The smashing and scrunching of metal boomed in his eardrums the moment of impact. Andrews head smacked and scraped against the driver’s door window. He sobered up from the sheer shock of what just happened. He was dizzy and his vision was hazy, but he thought the crushed car he saw from the cracked windshield looked familiar. It was blood red under the full moon. The headlights of both the truck and car had been destroyed in the crash. The cars backlights were off as well. It must have been one brutal impact to have done that.
The street lights on this part of the street were off, but there was enough moonlight to see everything around him once his vision returned to normal. He couldn’t see how the person inside the car was because the windshield was so cracked and compressed it was almost white. The front of the car and hood had been sunken in so far that it looked like the front half of it had been sawed clean off. Was there more than one person in that car?
Andrew suffered no serious injuries, at least he thought so. It was a wonder why hitting his head against the window hadn't knocked him out, or killed him. His heart felt like it was ready to explode. He turned to face Sam who was hyperventilating and babbling profanities endlessly. While Sam thought he was scared, he had no idea. For he hadn't been the one driving. “Son of a- oh man, what did you do Andrew!” Sam said. Lights in houses turned on around the neighborhood.
What are we supposed to do now? I know we should stay at the scene, but what will that mean for me and Sam? Andrew could see in his mind the pained looks of his parents as they watched him be hauled into the back of a police car handcuffed. No, he wasn't going to let that happen. "Sam, we can't tell anybody about this understand?" Andrew whispered his voice quivery. Sam nodded, his lips trembling.
They fled the scene, sirens blared from somewhere around them. "It's the cops man! If they stop us we're done for!" Sam squealed. Andrew didn't blame him, Andrew himself felt like crawling into a drainage ditch and finding the most hidden place to curl up into a ball and die. The further he drove to the outer limits of town the fainter the scream of the sirens became.
As they drove out of town Andrew took a quick glance at his reflection in the hanging rear view mirror. He had the face of a condemned man. He knew he was doing something incredibly evil, but he couldn't fathom suffering through the other option. When they had driven so far into the country that enough time past that they sobered up they drove the car into a polluted pond in a secluded area. They stayed until they were sure the water was deep enough and that the truck didn’t float back up to the surface. Andrew felt like eyes were watching him from the trees.
"That's my truck down there, what am I supposed to tell my family?" Sam said as the waters thick black surface smoothed out. It looked like a bottomless pit.
"Sam, I am so sorry all of this is my fault. I should have gone to that Astronomy Club meeting instead of that- that-" Andrew couldn't get himself to finish before his voice choked up. What if I killed someone?
"It's my fault to man don't take the blame on my part," Sam said patting him on the back. Andrew pulled away, he wanted to be alone.
"Come on, lets go," Sam said. Andrew nodded and walked beside his friend. "I'll tell my family my truck was stolen alright?" The smell of Sam's breath still hinted that he had been drinking. Andrew's probably did to.
"Sam we wouldn't be in these woods right now if we hadn't gone to that party. I was so stupid. We did I go speeding down the street like I had completely lost it?" He already knew the answer. Two drinks that he hadn't thought would affect him clouded his mind and made him do all the wrong choices. The air was cool. Neither of them wore clothes that were appropriate for this kind of weather. Andrew shrugged off the shivers that came from the cold.
"Andrew, how do you suppose that person in the other car is?" Sam said. A gust wind whistled around them. It pierced his very being with it's mocking.
"I don't know," Andrew said lowering his head and shoving his hands in his jean pockets. He hoped nobody was killed because of him. Andrew's soul felt darker than the forest around him. They both hiked through the forest to the highway without saying another word to each other. They jumped at every animal sound, fearing that it was the police coming for them. When they reached the road it was empty and forbidding. They walked along side the road toward town. They stuck their thumbs up at every passing car hoping to get a ride. Many past them by. We don't deserve a ride. Not after what we did.
A beam of light washed over him and Sam. An engine rattled behind him. Andrew turned and squinted against the light coming from an ancient white car idling on the side of the road. An old couple was inside. "Come on in boys you'll freeze out there," said the old man sticking his head out the drivers window. Andrew and Sam shuffled to the car.
The old woman smiled at them as they passed by. Andrew smiled back. He hoped it looked genuine, nothing inside him warranted a smile. Andrew opened the back door which squealed with age. He scooted himself behind the driver as Sam slumped into the seat behind the woman. Andrew wished Sam didn't make it so obvious that something was troubling him. The car smelled of old decomposed wood.
“What are you two young fellers doing out here in the middle of night? And where are you headed two?” said the old man pulling back onto the highway.
Andrew said the first thing that came to mind, “We and a couple of other friends were planning to camp out, but the others had forgotten to pack the tents. So they went back to their places to get them. Me and my friend here had decided to stay and fish while we waited. Well I fished anyways; my friend here just ate all the granola bars. Man I’m telling you, those fishes sure were feisty. More than once they tore the line right off the pole. A big one even yanked the pole into the water when I set it down on the dock only for a second.” The old man chuckled.
Andrew didn't bother to hold his head down to blow his breath away from the couple the dusty smell of the room was enough to dilute the smell of his breath if it still held whiffs of alcohol. And the couple looked to be at least seventy years old so they probably couldn't smell things the same way they did in their prime. Or could they? Perhaps Andrew's logic was just too watered down to think realisticly.
“You know what they say, you snooze you lose. But none of that explains what ya’ll were doing hitchhiking at this time of night." He seemed to have bought the camping story. It was believable since it was a Friday night, and there wasn’t school on the weekends.
“Well apparently our friends must have had car trouble, because they never came back. Me and my friend Sa… ul, didn’t even have our cell phones with us to call. If there even was a signal in the woods anyways. And so now here we are in your car. We’re from Mandan by the way.” Andrew thought it would be smart to not give their real names.
"Perfect, me and my wife were headed that way anyway. When we get there just tell us were your folks live.”
“Have you boys seen how Bismarck is shaping up yet? Who am I kidding, of course you have,” the man’s wife said. She was white haired and had many lines and wrinkles on her face.
“What’s your name by the way?” the man asked him.
“Adrian,” Andrew said. It was easiest to quickly think up a name that started with the same first letter of his real name.
“Adrian it is. Goodness where are my manners,” he said. “Adrian, Saul, my name is Todd, and this is my wife Miranda,” the old man said gesturing to the woman on the raggedy seat next to him.
“I cannot thank you enough for your gratitude on giving us a ride. I was afraid we’d have to walk all the way home.”
“It was our pleasure,” Miranda said looking into the rearview mirror. Her eyes bulged when she got a look at him.