Even if I knew what to look for it wouldn’t change the fact. The battery is dead and this car is going nowhere.
“I thought they had some backup battery, power thingy?” I ask out loud, pacing by the side of the road, hugging my elbows again to try and keep warm before my eyes dart up.
Certain I can hear a car coming, but it’s just the wind.
And then the rain.
Then the thunder gets closer and the wind takes over everything, forcing me back into the car.
Stay calm and stay in the car. That’s what Ben would say. I remind myself, looking up again at the billboard with his smiling face.
I’d prefer a public phone over a billboard right now. Maybe even an emergency phone.
Don’t some highways still have those?
Oh no, you don’t. You just told yourself to stay put, so stay put.
My mind is already playing tricks on me, almost convincing me that if I just walked a few miles down the highway in either direction, that surely I’d find a phone.
But I don’t remember seeing any on the way through.
I don’t remember much actually, mostly throwing my head back and singing to myself instead of watching the side of the road for a phone booth.
A deep rumble, then a flash of lightning makes me jump. The whole car seeming to shake as I gasp with real fear for the first time.
Before I can blink though, I see the back end of a big rig as it rushes past, not slowing to stop, and no way have they even seen me once I scramble out of the car into the driving rain waving my arms, begging them to stop.
My voice is drowned out by the wind and my tears are mixed with the freezing rain as it hits my face.
Great. Now I’m soaked through, but at least I know some traffic goes past, right?
I can’t stand out in the rain all day though, what’s left of it. It’s getting mighty dark awfully quick and it’s wouldn’t be safe to stand on the side of the road by the car even if it wasn’t storming.
Should I really be waving down just anyone though? I mean, stay with your car and keep calm. But getting into a stranger’s truck in the middle of nowhere?
I suddenly feel more frightened, like it doesn’t matter what I decide to do, I’m in real trouble here.
I’m not just imagining it.
Oh, dad, you were right. You’re always right. Why didn’t I listen to you?
It’s stupid, but I try to power up my phone again, plugging it in to charge and actually expecting something to work.
I feel shock, fear again, and then finally anger.
The guy at the rental car place said the car would get me to a recharge station easily, and there’s another two past that on the way home.
So why’d it die?
If I had any charge in my phone I could call and ask, but as the light of day gets darker with what I can tell is a bad storm, I know it’s also the least of my problems to wonder about how and why this happened in the first place.
Another loud boom of thunder overhead makes me jump, reminding me that on top of everything else I need to use the bathroom.
Stranded, without a phone, and now soaked through with darkness falling as well as what feels like a hurricane on the way, it’s all I need right now.
Like the notable lack of phone booths out here, I don’t see too many restrooms either.
Glancing either way down the highway and then back into the woods behind me, my shyness and need to go get the better of my fears and I break the golden rule.
I leave my car.
I’m only going a little ways into the woods, just so no one sees if they did happen by.
I’ll keep the car and the road in sight in case someone stops.
Nope, not there. Too open.
Not there either, too slippery.
Ew. Looks like something’s already been here…
I shiver again with cold, but something else has the hair on the back of my neck standing on end before I even hear it.
I sense it before anything else.
A pair of eyes on me.
I would call out, ask for help if I knew it was another person, maybe a hiker.
But the low growl from the bushes isn’t human and without making a sound, I turn on my heel and stumble in the opposite direction of the sound until the pain in my side makes me stop, exhausted.
It’s almost dark now, and the wind is howling through the trees and the rain is so cold my skin feels hot underneath it, even though I know I’m freezing.
A dry croak escapes my throat, and I regret not bringing any water as well as a jacket and not paying attention to which direction I ran.