Two
Mitchell had been preparing for this journey for two weeks. He had calculated the supplies for survival with the distance he would henceforth travel. Without the proper preparations and precautions, one could not simply waltz into Headache Valley all willy nilly like a shrimp in the ocean.
He woke up at two in the morning, took a jog, washed up, left his dog with his neighbor Gladice and then filled up the tank with fuel, an extra jury can in the trunk. At 6 a.m., the owner of the only gas station available for the next one thousand and five kilometers stressed on ensuring Mitchell's car was fortified for the entire trip.
"It's fine—I'm telling ya, Jimmy. She's good to go!" Mitchell rubbed his temples, one hand on his waist.
"Are you sure?" Jimmy brushed past Mitchell, juddering at the reinforcements around the car.
"Yes," Mitchell huffed, watching the portly man move around his Station Wagon, holding reinforced bars and trying to pry them off. "I'm losing daylight here."
When they didn't budge, Jimmy sighed. "Okay. You're good to go." He gave Mitchell a playful pat on the arm and walked to the gas station's door. "Be careful out there, Mitch."
"You know me, Jimmy. I'll come back alive." Mitchel opened the door and hopped into the driver's seat, grabbing the key.
Jimmy came running to peer at him through the steel bars. "You better. I want you right back." He patted the door.
"You big baby," Mitchell started the car and slowly drove off.
The other man watched in silence as the reinforced Station Wagon drove off, the calm light of the early morning guiding it.
Mitchell sighed as he drove away. Jimmy was such a worrywart. It's not like it was Mitchell's first trip through Headache Valley. He had crossed this place numerous times since he was a kid. Sure, it was with his parents and he always had headphones and sleeping masks on – but as he got older, he had the privilege of learning to navigate that barren county. All those two thousand and ten kilometers of absolute nothingness.
By 10 a.m., the gas station and Jimmy were a distant memory in the back of the road and Mitchell's mind, only a single car driving in the opposite direction as him. The sun was bright and mildly hot, but it would change when it neared noon. Mitchell was listening to some Elvis Presley, bobbing his head to the music, when along the road, he saw a silhouette. A figure. A person walking along the road.
"What in the world," he narrowed his eyes, thinking maybe the sun was playing tricks on his eyes. But he soon saw the person extending their arm out to hitch a ride.
He stopped at the last moment, passing the person and pulled up to the side of the road several meters ahead. Then he watched the person walking up to his car in the sideview mirror. She walked casually up to his car, the girl in jean bumshorts and a black vest, stopped at the passenger seat window, locking her icy blue eyes with Mitchell's light browns. It was a dark haired, goth-looking woman with a travel backpack.
Mitchell raised his eyebrows. "Can I help you?"
The young woman tilted her head, her eyes circled with black mascara and moved her lips which were coated in black lipstick. "Can I hitch a ride through Headache Valley?" Her voice was low and detached.
Mitchell maintained eye contact for a moment before he felt like she was staring into his soul. "Yeah. Sure." He pushed the door open for her.
"Thanks," she mumbled, threw her pack in the backseat and got into the passenger side.
Mitchell immediately resumed driving, pushing 120 km/h. The girl sat next to him silently, staring out the window while he kept stealing glances at her. He just couldn't get it out of his head that this girl was planning on crossing Headache Valley on foot. All those two thousand plus kilometers of bare dirt and winding road with no station in sight. He, of course, also wondered why she looked so pale.
"It's rude to stare," the woman said, still looking out the reinforced window.
Mitchell blinked, looked back at the road and then glanced at her. "Sorry." He focused on the road.
"Ask me," she turned to him, looking at him with those pale, almost colorless and piercing icy blue eyes of hers.
"Why were you walking?" Mitchell asked, glancing back at her.
She didn't crack an expression when she replied, "I knew that if I was patient enough, a car would eventually pass by me and I'd catch a ride to the other side."
"Hitchhiking through Headache Valley?" Mitchell's voice was filled with disbelief as he looked at her incredulously.
She smirked, a slanting, dry and cocky thing. "Well, you came, didn't you?"
Mitchell bit back all his thousand questions. This woman was either really brave, or really stupid. He watched her turn and face the window again, her pale legs crossed over each other. A few hours passed by in cold silence before Mitchell spoke up again.
"I'm Mitchell." He glanced at her.
She took a moment to reply, rolling down the window and letting the current play with her dark waves. "Baby," she said.
Mitchell raised his eyebrows. "Baby?" He repeated, nodding to himself. "Nice name."
She silently stared out the window, the window blowing through her hair.
"Right—you always ride with your head sticking out the window?" Mitchell asked.
"Yep," she replied.
"Want me to play something?" Mitchell tried, glancing at the pale woman once more.
"'Guess."
He deflated. "You know… it's usually polite to give answers longer than a word long to certain questions. And there's nothing wrong with me trying to make conversation… I'm still stuck on the part where you were trying to cross Headache Valley on foot."
He watched her still form for a moment, trying to gauge her attention before eventually giving up and focusing on the road.
After a moment of silence, Baby moved and sighed. "For the record, I have… no folks on the other side. I stay with my parents back in Willow and for a long time, they've been giving me crap about being a single, stay-at-home, unemployed woman pushing twenty-five. I told them I wanted to move to my non-existent friend on the other side the other day and they gladly packed me up."
Mitchell glance at her, relieved he had gotten through to her, at least.
"About ten kilometers into the drive, they kicked me out of the car, turned back around and left me on the side of the road." Baby continued.
Mitchell snapped his head back at her, his eyes wide.
She added, "You might have passed by them going back along the way. Blue Cadillac CTS." She glanced at Mitchell, not a hint of sorrow visible in her eyes.
Mitchell scoffed in disbelief. "Wow! Matter of fact, I did pass them."
"What's your story?" Baby asked casually, flicking her hair.
"Holy hell, I'm going to a party on the other side." He shrugged sheepishly.
"Oh, really? Whose?" Baby asked, suddenly looking lively, a smile gracing her features, leaning closer.
Mitchell looked back at the road before he made a lazy turn and looked back at her again. "My cousin Grey."
"Yeah?" Baby grinned, her pure white teeth showing.
"He's pushing fifty," Mitchell nodded, the awkwardness of earlier events melting away. "I might just be the youngest Young kin."
Baby lit up. "Your last name's Young?"
"Yeah?"
"Mine too!" Baby cheered.
"Oh, for real?" He chuckled.
"Shit, we might be related." She nudged his arm.
"Related to you, maybe. To your parents, hell no." Mitchell jested and they laughed.
Several hours passed by with the both of them engaging in conversation and overall getting along. Mitchell was a people's person, and Baby was a nice young lady. She piqued his curiosity the more she spoke. He realized they had a lot in common. They both had Presley at the top of their list, they both liked collecting post stamps, they both liked lizards, penguins, carousels and both hated clowns—and she was only six years younger than him; a fact Mitchell kept in his mind to himself.
What would have been a long and considerably quiet drive for Mitchell, ended up being a lively chat between him and the not-so-gothic goth girl. But of course, all good things came to an end. The day came to an end. Mitchell turned off the ignition, turned off the lights and parked the car along the road, preparing for the night as the sun began to dip.
He turned to Baby with a serious look. "Okay. This might not be your first trip across Headache Valley, but just for precaution, there're flashlights in the dashboard, some salt, Holy Water, got a bat in the back, a crowbar and two tasers."
Baby nodded. "I have Holy Water, salt, a dagger and a taser."
"Daggers don't work on the Amber Men," he reminded her. "You gotta break them. Unless you got a real katana to sever their limbs, tasers and blunt force objects are a good way to go."
"That is; if you're unlucky enough to get pulled outside," Baby pointed out.
"Exactly," Mitchell grinned. "See? Good prep."
Baby turned with a big smile, leaning back against the seat, tucking her hair behind her ear. They watched the last of the sunset together before going to sleep.
Hours later, after dark, everything still and deathly quiet, something stirred in the distance. Behind rocks, in the dirt, on the near cliffs, figures moved. It was a faint orange glow, an eye opening to look at the metallic vehicle sitting stationary on the road. A mouth opened, showing teeth made of dirt with veins of ember glowing from it. The first Amber Man stood up, his rocky body decorated with glowing veins of amber; an average height humanoid figure made of cannon rock and something akin to amber. He made his way to the car, dozens more of his kind limping behind him.
They surrounded the Station Wagon, their snuffles and wheezing breaths filling the quiet of the night. They peered in and saw a person in the driver's seat, and another one in the passenger seat. All the Amber Men around the car became excited. They wheezed out loud, grabbing onto the reinforced steel bars and began yanking, attempting to break into the car.
Baby was awoken by the noise a minute before but she didn't want to do anything so as to keep her body heat as low as possible. She clung onto her taser and remained still.
Mitchell never fell asleep to begin with. It was one in the morning and he was holding onto the pepper spray bottle filled with Holy Water and a bat, his eyes shut. He could hear the Amber Men's breathing and struggles to get in. One was yanking on the bars on the windshield. One was yanking on the bars on the roof of the car and the others were trying to peel off the rest of the reinforced bars.
After the fruitless struggle with the bars, the creatures outside the car seemed to give up. Baby relaxed slightly but Mitchell remained vigilant. The Amber Men always showed up at exactly one in the morning and left at exactly two. So they had a whole hour to survive these things. Amber Men were known to be attracted to heat but light scared them to bits. Literally.
A few minutes of stillness passed with the creatures loitering around the Station Wagon. Mitchell felt like he had forgotten something. When he remembered it, the Amber Man was already pulling his door open.
"Crap! I forgot to lock the doors!" He shouted and pepper sprayed the creature with the Holy Water as it reached for him.
While the thing screeched and disintegrated, Baby got up and punched the back car doors locked. Mitchell grabbed his door and tried to close it but two Amber Men had the reinforced bars and were pulling in the opposite direction.
Baby locked hers and turned to him. "Mitchell!"
"I'm handling it!" He yelled, straining.
The Amber Men made hollow screaming sounds, the depth of their throats glowing orange.
"Crap!" Mitchell panted. All the creatures now turned to his open door. One of them grabbed his arm, pulling him outside the car.
He worked on swinging the bat, smashing the approaching creatures.
Baby came to the rescue with a flashlight, lit it and shone it on the creatures. They recoiled, shrieked quietly and turned away, disintegrating into decomposition and wafted away as dust. The few unscathed ones scrambled away.
Mitchell turned back to the car, smashed the ones that were in his way and dived into the car. He shut his door and smashed it locked, throwing his head back.
"Damnit! A stupid mistake!" He looked at his forearm where one Amber Man had grabbed him.
There was a patch of red stone and veins of amber slowly spreading over his flesh. "It hurts!" He groaned, his arm trembling in pain. "Goddamn it, it hurts!"
"Lemme get that before it spreads too far," Baby scrambled in her bag where she took out a taser, hovering it near Mitchell's arm.
"You sure you can find the source with that thing?" Mitchell groaned, clearly in a lot of pain as the infection coated his entire arm, working its way up his neck and down his torso.
Baby, trembling, guessed. "Here!"
She pressed the taser against his wrist. The voltage from the weapon sparked a bright white light, but when it came into contact with the stone and amber infection, it blew out dark blue sparks. Mitchell tensed, and as the woman tasered the infection out of him, the creatures outside hid away. The infection started to fade from his body and disintegrated.
"That's it! That's enough!" Mitchell said when Baby accidentally tasered him a little after the infection faded. "Argh!" He threw his head back in pain.
Baby pulled the taser back, gasping. "I'm sorry! Sorry!" She threw it aside and held him by the shoulders.
Mitchell groaned. "It's okay. It's okay," he groggily raised his eyes.
The Amber Men were gone outside. It was eerily quiet and the whole scene was just unnerving.
"Shit," Mitchell hissed, regaining his composure. "We're toast—we're so damn toasted!" He turned the key in the ignition.
"Mitchell, the heat from the engine!" Baby cried, panicked.
"Forget the heat, one of 'em touched me—the Alpha Man is coming!" Mitchell turned on the headlights, a look of realization flashing across Baby's eyes.
The headlights flooded the environment with light in the front 180°. They both looked ahead, rigid, Mitchell's shirt sleeve torn. Baby glanced at Mitchell. It was too quiet. Until it wasn't. In the rearview mirror, Baby caught sight of a huge figure behind the car. A large Amber Man with vermilion veins running across its body.
"Mitchell!" Baby had shrieked when the creature grabbed a hold of the Station Wagon's reinforced rear.
Mitchell smashed the accelerator to the floor, the car tyres screeching across the road. The creature pulled against the pull of the car, slowly getting dragged along. Baby darted her head around as she saw more and more smaller Amber Men emerging from all sides, surrounding the car, hollow screams unintelligibly irritating the both of them. Mitchell changed gears and swerved the car. The back wheels skidded across the road, dragging the huge monster and the smaller ones along.
"We're not going anywhere," Baby sputtered, throwing her eyes around. "Mitchell, he's gonna tear up the car!"
"Kinda busy!" Mitchell struggled to keep the car on the road.
Gradually, the Alpha Man pulled so hard that he lifted the Station Wagon off its back wheels, the two people inside getting dropped onto the dashboard. Baby squeaked and Mitchell almost bit on his lip.
"We're gonna die!"
Mitchell shot his eyes to her. She was right. There was nothing either of them could do. It was his fault.
"Baby!" He called. "You need to get a new life on the other side."
Baby was still screaming as Amber Men broke the windows.
"Take care of this old rust bucket," Mitchell pushed the door open, grabbing a crowbar, falling back on the road.
Baby hadn't released a scream halfway through when the Amber Men charged at him.
"No!" She cried, her body trembling.
The Alpha Man let go of the car, dropping it. It turned to Mitchell who was busy bashing the creatures surrounding him. He told her to drive off, swinging the crowbar. One Amber Man threw its arms around him. His skin slowly got infected. He gave up fighting and just stood by while they infected him.
In the car, Baby took the bat and the Holy Water, batted her way to the Alpha Man, popped the cap of the Holy Water and then splashed it against his leg. The creature pulled back, spasming before screaming out in pain as its body deteriorated slowly. The smaller creatures immediately turned heels and ran off. She clobbered the few that were piled on Mitchell, successfully pulling him out.
When morning came, she had driven away from the attack site, parked a kilometer away from Headache Valley. She was in the backseat, Mitchell in her arms. He was as still as a rock, and he looked like a rock too. Coated with red rock and ember veins from head to toe. Baby put her hand to his nostrils. He wasn't breathing.
"Mitch?" She whispered, her hands trembling. "Mitchell, c'mon. You're gonna miss your cousin's birthday."
A tear ran down her cheek, dropping onto his rocky forehead. She had tried the Holy Water, tried the salt, the UV light flashlights and even the taser, but the man was still a statue.
"Mitchell…" she mumbled, leaning her forehead on his.
It was almost sunrise, the sun peeked in the horizon, bright and vermilion. She sat there in the back seat, sobbing in his hair. The sun rose higher. The light eventually touched them both. The infection, albeit complete, began evaporating away upon contact with the sunlight. His skin cleared and all of him became normal again. He resumed breathing, but Baby was still sobbing because she hadn't noticed.
The sun shone directly into Mitchell's eyes. "Mmm, no. Five more minutes," he grumbled, covering his eyes.
Baby gasped, looking down at him with wide eyes. "Mitchell?" She sniffled.
He opened an eye. "Baby?"
"Mitchell!" She hugged him tight.
"I thought I told you to go…" he mumbled as she hugged him tighter.
"You're okay!"
He huffed, the sun still in his eyes. "Did you see how I jumped in there like a total badass?"
Baby scoffed, wiping her tears. "More like a total sociopath. What did you expect me to do, take your car, leave you and start a farm somewhere in the mountains?"
"Something like that," he chuckled.
She pouted and hugged him again, curling into his arms from behind and lying on his lap. Mitchell awkwardly hovered his arms around her for a bit before hugging her back.
"C'mon, why're you crying, Baby?" He murmured. "Crossing Headache Valley is just like any other trip."
"Mitchell!" She retorted and whacked the back of his head.
"Hey, hey, hey! You'll give me a headache!" He scoffed before freezing when she kissed him.