13. Deserted highway
This happened a few years ago when I first got my driver’s license, I was driving to the country for a friend’s birthday. I’d worked late and had left home for the 4 hour drive by myself at 7 at night since all my friends had left before, but I really wanted to be there so I didn’t mind. The area I was driving through was quiet, sparsely populated farm area, it was known to have a few weirdos around, but nothing serious. Either way, I wasn’t worried when I set off.
I had been driving for ages, just listening to music and zoning out and i’d found myself on a road called Buckets Lane, a 80km stretch of road thats mostly straight and was absolutely empty at this time of night. At some point I took notice of headlights in my rear view mirror, it was the first car i’d seen in a long time, and although it seemed a long way behind me it started to catch me fast. I was driving my twenty year old Ford wagon, and was driving about 110km/h, but this guy was coming up REALLY quick.
Soon after I saw the car, I started to hear the faint noises of intermittent honking that grew louder and louder as he got closer. I’m not sure if this sounds scary, but it was really eerie. He was honking from a huge distance away for no reason, I was alone, I didn’t even have phone reception. It gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I had a strong feeling this person wanted to mess with me. After a while this car finally pulled right up on me, I could see it looked like a black pick up with two people inside, and before I knew it he was tailgating me and still honking repeatedly. I freaked out, I was trying to wave him around me, but he wouldn’t go. I didn’t want to slow down but I couldn’t outrun him, so I was sort of stuck. At this point he started flashing his high beams, which made it really hard to see, and then he started hitting my rear bumper, really smashing it. I was trying to keep my shit together enough to keep my car on the road, but I was dealing with the bumping, the high beams, and the honking that was driving me insane. All this was happening at around 100km/h (60+ mph), and eventually something had to give, I swerved off the road, luckily it was on open field, slammed on the brakes, the car did a full 180 degree turn and I slid backwards into a small ditch. I checked myself quickly, made sure I was all in one piece, the car miraculously wasn’t damaged and I hadn’t really crashed so I was fine. I then looked up to look for the truck. It had kept driving but it was slowing down, and then turned around, drove slowly towards me and started that fucking honking again.
I panicked big time. I put the car in reverse for some reason and slammed down on the accelerator… big mistake- I just dug the car in to the soft grass. The truck was driving in to the field towards me, at this point I realised this person was potentially dangerous, before it could have just been someone playing a stupid prank, but now they had run me off the road, and were coming back, still honking the horn, obviously not coming to see if I was ok.
They pulled up close to me, probably 20 meters off, and were shining their high beams on me so I couldn’t see a thing. I was still trying to reverse out of this ditch like a moron, and finally decided to put it back in drive. By this point the honking had stopped, and someone had stepped out of the drivers door. This person was short and fat but all I could see was their silhouette, and this silhouette was now walking towards my trapped car. I took a few deep breaths, I was shaking and terrified, and slowly eased the pedal. The car was moving but my wheels were spinning and I didn’t know if i’d make it out. The person moved faster now and got up to my door. I locked it in the nick of time when pulled the handle, so he just started knocking on the window. This was fucked, because he didn’t bash on it, he just tapped on it, really calm, and very slowly. I begged my car to move and finally it did, i got some traction and got back on to the road and just floored it.
The honking started again and pretty soon I saw the truck was racing to catch up with me again. FINALLY a car came in the opposite direction, I flagged him down by flashing my high beams and this middle aged woman got out of the car. I was hysterical, but once I stopped, I saw in the distance the lights of the black truck stop, turn around and zoom off in the other direction. Thank god for this woman, she calmed me down and took me to the police station. I gave a statement and everything but I didn’t really see anything but a short fat silhouette and a black truck, so no help there.
No one was ever caught, and the sounds of honking horns still send shivers down my spine.
