“Yeah, I saw him go that way,” the gas station attendant explained to Traveller in a calm, empathetic voice as he pointed north (the direction they had been heading before stopping here). “Are you sure you don’t want me to call the cops?”
Traveller nodded. “No need.” He thought for a moment. “What’s in that direction?”
“Nothin’ much really.”
“Are there any towns?”
“It’s a bit away, but there’s a small town in that direction. Severn.”
“Are there any mechanics in Severn?”
“Sure, why?”
Traveller nodded and turned, walking out of the store.
“Wait, mister, you’re not planning on walking there, are you? Let me at least call you a cab.”
“No can do. My money was in that car.”
“You can’t walk to Severn though, mister.”
He stopped walking. He was intrigued now. “Why’s that?”
“Unless you wanna take the long way around, you’re gonna have to cross through Foxmead about an hour north of here.”
“And what’s wrong with Foxmead?”
“That place is a ghost town. It’s been abandoned for years.”
“I don’t believe in ghosts.”
“But you should believe in the fuckin’ hobos that have taken to living out there. We all know to steer clear of there, especially when walking alone.”
“Well… if that’s the quickest way there…”
The glass doors slid apart, making way for Traveller as he walked back out into the summer heat.
Rose was jolted awake by a pat on her back as Traveller passed.
“Come on,” he called back to her, seemingly without emotion.
It still took Rose another moment of shock to regain complete control of her body and follow, picking up the plastic bag of drinks and snacks.
Traveller pushed forward. His mind raced to convince himself that his effort wouldn’t be in vain—that this was anything more than what it was: a gamble. He must be trying to sell the car as soon as possible. There’s no way he could know that I wouldn’t have called the cops. He must be assuming that cops are looking for him right now. There’s no way he won’t be trying to sell and unload that car as soon as possible.
Ash knew enough about the general geography of the area to find his way to Severn in about twenty minutes. Severn had been small enough that he found the local garage in about a minute.
Parking the car outside of the garage, he stood from the vehicle and stretched his back up to the heavens.
Letting out a breath, he let both of his hands casually hang in the pockets of his thick winter jacket as he wandered into the garage.
The mechanic, who had been idly doodling cartoonish cars with anthropomorphic, human eyes, looked up from his greasy sheet of scrap paper at the ding of the front door’s bell. Ash’s movement seemed to be motivated by little more than the calm wind, entering through the door. The mechanic scrambled to hide the doodle under the desk before Ash got close enough to see. “What can I do for you?”
“I’ve got a car burning a hole in my pocket and I heard this is the place to hand it off.”
The mechanic straightened his back, immediately understanding. “How hot?”
“Just picked it up twenty minutes south, so pretty hot.”
The mechanic walked briskly around the desk, into the garage. “Bring her in then. Let’s take a look out of the sunlight.”
Ash was blown back outside by the wind, in time to watch the mechanical garage door ascend open. After the short moment it took for the engine to turn back on, the car coasted into the building.
The mechanic watched with disbelief. In a daze, he shut the door behind the car. They were isolated from the outside world again.
“Where did you say you got this car?” the mechanic asked as Ash rose from the car.
Ash shrugged. “Does it matter?”
The mechanic gulped. “Alright. It might take me a while to give a proper assessment, so if you want to wait by the desk, we’ve got some complementary coffee.”
Ash rubbed his hair through his beanie. “Ehh, I’m not much of a coffee guy.” He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He lifted one to his mouth as he idly wandered towards the front door. He swayed out of the way of the large, metal toolbox on the ground, just barely avoiding stubbing his toe. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
The mechanic remained in place, tensely watching as Ash made his way out the door. He watched through the foggy windows of the garage door as Ash leaned against the wall and finally lit the cigarette.
In a panic, he pulled out his cellphone and called one of his contacts.
After a few rings, the person on the other end picked up the phone. He spoke before the person on the other end of the call could even say anything. “You won’t believe what just arrived in my garage…”
Although the entire trek here had only been within the eerily quiet isolation of the surrounding trees, it was sparce homes in the distance that sent cold shivers down the back of Traveller’s neck.
Rose sensed this in him as they got closer. “What’s wrong?”
Traveller shook his head as calmly as he could, but he had been unable to speak.
They reached the intersection where the homes began. All run down, many missing portions of walls, they all seemed to be partially swallowed by the same trees that had accompanied Traveller and Rose along the walk from the gas station. The only vehicle in sight had been a pickup truck, completely covered in a layer of crispy, brown rust.
Even though they couldn’t see anyone, they could quite clearly hear the sounds of rustling steps surrounding them.
Traveller held his arm out in front of Rose’s path. She nervously searched around, likely coming to the same realization as he was: it was already too late to run. They were completely surrounded by the rustling.
One by one, the figures emerged from the foliage. They were each dressed in the kind of clothes that likely hadn’t been washed since the winter. Mostly men and mostly past middle-age, they shuffled towards Traveller and Rose.
Rose pressed up closer to Traveller.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Traveller finally spoke. “We’re looking for a car that might’ve passed through here. White Cadillac. Anybody seen it?”
They stopped their approach. One of the vagrants, a man with a red nose and grey beard who was well past middle-age, spoke up from the pack. “Maybe we have. Why would we tell you?”
“Because all the money I have in the world was in that car and if you help direct me in the right direction, maybe I’ll come back and share some of it.”
Rose turned to him with shock. All his money in the world?
The old man perked up and hastily scurried towards Traveller with his palms in front of him like a nervous bellhop. “Well in that case, yeah. He was headed that way.”
“To Severn…”
“Yeah. Could be.” He jovially rested his arm on Traveller’s shoulder, as if the man he’d met less than a minute earlier had been a lifelong friend. “So? How’d he do it? Steal your keys? Break your window?”
Traveller shrugged. “He was a hitchhiker. He probably hotwired it.”
“Wait...” He put a minimum effort into concealing a laugh starting to form. “You’re telling me you picked up a hitchhiker, then left him alone with your car?”
He let the shame of how stupid it all sounded settle for a moment before reluctantly nodding, giving the vagrant the satisfaction he had been waiting for.
There was no holding back now. He held at his stomach and crouched over, letting the howling laughter pour out of him.
The other vagrants peered out of their homes, confused.
“He picked up a hitchhiker!” the vagrant announced with a continuous laugh. “And left him alone with his car!”
The others all joined, in a choir of mocking laughter.
Rose turned away from Traveller, red faced, storming back in the direction they came.
Traveller followed, and caught up with her a little ways down the road; far enough that the vagrants couldn’t hear their conversation, but still close enough for the two of them to hear the laughter.
“What’s wrong?” Traveller asked, already knowing the answer.
Rose shook her head, unwilling to speak.
He let his hand rest warmly on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he repeated.
She let out a sigh. “They’re right. It was a dumb idea to help.”
“No. You were right. That kid may have stollen my car in the end, but he was a wanderer like us. What kind of people would we be if we didn’t help each other out?”
That seemed to be enough to at least calm Rose’s outer anxieties.
“Now, us both leaving him alone was definitely a dumb move.”
Rose accidentally snorted a giggle. When she looked back up, she found her gaze drawn to the trail of tow truck, approaching from the distance behind Traveller; even though they had still been too far for her to see any company logo or title, she immediately recognized that shade of rusted red.
Gripping onto Traveller’s wrist, she pulled him off the road, into the shrouded cover of the surrounding trees.
Traveller knew better than to ask what she was doing. He remained quiet, and observed.
Although they passed too quickly for them to actually understand the blur that the logo and words on the sides of the trucks became, he too recognized that color scheme. Those were Hook’s trucks. The same company Ron drove for.
Rose had been expecting them to stop, so watching them continue past at the same speed gave her some relief.
“What the hell are those guys doing out here?” Traveller thought aloud.
The lightbulb in Rose’s mind turned on. She sped past Traveller, back towards the old vagrant, who was caught off guard by the sudden burst of energy that took hold of this assumedly quiet girl. “Does that truck still drive?” she asked, pointing towards the rusted remains of the pickup truck.
“Depends on the weather.”
With a confused squint, she repeated. “Depends on the wea—never mind. Is it yours?”
“Yeah.”
Rose hopped onto the flatbed of the truck. “Follow those tow trucks.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Did you already forget about his whole ‘all the money I have in the world’ thing?”
That had been enough to convince him. He got behind the driver’s seat. The engine coughed up grime and rumbled awake.
“What are you doing?” Traveller asked.
“They don’t usually come out here. The fact that they’re here means something happened. They found your car. If we follow them, they’ll take us right to it.”
“And Ash…”
Traveller’s fist tightened, just a bit.
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