It must have been early afternoon when Jack heard sounds outside the car. His strength was gone and he could not open his eyes. He was completely wasted. It sounded like a clomping on concrete, and then a slow huff of air forced out of huge nostrils. He cracked his eyelid and was blinded by sunlight. He had no strength to move his head, was barely able to comprehend the images in his peripheral vision. He thought he could see a horse in the passenger side mirror, but then the door swung open.
Jack could hear rustling in the passenger seat as someone reached in, grabbed Laura, and lifted her out of the car. The door was kicked shut and he could see again in the mirror. A man lifted Laura and draped her across the back of the horse. Then he was gone from view and Jack was left looking at his wife slung like a bag of mail across the animal’s back.
The driver’s side door swung open and a shadow fell across Jack’s face. A hand grabbed his chin and turned it toward the door. Water poured into his mouth.
“You awake?” a voice boomed.
Jack could only muster a grunt.
“Drink some more. I’m leaving you a bottle. My horse can’t carry you both. I’ll be back. You awake?”
Jack could feel himself being shaken. “Y . . . yes.”
“Good . . . I’ll be back. Don’t go dying on me.”
And with that, the car door slammed shut. Staring at the passenger side mirror, Jack watched the man, horse, and Laura disappear. He had no idea what had just happened. No strength to get up and follow, no strength to care if a mountain man had just come down and stolen his wife. No strength to care about anything. With his eyes now open, he looked down at the water bottle placed between his legs. He struggled to lift it, but it seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. With all his strength, he lifted it to his mouth. Water spilled down his lips onto his chest. The coolness startled his senses and he dropped the bottle, its contents pouring out onto the floorboard. He had not the strength to pick it up. He did not care anymore.
Staring out the windshield, Jack looked down the two-lane blacktop. The heat rose off the pavement like waves of water drifting in limbo, obscuring the base of the mountains an unknown number of miles away. He watched as it moved, hypnotized by the cadence of the desert ocean. The convection slowly reached out to him, lapping at the ground, moving closer and closer. He stared.
Then they slowly appeared. First, one dancing shadow moved its way into reality, followed by others. They sat there at the bend of the road blinking at the car. Could they see him? Were they really there? They moved with the waves, performing a slow dance of twisted matter. The leader was larger than the rest. His form was liquid, shape shifting with the air and the other shadows around him.
The silence intensified inside the car. Jack could hear his breath, his heartbeat inside his ears. The wind gently blowing across the road. They looked at him. From miles down the road, he could tell they were sizing him up. The breeze intensified and the shadows danced. They began to whip themselves up into a slow fury, like teenagers in a mosh pit. Battering each other, the shadows moved; some baring enigmatic teeth and devouring the shape next to them, only to have the victim materialize again. But the one kept staring, refusing to be jostled from its position.
His heart beat a steady cadence and the shadows moved with it. The cloud drifted slowly toward the car, churning like a thunderhead. It crept closer and closer in a macabre cabaret. The breeze shifted and intensified, blowing the shadows closer with each passing second. The one leading, with the others wrestling in its wake. Jack counted off their approach with each disappearing center stripe of the road. The mountains in the distance became obscured as they now took on a more solid composure. Faster, faster, his heart raced as their pace quickened.
Lions zeroing in on the kill, running.
Faster and faster, their frenzy growing more rapid with each step.
They hit the car with the force of an earthquake and the sound of a whisper. The sun was eclipsed, and the only thing Jack could hear as he blacked out was the sound of his own muffled scream.