The Board

We've been on the road for a while now. No matter where we go, those dark clouds are always there in the distance behind us.

“What do you think it is?” Kyle asked, earlier today.

“I have no idea,” I said.

“I think it's following us,” Kyle said.

“Looks like it,” I said. “But why?”

“I don't know,” Kyle said. “But I don't think it's the only thing.”

I knew what he was talking about. We were currently stopped at a gas station, and I shot a glance at another car that had parked there. It had been driving the same way as us for a while now, and now it had stopped in the same place. I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but it seemed a little suspicious.

“What should we do?” Kyle asked.

“Wait for Seraph to get back and leave,” I answered.

A few minutes later, Seraph came out of the gas station with some bags of snacks and approached us. As she did, a couple men got out of the other car and began walking toward us. Seraph noticed too.

“Bail?” she asked as she got up to us.

“Bail,” I agreed.

We all got in the car and peeled out before the men made it over to us. Unfortunately, we couldn't get out of the parking lot because a van pulled up and blocked the exit. Two more men got out of it and approached us. One of them rapped on our driver's side window, where Kyle was sitting, and said to step out.

I looked over at their van. Scrawled across the side were the words “We live in the best of all possible worlds.”

“Shit,” I said. “The Panopticon.”

The men from the other car caught up to us and circled the car.

“We're fucked, aren't we?” Kyle asked.

I felt the air behind me becoming displaced as Abdalin spontaneously appeared in the back seat.

“Not quite,” Abdalin said, flipping the men outside the bird before we vanished. All of us, including the car, were now in another place.

The skies were a dark orange color, with purple clouds scattered across it. The ground was covered in black and white squares, and all around us was the rubble of collapsed buildings. There was no doubt about our current location.

“No way,” Kyle said.

“This is the Board!” Seraph gasped.

“Yeah,” Abdalin said. Then he vanished.

“Did he just strand us here?” Kyle asked.

“It would appear so,” I said.