my chest and tried to calm my breathing. This isn't real, I thought, I am just confused. It’s all in my head, I’m dreaming. I leaned down out of the chair and ran my hand along the ground. I found dirt and wet grass. The dirt stuck under my fingernails. The grime under my nails felt like it was moving, like thousands of microscopic mealworms turning little pinwheels in the tight spot under my nails.
This is just a really bad one, I thought. The moon was shining in the cloudless sky, casting a dull light all over the trees, rocks and earth. There was no sound. No sound of a wooded area sleeping. No crickets or sounds of traffic passing on distant roads. The woods stood in unnerving silence that I pushed my fingers into my ears to avoid.
I looked around for a road or interstate. I stayed seated in the chair and craned my neck to see if there were any cars nearby or a slab of concrete for them to drive on. Nothing greeted my gaze but the darkness beyond the trees, as if this place had dropped off the edge of the world. Slowly I stood out of my chair and stretched to see if there were any clues to where I was. There was no ground, no buildings, nothing, just darkness beyond the tree line.
I tried to sit back down but the chair was gone. Now there was just me in this thatch of woods and no indication as to where I was or how I could leave.
I am not where or when, I thought, I am just confused and I need to convince myself of my reality. I am in the traffic center in Silver Spring. All of this is fake, I am just confused.
I was petrified. Everything felt so real. I couldn’t snap out of it and I wanted nothing more than to do that right now.
I whirled around, now something else was out there in the treeline. In the distance, I saw the white tractor trailer lying on its side. The contents were spilled out, like a buffalo had been gutted and left its carnage strewn on the ground. It hadn’t been there before. I looked at it for an undetermined length, time and space not passing in any conceivable way. I took a few careful steps toward the great truck. I needed something that would bring me out of this trance, some evidence that would get me back.
A loud sound came from behind. It was a horn, an air horn, and it was the loudest thing I had ever heard in my life.
Beyond the trees, in the empty darkness, a pair of bright headlights turned on, like an animal waking up, but gigantic. The lights themselves had to be ten feet tall.
In the distance, I heard the sound of air brakes. The headlights started getting closer.
When they got into the treeline they illuminated the truck itself. It was the size of a twenty story building, with exhaust stacks that towered even higher. It broke the trees in either direction, snapping them like twigs beneath its tires.
It was coming toward me. I turned and ran. Almost immediately I tripped, collapsing and slapping my nose against a rock. My nose began to bleed. I pushed my palms into the earth and scrambled back to my feet. Behind me the truck gained momentum, the engine sounded like a roar. I heard another terrible blast from the air horn.
At the foot of the truck the contents of the forest were flying in all directions, everything being crushed by the giant machine that was now picking up speed. It was growing bigger somehow as it barreled closer and closer.
I kept trying to run, only to bump into obstacles thrown up in my path. The truck towered in the air, bathing the woods in yellow light, and continued to clear any living thing in its path. The truck hit another gear and now was coming impossibly fast. I ran even though there was no use, it was pure instinct. Like an ant doomed to be stepped on by a cruel child. The truck was now almost on top of me.
A tree snapped in half and it came collapsing to the ground. It smacked me as I ran and my leg was pinned. I screamed as the pressure from the truck forced the branch of the tree though my thigh. My
This is just a really bad one, I thought. The moon was shining in the cloudless sky, casting a dull light all over the trees, rocks and earth. There was no sound. No sound of a wooded area sleeping. No crickets or sounds of traffic passing on distant roads. The woods stood in unnerving silence that I pushed my fingers into my ears to avoid.
I looked around for a road or interstate. I stayed seated in the chair and craned my neck to see if there were any cars nearby or a slab of concrete for them to drive on. Nothing greeted my gaze but the darkness beyond the trees, as if this place had dropped off the edge of the world. Slowly I stood out of my chair and stretched to see if there were any clues to where I was. There was no ground, no buildings, nothing, just darkness beyond the tree line.
I tried to sit back down but the chair was gone. Now there was just me in this thatch of woods and no indication as to where I was or how I could leave.
I am not where or when, I thought, I am just confused and I need to convince myself of my reality. I am in the traffic center in Silver Spring. All of this is fake, I am just confused.
I was petrified. Everything felt so real. I couldn’t snap out of it and I wanted nothing more than to do that right now.
I whirled around, now something else was out there in the treeline. In the distance, I saw the white tractor trailer lying on its side. The contents were spilled out, like a buffalo had been gutted and left its carnage strewn on the ground. It hadn’t been there before. I looked at it for an undetermined length, time and space not passing in any conceivable way. I took a few careful steps toward the great truck. I needed something that would bring me out of this trance, some evidence that would get me back.
A loud sound came from behind. It was a horn, an air horn, and it was the loudest thing I had ever heard in my life.
Beyond the trees, in the empty darkness, a pair of bright headlights turned on, like an animal waking up, but gigantic. The lights themselves had to be ten feet tall.
In the distance, I heard the sound of air brakes. The headlights started getting closer.
When they got into the treeline they illuminated the truck itself. It was the size of a twenty story building, with exhaust stacks that towered even higher. It broke the trees in either direction, snapping them like twigs beneath its tires.
It was coming toward me. I turned and ran. Almost immediately I tripped, collapsing and slapping my nose against a rock. My nose began to bleed. I pushed my palms into the earth and scrambled back to my feet. Behind me the truck gained momentum, the engine sounded like a roar. I heard another terrible blast from the air horn.
At the foot of the truck the contents of the forest were flying in all directions, everything being crushed by the giant machine that was now picking up speed. It was growing bigger somehow as it barreled closer and closer.
I kept trying to run, only to bump into obstacles thrown up in my path. The truck towered in the air, bathing the woods in yellow light, and continued to clear any living thing in its path. The truck hit another gear and now was coming impossibly fast. I ran even though there was no use, it was pure instinct. Like an ant doomed to be stepped on by a cruel child. The truck was now almost on top of me.
A tree snapped in half and it came collapsing to the ground. It smacked me as I ran and my leg was pinned. I screamed as the pressure from the truck forced the branch of the tree though my thigh. My
Similar Books
