This is the first page of a novella I wrote called "Fever Dream"
Amit knew the physics of the place
were off, but there was no way they should have survived that crash. The Jeep
had rolled three or four times, he wasn’t sure, and now it was sitting on all
four wheels. Granted, it was apparently stuck in a big pile of rocks, but it
was running, and it shouldn’t be. He wondered if the girls were having better
luck. It was starting to get dark, just that twilight time when the sky is a
pale purple-blue just after the sun sets, and Jordy hit the overhead light to
check out the inside of the car. Amit looked out the window and there was
something weird about the landscape. Well, weirder than usual. He couldn’t
place it until he switched focus to his own vague, transparent reflection. Or
rather, the reflection that should have been his own. He was looking into the
reflection and instead of seeing a transparent version of himself returning his
gaze with Jordy in the background, there were the girls. A transparent Shay was
in the passenger seat and Kelly was further back, behind a spectral steering
wheel.
“Damn,” Amit said. He shook his
head, trying to clear the fog that had settled over his mind, “something weird
is happening again.”
“No shit,” said Jordy, “what gave
it away, this mountain that appeared out of nowhere or the road that turned
into quicksand fifty yards back?”
“No,” said Amit, “I mean something
new. Do you remember when we split up with the girls?”
“Bro, that was like half an hour
ago.”
“But do you remember?”
“Sure, we were deciding whether or
not to split up,” Jordy’s brow knitted and eyes narrowed, “and we… decided not
to…”
“Right,” said Amit, “I think we
should get out.”
“You want to go out there?” asked
Jordy, incredulous, “We don’t know if those... those big dog things are still
out there!”
“They’re wolves.” Said Amit in
a flat voice, “Just call them what they are. It doesn’t matter, though,” and he
started cranking the manual window.
“Wait!” said Jordy, but Amit was
already climbing out the window.
Jordy looked out his own window,
and saw the strange red desert that they hadn’t been driving through until a
split second before the crash. He sighed and rolled his eyes. This place was
getting ridiculous. He turned back toward the passenger seat to shout out to
Amit, but instead he saw Shay sitting in the passenger seat, looking a bit
excited.
“Whoa,” he said, “when did you get
here?”
She looked at him, not his eyes but
a spot just a bit below and to the right. She was mouthing something with
enthusiasm, and pointing out the window toward Amit, but there was no sound and
he couldn’t make out what she was mouthing.
“Just get out of the car!” he heard
Amit say through the open window.
No comments:
Post a Comment