“I think we are lost”
“We aren’t lost, we’re-” Tom leaned forward over the steering wheel and looked up through the pine trees to the sky “we’re just off course”
Charlie leaned back into his chair and pulled out his phone. He opened the screen then immediately put it away “No signal and my phone is about to die” he stated blankly.
Tom came to a turn and rounded the car around more tall pine trees. The winter night cast everything to pitch black. The trees seemed to form endless corridors. A wrong turn here and another wrong turn there and they were officially lost. Tom flipped the radio back on. They had turned it off about an hour ago when they realized something was off and their destination was no in sight. Smooth jazz of piano and bass guitar filled the car.
“You have a radio phone somewhere?” Tom glanced at Charlie.
“Not a chance, what else is on” Charlie flipped through the other stations. Only static played for him until he returned to the jazz station. “Jazz it is”
They had left at nine a.m. to cross the country from Nebraska to Minnesota to visit their cousin. It was now eleven p.m. and with the sun resting at six it had seemed that they were driving all night long. They had some how gotten off 29 near Fargo to head east towards Park Rapids. A road bent here and there and soon they lost in a maze of pine trees.
They rounded another bend and red hazy light filled their vision. Tom shielded his eyes so they could adjust to brightness.
“What the hell is that?” Charlie rubbed his eyes and leaned forward trying to focus.
Cut from the path was a cross roads with a full sized traffic light hanging in the middle. It shined red for all the directions. Tom pulled the car to the edge of the road and looked. It was a standard light, its wires pulled in four directions out into the forest and somewhere out there power was being pumped into its electric gaze.
“We must be getting close, why else would there be a light here” Tom posed the question to himself.
“I don’t know, feels strange. Lets get out of here”
The light stayed a solid red and they sat there for a moment. Tom inched the car forward a bit to see if the light sensors would pick them up and turn green, but it seemed to ignore them. Tom looked both ways then ran the light. As soon as he got to the other side, the light went to green and filled his rearview mirror.
Their pace kept up yet no exit presented itself to them. The trees closed them off into narrow corridors and endless hallways of pine. Charlie looked at his watch. Midnight.
“Next place we see let’s just stop and get a room for the night. I am pretty sure we are lost and at night everything looks the same.”
Tom roped around another corner and red light filled his dash. Another traffic light illuminated their path. Once again a four way stop. All directions red.
“Just make a right” Charlie said. Tom came to a stop and turned.
The car entered another long road, but instead of being a long tunnel of darkness traffic lights hung down the corridor every ten feet from each other. He could see the red lights extend farther than his mind could reach.
“What the hell is going on? Go back Tom” Charlie yelled, but Tom’s eyes stared into the rear view mirror. “Come on Tom, turn aro-“ Charlie spun in his seat to see what the issue was. All he could see from the rear view was lines of trees. The forest had swallowed them, cutting them off from their previous route and forcing them down the tunnel of lights.
“We can get out, run” Charlie panicked and went for the door handle. Tom clicked the locks immediately.
“Shut up Charlie. Think for a moment. You think you can escape this on foot? The road is gone, the trees cut us off. What would happen if you were outside the car?” Tom returned his view to the endless traffic lights. “We have to drive.” He whispered and slammed the gas pedal to the floor. Charlie screamed and grabbed the door handle for security. The car screeched and barreled down the corridor, each time it passed under a light it turned green behind them. Red and green lights strobed through their car as they climbed speed. 70, 80 , 90 , 100 miles per hour. The car shook violently as it reached speeds it was not meant to. Charlie screamed until his voice could no longer take it and went horse. Tom grit his teeth and heighten his focus as the tunnel materialized infront of him. Every light passed faster and faster, but there was no end.
Until there was.
The car tore through the lights and one light remained. As they passed it, it turned yellow. Tom some how knew, a sense in the back of his mind. Yellow. Caution.
He let go of the gas and slammed on the breaks. Trees disappeared from their view and fields opened up under a moonlit sky. The road T’ed into two different directions and past that was a cliff. The car screeched, shook, and slid side to side in violent jolts as the tires burned against the road and brakes held against metal. The car smashed through the caution sign and on to the grass, swept side to side and came to a grinding halt a foot away from the edge of the cliff side.
They both breathed heavily, sweat ridden and numb. Charlies face was frozen in a scream as he still held the door in a death grip. His eyes were wide and he stared out into the night sky over the plains down below. Toms jaw was a vice while he white knuckled the steering wheel. Eyes unblinking as staring at the night sky.
They both broke their stances and flew out of the car, falling hands and knees to the ground and moving away from the cliff side.
Charlie flopped on his back “What the hell, what the hell. We could have, we would have. Holy shit Tom.”
“I know, I know”
“How did you know what to do?”
Tom looked back towards the forest entrance “I just knew somehow. I felt it in my gut. I trusted it”
Charlie laughed “Thank god you did” he sat up “Where are we?”
Tom pulled out his phone which as now working. They were a half hour away from their cousins. He looked through the maps to see the route the gps might of recorded. For 10 hours it said the car stood still at an intersection near Fargo.
What would have happened if he had not trusted his intuition? Would they still be stuck there? Lost in an endless forest of lights. What had even happened? His mind stretched and he decided to let it go for the moment. To keep his sanity for a little while.
They both made it to his cousins and neither said anything about the forest. A breakdown and waiting for a repair man was their excuse. Every traffic light took on a different light. Could they get lost again?
Would the lights guide them or trap them.
I liked this youtube video called Detour of a traffic light appear in a forest and it being a monster. I thought it was really clever and seeing something somewhere it should not be is a disturbing instance. I didn’t want to do the same thing and I got a bit lost when they saw the first light (Kinda like they did). When they turned onto the tunnel of lights, that’s when it turned to speed and I knew what I wanted to do. Be careful when things are no where they are supposed to be. Trust your gut and go for it.