Empty Jump

Lee pulled the clutch, skidding in the shallowest possible curve around the traffic cone. He turned around the opposite side of the next one, only an inch away from contact. He continued through the obstacle course with all the precision he could muster, and spun around with a screech to make the return run. What a great sound.

He reached the end of the course and came to a dead stop the instant he passed the last cone. He threw open the door and put his hands in the air, awaiting the announcement of his triumph.

“Time!” he called out.

Several feet away on the edge of the empty lot, Trey leaned over John’s shoulder to check the stopwatch.

“47.2 seconds!” declared John.

“Yes!” Lee punched the air. “Let’s fucking goooo!” All three over them celebrated with howls of excitement as Lee spun around - and tripped on the last traffic cone. He managed to stop himself from falling forward on his face, but overcorrected and fell backward, hitting his head on the open door of his Integra.

“Oh shit, Lee!” Trey called out and ran over to Lee as he hit the ground.

Lee slowly sat up and massaged the back of his head.

“Are you okay?” John asked. He and Trey stood over Lee, concerned.

“Yeah it’s not that - oh!” Lee looked at his hand and was surprised to see blood. “Fuck, I guess it was kinda gnarly.”

“You want me to look at it?” John offered, not that he was a doctor.

“I mean, it doesn’t hurt that bad.” Lee chuckled. “Dude, how ironic is it that I was just telling Jessica I was gonna stop doing so much dumb shit because of the potential for injury, and that’s when I get the worst injury I’ve ever gotten from racing.”

“From your greatest triumph to your lowest point.” John noted, referring to the personal record Lee had broken less than a minute ago.

They all laughed. Lee pushed himself to his feet, oblivious to the helping hand Trey was extending.

“Well, shall we head back home?” said John.

“Yeah it’s getting pretty dark.” agreed Lee. The sun was already setting and it was almost an hour back to town from the desolate hillscape they were on.

They went around collecting their traffic cones, and Lee admired the skid marks they had made.

“It looks like we made some kinda satanic symbol or something.”

“Oh yeah with the bloody handmark, that’s sick.” agreed John.

“We should try to catch a coyote as a sacrifice.” Trey was joking but he gave Lee an idea. He touched the back of his head again like he was dipping his brush in red paint and used the last bit of blood before it dried to make a little pentagram in the center of the lot.

“Nice.” said John. Lee extended both of his pinkies and pointer fingers in double devil horns as Trey took a picture.

“You want me to drive your car Lee?” Trey asked.

“Yeah, that's probably good.” said Lee. “I could have a small concussion.”

Trey hadn’t brought a car, so they only needed two drivers. John and Trey got in their respective drivers’ seats, but Lee paused before getting in.

“Do you guys hear thunder or something?” The skies were clear, but there was a distant rumbling sound he couldn’t pinpoint.

“The only thunder I hear is this fucking V8!” said John as he revved his engine. Lee laughed and shrugged it off as he got in the passenger seat of his ‘92 Integra.

Lee and Trey headed down first while John emo playlist for the drive. The road was long, winedy and completely empty.

“This would be perfect for drifting.” noted Trey.

“Yeah I thought about it before, but it’s a little too sendy even for me.” said Lee. “It’s like instant death if you fuck up.” It was a steep drop of around 100 feet over a ravine, with no guard railing to prevent a fall.

“Oh yeah, you came up here with John before. Did he say why there’s a random parking lot in the middle of nowhere?”

“Yeah, it was like they were gonna make a big tourist attraction out of the caves nearby.” remembered Lee. “But there was some toxic chemical in the air or something, so they shut it down.”

“In the air at the lot!?”

“No like in the caves…” Lee trailed off. He felt an unusual jostling, separate from the familiar bumpiness of his old beater car. “Woahwoahwoah, pull over. I think there’s an earthquake.”

Trey came to a stop as far away from the center of the road as he could - still completely in the lane, and killed the engine. Sure enough, the ground itself was moving. An aggressive vibration with no ebb and flow. As Lee opened the door and stepped out, he could hear the rumbling thunder, louder now. Closer.

“Uh, where’s the button for the hazard lights?” asked Trey.

“It’s on the left side under… here, I’ll get it.” Lee stepped around and got in the driver’s seat to turn the lights on. The earthquake continued on. Was it starting to crescendo? The shaking of the ground almost seemed in tune with the thunderous ostinado.

“Is that thunder you heard?” wondered Trey. “Or is that the earthquake?”

“I don’t know. It’d be pretty unlikely for a thunderstorm to happen this time of year, especially at the same time as an earthquake.” pondered Lee. He heard tires screeching back up the road. “Is that John?”

Almost as soon as he asked, John’s car came into view. It seemed as if he was driving at nearly top speed, but with no precision. It was erratic, panicked. Trey seemed to expect John to slow down, and stepped out to wave. At the last second, Lee grabbed Trey’s wrist and yanked him back, causing him to fall.

John’s car rushed past, running over Trey’s leg and knocking out the driver door of Lee’s car.

In the headlights, Lee could make out a figure - two figures attached to John’s car. Their green, squid-like skin seemed to reflect the light.

The car missed a turn, and toppled off the road into the ravine.

Trey howled in pain, masking the sound of the impact.

Lee tore his gaze away from where John’s car had been and looked at Trey, seeing his foot bent at an angle it shouldn’t be.

Lee sat still, stunned, as he tried to process this information: His friend had just died in a car crash. Another friend had been maimed. The earthquake was getting worse. He smelled a storm coming on. No, not a storm - something sulphuric? Two alien-like figures had caused the crash. It seemed impossible, but facts were facts.

“AAAaauugghhhh fuckkkkkk…!!” Trey struggled to get himself under control.

What does one do in this situation?

Lee and Trey heard - felt an impact from the hilltop above them as the thunder came to a climactic fortississimo. They looked up and saw tree roots had appeared - silvery, wet and about as big as an SUV. They seemed to be decaying and rotting, but sleek and smooth at the same time. The roots’ ends broke off and dripped down behind the car, taking on a humanoid shape. They glistened in the flickering hazard lights with a sense of malice.

Decisions had to be made.

“Trey, get in the car!” Lee called. Trey stood up on one leg and turned to come around to the passenger side. There wasn’t time. “Through the sunroof, now!” Damn this two-door chasis.

Trey got on top of the Integra as Lee pulled the top window open. The squid-things hobbled closer, picking up speed.

Trey got his head and torso through the sunroof before Lee fired up the engine. He was just about to gun it when he realized how exposed he felt from his missing door and took a second to fasten his seat belt.

In that second, a squid-thing latched an appendage onto the back of the car. Lee hit the gas, carrying the creature with him.

He knew these roads were deadly, but he could feel the evil intentions of the creature behind him. At least he had a chance with the road. He put the car into oversteer, losing traction in his back wheels as he approached the first bend and carrying his momentum through the curve, punching Trey’s ear as he shifted gears.

He could hardly spare a millisecond against the road, but in the rearview Lee saw the creature shifting its form to get into the car. The back window started to crack.

There’s no way they can make it back to town like this. Could he throw the creature off? Maybe Trey could push it? What would happen if he touched it?

“Lee, above - !”

Lee could hardly hear Trey over the car and the thunder that seemed to be coming from all directions simultaneously, nor could he allocate the brain power to form words. He had to drive.

What Trey had seen above soon came into view in front. The tree roots the squid-things had come from hovered over the road, attached to a long trunk. Was it a hand? The fingers extended as it tracked the car's movements. It was trying to snatch them up.

The hand drew closer as Lee drifted around a bend and arrived at a straight line of road. It was now or never - he gunned the engine for maximum speed just as the hand closed in, just missing the ‘92 Integra.

Lee couldn’t help but feel a little proud. I just outran a giant eldritch monster, he thought.

That’s when the creature in back broke through the window. It latched on to Trey, still with his feet sticking up through the sunroof, and inserted a silvery, rotted tendril into his back. Trey screamed, but his voice stopped and started in syncopation.

What now?

Lee brought the car to a stop as quickly as he could. He’d have to fight that thing off, somehow. But as soon as he shifted into park, the hand closed in around the car. He hadn’t outrun it after all.

The grotesque, root-like hand reeked of sulfur, shit and salt as it lifted the car into the air - 10, 15, 20 feet and rotated it passenger-side up, then nearly upside-down. Lee’s brain frantically tried to think of what to do. Did he have anything on hand that could be a weapon? Was there a way to communicate with the creatures? Could he call someone?

All of those thoughts ceased as Lee came face to face with the monster.

He couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.

It reflected the light from the headlights, but was shrouded in darkness. Its texture appeared sleek, but wrinkly. What he had previously thought was silvery was actually no color at all. Not black, white or gray, but a natural colorlessness.

As he looked, Lee’s other senses became similarly overwhelmed.

The ever-present rumbling thunder modulated to a tyrannical harmony, forming chords beyond imagination. Invasive, delicate smells of death and starlight crept through his mouth and into his lungs. His muscles burned and gasped for air and pleasure. Time compounded itself and Lee lived a thousand nightmares in a second.

In a final act before he lost himself, Lee unbuckled his seat belt.

He tumbled out of the gaping car and fell to Earth.