Chapter 2

The next day I woke up around noon, giving me a little less than two hours to be showered, shaved, and ready for work. When I got out of bed, I spent about ten minutes while enjoying my morning cigarette, deciding whether the night before had been a dream. "It was too odd," I thought. "these things don't happen to me."

Finishing the cigarette, I rose from the bed, still in the nude. I stumbled to the bathroom, and gathered the necessities for my shower. Before I knew it, I had showered, shaved, fixed my hair, and put on one of my best-looking outfits. Why I did it, was beyond me. The shirt would just be covered up by Wal-Mart's oh-so-attractive smurf-blue uniform.

"God, I'm a nerd." I said to myself, as I stared in the mirror.

I'd waited all night for her arrival, but to my dismay, at 9:45 she still hadn't showed. By now I was beginning to think that the events of the night before were little more than a sorority hazing, and I'd been the butt of some mean-spirited college joke.

I was working as hard as I could to ensure that I'd be able to leave as soon as the store closed. Pouring all of my anger into physical action, I ignored the voice across the intercom, giving the nightly closing announcements.

"Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, the time now is 9:45 and in fifteen minutes the store will be closing. Please be sure to make your final selections and bring your items to the front, as our cashiers are waiting to help you. Once again, the store will be closing in fifteen minutes, so please make your final selections and bring them to the front. The store will re-open at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, and thank you for shopping your friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart."

It was pretty much the same announcement at this time, every night. They would proceed to issue another simular announcement at ten 'til and five 'til, before finally announcing at ten that the store was closed. None of this concerned me, though.

By 10:45, we were finally told to go clock out. As we did so, I listened to other employees echo down the back hallway, as each one shuffled in line to make their way to the timeclock. Before long, we were all clocked out and heading out the front door. To my shock, I was approached by a slow-moving blue Camaro.

"Hey, baby! How much?" The girl giggled from the passenger's seat of the car, as the driver looked on with a grin on her face. The car had three girls in it, and as I turned to look at it, I realized that the girl in the passenger's seat was the same blonde from the night before.

"How much you got?" I grinned, as I walked up to the car, my ungodly blue vest still in hand. The girls giggled as they looked at each other, and back to me.

"Sorry I didn't come in, tonight. I got caught off-guard with a suprise sorority meeting." She said, smiling up at me.

"No worries." I answered, obviously lying.

A moment passed before she spoke again, following a long line of whispering between the girls, inside the blue Camaro. "So," she said, "me and a couple of friends were on our way to hang out at the broken bridge. Want to tag along?"

"The broken bridge?" I asked, the term was a new one on me.

"You've never heard of it?" She asked, almost in shock.

"Afraid not." I replied, half-way embarassed.

"Then get in, we're about to educate you." She said, grinning as she bit her lip.

We drove outside of town, down an old highway that I was unfamiliar with. It was about a ten minute trip, which seemed to be alot longer, as I was still somewhat nervous. Being in a hot sports car with three giggly college girls you don't even know will do that to you.

When we arrived, I noticed a large barricade in the road. Amongst the reflective orange and white colors, the bold black lettering stood out well.

DO NOT ENTER - BRIDGE OUT

"We're hoofing it from here." The blonde said, as the driver killed the engine to the car. She turned off the headlights, and the four of us wandered past the barricade, and on down the road.

The brunette that had ridden in the back seat, beside me, was carrying two large paper bags with her, as we strolled a good hundred yards down the highway. The darkness was blinding. The blonde and the redheaded driver were several feet in front of me, whispering and giggling to one another, inaudibly.

"Okay, we're clear. Break out the lights." The redhead said, as the three of them turned on flashlights, revealing the crater-like hole in the road.

What could be seen is a massive section where an old bridge had collapsed. Sections of the highway, in either direction, hung into the dried-up creek, and were riddled with over a decade of graffitti.

"Holy shit." I said, amazed that such a thing existed in this area.

"Yeah. This thing fell in 1975, due to lack of maintenance. The Department of Transportation was in the middle of putting in a new highway anyway, so they just tied it in to the other end of this one, and barricaded the bridge off from either side." The brunette said, before passing one of the paper bags to the blonde, and setting the other one down.