John had insisted that going over the mountains would be much quicker than taking the road around them, but I wasn't so sure. In fact, I think we were lost.

We were on our way to Portland for a video game convention with Rose and Dave. The three of us had all flown out to stay with John at his home in Washington the day before and set out on the road this morning. It was shaping up to be a super fun weekend, until we got on this road taking us through the forested top of this mountain. It felt like we had been driving here for hours!

And apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Dave sighed and kicked his feet up on to the dashboard. "Bro, either we've been driving in circles or we passed through some fuckin' weird twilight zone-esque portal. Like, I'm expecting Rod Serling to pop out from behind one of those trees with his smug know-it-all grin and start spouting off shit about the fifth dimension."

John glanced over at Dave's sneakers resting on the dashboard and reached over with one hand and swatted at them. "Hey! Careful! I don't want you scuffing up my dad's car with your dirt laced shoes!"

Dave scoffed. "Man, so many chicks would be begging me to let them kiss these feet. Like, they line up around the block daily just to even get a small peep at these bad boys. There's like weeping and gnashing of teeth and all kinds of crazy shit going on when the ladies fight over who gets to plant a wet one on my sparkling sneaks."

Rose and I giggled at his ridiculous tale from the backseat. Dave was so silly sometimes!

"Perhaps there is vast weeping and gnashing of teeth because of the great odor emitting from your feet. The ladies are surely fighting with the hopes that it is not they who must be selected for the daily tortuous task of pressing her lips to the feet of one Dave Strider. It is truly a gruesome affair." Rose suggested.

Dave turned around in his seat and was about to say something when John spoke up again.

"Argh! Guys…I think we are lost! I have no idea where I am going anymore!" he proclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. "Well I could have told you that, John! Why didn't you just bring a GPS?"

I could see his face turning a little red in the rear view mirror. "I, uh, I've driven this way before and never had any trouble so I just figured it would be no big deal to do it again."

Dave pulled out his iPhone and opened up Google Maps. "I can't get a satellite pickup out here.." He said.

"We must be in a bad spot – too many trees, too much mountain and not enough wireless towers around." I stated.

Shortly after that the car began to slow down.

"What's going on up there John?" Rose inquired.

"Oh no, oh no…" He mumbled to himself.

The car came to a complete stop. This couldn't be good.

"Damn it!" John yelled, banging his head on the steering wheel in frustration.

Rose and Dave were silent, and I peeked my head around John's seat. "Everything okay?" I asked him.

John lifted his head and groaned. "We're out of gas…"

"Shit, what? No, we're fine. This is fine." Dave looked panicky.

"I told you we should have stopped at that gas station a couple hours back, but you didn't listen to me." Rose said. "Did you at least bring an extra container with you in the car?"

John furrowed his brow. "Uh, maybe? I don't remember actually."

Feeling a little restless after sitting in the car for so long I volunteered to go check the trunk for any extra gas.

I got out of the car and walked around back to the trunk and opened it up. There had to be some gas in here somewhere! I pushed aside our small overnight bags and rummaged through the other useless crap that was lying around back there.

No sign of gas anywhere.

Slamming the trunk shut again I sighed in frustration. What would we do now? The convention started tomorrow, and at the rate we had been going we wouldn't have gotten to the hotel until late. But now it was doubtful that we would make it at all!

I couldn't remember the last time I had seen a sign or exit on the road, but maybe we weren't too far from one now. The mountain couldn't be totally uninhabited, right?

I walked over to the driver's side window and tapped on the glass. John rolled down his window. "Did you find it?" he asked hopefully.

I shook my head. "Nada. Just a bunch of baking supplies and old ties back there. Your dad is kind of odd!"

"Oh dad…" He chuckled to himself. "But oh man! What should we do now?"

"Well, I was thinking I could walk down the road a ways and see if we're near a rest stop or anyone who might be able to help. There has to be someone else up here!"

"Hmm…" he thought it over.

"John!" I exclaimed.

"Oh! Yeah, well I guess there's nothing else we can really do. Do you want one of us to come with you?" He asked.

"No, I'm used to navigating around on my own. I'll be fine!" I told him. "If I don't see anything after twenty minutes or so I'll come back."

"Twenty minutes?" Dave leaned forward to look at me. "What the hell are we supposed to do until you get back?"

I shrugged. "I dunno! Why don't you make up raps or whatever it is you usually do?"

Rose and John rolled their eyes, praying Dave would not take my suggestion.

I laughed. "I'll be back!" I called as I headed down the road.


I had been walking for about ten minutes so far and hadn't seen a single thing indicating that there were people around.

Well this was no good! How in the world were we supposed to get out of here?!

As I walked and considered what we should do, up ahead I saw an old man coming out of the trees towards the road. He was opening up a mailbox that was on the side of the road.

I started running towards him. "Hey! Excuse me sir!"

He looked up at me. "Oh my, hello there." He called.

I stopped running and caught my breath when I reached him. "I am so glad I found you! My friends and I were driving along this road and our car ran out of gas, we're stranded!"

The old man looked surprised. "Oh dear, what a shame! You're lucky you caught me, I don't usually come down this way except to see if there's any mail. My home is a ways back on this path, but I should probably have some gas around somewhere."

I grinned. "Oh that's fantastic! I'm so sorry to trouble you with this, but we really needed the help."

He smiled. "No trouble at all, miss. Now why don't you go fetch your pals and bring them back here and I'll take you all up to my home and get you that gas. I'm sure you must be hungry too, so I would be happy to cook dinner for you all! It's been so long since I've had guests…"

"That's so generous of you! Yes, I'll run back and get them now!"

I started back down the road and waved to the old man as I went. What luck!