The Good Samaritan

By James Bernardo

Elly hated weekends. It's not that he loathed the two-day break from his highly stressful job as a stockbroker. It's not that he disliked the respite from serving as a motivational speaker in his church community. It's just he hated driving up the mountain to spend two days with his overbearing mother-in-law. His wife and kids always went up ahead of him. He dreaded the 8-hour drive from the city to the province up in the heavens. His only solace in the lonely journey is listening to the classics on the radio and singing, no screaming along to the tunes as he wrestled with sleepiness along the dark and lonely road.

"Why does my heart go on beating? Why do these eyes of mine cry?

Don't they know it's the end of the world?

It ended when you said: GOOD-BYE!!!"

Static started overpowering the music as the signal got weaker and weaker. He turned off the radio, annoyed with the racket it was making. He could already see the flickering lights dotting the mountain face. Two more hours. He took the narrow blind corner up the mountain pass. A mangled mess of metal and fire met him head on. He slammed his foot on the brakes, narrowly avoiding the wreckage but hitting a tree on the roadside, breaking his headlights. He hurriedly got out of the car to see if anyone was hurt. Lying face down on the ground, a man appeared to be seriously injured. Elly was afraid to move him and he instinctively reached for his phone. "No service". Elly had to move quickly if he was to save this man's life. He carefully turned the car crash victim over. As bad as the car wreck looked, the man's face looked even worse. One of his eyes was torn out of its socket and was hanging loosely on the left temple. His nose was completely erased from his face. Blood oozed out from the deep gashes on his forehead and chin. Elly trembled in pity and disgust. He knew he had to perform CPR.

With much hesitation, he tilted the victim's chin up as he forced open his mouth. Blood spewed out from it as Elly grimaced, pulling his mouth closer to the victim's lips. He blew air into the victim and pressed on his chest. He heard the victim let out a grunt. He's alive, he thought. He ran back to his car and grabbed the blanket his kids use when the car air-conditioning got too cold. He wrapped the victim and tried to carry him but dragged him to the car instead. " Hang in there." , he spoke to the victim as he turned the ignition key and gunned the accelerator. There's a small community hospital a few kilometres up the mountain road. He remembered it had an emergency room for the road accident victims they get every year, especially during the rainy season.  

As the car passed through one of the small towns, he slowed down a little to avoid stray livestock that usually cross at night. Further down, he saw a group of people walking aimlessly in the middle of the road. They must have been drinking, he thought as it was a very cold night. But he needed to get out of there quickly so as he neared the throng, he blared his car horn. Again. And again. The crowd of people slowly turned and headed towards his car. He couldn't make out their faces but he knew he had somehow triggered them. Thoughts of running them over entered his head but as the mob began grabbing, pounding, kicking, clawing and screaming liked lunatics, he grabbed the shifter and drove in reverse as fast as he could. The car pivoted with a screech and he floored the gas pedal.

" Don't worry, there's another way." , he didn't know if he was assuring the victim or himself. Thirty minutes more. As the car raced past a town's signpost, he saw more people waving their arms and running to the middle of the road. As he drove past, he glimpsed at the horror in their faces. " What's going on here? Everyone's acting crazy." he muttered as he switched the radio on again. He heard a faint, almost inaudible chatter coming from the news station. " Outbreak....public...stay indoors...military on high alert... virus outbreak..."

Elly's eyes widened as he looked at the rearview mirror. The car swerved and the tires lost their grip. The car careened and crashed through the guard rails.

A mangled mess of metal and fire, the car rested against a giant tree.

" Don't they know it's the end of the world?

It ended when you said..."

"Goodbye..."

Copyright © 2019 by James Bernardo

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