The Green Hill Fill Up

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. My focus was to stay calm and on the road, but at every white knuckling bend it was there. The threat of sheer cliffs along the edge. As my exhaustion from driving perpetuated the anxiety, I wondered, was I doing the right thing.

“I guess the weather report was right.” I uttered. 

“Hey Steve, If it’s becoming too much for ya, I’m ready. I drove shit far worse than this in the war.”

Paul was a good guy, but arrogance came with the territory. I gave a little pushback, and relinquished the wheel.  

“Alright folks, let me show ya how it's done. Time to kick ass. We’ll be there in no time!” 

Paul loved being an alpha male, and his exploits were woven into every tale. A victory today would have been nice. But, he was fresh and I was not. It was as simple as that.

As we drove on and cracked some jokes, I popped open a beer. And bam, just like that, in an instant. Our lives were changed. 

My bottle launched out of my hand across the Jeep. I heard a wince come from Paul as it hit him in the head. He struggled to maintain control as his eyes furiously worked to find the road. 

Twisting and turning like a bumper car, the Jeep spun out of control. Our eyes were wide open with a death stare as complete silence filled the air. 

The uphill slowed us and the Jeep came to a sudden stop. We were stuck, and we weren't getting out. Trapped between two trees with one wheel dangling over the edge.

Paul burst out that it wasn’t his fault. He was adamant that something hit us. I didn’t disagree, but I was sure he was wrong. He was driving too fast and lost control. 

Just then Lucy said she saw headlights down the road. Wow how lucky I thought. A car could get us to the cabin, and turn this survival situation into a simpler ordeal. We all stared out the windows into the cold dark night, looking for any sign of a car.   

“Oh shit, there’s the lights again. Do you guys see them?” Lucy cried out. 

And then Magen yelled, “I see it too, it’s right there!”

As we prepared for our rescue Magen made an observation. “Guys, the car is not moving, and the lights are going on and off. Maybe they are stuck too." She said.

It was too dark & cold to walk down the road and check it out. So we settled in for a night in the Jeep.

Around 1 am, Paul's patience had worn out, and he decided it was time to do something. He got in his bag and pulled out a gun, to the dismay of Lucy and I, and proceeded out the door. 

Lucy and I tried to convince him that it was a bad idea, as Magen pleaded with him to stay. But, he had made up his mind and he was going. It was as simple as that. 

Megan was terrified. And about a half hour in, I knew I had to do something. So, I walked down the road and called out his name. It was bitter cold out and each breath burned my throat. So it wasn't long before my voice gave out. 

I then heard a bang. There was no mistake. It was a gunshot. After that I heard rustle in the forest, and then it went silent. 

As I walked back to the Jeep I could hear Magen scream Paul’s name, over and over in complete despair. But it didn’t take long for the sting of the cold air to silence her as well.  

Around 4 am, Lucy and Magen had dozed off, when I noticed what looked like a bag on the road. I squinted to focus in on it as the wind whipped it back and forth. It was as if it was tethered to the road by the sharp ice shards which jetted out from the road. To my horror I realized what it was. It was Paul's shirt. At that moment I went numb with fear. I decided not to tell the girls, and that at daylight we needed to get out of here.  

Morning light crept in around 8 am. I told the girls we had to hike down the road. Both were against it. Lucy was trained as an EMT, which taught her to stay with the car, and Magen didn’t want to leave Paul. But, with what I saw last night I tried to convince them with all I had. I sold them on the fact that we didn’t have enough gas for another warm night, which I knew didn't matter. And, it was the fastest way to get a rescue search started for Paul. This broke all outdoor survival rules, but with my persistence even Lucy gave in.

We started our hike down the narrow snow and ice covered road around 9 am. Each step filled with trepidation and the smell of pine trees as the wind swirled. It wasn’t too steep, but the cold and bitting wind made up for it. We noticed a car parked near a view point pull off, this must be the car we thought. So we headed in that direction.

The car looked abandoned, but someone was turning the lights on and off last night, if this was the car. It looked like a car from the 70’s. It was white-cream with four doors, metal door handles, and broken trim. It didn’t have much snow on it, which was peculiar.  

I told the girls to hang back and I would go check it out. In truth, I felt uneasy with the whole scene. Abandoned car on the side of a snowy mountain road. So I pulled out my knife and closed in on its driver side window. 

 I looked in and the stained upholstered seats were ripped and torn with paper and trash strewn about. I then kicked the door a few times to see if it would startle anything. Nothing but the crow in the tree behind me. 

The door was heavy and opened with the crack and pop of ice crushed on metal. As I looked in, I was met with the heavy stale smell of cigarettes and garbage. The car could have been here for months, but if it had been, we didn't see it as we drove by last night.   

The keys were on the floor, so I grabbed them and gave it a try. It cranked up, but then died. At that point, my curiosity got the best of me. The trunk. I wonder what’s in the trunk. So I walked to the back, wiped some snow off the lock, and put the key in.

As I popped the trunk I couldn’t believe my eyes. I froze right there in disbelief. Mixed in with tools and crap was Paul's shirt. Whatever color I had in my face prior, was gone. 

The girls knew I saw something horrible, and Magen begged to know if it was Paul. I told the girls it was a dead animal, that’s all. I don’t think either one believed me. All I know is somehow that shirt got from the road by our Jeep into this trunk. 

We got out of there as fast as we could, not saying a word for hours. Around 2 pm we saw a pickup truck coming up the road. We debated if we should hide or not. But, by the time we decided, it was too late to hide. 

The truck had seen better days. It was an old brown Ford pickup truck with a lot of rust and grim. Both guys were medium build with scruffy brown beards. They had on old work coats with flannels and tattered baseball hats. The truck screeched as it slowed and stopped. I could hear Magen say, “we would have been safer in the Jeep.” A part of me began to second guess my decision too.

The guy in the passenger seat asked what we were doing out here. I told him our car was stuck, and we were walking to the main road. I didn’t know if these guys were involved with Paul, so I stayed calm but on guard.

 He then asked if we wanted a ride to the gas station about 5 miles down the road. I gave him a smile, but as I glanced at the girls, I saw they wanted no part of it. So I told him, “no thanks, we are ok walking." They shook their heads and drove off. I looked over at the girls and said, "Ok, only five miles, we can make it."

A couple hours later as the sun set, we heard a car coming down the road towards us. We looked at each other for a brief second, and without a word headed into the hillside to hide.

The snow was so deep it came above our knees, and the steep hill kept us from hiding as far back as we wanted. So we hid behind a group of trees as best we could, huddled down in the snow like prey.

As the headlights approached, my breath stopped. I couldn’t believe it. It was the abandoned car. We froze in complete shock. I could feel Magen trembling as she whispered, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” Flashlights shot out from the car windows, which evoked true panic as we realized they were searching for us.

Slow and steady they searched, as the snow and ice crackled beneath the tires. The beams cut through the forest like a silent dagger. Not a muscle was moved, not a breath taken. Like prisoners escaping a prison, we shuttered as the lights came near.

We gasped for our first deep breath as their tail lights faded, and exhaled a nervous relief. As we waited there, for what felt like days, we knew we had no choice. So begrudgingly, we got back on the road and continued our march. 

At around 9 pm we reached the tiny desolate gas station at the main road. It had two worn out metal pumps, with dim lights hanging from a rusted tin awning above them. It would all creak & rattle when the wind would blow.

We walked into the weathered cinder block building exhausted, as the attendant gave us an anxious look. He was a thin young guy in a mechanics suit with scraggly brown hair, sharp nose, and smoked a cigarette. We told him that we lost a friend in the mountains, and needed to call 911. In a raspy voice, he told us to take a seat and he would call the sheriff. 

We collapsed on some old ripped padded chairs under a neon Green Hill Fill Up sign. The place smelled of grease with grime and stains on the faded block walls. The only decorations were a Mobile Oil sign that dangled on one wall, and a bathroom sign that pointed to the garage. Random stands of old oil cans, tires, and chips filled the tiny room. I wondered if there was even any gas in the pumps. Magen got up and told us she needed to go to the bathroom. Lucy offered to go with her, but she said she’ll be fine as she followed the sign into the garage. 

I stared out the window toward the pumps under the dim lights as they flickered. My mind wandered in circles as gusts of wind would blow in. And then, I did a double take. Magen’s furry white hat had blown across the frozen lot, and was trapped against the base of a pump. Immediately I thought the worst. 

Lucy and I started screaming for Magen, but heard nothing back. I yelled for the attendant but he was gone. So I picked up the phone to call for help, and my heart sank.

The phone was broken, it never worked. The sheriff wasn’t coming.  

As I looked over Lucy’s shoulder my face turned cold. And I yelled out, “Shit Lucy, there's the car!”

Just then the lights went out. I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face, let alone Lucy. As I reached out to grab for her, I heard her scream. A surge of adrenaline catapulted me to find her, and I destroyed the room in the process. 

As I paused to listen for her in the darkness of that room, the hum of the broken neon sign is all I heard. I exhaled to mount another charge, but at that moment a massive pain shot through my head.

The next thing I knew, I woke up wrapped in wire, tape, and tubes. My head pounded as my eyes struggled to break through the fog. All around me I heard voices and footsteps with the smell of cleaning solution in every breath. A voice with a slight southern drawl was directed towards me, “Well Mr. Miller, Sheriff Hopskins here. It’s a good thing we showed up when we did.”

To my astonishment it was the sheriff. I asked him where Lucy and Magen were, and if they found Paul. Lucy was wheeled in just then, her head in bandages and her arm in a sling. A blanket covered her as she sat in her wheelchair. She wore a look of despair that I had never seen, and my guilt spilled out of me and flooded the room.

Officer Hopskins went on to tell us that Lucy was being taken to the white sedan as they rolled up. Shots were fired, and the attendant, Jay Jenkins was pronounced dead at the scene. Unfortunately they found Magen in the trunk deceased. Nothing on our friend Paul or the others involved, yet. I asked him about the shirt, and he said the car would be analyzed. 

As officer Hopskins walked out he stopped and said, “Oh ya, those two fellas you meet on the road in the truck. Those are the Seabass boys, and they don’t like anyone. But you must have done something right.” 

I asked him what he meant.

“Well, they told us to come look for you.” 

”Huh. Well., tell them thank you if you see them.”

“I will. Oh, and good thing you didn’t camp in your Jeep another night. We found it at the bottom of the ravine. Tree must have given out last night.” 

I looked over at Lucy just then and she gave me a look, the look of love.