Everything was moving in slow motion, the cars were creeping along the street in front of him. On the opposite sidewalk, People were walking with the slowness of a 45-rpm record played on 38 speed. On his side of the road however, he seemed to be moving at a normal pace. Chris also noticed that he was the only soul on this side.
As he watched the crowd, the door to the pharmacy opened. There she was. Melanie exited the business, looked at him smiling and waved. As she began to cross the road coming to him, he waved his arms back and forth, frantically motioning for her to go back. Not realizing what he was trying to tell her, she kept smiling. She kept coming.
Too late, Melanie saw the blue sedan closing in on her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as if knowing what was about to happen. He broke his stance and ran into the street towards her. A split second later, the front of the automobile connected with her legs, flipping her over the car.
She struck the windshield, then continued her roll along the roof and down across the trunk. When her feet caught the edge of the rear bumper, her body kept tilting to the asphalt, head striking the pavement. The life went out of her eyes as one of her tennis shoes landed beside her broken form.
Chris sat up and screamed. The peel of thunder mixed with the abundant raindrops hitting the tarp covering his tent erased all sounds left over from the dream. He glanced around nervously trying to wipe the cobwebs from his mind.
After a minute or two he came to his senses. Sweat had soaked him from head to toe, wetting him as tho he had been out in the rain. Wet, and now cold from the early morning chill, he slid over to his backpack for a change of dry clothes.
Minutes later and wide awake, he was lacing up his boots when he thought that he heard voices. “Must be leftovers from the dream,” he said to himself. There wasn’t any way that someone would come back this far in the mountain, much less hike the two hours in the dark that it took to get here.
None the less, he finished tying his boots, took his bottle of water and crawled outside under the tarp. Chris sat down, leaning quietly against the tent and listened as the eerie gray of day began taking over the darkness in the storm.
There it was again! Only this time he could pinpoint the voices. They were coming from the small plateau over the rise behind him. The voices sounded excited. He listened intently to make out what they were saying. It didn’t sound like any language he had heard before.
Now there came the sounds of a struggle. Even over the thunder and the rain, he could hear grunting amid thuds and the sliding of small rocks. Curiosity got the better of him. He dashed back into the tent for his rain gear. As soon as he zipped up the jacket, he pulled his pack over his shoulders and grabbed the camera.
