v o i d
The desert was vast.
Sparse scrub flew by the Jeep's window. The red-striped stone of the canyon yawed and took their time disappearing from view in the far distance.
Papers nearly flew from his lap as the all-terrain truck hit a bump. Carlos snatched the wayward paper from midair just in time.
"Are we almost there?"
"I said, are we almost there?" Carlos yelled over the vehicles speeding wind. His dirver nodded vigorously.
"Oh, yeah. Just on past Radon Canyon, then we'll be through. I'll drop you off across the street from your lab."
Carlos stared at the passing telephone lines, and furrowed his brow at the lone dark cloud hanging all by itself in the blue sky. The silence grew
between the two passengers once more.
"So, what's it like, living here?" Carlos asked, in an attempt to be friendly. The man chuckled.
"Well, I've only been a year or so, but lemme tell ya, it's really a nice little town. Got a lot of quirks," here he tossed his cigarette out the
window, "I've got a great job with good money, so I can't complain. Get paid to move crates, real damn easy cash. Nice little trailer all to myself. I tell
ya, what more can a single guy ask for?"
Carlos wasn't sure how to answer that. "I...suppose."
He reached over and turned on the radio, and busied himself for the next three minutes fiddling with the knob. Nothing was coming in, only static. He
was about to give up when a station suddenly flickered to life, and Carlos settled back in his seat.
He pulled out his file folder at the bottom of his stack, and began to reread it.
The emotionless voice droned on over the radio, and Carlos wished for some music instead. It didn't matter, he supposed. All he wanted was
background noise so he could concentrate on thinking. Thinking, after all, was what a scientist did best.
He was barely listening, but caught sight of the sign just as his flickered up to meet it.
Welcome to Night Vale.