Walking The Road
“What are we doing here?” Steam asked. “Good question,” said Rove, with a smirk on his face. “What’s the last thing you remember?” “The last thing? The last thing I can remember is being at home,” answered Rove. “Dude, you gotta give me more than that.” “Um, I went to sleep and woke up here, in this damn place. I’ve never been here I didn’t even know a place like this could exist. It seems so, so outta this world.” “Maybe it is, out of our world,” questioned Steam. “I mean, look at those trees, they’re so damn tall, so damn tall I can’t even see the top. And these roads, why are these roads made out of metal, and why would there be a road like this in the middle of a forest!” Rove yelled. “Calm down, dude,” said Steam. “Now, where did you wake up Rove.” “I woke up on the floor, then I thought, was I drinking? And then I followed this road and found you sitting on the floor. Thank god I found you, I would be so scared if I was alone, I would’ve lost my mind if I was alone in this place.” Steam looked around, it was getting darker. “Let’s continue walking” Said Steam. As they continued to walk they both heard noises, unfamiliar noises. They both heard it but said nothing. The two walked side by side along the cold metallic road. Each step they took would make a clunk noise. Clunk, clunk, clunk, it would be hard not to attract anything’s attention, with that noise. Although the road was straight, it seemed as though they have been walking in circles; every tree, rock, and shrub they passed seemed to be the same as all the other trees, rocks and shrubs. However, none of the two mention the fact that everything looks and feels the same as everything. It’s been four hours; the two haven’t said anything to each other. Now, it is completely dark, if not for the moon it would be pitch black. The strange noises and the sound of their own footsteps, in addition with the darkness all add an eerie impression of this strange location that they have mysteriously been placed. The two continue walking the road, the worse, however has yet to come. Thud. “What was that!” asked Rove. “Not sure.” They both glanced down toward the feet of steam. “It’s a back pack!” Rove said, with obvious pleasure in his voice. They took a look inside, the first object shown was a book, they tossed it aside. The next item was a weird looking type of persevered food, it was in a large container with a lid, the label read “FISH PASTE.” “Yummy.” Rove said sarcastically. The next item was a box. They opened the box and saw a pack of cigarettes, a few bars of chocolates, and a pocketknife. The next item they pulled out was a canteen full of water. The last item in the bag was a pen. They then proceeded to put everything back in. “Let’s take turns carrying the pack ok?” Asked Steam. “Sure” Rove said. Steam throws the bag over his shoulders and walks, Rove follows behind. As Rove walks he thinks to himself, “whose bag?” The two have been walking for eight hours; the night has been fatiguing. Steam is still holding onto the backpack. At this point, Rove notices that Steam is a very well built, Rove believes that he must’ve have been a bodyguard or something to that extent. Rove is glad that he is stuck with him rather than someone else or even worse, no one. “Time to rest.” Steam said. “We spend the night here, on the road, or do you think we should go into the forest and sleep there?” “Forest.” Rove replied. Rove liked the leadership in Steam, and he also liked the fact that Steam wanted his opinion. They walked into the forest for the first time. “Not too far, I don’t wanna get lost.” Said Steam. “Yeah, me neither.” Rove said. They find a clear spot, Steam sits down and Rove leans his back on a tree and slides down. Steam falls asleep first, while Rove is stays awaken thinking about the day and what has happened. Rove wonders, “is he as afraid as I am?” He eventually falls asleep. Rove dreams, a nightmare, yet, when he wakes up, he won’t remember a thing. The sun shown over the clearing the woods, both of the men are lying on the ground asleep. The glare from the sun awakens Rove. “I gotta piss.” Rove decides to walk up to a tree a little ways away from where he was to do his business. He finds a place beyond the shrubs and trees. He takes out his member and releases his urine. Out of the tree in front of him he sees a little twelve-year-old girl come out. “Hello, mister.” The girl greets. “Hi there, what’s your name?” “Melissa.” “Hi Melissa I’m Rove. You look kinda of familiar do I know you?” The girl laughs and runs away. “Hey wait!” Yells Rove. Rove runs after her, kind of like he’s playing a game. The girl is no where to be found. Then out of a tree a tall man in a black jump suit emerges. “Holy shit.” Rove runs back towards Steam. The man in the black jumpsuit is about the same size as Steam, Rove is about half the size of steam, Rove is a very small man. One look and you would assume that Rove was a geeky nerd in school. Rove quickly gets back to the clearing in the woods and sees Steam awake. “Steam! There’s a guy in the woods, he’s wearing a black jumpsuit, there’s a girl too a little one!” Steam doesn’t say anything he just leaves to investigate in the woods. Rove stays behind in the clearing, waiting. Rove nervously waits for steam to come back. The paranoia is unbearable, the fact that steam might have gotten killed or the man in the black jumpsuit had followed Rove to the clearing, and was waiting till Steam had gotten far away enough for him to attack Rove was killing him. “Didn’t see anyone.” Steam said as he came back to the clearing. “We should be more careful from now on.” “ Yeah, no one goes anywhere alone from now on,” decided Rove. They head back to the road to continue their journey. Rove was left with one thought after the incident, “we’re not alone.” They had both decided early on that it was Roves’ turn to carry the backpack. While they were taking their break, Rove remembered about that book that was in the backpack. He took it out of the bag and opened it up carefully. The first thirty or so pages we’re ripped out, everything after those were empty lines. “That’s strange,” he thought. Then he took the pen from the bag and started writing. “What are you writing?” asked Steam. “A journal of this hell hold.” Dear who ever finds this, it’s been a week and we have been walking along this road for what seems like months. Steam is starting to get paranoid about the people we keep seeing, just last night he said he saw twins, twins in this place. He’s getting more and more irrational; he keeps looking at me whenever I write in this journal, he stares and doesn’t say a word. Just yesterday I asked him what he did for a living and he didn’t say anything, I’m beginning to think that he’s more secretive than I think. The worse part is that we’re out of food. No more food, we aren’t going to make it out of here, wherever here is. Steam thinks that it’s some rich guy’s meaning of spare time. Steam is back; I better put this away. “This road must’ve taken years to build,” Rove stated. There was no response from Steam. “I think we’re in hell, Rove, I mean I killed a lot of people. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was in hell right now. How bout you Rove, you do anything that can send you here?” he asked. “Um, no, I was perfect, did you say you killed a lot of people?” “Nothing that could land you here?” “Nothing, did you kill people?” “Yeah, that was my job Rove. You have to understand, that was my job. Even though I regret it like hell now but that was my job.” There was silence for a long time. Rove was now thinking about his own safety, and his sins. “Let’s call it a day here,” Steam announced. Rove is left with an unsafe feeling, a feeling he has felt since he’s been here. “Lets rest here Steam” Rove said. Rove had another nightmare, this time, however, Rove remembered parts, or little segments. In the morning I run. Clunk, clunk, clunk, the sound of Rove running on the metallic road, even though he is far away from Steam he gets the feeling that he’s being watched. Watched from the woods. Rove slows down and starts walking. “Maybe I should’ve stayed with Steam,” thought Rove. All Rove has with him is the backpack. It’s been two days since I’ve left Steam; I haven’t had food or water for days. I’ve come to the conclusion that I will die in hell. I don’t know anymore if the people I’ve been seeing are really there, or I’m just losing my mind. Everyone that I see is in the form of small little girls that look vaguely familiar. The only unfamiliar person that I’ve seen is the man in the black jumpsuit. If I don’t make it out of here I have a confession to make. Rove gets off the road and walks into the dark forest, he has almost no energy left. “I am going to die soon,” Rove thinks to himself. He lies down and sleeps. CLUNK, CLUNK, CLUNK, the loud bellow of the road wakes Rove up. He looks up from the woods to the road, it’s Steam. “How the fuck did he catch up to me, I was at least a day ahead,” thought Rove. “Rove! Why did you leave me!” yelled Steam. “Why! Did I do something wrong?” Steam falls to his knees. “Did I do something bad mommy, is that why daddy left? Tell me mommy.” He places his head on the floor and starts to cry hysterically. “I didn’t mean to kill you mommy, I really didn’t. Was that daddy I saw at the woods?” Steam continues with more whimpering and crying. Rove now knows why the girls looked familiar. Rove knows now all too well as to what is happening. I now know who the people I’ve been seeing are, the girls, all of them, they all seems so, familiar. I’m lost, in the woods; I know what lies in my future. Death, death, because of the sins, death because of my sins. If anyone finds this journal, I want everyone to know who I truly am. I have a confession to make. It seems as though these people are people that we have affected in life. The universe is trying to tell us something, we have antibiotics, growth hormones for our cows and chickens, cows going crazy, chickens getting slaughtered, the universe is trying to tell us something. Even the milk we drink isn’t innocent anymore. The long useless metal road, the noises, and the people, beware. The untimely end will come to all. The preacher will preach, let him preach. I will sing, let me sing. I am the antichrist. I am a murderer. Rove hears a noise, yet, not a clunk noise, he hears the voice of little children. However it’s too dark for Rove to see anything. “We followed you,” said one of the voices. “We’re here now,” said another. “Why did you do that to us, Rove?” “I want my mommy.” “No!” yelled Rove. “leave me alone!” “You molested us!” cried a voice. “I’m sorry,” Rove replied. “That’s not good enough” “Now it’s our turn.” That was last of the voices. The voices were gone, Rove looked up, and he saw, the end. The exit, the final step. The noises are gone, Steam is gone, the girls are gone, and even the pain is gone. “It’s so beautiful,” Rove said. “It’s the end, but is it a good ending.” Rove walked towards the end “Any ending to a place like this should be good, right?” He took out his journal from his backpack, not taking his eyes off the end; he ripped out pages in the front of the book, the pages that he had written on. He placed the journal back in the backpack and dropped it on the floor. He walked towards the end, never turning back, never forgetting what he has done, what they have done. “Did Steam make it?” wondered Rove. “What kind of name is Steam anyway?”
Copyright © 2005 Kevin Luk |