Goin' Out To Cally – Part 57, Succumbing To Fate

“What if he got out?” I asked.

“Yeah, what if someone dropped him off and now he’s on foot out there?” she replied.

“That’s frickin’ great!” I exclaimed.

Now our panic ramped up a couple of notches. Sure, being stranded in the middle of nowhere with a maniac after us, well, that was one thing, but at least the only thing we had to focus on was the headlights approaching us. With the darkness that blankets a desert during a new moon, the glow of headlights was about the only thing we could see. But now, under Sunday’s theory that our potential attacker was on foot, we now had to focus on everything… in a desert… in the dark!

Our eyes darted back and forth. We looked through the side windows and the back windows and the rear view mirrors and out in front of us.

“I can’t see anything!” I said.

“Me either,” Sunday agreed.

The length of the day was starting to get to me. Frustrated and angered from the events in San Francisco, I did not sleep well in the car. My shift behind the wheel started in a state of exhaustion over seven hours ago. Now the toxic combination of fear and fatigue had me near an uncontrollable collapse.

Just then Sunday screamed “There he is!”

My head swung to the right and I looked past Sunday, spotting a cow standing next to her window.

“Sunday… it’s a cow,” I sighed.

“Sorry…” she said with understandable embarrassment.

The sight of the cow and the momentary release from the pressure cooker of fear in our car that resulted from it put me into a state of exhaustion from which I could no longer recover.

“I… I can’t keep my eyes open anymore,” I said as I released my grip from the keys in the ignition and leaned the driver’s side seat back.

“If I die tonight at least I’ll die in my sleep,” I continued as I closed my eyes.

“Me too,” Sunday followed.

I looked over to her and our eyes met, both red from weariness.

“Good night, Sunday,” I said with a smile.

“You too, Pete,” she responded with a half-smile, then turned and closed her eyes.

It did not take long for me to fall asleep in the deep dark that night. I was so tired I didn’t even dream.

I awoke the next morning to find a sight I never expected. Somewhere between the maniac at the hotel, our drive into the rest area, our near death experience at the hands of a cow and finally going to sleep… somewhere in the night our rest area became one of the most populated spots in Eurkea.

As I pried my eyes open in the morning sun I looked to my left and, out of the driver’s side window, spotted a large recreational vehicle parked next to us, through which I could see the driver cleaning himself up from a morning shave.

“When did he get here?” I said to myself? I propped up the car seat to an upright position and looked around the rest area which now looked like a parking lot at a used car dealership. There were numerous cars and trucks and motorcycles and semis.

“Were they here all night?” I said with disbelief. “I don’t remember seeing any of them when I pulled into here.”

“See who?” Tim asked as we awoke from his fulfilling night’s sleep.

“Nothing,” I said.

About one hundred yards away, passed the cars and trucks and motorcycles was the now lit sign of the gas station… it was open.

I started the car and pulled into the gas station. Wanting to quickly change positions with Tim and Beth so I could get some quality shut eye, I offered to pump the gas if Tim paid the attendant.

The morning air was extremely cold. I shivered in my shorts and t-shirt as the cold wind whipped through my oily hair, the metal gas hose clanking repeatedly against the gas tank in the Acura. As the gas flowed into the arid, empty tank I looked over toward the hotel where our adventures in Eureka began.

The pickup truck was gone.

It made me wonder if the truck that stopped and stared us down only a few hours earlier was indeed our angered drunk. I would never know. All I cared about now was sleeping and waking to find that this once-hopeful trip would be finally nearing its end.

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Part 57, (Text, Audio) - Part 56, (Text, Audio) - Part 55, (Text, Audio)
Part 54, (Text, Audio) - Part 53, (Text, Audio) - Part 52, (Text, Audio)
Part 51, (Text, Audio) - Part 50, (Text, Audio) - Part 49, (Text, Audio)
Part 48, (Text, Audio) - Part 47, (Text, Audio) - Part 46, (Text, Audio)
Part 45, (Text, Audio) - Part 44, (Text, Audio) - Part 43, (Text, Audio)
Part 42, (Text, Audio) - Part 41, (Text, Audio) Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)