As the holidays came to an end, Levi tried harder than ever to stay busy, taking in every last minute of his time at home, almost desperately grasping onto every bit of what it meant to be home. But, to no avail. He soon found himself hugging his family goodbye; while Paul sat in the driveway, honking.

"Come on man, we've got like three more stops before we're even really on the road."

"Alright," he yelled back. "Just give me a minute." Then, turning back to his mom and dad, "I love you guys, I can't wait till spring break." His mom, bawling, hugged him tight.

His dad just squeezed his arm saying, "Don't think about that, just go and do what you went there to do, ok?"

He nodded mutely, not trusting himself to talk again, all but running to the car.

"You took long enough. Ready to get going?" said Paul.

"Yeah," he said, his voice sounding rough in his ears. "Yeah let's go."

Paul seemed to sense his depression and made up for it by being extra cheerful, entertaining him with stories of his family's skiing mishaps. Levi tried to stay upbeat, though he kept losing focus, thinking of the long months before spring break. The winter was bleak enough as it was, but to be alone in a strange place all winter made him shiver with imagined cold. Gradually he realized that Paul was still talking.

"So yeah then this old guy was telling us there's like a bigfoot thing up in the mountains that killed his buddy's sheep, and he was going up to meet this buddy to hunt it."

"Wait, what old guy?"

"The old guy on the snowmobile, the one who helped us when our car got stuck in the snowdrift. Really, have you been listening at all?"

"Sorry I lost focus for a second; I stayed up way too late last night. So he really was off hunting bigfoot?"

"Didn't sleep huh, I hope it was a good party. But yeah, he was sure convinced it was bigfoot, or something like that. He had like five guns strapped to his snowmobile."

"Wow, so he was serious?”

“Yeah, can you believe it? It was like the start of a bad horror movie. Crazy guy heads off into the woods, warning the nice tourist family about bigfoot. Next thing you know the nice tourist family gets stalked and murdered by bigfoot. But, we made it out alright.”

“Sounds like a pretty fun trip."

"Yeah, it was really fun. My dad tried to show off by going down a black diamond. I laughed so hard.”

“Didn’t go well?”

“Nah, he ended up tomahawking, he musta flipped like four or five times. They had to close down the run while they went and got him.” His face fell for a second. “Of course that meant he spent the rest of the time in the hot tub instead of the slopes. Oh well, at least I got the good parts on film.”

###

They picked up the others one at a time and were on their way. Crossing Kansas was uneventful till red brake lights lit up in front of them. Paul stomped on the break and Levi was slammed forward against his seat belt as they jerked to a stop, inches behind a beat up minivan.

"Woah! That was close," said Paul, clutching the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles went white. "Everyone ok?"

"Yeah we're all good," said Alice, from the back. "But Phil's wishing he wore his seat belt."

"Hey, it's not funny, my nose is bleeding."

"Woah, you better not bleed on my seats, I just cleaned this thing," said Paul.

"Cleaned it? With what?" Said Cara, eyeing the seats. Levi could see why. The stained upholstery was splitting in places, with yellowed foam sticking through. Bits of receipts and old candy wrappers poked out from crevices beneath the seats.

"But what happened?” said Phil. “Why'd we stop all of a sudden?"

"You got me," said Paul, "I can't see that far ahead. That dude in front just jammed on his breaks, and now we're stopped dead."

"So, go check it out," said Cara.

"Dude, no way, it's cold out there and we're like in the middle of the freeway. I'm sure it'll start again soon."

After five minutes of waiting, the freeway was still at a standstill.

"Hey, Phil," Cara started again, "Paul's being a baby, you go check it out."

"Why me?" he said, still holding a paper towel to his face. "You've got two legs same as the rest of us, why don't you go?"

"What, seriously, I thought you guys were men. You're just a couple babies hiding from the cold."

"That's right," said Paul, "I wasn't made for the cold, don't ask me why I ended up in New York. Anyway, what about gender equality and all that, I go out and I'm basically saying I don't think you, as a woman, can handle the tough jobs. Nope, I respect you too much."

Levi sunk into his seat, uncomfortable with the bickering. Finally he’d had enough. "I'll go," he said, abruptly leaving the car. A moment later he almost wished he hadn’t. Leaving the car, he caught the full force of the frigid wind. A strong gust slammed the door shut before he was fully out, making him jerk his fingers out of the way.

Wow, close call.

Jamming his hands into the pockets of his faded jeans, he wound his way between cars to the crest of the small hill. There he stopped short, forgetting for a moment the chill.

“What on earth?”

No more than a hundred yards ahead the road stopped, cut cleanly away, emptying into open prairie. Half a dozen cars were out in the frozen grass, where they'd come to a stop among the tall grasses, their owners standing in the grass, scratching their heads. It wasn't just the road though, the power lines were gone too, and the fences, and pretty much everything else; replaced with brown hills covered in long grass. Despite the cold, people had gotten out of their cars to gather at the edge of the road, pointing out over the empty land beyond.

Levi shivered as he stood there, though whether from the cold or not he wasn't certain. The sheer enormity of what must have just happened terrified him and excited him. What did just happened? He really didn’t know how long he stood there, but Paul’s voice brought him back.

"Hey man, you really didn't have to come out here, Cara was just saying that to mess with us. Seriously you should come back in it's freezing out... Woah. You seeing this Levi?" His phone was already out and filming.

Really, that’s the first thing he thinks of? Was it just instinct for this guy?

"Yeah. I see it,” said Levi. “Any idea what did this?"

"You got me," Paul said, gaping at the landscape. "This's just messed up." Then he waved, yelling back toward the car. "Hey guys, you're not going to believe this." Then to Levi, "This is awesome I’m so going viral." Aiming his phone at Levi he said, "So Levi, you wanna be a YouTube star?"

"No thanks," he said, batting the phone away. “It’s all you."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Too late, you're already on film."

"You suck."

"Hey, I'm an artist. Too bad you can't understand my genius. You'll thank me when you're famous though." He turned and went back to filming the scene.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" It was Cara.

The others were out and climbing the hill.

"Hey," yelled Paul, "you won't believe it so just take a look.” Then to Levi, "this is perfect, I'll catch their faces when they first see it. He trained the camera on the others as they crested the hill.

"What's so important that we had to come all the way up here?" said Phil, drawing close. "It’s so cold I can't feel my nose any... Aagh. Where'd the road go?"

"You guys all did great,” Paul said. “Classic shock there, especially you Phil, you really pulled off the I'm about to piss my pants look, they're still dry right? We've still got a long drive together."

"Shut up Paul." Phil said, looking embarrassed. "Seriously, where’s the road?"

"And the farms," said Alice. "Look around, it's not just the road, everything's gone."

"Hey, you're right, I gotta mention that too." Paul started panning again.

“But where’d it all go?” Phil insisted.

“We don’t know,” said Cara. “Now get over it.” She sounded calm, like this was no big deal, but Levi thought there was a tense edge in her tone.

"I think it was aliens," said Alice.

They all turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?” Asked Phil. “Like little green men? Do you think that’s possible?”

"Yep, just like that. They traveled across space to steal a piece of Kansas. That's what I would have done."

"Wait," said Levi. "Why on earth Kansas?"

"Really?" said Cara. "Nothing else wrong with that. Just why Kansas?"

"Well, It could be aliens," said Levi. "What else could do this? But Kansas's gotta be one of the most boring states in the nation, I would’ve swiped the grand canyon, or the pyramids, or something cool."

She rolled her eyes. “You can’t steal the grand canyon, you’d just be making it bigger.”

"He's got a point though," said Paul. "No way anyone would take Kansas over the pyramids. So probably not aliens. Maybe a government experiment, or a super-villain with some doomsday weapon. Either way, I'll be the first one with proof."

"No," said Alice. "Aliens. And if it were me, I'd take it just so everyone’d ask 'why Kansas?' They'll be trying to explain this one for years. Best prank ever." The way she said it, Levi couldn't tell if she was serious, or just messing with them.

Phil laughed, looking uncomfortable, "You really don't think it could be something like that do you? That sort of thing's just in comic books."

"Look," said Alice, becoming more serious. "I've read tons of fairy tales, and even a few comics. Most are trash, but the fun ones started with real events that people couldn’t understand. Like supernatural stuff. The stories were just someone's way of explaining it all. It makes the world more interesting don’t you think?" She had a shine in her eye as she spoke that gave Levi chills. She had that same hungry look from before.

Phil started freaking out a little, though he tried hard to hide it. "Wait, what sort of things happened before? Are we talking about bible stuff, or fairy tales or what?"

Alice just smiled.

"Come on," she said, turning back to the car. "It's cold, let's get outta here. I don't think the road'll be coming back."

The others looked at each other, shrugged, and for want of a better idea they followed her. Phil stood there for a moment, staring out at the open grasslands. "Aliens," he mouthed, and hurried after the others.

###

They piled back into the civic and Paul tried to turn around. There wasn't enough room to drive on the shoulder, so he took a chance and crossed over the frozen ground separating the opposing lanes of traffic. It was bumpy, but they made it without getting stuck. They were just celebrating Paul's bold move when the car started to shake.

"Aw crap, something's wrong." Said Paul, pulling over to the side of the road.

They sat shivering as they waited for Paul to finish his inspection. He wasn't gone long.

"It's a flat." was all he said when he came back to pop the trunk. The others sat there, exchanging looks, each one daring the others to go help. Levi took the initiative. Better out working on the car then inside waiting, he thought. Cars I can do. He needed something that made sense after what they'd just seen, and this was something he'd done a thousand times.

Paul glanced at him as he came round to the trunk. "Hey,"

"Hey."

"Thanks for helping. You done this before?"

"Yep, you got a spare?"

"Sure do, it's right in here. Give me a hand with these."

Levi helped Paul haul the luggage out, one piece at a time. They were halfway through when Alice came around to join them, her slight frame shivering inside her oversized coat. She didn't say a word, just began taking the luggage as they pulled it out. At last they'd emptied the trunk and could lift up the panel to get to the spare.

"That sucks," said Levi, looking at the spare.

"Yeah, but at least it's something," said Alice.

"Huh, what do you mean?" asked Paul.

"He means," said Alice, "that puny little donut won't last us more than twenty miles on these roads, that's what. We'll have to switch up the front and back tires too, or it'll warp the shaft."

Paul looked at her, then at Levi, "Is she right?"

Levi nodded.

"What’s up with that?” said Alice. You think I don't know cars cause I'm a girl?"

"Nah, nothin like that. I just really don't want to be juggling tires out here in the cold. I was hoping Levi here would say otherwise. How do you know that stuff anyway? You don't seem the type."

"I dated a guy who worked on cars; he taught me a thing or two."

"Oh, cool, cause I've never changed one of these in my life, you guys'll have to help me here."

By the time they'd worked the flat off the front, moved the back to the front, and finally put the donut on the rear, Levi's face burned and his legs were numb. His fingers were even worse. Thinking about frostbite, Levi hoped nothing would fall off.

"So," Paul said, once they were back inside."You guys nice and warm in here?"

"Yeah, uh, sorry." Phil said, "You looked like you had it covered and we didn't want to get in the way."

"Right,” said Cara, “what he said. I don't know anything about cars anyway. I'd probably just make things worse."

Paul looked like he wanted to say something, but let it slide. "Whatever, let's just hope there's a shop around here that's open on Sunday, cause we aren't going far on this spare."

"I think I saw a little town not too far back," Levi said. "It might have something."

He was right, not more than five miles back they hit a small town with a mechanic. But there, standing in the window was a big CLOSED sign, open Mon-Sat 8-6.

Cara groaned. "Of all the days we could have gotten stuck, it had to be on a Sunday."

"Well," said Paul, looking at his phone. "There's nothing else nearby and I won't risk driving far on the spare. You said it wasn't made for long drives and you're right, I can already feel the car handling different."

Phil spoke up. "We passed a diner coming over here, I'm starving let's think of what to do over there.”

No one had a better idea, so they headed over.

###

The diner was small but clean and warm, packed with a mix of locals and stranded travelers. They hung around for a while, waiting for a booth to clear, talking about their dilemma. Eventually a dour older man in a John Deere cap approached them from his nearby seat at the counter.

“The name's Binson,” he said, nodding, “John Binson. Ah couldn't help but overhear yeh folks talking. Yeh need help?"

Cara spoke up, “Not likely, unless you've got a spare tire that fits an old Honda Civic."

“Well,” he said with a smile. “I jus’ might have something that'll work. What size do yeh need?"

"Not sure, but our car’s the red one right out front. If you've got a tire that fits we'd appreciate it.”

Nodding, he exited the diner with a slow, steady gait. They watched through the window as he examined their car, rubbing his worn, chapped hands against the cold. He was back a moment later, an almost cheerful look on his weathered face.

"Well, you're in luck, ah've got a set back at my farm that should work, they're a bit worn but yeh can have one of ‘em if yeh want. They'll get yeh to a town where you can find somethin’ newer."

They all thanked him, all except Paul who was looking out the window nervously. "Er, thanks, but how far is this farm? It'll be dark soon and I don't know if I want to be driving around in the dark with the donut."

"It's not far kid, we'll be there before yeh know it. How about it? Ah don't think yeh've got any better options anyhow."

"Come on Paul," said Cara, "I am not spending the night trying to sleep in that car with all of you, besides it's way too cold."

"Yeah," said Phil. "We've really got no better choice, I'm sure the donut'll last."

Finally Paul gave in and they left the diner, following the old man.

###

Moments after they left, another local, equally weathered, broke off a conversation he'd been having with a truck driver at the counter, dropped some cash on the table and drained the last drops of his coffee before following the others out the door.