One week later:
On a dark deserted road just north of Martinsville.
Vicky Meredith was nineteen years old slim with long blonde hair and very attractive. She was on her way from Columbia South Carolina, to Washington DC where she’d landed herself a job as an assistant to the PA of the editor of the Washington Post. Sat next to her in the car and now doing her share of the driving was her closest friend, Jill Gordon.
Jill was also nineteen but two months older than Vicky, and like Vicky she too was very attractive. Her hair which she always kept just past shoulder length was black. The make-up around her eyes was also black, and slightly exaggerated, and her lips were coloured deep purple. All this combined to make Jill’s complexion look paler than it actually was.
Her favourite band, which was why Jill was in the car were playing a gig in Richmond Virginia the following evening. They were “Arch Enemy”. Jill always explained their music to the uninitiated in this way, “If you like it, it’s melodious. If you don’t like it, then you’re probably just too old.” Vicky was okay with it though, Jill was her best friend and that’s what mattered most.
It was the middle of August when the nights were only slightly cooler than the days. The cars broken air conditioning unit didn’t help their situation very much, and for some reason the winder for the driver’s window was stuck fast. Luckily the car was a convertible, or they may have roasted.
So far they’d been on the road for around five hours, three of which were driven in the dark as their plans to leave early were ruined by Vicky’s Brother Nathan. He’d borrowed the car that afternoon but arrived back later than he said he would. Vicky knew it would happen but she’d lent him the car anyway, because she’s like that.
Vicky was curled up on the front passenger seat sleeping after driving for the first four hours. The clock in the dashboard read 1am and the music was playing low for her sake. Jill looked through the car windows trying to see if she recognised the roads they were travelling on, but they all looked the same here, especially as there were no street lights. She really didn’t want to wake Vicky but felt she had little choice. Bringing the car to a slow stop she shook her by the arm.
‘Vicky, Vicky. I think we’re lost.’
‘What?’ she replied trying to unfold herself.
‘I think I may have taken a wrong turn.’ Jill pointed with her black painted thumb nail. ‘Way back there.’
‘How? I mean…’
‘You were asleep; I didn’t want to wake you so—’
‘Well just turn around and go back then.’
‘Yeah, I already tried that, and now we’re even more lost.’
Vicky sat upright and switched on the internal light at the top of the windshield. ‘Okay, let’s see the map.’
Jill took a road map of North Carolina from the side compartment of her door and passed it to Vicky. It was the type of map that looked like a book when you bought it, but would open out as big as a bed sheet when you needed to use it.
‘Okay,’ said Vicky. ‘We left Columbia on I-77 for Greensboro,’ she traced the route with her finger. ‘Then onto the 85, and if we stay on the 85 we go all the way to Richmond, I drop you off and carry on for Washington.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘So why did you come off Jill?’
Jill raised her shoulders. ‘I was bored with the same old road, thought if I came off for a while I could get back on further along.’ She tilted her head slightly. ‘Sorry Vicks.’
‘S’okay, we’ll find our way back.’ Vicky held the map so Jill could see. ‘Right, which road did you take? There’s about, 1-2-3-4-5-6… a dozen here.’
Jill leant in and looked at the map studiously before sitting back again. ‘I’m not sure; it could have been any of those.’
Looking to her right Vicky saw nothing but darkness. Looking through the windshield the headlights lit up about one-hundred yards of the road ahead. No street-lights, no houses, nothing. Nothing but pine trees on both sides of the road. She opened her door to get out.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Jill.
‘Just seeing if I can hear the highway. If I can it means we’re on one of the roads close to it.’
She climbed out closing her door and walked away from the cars engine noise. Jill also got out and followed. She was about to speak when Vicky held up a hand to stop her. ‘Shh! Listen,’ she said.
Jill stood in silence, first looking up the road and then down the road. She whispered. ‘I don’t hear anything,’
Vicky listened some more, even tilting her head to one side in the hope it would improve her hearing. It didn’t. ‘Shit! We could be miles from anywhere.’ She wafted a hand in front of her face in order to cool herself.
‘Like I said Vicks, I’m—’
‘Shush listen…’ again Vicky held up a hand.
Both were now tilting their heads. ‘I hear it,’ whispered Jill frowning. ‘What is it?’
‘I don’t know. Sounds like, “Whoop-whoop”. Vicky paused listening again. ‘There, “Whoop-whoop-whoop” did you hear it then too?’
Jill nodded. She’d also heard it a little louder that time because it was getting closer. ‘You know what that sounds like to me?’ she said.
‘No what?’
‘A pack of blood hounds chasing some escaped convict.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Vicky. ‘This isn’t the 1920’s Jill.’
‘I don’t give a shit; I’m not waiting around here to find out.’ Jill went to the car and opened her door. ‘Well, are you coming?’ she shouted back.
The two of them jumped into Vicky's car and Jill put her foot down hard and fast causing the car to fish-tail along the road. Both of them were now laughing and joking about the blood hounds and the convict on the run.
‘Whoop-whoop, whoop-whoop,’ shouted Jill. ‘A-ha-ha-hah.’ She turned to look at Vicky.
Vicky was between laughs catching her breath when she got the slightest glimpse of someone running across the road in front of the car. She screamed just before the thud sounded, the windshield cracked and Jill slammed on the brakes. Vicky reached for the dash in front of her as the car screeched on the tarmac.
Jill’s head hit the steering wheel when the front left of the car hit a tree finally bringing it to a stop. The engine stalled but the music still played quietly.The car finished side on in the road with both its front wheels buried in the loose dirt.
For the initial few seconds Jill and Vicky stared wide-eyed through the windshield. Both realising something terrible had just happened, and both waiting for the other to say it hadn’t.
