“I don’t think this is the time to be arguing over music guys.” Nick said as he watched the train draw closer.

“Yeah well, it is definitely my turn on the aux.” Lily complained, seemingly unbothered by the impending crisis.

“I’m so sick of Taylor Swift though!” Benny moaned.

The large man in the driver seat decided it was time to chime in. “Alright enough, I’ll be putting my music on from now on. Now buckle up, time to skadoodle.” And with that everyone shut up and held onto something. The metal panels of the car groaned as the car heaved against the boom gate, the vehicle trying its best to make a turn.

“Turn god dammit!” The man, Henry, said, trying with all his might to get his car off the tracks.

Nick was tempted to tell his father how close the train was getting, but thought the man might be stressed enough as it is. Lily however, held no such reservations.

“Daaaaad, the train is getting pretty close!”

Henry only grunted in response. Finally having managed to get the car perpendicular to the track, the car lurched as he floored it. He’d need speed to make it through the fence running along the track.

The lights of the train began to draw closer and closer, everyone in the car could hear the train’s horn screaming out, surely being rung by a very stressed out trainer driver. Henry floored it, the car gaining speed rapidly, but not as rapidly as the train. The speedometer climbed and climbed, the car desperately getting faster. Henry knew that he just didn’t have enough speed to make it through the fence, the car would still get hit.

The train closed the distance quickly, watching out the back window Nick saw the lights draw in. They looked like two eyes staring him down, he literally was just a deer in the headlights. He continued to watch as the fenceline whipped past, the car surely must have almost been fast enough now. The fence was of the tall chain link variety, what was supposed to be keeping him safe from passing trains only entrapping him to such a fate.

Nick watched in wonder as he saw black tendrils begin to creep up the fences, somehow registering in his eyes even as the sight whipped by. He saw what looked like shadows climb up the fence, though it was getting dark and his adrenaline was pumping. He could just be freaking out. Actually, he was definitely beginning to freak out. He looked at his siblings who’d become uncharacteristically quiet, both were staring at something in front of the car.

Nick looked forward and instantly understood why his siblings were enthralled. The same tendrils he’d seen on the fence were spreading out from the railroad tracks. They emerged from beneath the rails and slithered along the ground towards the fence. The tracks ahead of the car had been completely consumed by the shadowy appendages.

“Uh Dad, what the hell are we driving into?” Nick couldn’t help but question out loud.

The man was focused on his speedometer, snapping his head up at his son’s words. He faltered at what he saw. The space in front of them was being consumed by black tendrils, becoming a writhing mass that seemed unbothered by the car.

Then Benny called out. “I don’t think that's a train behind us any more…”

Everyone looked back, even Henry, only to see that the train lights looked far too alive to just be lights. They moved and danced around with an energy that Nick could only describe as malicious. The ‘eyes’ were blindingly bright, not much else could be made out through the back window, just the two malicious orbs dancing around. Whatever it was, it was still travelling towards them, rapidly.

Henry had a choice to make, wait for the thing behind them to catch up, which was likely at least similar to a train, or keep flooring it into the mass of tendrils.

“Well, don’t have any good choices here.” With that he focused forward and kept his foot glued to the pedal. The tendrils continued to consume the space around them but Henry decided that whatever it was that was chasing them was a worse fate than continuing forward.

And so the car continued to speed forward. The tendrils had now completely consumed the fence line and had begun to reach back across the tracks, creating an archway. The tendrils began to overlap creating a denser and denser black tube. Soon the family was driving down a pitch black tunnel, only the car lights and the bright orbs offering any vision.

Nick began to notice something a little odd. “Does anyone else feel like we’re heading downhill?”

Lily and Benny both nodded, they could also feel the incline. In no time they could all feel it, the tilt was getting steeper and steeper. The car was now hurtling down a pitch back slope, occasionally hitting a bump and gaining air time before colliding back into the ground.

Everyone in the car grabbed onto what they could, feeling gravity pulling them towards the windshield.

"Seatbelts kids, seatbelts!" Henry exclaimed. Though each member was already buckled up, they didn't feel secure at all.

Nick stared down into the black space he was falling into and felt it reach out to him. It almost felt like it was welcoming him into its embrace. He felt himself wanting to give into the call, to answer the allure. Just as his mind began to drift he jerked. The car slammed into something and the darkness was gone.

Nick snapped out of it and just as quickly as the alien feeling had come on, it was gone. He looked around and found that the car was sitting in a dark and dingy car park of some fashion.

"So that happened." Lily groaned as rubbed her head.

"That was wild." Benny said as he shook his own head.

It seemed like Nick wasn't the only one who'd felt the mental draw of the darkness.

"Urrrgghhhh"

The kids jumped at the noise, only to realise it was their father. Henry was draped over the steering wheel, looking like he'd just been through the wringer. His eyes looked tired, deep bags framing his eyes.

"What the hell happened to you?" Nick was startled by his father's change in appearance. He hadn't seen his father like this in years.

"I -urrrghhh- have no idea. Damned whispers in my ears." Henry managed to croak out. The man seemed completely drained, slumped into the steering wheel and not even moving to talk.

Nick reached over to restart the car, but not quite having the angle to turn the keys properly, he only managed to turn them enough to activate the battery. So he turned the headlights on.

What was illuminated was a car park. A very dark and eerie looking car park at that. Nick couldn't quite place his finger on it but something wasn't right about it. The shadows seemed too long, too dark, especially after the ordeal he'd just been through. The car park was also filled with cars, which in of itself wasn't unusual. What was unusual though was the condition of the cars he could see. The cars all looked run down, even abandoned, like they’d been left there for years.

“Where the heck are we?” Lily asked.

Nick didn’t answer for a moment, trying to get a better grasp of the area they’d found themselves in.

Benny took his own stab at it, “Well it’s a car park.”

Nick heard Lily snicker in response.

Nick finally made his conclusion. “It’s a car park. A very eerie carpark that I don’t think we should be in at all.” Nick turned to his siblings, “That being said, I’m going to check the situation out, you guys stay here with dad.”

Before his siblings could protest Nick hopped out of the car and slammed the door closed.

He took a deep breath and cautiously began his search. He noticed that some of the shadows were actually a deeper shade of black than some of the others and did his best to avoid stepping in those. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but checking those cars definitely seemed like a start.

He approached the nearest car, it was a rusted looking thing. A standard SUV that he would have found in any other carpark, though this one had certainly seen better days. He noticed that there appeared to be something in the back seat and as he got closer it shaped more and more into a person. There was a person sitting in the car. Well sitting was a stretch, the figure was slumped into the chair. It was a woman, with matted blonde hair and strange puss filled scratches across her face.

Nick began to doubt his plans. Nevertheless he pushed on. He danced over shadows up to the window and with a slight tap he tried to make contact.

“Hello there? Are you alright?” A reasonable question considering her state.

Much to his surprise the woman’s yellowed eyes drifted slowly open meeting his own. Though she didn’t quite manage the same eloquent wording in her response.

“Urrgghhhhhhhhhhh.” She moaned.

“Righto then.” Nick swiftly made his way back to his family.

“Was that someone else?” Lily asked, leaning out the window.

“I think it’s best that we get dad out of the driver's seat and we get this show on the road.” Nick curtly replied. He enlisted the help of his siblings to drag their barely conscious father into the back seat, which took quite the effort. When they finished Nick turned around to notice that there were figures emerging from the shadows of the car park, more people covered in various injuries of differing states of infection.

“Any one of you interested in an open dialogue?”

He got various groans in response.

“Splendid.”

With that he hopped into the driver's seat and slammed the door closed. He started up the engine and started rolling forward.

“And uh, where we going bro?” Benny asked.

“Well if it’s a car park. I’m sure there’s an exit to this place, just gotta find it.” Nick replied.

Nick drove the car forward, avoiding the shambling figures as he flicked on the high beams. The shadows did not like that one bit, they seemed to writhe under the new intense light. They took a faction of a second too long to vanish like you’d expect a shadow to. Nick was beginning to think that these shadows might not actually be the normal absence of light he knew about. But that wasn’t his current priority, he could contemplate the nature of shadows once he was out of this place.

The car rolled past more cars and concrete walls, each new section of the car park just being more and more of the same. Old abandoned cars, shabby concrete walls and unnatural shadows. As the family began to grow a bit more nervous Lily spotted something.

“The graffiti on the wall!” She pointed, “Look!”

There had been a lot of random graffiti on the walls so far, nothing that really drew the eye, but Lily had noticed something unique.

“Ramps, that’s got to be at least something different?” She raised.

The graffiti had an arrow that signaled a turn down another aisle. Nick had just been driving straight for now, unwilling to take any turns in fear of somehow getting more lost. There was comfort in keeping a pattern. Though this was a chance at something new, possibly the way out, so he didn’t hesitate to make the turn.

“Good spot Lily, both of you keep an extra eye for signs now.” Nick said.

“On it bro.”

“Sure thing.”

Nothing brings the family together like a series of bizarre events, Nick chuckled at the thought.

The family followed the signs on the walls and avoided the sickly people creeping in the shadows. It was working well for them.

Until it didn’t.

One of the sickly folk shambled in front of the car as they were making progress. The person and all their sickly wounds were on display for the family.

“What the heck is wrong with them?” Lily asked. Her and Benny finally getting a good look at one of them.

“Not sure, they wouldn’t tell me.” Nick replied.

Lily rolled her eyes.

“Can you honk them out the way?” Benny suggested.

Nick was about to try before he had a realisation, stopping himself.

“Maybe making a loud noise in the spooky car park with only people like that around isn’t the best play to make here.”

Benny contemplated it before nodding. “Good call bro, good call.”

The family refocused on the figure in the road, who was now trying to shield their eyes from the light.

“So how the heck are we getting them out the way?” Lily pondered out loud.

“We could go around?” Benny suggested.

“Negative on that one chief.” Nick answered. “I think we have a party gathering on our trail.”

He pointed out the back window at a number of figures slowly approaching the car.

Benny made a new suggestion. “What if they’re zombies? We could just drive over them?”

Nick instantly shot it down. “We’re not using the Z-word yet Benny. We’re all thinking it but these are probably just sick people. I’m not onboard for attempted murder.”

Benny contemplated it for a moment. “Good call bro, good call.”

“Thank you, I try.” With that Nick put the car in park and hopped out. He approached the man and he started shambling towards him, reaching outwards.

“Okay buddy, I just convinced my brother you’re not a zombie. Don’t sell me short here.” Nick complained.

“Urrrrgghhhhhhhhhh. I-I-It h-h-hurts.” The man moaned.

Nick pumped a fist. “See Benny, zombies don’t talk.”

Nick was barely able to hide his shock and fear from his face. Why the hell were they talking, it was so much easier to imagine these people as zombies.

Nick could see his siblings' terrified faces in the car.

“Better make this quick then.” He muttered to himself. He moved behind the man and pulled on his belt. Dragging him out of the road and awkwardly swinging him into the side of a car. The man offered barely any resistance and crumpled like a sack of potatoes.

Nick didn’t stop to check on the man’s condition, running back to the car, hopping in and getting the vehicle moving swiftly.

“Bro I really want to go home.” Benny whispered.

“Don’t worry chief, I’ll get us outta here in a jiffy.” Nick sure hoped that he hadn’t just lied to his brother.