They are a foursome on the highway.The car tires melt into the hot black surface as they fly along.
The air is thick and heavy.
The car has no air conditioning.
Fuck.
It is too hot for those not driving to nap.
They remain silent in a state of half dream while looking out beyond the desolate highway.
A dry yellow landscape burns before them.
It matches the distaste they all feel.
“BAM!” “Flub, flub, flub”.
The foursome arise from their waking dreams and swear at each other and to the sky.
The driver goes to the trunk to see about the spare.
Cobwebs and dirt are all the driver can find.
More profanities at each other and the sky.
Purses and half-filled water bottles are taken from the car.
They walk the highway, their feet warm against the rubber of their asphalt-baked shoes.
All grow weary.
More swearing from the four.
The water bottles are quickly emptied and discarded into the sea of summer grass.
There comes still more swearing from the four.
At last, in the distance there is a building.
More profanities, this time to accent their joys.
They find new energy with which to run towards their salvation.
The building is very large with few windows and a smell of old Limburger cheese.
The tired and thirsty foursome search for a door.
Futile are their efforts to open the door when at last they find one.
No one seems to hear their yells.
No one seems to hear their knocks.
No one seems to hear their kicks at the door.
The hot and weary foursome search some more.
Finally, they find a door that will open.
The four walk into a large warehouse room, sparkling clean and stacked with shelves upon shelves of boxes.
Even the boxes seem to shine, with hardly a speck of dust upon them.
The giant warehouse room smells like a hospital.
It is very cold in this place and the drastic change in temperature sends a chill up the foursome’s spines.
They take notice of the boxes surrounding them.
There are no labels on the boxes, just a symbol – the symbol for female, like the ones you see on bathroom doors.
The four walk through the warehouse until they come to a door.
The door is not locked.
Relief lowers the shoulders of the destitute four.
Through the door is a long hallway.
There are many doors along the hallway, but all are closed.
Frustration raises their shoulders again.
The air seems to grow more and more chilled the further they walk into the building.
The foursome notice the door at the end of the hallway.
It appears to be cracked open.
The foursome make their way to what they hope is solace.
Once inside the door they see two men sitting at a desk.
The stranded foursome seem to have stumbled upon an office room.
The men at the desk appear concerned by the sudden arrival of strangers.
One man is stoic and unfriendly.
The other man is warm and inviting.
The man who is warm and inviting listens to the story of the stranded four and appears concerned about their dilemma.
He offers to let them use a phone so they may call a tow truck.
There is no phone in the office.
The man who is friendly must lead them to the part of the building where there is a phone.
Only one amidst the foursome thinks it is strange that there is no phone in the office, but does not say so.
Before the foursome are led to a phone, they ask to use the bathroom.
All members of the foursome are in need of a bathroom visit.
The man concedes and leads the foursome to a bathroom.
When they are all done in the bathroom, the friendly man is gone.
The four start to walk around the building looking for the man.
The man is nowhere to be found.
After some time goes by, the four realize they are lost in the giant building.
They follow a stairway going down beneath the building.
At the bottom of the stairway they see daylight through a small window.
The door leads to an underwater system of canals that seems to be at the back of the building.
The canals sit on a sloped hillside beneath the building and is enclosed only by the ceiling above them.
There are thick columns which support the building in place.
The four walk to the edge of one of the canals.
They all hold their noses as the cheese smell seems at its worst down by this water.
The canals are filled with something.
The four look closer into the waterways.
Hundreds of bodies are piled on top of one another in the water.
Young women and girls who are all dead and decomposing.
The hair on the heads of the bodies is all that moves, gently swaying in the current of the slow moving water.
There are screams from the foursome followed by panic and shortness of breath.
At least one of the four vomits.
In the window of the door through which they came appears the face of the friendly man.
The man smiles, but does not seem so friendly anymore.
The foursome begin to run.
They run as fast as they can towards the sunlight.
Soon they are free from the gruesome horror underneath the building and soaking in the sun’s warmth.
They are being pursued by the friendly man.
The foursome notice a small lake beyond the building, at the bottom of the hillside.
They run to the lake.
They check for bodies in the water.
No bodies in the lake.
They all dive in and start to swim.
They swim and swim and swim.
All grow weary.
Some are crying as they swim, their tears indistinguishable from the lake water engulfing them.
When they reach the shore on the other side of the lake they see a large house.
There is a party going on at the house.
There are people laughing and talking in the backyard.
What could they possibly be laughing about?
They are eating ribs fresh from the BBQ.
Relief. And so much weariness from the four.
More crying, this time tears of relief.
The foursome crawl out of the lake and run, weighted by their fatigue as well as their trauma, to the people in the backyard.
They explain the horrors of which they have just seen.
One of the party-goers leads them up to a bedroom and tells the foursome they may use the phone to call the authorities.
The party goer dials the number.
They are left alone to make their call.
Some of the four are shaking.
Shaking from cold. Shaking from trauma.
The house they are in is cool, the air conditioning blasting.
They are cold and wet.
But they are relieved.
One of the four listens to the ringing until someone answers and then the one gushes their horrific tale.
“Please help us,” begs the caller.
After the story is relayed there is a strange silence on the other side.
The four sit shivering in the cold . . . waiting.
The silence is broken by a voice.
That voice says, “You didn’t think you were gonna get away that easy, did you?”
The voice is coming both from the phone and from behind them.
The foursome turn towards the source of the voice.
In the doorway of the bedroom is the friendly man, a cell phone pressing against his ear in one hand and a juicy rib in the other.
