Summer Drive

[Mukraken]

Hillary was in an unusually good mood as she drove her bright red convertible down the muddy road towards the old, creepy-looking house. It was one of those houses that would probably look haunted, if it were later in the day and the sun weren't so bright. But it was hard to be scared of anything on a day like today. It had just rained for almost a week straight, and the sun had finally just come out, and it was making up for lost time by shining more brightly and warmly than ever. It was a beautiful day.

Hillary, a small, delicate-looking woman with long red hair, was a real estate agent. She was visiting the old Barnes residence, which had just been inherited by the last surviving member of the family. As soon as his last uncle died, he almost immediately wanted to sell the place, which is why Hillary was there.

She drove up the dirt driveway, and rolled her eyes in frustration as she tried to unclick her seatbelt and found it stuck again. She'd been meaning to get that fixed for a while now, she would sometimes struggle with the thing for several minutes before she could get out. But she figured it wasn't all that urgent and mechanics were just so expensive, so she kept hoping that maybe the problem would just go away on its own.

At last she got out of the car and headed up to the house. It turned out to be a fairly quick and easy visit. The owner of the house showed her around for maybe an hour, and they discussed what few selling points the house had. Overall, the place wasn't worth much, but at this point the owner just wanted to get whatever he could for it.

Hillary gave the owner her card, and said she'd get back in touch when she'd found some prospective buyers. She walked back out to her car, and drove off.

She took the same dirt road that she had taken to get here, but after several miles of driving she had to stop, as the road was now blocked by a fallen tree. The tree looked like it had simply fallen over, and Hillary thought perhaps the rain had made the ground so muddy that the tree hadn't been able to stay standing. Well, there was little choice now but to find another route. She didn't really want to drive all the way back to the house, so she drove off the regular road, picked the clearest path she could see, and started to drive around the tree on the side where its roots were.

The car stalled, whirring loudly as its wheels spun against the muddy ground, going nowhere. Great, just great, Hillary thought, that was stupid of me. Of course there's going to be mud here. Hillary threw the car into reverse, but it was no use, the wheels spun but the car wouldn't budge.

Hillary was about to get out and try to push the car out of the mud when she felt it shift slightly. She looked down at the ground, and noticed that the tires were sinking deeper. She groaned, thinking that this day was going from good to bad very quickly. She tried to unfasten her seatbelt, but it was stuck again. She continued to struggle with it, but it was stuck tight.

It wasn't until she looked down again and saw that the tires were now completely submerged in the mud that she thought she might have a real problem. She started to panic and claw frantically at the seatbelt, trying to wriggle her way out from underneath it, but it it was locked in place. The car was now slowly rolling back and forth, almost like a boat in slow motion, as it continued to sink in the muck. "HELP! Somebody please help me!" she called out, desperate for someone to hear her.

Mud was slowly oozing in through vents and cracks in the underside of the car, and starting to lick Hillary's feet. She quickly made sure all the windows were rolled up, as the mud rose to the level of the door handles, the fallen tree now at the same level as Hillary's head. She could hear the car making metallic thudding noises as the weight of the mud pressed in on all sides. And soon the muck was creeping over the glass of the windows, and spiderweb cracks began to appear.

Crrrrsssshhh! The window next to Hillary was the first to shatter. She was pelted harmlessly with safety glass, and with a deep plopping sound the muck began to flow in over her. She brought up her hands to try to push the mud back out of the car, but it was like trying to hold back the tide, and the thick mud flowed around her body and over the seat. Within mere moments it came up to her knees, then enveloped her legs completely and began to slowly flow around her stomach. Still she struggled to free herself from that awful seatbelt, even as the button she was so desperately pressing sank below the muck. Why hadn't she gotten it fixed when she still had the chance?

The car began to pitch forward, and Hillary watched the steering wheel and dashboard disappear under the surface of the mud. The thick muck was up to her chest now. She began to cry helplessly as she felt the mud rise over her breasts and up to her shoulders.

"Help me!" she tried calling out again. "Can anybody hear me? Help!" The mud had now climbed over the windshield of her convertible, and in despair she watched the last visible trace of the front end of her car disappear. The muck was up over her shoulders now, and climbing up her neck, and she had to fight against the headrest of her seat to tilt her head back enough to keep her face clear. She struggled to lift her arms up to try to keep the mud from her face, but found that they were both stuck at her sides in the muck.

She took one final deep breath before her mouth and nose went under. The car pitched forward again, and the headrest forced her head vertical as she continued to be pulled helplessly under the suffocating muck. She looked down, eyes wide in fear, to briefly watch the mud rise up her face, and then closed her eyes as they, too, were enveloped under the surface. Her long red hair floated on the surface for a moment, trailing down after her through the mud, and then it too was pulled under.

As the tilted back end of the car slowly continued to sink into the mud, slow bubbles rose from where the driver's seat had been. Hillary's last breath escaped to the surface as a sodden murmur.

The car kept sinking, until, finally, the very last metallic gleam of the convertible's back bumper was pulled under the mud. No testament to Hillary's final moments remained above the unbroken surface.

[PM2K]

Awesome stuff here!

[Viridian]

I liked this one. I've always hand a fondness of the terror involved in being stuck in a sinking car. Good story!

[Mukraken]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.