The Hills [ S.R. ]

chapter 1

You open your eyes. You notice you're sprawled out in the middle of the road absolutely confused as to how you got there. The last thing you remember is leaving the graveyard shift at the diner you work at. Head pounding you instantly rub your temples with your fingers, before looking down to see you're still wearing your uniform; red dress with white accents and an apron. But something seems off. That's when you notice the soil stains on your clothes and scratches on your arms. Along with that, you wince at the relentless aches in your joints. You brace yourself before pushing yourself up and you look around, face contorted in pain from the feeling in your neck as your head turned. It seems to be some sort of freeway; one lane going in each direction. There's pine trees all around and the fog rolls in. For the most part it's calm, a little humid, but completely unrecognizable. You make the decision to just start walking, despite the extremely uncomfortable feeling in your hip. Surely anywhere else would be better than where you were. After your first step you notice your black heels are gone. You continue walking barefoot on the rough asphalt. You look at your watch on your left wrist but you can't tell the time due to the huge crack in its glass; noticing that it wasn't ticking anymore. Really, all you could hear was the wind in the trees. For a moment you stop to listen because it's as if they're whispering something to you. You close your eyes and try to focus on their message. Just as you reach a state of calm after the confusion it's abruptly interrupted.

You couldn't help but slightly shake when you heard a twig snap a few yards behind you. As you snap your head in that direction, you think to yourself, maybe it's just a deer; searching for food. You reminisce about the movie Bambi; one of your favorite movies growing up. You quickly turn to the left to the sound of a branch disconnecting from its trunk and falling to the leaf covered ground that makes you jump. As the paranoia sets in, you decide to throw the pain you feel on the back burner of your mind and start running. For a moment it's like you can hear faint footsteps behind you. 

Suddenly, they're loud, as if the person making them is wearing heavy work boots and they aren't far behind. You don't stop to turn around. Your instincts are telling you to push on; no matter how much your feet hurt from the little rocks jabbing into you with every step you take. After running for what felt like hours, the sky starts to darken and you come upon an abandoned red pick up truck. You look around and find the keys on top of the front right tire.

What a weird place to keep your keys.

You slowly pick them up; as to not make any noise and alert whatever was chasing you. You insert the key into the door and quietly allow yourself to board the vehicle. At first, you're skeptical as to whether or not there's even gas in its tank; especially due to the dust that's collected on the windshield and hood. You close your eyes, take a deep breath, and shove the keys into the ignition. All you can do at this point is hope it has 1/2 a tank, otherwise the extra noise of the engine sputtering would give your location away. After a few false starts and whispered prayers, the engine roared to life. Immediately, you check how much gas is in the tank. You release a sigh of relief after seeing there's a little over 3/4 of the tank full. Slowly, you prepare yourself to drive on this road to nowhere.

After driving for 15 minutes you decide to look in your rear view mirrors and think to yourself that maybe you could catch a glimpse of what was chasing you before. Thankfully, nothing is there and you continue on this road. Then, as your eyes meet the front of the road you're surprised with a deer, frozen in fear and looking directly at the headlights of the truck. You steer crazily and successfully avoid it, but it came at a cost. You had been driving at around 50 mph and after what happened with the deer, the pickup slowly came to a halt. You banged the side of the steering wheel with your right hand filled with confusion, fear, and frustration. It seemed the tank was out of gas.