Two Roads Diverged In a Yellow Wood

Stop. What, why? Sh. Shut up. Do you hear that? Distantly, we could hear the rumble of a truck, low and rusty, weaving its way through the trees toward us. Simon and I had been walking these woods for what felt like hours, though it was probably only minutes. But everything looked the same. Each tree was spaced an exact distance from the next, so that it seemed more like an orchard than a wilderness. I had a rotten feeling in the pit of my stomach that grew stronger every time Simons hand brushed against mine while we walked. Simon, my friend, Simon, who got drunk and fell in love with any pretty redhead he met, Simon, who was like a hero in all the wrong ways. We had come to a spot in the dirt road were a small crop of trees grew directly in the center, dividing the pathway in two for a short stretch. I moved to stand at the front of the natural median, closer to the noise of the truck. I was visibly shaking. What are you so scared of? Simon was still a few feet back, looking at me like Id gone insane. When really, I felt like the only sane thing for miles; even the trees didnt make sense. That noise, cant you hear it? I asked, my voice fading to a whisper at the end as pinpricks of light appeared a few miles down the path. Oh, god Cassidy, youre nuts. Then how do you explain that? I hissed, pointing at the now-visible truck. Red, faded paint, rusting hubcaps, dirty headlights, but the thing looked sturdy. Immovable. Intimidating. Simon just looked at me, arms crossed. Cassidy. I whirled to face the speaker, but he hadnt left the cab of the truck. He looked like any old redneck truckerflannel, scruffy face, sweat-stained baseball hat. You have three

chances, he said, and I heard it as loudly as if he were speaking inside my own head, though that was impossible. Everything about this was impossible. I looked at Simon again, but he seemed almost frozen, a spectator to this bizarre scene. For what? I felt my mouth say the words more than I consciously spoke them. To dodge. And suddenly the truck hurtled towards me. I was paralyzed with fear, unable to move. The truck ate up the road between us until it was just a few feet from me, and then I was finally able to throw myself into the median, landing in the soft dirt between the evenly-spaced trees. My momentum rolled me into the right side of the road, where I lay for a moment, gasping. I staggered to my feet again, and the red truck had returned to its starting position. The driver revved the engine and came at me again. Like before, I dodged the vehicle at the last second, landing in the median. The third time the truck came I had no time to react. It moved too impossibly fast, I barely had time to register its movement. It crashed into the trees, but something strange was happening. Wood groaned but did not split; the trees were turning into metal. The truck crumpled against them like an accordion, but the damage was done. The entire wood was transforming and quaking; the impact had caused a chain reaction and everything was crashing down. With clangs and bangs, the trees in the median started collapsing on top of me. Simon, finally free from whatever state he had been transfixed in, grabbed me by the waist and began dragging me out of the wreckage. I spotted something small and black lying in the dirt; my notebook, the single most important possession I owned. Simon, no, put me back! Let me go! I have to get it! I struggled against his firm hold, but it was useless.

Cass, its just a notebook, its nothing, leave it! How dare you! It came out as a primal shriek, but still I couldnt fight Simons arms. He dragged me, kicking and screaming, out of the wood; wed only been a few yards away from the end. Dust and debris and the sound of metal groaning and collapsing filled the air. The rotten feeling in my stomach was now all throughout my blood, it coursed through me, and I couldnt remember why we had started walking in the first place. I think we had just wanted to see what was out there, both terrified of standing still. Simon had been a little more hesitant. What are you so scared of? But I had plunged forward, always overconfident, and now I couldnt remember why. I no longer felt sane, I no longer felt anything but the rumble of falling trees and Simons arms, an alien and electric sensation.