Road Kill - Part 1: The Breakdown

Nikki’s Celica cut itself off for no apparent reason.

"What happened?" Misty said from the back seat.

Nikki didn’t answer. She was too busy trying to muscle the car onto the shoulder without power steering, headlights, or windshield wipers. The car started to veer onto the shoulder. Nikki yanked the steering wheel hard back the other way, and pressed the brakes.

But the brakes didn’t want to work either. They barely slowed the car. Tina grabbed the dash board on the passenger’s side and stared with horror out into the rainy interstate – its wet asphalt looking like the scales of a black snake.

Slowly and stubbornly the car ground to a halt.

"What happened?" Misty repeated.

Nikki slammed her hands down on the steering wheel and glared back at Misty.

"You know as much as I do, airhead."

Nikki turned back around, shoved the gear selector back in park, and turned the key.

Nothing.

The dash lights didn’t even come on.

Nikki opened the console and began to bat around the contents.

"What’re you looking for?" Tina said.

Nikki glared up to her. She liked Tina more than Misty because she wasn’t a total ditz, but now was not the time for anyone to be asking her annoying questions.

"Duh, my cell phone!"

She looked back in. The only thing within the console was a hair brush, a compact, two shades of lipstick, Evanescence, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce CDs.

She turned around and looked into the back seat.

"Misty, have you been using my cell phone again?"

Misty shook her head.

Tina touched Nikki’s shoulder. At present, Nikki was wearing a bikini top with a pair of cut-off shorts. She didn’t like to be touched.

She glared at Tina.

"Relax," she said. "I’ve got mine."

Nikki’s mouth fell open. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get it."

Tina gave her a look of frustration, and then she picked her JanSport backpack up from the floorboard, unzipped it and began pawing around.

Nikki sat back and sighed hard.

Outside, the rain sheeted down her windshield. The only thing she could see was the blurred taillights of other cars whizzing past.

In a moment, Tina looked up from her backpack smiling humorlessly. "I think I left it at the restaurant."

Nikki shook her head and pivoted back around to Misty. "Do you have a phone?"

Misty shook her head. "My dad took it away from me, remember?"

"Wonderful," she snapped, looking forward out of the car again.

Tina began digging around the side of her seat. Nikki scowled at her.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Tina didn’t look up at her. "Looking for your cell phone."

"I didn’t drop it. I distinctly remember putting it in the console. The princess back there must have used it while I was pumping gas. God knows where it is now."

Tina looked past Nikki into the back seat – obviously ignoring her. "Feel around on the floorboard and under the back seat and see if you can find her phone."

Misty began feeling around the floorboard.

"You’re not gonna find it," Nikki said.

A moment later, Tina sat up straight and eyed Misty.

"Anything?"

Tina bit her lip and sat back in her seat.

"Does this mean we’re not going to Panama City?"

Nikki sighed. "God, just shut up! I don’t know why I brought you along anyway."

That wasn’t entirely the truth. She’d seen Darrin’s side-long glances at her, and she knew that Misty was interested, too. She’d stood at the base of the band box during football games and heard her screaming for him every time he got the ball.

She didn’t want her boyfriend, Darren and Misty to hook up while she was on spring break.

"Maybe if you look under the hood you might be able to figure out what’s wrong," Tina said.

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Hello? I’m a girl. I don’t know anything about cars."

Tina shrugged. "Well, you can at least look at it and see if a battery cable is loose, or there’s steam coming out of it."

Nikki threw her hand up in Tina’s face. "I’m not getting out there in the middle of this storm to look like a monkey fucking a basketball under the hood."

"Fine, potty mouth," Tina said reaching over Nikki’s lap and popping the hood. "I’ll do it."

She got out and slammed the door.

Nikki looked back at Misty and rolled her eyes. "I don’t know what she thinks she’s gonna do. Flash her tits and excite the engine into cranking."

In a moment, the hood slammed shut, and Tina, drenched to the bone, sprinted back to the passenger door, jumped in, and slammed the door behind her.

"Well?" Nikki said.

She shook her head. "I don’t see anything that’s disconnected. The battery cables seem pretty tight."

Nikki sighed, leaned forward and tried the ignition again.

Same result. She eyed Tina.

"Posing for glamor shots on the hood of a Camero doesn’t make you a mechanic."

"Since you seem to know everything, Miss Priss, why don’t you tell me what we’re gonna do?"

Nikki shook her head. "Just shut up and let me think."

As she was thinking, she noticed a pair of circular headlights – like the eyes of a cat – pull in behind her. When the driver of the other vehicle turned off his headlights, she saw that it was some kind of old Winnebago – half-van, half-camper. The door opened and a tall man wearing a black poncho that looked like a trash bag and a fishing hat that looked a bit like an upside-down wicker flower pot, stepped over to the driver’s side and tapped the window.

Nikki eyed him. There seemed to be nothing sinister about him at all.

He was clean-shaven with a thin, gray mustache over his upper lip. He was tall and husky and something in the gentle, grandfatherly way about him seemed to remind her of someone.

Nikki pressed the window button, cursed when she realized that she hand no power, and cracked the door open.

"You girls having a little trouble?" The man said, yelling over the rain.

"Do you have a cell phone we can borrow?" Nikki said.

The man shrugged. "I’m afraid I’m pretty low-tech. What’s wrong with your car?"

Tina leaned over Nikki’s shoulder. "We noticed the lights getting dim several miles back, and it just went dead. When you try to turn it over, it doesn’t even light up."

The man frowned and looked toward the hood. "Sounds like you’re not getting any power. Mind if I have a look?"

Nikki reached down and pulled her hood lever. The man walked around the front of the car, opened the hood and began milling around beneath.

Nikki shut her door.

In a moment, the old man peeked around the left edge of the hood and made a twisting motion with this thumb and index finger signaling her to try it.

She leaned forward and twisted the ignition. The only thing that happened in response was a single click.

The man shook his head and walked back around to the driver’s side door.

Nikki cracked the door again.

"Your battery cables had a little corrosion around them, but nothing that should have caused it to shut down. I’m going to try to jump it off."

Tina leaned toward him. "Want some help?"

He held up his hand. "You girls just stay in the car. It’s wet and nasty out here, and I don’t want anybody getting electrocuted."

She nodded.

The man looked back at his Winnebago. "I’m gonna pull along beside you and run my jumper cables to your battery. We’ll let the van run for a minute and then we’ll try it."

"Okay," Nikki said.

The man started back to his van and she closed her door.

He pulled his van along the right side of her car, and then climbed out with the engine still running and dragged a pair of jumper cables out. He opened his hood and clamped the cables to his battery and then he stretched the cables across to her car.

After a few moments, he motioned for her to turn it over.

Once again, the car clicked, but nothing else happened.

The man shook his head, removed the jumper cables and walked back around to the driver’s side door. Nikki opened it.

"I think your battery is dead. Sounds like to me, your alternator went out and the extra stress of your windshield wipers, headlights, and whatever else you were running ruined the battery."

"Is this bad?" Nikki said.

He shrugged. "You’re not going anywhere until you replace the battery and the alternator."

"What are we gonna do?" Misty said in the back seat.

The man outside sighed with frustration. "I don’t feel right leaving you girls out here by yourselves. There’s a rest stop about five miles up the road. Has bathrooms, vending machines, and an indoor pay phone. I can take you up there, if you want."

The girls all looked at each other simultaneously. Jan was the first to turn back around toward the man.

"Shotgun," she said.

* * * *

Tina and Misty stepped up into the back of the half-van, half-camper, and Nikki climbed in the passenger’s seat and slammed the door.

"This is neat," Misty said from behind the curtain leading to the back.

The man sat in the driver’s seat and looked back over his shoulder. "Now, you girls sit down back there. There aren’t any seat belts so hang on."

He slammed his door and started off.

The more Nikki looked at him the more she believed she might have seen him somewhere before.

"Thanks, for helping us, Mister. . . ."

"Everett," he said.

"Mister Everett."

He grinned and shook his head. "Just Everett, you’ll make me feel old with that Mister stuff."

She half-smiled. "So where are you headed?"

"Pensacola to see my grandkids. My son lives down there with his wife. I go down there during spring break once a year."

"Where’s Mrs. Everett?"

He shook his head. "She decided she’d had about enough of me, I guess."

"I’m sorry."

He shrugged.

"So what do you do?"

"Not much of anything, these days. I do odd jobs sometimes for people, but for the most part, I’m retired."

"You look pretty young and fit to be retired."

He nodded and smiled. "That’s the great thing about retiring from the corps. You still have a little steam left in you when your last tour is done."

"The corps?"

He saluted "Corporal Everett Burns, United States Marine Corps, retired."

She relaxed a bit. She wasn’t in the car with a shady stranger, but a decent and responsible man.

"So where are you girls headed?"

"Panama City, Spring Break."

He laughed. "You all college girls?"

"High school seniors."

He smiled paternally. "I have a daughter about that age livin with her mother in Tennessee. Captain of the Cheerleading Team and looks like she’s gonna be the Valedictorian of her class."

"Wow," she said smiling.

The exit for the Rest Area came up, and Everett flipped on his blinker and edged the Winnebago off the road and into the deserted parking lot. The only thing indicating that the old, brown brick building was in service was the lights inside.

"Are you sure it’s open?" she said.

He nodded. "Folks don’t use rest areas as much as they used to. What with the internet and cell phones, they usually just go to a cheap motel. They’re still open though."

He turned around and opened the velvet curtain leading to the back of the camper.

"We’re here. There’s restrooms and vending machines in there, and payphones of course."

He looked at Nikki. "Do you have any change?"

She shook her head. "I’ll call collect."

"Can I stay here?" Misty said. "I’m getting kinda sleepy."

Nikki gave her a go-to-hell look. "Mr. Burns has places to be."

Everett shook his head and shrugged. "I’m retired. I don’t have anywhere to be right now. If you want me to wait around until help gets here, I don’t mind."

Nikki smiled. "I wouldn’t want to put you out anymore than we already have."

"It’s no problem, really. I need a break anyway."

Nikki shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Everett looked back into the camper. "That table and chairs reclines into a bed, and there’s some sheets in that cabinet. Make yourself at home."

"Can you show me how to let it all down?"

Everett nodded. "You girls go on in. I’ll help her get her bed set up, and I’ll be in to check on you."

(Part 2: Dark Deeds at the Rest Area).