An Original: Part II - Pit Stop

...continued from Part I - The Drive: https://steemit.com/fiction/@azurejasper/an-original-part-i-the-drive

Slowing down to find a good place to pull over would have been the thing to do. Out of the way of the road, out of sight of anyone passing by.

Only he didn’t care for slowing down. Nor for finding a good place to hide the vehicle. He came to rest right on the shoulder of the road. The car skidding to a halt in the shifting red monsters of the soft dusty sands that now haunt his speeding mind.

Motionless, in a cloud of red dust. A dust so fine it permeated everything. He hadn’t realised that while flying along the long straight desert highway that a not so thin layer of powder like dust had settled over everything in the car. He sat in the glowing light of the rising sun, suspended in a cloud of red powdery dust. All he could see was the glow of the morning rays of light diffused through the gravity defying cloud of dust his car had thrown into the air. At least this shielded his burning eyes from the direct rays of sunlight. He took a deep drink from the bottle tucked in the drivers side door well, and appreciated the red dust all over the bottle. Not just where you’d expect to see dust settle, but everywhere. It had totally coated the entire bottle. His grip left a perfect outline of his hand on the sides of the bottle. The sides. The steering wheel was also covered, except for the hand grips he’d left at 10 & 2. The thick layer that covered the dashboard looked like it had grown there, like some mini terraforming event had taken place.

Petrol. Petrol was his first thought. Not sleep. Not food. “Petrol” he said aloud, as if to remind himself he still existed.

Stepping out of the car his footprints threw up a new cloud of red dust that followed him around the car to the boot. As he fumbled with the key in the lock, a sudden sickening feeling washed over him. Like he’d forgotten something really important. Panic… amphetamines. He stilled himself by thinking this out loud. It must be too many amphetamine pills. Paranoia from too many amphetamines. That must be it. He took a long look at the palms of his hands. Were they tumbling, or was the light playing tricks on him? Was it his brain, aching from lack of sleep & stress.

With slow hands he fumbled the keys and they landed in the damned red dust.

“Powder. It’s more like powdered talc than dirt” he told himself as he scooped up the keys & tried the lock again.

His hands were shaking. So much so that the keys were rat-tat-tatting against the duco of the car, as he attempted to slide the key into the lock.

Finally… “Click” was the sound of the latch of the boot unlocking.

“Whoosh” was the sound of the boot as it flung open, upwards.

“Crack” was the last thing he heard as the boot connected with his jaw.

“Stars” went the blinding daylight as the fell into the dusty earth in the middle of the desert, halfway between Hell & nowhere.

End part two

This is an original work of fiction, imagined & written by myself