Road to Nowhere

Road to the Afterlife

I crawled away from the car before it exploded. For a moment, the sky turned orange. After that there was only silence. I rested my head on the moist ground. I was just too tired to get up and continue. My car had crashed anyway, so I was stuck here. I turned over on my back. I stared at the dark clouds that were passing.

I asked myself thousand of questions, but there was one question I was stuck on: who pulled my arm. I slowly lifted my arm. There was still a mark. Four fingers were printed on one side and one was printed on the opposite side.

I got up and looked around me. Where was I? I stood up and walked around and concluded.

I wasn't the only one who ever came here. Everywhere I looked were corpses of crashed cars. Only a few of them weren't totally crashed. I decided to take a look at them. Dead leaves screamed when I stepped on them, but I didn't listen. I walked up to the car that was the closest to me. The howling of the wind made everything creepier than it already was.

I got on my knees to look through the broken window, since the car was upside down. That was when my eyes met hers. She was staring at me in fear. Her eyes were wide open, but she couldn't see. She was about to scream, but she didn't have a voice. The blood on her face already dried, the wound was on her crooked neck. Her black hair was hanging down, on the roof of the car. It was just like she was paused. She wanted to scream, but before she could, she already died.

My attention went to her right arm. Four marks, just like the marks that were on my arm. Her hair started waving softly on the wind. It was time to look away, but my eyes were too focussed. It was like I couldn't move anymore, and worse: it was like I was enjoying this. It was like she wanted to tell me how she died, in how much pain she was before the last breath left her body.

Suddenly I looked away and stood up. It felt like it wasn't me who did that. It felt like I was controlled by someone or something. I walked over to the next car, passing exploded ones. I recognised a burned corpse in one of the totally crashed cars. It was in the front seat. When I looked at the back seats I saw a small corpse, one of a baby, and one of a toddler. While I looked at them I could hear their screams and their crying. It was horrifying to look at.

I arrived at the next car that wasn't completely crashed. It was still standing up. I looked through the windows, but there was no one on the front seats nor the back seats. I walked around the car and I noticed the trunk was open, slightly. My curiosity was bigger than my fear, so I opened the trunk and that was a mistake. I fell to the ground from surprise. A corpse of an old man was laying in the trunk, his chest was split open. The axe was still laying next to him, covered in dried blood. I got up and looked one more time at the man. His whole chest was ripped open. All kinds of insects were crawling in and out of the wound, eating the flesh. I saw an empty spot in his chest: the heart was ripped out. What a tragic death.

Suddenly I heard a noise from the bushes a few feet away from me.

'Who is there?' I yelled.

I knew it couldn't have been the wind, even if the wind was pretty strong. I overcome my fears and slowly walk to the bushed. I took a deep breath, before I pushed a few branches aside.

No, this was too much. I turned around and threw up. I couldn't see any corpses any longer.

What I saw was a child, maybe ten years old. Parts of her limbs were torn off and flesh was ripped off her bones, like someone or something was eating it.

Suddenly a thought came to my mind: I need to get out of here. For a moment I thought I was stupid because this was the first time I was thinking about running away. I remembered the town I saw, before I crashed into the valley. I somehow needed to get there, even if I didn't have a clue where I should go. I looked up and saw the road, meters above me.

'It's a wonder I'm still alive. It was quite a fall,' I said to myself. Talking to myself was the only way to keep me a little sane.

'I just need to follow the road. That way I'll reach the town without getting lost.'

I started to follow the road, even if I was meters below it. It was hard to find my way, since bushed, dead trees and crashed cars blocked my way. The graveyard was much larger than I thought. Thousands of people must have died here. I hope their souls may rest in peace, otherwise I'm in big trouble now.

I continued walking in a slow pace. I didn't want to make any noise; in case I disturbed some animal or creature. I knew it wouldn't make sense; they probably smelled my blood already. If I stayed here any longer, I'm already dead when I'm still alive.

After a while I finally passed the last car. I looked up to check if I was still following the road. I still was, fortunately. Or unfortunately; I didn't want to be here in the first place. It would be nice if I just woke up in my own bed, realizing it was a dream and that nothing was wrong, but the pain on the -side and inside my head convinced me this wasn't a dream.

I looked at the ground and saw I was walking on a small path. It was probably used by animals only. There also were some small pools of mud next to the path. That was probably rainwater. At least, I hoped it wasn't blood.

A scream. Loud, but hollow and lifeless.

I fell to the ground, because of fear. It was the same scream I heard before I cut my head open with a window breaker. It was close this time.

I didn't hesitate and hid under some bushes. But, fuck, it could probably smell my blood. I could barely see, so I felt around with my hands and yes, fortunately it was here: a pool of mud. I lay my head in it, that way that my wound would be in the mud. If I'm right the smell of blood wouldn't be so strong, or it would be totally gone.

I didn't dare to move nor breathe, while I heard the creature moving closer. It was walking the same path as me. It was probably following me.

I could hear my own heartbeat. It was moving closer and closer. It felt like my heart was gonna explode. I slowly breathe out and it. And I hold my breath for a while. The creature was close now.

One heartbeat. One step. One heartbeat, one step closer. Two heartbeats, two steps closer.

One heartbeat. Only one more step and it would be in front of me.

One heartbeat.

Silence.