Chapter 1 Trouble in the Desert

July 2019, Nevada, U.S.A

"Are you sure about this?" Leah, Michelle's best friend, asked her as she got into her sedan.

"Leah, it's summer break - the last one before real life begins. I want to do this. It's now or never. I can cover a lot of places in eight weeks." Michelle replied through the open car window.

"But a cross-country tour in a little sedan all by yourself seems so - scary!" Leah protested. "And it's not like you have a boyfriend to go along with-" Leah received a sharp nudge from Brynn, who was standing beside her. The three of them were best friends and usually did everything together since high school - Until Michelle decided to do something she had never done before - make an unusual decision to go on a tour of the country.

"You don't have to remind her," Brynn whispered to Leah. Michelle smiled.

"It's okay guys. I'll be fine. But keep in mind I may not be able to call often on the road so just be patient for the postcards. They may be slow but they'll come." Leah hugged her through the open window.

"We're going to miss you like crazy!" she said. Brynn looked like she was holding back tears.

"Be safe, okay Shelly? We're a team and we expect you to get back for our final year in one piece."

"It's just a car tour, Brynn! I'm not even leaving the country." She started her engine.

"Well, I should get going. I want to make it to my first stop before sunset." Leah sniffed and waved.

"Bye, Michelle! We love you! Have a great trip!"

"Take care, Michelle! We hope you find what you're looking for!" Michelle's friends waved and she watched them in the rearview mirror as she drove off into the open roads away from her college - and into the unknown.

After an hour of enjoying the scenery of the open roads and wide-spaced lands, Michelle couldn't distract herself any longer. Brynn's words kept playing back in her head. Michelle was looking for something - a lot of things actually.

College with her best friends had been great - studying music had been great, and she enjoyed every minute of it. but what she expected to satisfy in college that was lacking in high school soon faded away after the first few months. And the need - the craving for something else set in.

At first, Michelle felt thrilled at the prospect of college - the reduced restraints, the freedom, the fun of fending for herself, living with her friends, learning to adjust to the mature life... it was all good. But eventually, she found something lacking - and it only made her feel depressed.

Her friends worried about her for the past year trying to cheer her up with all the parties and blind dates they could set up. But even that didn't interest her anymore. Michelle felt like an outcast; why was she feeling so disinterested in everything that would have made any other girl ecstatic?

It was also true what Leah said - Michelle never had a boyfriend. She never cared for dating in high school because it never ended well - either one of the couple might go to a different college, raging hormones fooled the heart to what was real, there was no prospect of a future together, no real solid hope of something more, etc. Michelle had come up with all the best reasons not to date in high school - not that anyone had asked her out. Sure she had a couple of crushes but she knew better than to trust those fickle feelings that ended after graduation.

But then college started and Michelle started to long for a relationship - something deep and fulfilling. It wasn't that guys weren't interested in her; a lot of them often spoke to her more than her friends and one of them even asked her out to lunch alone. But even the nicest smile couldn't satisfy what she was looking for. She wanted something more - something she couldn't put into words. Something mutual - something so deep that an understanding could be formed without words. And she wanted the person who would love her to expect the same in return. She wanted to give her all or nothing.

Leah and Brynn took her views to be too serious and unrealistic though they didn't let her down harshly. They joked saying Michelle was looking for a mythical perfect soul mate, the kind only found in books. They encouraged her to look outside in the world for whatever it is she was looking for but Michelle would withdraw at those times to her private corner, scribbling music scores to express her feelings - scores that her friends and every guy who hung around her found either too complex or melancholic.

Michelle hummed a tune as she drove, finally turning on her music player and humming along to it. Her taste in music also differed from her friends - she preferred minor key songs to major ones - which reflected her mood, whereas her friends preferred the light-hearted dance themes of major keys.

The warmth of the afternoon began to fade and the sky turned to a light lavender and peach. Michelle smiled as she watched the evening colors of the sky loom before her as she was heading west. She checked her watch. It was five fifteen. A little early for the sun to set but she didn't mind. The view was worth it.

The roads were dead silent and empty - a feeling Michelle relished. She decided to stop and enjoy it all and parked on the side of the road. She got out, pulling her cardigan a little closer to shield her from the desert winds. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the warm rays of the sinking sun glow on her eyelids, nothing but the sound of the wind ringing in her ears. This, she thought, was freedom.

When the sun showed signs of setting soon, Michelle got back into her car. She had to make it to an inn before it got too dark. She checked her map for directions - the GPS was out due to a bad signal.

"Okay, according to these markings, there should be a gas station and a motel a few miles north from here. I can fill up the car and rest for the night there." She folded the map and laid it on the seat next to her. Turning up the music again, she started the car and drove on.

It was dark by the time Michelle reached the gas station. The attendant, who was an elderly man, smiled at her as he filled the tank.

"You must not be from around here, eh, Miss? I usually know all my customers for miles around."

"Yes, I'm on a tour of the country." The old man whistled.

"Now that's mighty brave of you. But then young people nowadays ain't like they used to be. You be careful out there in the open road at night Miss. It ain't safe for a lady to be driving herself alone around these parts. Heck, it ain't safe even for a handful of college boys to be driving alone at night." Michelle bit her lip in slight anxiety.

"Thanks for the tip but I intend to stay at the motel a little ways from here. Could you point me to the fastest route?" she asked. The old man shook his head sadly.

"That isn't the wisest plan Miss. The motel you speak of - Mapleroof - lies more than a little ways from here. It's a good ten miles at least." Michelle's heart sank. She hadn't intended to drive that long after dark.

"I'd offer you a place here but -"

"No, no sir, thank you. I'll make it to the motel tonight somehow." He nodded gravely at her.

"Well, you be safe out there. God alone knows what lies out there in these lone deserts." Michelle thanked the man and drove off.

The road was a lot less pleasant at night than in broad daylight. The sky was clear but being a new moon meant no light from anywhere except Michelle's car. The shadows from the distant mountains seemed to grow. She turned on the overhead light to dispel the growing fear in her chest. Immediately she sighed in relief as the light flooded her car. She turned up some chill club music - that relaxed her. She drove on, counting the distance she covered from her odometer.

"Four... five... just five more miles till the motel." The song on her music player winded down as the cd came to an end. The stillness of the night crept up on Michelle again and that eerie feeling set in.

"Need more music... I know I packed my club hits somewhere in here..." she rummaged in her storage for the CDs keeping one eye on the road. It wasn't until she heard a rumbling sound that she looked up.

"What on earth-? Is that thunder?" she looked up but the sky was crystal clear save a few dozen stars.

"Oh I hope it's not the car... it seemed fine yesterday." She checked all the dials and meters to see if anything was wrong. But when the rumbling grew louder she knew it wasn't the car.

"Oh..." she exclaimed as she saw a light in her rearview mirror... two lights, four lights and they kept multiplying. Four cars came into sight, growing larger in the mirror, heading straight toward her.

The cars came up to Michelle in less than a minute, surrounding her from behind. They boxed her on three sides, leaving the front open. Michelle wished her speedometer could handle a hundred but she didn't dare try it... not yet.

"Hey, Sweetie! What's the rush? Pull over and we'll talk." One of the drivers yelled through the open window. Michelle didn't dare turn to look at him but kept her eyes straight forward.

"Yeah, you look a little lost. What's a pretty young thing like you doing out in the desert alone?" Another driver teased. Still gazing forward, Michelle pressed the gas pedal, her hands shaking a little on the wheel as she felt the car vibrate with the speed. She'd never gone over sixty mph before.

"Hey, Axe! This chick's not pulling out up! Why don't you show her how to?" the man on her left shouted. The only answer she heard was the roar of the engine behind her and suddenly she felt a resounding bang from behind, her car jolting forward. She shrieked and gasped in fright as she felt the car swerve. The men laughed raucously as they watched her struggle to get control of the car. The man on her left slammed into her door and she screamed.

"You give up princess? Or do you want more?" the man on her right asked with a sneer. Michelle began to hyperventilate. She was alone, getting slammed, and could be killed if they did that again. She looked at her speedometer. She was wavering between a ninety and a hundred. She decided to take a chance - she had to get away from these men somehow.

She hit the gas pedal hard and shot out of their grasp, her car engine deafening her. She glanced at the mirror in relief. The three cars seemed to shrink in the distance. She hoped she was out of the danger zone. Suddenly she remembered something - she had seen four sets of headlights. But there were only three chasing her. And she had lost them too easily. Where was the fourth car?

She barely had time to ponder that when she heard the rumble of a car again - this time it was a little farther. She looked to her right and saw a single car in the distance with the headlights off. Only the glint of the whitish paint of the car allowed her to see it. it sped forward and Michelle was determined to stay ahead of it. she kicked the gas pedal the speedometer hitting a hundred and thirty.

"Yes, I just might lose them!" she said turning back to the road ahead. She gasped suddenly as a pair of blinding headlights shone right in front of her. Panicking that she might hit the car before she could slow down, Michelle wrenched the wheel to the right, the speed thrusting her car far off the road on the right. It bumped and rolled, Michelle's foot paralyzed on the gas pedal shooting it forward even more. The car came to the edge of a seven-foot ledge and shot off. For a moment Michelle froze in fear, the feeling of being suspended in mid-air made her heart drop. She screamed as the car fell to the ground. Because she had been going at such a high speed, the car flipped to the side and went rolling over and over until a huge boulder stopped it in its path, making it rest upside down.