The Link

Chapter 1 - Sam

I needed God. It was hypocritical of me since I never believed. I couldn't fathom his existence, so I ignored the issue altogether in the past. If God wished me to know of him, he would have simply stopped by and said hello. The lack of an introduction meant God didn't exist, or he didn't give a shit. To me, clergy were no different than used car salesmen promising an eternity of maintenance free driving.

More blood seeped through my fingers. God would be handy right now. The wound was probably deep. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it should. That was disconcerting. I tried to reach across my body to open the car door. My twisting torso hurt more than I thought it should. That was disconcerting as well.

My car had spun laterally in the collision. The SUV that struck mine overturned and rolled into a wire fence that separated the desert proper from the pavement. It steadied after rocking on its hood a few times. I pushed the bloody airbag back and spat some of the powdery residue from my mouth. The pink mist I created frightened me. I licked my finger, and it came back bright red. Most disconcerting. I was likely dying.

My head fell back against the broken headrest. I slowed my breathing and tried to feel how damaged my insides were. I reevaluated my need of God. I actually needed him not to exist. For if he did, I was screwed. Hell would have been devising my eternity with relish. As a human being, I sucked. I coughed up some blood that was blocking the back of my throat and wondered if it was possible to drown in my own fluids.

I groaned as I forced my free hand across my body and pulled on the door handle. I heard the mechanism pop, but the bent up door refused to move. I almost laughed, maybe my hell had already begun. I pushed with my shoulder, causing a sharp pain to emanate from the hole in my side. More blood. I wasn't sure how much more was in my body. My hand wasn't an effective band-aid.

The seatbelt was still fastened. Here I was killing myself to open the car door, and I hadn't even undone the belt. More wonderful humor to consider as I burned for eternity. I popped the catch and the belt released but refused to suck itself back into its holder. No matter, if I did get out of the car, I wasn't going to get back in. I laid down across the divider and reached for the passenger side door. The handle popped, and the door slowly opened. The hellish Arizona desert heat hit me in the face. I should have spent a few more minutes enjoying what was left of the air conditioning. I sighed, it would be good practice for the afterlife.

My legs pushed, my arm pulled as I slowly extracted myself from the now visibly smaller driver compartment. Future bruises announced themselves loudly as I moved. Things became easier once I had gotten my ass over the divider. I grabbed the hood of my car on instinct, trying to pull myself out. It felt like the coils of a stove. Damn sun. I snapped my hand back and used what leverage I could find on the cooler insides of the car. Slowly, I turned my body and came out legs first.

Standing was less of an effort than I had imagined it would be. I looked down at my side; blood was coating my shirt and covering my hand. It hadn't begun to soak my pants. Maybe I would just die of dehydration instead of bleeding to death. I steadied myself and looked down the road in both directions. Silence, not another moving vehicle in sight, the middle of nowhere. A good road to take if you're transporting ten pounds of pot. A really bad choice if you plan on having an accident.

I pulled out my phone. No service. Seemed right. There was no reason a shit like me deserved a break. I lifted up my shirt to see the wound. More of a gash really, about two inches long and maybe an eighth inch deep at the worst. Nasty, but not as bad as I had first thought. The side view mirror informed me that my bottom teeth had torn into my lower lip. Blood had soaked a bit of my scraggly beard. Again, not as serious as I had first thought. I was pretty confident that I would live long enough to die of thirst.