The Nightmare #2

It was an incredibly dark, rainy night. Julie was driving in her broken-down Buick, going much too fast on a deserted back-country, dirt road. She had no idea where she was or how she got there. Stranger still, except for a pair of swimmer’s goggles pushed up above her eyes and a sandal on her left foot, she was completely naked!

Suddenly there was a sharp turn in the road ahead and she was going to fast. She spun the steering wheel hard but the car went off the road. It bounced and banged to an eventual stop but remained upright. Julie was tossed back and forth and was stunned for a minute or so by a hard impact of her chest against the steering column.

In a minute or so Julie regained full awareness. She knew she was off the road but exactly how far was unknown. It was so dark she could see next to nothing. She checked herself over and determined she was not hurt, but she though it would be best to wait right where she was until daylight. She was a bit concerned about how she might explain what she was doing stark naked in her car on a lonely country road. She had no explanation for that herself.

A couple of times during the next half hour Julie was startled as the car momentarily lurched slightly, as if it was still moving slightly and going up or down a hill or banking from side to side, but the motion was very slight and it did not really get her full attention. Then suddenly she distinctly felt the car do a slow role, like a boat being hit by a slight wave.

Julie became alarmed. Could the water be rising oround her car in a flash flood? She tried to open the door to investigate but it would not budge. Now becoming extremely alarmed she used her arm to wipe the fog off the driver’s side window; her electric windows were non-functional but there was now just enough light to see dimly. Her eyes went wide with horror. Her car was floating alright – up to the door handles in MUD, and she was trapped inside.

Julie panicked. She pushed and banged on the windows, trying ineffectively to brak one of them. She screamed herself hoarse. She cried. She kept that up for thirty minutes. "Nothing could be worse than this!" she thought to herself. Then, things got worse. Mud began entering the passenger compartment through a hole in the firewall and various small openings for controls. In thiry minutes more the floor of the car was ankle deep in mud. Outside the mud was up to the base of the windows, and it seemed to be coming in faster. In another fifteen minutes the mud had risen to the level of the seats. Outside it was halfway up the windows. Julie was petrified with fear. Somehow the car remained upright, but suddenly it lurched and began going down much more rapidly. In one minute the mud rose to the top of the windows, although for some reason she could still see a little.

The car was now apparently completely submerged in mud. Inside, the mud was up to the bottom of the steering wheel. Inexorably the mud rose, about an inch every minute, until Julie’s face was pinned against the ceiling in a pocket of air no more than 2 or 3 inches high. And still it rose! Then the car lurched again – apparently striking the bottom. The air pocket was gone or she was not in it. She struggled to find it. Then all went black

Julie awoke in a panic as bad as any night terror she had ever experienced. She was in a lounge chair at the beach and the sun was getting ready to set. Her swimming goggles were on her head, just above her eyes. She was wearing her skimpiest bikini and there was a sandal on her left foot. A wet cloth she had placed on her forehead to keep cool had slipped down over her mouth and nose. It took Julie the better part of half an hour to regain her composure. As she got in her car and began to drive along the narrow road that crossed the estuary between the beach and the mainland she drove very, very carefully.