He sat in the passenger seat as it rumbled along the dirt road. An old jeep doesn’t have much luxury, and his long legs were crammed between the back of his seat and the dashboard. Every bump was transferred to his spine, every rock rattled his jaw, and every dip his knee jammed a little further into the dash or vice-versa.
“So where are we going again?” he asked the driver, and the pair of sunglasses turned to look at him, before turning back to look at the road.
Sunglasses pressed the gas down a bit more. Jack was jerked to the back of his seat from the cars inertia, and his knee gained a bit of relief.
“You know, I just like to mentally prepare is all” he said, explaining the nervousness that seemed apparent with the first question.
Sunglasses still didn’t speak. He wore a black jacket, and blue jeans. The shadow his forward-turned baseball cap cast on his eyes didn’t make a difference when he was wearing those sunglasses, bright orange lenses that seemed to have the ability to look right through you.
“Again if I’m having to kill anyone or anything like that, I just want to get in the mood” he said as nonchalantly as he could.
Sunglasses spoke in a monotone voice “You don’t have to kill anyone” in a manner that gave a hint of annoyance at the repeated barrage of conversation.
“Ok good. Great actually because today was not gonna be a good day for it, my sinuses have been acting up again and I ju-” he noticed Sunglasses had turned to look at him, no expression, but the heat of his stare told Jack what he needed to know. They continued at the same fast pace, bumping rhythmically on the backroad they had been traveling for what seemed to be hours.
He didn’t continue talking, he just looked out the side of the Jeep and wondered what they were doing out here. He didn’t have to kill anyone, but it didn’t mean no one was going to die. Jacks head didn’t move, but his eyes shifted to Sunglasses, trying to find the answer himself.
He doesn’t have a gun he thought. That I can see at least, and what reason would he have to kill me. His eyes bounced around the jeep for more information. Nothing jumped out at him, the air freshener dangling from the mirror didn’t really help in an open air Jeep. How had he introduced himself? Ernie? No that’s a muppet, sunglasses can’t share a name with a muppet. Robert? That’s nowhere close to Ernie, where were these names coming from?
The desert around them seemed to go on forever, the big sandstone rock formations jutted up as if in defiance of the elements. They still bore the scars of previous storms and repeated rainfall. Cacti stood still, posing for a photo never to be taken and the brush rolled aimlessly, looking for the nearest old-west showdown.
Jacob? He looked at sunglasses again, This guy could definitely be a Jacob. Randal maybe?
“We’re almost there, let me do the talking.” Sunglasses said into the windshield. Jack squinted his eyes at the horizon to see if there was anything different pushing itself into the sky. A small bump had appeared, really only a silhouette in the mid-day sun.
“What is ‘there’ exactly?” Jack felt himself ask before he could stop the words in his throat.
Sunglasses slowly turned his head toward Jack, a slight tilt betrayed a causality to his demeanor about the subject. His lips broke into a slight grin that was heavier on one side.
“Your future.”
