2025-02-09

A road in the Grey

Subsection

Written 2025-02-09; A Road in the Grey

I felt a tap on my shoulder. Then another. How long had I been sleeping? I
couldn't remember when my eyelids finally began to drop, nor could I remember
where it was that I finally gave in to exhaustion. What time was it?

After the third tap, I reluctantly opened my eyes. I was folded awkwardly in the
passenger seat of the dimly lit car, jacket tossed over my shoulders in a vain 
attempt at comfort. Inside the car, the only light came from the clock-radio. It
cast a soft- but artificial- glow across the vinyl and plastic that I had wedged
myself against. '3:37 AM' it read, I had been in the car now for about three
hours. The only sound was the quiet hum of the AC blower, the car's engine had
stopped. Everything was still.

Beyond the glass windshield, there was hazy portrait of a dirt road. It was
awash in fog and slick with dew. It was too early for dawn, but the world beyond
the car was still ever so softly lit. Light pollution, caught in the fog and
carried to this strange place. Why did we stop here?

"Can you wait a moment?" My Brother next to me asked.

I could see the whites of his eyes flicker as they caught the dim light of the
clock-radio. He opened the driver-side door and slipped out into the mist.
Before the door clicked shut, a wave of cold air had penetrated my jacket, 
begging me to join the stillness outside. What little I could see looked alien,
a chain-link fence to the right wandered off into the fog. The dirt road was
broken in places by patches of gravel and puddles. I maneuvered myself in the
cramped seat until I could see out the rear windshield. Maybe two-hundred feet
behind us was a brilliantly lit gas-station. It looked completely dead in the
fog, except for the fluorescent tubes which occasionally flickered above the
pumps.

Suddenly, my door opened. My brother's face appeared, the ghosts of the 
gas-station danced in his eyes as he spoke.

"I had to piss, do you think you could drive for a while? I'm about done."

He spoke softly, in the way that people speak in the dead of night, lowering his
tone as to not disturb the darkness outside of the car.

"Yea, sure." I mumbled, pulling the jacket aside and folding the seat back up.

I stepped out of the car. The cold, damp air clung to me as I walked, trying
to work the fatigue out of my legs and my mind before I drove. The air, so cold
and quiet, still smelled like cow manure; we were in the valley after all.
Somewhere far off, I could hear the occasional car roar past on the interstate;
it was always followed by an oppressive silence. A dog barked nearby, maybe at
us.

Once I was behind the wheel, my brother handed me his keys. I fumbled in the 
dark for a moment before I found the ignition, and then twisted the
smooth, black plastic handle of the key. A barrage of symbols lit on the dash
and the engine purred to life. There was a mechanical hum as the heater blower
activated; I adjusted the blower for a moment until I was satisfied. The 
headlights flicked on, and the road ahead of us was painted in a yellow light.

"Where do I go?" I asked.

"Just turn around, the on-ramp shouldn't be far." My brother responded.

I put the car in gear. In the same moment, the stillness around us collapsed
as the fog gave way to drizzle, then to full rain. I turned the heater up. As
I drove towards the dead, glowing gas station, the rain began to beat against 
the windshield. The radio-clock read "3:42 AM". I turned onto the empty
interstate, shining brilliantly under the car's headlights. The rain beat 
harder.

We passed a factory, its presence was only given away by the red beacons of its
smoke stacks, blinking through the rain and towering over us. It stood there,
dark and quiet amid the night, but it wasn't like the gas station. To me, it was
alive. It stood there, quietly, watching us as we drove next to it; the lone car
on the interstate.