It was a sunny day, rare that summer, pretty much everywhere had flooded. It seemed like a perfect time to travel. Spending the entirety of spring indoors makes one a little stir crazy, it was beyond time to leave. So that's just what he did. Jason liked to go visit his parents beach house as often as possible, it was a days drive away but well worth it to relax.
The main route was interstate, but as most places in the south, the back roads offer more to look at. That's the route Jason preferred, the small towns, the farms, the slower speed limits, it only added to the relaxation of the trip. He was about half way there when he saw thick storm clouds in the distance. It was expected with the amount of rain that has been happening lately. However, this could be bad considering this area was still saturated from the unusually wet spring. Jason pulled off the road and pulled out his phone to check the weather. Sure enough, he was headed right into the heart of a severe storm dumping 3 inches of rain per hour. He began to wonder if he should just sit and wait it out or push through and hope for the best.
Jason decided to push through. He began to continue heading south, into the heart of the storm. It began to lightly rain no more than five minutes after he returned to the road. The rain quickly began to cover the surrounding earth. Nerves began to over come Jason as he slowed his compact car to a mere five miles per hour. He could hardly see the road in front of him, yet he knew not to stop. If he pulled off onto the shoulder now, one of the many transfer trucks traveling that route could flatten him, so he pressed on.
The rain seemed to have no end and when Jason's phone lost its data connection, as well as its GPS capabilities, the nerves began to rise into panic. Jason knew he was going to be turning off the road he has been on for the majority of the trip soon, but was unsure exactly where, all the landmarks he knew where hidden by a curtain of rain. He decided to just keep driving until he could re-obtain the GPS capabilities and adjust his course then.
Just as quickly as the storm had arisen, was it gone. As Jason emerged from the storm the sun seemed to be brighter than ever before. Jason was in a town that he had never seen before. He didn't see any people, animals, bugs, nothing. The buildings were no taller than three stories and created a grid type town that seemed to once be a thriving southern town in its hay day. He pulled off into a small parking lot and found his phone trying to locate a service tower, without much luck. Jason turned it off and back on again to see if maybe it had locked up during the storm. Still no luck.
Jason thought he could look around while he was there, see if there was anyone in the area that could help him get back on the right course. But he couldn't. There seemed to be no one in the whole town. The town was very well kept however, the grass was mowed, building clean, bushes pruned, like the area never changes. Finding a corner diner, Jason went in. No one. The diner was empty, but there were pies in the bakery case and tickets hanging in the window. He wondered into the back and saw recipes on the wall and ingredients in the refrigerator. He had grown a hunger and decided to quickly whip up a burger.
Jason decided to have some fun with it and put on an apron and began to act like a fry cook. After the burger was done and plated with a heaping serving of fries, he rang the bell and called out "Order UP!" What happened next made Jason yell out a small scream of terror as the restaurant was instantly filled with people that were all looking at him as they ate.
Jason looked back at the grill and saw a large black man standing there with his arms folded asking him "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jason apologized and handed him back the apron. He began to leave the restaurant as a waitress ran up to him and asked if he was at least going to eat the food he cooked. Jason had already forgotten about that and decided he might as well. The waitress brought him a glass of fresh made sweet tea as he asked how long everyone had been there. She answered with "Longer than you darlin'." Jason ate his burger and fries and drank more sweet tea than he had ever intended. As he went to pay, he asked the waitress where he was and how to get out of there, The answer he got was not quite what he expected.
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