both her and himself out of the automobile in case it exploded. Grunting with both effort and pain from his dislocated shoulder, he managed to crawl out of the broken passenger side window and slowly get to his feet. Walking with a slight limp and holding the car for support, Fred staggered around the car to the driver’s side. Grasping the driver’s door handle, Fred tried to open the door, but it was so badly damaged that it didn’t budge and he yelped as his shoulder let out unbearable pain. Dropping to his knees, he reached through the smashed window and attempted to pull her out with his good arm. It was a slow and tedious routine, but after many minutes he managed to get her clear of the confines of the demolished car.

Fred checked to see if she was breathing in which she was in slow and shallow breaths. Looking in both directions up and down the highway, there was no sign of any upcoming vehicles. He thought maybe she would have a cell phone to call for medical assistance and crawled back to the driver side window and peered into the depths of the car for any sign of a purse or cell phone. Fred could see her purse on the roof near the back of the car and leaned in further and forgot about his shoulder and went down onto his face like a ton of bricks. “S**t!”, yelled Fred as dust flew up from the exhalation of breath from his mouth. Using his good arm, he inched further into the confines of the car and snagged the handle of the woman’s purse in his mouth and attempted to squeeze back out the way he had come. It took some time, but several minutes later he was back out on the sun beaten asphalt again.

Fred clawed at the clasps of Jeanette’s purse and started tossing things out to see if any cell phone was in there. There was no cell phone in her purse as he threw it aside and looked over at the unconscious woman lying in the shade of the ruined car. What was he going to do; he was not going to be able to carry the woman with the way his shoulder was and he could see no traffic coming in either direction. They were still miles away from the town that they were driving to and no way to contact any medical facilities for an ambulance for Jeanette and himself.

Looking around the surroundings to see if there was any residences in which he could use their phone, but there was none that he could see. The sun was sinking slowly towards the horizon and he knew that darkness would be upon them within the next few hours. Fred yelled into the sky as he sat down hard onto the pavement. The sudden jolt sent shimmers of pain through his arm and shoulder which made him wince.

All around them was just the rocky, sandy desert with no relief from the blazing sun. He shimmied himself over to the woman to make sure she was still breathing in which she was, but very shallow. His lips were parched since his bottle of water had went flying through the air when the car was going end over end. Looking around, Fred could not see the bottle anywhere. He needed to find some sort of shelter before the coldness of the desert came after the sun dips below the horizon. Picking himself up and shuffling over to Jeanette, he stooped down in an attempt to pick her up with his one good arm.

Pain sliced through his bad shoulder when he attempted to hoist her over his good shoulder. Grimacing from the pain for many minutes as he finally managed to get the unconscious woman over his shoulder and carry her in a fireman’s carry. Limping along and feeling every step he took in his dislocated shoulder, Fred continued down the highway in hopes of possibly flagging down any car or truck that may come along.

Minutes passed as he trudged along the stony, sandy side of the road. Dust flitted into the air with each step that he took. Sweat ran down his forehead and into his eyes and his back was drenched. Periodically, Fred looked over his shoulder to see if there was any traffic coming along, which there wasn’t. The wreckage of the car that he walked from was getting smaller and smaller, until he couldn’t make it out any more.

Looking into the distance, Fred could make out possibly a car coming their way. He staggered over to the other side of the road and attempted to gently lay the woman down at the side of the road. Pain shot through his shoulder which made him squeal with rage and made him drop Jeanette roughly to the ground. Fred stepped out into the lane and raised his good arm into the air in an attempt to get the car to stop as it got closer.

The driver slowed from going 60 miles an hour as she saw this man standing in the middle of the lane waving an arm wildly. As she stopped the car, the man staggered over to her window in which she lowered. The woman kept her right hand over her cell phone in case she had to call 911. The man was babbling frantically about a car wreck that he was in just down the road as well as carrying an injured woman for the last 45 minutes or so down the highway. The woman driver gazed over to the side of the road where the man was pointing to an unconscious figure laying in the dirt.

Her mouth dropped open before she opened the drivers door, almost knocking the strange man to the ground. Clambering out, she ran over to the prone woman and made sure she was still breathing. Lifting the unconscious woman’s arms, she attempted to drag her over to the passenger side door. “Open the door” screamed the lady at Fred. Fred obliged and opened the passenger door. Once it was open, she hoisted the unconscious girl into the car and buckled her in with the seatbelt. “Where can I sit?” asked Fred since the car was only a two seated convertible. The woman driver looked at him and stated “I will be back for you, this woman needs immediate medical treatment”. She ran around to the open drivers side door and climbed in while Fred gaped at her in shock. The car roared to life as she stomped on the gas pedal and fish tailed as she turned the car around in the direction that she had just driven from and sped off.

Fred looked dumbfounded at what had just happened and stood there for a few minutes just taking it all in. The pain in his shoulder seemed to be a distant memory and wondered what the hell just happened. Fred was startled out of his stupor when an old man walked out of the desert towards him and tapped him on the shoulder. Fred jumped which made him remember his shoulder as bolts of searing pain shot through his shoulder. “S**t!” yelled Fred as he looked beside him at the old man.

The old man looked to be in his 60’s, possibly his 70’s. There were teeth missing and he wore a baseball cap low over his eyes. Dust clung to the old mans clothes which were old and tattered. Duct tape was holding his shoes together which had seen better days. The old man asked “Whatcha doing at the side of the road in this blazing sun and heat”? Fred explained what had happened over the course of the last couple of hours and used extreme profanity to tell how the woman driver had left him standing at the side of the road as she drove off. The old man lifted his head up to look at Frank and stated that he could help him if he didn’t mind walking for a bit. Fred agreed and asked what the old mans name was. “My name is Pete Janson, what is yours”? “Fred Longwood” replied Fred as he shuffled his feet around. Pete stated “Well lets get going, it isn’t that far away”.

Fred limped behind the old man as he followed him into the desert. The sun had set further into the sky and was going to be dark soon. Not much was spoken between the two men as they continued trudging further into the desert. The highway disappeared behind them and all Fred could see in the distance was sand and rock formations. “How far do we have to go” asked Fred. Pete replied that it wasn’t far and should be there in a few minutes. The pain in Fred’s shoulder was somewhat subsiding, but knew he would need to have it popped back into place and was going to regret having to have it done. As the two men trudged through the sand, Fred could see a small shack in the distance. “We’re almost there” said Pete without looking over his shoulder at Fred.

Within minutes the two men were at the rundown shack. It was constructed of tin and the windows had a thick film of dust. The screen door looked like it could fall off its rusty hinges when the old man opened it. Pete stepped in first and motioned for Fred to follow. Inside was even hotter then it was outside and the heat hit Fred like a ton of bricks as he stepped through the door. There was only a small TV on a TV tray, a chair, fridge, and stove. Fred looked around and asked “Is there a phone here that I can use to call an ambulance”? Pete gazed at him and a somewhat toothless smile spread across his face. “I don’t believe in them; never had one in my life. I’ve never had a reason to call anyone since I don’t have family” explained Pete.

An astonished look spread over Fred’s face before it started turning red with rage. “Why did you drag me out here then? I could’ve waited for that woman driver to come back” screamed Fred. The old man’s facial expression never changed as he went to the fridge and pulled out a beer. “I could have given you a ride, but alas my pick up truck is in the shop for repairs” murmured Pete as he drank deeply from the bottle. Fred’s jaw dropped further as he shook uncontrollably with anger.

The old man didn’t even heed the anger that was brewing in Fred’s eyes as he grabbed another beer from the fridge and didn’t even offer one to the man that was standing less than 5 feet away from him. Popping the cap, Pete drank down the bottle in less that 15 seconds and dropped the bottle on the floor with the other one. Looking over at Fred, he asked “what injuries do you have”? Fred stared at him and lightened up a bit as he explained about having a dislocated shoulder. Pete grabbed Fred’s arm with remarkable speed and with a sudden twist and push, locked Fred’s shoulder back into place. It happened so fast that the pain didn’t register on Fred’s face until a few seconds later when he let out a long, piercing scream. It seemed louder in the small confines of the shack. Several minutes passed before the pain became bearable and slowly started subsiding.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were going to do that” stammered Fred as he rubbed his sore shoulder. Pete shrugged his shoulders as he sat down in the only chair in the shack and flipped on the television. The picture was blurry, but it looked like some kind of game show was on. Fred looked around to see if there was anywhere he could sit, then decided to just sit on the floor. “So, what are you going to do to help me then since there is no phone or vehicle here?” asked Fred after attempting to get comfortable by sitting cross legged with his back leaning against the wall of the shack. “Well, still have time, so get comfortable if you can” said  Pete without moving his eyes from the TV.

Fred stared at the old man and asked “time for what?” The old man didn’t reply as he continued watching what was on the tube. Fred’s anger was subsiding and was turning into bewilderment. Briefly gazing out the filthy window, Fred could see that the sun was setting very close to the horizon and was wondering what he got himself into. Many thoughts were racing through his head as he watched the old man stare blankly at the TV screen.

“Grab yourself something to drink if you want” said Pete without taking his eyes from the screen. Fred pondered this and thought he would stay where he was. Even though his mouth felt parched, he didn’t want to move. One of the thoughts that raced through his head was that he will not have a job by tomorrow, that’s if he made it out of here by then. He shifted around on the floor to get more comfortable and Pete briefly looked over his shoulder to see what was happening.

Time passed by without much more conversation between the two men. The shadows were lengthening inside the shack as the sun hit the horizon and started disappearing. Pete got up from the chair and headed towards the door. “I’ll be right back” he said, and closed the door behind him. Fred stared at the closed door and thought maybe he had an outhouse to go to. Time passed by and the sun was almost below the horizon and dusk was swathing the sky. Fred heard Pete call to him from outside and he slowly got to his feet and shuffled towards the door. When he opened the rusty door, he saw Pete standing about 15 feet away. It looked like he had something in his hands, but Fred couldn’t quite tell since the sun was completely below the horizon and darkness had crept in.