Saturday, December 3, 2011

Day 4



It wasn't an easy ride down the pit road to the back garage where the fuel truck was parked, but it was unsettling. The road I had driven down so many times in the dark when working late back in the day was now even more unnerving with my mind wandering, thinking "is there a thing down here? Is it watching me? Are there a bunch of them?". These ideas , thoughts , and notions spun in my head while trying to be as discreet as possible on the dark dirt road. Winding between the different piles of processed gravel each hill I emerged from granted me a small reprieve from my torture. Not much sanity at this point just adrenaline , fear . and inner turmoil.

Finally getting to the end of the road and having the choice of the fuel truck or the rest of the roads leading further into the pit I almost wondered if it would be safer to just stop and fuel or drive around a bit and get a good feel for the area. Either way it was not going to be easy, the fuel trucks PTO that runs the pump for the nozzle is a screaming loud grind that would literally wake the dead.

I parked my truck right next to the fuel truck and started looking around and listening to make sure I was the only one in earshot and nothing was skulking around. It is real hard to move around on processed gravel and not be heard, but once this truck is fired up I will not be hearing anything.I opened the fuel trucks rusty door and started feeling for the keys on the floor and my hand ran thru some sand , dirt , and god knows what else until I felt the keys. Hopping up into the seat I took a moment and listened again knowing once i start this beast i have a good 5 minutes of me as an alarm for whatever is around and me not hearing anything coming in from the darkness.

Twisting the key and pumping the pedal i got the beast started but the fun part was yet to come, even tho the truck is running if it isn't warmed up the PTO will stall it out so I had to sit there and let it run a bit first. This was probably my closest to madness in the pit so far and my mind wandered quite a bit while i continued to rev the engine trying to warm it up as fast as possible. Every glimmer twink and fart made my eyes dance on the windshield and mirrors thinking something was there. When the truck seemed warm enough I pulled up on the PTO shaft and let the clutch out slowly,"grrrrrrrrgrrrrrrgrrrr" loud as a trains whistle and deep as a rig horn sounding like a meat grinder chewing on a house this couldn't be any less attractive to my situation.

Moving to the back of the truck I decided to fuel up and walk away not bothering to shut off the truck and not bothering to hide it's keys. I was pretty sure I would be the last person coming down here to this truck for possibly ever and to chance going back and forth to the cab with all the noise I was making didn't sit well with me. I topped off my truck and then a few cans I had tied to the back for out of gas calls and started my truck up. Looking down at the dash the fuel gauge read full and I knew I could at least be safely making it to my brothers, my brothers, maybe it's shangrila and everything is peachy there.

Driving the truck back up the hill to the gate I had blown thru earlier I could see the thing from earlier down the road seemingly wiggling in the road a quarter mile or so up . I slammed it when I backed up and there it was still trying to get up still trying to get me.The funny thing was being in that pit surrounded by darkness trying not to make noise was more horrifying than what I was seeing in the roadway, I guess your mind can get to you sometimes.

I turned the truck to the left coming out of the gate and heading in the opposite direction of the thing I encountered earlier, once was enough for today. It was a long ride to my brothers ahead of me and I knew it , while driving thru back roads i scanned as many channels on the radio as possible and to my surprise I found one that just played Christmas music nonstop, it seemed the only one even with power, kind of funny. It had been a warm early December and being in the 50s and 60s for New England was different but the weather wasn't what I wanted to complain about.

As I drove down the back roads of one small area to another randomly seeing cars on fire people in the road and a few "things" it would all be to the backdrop of " white Christmas" or " melakaleekemakka", which made the drive even more surreal until I came across the 7-11. Thats when things got extra strange because the 7-11 was lit and in the middle of nowhere on this back road and if I hadn't seen and experienced what had happened earlier I would sware it was all a dream. This place looked....completely normal , one car at the pumps two near the door and fully lit with no carnage anywhere...or bodies. I pulled into the lot figuring there has to be a catch and looking thru the store windows started getting a feel for something being off, for all the cars out front the store was empty.

I stopped along side the entrance to the store and left the truck door open when i got out but I did take the keys. If someone is running they aren't ditching me and taking my ride and if I was running the door would already be open, if only my passengers window wasn't gone . Carefully opening the door to the store I was being quietly optimistic that this was going to work out for the best. I had no bodies on the floors, no blood anywhere, no moaning, no screaming, as a matter of fact I had nothing , it was weird. I decided to look behind the counter the back room somewhere there had to be someone or something in this place they couldn't have just vanished.

Peering over the counter near the register expecting a "thing" or disemboweled corpse to be awaiting my gaze I found lint , nothing. I turned my attention to the backroom near the entrance to the coolers for soda and started walking in the general direction, I say general because aside from coffee and shock I was hungry and this place had things that substituted for food. Jerky and soda was in the cards as I walked down the aisle and to the backroom door but the door was locked and I had a feeling this was the people from 7-11s great plan  to hold up here in this back room.

Not the best of plans to keep yourself in a microwave dinner tray for the serving but I wasn't going to argue with them I just had to make sure they knew it wasn't something that hiding would cure. "Hello are you OK in there?" I said to the door. "boom boom boom" three gunshots rang out as the door had new peep holes. "what the hell man what the hell" I yelled as i fell backwards, luckily I wasn't at the door or these dimwits would've made me an entree. " I'm not one of them , your on your own good luck a''holes" . I grabbed as much food as I could and bailed feeling anger towards the people in the backroom. Only after driving alone eating and drinking did it occur they were just desperate and frightened , who knows what they had seen to make them hide like they were. Did they fire up a generator and get attacked? Is that why they had power?

No answers on this one but grazing in empty stores may be the only way I eat for a while so keeping an eye out for stores abandoned with no noticeable danger could be a good thing and I also learned that even tho I'm a good guy , the people I'm running across don't know this or me and I don't want to get caught leaning against any doors knocking again....

2 comments:

  1. Love how you make us feel his confusion and despair. And I like humor you inject.

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