STORMY DARK NIGHT
Copyright © 2021, 2023 by OmegaPet-58
Chapter 1: The Rubber Failed!
Andrew Barkley was enjoying a leisurely scenic road trip, from his former home in Nashville to his new life as a student at the University of Maryland.
Choosing to avoid the interstates, Andrew had elected to tour through the Shenandoah Valley in eastern Virginia, ending the day at a motel in the town of Front Royal.
His old Prius was fully packed with everything he would need, and he had enough cash to get all the way to Maryland without worry.
He anticipated being on his own and starting college, after breezing through his high school classes. He was nineteen, athletic, and attractive enough to date frequently.
However, what he
didn't
bring with him would soon become an enormous problem.
After stopping for lunch and fuel, he directed his car into the valley using US 340.
Andrew was relaxed as he cruised along, but the sky darkened mid-afternoon.
By 4:30, his little car was being lashed by curtains of rain; the wipers slapping uselessly at the deluge.
"In this weather, I should have stayed on the Interstate or stopped somewhere to wait it out."
Traffic slowed from 50 to 30 to zero. Peering ahead, Andrew saw an 18-wheel truck jackknifed across the entire two-lane highway.
He pulled out a map and studied it under the dome light. After consulting with both Mr. Rand and Mr. McNally, Andrew eased out of his lane and U-turned.
After backtracking some distance, he turned onto a side road. He planned to parallel and then return to the main highway.
Unfortunately, he had misinterpreted the road map. Instead of the indicated alternate, the lane he entered quickly degenerated into a ragged mess of ancient concrete, loose gravel, and mud.
And, unbelievably, the rain increased!
Andrew was in trouble. For better gas mileage, the Toyota Prius is designed with tiny and narrow wheels and tires. They are grossly unsuitable for maintaining good control in terrible conditions.
Worse, he had almost no tread remaining on his tires as he blundered on with reckless speed.
The end came quickly. The impact of the crash and the deployed airbag knocked him out cold.
Chapter 2: The Dark World
Andrew eventually roused, but he was fully disoriented by total blackness. He checked, his eyelids
were
open, but there was no detectable light. The dashboard was blank and his car was totally powerless (the impact had broken key electrical components).
Also, he couldn't tell which direction he was facing. The only certain thing was the pounding rain hammering the roof of his Prius.
It felt like the rain was actually slamming into his head directly.
Which brings us to the
other
thing he forgot to bring. Along with the bald tires, Andrew had left Nashville without a mobile phone!
At the time, it had seemed prudent to wait until he enrolled at university to get a local number and new smartphone using a student discount. He was now bitterly regretting that choice.
Besides requesting help, a phone could have shown his GPS location and the time. He didn't know it, but he had been unconscious for hours. Andrew realized he would have to go out in the storm and seek help.
The first task was to bundle up in warm clothing and keep dry. He had at least brought some warm clothing, assuming Maryland would be colder than Tennessee.
He stripped and then piled on the layers he would need. Fully outfitted, Andrew attempted to exit the car. His door was jammed shut, so he crawled across to get out.
He intended to follow the track back to the main road, using his feet to feel his way. But it was the wrong direction: deeper into the forest. In the blackness, he walked right into a tree. "OW!"
Groping around, he found a small branch he could break off and use as a hiking stick. (Back in Nashville, he had learned a little about cane-walking from a blind friend.)
So equipped, Andrew kept slogging through mud and gravel.
And the rain poured on.
Chapter 3: End of the Track
On and on he trudged. At last, he recognized a faint light. The sky was brightening ever so slowly. He judged there was more brightness on his right hand. (This was his first indication that he was moving north.)
As the darkness lifted slightly, Andrew could see that the "road" was just barely-discernable parallel ruts. As if the last vehicle to pass had been an ox-drawn wooden wagon. He tossed aside the now-useless stick.
Then he came to a collapsed iron gate. There was a small clearing, but no sign of the track continuing any further. The gate's purpose was clear: beyond were scattered semi-legible headstones and a partially collapsed chapel.
The chapel's steeple was swaying in the wind and the back wall was laying in the weeds. There might be shelter in a corner of the structure; the storm still drove the rain in curtains.
Andrew was tired, damp, and hungry. He had a horrific headache (in fact, he had a concussion from the crash). All he could think about was getting the rain off his face.
Picking his way through the churchyard, he tried to read the headstones' inscriptions in the dim light. There were a few names, but no dates he could make out.
And then the soggy ground swallowed him up!
When Andrew stopped sliding, he pushed the mud from his face. Once again Andrew was lost in total blackness. He shook his head, and immediately regretted it as vertigo and nausea overwhelmed him.
After collapsing, he was unconscious once again for hours.
When he awakened, he carefully turned to look up. Above him, he saw a patch of bright blue sky. The rain had blessedly stopped.
There was a terrible dank odor. A muddy stream trickled near his feet. He was in an irregular underground chamber, apparently.
The ceiling opening that he fell through was at least 12 feet over his head. The room's walls were a loose mixture of sloppy mud and soil. There were no roots or rocks to help him climb up to the surface. He couldn't get out!
Worse, the room was strewn with decayed corpses and skeletons. The bodies were partly wrapped in remnants of cloth shrouds, instead of coffins or caskets.
Apparently, the cemetery above him had deep graves, many with multiple bodies stacked inside. He guessed that later the stream had excavated the muddy room (undermining the graves), so then the dead had fallen through the ceiling.
(Perhaps a plague had taken whole families, causing relatives to be buried stacked together under one marker.)
Without even any useful wooden pieces to help him escape this cave of death, Andrew had no hope of escape.
It was this revelation that drove him to ultimate despair. He had no food; the stream stank of decomposition and black mold was everywhere. And the pain in his head was excruciating.
When he roused again, sundown had ended the light from above. Andrew knew that his life was over.
It was several hours before death took him. (Blood had been leaking into his brain since the crash.)
Chapter 4: Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua
Andrew shook himself awake and looked around in confusion. Angled sunlight suggested it was mid-morning.
