Disappearance (15 page)

Seeing this note rejuvenates my will to live. I have to see Abby at least one more time so I can tell her how passionately in love I am with her.

Looking at my car, I don't know where to begin. There's an intense smell of gas from the twenty or more gallons that likely poured out everywhere in the trunk. I think it's a miracle the car didn't blow up, but it seems like a ticking time bomb with the engine still hot. I better get everything out while I can.

I go in the backseat, which looks very unusual with the seats on top. As fast as I can and without moving my side too much, I take the jumbled mess and throw it out onto the ground. All of my clothes are soaking wet from the spilled water bottles, and there's also peanut butter and jelly scattered everywhere on my clothes. I can deal with the stains on my shirts, but I'm more concerned with my food supply being so scarce.

A few of the cereal boxes managed to break themselves open, but most are intact. At least I have enough cereal to last me awhile.

My biggest concerns are water and how I'm going to travel with it. I have a suitcase in the trunk but there's no way for me to get to it because of how the car's damaged. I think I'm all out of options until I see the ax sitting in the front seat. That's the only way I'll be able to get into the trunk -- brute force.

Before I start smashing, I get everything out of the front seat. I'm about halfway finished when I see something that makes my heart sink. It's my gun, but only half of it. Somehow, the crash managed to break the gun into at least two pieces. What an amazingly cheap and worthless pellet gun this turned out to be.

I get my ax and am moments away from striking the trunk when I remember the gas tanks are inside. Any spark could set it off. I'm not sure how big of an explosion that would cause, but my guess is I wouldn't live to tell about it. It's not worth the risk and I probably wouldn't be able to ax my way into the trunk anyway, so I give up before I even start.

Looking at the huge pile of stuff on the ground, I decide on the essential things to take. My ax is a given. I figure I can put a couple bottles of water in each pocket, so that's four bottles. I also decide I can wear multiple layers of clothing for warmth. I hope I won't have to sleep outside tonight, but I've learned to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. It's warm now but I'm sure nighttime will be chilly. It's better to have too many layers than not enough, so I put a couple warm sweaters over me.

I don't have a good place to put cereal boxes, so I'm going to have to carry those by hand. I couldn't be sicker of cereal but I have no other choice.

My setup is complete: a pair of jeans with four bottles of water stuffed in the pockets, four layers of shirts and sweaters, an ax stuffed in my jeans so I don't have to hold it, two boxes of cereal stuffed under each arm, and two more bottles of water in each hand.

This is the best my engineering mind can come up with.

I pay my last respects to my car as if it were an open casket at a funeral. I've had some great memories in this car with Abby; it has taken us many great places. I was hoping it would take me to Mobile, but my moment of stupidity prevented that. I touch the car one last time with my hand and set off on my new journey without it.

As I start walking, the smell of my breath reminds me I've been drinking. Was it the alcohol or taking my eyes off the road that was most at fault for the crash? Probably the combination of both.

My main concern now is which way I should go. I try to think how far back it is to the last town I saw but can't remember. This answers my question; I'm better off risking unknown territory than backtracking several miles where I know there's nothing.

I walk to the highway and am amazed by how slow I'm going. I'd be far out of sight now if I was in Abby's car, but I see a bend in the road ahead and calculate it might take an hour before I get there. If only I were a marathoner, but how someone can run 26.2 miles I'll never know.

I should be conservative with my food and water, but my extreme thirst demands I drink some water now. Maybe it's the alcohol that dehydrated me, or maybe it's because I have four layers of clothes on with the mild sun beaming down on me. Either way, I chug an entire bottle of water leaving me only five bottles total left.

I may regret this later but for now I'm satisfied. It's also nice to have one hand free.

It's only twenty minutes later when I start getting hungry. I check my phone and see it's one thirty. No wonder I'm hungry, I usually eat two hours before this. Looking at my phone makes me realize I forgot to bring the charger. Once the battery dies, I'll have no way of telling the time. My phone charger only works in the car, so I didn't bother bringing it, but I wish I had it nevertheless.

When I do find a town, I plan on breaking into cars until I find one with a spare key. Then, I can drive back and pick up my phone charger. There's probably some other stuff I wouldn't mind having too, but I can only carry so much.

I try sitting down but the pain in my side is too great. If only I could go to a hospital to have someone look at my rib, arm, leg, and head - not to mention countless bruises and aches I'm sure I'll discover in the morning. Instead, I sit on my knees, which doesn't seem to hurt my torso as much, and start eating some cereal.

Sitting on this highway eating cereal makes me reflect again on the past few days. It's only been four days since I was driving to work thinking everything was perfect and normal in the world. Now I think of all the stupid decisions I've made to get me to this point. If I could do it over again, I would stay home. There I would have been safe and had months and months of food and water stocked up. If I ran out of something, a grocery store would be right around the corner. I could have lived for years until someone came and found me. And I could have slept in my own bed.

Instead, I've put my life in serious jeopardy. I could have died in that crash, and now I only have a couple days of water left. I'm leaving my fate in the hopes of a town being close. Why was I so stupid getting in that wreck? There weren't even any cars around! If I think about it anymore I'll get angry, so I grab my stuff and hop back on my feet.

It's going to be a long walk, and I can imagine a bear coming out of the woods at any time. With just my cheap little ax, I wouldn't stand a chance. I hope my death would be quick and painless.

I think about how long it will be before I get to the next town. Assuming I walk two miles per hour – which, with all of the stuff I'm carrying, may be even slower – and figuring there should be a town within sixty miles, I have two full days of walking ahead of me, realistically three.

I realize now I didn't bring any maps. At the time, I didn't think I needed any but now I wish I had. I could have looked to see exactly how far it's going to be before the nearest town. It doesn't matter though; knowing how far away it is isn't going to make it any closer.

I mentally prepare myself for three days of walking. I hope it's not true but that's what I have to plan my food and water for. It would be great if I came up to a town sooner, but I have to expect the worst at this point.

With that thought, I pick up my pace and continue walking forward.

After two hours, I become more and more annoyed by what I'm carrying with me. This would be a lot easier if I didn't have to hold four boxes of cereal in my arms and have bottles of water stuffed in my pockets.

I'm already using the last of my energy reserves, which isn't good considering I may have another six hours of walking ahead of me today. I'm almost guaranteed to be sleeping outside tonight. It's starting to get dark and cloudy, and the last thing I want is for it to rain. I don't think I'll have any trouble sleeping outside as long as I can lie down, but if it rains all night there's no chance.

I continue walking but am startled when I feel something brush up against my leg. My first thought is that it must be a snake. Like most people, I'm terrified of the slithering creatures. Sure, if there's a big glass wall between us at the zoo they aren't that frightening, but when you see one in the wild you have no idea whether it's poisonous or not.

When I look down though, I see it's not a snake. Not even close. It's another black cat.

"Well hello there kitty."

Where on Earth did this thing come from? I look around behind me and see it may have come out of the woods. How strange it is that I keep running into black cats, and I notice it's usually around this time of day too.

I think back to the last four days like I did with the car. On the first day, I saw a cat on the way to Abby's office. On day two, there was a little black cat that came up next to me when I was siphoning gas by my house. Yesterday... I didn't see a cat. Does that disprove my theory? What was I doing yesterday around this time? It seems like so long ago.

I remember going to the electronics store and getting attacked by Cujo #2. That was later in the day though. Before that I drove a lot then had a little meltdown at the gas station. Somewhere during that stretch of events was four o'clock.

Then I remember that I started drinking around this time yesterday and passed out soon after. It must have been then, when I had my nap, which would explain why I didn't see a cat.

It seems crazy, but then I remember the same thing happened with the car – always around the same time of the day. I'm not a betting man, but I would wager a fresh bottle of water that there was a little black cat hovering around the car while I was napping.

As I look down at the cat, I wonder if it's the same one I saw before. I get a close look, but can't decide one way or the other. At the least it looks very similar.

Another thing that seems strange to me is every time I see something it's always black. The cars have always been black. The cats have always been black. Even Cujo #1 and Cujo #2 have been black.

I reach down to pet the cat but forget about the sharp pain in my side. I wince in pain, which is enough to scare her off and run into the woods.

"Hey, where are you going? I'm not going to hurt you."

It feels stupid, but I'm actually quite sad the cat ran off. I could sure use a friend right now. I give her a name, even though I'm not sure it's a her.

"Tabby, come back!"

I think about going into the woods after her, but decide it's not worth it. I need to save all the energy I have to continue my walk up the highway.

For the next hour I make my way up a large, inclining hill. I have to make several rest stops to catch my breath and shake out the cramps in my legs. The excitement of seeing what's beyond the hill is the only thing motivating me to move forward. With each step, I get closer to seeing what scenery I'll get to look at for the next hour of my life.

As I continue forward, I see more and more of the land on the other side. My heart skips a beat.

It's not a town I see -- I'm not that lucky -- but far off in the distance I see houses! Of course, why didn't I think of that? I don't have to make it all the way to a new town to find shelter. There are always houses right off the highway. Climbing the hill left me slow and sluggish and ready to take another break, but now I have a newfound pep in my step and start fast-walking my way down the hill.

Even at this rate, it's still going to take an hour to get there. If I only had a car or even a bicycle, I could coast my way down there in minutes.

It's no surprise that walking down a hill is much more pleasant than walking up one. Walking also really allows you to soak in your surroundings in a way you just don't get while driving. You can hear the beautiful trees singing from the wind and smell the freshness of the air.

The wind and the dark sky above remind me that it could start raining any minute now. It doesn't bother me as much as it did earlier, though; because now I know I'm only an hour walk from shelter.

Sure enough, as soon as I'm reminded of it I feel my first raindrops. I try to remember the last time I was outside walking when it started to rain and can only think of one time during a golf outing a few years ago.

The rain doesn't waste any time and starts coming down hard fast. I take back what I said about not caring if it rains; this is miserable. The drops are big and cold on my skin. With all of my layers of clothes on, it makes me feel even heavier.

The cereal boxes start to feel soggy. I didn't think about it before, but why am I even carrying the boxes when I can just hold the plastic bags? I stop walking for a moment to do just that, throwing the cardboard to the ground. That's so much better! I stuff a couple bags in my pants, and now I can carry two bags in my free hand - much better than stuffed under my arms.

The rain beating down on my face is rather annoying, so I flip up my hood. I look up at the clouds to see which direction they are moving and if the rain will end soon. Outdoor skills are not my area of expertise; I'm a city boy. All I know is the breeze is starting to pick up, so hopefully that means the wind will push the rain clouds away, whatever direction that may be.

A huge gust of wind comes and knocks me off-balance. Then I hear something I should have expected, the rumbling of thunder.

I pick up my pace, but I'm still a long way away from any houses. I look up just in time to see lightning followed by a loud crack. I turn my head to see if there's anywhere safe to take cover but there's nothing –- only highway, an empty field, and the woods a bit farther in the distance. I'm not sure anywhere is safer than where I am so I continue to move forward.

The rain beats down even harder. I may regret it later but I break out into a jog. The stomping on the ground makes my side ache, but it's worth it if gets me out of this weather sooner. I look up again to see if there are any signs the storm will be over but it doesn't look good. Another bolt of lightning cracks down, this time making me jump and cover my hands over my head - as if that would help.

The storm is right on top of me now. The wind is intense, making it difficult to even walk straight.