Deserted Hearts & Lonely Highways

Chapter Four

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Erin slipped her hand off the steering wheel and pressed the scan button on the dashboard, hoping to pick up a radio station. She'd lost signal about three miles back, but that hadn't stopped her from searching. Highway 287 out of Amarillo had been closed near Childress due to flooding, so she had been detoured toward a small town named Shamrock. That had been ten minutes ago, and the rain had picked up significantly. She could barely see and the wipers did little to help, especially since the humidity outside contrasted with the coolness of the car's air conditioner, causing the windows to fog.

"Come on, you limely bastard," Erin swore under her breath as she once again pressed the scan button. Then, she attempted to clear the window with a swipe of her hand, but it didn't help. "Ugh, where the fuck am I?"

Of course nobody answered. She was alone in the car — alone because she had been impatient. Alone in life because she had put work before her husband. Maybe that's why he sought out the comfort of another woman: she had failed him.

Erin slowed the car to a stop as she came to a fork in the road.

Take the right or the left, she wondered as she attempted to peer in both directions, but visibility was lacking.

"Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck," she muttered to herself as she made the decision and turned to the right.

After less than a mile, the road changed from gravel to dirt. Or mud might have been a better description, considering all the rain that had fallen. Erin searched for somewhere to turn around, but the road was barely wide enough for her little Prius, much less anything else, and deep ditches lined both sides of the road. As more and more rain fell, the worse the road got. Erin tightened her grip on the steering wheel, trying to keep the panic from welling inside her. She'd never been afraid to drive, so this was a first. When she and James traveled, she usually drove because he didn't like big cities. Interstates and exchanges scared him, but not her. Never her.

The sound of her cell chiming startled Erin, who quickly glanced at it from where it laid on the passenger seat. Once again, James was calling. While she wasn't keen on talking to him, she hadn't had service for the last hour, so the sound was shocking. Erin sucked on the inside of her lip as she reached for it, once more taking her eyes off the road.

Big mistake.

As Erin looked back at the road, she saw something run across the road. It was huge, easily twice as big as the car she was hidden in. Screaming, she swerved, which had been the wrong thing to do seeing as the car flew off the side of the road, rolled several times in the ditch, and came back upright as it slammed the passenger side against a barbed wire fence.

A groan trickled out of Erin's mouth as she was jostled around the car like a ragdoll, slamming against the door, the middle console, and back and forth. Falling forward, she hit her head on the front windshield, and then fell back against the seat, another cry of pain slipping out of her mouth.

From somewhere on her right, she could still hear the sound of her cell phone ringing, but as her head lobbed to the side, she couldn't see it. Only the sound of Amos Lee's Violin and the rain pounding against the car could be heard.

Tears filled Erin's eyes as she tried to unbuckle her seatbelt, but her hands were trembling too much.

"Calm down, stupid," she cried and fumbled with the button.

Just as she got it undone, lightning brightened the sky and her car door was yanked open. Erin screamed as the shadow of a tall, broad-shouldered man crossed her view. As he reached into the car, she screamed, jerked away, and felt an intense pain in her head just before she passed out.