Into the Unknown

Nancy

Along the highway there's a few cars blocking my way but there's minimum traffic so stress isn't a worry. I continue driving at a reasonable pace, the same as the other vehicles around me, creating as little suspicion as possible. My radio is turned on to the local station when a voice I don't recognize mentions my name, reporting that everyone is searching for me. "Although there is no official APB, Princelan police are asking that if you see a car that matches the description I informed a couple minutes ago, then please contact the Princelan Station. Or if a woman of the name Nancy Howard is found anywhere, please contact an official. Thank you. Now back to today's hits music." Instantly an annoying pop song starts, and angrily I shut off the radio.

"Great, now I have to deal with them. Should've shot Liam while I had the chance." Pressing on the gas, I speed up a little, passing a semi to my left full of sheep, most likely headed for the chopper. "Sounds like where I'll be headed if they catch me. If they get me."

Currently, I am about ten miles from the Deckhart border. As soon as I'm on the other side of that border, there's no way they'll be able to capture me; my safety relies on making it to the border without discovery. There have been no police cars or motorcycles around, since it was the day off for all of those officials. But there's always the chance that there's one or two wandering about near the border. Sometimes a border patrol officer will park along the dividing between Deckhart and the adjoining county, but then again, the chances are extremely low.

The river alongside the highway reflects the sunlight, blinding me every now and then with a flash of unexpected light. Even with my sunglasses on to disguise myself while I'm behind the wheel, the shimmering light is annoying.

I have lost the truck behind my rearview mirror as I'm now at only a couple miles to the border. The humming of the car wheels against the concrete fills the car and I can't hear any other sounds outside of the vehicle. Above me, a flock of birds travel in the opposite direction as me. As if perfectly timed, one of the birds decides to poop and it lands straight in front of me, luckily on the window, but still blocking my vision.

"Oh crap."

Since I'm miles from any car wash or even a gas station, and it's not the best idea to clean the bird poop with my windshield wipers, I leave it where it is as I peak through a slight opening where I can still view the highway.

From my left, where there's bushes and other shrubbery, a doe jumps out into the road. Immediately I slam the breaks, and swerve off the road, hitting the doe on the right side of my bumper. The impact causes me to spin off the road. Seconds pass by in what feel like minutes as things slow and I view everything around me passing by at such a sluggish speed. Having lost control of the car, it's spinning wildly and I can't grip the steering wheel strong enough to stop it. My brakes are jammed and nothing else is working. I'm completely unable to do anything. Unexpectedly, my car dies and I yell something that I can't make out. Then I see the glimmering of a lake in front of me just before the impact of the car diving into the body of water sends me into a panic. The cool liquid starts coming in through the crack of the back windows, soaking the backseat. I start trying to break open the front driver's side window since the car died. Punching doesn't do a thing. I position myself so I can kick the window with my foot. But no matter how much force I use, the window doesn't crack even slightly. From the slits of the back windows, the pressure of the water makes them shatter, flooding the car with water quicker than before. It rises above my neck up to my face within seconds.

Then it dawns on me that I have my Glock. I reach for where it's supposed to be, except it's no longer there. Instead, it's floated somehow to the backseat where I can't reach it. With all the strength I've got left, while my lungs are starving for air, I try all I can to unbuckle my seatbelt, but the lock must have gotten jammed sometime during this dilemma because it doesn't unlock no matter how much emphasis and force I use. Even trying to loosen the belt itself doesn't do anything. Lifting my feet onto the seat, I do my best to slip my legs through the bottom part of the belt but it's too tight. Nothing is working and time is running out quickly. My vision starts to become spotty; oxygen deprived and trapped someplace where I never intended to be has left me sinking down into the bottom of the lake.

Thirty seconds later, I give into the drowning. Cold water begins filling my lungs and my body tries to force it out, coughing though it does virtually nothing other than making the process go faster. A headache is forming and everything around me is moving slowly. I see the air bubbles rising, while I'm sinking farther to the bottom. Gradually my surroundings become darker and every second I lose more light. Pretty soon, there will be nothing left except pitch-darkness.

My body exhausted and unable to breathe any longer, I give into the cold depths of the lake I never knew I drove into. Maybe this is for the best, the way I was supposed to go – quietly, without anybody else knowing.

The last thing I think of before I fall asleep to my death for the first and last time at the bottom of an isolated lake is that Shelby never died like this, quietly, undiscovered.