Highway to Hell

3-First Encounter

Aden was awoken early next morning; still groggy from sleep he couldn’t tell what it was that disturbed his slumber. The sun hadn’t risen yet, casting the cloudy sky in a gray glow that dimly lit the road ahead. There was a thin fog, only affecting vision a great distance away.
Taking a deep breath, Aden reached up to rub his eyes. He was interrupted when what awoke him was repeated; the van took a weak vibration, as if something was pushing on its side. He’d hesitate before leaning forward and turning to see everyone else, they were all still asleep.
Looking to the back of the van, Aden was able to see what was making it shake and move. There was something behind the back seat, where Felix and Connor were sleeping. He couldn’t tell what, but it looked big.
Reaching over he gave Jaina’s arm a light shake, not taking his eyes off of the back. She groaned softly as the stirring awoke her. Opening her eyes she looked to Aden a little confused.
“What?” she said lowly.
He shushed her, but it was already too late. Whatever it was, heard her. Seeing him staring back so intently Jaina followed his gaze, just in time to see the clawed hand reach up and grasp the back of the seat. It was followed by a second, and then a snarling shark-like head.
Jaina and Aden both gasped, remaining frozen in place. When Aden spoke it was barely above a whisper.
“Wake up. Come on, get up,” he said back to the others.
It wasn’t until the creature gave a low growl and shifted his lower body, causing the van to rock again, that the others woke up. Sera and Adrianna didn’t notice at first, but Felix and Connor did.
Felix gasped and scurried to the front with Sera and Adrianna. Connor cried out, he wouldn’t have been able to make it around the other seat in time. Instead he went to the floor and tried to fit under the seat that Sera and Adrianna were on. He was only able to get halfway through, something was blocking his way, not to mention how tight a squeeze it was.
The snarling creature lurched forward, reaching a clawed hand down towards Connor. It missed him by mere inches, not willing to crawl further over the seat to get to him.
With all the commotion Sera and Adrianna both turned, and screamed. The creature lifted its head, aiming its beady black eyes at the two girls. It growled again before redirecting its attention back to Connor.
“Get out of the van, run!” Aden shouted as he grasped at the handle of the door beside him. Lifting it and pushing on the door revealed it to be jammed, refusing to budge.
Jaina made it out of her door, Felix, Sera, and Adrianna made it through the sliding door at the side of the van. Connor and Aden were still stuck inside.
Aden began ramming the door with his shoulder, but only succeeded in rocking the van more than the creature already was. Looking up again, the creature rested its eyes on Aden. Apparently figuring him to be an easier catch, it abandoned Connor and led led over the seat towards Aden.
Aden became frantic, hitting the door harder as the creature grew nearer. It was now standing with its back paws on the top of the middle seat, and one of its front paws on the back of Aden’s seat while the other reached around for him.
Jaina and the others kept a distance away from the van, moving in front of it and shouting at Aden and Connor to get out. While the creature was busy with Aden, Connor slipped out from under the seat and exited through the side door of the van, joining the others just as Jaina left, running to Aden’s door. She grasped the handle and pulled, trying to help him open it. With each passing second the creature drew nearer and nearer to him.
Jaina then blinked, realizing what the problem was. “Aden, unlock the door.”
Aden would’ve laughed if he wasn’t in this current situation. In his panic he didn’t notice the door was locked. Finding the rod that locked and unlocked the door, he pulled it up. The door swung open with ease, allowing him to stumble out right as the creature’s claws slashed through the seat where his neck was.
Aggravated with his escape, the creature growled and rounded the seat still in pursuit. It was about to lunge forward at Jaina when Aden slammed the door shut on the things neck, trapping it.
It took all of Aden’s strength to keep the door clamped down on the creature, along with Felix’s as he ran up along side Aden to help. Instead of growling and snarling the creature made a series of agitated grunts. Its left paw was pushing on the inside of the van trying to free itself, and the other reached for Felix. The van’s window was in the way; the creature only realizing it was there when it felt it. It pushed harder, sending cracks outward from its palm.
The window shattered, and Felix had to jump back to avoid being slashed by the thing’s claws. Aden strained with the effort of keeping the door closed, his shoes sliding along the pavement as he began losing ground.
Jaina didn’t know what to do; she couldn’t get close enough without the thing swinging at her. Looking around her eyes fell over the broken glass beside Aden. Quickly she stooped down and grasped the longest, thinnest piece. It was wide enough at the top for her to grasp with both hands, and the point was long and thin. When she stood she pulled back to gain as much momentum as possible before swinging forward, hitting her mark with precision. The point of the glass shard pierced the creature’s eye and continued into its head. The point had to have reached about midway through its brain when the glass became too wide to fit through its eye socket.
It let out a horrific screech, quivering instead of struggling. Jaina released the glass and stepped back, as did Aden. The creature continued to writhe and squeal, blood pouring from the hole where its eye once was, coating the glass and dripping down to the pavement and the side of the van. Finally, with one last twitch, it became silent and still. It’s sides no longer expanded and withdrew as it took breaths; it was dead.
Aden took a step back, and then fell back to a sitting position on the side of the road. His legs were bent in front of him, and he brought his hands up to comb back through his hair. His heart was racing.
“What the hell was that thing?” Connor shouted.
Sera was once again frantic, trembling with tears running down her cheeks. “I told you, I told you! I didn’t want to stay here, I didn’t. We shouldn’t have stayed here.”
“It’s all right Sera, calm down. No one was hurt,” said Jaina trying to comfort her.
“No! What’s going on? The cars, that monster… I just wanna go home. I just wanna go home…” she was crying harder now, and sunk down into a squatting position.
Connor put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Hey, we all feel the same way. None of us has any idea what’s going on, but as soon as we find someone we’ll be able to get help, so we need to get going.” He extended his hand down to her, “come on, I don’t want to wait around and see if there are any more of those things around.”
Hearing that was all Sera needed to get her going. She definitely didn’t want to encounter any more of those things in her lifetime. She took Connor’s hand and stood, folding her arms and staring at the dead creature hung halfway out of the van door.
Jaina helped Aden up, who was still a little shaky, and the six of them were on their way again.
As the day went on the light fog dissipated, but the thick gray clouds remained high in the sky to block out the sunlight. Only the gray glow of a rainy day shone through.
After walking for a few hours they encountered another abandoned car, a little damaged and looking like it had been there for years. A short distance later they saw another, and another, and yet another. It got so they couldn’t walk ten feet without encountering an abandoned vehicle. Some completely empty, most with skeletons scattered in positions of death throughout them. Eventually the cars filled the highway only feet apart, trapped forever in a traffic jam. They were all facing the same way, the way Aden and the others were walking; no matter what lane they took.
A few had their doors open with skeletons hanging out of them, as if trying to escape only to die in the process. The creature they’d encountered that morning couldn’t have done this.
“My god… what happened here?” Adrianna asked.
They walked down the middle of the highway, between the cars. Occasionally they had to step over something in their path, or walk around a skeleton lying on the pavement.
It was a terribly saddening site, all of these bones that were once people, all people who died in what looked like a chilling death.