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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here.

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Let's get into it. My name's Ray and right now

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I'm sitting in the driver's seat of a freight liner

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needs pop in. Every time I shift my weight, you'll

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hear the engine eyed length, the clatter in the doors.

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This is for the record, in case something ever happens,

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or in case I just need to convince myself later

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that I didn't dream it. Sun's not quite up yet,

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but there's just enough gray light spilling over the inter

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state that you can spot just steaming off the mirrors.

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I've been on the stretch since three a m. Somewhere

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way out past mile MARKO one hundred thirty six rows

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of fresh ass? What go on for miles the sort

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of work only county money and federal indifference can buy.

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Miss hovers above the bam, making the empty fields beyond

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look deeper than they should like you could step out

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of the cap and just keep falling. I've hauled everything

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from produced propellants done Highway forty one, and every so

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often you notice odd things that this IRA tire blowouts

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aftermath cap has fuel tanks. A deer at the tree

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line with its eyes canpowderablue when your high beans, but

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this was different. Right before the sun broke the horizon,

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there they were a set of tire tracks, deep and unmistakable,

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slicing down the embankment from the shoulder with the fresh

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blattop met a spill of red dirt. At first, my

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brain tried to explain, must have been another howler, someone

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in trouble, maybe a surface crew taking equipment to a workside.

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Except these tracks went made by anything smaller than my own.

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Rigged wind grooves pressed heavy and recent, the soil at

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the edges still clumping with morning damp. I saw the

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divots from dual axles, the wavy chatter of a loaded

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trailer bouncing off you blacktop, My own foot hovered up

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of the clutch, a line of sweat forming under my collar.

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Despite the shell. There wasn't a break in the guard

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rail that got me right off. No sign of an

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exit or temporary ramp, no tire rubber, no marks scarring

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the pavement where someone might have crushed the currents or

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drifted by accident. Everything about it said a deliberate but

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the road didn't offer any place to go. I parked

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up behind the shoulder hazard lights clicking, then knees out

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into the mist out Here, traffic's boss enough that silence

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gets thick. No wind, the birds keep their distance, or

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maybe just stay quiet. There wasn't a sound but the

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ping of my engine cool and my boots crushing the

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wet grass. I felt there shivering against my neck. Smelled

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a reek of cigarettes that was mine, curling up faintly,

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as if someone had been standing right where I was

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minutes before. Then I noticed the cap not mine, a

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Peter belt with out of state plates, sitting nose first

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in the emergency lane of about twenty yards from where

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the twin track vanished off the shoulder. All the windows

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were rolled up. The cab door, when I gave it

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a tug was locked from the inside. I rapped gently,

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got no answer. The only response was the low hiss

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of a Seabee radius still switched on. Inside. Leaning closer,

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I could make out a hummostatic, then a voice feigned toiney,

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repeating the beginnings of a sentence before being clipped off.

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The scent of cigarettes was stronger here, bared with the

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ghost of fast food coffee. I pressed my knuckles against

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the warm glass, spotting an ashtry full of fresh butts,

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a ham radio mike looped against the dash, and a

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lubberc open to half finished route list. For a second,

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I felt like I was breathing in someone else's air.

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Everything was in place, the seats still sopped in body heat.

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I could swear the echo of footsteps lingered in the

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gravel behind me. No sign of struggle, nothing broken, no

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glass in the ground. It looked like the driver had

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rolled up, parked, said the brake, and simply left stepped

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away without turning off the radio or locking the lock.

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This sort of thing isn't unheard, but combined with the

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tire tracks and the dirt tracks leading nowhere through its

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softest butter with no exit anywhere in sight, the gut

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level sense of wrongness kept piling up. I gabbed my

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handhold and called it in. My voice kept catching, and

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I had to force myself not to sound panicked. Eastbound

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forty one mile one hundred thirty six. Found abandoned rake

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cab lot, driver missing, no visible accident with left requesting

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local law, possible medical. The words tasted sirer, lodging behind

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my teeth. My thumb pressed the transmit button harder than

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it should have watching my own exhaled billow inside the

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cab glass. Something in my bones told me I was

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sending out a message into a silence that had already

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given its answer. By the time I slid back into

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my seat, hand shaking worse than after a triple espresso.

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The only thing left was that he be the last

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scrap of connection to whoever had vanished, still sending out

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its faint, broken warning. The truth is, this kind of

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a nise doesn't come out of nowhere. Life on the

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road gets you used to see weird stuff, and it's

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easy to brush moments like these off as tricks of exhaustion, boredom,

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or the aimless rolling dark. But leaving that truck behind,

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knowing the driver could have been met or might still

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be out there just beyond the age of sight, I

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told myself I'd pay attention, just in case this was

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the last time I stumbled across a set of tracks

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running off the map. Routine's the only thing that keeps

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you sane out here. When you drive across state lines

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week after week, hopping time zones like it's nothing, you

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start to measure life and rest stops and fuel receipts

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instead of birthdays. Usually the day begins with a groan

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of vinal seats and the ritual of checking tire pressure,

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slashing cheap coffee into myself until it burns just enough

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to shop my system awake. The radio is always low,

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tuned to static or the same handful of old As

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everyone passes along the route. On good runs, all scan

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for voices ade hay, there trouble ahead or a breaker

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one nine. Anyone must bound past Evanville just to remind

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myself I'm not the only living soul on the ribbon

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of blacked up. A lot of people don't understand what

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I mean by a brotherhood of the road. It's not

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some noble blue collar myth. It's the fact that at

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ree m if you find yourself boxed in near a

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way station and see another set of headlights flicked the

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brites twice, you know that a friend guys like Mike

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Peanut but Etretsky, Oh Shiligacirez, who once saved my ass

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with a single warning when a dear eat half a

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football field out in front of my load. We swap jokes.

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He'd be amazed. What passes for conversation tall tales about

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haunted diners, Bob threats about dot checks. Bertie is traded

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over truck stop pancakes. There's gossip too, Maybe you've heard versions.

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My cousin met a hitchiker who vanished from mile ninety eight,

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or Tom Garrison, remember him, He just disappeared, left his

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log book and everything. Always somebody of the body, always

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a little tongue in cheek until it isn't. But for

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most high was like this one, the infamous stretch of

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forty one are more but survival than spookstores. You talk

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about real hazards. Construction that never seems to finish, Cones

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blinking for weeks on end, detos posted with angry arrows,

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sending you double back and stead a forward the sections

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known in the circuit. The guys call it that infinity

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stripped cones by the mile, glaring halogens at all ayars,

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concrete barriers that seem to shift overnight, and for all

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locker planing. You get a sixth sense about which neck

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crews do the work and which leave things half done.

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Were a panel's loose or a sign doesn't match its post.

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Guys keep mentalists of bad markers, avoiding them like you

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would pot. All the size of a doghouse. I do

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what must do, fois and Aya. I'll pop a caffeine pill,

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wash it down with warm water, crack the window to

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let a near so cold it bones. Sometimes I'll scan

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the CV, just a catch of voice and make sure

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I'm not alone with only the hum of the engine

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and my own thoughts. Sometimes we laugh about their phantom lane,

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a piece of black top that appears disappears, shows up

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on GPS only after three in the morning. Silliness right.

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Usually someone rolls their eyes, pinches the cigarette into the

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ashtray and says, if you're seeing extra highways, time to

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hang up the keys. And I'll admit, most of the

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time it is just fatigue, skulking in the corners of

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your eyes at the end of a ship parked at

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one of the stubby pull offs they leaf for us

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in the middle of nowhere. I fire up my TV watcher,

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runs on spotty WiFi. Sown now to the laugh track.

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Sometimes you feel something brewing under the skin of the night.

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Attention the hes standing up on your arm when you

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see a stretch of cones that don't seem to match

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yesterday's map, But you force yourself to focus on the

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mundane log your irows wash up in a tile bathroom

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that smells of AMMONIAIR call home to a forice mail

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if you have one left worth calling discomfort in numbers, receipts, tickets,

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irows of service, lane's cut and paved, every detail accounted for.

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I used to think that was enough, that numbers and

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routines would form a shield against anything weird creeping out

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at the edge of the lamp light. Truth is, no

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matter how practical you are, no matter how hard you

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try to laugh off the chill, clutching your roobs at

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hot IROs the roads, always hunting for ways to slip

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past your guard. That night, after I saw the tracks,

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a lay though with can laughter echoing off the window,

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I must have watched six episodes in a row, barely

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taken in the plot, just waiting for my mind to

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slip from static to sleep. But my eyes kept drifting

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to the side view mirror and the dog lem beyond

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the cones, like I was waiting for a pattern to

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snap into view, some logic in the way the highways

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twist routes, half remembered, layin, split and vanish. That was

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the last good sleep I had for a long while

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old school truck stops a kind bill before the chainstows

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rolled in. I tracked all the drifters, too proud or

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too tired to faint. Big city JOm Quay, glass lick

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with finger prints, baking, that taste of last week's coffee.

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It's the best place for news that despatchers never tell you.

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Next morning, elbows perched on the sticky linoleum counter, I

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overheard two drivers talking in the next booth. Kept their

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voices low, like maybe saying it out loud would make

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it stick. You see that thing about Freeborn's truck upon

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one hundred forty four. One asked, callous hand trembling over

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a mug, YEA left it locked up neat. The other replied,

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no forced entries, he'd be still going. Keys inside. Their

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eyes darted briefly my way. I lifted my mug, feigning

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interest in fade to jump packet beside my toast. I

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finished breakfast quickly, too aware of my tongue, my hands,

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my pulse. I stepped out into the bracing air and

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thumbed up in my tablet. They're soothing and patterns. I

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marked out all the last known locations where I'd heard

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about new disappearances, scrolling through incident reports and local news blogs,

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truck of forms mostly designed for talking about pay scales

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and DoD harassments. It didn't take much to notice a pattern.

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All these phantom rigs, similar times at past midnight, always

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within sight of huge stretches of construction, but never in town.

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Check ins at nearby truck stops time stamped after the fact,

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My edge logs ending mid sentence. One even had a

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fuel with seat registered miles past where the rick was discovered.

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I began aligning depends on the digital map. Each incident

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followed a path roughly parallel threding through the parts of

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the highway still under work, and when I checked satellite

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imagery from months apart, something old stood out. At every

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site somewhere along the stretch was unopened, never driven. Fifth

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lane cordoned by barrels or cones, painted like it was

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meant for traffic, but never used. Curiosity is an itch

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that get under the skin. At first, I told myself

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it was just interest, a hobby to keep my brain

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busy between shifts. I started keeping notes in my seat

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back ledger, drawing arrows whenever I spotted barriers. For a

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fifth flane or a temporary closure on a night with

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empty traffic and no visible crews. Driving became a little different.

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After at I found myself checking construction sites for signs

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of activity, crushed soda cans, cigarette butts, the scrape of

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steel boots over concrete. Sometimes i'd slow lighting head let's

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crawl over the aggregate, daring the cunes to move. Most

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time nothing happened. But one night I passed close works

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on Coonstact in a hapazard line, not a single machine inside,

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where a sign should have read work ahead of marriage left,

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someone scrolled and no exit, and faded spray paint on

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the reverse. In my log I wrote keep track fifth

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lanes unused. Always at night I pressed my pin a

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little too hard, left a dent on the next page.

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A week later I realized I'd lost truck of whom

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I was writing the record for caffeine and Habit masked

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the weariness, but nothing dulled the edge of a knees.

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The more I stared at the maps and re seats,

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the less sense the hire was made. Nothing lined up

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between the paperwork and the pavement beneath my wheels. That

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next run, I kept my recorder running testing one two,

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rough forty one through one hundred forty lay enclosures, fifth

236
00:10:48,519 --> 00:10:51,559
lanes sealed, no active crew inside, all clear. The glow

237
00:10:51,639 --> 00:10:53,759
from my dashboard bathed the cabin pale blue light as

238
00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,000
darkness pressed in closer outside. I kept watching the road

239
00:10:57,039 --> 00:10:59,240
for the subtle hints, but mostly I waited for the

240
00:10:59,279 --> 00:11:02,000
moment the patterm I reveal itself. I couldn't have known

241
00:11:02,039 --> 00:11:04,399
it was about to get a whole lot weirder. Crossing

242
00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:06,639
state lines at midnight and the third Thursday in March,

243
00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:08,960
rain drumming the paint off the low slung cones, I

244
00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:10,840
switched the sea beach to Channel nineteen for the usual

245
00:11:10,919 --> 00:11:14,639
night time talk. At first, nothing but static. Then a

246
00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:17,600
sudden hiss broke the silence of panet voice highe and quivering,

247
00:11:17,639 --> 00:11:20,960
spun out and burst between feedback squalls. Mile marker won

248
00:11:21,039 --> 00:11:23,120
four four repeat, don't turn, don't you see it left?

249
00:11:23,159 --> 00:11:26,320
It's not The voice bled out, overlapping its salve, a

250
00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:29,080
reversal like someone had hit rewind on the tape. For

251
00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:31,480
a moment I thought it was garbled to broadcasts, some

252
00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:34,799
joker running a loop. But then another voice, deeper, familiar,

253
00:11:34,799 --> 00:11:38,679
cut through trailing off into raraged metallic echoes. I realized

254
00:11:38,799 --> 00:11:42,039
I was cold. It was my own, garbled but unmistakable.

255
00:11:42,679 --> 00:11:45,120
I slamed on the brake, I scanning for points of reference.

256
00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:48,360
The GBS showed my location as clear smack dab on

257
00:11:48,399 --> 00:11:51,480
wrout forty one, not a single detro poster. Yet there

258
00:11:51,519 --> 00:11:53,559
was the glow of orange lights up ahead and an

259
00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:56,240
arisign set against a medium that didn't match my memory

260
00:11:56,279 --> 00:11:59,360
of the route. I gripped the wheel chest height, irrestraining

261
00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:01,000
for any real sight out side of the slap of

262
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,159
a wiper, the rattle of trailer chains, a voice that

263
00:12:03,279 --> 00:12:06,720
wasn't minor composed of static. Instead, I got the hollow

264
00:12:06,759 --> 00:12:09,440
hush of a world with too much background removed, and

265
00:12:09,519 --> 00:12:11,960
then it was gone, transmission snap to silence, the orange

266
00:12:12,039 --> 00:12:14,559
lights dimming behind an odd haze, like someone rolling back

267
00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,440
the world an inch at a time. Memory can be treacherous,

268
00:12:17,559 --> 00:12:20,240
but in the following days I started comparing stores on

269
00:12:20,279 --> 00:12:22,919
the late night net channels, Guys who had lost a

270
00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,120
rig in a fog bank, Others who mentioned traffic pilots

271
00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:28,440
who simply drifted off radio with no trace but the

272
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:32,200
echo of their last signal. I asked around the flying

273
00:12:32,279 --> 00:12:34,519
j twenty miles up the interstate. There's a driver named

274
00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:36,919
Hemi double crunk cells, who's been running this rut longer

275
00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:39,519
than I burned a license. We bumped into each other,

276
00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:43,679
swapping out our thermosis. I asked, careful, what's your take

277
00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:46,639
on these fifth lanes, all the closures? He squinted, a

278
00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:49,240
voice lowered just above a growl. You see a fifth

279
00:12:49,279 --> 00:12:51,919
lane open, doesn't mean you're meant to use it. He

280
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:54,840
spat a stream of tobacco into the gravel. If the

281
00:12:54,879 --> 00:12:57,480
cones are there, leave him. If they're gone, drive on by.

282
00:12:57,679 --> 00:12:59,919
Never seen a crew working those, and you weren't neither.

283
00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:02,679
Something in the skin around his eyes a bruise, looked

284
00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:05,320
like Heath stayed awake too many nights, seeing things worth forgetting.

285
00:13:05,799 --> 00:13:07,679
He tapped the gage on his glove box twice, a

286
00:13:07,759 --> 00:13:10,720
superstition or a nervous tick, before heading off without another word.

287
00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:13,559
I spent hours back in my cat screening bright in

288
00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,320
the dark, reviewing dash of feeds from drivers who vanish

289
00:13:16,519 --> 00:13:19,559
courtesy of a despatcher who owed me a favor. Again

290
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,279
and again, the same glitchy flicker, roadway lights stretching too far,

291
00:13:23,399 --> 00:13:26,679
angles warped to digital timestems, jumping backward and forward by minutes,

292
00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:30,360
sometimes even IROs. Always in the missing frames, a flash

293
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:33,440
of alternate pavement, another set of reflectors running parallel, not

294
00:13:33,519 --> 00:13:36,559
marked by any official sign. The more I compared notes,

295
00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,960
the greater the compulsion to dick. I dug up permit records,

296
00:13:40,279 --> 00:13:43,279
notes on construction crew scheduled along the rats, pulling up

297
00:13:43,279 --> 00:13:45,399
Google street view archos to compare what showed up to

298
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,279
what was supposed to be there. At every phantom lane sight.

299
00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,159
The details were off, suindly, spelled wrong. All CAP's warnings

300
00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,000
posted in styles I'd never seen on a real construction site.

301
00:13:54,519 --> 00:13:57,279
No heavy equipment, just neatly a line, barriers and warning

302
00:13:57,360 --> 00:14:00,240
arrows that pointed a little too sharply off road. No

303
00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:04,440
permit matched, no official recortied to the closures. When I

304
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,320
pressed the county clerk, she stammered something vague company five

305
00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,720
handles the Royal Expansion, Except the company didn't exist in

306
00:14:10,759 --> 00:14:14,080
the state business database. The investigation ate up more of

307
00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:17,559
my life. I cataloged these irregularities, the warts on age,

308
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,080
the missing logs, the time slits, and the dash footage.

309
00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:23,000
Sleep didn't come easy. I drifted toward the edge of

310
00:14:23,039 --> 00:14:26,240
the fringe, pressing play again and again, looking for anything

311
00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:29,159
I missed. The fifth lane was no longer rumored to me.

312
00:14:29,799 --> 00:14:32,320
It was a pattern, and it was drawing me closer

313
00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,799
every night. Out at the edge of a little gas

314
00:14:34,799 --> 00:14:36,799
station by the cross roads, I waited. I was for

315
00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,720
a contact I only knew as Maddock's ended up with

316
00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,120
a riding minilla envelope left on my dashboard and stead

317
00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:45,360
no note, just a battered, flashed drive inside on the

318
00:14:45,399 --> 00:14:47,639
casing in s much sharp eye was a single warning,

319
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:50,720
don't ask, just watch and stay awake. Act At the

320
00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,480
cap that night, under a rain streak canopy of sodium lights,

321
00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,320
I slotted the drive into my laptop. The file was

322
00:14:56,399 --> 00:14:59,120
raw dashfootage sixty three minutes a highway, all shot from

323
00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:02,000
chest level in a free eight the time stump mashed

324
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,039
the night rig vanished up at the one hundred forty

325
00:15:04,039 --> 00:15:08,120
four exit. For the first twenty minutes, uneventful highway hiss,

326
00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:10,679
the regular thump of lane markers, occasional sight of rain,

327
00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:13,720
and the passenger window a closure head, four range cones,

328
00:15:13,879 --> 00:15:17,440
blinking arrow worning to merge right. Only as the truck

329
00:15:17,519 --> 00:15:20,679
rolled closer the lane ahead did and narrow. Instead, a

330
00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:24,000
brief flicker, subtle, almost dintifactured another smooth, blapt up lane

331
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:26,440
peeling away to the left, unmarked with just the shimmer

332
00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:28,840
of reflective paint and a row of solop out post lights.

333
00:15:29,519 --> 00:15:31,480
The truck didn't so much turn as drift. The wheel

334
00:15:31,519 --> 00:15:35,320
twitches like a magnet's pulling it off course. The camera lurches,

335
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:38,320
headlights illuminating stretches of incomplete highway, and behind a quick

336
00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,879
shutter of the lens, the lane seems to open up wide,

337
00:15:40,879 --> 00:15:43,399
as if cut into nothing but rolling dust, barriers, scattered

338
00:15:43,519 --> 00:15:46,600
arrow boards blinking in impossible patterns, cones making a pentagram

339
00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:50,000
in the dark. Across the footage, the warning sign flickers,

340
00:15:50,039 --> 00:15:52,919
replaced by half lits solo. It's men invests, faceless, moving

341
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,679
behind unfinished rails. The engine refs, the view snapped sideways,

342
00:15:56,799 --> 00:15:59,240
and the screen freezes on road strouds vanishing under a

343
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:02,360
slab of half port concrete. The last sound is not metallic,

344
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,000
not quite human, as sharp fizzling screen before the camera

345
00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:07,600
drops to the truck floor, showing only dash lights jittering,

346
00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:11,240
then turtle black. The time stump hopped forward for thirty

347
00:16:11,279 --> 00:16:13,440
two jumps five forty four, a full Iyo gune with

348
00:16:13,519 --> 00:16:16,480
no interval. I sat there staring at my reflection in

349
00:16:16,519 --> 00:16:19,240
the monitor, wide eyed, slack jawed, unable to reconcile what

350
00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:21,720
I just watched With twenty years of real world experience.

351
00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,000
The caffeine pills in my pocket felt like pebbles, suddenly

352
00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,519
useless against the tide crawling up my spine. Every joky story,

353
00:16:28,559 --> 00:16:30,360
every room a half left off at the diner had

354
00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,559
a foundation. Every phantom lane was of real physical thing

355
00:16:33,639 --> 00:16:36,360
therein not there at the same time, a parallelogram of unreality,

356
00:16:36,399 --> 00:16:39,080
of laid onto the world and had hunted the roads

357
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:41,720
were men and women ran their lives, unnoticed by any

358
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:44,960
authority who might care enough to stop it. After that

359
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:48,279
obsession hummed under every thought, I started marking my logs

360
00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:52,440
with more detail, noting off kilter cones, misnumbered exits. Anytime

361
00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:55,240
a lane closure looked wrong, I slowed, scanned the barricades,

362
00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:58,279
checked for those impossible parallelo gruns shining at night. By

363
00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:00,480
this stage, I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was

364
00:17:00,519 --> 00:17:02,480
out there and the Fifth Flame wasn't just passively feeding

365
00:17:02,519 --> 00:17:06,000
on circumstance. It was actively selecting its moments waiting for

366
00:17:06,039 --> 00:17:08,799
the right driver, the right fatigue, the right space between worlds.

367
00:17:09,599 --> 00:17:12,039
On a gray ski deper morning, with low clouds pressed

368
00:17:12,039 --> 00:17:13,480
to the ground and the wind picking at the back

369
00:17:13,519 --> 00:17:15,519
of my ears, I left the rig park beside ear

370
00:17:15,559 --> 00:17:19,480
closed workside at dawn. No crew, no trucks, just a

371
00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:22,240
row of cones, one not flat though lay enclosed sign

372
00:17:22,319 --> 00:17:24,519
and distobed, but a slip of tire shining through the clay.

373
00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:28,079
I walked slowly, boots crunching over patches of scattered gravel.

374
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:32,079
The smells were ordinary, sun warmed asphalt, petroleum, the tang

375
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:35,200
of old insulation. But then all details snapped into folks

376
00:17:35,279 --> 00:17:37,119
about a heart at tucked a side, a sign, a

377
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:39,359
new invest half bury near a fold up chair, duncan

378
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:42,079
cup still worn to the touch atop a pylon. Peepers

379
00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:44,759
drifted at the edge of the cleared area. I gathered

380
00:17:44,759 --> 00:17:47,319
them with trembling hands. Handterton locks. Stamped tickets for fuel

381
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:51,000
and gatorade, receipts from out of state shops. The times

382
00:17:51,039 --> 00:17:53,440
were wrong again. Meals paid for ten minutes after sum

383
00:17:53,559 --> 00:17:55,519
rise when the sun was barely up. Stamps with county

384
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:57,720
names that didn't line up with any county in state.

385
00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,039
I stood awhile, listening, straining for any hintless place had

386
00:18:01,079 --> 00:18:03,920
real workers, any ordinary rhythm of day labors prepping for

387
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:07,400
the morning's poor Now then just the wind, a distant

388
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:09,079
engine on the main road, and the shrill of a

389
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:11,640
single crow hiding out of sight. It was too much

390
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:14,799
for coincidence. I drove out east, stopping at a tiny

391
00:18:14,839 --> 00:18:17,480
station with a single crack pump. There was a flagger

392
00:18:17,519 --> 00:18:19,680
at front, old jack of all trades in a faded vest,

393
00:18:19,839 --> 00:18:22,680
warming his hands over a cigarette stub. Fooks say to

394
00:18:22,759 --> 00:18:24,920
ones who last on, these crews know the stores better

395
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,559
than any one. I offered him a coffee, made awkward

396
00:18:27,599 --> 00:18:29,799
talk about the endless closures, asked out, tried about the

397
00:18:29,839 --> 00:18:32,720
crews working the fifth lane. He stared, then looked away

398
00:18:32,799 --> 00:18:35,759
at tight grin, cracking his sun scuff face. You ever

399
00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,519
noticed a teacher with no paste ups, no paper trail,

400
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:42,240
he said, keeping his gazelow some projects. You run him

401
00:18:42,279 --> 00:18:44,200
until the Feds show up. Then you keep your mouth shut,

402
00:18:44,279 --> 00:18:46,519
act like you are never there. Sometimes they'll pay you

403
00:18:46,599 --> 00:18:49,759
to forget. Sometimes you forget for free. I pressed him,

404
00:18:49,799 --> 00:18:53,160
but he wouldn't give up details. Signs changed crew switched.

405
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:55,519
If you want to sleep, stop asking. He made it

406
00:18:55,599 --> 00:18:58,480
sound like advice, not threat. But the facts in my

407
00:18:58,559 --> 00:19:02,039
hands grew heavier. State databases showed no construction permants for

408
00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:04,880
half the lane closures. The company names printed in the

409
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,039
warning signs appeared nowhere else. The numbers routed through dead ends,

410
00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:10,519
lines that always went to an answering machine, looping the

411
00:19:10,559 --> 00:19:13,720
saints static at the end. Over weeks, I thumped back

412
00:19:13,759 --> 00:19:17,079
through news clippings and old stable ports, every phantom lay

413
00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:19,440
and incident lined, but a never completed segment. The permits

414
00:19:19,519 --> 00:19:22,920
ended half processed. The auditors signatures mismatched, contract a names

415
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:24,960
gapped in the ledges like someone had raised them during

416
00:19:25,039 --> 00:19:28,279
a blackout. Even on the satellite maps, lines of new

417
00:19:28,359 --> 00:19:31,039
paving curled up to nowhere, sometimes marked as future junction

418
00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:34,599
that never materialized. It started looking like someone, maybe a

419
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:37,359
lot of Summons, was using these half visible closures, slipping

420
00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:40,799
vehicles in and out under cover of construction, erasing paperworkers needed.

421
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:44,480
I mapped at all out, connecting each disappearance, each vake enclosure,

422
00:19:44,599 --> 00:19:47,200
onto a single stay headline. What emerged was a ship

423
00:19:47,279 --> 00:19:49,920
more rather than coincidence, a pattern, a pathway under construction, that,

424
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,319
if completed, would run counter to officially stated projects. It

425
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:55,359
hinted at a new road, threading just under the skin

426
00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:57,680
of the one we all knew, never quite seen whole.

427
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:00,680
The fall struck. Maybe at the in a ghost story

428
00:20:00,759 --> 00:20:03,319
at all. Maybe it's a system blurred at the edges,

429
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,440
sometimes human, sometimes something older, something built to swallow up mistakes, debts,

430
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,319
or worse. I couldn't tell if that was better or

431
00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:13,599
worse than the alternatives. I always thought my instincts were

432
00:20:13,599 --> 00:20:15,880
pretty good, but by this point any sense of self

433
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:18,680
preservation I was buried under the knee to know when

434
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:20,599
the next message came. A US be dropped in a

435
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:23,279
tier restroom, wrapped in a torn knapkin that need over

436
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,920
a caution, I went back to the cap, dawn light

437
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,279
barely gold at the horizon, and plugged it in half,

438
00:20:28,319 --> 00:20:32,039
expecting nothing. The file opened with a jolt night footage.

439
00:20:32,079 --> 00:20:35,000
This time it was real time, no addits. A big

440
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:37,799
rig calls along the clothes zone mile one hundred forty

441
00:20:37,799 --> 00:20:39,680
when there's the same glow of fresh cone barriers in

442
00:20:39,759 --> 00:20:42,200
the distance, Only this time the dashboard reflects a set

443
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,240
of row stripes diverging sharply off the main line. As

444
00:20:45,279 --> 00:20:47,559
the headlights swing, a lane opens that isn't visible to

445
00:20:47,559 --> 00:20:50,000
the naked eye, framing cylinders of falk and mutal blue

446
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,640
gray work lights. The truck's wheel books left For just

447
00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:56,119
a second, you see the alternate lane stretch out, empty

448
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:59,839
and silent. Then shadowy figures all in motion, never quite

449
00:21:00,319 --> 00:21:02,599
down at the edge behind the cones, faces hidden by

450
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,000
safety helmets in glare. Suddenly something yanks at the lens

451
00:21:06,039 --> 00:21:08,799
before it goes down. Bright flashes pulse across the windshield,

452
00:21:08,799 --> 00:21:12,279
distorting everything into a pinched, colorless blur. The video ends

453
00:21:12,319 --> 00:21:14,680
in a gray white wash, like a TV channel blinking out.

454
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:16,880
When I blinked, the after images from my eyes, the

455
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:18,839
blue glow from my dash almost out to look out.

456
00:21:19,559 --> 00:21:21,039
That's when I knew I was going to chase the

457
00:21:21,079 --> 00:21:23,240
fifth Flinn until I caught it, or until it swallowed

458
00:21:23,279 --> 00:21:25,359
me up to there's a line you cross when they

459
00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:28,160
need to understand up weighs your sense of survival. I'd

460
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:31,240
reached it and maybe passed it loneger. That night, I

461
00:21:31,279 --> 00:21:33,359
stared at my rig, tapped my notebook on the dash,

462
00:21:33,519 --> 00:21:36,079
and made one last voice memo. If you find this

463
00:21:36,319 --> 00:21:38,440
remembered the pattern isn't just in the roads, It's in

464
00:21:38,519 --> 00:21:41,599
the spaces behind the paperwork. Nobody checks the lives. They forget.

465
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,920
The route was fixed in my mind. I took it slow,

466
00:21:45,039 --> 00:21:47,960
easing through the familiar construction zone, sights and sounds edged

467
00:21:48,039 --> 00:21:50,519
like glass in the darcas, rain fell in a fine

468
00:21:50,519 --> 00:21:52,759
spray caught in the halogen archs of working lights. Solely

469
00:21:52,839 --> 00:21:55,960
for miles, there was no real work being done, no machinery,

470
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:58,799
no chatter, just the endless march of orange cones weaving

471
00:21:58,839 --> 00:22:01,319
patterns that didn't match the fleckors strolled into the shoulder.

472
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:04,720
The landscape seemed to twist as I drove lanes, multiplying

473
00:22:04,839 --> 00:22:07,640
barriers flickering at the edge of my head lights. Road

474
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,319
signs swaped, numbers, sometimes blurring out entirely before refocusing into

475
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,319
words I couldn't quite pass. My hands cramped and the

476
00:22:14,319 --> 00:22:17,319
wheel knuckles pale, as the dastboard clocklutch from two thirty

477
00:22:17,319 --> 00:22:20,400
eight back to two nineteen, then forward again. I saw

478
00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,200
it then at the periphery, a lane splitting off from

479
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,279
the main road, untouched, smooth, gleaming slightly in the harsh

480
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:27,519
light of my high beams. Though no official marker pointed

481
00:22:27,559 --> 00:22:31,440
that way, signs with corporate logos accompany five route expansion

482
00:22:31,559 --> 00:22:34,279
in progress stood at crooked angles, the company name phasing

483
00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:36,000
in and out, as if half meant to be seen.

484
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:38,640
Ad I came up to the split must Hee Bee

485
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,839
exploded with sound, hundreds of voices all overlapping drivers I'd known,

486
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:45,680
voices I'd only heard in passing, and my own ray.

487
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:47,880
Don't take it steir right if you see the fifth lana.

488
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:51,000
The sound built of fever, a wall of pleading morning

489
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:54,359
corbold warnings echoing through the fog. For a moment, every

490
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,079
inch of the truck scene to vibrate, radio lights strobing

491
00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:59,640
between static, and fragments of all conversations from all the

492
00:22:59,759 --> 00:23:02,559
rubb so never driven, I gripped the wheel, willing myself

493
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,519
to keep straight. Without warning the lane I was unseen

494
00:23:05,599 --> 00:23:08,400
to dissolve. For an instant, I lost sight of everything

495
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,119
but the alternate road, blue tinted lamps and half built exits,

496
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,039
arking off into the mist with riggs parked, empty, eyeling

497
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,880
in the distance like rows of steel tombs in a graveyard.

498
00:23:17,519 --> 00:23:20,640
My foot hammered the brake, tire shrieked, slowing the rig

499
00:23:20,759 --> 00:23:23,640
just before the ghost Laine could claim me completely. Forcing

500
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:25,759
the door opened, I stumbled out into the cold fog,

501
00:23:25,799 --> 00:23:28,839
looking at my boots. Up here the illusion thickened. The

502
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,400
world beyond the cones felt non existent, eroded to nothing.

503
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,240
My breath hung in front of my face, and behind

504
00:23:34,279 --> 00:23:36,759
it I heard voices, men and women, weaving, calls for

505
00:23:36,839 --> 00:23:38,720
help that seen to feed before I could locate them.

506
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,599
Footsteps came from the darkness, too regular, too synchronized. The

507
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:45,839
c bee still on repeated a new warning, Ray, don't leave,

508
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:48,920
tell them. Glancing over my shoulder, I caught a flicker

509
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,519
of movement at the edge, shapes wearing workfasts, arms raised

510
00:23:51,519 --> 00:23:54,160
as if to beckon, faces too smooth to be entirely human.

511
00:23:54,759 --> 00:23:57,599
I bolted for the cap, every sent screaming. In the mirrors.

512
00:23:57,599 --> 00:24:00,240
I caught sight of myself, face white, foreshaking as I

513
00:24:00,279 --> 00:24:03,039
slammed the door, shoving the stick into reverse, searching desperately

514
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,519
for my own tire tracks. The world snapped back in incurrents.

515
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,400
Headlights picked up rots in the dirt leads and grew

516
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:13,079
still glistening with dew. Far down the row, official construction

517
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,559
lights began to warm normal reel, the kind that throw

518
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:19,720
yellow halos instead of weird shifting beams. Back up beep sounded,

519
00:24:19,759 --> 00:24:22,400
A familiar human profanity told me an actual work crews

520
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,920
finally setting up, I jerked the wheel, barely missing a barrel,

521
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,200
lurching onto the paved shoulder, just as the sun burned

522
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,279
off the lost fringe of mist. When I finally stopped shaking,

523
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,079
I realized my hands still gripped the recorder, pressing record,

524
00:24:34,319 --> 00:24:37,240
voice trembling and too loud in my ears. Night Run

525
00:24:37,559 --> 00:24:39,880
forty one construction zone. Do not take the fifth flin

526
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,319
unless you want to end up like them. I'd come

527
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,640
back alive, or at least I was out, but I

528
00:24:45,759 --> 00:24:47,519
didn't know what that meant any more, not with the

529
00:24:47,559 --> 00:24:50,720
memory of empty caps, looping signals, faded tracts still achy

530
00:24:50,799 --> 00:24:55,240
in my bones. Rationality, reason, ordinary explanations. They all felt

531
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,240
as thin and substantial as the early morning fog. And

532
00:24:58,319 --> 00:25:00,640
I knew the Fifth flamee wasn't done with me, not

533
00:25:00,759 --> 00:25:03,119
by a long shot. But as I eased away from

534
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,039
that Jim construction patch, clutching the steering wheels so tightly

535
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:08,200
my wrist act, it hit me how silent it had become.

536
00:25:08,759 --> 00:25:11,480
The seabe was dead, calm, nobody chatting, no routine check

537
00:25:11,559 --> 00:25:13,680
ins were cussing about way stations, and the usual crackle

538
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,240
of some far off truck out was missing. My own

539
00:25:16,279 --> 00:25:18,640
breath sounded over a loud in the small cab. The

540
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:21,720
engine's rumble was the only anchor left. I checked my

541
00:25:21,799 --> 00:25:24,839
mirrors compulsively, glancing over my shoulder every few hundred yards,

542
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:26,720
as if those half seen figures and knee n vest

543
00:25:26,759 --> 00:25:29,039
might material lies right there on the shoulder, arms raised

544
00:25:29,039 --> 00:25:31,839
in mourning or welcome, I couldn't say. Each time, the

545
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,920
landscape behind a dressett cones where I remembered none, and

546
00:25:35,039 --> 00:25:37,200
mile marker IDEs where I'd just passed, showing up again

547
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,599
in the same reflected blow. A part of me thought

548
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,880
maybe the world out there beyond the glass was mollified

549
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,519
by my scape, indulging me this little pocket of normality

550
00:25:44,599 --> 00:25:47,359
until it decided to close its hand for good. Even

551
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:49,119
though the crew bustle in at the next stretch looked

552
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,720
like ordinary men with stubby beard and union stickers on

553
00:25:51,799 --> 00:25:55,039
their helmets, I felt reluctant to slow down again. Something

554
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:57,519
between embarrassment and shame made me push the throttle just

555
00:25:57,559 --> 00:26:00,240
a hair harder. If any of those workers all my

556
00:26:00,319 --> 00:26:03,079
face did see more than fatigue. They'd see the ghost

557
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,759
of whatever I'd nearly joined. I caught myself whispering account

558
00:26:06,759 --> 00:26:08,880
of every sign and every passing mile mark of almost

559
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,359
an unconscious ritual, my voice gruff and low, trying to

560
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:13,880
recall every detail in case some detailed blood or faded

561
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,119
out of existence. With the hazards still blinking, I guided

562
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:18,960
the rigant to the shoulder, a good half mile away

563
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:21,039
from the crew, packed up my little VOS recorder, and

564
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,359
only them risked along, shuddering breath. If I'd believed in

565
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:26,759
kosis or visions before, I would have prayed right then.

566
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,119
But all I had was the cold logical tangle of

567
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,160
a real experience. It was a ghost, and it wasn't

568
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:34,960
a dream. Something engineered, or may be, something that had

569
00:26:35,039 --> 00:26:38,200
learned to slaught itself right alongside human engineering, was hungry

570
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:40,839
out there, waiting for drivers. Too tired, too pained by memory,

571
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,640
too curious to stick to familiar blucked up. Watching the

572
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,039
sun rise from a safe distance, I replayed my voice

573
00:26:46,079 --> 00:26:48,759
memo in the cab. My voice was higher than I remembered, raw,

574
00:26:48,839 --> 00:26:51,640
increased at the edges. For a brief stretch of road,

575
00:26:51,839 --> 00:26:54,119
I thought about pulling off entirely and leaving the rig

576
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,599
at the next well let truck stop, just walking away.

577
00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:59,440
Maybe that was what all those vanished drivers had tried.

578
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,279
Maybe it made no difference whether he stayed or ran.

579
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,559
Traffic picked up soon after the morning. Crowds streaming east

580
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,680
had lights fading under the indifferent blue sky. They seemed

581
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:10,839
to bliviest to the history hiding beneath last night's miss

582
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,359
tracks like mine, all spotless and logoed forre It had

583
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,079
passed the old construction barriers, as if nothing could possibly

584
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,079
happen other than another long day's haul. I drove on,

585
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,000
following the familiar curve of highway out of the construction zone,

586
00:27:23,079 --> 00:27:25,920
my eyes stinging with fatigue, but fixing the lines. I

587
00:27:26,079 --> 00:27:28,960
wasn't thinking of breakfast or of my next checkin. I

588
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:30,960
was only thinking of the tire tracks in the dirt,

589
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,559
the feeding flicker of alternate blat up, the voices, some mine,

590
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,400
some not that I almost couldn't bear to remember. Part

591
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:38,319
of me wished I was back at my haunts. Save

592
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:40,319
from the striplet by gerashchnee on over a crack for

593
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,519
my cocounter, swapping jokes and gripes with Henry and Sheila

594
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:46,319
but the old comfort of the brotherhood felt distant. Now

595
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,359
I crossed the line between driver and witness without ever

596
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,400
meaning to. I could pretend, for a few hours, maybe

597
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,519
that nothing had changed, that all I needed was to

598
00:27:55,559 --> 00:27:58,440
count signs log iyos and avoid the open and mark

599
00:27:58,519 --> 00:28:01,200
lane at all costs. But the truth was obvious as

600
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:04,240
the dawn washing over the trucks behind. Some patterns, once

601
00:28:04,319 --> 00:28:07,400
seen never fade, and something in me already knew I

602
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:09,480
be tracing that fifth lane shadow for as long as

603
00:28:09,519 --> 00:28:11,599
the road stretched, for as long as men and machines

604
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:13,759
kept rolling in the lines between the real and the

605
00:28:13,799 --> 00:28:16,799
impossible kept blurring just out of sight. When I finally

606
00:28:16,839 --> 00:28:18,680
parked for the day, the CAB's stank of sweat and

607
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,559
antfree's hands trembling as I tried unsuccessfully to thread a

608
00:28:21,599 --> 00:28:23,279
call for on the sea bead, just to hear another

609
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,400
human voice. Every muscle from neck to toes felt bricked

610
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,839
up and stuff. I washed down half a thermis of

611
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:31,640
waxy burnt coffee, staring at the glass at a dawn

612
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,480
too clean. The highway behind me was just another barely

613
00:28:34,599 --> 00:28:37,039
visible scar between fields, but the image of a fifth

614
00:28:37,079 --> 00:28:39,880
flane gleaming empty, separate from a stream of sane well

615
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:42,799
de pinned itself inside my skull, voices seemed to hang

616
00:28:42,839 --> 00:28:44,599
in the periphery, even with the sea bee off. Half

617
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,599
the warnings in my own chopped accent, the rest and

618
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:50,519
the plaintive familiar droll of other loss drivers that feeling stuck,

619
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:53,839
didn't drift away, didn't get softer, not even after I

620
00:28:54,039 --> 00:28:56,240
filled my lockpoo con thumb messages into a despatch app

621
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,599
from the safety of a busy truck stop. There at

622
00:28:58,599 --> 00:29:02,119
the buzz of strangers, scene flat disconnected, cracked blue nion

623
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:04,480
clatter for Megali Friar's the hollow cufs of a diesel

624
00:29:04,519 --> 00:29:07,039
starting two lanes over. Each sound snapped me back to details,

625
00:29:07,079 --> 00:29:10,160
to life, to now, But under it, something else kept humming,

626
00:29:10,759 --> 00:29:12,519
the thought I could have been one more missing face

627
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:14,920
tacked with thumbtacks and old Scotch shaped to the bulletin

628
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,079
board by terrestrioms. I fumble with my voice or corridor

629
00:29:18,079 --> 00:29:22,519
thunder new memo. I meant to say safety update, something routine. Instead,

630
00:29:22,599 --> 00:29:25,000
my voice came out raw, a confession, the close call,

631
00:29:25,119 --> 00:29:27,039
the weirdness of the lane away, My own voice and

632
00:29:27,079 --> 00:29:29,680
other driver seemed to tangle across there, reaching back through

633
00:29:29,759 --> 00:29:32,759
time a forward from somewhere. I barely escaped. Each word

634
00:29:32,799 --> 00:29:35,119
made my throat burn, but I got it down. I

635
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,759
told myself maybe I'd play it for another driver, prove

636
00:29:37,839 --> 00:29:40,480
I wasn't losing my mind. The morning drifted on in

637
00:29:40,519 --> 00:29:43,400
a limbo or engine noise and truck stop noise, cap

638
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,559
scanning the lot for familiar faces. After a half I

639
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,960
was stirring through smeared glass. I caught sight of SHIELDA

640
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,240
good jairs outside, armed deep in her tool chest and

641
00:29:52,359 --> 00:29:54,400
normal sight. One of the best mechanics in the circuit

642
00:29:54,559 --> 00:29:56,880
most days, more likely to lend you a crober than sympathy.

643
00:29:57,519 --> 00:29:59,839
I grabbed my look book, headed out, forced myself to

644
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,319
act like everything was still normal. She glanced stop eyes narrowly, bray,

645
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:05,799
you look like you hit a ear and it got

646
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,000
up to punch you back. I shrugged, tried to sound casual.

647
00:30:09,599 --> 00:30:11,839
Bad run last night. You ever run a split lane

648
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,319
end up somewhere you shouldn't be. Her smile faded. She

649
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,680
looked past me, toward the empty stretched down by the berm.

650
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,240
You seeing the fifth again? My skin prickled. I hadn't

651
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,000
said fifth, not out loud. You ever known anyone who

652
00:30:25,039 --> 00:30:27,680
went looking and made it all the way back. Nope,

653
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:29,640
But I know people who tried, and you don't see

654
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:31,880
them at these stops any more. You need sleep, layers

655
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:34,720
of it, every word grounded me, help me move, fingers

656
00:30:34,759 --> 00:30:38,079
clenching the mug, burning tongue, hard seat. But as I

657
00:30:38,079 --> 00:30:40,319
shook my head, She'll put a hand on my shoulder,

658
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:42,759
just once. And that was all the comfort I needed,

659
00:30:42,799 --> 00:30:45,960
always getting. After that brief exchange, I prowled the lots,

660
00:30:46,119 --> 00:30:48,839
eyes opened for anything out of the ordinary. I didn't

661
00:30:48,839 --> 00:30:51,359
even bother hiding it, and out checked. Eyes watched for

662
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:53,839
anyone fiddling with their plates, scoured the ground for trash

663
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:57,039
that didn't belong to the morning crowd, every bit of normalcy,

664
00:30:57,079 --> 00:30:59,240
the clang from a drop fratchet, the scia, a waf

665
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:00,720
of you and the kicks fell like an anchor, back

666
00:31:00,759 --> 00:31:03,519
to a life that nearly split into last night. Before

667
00:31:03,599 --> 00:31:05,440
heading out for my next run, I saw a new

668
00:31:05,519 --> 00:31:08,079
set of missing posters and the bulletin Boar, Tom Garrison,

669
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,839
Freebon and two other names I half recognized, new tape

670
00:31:10,839 --> 00:31:14,839
glinting over dog eid photos. I checked the dates recent

671
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,000
within days. Their faces all had that up late, not

672
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,480
enough rests. Thinking about Bill's look stopped me cold. These

673
00:31:21,519 --> 00:31:23,920
weren't legends, but men night seen, or at least could have.

674
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:26,599
Didn't matter how cried it or busy, a place got

675
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:28,920
something in the way. Those posters multiplied in a way

676
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,200
everyone seemed to look away after glancing at them. Made

677
00:31:31,279 --> 00:31:34,440
clear that the rude out here was fracturing the ordinary world,

678
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:36,440
and something that looked like it was suddenly closer than

679
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:39,920
I wanted them to be. I tried to nap, couldn't.

680
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:42,839
Every time I shin depped onto my chest, A reel

681
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,559
of flickering lights and silent empty trucks rolled through my brain.

682
00:31:46,079 --> 00:31:48,519
The scenter staale of smoke and rainsoaked assfot followed me

683
00:31:48,559 --> 00:31:51,960
through shallow sleep. Instead, I plugged in old Dashkam logs,

684
00:31:52,039 --> 00:31:55,359
rewinding every file from the last six months, late runs,

685
00:31:55,599 --> 00:31:58,920
gas stops, reflection of cones in the mirrors I watched

686
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,720
with as of some one nearly a tuned once, I

687
00:32:01,759 --> 00:32:03,519
swore I saw a split, a brief shimmer where the

688
00:32:03,519 --> 00:32:05,720
reflection didn't match the world outside. A hint of a

689
00:32:05,799 --> 00:32:08,519
lane pointed nowhere, but I blinked and it was gone.

690
00:32:09,079 --> 00:32:12,119
I clung to habit, checked the oil, topped up the coolant,

691
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,960
rode out every possible regularity ID logged since that first day,

692
00:32:16,079 --> 00:32:20,400
dates names, fake company numbers, sparty permits. Even tried to

693
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,839
call the local state patrol post, but got nothing but

694
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:26,079
polite thank you, we'll look into it, no follow up.

695
00:32:26,759 --> 00:32:28,640
It hit me how near and visible I become one

696
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,839
truck in a thousand one voice, mumbling strange details nobody

697
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,640
wanted to hear. It was almost mean before I finally

698
00:32:34,759 --> 00:32:37,839
forced myself back on to the road. Gravel crunched under

699
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,319
my wheels as I pulled away out on the interstate,

700
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:42,640
under clean blue sky and the shifting thread about whether

701
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:44,839
I could almost convince myself that what happened was just

702
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:48,400
a trick of tired eyes. Almost, But at the first

703
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,440
constructions and I passed, the cones sat silent, same odd spacing,

704
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,119
same off brand reflected stickers, same sense that if I

705
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,079
look away for even a second, the fifth lane might

706
00:32:56,119 --> 00:32:59,640
peel itself open once more and further out. I recognized

707
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:01,880
the truth that would haunt everyone on this stretch, even

708
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:04,920
if they never admitted it allow. I was already lost,

709
00:33:05,279 --> 00:33:08,160
whether or not the fifth flane found me again. Panic

710
00:33:08,279 --> 00:33:11,279
for me always had behind business. I spent the next

711
00:33:11,359 --> 00:33:14,359
days or was it a single stretched out day, throwing

712
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:17,079
myself at the log books and digging for patents. The

713
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:19,359
arch to root at wart i'd seen grew stronger than

714
00:33:19,359 --> 00:33:22,640
any self preservation. New paperwork came in, all my form,

715
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,519
load numbers and bill of lading details, some flagged with

716
00:33:25,599 --> 00:33:28,680
HASNAT codes that made me pause. The longer I looked,

717
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,960
the more inconsistencies emerged. The brief comfort of the truck

718
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:35,079
stopped turn brittle fast word got around. Some one saw

719
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:38,039
me pacing at midnight, face pale as a tailbite, mouth

720
00:33:38,119 --> 00:33:41,200
moving in silent math. I had a few whispers, nothing

721
00:33:41,279 --> 00:33:43,200
louder than the scrape of fork against plate. But the

722
00:33:43,279 --> 00:33:45,079
weight of attention prickled at my neck. Even as I

723
00:33:45,119 --> 00:33:48,599
played off the rumors, I dug deeper, logging into old networks,

724
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:53,279
coss referencing routes against dot warnings, news articles, dispatch your bulletins,

725
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,640
incidents of a fountom lane disappearance, despite every few months,

726
00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,759
always shadowing loads marked company hold federal clearance, always when

727
00:34:00,759 --> 00:34:03,720
the yacht was then non workers, never in daylight. A

728
00:34:03,839 --> 00:34:06,119
patent came into focus, more on settling than any minnet

729
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:09,719
camphire tale. Every fifth lane event overlapped with shipments described

730
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,280
in only the Vegas terms on mark crates, hot shot

731
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:15,719
has mat or relocated assets. These entries never fit the

732
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:18,360
paperwork with the manifest, but always match with drivers who

733
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,119
had gone missing or had never been contacted again. The

734
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:23,920
nightmare wasn't just that the lane existed. It was that

735
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,079
the lane existed in service to some one or something,

736
00:34:26,199 --> 00:34:28,320
a system that didn't care who had chewed up, only

737
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,039
that as business, whatever it was got done. I found

738
00:34:31,079 --> 00:34:33,559
trace notes from a highway patrolma named Goodlot missing from

739
00:34:33,599 --> 00:34:36,760
his bee two summers ago. In a tucked away country report.

740
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,119
He scribbled next to a map Vickles turning off into

741
00:34:39,199 --> 00:34:42,039
nowhere marked as Federal O closure Some things ron Crusae

742
00:34:42,079 --> 00:34:45,400
don't ask. That was enough to hollow mea. The stories

743
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:47,679
about ghost roads or hungry high was lost, all their

744
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,760
dark charm. Phantom lane was until when used by men

745
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,039
as much as by whatever darkness squatted under the myers,

746
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:55,880
anything where any one could vanish and it would look

747
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:59,199
like nothing had ever happened. The receipts, the logs, the

748
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:01,920
memories would all evaporate under a paperwork fog only a

749
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:04,519
handful of people even new to look for. That night,

750
00:35:04,639 --> 00:35:07,000
as rain battered my windshields, some were past one hundred

751
00:35:07,079 --> 00:35:09,079
fifty two, A new voice blared out over the seabe.

752
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,400
It didn't belong to anyone. I recognized a flat mountain

753
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:15,000
axe and a tone freding in ray the sea, watching

754
00:35:15,039 --> 00:35:17,960
don't look at the mile markers. After midnight, the radio

755
00:35:18,039 --> 00:35:20,760
hiss then cut to silence. I drove the rest of

756
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,440
my shift with the radio off, mirrors folded in hart hammering,

757
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:25,880
even when roadwork crews flickered by in the stuttering dusk.

758
00:35:26,559 --> 00:35:29,639
But the message was clear as that one mine had begun,

759
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:32,159
tracking my progress with as much focus as I tracked

760
00:35:32,159 --> 00:35:35,000
the rout of the fifth lane. Sleep all but abandoned

761
00:35:35,039 --> 00:35:38,280
me after that, dreams recommencing into reels of headlights splitting roads,

762
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,719
of phantom signs blooming and vanishing with every mile. Eating

763
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:43,159
became roe of a thing to do with hands that

764
00:35:43,159 --> 00:35:46,719
wouldn't stop shaking each run. After dark, I started seeing

765
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:49,599
things out at the edge, construction lights that multiplied their globe,

766
00:35:49,599 --> 00:35:52,159
following me for impossible stretches of road where it crews

767
00:35:52,199 --> 00:35:55,039
on the periphery always bent over, something hidden, never lifting

768
00:35:55,079 --> 00:35:58,599
their faces. The fifth lane became less legend more presents

769
00:35:58,639 --> 00:36:00,880
a constant baz under my sculp, anarch rhythm thumping at

770
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,320
my temble's. Other driver's voices are sometimes my own, sang

771
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:06,679
out warnings in the static. Don't take the deta ray,

772
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,119
don't mark the surveyor's lines, don't answer when they call

773
00:36:09,119 --> 00:36:11,920
your name on the construction channel. The father I drove,

774
00:36:12,039 --> 00:36:14,360
the clearer, the voices became as if some future version

775
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:16,559
of myself and dozens of others trapped beside were sending

776
00:36:16,639 --> 00:36:20,480
back a warning each one. Increasingly frantic fatigue began warping

777
00:36:20,519 --> 00:36:23,920
the boundaries between real and imagined. I'd lose thirty minutes

778
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,679
watching headlights fizzle and refocus in the mirrors. On two runs,

779
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,719
I caught sight of a shadowy conway, a line of

780
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,480
rigs with no markings, hazard lights flashing out of sequence,

781
00:36:32,639 --> 00:36:34,480
always detering just ahead of me into what should have

782
00:36:34,519 --> 00:36:36,599
been a close works, only for the whole area to

783
00:36:36,679 --> 00:36:39,360
go dark a beat later. I cattle ogged every incident

784
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,480
with manic precision, photographed unusual barriers, sent them by encrypted

785
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,039
message to a handful of trusted friends. Reviewed every minute

786
00:36:45,039 --> 00:36:48,519
of dak and footage. Photos came back warped. Sometimes a

787
00:36:48,519 --> 00:36:50,920
second lane faded out of view. Sometimes cones arranged in

788
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:54,599
unfamiliar geometric patterns. One image Paul that random from a

789
00:36:54,639 --> 00:36:57,079
corrupted sty cart showed a worker whose vest bled into

790
00:36:57,079 --> 00:36:59,039
the air behind him, arms out, as if signaling a

791
00:36:59,079 --> 00:37:02,239
turn that would never comple I started looking for this source,

792
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,400
comparing dates, traffic grewroute plans, Google Earth images of where

793
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:08,760
the fifth flane appeared earlist a path in slowly trickled out,

794
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,440
suggesting the oldest in never finished section lay far east

795
00:37:11,559 --> 00:37:14,320
past mile one hundred sixty eight, under three different layers

796
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,199
of abandon approupe trumps raised from official memory decade ago.

797
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:20,239
If I was right, every new layer of construction simply

798
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:22,320
covered up the bones of the original road, leaping a

799
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:26,199
fifth flinn, further under folding the repetitions ever tighter monsters

800
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,360
or men. It didn't matter. Something had hollowed out of

801
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,280
space in the wet concrete where logic couldn't reach. Those

802
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:33,880
days bled together asleep was just a blink broken by

803
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:37,360
engine noise, flashes of distant lightning outlining the never completed lanes.

804
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,199
I rashankafen, trying to bloff my way to sanity, wondering

805
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:43,119
if every passing truck might be the last I'd see

806
00:37:43,159 --> 00:37:45,920
outside the world the fifth Flane offered. Every corner of

807
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,119
the cab now felt watched by something more patient than

808
00:37:48,119 --> 00:37:50,159
I'd ever known, content to weep for the right moment

809
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:52,960
to reel me in completely. My mind frayed, but the

810
00:37:53,039 --> 00:37:54,440
need to see the heart of it, the place where

811
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:56,480
the fifth Flame began, or maybe where it ended, it

812
00:37:56,519 --> 00:37:59,039
became all that kept me moving. The last day before

813
00:37:59,039 --> 00:38:01,079
the storm, I called re e every map stacked across

814
00:38:01,079 --> 00:38:03,880
the dash, traced with Meffinger, the sequence of impossible closures,

815
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,599
identifying the oldest a closed to no exit stretch just

816
00:38:06,639 --> 00:38:08,920
past a shuttered wrist area, three miles of black out

817
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,760
lane visible only on overlays, never present when you actually

818
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:16,039
drove by. I loaded my cab that afternoon, flares, battery lanterns,

819
00:38:16,159 --> 00:38:19,280
extra tapes and batteries, printeds of every regular pyramit, physical

820
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:22,440
maps in place of my phoness, unreliable guidance. For the

821
00:38:22,519 --> 00:38:25,320
first time since this all began, I planned ahead. If

822
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,880
the fifth lane opened again, I wasn't going in by mistake.

823
00:38:28,519 --> 00:38:30,599
I was going and watching on with every sense and

824
00:38:30,639 --> 00:38:33,320
every record I could muster. That night, the air grew

825
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:36,599
heavy with pre storm humidity. Even the other driver scene subdued,

826
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:38,840
honkered in their vehicles with windows up, as if the

827
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:42,840
world itself was battening down. By midnight, thunderheads loomed huge

828
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,320
and gray on the horizon, blue white flashes illuminating the

829
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:48,559
broken lines of abandoned earthwork. When bent the last miles

830
00:38:48,599 --> 00:38:51,519
of grass along the shoulder, shaking candy wrappers and cigarette

831
00:38:51,519 --> 00:38:54,519
butts from the ditches, Static crawled up my forearms. As

832
00:38:54,559 --> 00:38:56,199
I set my work place in the calf, lay every

833
00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:58,320
radio and tape a corder out on the dashboard, taped

834
00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:01,519
coordinates to the windshield. Moments after the clock flick from

835
00:39:01,559 --> 00:39:04,119
twelve seven to an unreadable scramble of digits, the first

836
00:39:04,159 --> 00:39:06,440
volley of rain arrived hard enough to face headlights into

837
00:39:06,519 --> 00:39:09,719
useless white orbs. Trucks up ahead drifted right down, shrifting

838
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:12,159
into a stop le blinking out in the midst My

839
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:14,159
hands switted and the wheel knuckles dug and tight. As

840
00:39:14,199 --> 00:39:16,320
I followed the route, I prepared east to the shadowed

841
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:19,320
rest area, to their close section with its own secret geometry.

842
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,400
As I approached barriers, trembled cone scattering in their natural patterns.

843
00:39:23,519 --> 00:39:26,000
Yellow whiterer signed, spinning on the axis as if carded

844
00:39:26,039 --> 00:39:29,800
by invisible hands. Flares had placed earlier, guttered, then snuffed

845
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,280
out as is swallowed from below. My phone ping a

846
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:35,360
GPS glitching map out, stuttering the screen cot between several

847
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:38,760
past locations and none I recognized, then a bidden the

848
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,320
lane appeared just a hint of first a subtle gleam

849
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,599
in hammered rain, bending away from the real highway signs

850
00:39:44,679 --> 00:39:47,639
updated with impossible speed, deed left Company five, all in

851
00:39:47,679 --> 00:39:50,480
blockyfont that pulsed with the rhythm of the storm. Every

852
00:39:50,519 --> 00:39:53,880
instrument in the cabin haywar clocks jumped backward in ten

853
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:57,719
second chunks. Even the unlogg dashboard needle flickered, moving from

854
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,480
me too f with no fuel input. My the dasham

855
00:40:00,559 --> 00:40:02,960
set to record automatically ify bridges if caught in a stroke,

856
00:40:03,079 --> 00:40:05,559
leaping thirty seconds of footage with every new drop of rain.

857
00:40:06,119 --> 00:40:08,679
The seabee hiss then spilled forth a cacophony of sound,

858
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:11,360
first the whimpering of lost drivers, then my own warnings layered.

859
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:13,599
It hop each more desperate than the last. It's not

860
00:40:13,679 --> 00:40:16,599
a Laine turn around, ray, don't follow the fifth don't have,

861
00:40:16,679 --> 00:40:19,119
followed by bursts of static in the hot, metallic time

862
00:40:19,159 --> 00:40:22,400
of panic writing, each syllable lightning split the horizon, showing

863
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:24,800
the unearthly split of the reel and not reel. Ahead,

864
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,880
a line of rigs park nose to tail, rolling forward

865
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:30,159
without any one in the calves, white glove hands on

866
00:40:30,199 --> 00:40:32,880
the wheels, or none at all. Rows of empty truck

867
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,480
sailed down the open fifth lane, hazard lights in perfect time.

868
00:40:35,599 --> 00:40:37,920
This oil procession two measure too silent to belong in

869
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,840
this world. The moment harm stretched and sharpened by the

870
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:43,719
thunder outside and the mechanical drumming within. Another chance to

871
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:46,760
join the ritual or break it. If I dared, hot bucking,

872
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,719
I chose action, shoving the clutch, easing forward, a jeunned

873
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,480
record on the last working tape, and shot into the

874
00:40:52,559 --> 00:40:56,480
opening lane, with every light burning inside. Time twisted, the

875
00:40:56,599 --> 00:41:00,000
landscape bled and doubled, lanes forked, then folded back on themselves.

876
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,760
My own calf flickered with Phountism's drivers in faded uniforms,

877
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:06,559
hunched over steering wheels, their mouse forming silent words that

878
00:41:06,599 --> 00:41:09,119
echoed in my head before I could recognize them. I

879
00:41:09,199 --> 00:41:12,679
gripped the dash, repeating name, rat number, license plate, anything

880
00:41:12,719 --> 00:41:15,440
to stitch myself to the real ray Monarch forty one

881
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:18,199
eastbound three J seven is forty four, not lost, not

882
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,000
lost It. At the line's end, the world pinched to gray,

883
00:41:21,199 --> 00:41:24,519
blinding corridor. Torrents of blue light hurt my eyes, sodium

884
00:41:24,559 --> 00:41:28,199
moreklight's towering over a colossal never completed overpast, tops whippen

885
00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:31,239
in the gale. Beyond them, men in government black suits

886
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,719
and badges carved of pure all he gleam herded lines

887
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:37,119
of drivers forward, issuing silent orders he felt instead of herd,

888
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,199
and marked trucks rolled behind the cargo invisible pahumming like

889
00:41:41,199 --> 00:41:43,760
a hornet and an oil drum. I staggered from the

890
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:48,119
cap every sensation came, and dunsidn muffled vision doubled in

891
00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:50,360
front of me. Under the main arch of the overpass

892
00:41:50,519 --> 00:41:52,519
loomed a figure badge clipped to a kneon vest that

893
00:41:52,519 --> 00:41:56,800
glowed so fiercely outchon the floodlights. His face ran like wax,

894
00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:59,920
flickering in and out of existence, first double chint, then gone,

895
00:42:00,039 --> 00:42:03,079
then wholly edgeless. In his hand a clipboard with my

896
00:42:03,159 --> 00:42:05,639
namerit and over and over. Half the letters blurred into nothing.

897
00:42:06,199 --> 00:42:08,320
He spoke, and his voice sizzled in my mind, while

898
00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:10,840
my ears rhing. We was static. You've seen what you

899
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,280
weren't meant to see. Forget or help maintain? These roads

900
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:16,280
don't pay themselves. Maintenance is eternal. Where you join or

901
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:19,559
ye leave? Decide right now. The impossibility of the moment

902
00:42:19,639 --> 00:42:22,159
broke something loose in me. I shouted my name, hammered

903
00:42:22,199 --> 00:42:24,400
the dash with my fists, held the last working tape

904
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,800
of the windshield, fragmentedly a reality. As I've battered the

905
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:30,440
side glass, open lightning detonated above, slicing the world, open

906
00:42:30,519 --> 00:42:33,639
water pouring through every seam, overpast, shuddering tops, tearing loose

907
00:42:33,679 --> 00:42:37,280
to reveal an abissel black behind everything convulsed. Blue white

908
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:40,280
oks skated across the trucks, engines dying with a sickly

909
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:43,760
whine as the overpass collapsed into hissing fog. Instinct drove

910
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,679
me no clear thought, just animal panic. I slid back

911
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,039
into the driver's seat, slowned the truck into reverse, trace

912
00:42:49,119 --> 00:42:51,079
my own tire tracks by blind faith, and burned out

913
00:42:51,119 --> 00:42:53,679
head light until the fifth flame blurred, then umraveled into

914
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:57,880
blank empty field under the unblinking orange Hallagans sunrise again,

915
00:42:58,079 --> 00:43:00,480
and I found myself crawling down state, wraped forty one,

916
00:43:00,679 --> 00:43:04,280
hands sticky with sweat and blood, wrist burning clean rain

917
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,519
was to rust the gutters outside. My GPS flickered back

918
00:43:07,519 --> 00:43:11,119
to normal. The police scanner chirped Mundane's milk speedos, a

919
00:43:11,199 --> 00:43:13,679
jack naft two canvas north, all the ordinary hustle of

920
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:15,840
a world that would never permit what I just witnessed,

921
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:18,440
the fifth lane gun from every log and every local

922
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,360
cops record. At the first major stop, a handful of

923
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:24,559
drivers mild around a parking lot, judiously ignoring the faded posters,

924
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:27,920
voices worry with the morning hush. I tried to speak,

925
00:43:28,039 --> 00:43:29,760
but the words caught in my trow. Who would believe

926
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:32,599
what I'd seen? But A printed my logs anyway, left

927
00:43:32,639 --> 00:43:34,719
every map a memo, and about a brown envelope marked

928
00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:37,840
only at escugerez in case ray my hand shri Kuala

929
00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:40,719
sealed it. One or two old drivers met my eyes,

930
00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,639
no nods, but the camaraderie of the haunted lingered between us.

931
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,800
Walking away, I glimpsed my own face, ghosting back from

932
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:51,159
polish chrome line emptied up ice bruce from sleeplessness, and

933
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:53,400
certain for a moment whether I was the one who

934
00:43:53,519 --> 00:43:56,280
escaped for just another survivor inside an old warning broadcast

935
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,519
sleeping forever on static air. The compressor rattled down in

936
00:43:59,599 --> 00:44:02,559
my cab. I took one final voice lock, a rash,

937
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:05,360
desperate message. But if you hear this, never trust Eatu's

938
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,000
market company, five or any pattern of cones trusted into

939
00:44:08,039 --> 00:44:11,000
five pointer ships. Don't listen for voices after midnight, don't it?

940
00:44:11,679 --> 00:44:14,079
The tip cut to my own voice, warped and echoing

941
00:44:14,119 --> 00:44:16,519
warnings in the language barely my own, before collapsing into

942
00:44:16,559 --> 00:44:20,320
pure static mourning again. A patch of fresh tie tracked

943
00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:22,159
carved across the newest spell of clay in the dawn,

944
00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:24,679
curling away past the edge of mark pavement into open,

945
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:28,719
abandoned earth. No cones, no signs, only the faint chemical

946
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:31,280
with of a safety vesse, once bright, now sun bleached.

947
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:33,920
The fifth lane waits for the next driver, as ready

948
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:36,920
as ever, until the road claims another. The fifth lane

949
00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,159
waits for the next driver, as ready as ever, until

950
00:44:39,199 --> 00:44:41,760
the road claims another. I never got used to a

951
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:44,639
way to send cloon cheat nicotine burnt wiring, that chemical

952
00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:47,559
tan like anta freeze left toulawn in hot steel. Every

953
00:44:47,599 --> 00:44:49,719
new morning after the flavor stuck under the skin of

954
00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:52,880
my tongue. In moments between routes, when the world felt

955
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:55,280
briefly real, I tried to hang on to the simple rituals,

956
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:57,760
punching a number into the fuel pump, feeling coarse diesels

957
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:00,519
spell across my gloves, washing with gritty gris up at

958
00:45:00,519 --> 00:45:02,679
the edge of some ow post basin. None of it

959
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:04,840
could scrub out the memory of that luminous fog, the

960
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:07,599
hollowness in the cabs, the evil geometry of cones warped

961
00:45:07,599 --> 00:45:10,480
into patterns you couldn't un see. Back in trucks, stopped daylight.

962
00:45:10,679 --> 00:45:13,760
My voice barely worked. Each word I said was a test,

963
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:17,039
half expecting to hear a static. She'll have always blunt

964
00:45:17,119 --> 00:45:20,440
all business cornered me before noon. You look quired, Monarch.

965
00:45:20,519 --> 00:45:22,760
You need to sleep. She pourshed a cup of soup

966
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:25,360
at me. I sit, hoping for comfort, and felt only

967
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,159
pimprikes were swept down my back as I tried to

968
00:45:27,199 --> 00:45:29,320
describe the storm, the impossible split in the road, the

969
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:32,559
way headlights blowed into the wrong horizon, Her jaw locked tight,

970
00:45:32,679 --> 00:45:35,400
and for once she just listened, not joking or dismissing,

971
00:45:35,559 --> 00:45:38,440
or even frowning. When I finished, she laid a callous

972
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,599
palm on my shoulder, her eyes searching my face for

973
00:45:40,679 --> 00:45:43,559
something lost. Neither of us said the obvious thing. No

974
00:45:43,599 --> 00:45:45,920
one else would believe it, yet she didn't tell me

975
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:48,639
to let it go either. Maybe some people look for proof.

976
00:45:48,679 --> 00:45:52,320
The rest just now still. Sleep turned ugly, even with

977
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:54,119
the rig double locked and tuch tight under the well

978
00:45:54,159 --> 00:45:56,360
lit eve, I work at intervals, hands cootching, the sheets

979
00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:59,119
strove hot, with the urg tl warnings I no longer remembered.

980
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,000
So time past two a m I found myself at

981
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:05,000
the window, watching the periodic, restless movement of taillights on

982
00:46:05,079 --> 00:46:08,159
the service ramp. Somewhere down the lot, a light flickered

983
00:46:08,159 --> 00:46:10,159
through torn rain, then went out, But the shape it

984
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:12,559
left behind, a wedge of blue white against absolute ducas,

985
00:46:12,599 --> 00:46:15,039
reminded me far too much of what waghed past the cones.

986
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:19,360
Empty sleepless wires became routine. Each dusk I circled the lot,

987
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:22,719
staring at the photo wall. The collection grew silently. More

988
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:25,320
names tapped up over wrinkles and moisture stains, a change

989
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:28,239
in tide of absences a couple faces. I knew the

990
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:31,719
rest just that same stubborn gaze, strong jawed or tired,

991
00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:34,400
or squinting against an unseen glare. No chemra could record.

992
00:46:35,079 --> 00:46:37,000
The bulletin board always seemed to add a new one

993
00:46:37,039 --> 00:46:39,079
after storms. The dates, never more than a date, were

994
00:46:39,119 --> 00:46:43,000
too old. No one ever explained why drives through sunlight

995
00:46:43,039 --> 00:46:46,360
didn't fix much. The memory changed every run. I'd find

996
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:48,440
myself staring at the road for two lawn. I was

997
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:51,199
watering from focusing too hard on any blip of alternate pavement,

998
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:54,199
any shift in signage, any slightly wrong reflection, trickling at

999
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:57,360
the margins the normal woework. Guys in batter gear drilling,

1000
00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:00,719
chain smoking became comforting only up to a point, certain

1001
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:03,400
zones untouched, since the storm still bore marks of deters

1002
00:47:03,519 --> 00:47:06,360
raised more efficiently than any crew could have managed. Once

1003
00:47:06,599 --> 00:47:09,719
passing a regular patch, I sold that familiar gap between cones,

1004
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,039
the line too straight, branded, not with the lane closes,

1005
00:47:12,079 --> 00:47:14,159
but simply five stenciled in black spray paint on a

1006
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:17,440
mud splotted barrel. My stomach clench. I sped up without

1007
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,280
even intending to When I finally dared to sift through

1008
00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:23,000
the locks at lef foot, sheela map's notes tapes I

1009
00:47:23,119 --> 00:47:25,000
did in the far corner of an empty diner, the

1010
00:47:25,079 --> 00:47:28,360
kind that closes only for health code vlisions, not holidays.

1011
00:47:29,039 --> 00:47:31,480
She joined me behind the bat of counter, running her

1012
00:47:31,519 --> 00:47:33,559
eyes over the print outs and shaking her head, lips

1013
00:47:33,599 --> 00:47:36,840
pressed into a single bloodless line. I've heard stores for years,

1014
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:40,519
she said, but this that fits, did all fits. She

1015
00:47:40,679 --> 00:47:43,800
counted out incidents, tapping the print outs for each. You

1016
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:46,239
notice nobody goes missing in the day, where if they do,

1017
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:48,960
it's always the ones working off clock, cleaning up messus

1018
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:51,719
to the rest freight just to her voice cut short,

1019
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,440
like she couldn't bear to say vanished. I nodded and

1020
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:57,800
spread out my new notes I've begun overlaying fresh data.

1021
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:01,119
Flagged manifests. Company credentials there showed up only on jobs

1022
00:48:01,119 --> 00:48:04,000
connected to Company five, or at times contracts that used

1023
00:48:04,039 --> 00:48:06,280
no real name at all, only code strings or federal

1024
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:09,760
routing digits. The shipments always carried and marked containers, no

1025
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:14,039
clear manifest, never anything traceable to real cargo brokers. That week,

1026
00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:17,440
my nurse fraid until even daylight felt alien. Twice I

1027
00:48:17,519 --> 00:48:20,079
caught email bounce's return informs as no record or not

1028
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:23,639
recognized authority, routed in governmentees but empty of real denial,

1029
00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:25,840
just to dead end at the border of an official explanation.

1030
00:48:26,519 --> 00:48:28,440
I tried to trace the real origin of the company,

1031
00:48:28,679 --> 00:48:30,880
driving to a listed regional office half a state north.

1032
00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:33,559
The address led to a torn down gas station, all

1033
00:48:33,599 --> 00:48:36,280
pumps ground under grass, a mail bookscaping with rainwater, and

1034
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:38,880
traded junk mail. Every step made it clear that the

1035
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:41,639
disappearances lined up with a schedule not written for human eyes.

1036
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:44,960
Checking the next set of manifests, I hunted for overlap.

1037
00:48:45,599 --> 00:48:47,880
Three more rigs missing, all on the same hasmet run

1038
00:48:48,039 --> 00:48:51,679
carrying nothing but sealed containers from authorized storage loaded at midnight,

1039
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:53,920
all meant for a special delivery direct hand if only

1040
00:48:54,639 --> 00:48:58,360
such direct handoffs never hit state inspection locks. No trace

1041
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:00,559
after mile marker one hundred fifty five free except for

1042
00:49:00,599 --> 00:49:02,760
the growing legend of phantom closures and a handful of

1043
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:05,480
battered receipts showing time stamps that were set and medable

1044
00:49:05,519 --> 00:49:07,840
except for the frozen ire always two seven a m.

1045
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:10,760
A new link emerged somewhere between the storm and now.

1046
00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:13,719
Some one was using a phenomenon. Someone was making people

1047
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:16,960
and machines disappear, covering it up with paperwork, sidestepping oversight,

1048
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:20,719
with the promise of federal clearance, hiding abductions inside something inexplicable.

1049
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:23,960
Didn't sleep that night either. I spent eight straight I

1050
00:49:24,119 --> 00:49:27,159
was trolling highway patrol feeds, local news tips out a

1051
00:49:27,199 --> 00:49:30,239
few underground forums where drivers traded stores about ghost routs.

1052
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:34,400
The digital lucks blinked and looped. Somewhere near dawn, A

1053
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:36,519
fresh message appeared in one of the forums from a

1054
00:49:36,599 --> 00:49:39,639
user whose location paints are known rout sea five short

1055
00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:42,360
tense letters. They're moving again. If you look for mile

1056
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:45,320
markers after midnight, they'll look back. Stop drawing. They'll chart

1057
00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:48,400
your route for you. I sat there inhaling cold air,

1058
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:50,840
staring hard at the street lights, frattering through the windows.

1059
00:49:51,519 --> 00:49:54,800
Nobody else looked up. That's how I've always starts, denying

1060
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:56,920
a truth until it eats through every barrier you've built,

1061
00:49:57,079 --> 00:49:59,920
then comes for you. The first gap. I already knew

1062
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:02,360
I was past the point of easy exit, a dead

1063
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:05,719
sprint for proof overage accents. The following dusk, I left

1064
00:50:05,719 --> 00:50:07,480
the endo state for two eyes to track a shipment.

1065
00:50:07,519 --> 00:50:10,360
I shouldn't have found no manifest, no legal booking, but

1066
00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:12,239
Clear's words carved and pinned on a top. See if

1067
00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:15,239
I've freyed no stop. The highway was cut up by closures,

1068
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:17,880
arrow boards pointing curls into the dock. Half the cone

1069
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:21,320
scattered like an unfinished warning storm. Clods built up overhead,

1070
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:24,320
making the ordinary light too flat, too cold. As I

1071
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:27,760
rolled into the closure zone, why seb crackled, first nothing

1072
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:29,679
but distortion, then a voice. I had fought so long

1073
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,119
it felt like my own gun, unfamiliar, Ray, don't take

1074
00:50:32,159 --> 00:50:35,239
the next eacher, my markers lying no answer When I

1075
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:38,480
tried to reply. Reception dived for the next ten miles,

1076
00:50:39,119 --> 00:50:41,480
but I'd seen enough to know something invisible was tracking,

1077
00:50:41,559 --> 00:50:43,679
not just the routes, but the choices, the small moments.

1078
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:46,519
Drive was chased an omaly with intent. It wasn't enough

1079
00:50:46,559 --> 00:50:48,159
for the road to split. You had to want to

1080
00:50:48,159 --> 00:50:50,400
see the split coming. You had to look for it.

1081
00:50:51,039 --> 00:50:54,760
With every long night, my nerves unreveled. Sometimes I'd spot

1082
00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:56,960
an empty flat bed idling at a ramp, engine running

1083
00:50:57,039 --> 00:50:59,320
hazard lights, flirting silent moss at the rain, and I'd

1084
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:01,480
think about stop to check the cap for signs of life.

1085
00:51:02,119 --> 00:51:05,280
Most times I kept rolling after the first warning, I

1086
00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,480
didn't dare linger anywhere I wasn't already known, wasn't already real.

1087
00:51:09,079 --> 00:51:12,039
Inside the cab, the boundaries between real and possible slip further.

1088
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:15,679
The mirrors kept showing the wrong number of trucks twice.

1089
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:17,679
The headlights behind me s were of left driving for

1090
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:19,639
a non existent lane, then phased out of view as

1091
00:51:19,679 --> 00:51:23,079
if blinked away. The sensation of pursuit deepened. Alike, some wmature,

1092
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:26,519
patient and unseen followed me through every unlit patch, mapping

1093
00:51:26,599 --> 00:51:29,960
my decisions. Mapps criscrossed my dash. Each knew an notation

1094
00:51:30,119 --> 00:51:33,639
rendered in a hanna cruchetkut with every day, again and again,

1095
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:35,800
the lion circled to stretched near my ele one hundred

1096
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:39,559
sixty each always flag, always race, the oldest and finished section,

1097
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:42,400
now laid with so much asphalts and misdirection that history

1098
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,000
had worn out, tracing its own memory. Did I plan

1099
00:51:45,119 --> 00:51:47,679
my final attempt? Or did it plan me? The days

1100
00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:50,679
lost their shape, The eye was folded in on themselves.

1101
00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:53,239
Every nap gave way to fratle visions, cones making shapes

1102
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:55,400
in the dark, men invest calling my name, while my

1103
00:51:55,480 --> 00:51:57,719
lip shaped a warning on a dozen altern at airwives.

1104
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:00,840
When the sky finally darkened into true night, thunder rolling,

1105
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:03,639
distant and mean, I knew it was time. I doubled

1106
00:52:03,639 --> 00:52:06,880
my equipment, double recorders, flours in every pocket, physical maps,

1107
00:52:07,039 --> 00:52:10,000
not a whisper of digital reliance. The storm would cover

1108
00:52:10,119 --> 00:52:11,960
me is krim over the world, blank enough to mask

1109
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:13,679
any trace of where I go if the lane chose

1110
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:16,599
to open once more. I pulled up just before midnight,

1111
00:52:16,639 --> 00:52:18,199
a pit for me in my stomach as the roads

1112
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:20,000
emptied and the noise of the rig pressed tight against

1113
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:22,480
his silence, so thick it made my ears ring. With

1114
00:52:22,599 --> 00:52:25,239
each mile, the clouds lowered, lighting pin wheeling over fields

1115
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:28,119
drowned and shadow at Rout one hundred sixty eight, the

1116
00:52:28,199 --> 00:52:30,400
realness of the moments so intense it made me nossus

1117
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:32,800
sparriers toppled, as if a wind gusted up only from me.

1118
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,400
I followed the cones with my high beams, ignoring every

1119
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:38,519
muscle in my forearms, screaming to reverse course. Each sign

1120
00:52:38,559 --> 00:52:41,039
on the deeter shivered and glitched, flipping between close a

1121
00:52:41,119 --> 00:52:44,599
route five in no entry. Arrow boards rotated with the wind,

1122
00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:48,480
lights strobing seamlessly into an alien code. My GPS flickered

1123
00:52:48,519 --> 00:52:51,199
through every state I'd ever driven, spinning coordinates from east

1124
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:54,519
to west, and finally flat lining at blank coordinates. Then,

1125
00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:56,719
as the rainfall punched in off the field, the fifth

1126
00:52:56,760 --> 00:53:00,639
lay manifested with greater violence than ever before. No radual shifted,

1127
00:53:00,679 --> 00:53:03,440
just a sudden impossible blacktop opening to the left, wet

1128
00:53:03,519 --> 00:53:06,320
and gleaming like a ton slate from between teeth beyond

1129
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:09,599
work hites burned, the steady blue fire, casting trip a

1130
00:53:09,719 --> 00:53:12,599
shadows over the rig's head. The seabe spewed chorus of

1131
00:53:12,639 --> 00:53:15,320
panic voices my own layered countless times, plus a keening

1132
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:18,039
of men and women too exhausted to say anything, but don't.

1133
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,719
Some voices called me by every nickname might ever had, Monarch,

1134
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:24,199
ray boy, under Man one or two, even in a

1135
00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:27,320
tone I remembered from my own father decades before. None

1136
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,360
sounded like they made it out. I realized, finally and

1137
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:33,199
fully there was no way up beforeward, with every art

1138
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:35,400
fact and every lot burning to memory, I aimed dead

1139
00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:38,599
center for the impossible lane tires bit new black top.

1140
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:41,679
The world shifted, the outside gun soft as a dream.

1141
00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:44,719
Inside time blinked out in spasms, dash forward, freezing on

1142
00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:48,480
two seven radio, warping music into white noise, shrieks though

1143
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:51,039
wind shield painted with rain that fell up and sideways.

1144
00:53:51,719 --> 00:53:54,079
The fifth flame proper felt endless at first, a space

1145
00:53:54,199 --> 00:53:57,960
with no horizon. The blue lights arched overhead, illuminating not warp,

1146
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:01,119
but column after column of abandoned cabs. All I nose forward,

1147
00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:03,400
hazard blinks time to the pulsing in my ear, drums

1148
00:54:04,079 --> 00:54:07,239
between them, shadow workers, invests and masks waved me forward.

1149
00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:10,800
A signal, cryptic patterns with battered flashlights, A trio of

1150
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,039
men in suits real or illusion I couldn't tell, stood

1151
00:54:13,039 --> 00:54:15,840
against a span of unfinished overpass, shielded from the elements,

1152
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:19,400
faces pixelated beyond memory. I slowed to a crawl, recording

1153
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:22,960
over every available track. Were sighting cord in its time, names,

1154
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:25,519
words that reminded me of flesh and weather in years

1155
00:54:25,519 --> 00:54:28,639
I thought could anchor me. The men invests motion more urgently,

1156
00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:31,840
Engines idled inside trucks that couldn't run, one of mine,

1157
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:34,079
I was sure from three years back. A bottle cap

1158
00:54:34,159 --> 00:54:36,119
and an old sticker left in a nook of the dashboard,

1159
00:54:36,199 --> 00:54:38,199
visible for only a blink before it was swallowed by

1160
00:54:38,239 --> 00:54:42,840
the fog. At last, the overpass loomed on foot, now walking,

1161
00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:45,400
now running through water that never quite wet. I faced

1162
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:47,639
the figure awaiting, where the concrete arched up into the sky.

1163
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:50,679
The badge on his vest flared like a warning flare,

1164
00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:54,079
or a sun caught in a rainstorm. His clipboordlisted drivers

1165
00:54:54,079 --> 00:54:56,360
by for us and lost names, each one fading as

1166
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:58,960
he flipped pages. I tried to read my own, but

1167
00:54:59,039 --> 00:55:02,800
the letters scrambled, shuffling into nothing. He spoke without moving,

1168
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:05,519
lips of voice both inside me and var off electric cold.

1169
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:08,639
You want to know most don't, I swallowed. They are

1170
00:55:08,679 --> 00:55:11,840
crackling in my LUNs. He lifted his hand, palm up,

1171
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:13,400
offering what might have been a key, or might have

1172
00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:16,239
been a clip of raw exposed fell. I tried, one

1173
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,719
lost time to speak, what is this for? His answer

1174
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:22,559
was potskull pot benediction. The world runs on what's in

1175
00:55:22,599 --> 00:55:24,920
the dark? Do you drive it? Every night? His face

1176
00:55:24,960 --> 00:55:28,840
cycled through ages, old down blank, Take the record or

1177
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:32,320
join the others? Maintenance is forever. In that instant, lighting

1178
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:34,880
shatowed the horizon, blowing out the overpass in a white

1179
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:38,239
flash and silencing every engine, every hidden voice, every possible

1180
00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:41,400
past and future road. I ran toward my cab, clutching

1181
00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:45,280
the offered record of cold metallic weightless inside. The dash

1182
00:55:45,360 --> 00:55:47,159
lit up in a spiral of signals and old sea

1183
00:55:47,199 --> 00:55:50,239
beat traffic names ran across the display mine. All the

1184
00:55:50,320 --> 00:55:53,639
missing looped endlessly and flickering amber. I jammed the truck

1185
00:55:53,679 --> 00:55:56,440
inter gear, screaming coordinates into a dozen recorders at once.

1186
00:55:57,199 --> 00:56:00,199
The world outside poles with blue white fire on under

1187
00:56:00,199 --> 00:56:03,800
disturbing lights, as spotted the ghosts, drivers moving backward against time,

1188
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:06,800
waving as they faded, engines, whispering last mile secrets into

1189
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:10,079
the humid storm lit duck. It all collapsed in a rush.

1190
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:13,039
Fog boiled up, every color leaching out from the world,

1191
00:56:13,079 --> 00:56:15,840
but red and white and black. My rats snapped back

1192
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:19,559
into existence. Mile marker one hundred forty one, traffic growing past,

1193
00:56:19,599 --> 00:56:22,880
and the honest, unenchanted on the fifth flane erased itself

1194
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:26,039
mid breath as old stains barely visible were concrete met grass.

1195
00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:29,760
Every trace of the ordeal vanished. The rig was battered

1196
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:32,840
but intact. All radios were set, recorders dead, their record

1197
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:35,119
heavy in my pocket, now just an ordinary key fob

1198
00:56:35,159 --> 00:56:38,320
mark C five sliquid condensation. No one at the truck

1199
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:40,440
stop commented in the new dent with a shadowed glas.

1200
00:56:41,159 --> 00:56:43,440
The only acknowledgment a battered the thrums of coffee left

1201
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:46,039
on my fender, still warm from a driver pal As

1202
00:56:46,079 --> 00:56:49,159
Jrawk who didn't sign the note, saw the lights. Glad

1203
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:52,239
you made it, it read in blocky pen. Walking away,

1204
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:55,079
I felt the reflex begin, checking for cuns, for stencils,

1205
00:56:55,159 --> 00:56:57,920
five marks for lay enclosures that didn't quite match the plan.

1206
00:56:58,519 --> 00:57:01,159
But the world had set its lines in you. Somewhere

1207
00:57:01,239 --> 00:57:03,679
a despatch of radio called alrd I'd never heard, and

1208
00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:07,039
the ordinary traffic resumed in the mirrors. I climbed back

1209
00:57:07,079 --> 00:57:09,840
into the cab, My reflection blurred shadows of ves passing

1210
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:11,519
through my shoulders, as if I were now part of

1211
00:57:11,599 --> 00:57:15,000
the living mystery, witness and warning Hafya half not That's

1212
00:57:15,039 --> 00:57:18,119
all there is. At dawn, fresh tied trucks cave away

1213
00:57:18,159 --> 00:57:20,199
from the pavement into wild grass ten yards wide like

1214
00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:22,480
a ghost rode. No map will ever claim the A

1215
00:57:22,639 --> 00:57:25,320
taste faintly of ash and ozun. For a beat, I

1216
00:57:25,400 --> 00:57:28,480
catch my own warning tone, recorded, replayed, echoing into the

1217
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:31,000
static of the morning, and I realize the story cycles again.

1218
00:57:31,639 --> 00:57:34,280
Any driver could be next as the fifth lane and

1219
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:36,360
spools at the edge of memory a map. Only one

1220
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:39,360
message remains. Don't trust the deeter, no matter how familiar

1221
00:57:39,400 --> 00:57:43,239
it claims to be, and that is the end. Thank

1222
00:57:43,320 --> 00:57:44,840
you for listening, and I will see you in the

1223
00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:45,320
next one.