Desert Camaro

When Amy moved to Phoenix 5 months ago, the first thing she took note of was the cars. Everywhere she looked, muscle cars filled her sight. Her favorite: a red Camaro. Every day she would ride past it on her bike, the bright desert sun reflecting off the ruby red paint. After a month of cycling past it, she decided to stop and get a closer look. She looked into the window, taking a breath in as she imagined the musky scent of leather.

“Excuse me,” a voice came from behind her. She spun around to see an older gentleman. His salt and pepper hair was thick and long, and his skin was sun-kissed with a slight wrinkle. “I’ll take you for a test drive if you’d like. I’ve been trying to sell this car for two months; if you’re interested, we can negotiate a price.” He smiled at her, showing a few missing teeth.

“I have been looking at it for a while…” She rocked back and forth on her heels, it’s not like she had to buy it, “Why not!” She exclaimed. The man reached into his pocket and tossed her the keys.

“Hop in! I’m Mike by the way.”

“Amy,” she said as she placed her bike on the side of his driveway. She climbed into the driver’s seat, admiring every inch of the car before turning it on.

They took off down the road heading toward the highway; she drove for thirty minutes with Mike in the passenger seat, whipping around turns, pushing 120, and taking in the smoothness of the ride and the rev of the engine. As they pulled back into Mike’s driveway Amy couldn’t hide her smile, she even let out a squeal as she exited the vehicle.

“Amazing, amazing! How much do you want for it?” She turned around, only to see Mike swinging a plank of wood at her, knocking her to the ground.

*******

When Amy came to, she was lying on an old velvet couch; she looked around the room, trying to lift her head.

“How badly do you want this car?” Mike’s voice came from around a corner, his face hiding under a gas mask.

“What?” She whispered.

“How badly do you want this car?” He stormed out from the shadow and pushed towards her.

“I don’t…I don’t know.” She was groggy and the words just barely escaped her lips.

Mike stood back up, “While you were asleep, I exposed to you a deadly toxin. I’ll make you a deal. You can either take the car for free, and live out however much time you have left doing whatever you please, or you can give me $100,000 and I will supply you with the medicine necessary to keep you alive for longer.”

“I don’t have $100,000,” Amy spat.

“Well, you better figure it out if you want to live.”

As the headache began to fade, she slowly rose looking around for Mike, but he had faded into the shadows. “I’m never going to find $100,000,” she mumbled. She went to grab her phone, but it was gone. “Maybe I could run, take the car to the nearest hospital or police station.” She hobbled to the door, only to find she was in a shack in the middle of the desert.

“Tick tock.” Mike stood behind her, biting into a Granny Smith apple, mumbling over the crunches. “You only have 23 hours; I could always take some cash and sell possessions for more. Or you could live out your day in Vegas, no guarantee you won’t infect other people though. I may have hidden some powder in your clothes.”

Amy’s head spun, she could give up everything she owned to save her life, or she could take the car and try to find a hospital, and risk infecting anyone she came in contact with or worse, dying alone in the desert. She had no sense of direction, no phone to map where she was going, and she doubted Mike had paid for a navigation system in the car. She could always strip down, and warn people as she came through the doors that she may still be covered, although she wasn’t even sure what she was covered in. He could be lying about the whole thing too.

After a few minutes, she turned to look at him before finally whispering, “I’ll take the car.”