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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Manofmystery202 on 2024-10-18 21:25:04+00:00.

I would not consider myself a stupid person in any sense of the word. But I, like every person, am prone to stupid moments. That’s why I decided not to go to school but instead, tried to start my own business, in which I would sell my own clothing brand that I was so sure was going to make me millions. It didn’t last more than 4 months. Now I’m stuck in my shitty one-bedroom apartment with almost a thousand T-shirts that I am too embarrassed to tell you what they actually say. With nothing else going on in my, I just started looking for any job I could. But no one seemed to like the gap in the resume so I had no offers, none, zero. Except for one. A weird sketch Indeed ad that simply said, driver. It provided no information besides that, which I honestly didn’t think was possible for there to be so little on Indeed. But here it was. I assumed it was for a taxi driver or a delivery driver. I was more than confident I could do that, I’d been driving since I was 15 so how hard could it be?

With really nothing else to lose, I figured at the worst they would try to rob me, unless they wanted my clothes they weren’t getting much. When they did ask if I wanted the job I just took it. Then I was told to meet the guy on the edge of town tonight. I asked what if I was busy and he just responded “Then no job”. Well, shit guess I had no other choice. I don’t know what I expected, but it definitely wasn’t one dude standing next to a van. Great, I thought I’m gonna get robbed, murdered, or kidnapped.

“You Colton.” Said the shaggy-looking man with scruffy-looking brown hair and beard, he reeked of weed.

“Yep, that’s me,” I thought, just get it over with man.

“You’re gonna be driving this van down that road,” he pointed off to the left.

“Ok, where I’m driving it to?”

“You’ll know when you see it.”

“Ok, um well you didn’t really explain much about the job. I mean I don’t even know what the pay is.”

“It ain’t much but I figure if you responded that you must really need money, I mean you come out here in the middle of the night to meet a stranger with no prior information.”

He was right.

“Well you haven’t told me much, am I delivering drugs?”

“Why in the hell would I post a drug-running job on fucking Indeed.”

“That’s fair.”

“You ask one more question, I’m revoking the offer, So either take these keys and get in the van or get out of my face.”

Remember how I said prone to stupid decisions this was one of them. I took the keys and got in the van. God, it smelt bad trying to grab the crank to roll down the window. But it didn’t work. “Oh this is fun,” I said, already regretting my choices. I checked what else was wrong with the van. The ac didn’t work but the heater did. Oh cool, I needed that in the middle of the summer. The windshield wipers worked but no fluid, the back seat had been torn out and there was a gross-looking mattress in their place. As well as a duffel bag, I opened to check its contents fully expecting the drugs to be in it. But instead, it had a couple of pairs of clothes weirdly in my size, some bottled water, and snack bars. As well as a flair gun and a med kit. I went back to checking the van you know what did work. The radio, except it was stuck on one channel that only played Christian music, no offense to anyone who follows that religion in all but I was not listening to that. I shut off the radio and put music on my phone. I looked over at the man but he was gone. Was I really about to do this I told myself. I guess I was cause I put the van into drive.

I never got used to the feeling of driving at night, especially on country roads. As soon as you leave the city limits, you become suddenly aware of how dark nighttime is. The further you drive the more and more the anxiety sets in. This was one road with no lines to keep you on one side. So I drove in the middle of the road until I saw someone coming on the left. Another fun thing about the road was just how bad it needed to be redone, it felt like I had to dodge a pothole every 40 feet or so. After driving for what felt like forever but turned out to only be 43 minutes I came on my first building. A small gas station, with one pump. Upon seeing it I began wondering how the hell I was gonna fill up the van. I looked down to see the gas gauge was still on full so that meant either this thing got pretty good gas mileage or that the gas gauge was also broken. I felt like it was the second one. I pulled over in hopes that it sold air fresheners. The smell only seemed to get worse as I drove. I was more than willing to spend what little money I had left on one.

The place was extremely worn down. It only had one pump and no diesel nozzle. There were water stains running down the building and a small breeze kept shaking a piece of the sheet metal roof. It clanked against it and for a few short seconds I stood there listening, this was enough to annoy me, and I felt bad for any workers. I pulled the door open but it got stuck against the concrete and I heard someone from inside yell “You’re gonna have to shimmy through!” I feel like that had to break some sort of law or safety violation. I slowly made my way through the gap my jacket got stuck about halfway through, in which I then had to pull it off from the door in the process ripping a small hole in the side. I looked over at the worker, he had his face buried in a book and it seemed like he was trying to ignore me.

“You sell air fresheners?”

“Auto sections at the back of the store next to the medicine section.”

I took that as a yes. The air fresheners were 7 dollars for one talk about overpricing, I knew I only had like 12 bucks left in my account. My credit cards were maxed out and I drained my savings so I knew I had nothing to fall back on. I checked my bank app to make sure I had the money I thought I had. To my surprise, I had more, Finally something good. I had a whole 23 dollars that I was about to completely blow at this random gas station. Still unsure if I was even getting paid for this. Why was I still driving? I mean really there was no job security here. I still don’t even know what I’m delivering or if I am even delivering something. Was I this desperate? Just then like he was reading my mind I looked down to see a text from Charlie. Wait, who was Charlie? “Don’t worry kid you’re getting paid, you already have been.” I went into my deposits. To see that 9 dollars had been put into my account a couple of minutes before I came to the gas station. The memo just said from Charlie. So Charlie was the man who gave me the van I’d put that part together. I had so many questions. Where did I get his number, I mean I don’t remember exchanging numbers. I don’t remember learning his name or making a contact with him. I know I didn’t give him any banking info. My mind was racing I tried texting him back but it just said undelivered. You know what fuck it I was still alive and getting paid so I’m not asking any more questions.

I picked up the air freshener and went to the counter, on the counter I saw some chargers so I picked up one that goes into the lighter port. I at least wanted my phone if I was gonna be driving for god knows how long.

“How much for these,” the man picked up the items and scanned them.

“$13.78.”

I fished in my pocket for my wallet and put my card in the reader. “So you’re actually real,” the man behind the counter said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said, shoving his face back in the book.

What a weird interaction I thought to myself on my way out. I got in the van and put up my new air fresheners. The man slapped the side of the van startling me in the process. I opened the door to yell at him but he cut me off.

“Unless you pull into somewhere with people, stay in your damn car.” He walked away before elaborating. I was half tempted to follow him but I decided against it.

I was back on the road. I decided to put on a YouTube video as I was getting sick of my music. It was a video of someone explaining The Waco Siege which I had already listened to a couple of times. But I liked the YouTuber and he was slow between uploads. It got to the part where they “accidentally” lit the compound on fire. Just then a large creature jumped out from the darkness bailing in front of the Van. I tried to swerve so as not to hit it but I wasn’t quick enough. The Van collided with the creature smacking it with the front before it proceeded to roll over the top. I slammed on my brakes, stopping to catch my breath, my heart was pounding in my chest. I took a second breath and got out to inspect the damages on both the van and whatever I hit. The van was fine, not even a scratch on it, what a tank. The animal was not fine, It was a deer. One of its antlers broke off in the impact and its face did not seem to enjoy the asphalt, there was a small trail of blood where it skidded across the road. One of its legs was broken and was sticking in the wrong direction. “Oh shit that thing is dead.” I ate my words as I heard them huff.

Now I felt like it was my obligation to put it out of its misery. I found a big enough rock on the side of the road to crush its head. Shuffling over with the heavy thing I raised it as far up as I could and dropped it. The thing came down with a splat blood shot up from it and splattered on my face. “Welp,” I said, wiping the blood off my face onto my jacket. I had done my civil duty. At least that’s what I thought before…

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