Alone

Paul Michael Winters 2020

Language:: English
Authors:: Paul Michael Winters
Systems:: Inform
Platforms:: Glulx
Genres:: IF Comp 2020
Entered by:: iamaran
Added:: 27-04-2021
Edited:: 21-02-2025

Synopsis

There's nothing worse than trying to stay awake at the wheel when all you want to do is shut your eyes. Just for a moment, just a bit of rest. You feel the car veering slightly and realize you started nodding off. You snap your eyes open and jerk the wheel to avoid running off the road, slapping yourself in the face hard enough to see a few stars. That does the trick, at least for the moment. You can't stop. You dare not stop.

The road stretches before you, cutting through a dense forest. The cone from your headlights reveals just enough for you to see, as the trees rush past in a blur. How many hours have you been driving? How many days since you've seen another car? How many weeks since you've talked to anyone? It's all blurred together like a twisted nightmare.

You drive on for what could have been another five minutes or could have been an hour, until you hear a sputtering from your engine. The gas gauge reads empty! You slam your hand so hard against the steering wheel that it stings from the impact. How did that happen so fast?! Well at least you've got some spare gas in the trunk.

The car's engine cuts and starts to slow down, so you yield to the inevitable and pull it to the side of the pitch black highway.