Miles

          Austin should have been out of Virginia by midnight but it's 1am and he's just now approaching the state border.  The Mason-Dixon line is still an hour north.  It isn't just time that is beginning to worry Austin though.  It's getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open and the total darkness only confuses him.  In the last thirty minutes there hasn't been another car on the same side of the road.  No one is passing him, and there are no cars for him to pass.  The headlights of the cars on the other side of the highway temporarily blind him as they pass.  They make the darkness afterwards seem even more total.  It gives Austin a chill and the hair sticks up on his arm.  The heats on in the car, but he still has goose bumps.  He can't help but think that all the cars fleeing from this place that he is headed, like some disaster is up ahead. 

            The sky has a reddish glow to the northwest, but without making it seem any less dark.  He imagines some blazing forest fire, or explosion is making the sky turn shades of crimson.  It brings back memories of his days as a camera man running towards disaster all the time, running into the buildings right before they came crumbling down.  It was moments like that, which made Austin reconsider his life.  He moved away from the city, down south for a more relaxing life with his family, but now just headed back in the same general direction, and he couldn't escape this awful feeling that was haunting him.  What was up ahead?

            "What am I thinking?" he said out loud to himself, breaking the silence that had persisted since his book on tape ended an hour earlier.  "It's just too late to be driving.  I'm too old for this."  His eyes darted as his headlights hit every blue sign, gas, food…lodging. 

            If he stops now he could get a few hours of sleep and get back on the road in the daylight, but daylight in these parts is synonymous for traffic.    As Austin debates in his head, his eyes start to close and he swerves to the right. The rumple strips jerk him awake, and as his eyes open he sees a sign for the Jameson Inn.  "No more risks" he says out loud.  "I'm going to sleep."