Samuel Wells stepped from the door of his apartment building and began walking down the street. It was a cold and cloudy fall day with limited shadows beneath the leafless trees, lush pines, grey-green grass, and low, dying shrubs. Few people were out and about, and even the cars that frequented the street were fewer than normal.

Samuel hurried his steps as the clouds darkened and threatened to release their little droplets of water. The sidewalk was cracked and broken by age and tree roots that had grown near the surface and lifted the concrete; even lifted it so far as six inches in certain places. Wood smoke reached Samuel's nostrils and mixed with the scent of dead and rotting leaves, lush pines, grey-green grass, and low, dying shrubs, and these cheered him up a little with their pleasant smells.

Despite the cracks in the sidewalk, he reached the alley he was headed to, without mishap, and turned down it. The alley was placed between two store fronts and had many old boxes and dumpsters along its length. Upon reaching the end of the alley, he found himself on the edge of the city park, which he quickly traversed and entered another alley on the opposite side. He turned left at its end and briskly walked to a bus stop just as a bus was pulling up to it. He climbed on, stumbled to the rear, and sat down in a seat as the bus pulled away from the sidewalk.

The bus had that musty aroma of a myriad of different kinds of used deodorants, perfumes, and sweat. The bus was almost deafening with the chatter of people on their cell phones, and of people talking with the people next to them, and of people talking to themselves. The air was dusty and close, but it was warm and this gave Samuel a chance to stop shivering.

The bus soon neared the suburbs of town. It stopped at a lonely bus stop that had only a few houses near by, and the doors opened. Samuel hurriedly stepped down out of the bus, and was left standing on the sidewalk looking around. There, waiting for him, he found black BMW parked at the curb. He cautiously stepped to the car, opened the passenger door, and settled into the black leather seat. As soon as he closed the door, the car sped from the side of the road and purred down the street.

Glancing over at the driver, Samuel made a quick examination of her. She had long, straight, black hair; green eyes; and a narrow nose. She had thin lips curved over snow-white teeth, and she had a sharp, strong jaw. Her height appeared to be about average; she was very thin, but looked like she could be extremely agile. She wore dark blue jeans, a white shirt, a black leather jacket, and white tennis shoes. The woman glanced over at him and smiled, then focused back on the road. He then noticed that she kept looking at the rear-view mirror.

Samuel turned his head away and stared out the window. The houses were slowly becoming farther and farther apart and giving way to lush pine trees-as lush as pine trees could get in the middle of fall. The gravel sides of the road began to give way to grey-green grass; and grey-green grass began to give way to low, dying shrubs.

The car began to pick up speed as they got further away from the town, and the trees and grey-green grass and low, dying shrubs flew past. They went zooming down the road at nearly ninety miles an hour for about two minutes. Then, without warning, and to Samuel's sudden surprise-and an instant later, his horror-she veered off the road and into the trees, and grey-green grass, and low, dying shrubs.

But then, absolute relief and utter terror gripped Samuel. Relief in that when the woman had driven off the road, he saw that there was another road, cleverly hidden behind the tall trees, and grey-green grass, and low, dying shrubs; And terror in that the road was on a steep grade and that the car was literally flying down the steep hill. For a few agonizing moments they floated in the air, making Samuel feel almost entirely weightless. And then it all came to a bone-rattling shock. After a three-moment-long flight, the car came down upon its roof.

And so came the end of the lives of Samuel Wells and the beautiful, unknown woman. The car still lies there to this day, in the lush green pines, and grey-green grass, and low, dying shrubs.