by catt dahman
Copyright.
catt dahman / J. Ellington Ashton Press
© 1990, 2012, catt dahman
[email protected]
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book, including the cover and photos, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher. All rights reserved.
The characters, places, and events depicted are fictional and do not represent anyone living or dead. This is a work of fiction. The cover depicts the actual Four States Fair held every September in Texarkana, Arkansas.
Photo/cover David Dahman. All rights reserved.
Thank you to my editor.
For Perris Nita Marie. The angels wept.
Note to readers:
This is a separate book from the series I have and a fully different story about Alice and how she survives a nightmare. But if you have read the Z series, then you will have ‘ah-ha’ moments and appreciate how a few clues connect this to that series. This is NOT part of the series per se, unless you are a fan of it; then, it is a vital part that answers some questions.
Alice and Friends
catt dahman
1
Road Kill.
It was unpleasant to be on a deserted road with flat tires at night, but it was worse since her Jeep was almost on top of something dead and rotting. It was chilly, and when she ran the heater, she smelled the rot; when she rolled down the window to have a needed smoke break, she smelled it.
Hell, just sitting there, she smelled it.
She had already gone through her stages: anger when she beat the steering wheel and yelled, tears for self-pity, frustration (more steering wheel pounding), fear with her imagination running wild, and helplessness. Not one of those emotions made her feel any better or helped the situation. Now, she sat and waited for sun-up so she could eliminate a few of the emotions and re-evaluate, but the clock was dragging.
Last freakin’ time I ever drive in Texas alone. Every ten minutes, she checked for a cell phone signal, both looking forward to checking (and another ten minutes gone) and dreading it since she didn’t have a signal. She didn’t toss the phone out the window, so that showed she still had faith it could get a signal.
To either side of where she sat were woods, thick, dark, intimidating; weren’t all woods foreboding at night when one was stuck staring at them? They could hide anything.
The full moon kept the shadows from being total, but it served to illuminate her surroundings, just enough so she could see the impenetrable trees. It was claustrophobic and agoraphobic at the same time. How far did the road wind into nothing? Damn, Texas.
Sitting up straight, she felt her heart race as she saw headlights coming up from behind her. For safety, she knew not to jump out and wave the car down, but if it passed her, she knew she would just scream at it and herself. Just stop, she willed the vehicle, flicking her headlights on and off rapidly.
Gravel crackling, the truck slowed to a stop behind where she was parked. She was glad but felt her body tense; these situations were always dangerous for lone females out late. What kinds of people were out this late on a lonesome road?
The stench crept into her open window, almost gagging her, but she lowered the window as she watched a man, highlighted by his truck headlights, walking towards her. Without thinking, she glanced again to make sure the Jeep was locked.
A smaller figure walked next to the man: a boy. They were close enough now that she could see the clean-cut man in a ball cap, standing with a boy who looked about ten, both smiling nervously at her. Like at a traffic stop, she kept her hands in sight, on the steering wheel. They had to be on edge as well, checking on a total stranger.
“It’s okay…see? It’s a lady who needs some help.” The man visibly relaxed a little as he smiled reassuringly at the boy while his eyes wandered quickly to check her passenger seat and the back seat.
“Having some trouble there, Ma’am?” He laid his hand on the boy’s shoulder, still wary. They didn’t get too close to her door. What a world, when they were all, with good reason, distrustful of one another.
She nodded. “My tires seem to have all gone flat. Well, three did at the same time.” She looked at them nervously. It was very dark, it was late, she was alone, the road was empty and unfamiliar to her, her cell phone could not get a signal, and her tires were flat. Now strangers were right up at her door.
The entire situation made her edgy, yes, but it also frustrated and scared her; she felt vulnerable and more than a little helpless. And she felt pissed off that she felt all the rest. Grow a pair, she told herself.
In a way, she wished the man hadn’t stopped at all. She would rather have daylight on her side.
“Are you okay? Did you get hurt?” the man sounded concerned.
“No,” she shrugged, “Luckily, I am a pretty good driver. I pulled off and have been sitting here for four hours, waiting for some help.”
“Oh, well, this road is pretty empty; if Mike and I hadn’t been coming back from some hunting… well… it’s no telling how long you might have waited. This here is not the main road. What are you doing on it?”
He looked about forty, tall, lean, clean cut, and he wore jeans, boots, and a flannel shirt over a tee; he looked like most of the men she had seen in the rural areas of Texas. He was non-descript, if anything.
“Not the main road?” she thought hard. “It has to be. I didn’t take any turns.” But then, she hadn’t seen any other vehicles in few miles, and the map had been second-rate at best. Damnit to hell. She didn’t know what she had been thinking and how this had happened.
“You must have taken a fork way back there. You’re way off the main.” He smiled again at the boy.
“I guess I did. I am pretty directionally challenged….”
“Now, we are being rude as all get-out. This is Mike, and I am Aaron Carter. I reckon you are a might scared and feeling pretty lost right now, being stuck out here. And oh, boy, does something ever smell nasty.” He and his son both pinched at their noses like mirror images. They were funny.
“Yes, it does. It’s something on the other side of my car. Squished. I didn’t smush it; it’s pretty ripe.”
She hoped they didn’t look, for when she was out of her Jeep, earlier, checking her tires, she had squatted and peed and left the tissue not far from the Jeep. Embarrassing if they knew she had squatted on the side on the road. Still, she had known better than to go off into the dark trees where she might have gotten lost.
“Well, sounds like you are having a string of some bad luck, Ma’am.” Aaron took off his ball cap, smoothed thinning hair, and replaced it as he looked again at the two flats on the driver’s side. He was like most she had met while traveling through this impossible state: friendly and encouraging, down-to-earth, and unpretentious.
“I’m Alice.”
“Well, Miss Alice, if you like, Mike and I can sit in my truck, and we’ll wait for the tow truck to get here so that you feel a bit safer. My wife isn’t expecting us yet, and she’d want us to make a lady feel safe, isn’t that right, Mikey?”
“Yes sir.” Mikey smiled broadly. “Alice is a pretty name, Ma’am.”
Alice smiled back. “Thank you, Mike. That’s a nice thing to say.”
Aaron tilted his head. “Now, Boy, we don’t call ladies by their Christian name unless they ask us to; you know better than that. This lady probably has a husband and children and is a mama like your own mama, and she deserves that
respect.” And polite, she added; Texans were generally polite people.
“Yes, sir, sorry, Ma’am.” Mike grinned at her impishly as he kicked at loose gravel. He was a cute boy as far as she could see in the moonlight and with the truck lights that shown from behind the pair.
“You are welcomed to call me Alice if your daddy doesn’t mind. If I did have a husband and children, I would want them to be just as nice and polite as your daddy and you are.”
“She talks just like my teacher or Mama!” Mike exclaimed with another broad grin at his father.
Alice laughed at the enthusiasm and could see it was a compliment from the boy to compare her speech to his teacher’s. He looked like a bright child and had more manners than 95 percent of her own students; it was refreshing.
“I’m a teacher, too! You are smart to notice I am a teacher.” She laughed. The child was quick-witted and curious.
“I knew you sounded smart!” Mike beamed at her. He is a very cute kid.
She held her cell phone up so they could see it. “I can’t get a signal, so I haven’t been able to call for help.”
“Ah. Yep. We are in that area that doesn’t get a signal.” Aaron looked around thoughtfully, backing up a few steps and surveying the road in both directions, shaking his head in disgust. “ Another few miles back or forwards, and you can get one, but this here is the spot it just cuts out.”
He shook his head ruefully. “You’re a teacher? That is something else, you teaching kids and being so educated. I respect that a lot. A teacher, well that is something else.”
“Yes, I am, elementary.” She blushed, pleased at the compliment.
“I’m very impressed. Kids need good educations.”
“I think so,” Alice said.
Aaron seemed to be thinking it over as he rubbed his forehead. “I am sorry, Alice. When we came over, I was a bit nervous since ya never know when you might find a bad sort, but seeing as you are a lady and a teacher, well, I just feel bad about being so standoffish.” He glanced meaningfully at his son to indicate his reason for protecting them from strangers.
She understood.
“Sometimes you don’t know who you’re talking to until you’re talking.”
She nodded.
Alice reached for her fabric elastic band, pulled her dark hair into a ponytail, and relaxed a little in her seat as she lowered her window more. “Sorry, I was awfully upset over this and seeing you stop…well… even though I have been waiting for help to come along, it is a bit scary out here” She shrugged as she lit a cigarette. “I know what you mean about strangers at night on a dark road.” I do now, anyway.
“I hate you had trouble. I hope we didn’t frighten you.”
“I’m glad you are here,” she meant it now.
“Well, you have no worries with our stopping to help you.” The man nodded. “Most sorts around here are good people like us. We are just as scared of people in cars stranded as you all are of us.” He chuckled.
Alice nodded, understanding. “Thank you for stopping for me.”
“Glad we did. We’re about a half hour from home, and Mikey and I can hurry on and call someone to get out here and help ya. Not sure what places might be open or whom I can get this late, so it’s gonna be a while. This is just a bad time of night to be stuck, not that being stuck is ever fun.”
“It sure isn’t.”
“And your poor ole tires…wow. I sure hope we can get someone out here.”
Alice nodded. She had already thought that was likely to be an issue.
“I’ll get my wife to come back here, and we’ll bring you some sandwiches and a soda? And a blanket so ya don’t get too chilled or have to run your car here. I know she’s gonna have a fit, leaving you here even with food and a blanket, but I can tell you, you’re safe as can be here. No critters gonna bother you, and you see there’s no traffic.”
Somehow she was willing to bet the sandwich would be thick and piled high with goodies, maybe spicy, and she figured there would be a homemade pickle or two included. She could murder a can or two of Coke right now. Yum. She wished he hadn’t even mentioned animals were in the woods. Were there big cats and bears?
“Thank you so much.” She relaxed a little and threw her cigarette butt out the window. Aaron sent his son to fetch a bottle of water from their truck.
Mike ran both ways as if he were hurrying to help her; it made Alice smile again. She was thirsty and decided there might be a pile of tissue by morning. How embarrassing, but she would gather it up and stow it; she was not going to leave sodden tissue out here. Call me a prude.
After giving her the bottle of water, Aaron nodded and patted Mike on the back. “It isn’t the fancy water, but you drink it up, so my wife don’t scold me for letting you go thirsty. Now, gimme an hour for travel, and the Missus will wanna make you that picnic and all, so I’m thinking, let me have an hour and a half, and I will be back before you know it.”
“I appreciate it. The water is fine.” She gulped it. “If you can’t get anyone tonight, can you in the morning?
“Hours more. She tried to not show how let down she felt; she already knew it was going to be a long time before this was all sorted, but still… she knew she would feel terrible when she was left all alone again.
“Yes Ma’am. But you don’t worry any, we’ll be back in no time!” He shrugged. “If Mike were grown, I’d leave him here to keep ya company and all, but…”
Alice smiled, “I understand, and I just appreciate the help.” For a second she had the urge to beg Aaron not to go off and forget to call for help for her, not to forget sandwiches and a soda, and not to leave her all alone here on this road, but she swallowed hard.
Never had she been such a big baby! She had a sense of foreboding, and it had unnerved her in the isolation and dark, with the smells and noises of the woods, and to be honest, she was lost without being able to use her cell phone. It was like being cut off from her world, and while this pair weren’t her world, they did provide human contact and a sense of reassurance. Was she this crazed after only a few hours of no contact and feeling helpless? Unreal. Alice was angry at herself again.
“Ok, now.” Aaron broke off, cocking his head as he looked towards the back of the Jeep. That’s odd….” He took a step in that direction, “What in the hell?” Only he said it as hail. Aaron walked behind the Jeep, head cocked to one side, puzzled, motioning Mike to stay put.
“What is it?” As her heart was speeding up, she tried to see behind the Jeep, but the man was looking down at something she couldn’t see.
“You say you didn’t feel your car hit anything?” he called to her.
“No. My tires just deflated all at once, but there wasn’t a bump or anything. Why? What is it?” She had been going slowly on the shadowy road, gravel thumping at the underbelly of the Jeep, wondering why it was getting more isolated-looking, when everything had started feeling as if it were lurching and soft.
Pulling over, she had jumped out and seen at once that her tires were flat. Standing outside the Jeep, she had smelled the rotted animal, nauseatingly close, felt her full bladder protest as she leaned down to see the tires, and shivered in the chill as she took in the unremitting darkness of the road.
“Blood. Right here. Your Jeep tracked it as if you had run over something.”
Alice felt every muscle tighten, and she thought back a few hours. There had been no bump or anything like it. “No, I know I didn’t feel the car hit anything. I’m sure.” She didn’t add she would have puked if she had hit an animal, knowingly.
Aaron was back, looking perplexed. “Well, it’s blood on your tracks. Maybe a little critter. See, in daylight, blood on a road sometimes doesn’t show so much…looks like dirty patch, but in headlights, it shows better. But it’s a bunch of blood.”
“I don’t understand how that happened.”
“We didn’t even notice it before, too cautious coming up to you. But now, it is clear as day. It may have been
something small, so ya didn’t notice…lemme look.”
Yuk. Had she added more road kill?
He walked back slowly toward his truck, his eyes turned down, scanning the pavement. He was closer to the woods on the same side as she sat now. Stopping there, he tilted his head as Alice and Mike watched, and then went behind the truck, came back, and then squatted to look under the front of his truck.
Aaron jerked back quickly to his feet, motioning them to stay where they were. Was there something she hit under the truck? They saw him get into the truck, move it back a bit, then pull onto the other side to park, and turn the lights off.
“What’s he doing?” Alice couldn’t see very well from where she sat. She wanted to get out, but hesitated; she was really tired from all the driving, stress, and this new anxiety. She also didn’t want to see any dead raccoon, either.
“He has his flashlight now,” Mike told her, “he’s looking at something that was on my side of the truck by the woods. I didn’t see anything, but I was looking at your car.”
“I wonder what’s wrong?”
They watched Aaron shine the light down and then to the side, and finally walk over to the trees. He squatted. He was taking a long time to look over some dead animal, Alice considered. Suddenly, he straightened with an electrified motion, walking quickly to the Jeep, eyes large, and hand shaking the flashlight crazily. “Okay, let’s stay calm.”
Calm? Alice was calm, but Aaron didn’t look very composed. She thought she should be very afraid since Aaron was unnerved, but she felt oddly serene and in control. It was time to stop being so afraid. She was perfectly safe. Rolling the window all the way down, she looked at Aaron steadily and said, “We are calm. What did you find?”
“There‘s a…there’s a man!”
“What? Where?” She didn’t see a man standing anywhere…Oh, my God. It hit her. “On the side of the road?” She tried to look again but could not see that direction very well, and it was too dark.