The Road King - A Short Story

The Road King - A Short Story

by Bill Russo

It is just a two thousand word short story,

without a hidden meaning and no allegory.

Random thoughts on a spool in my mind,

which, under compulsion, I must unwind.

Warren Chambers went missing on the fifth of March.  The Florida state and local police arrived at that conclusion, because that was the day he instructed the post office to hold his mail for a month. 

After six months, he still hadn’t returned home.  The authorities were aware of this, but there was no ongoing investigation into the matter. 

“He was 75 years old,” said a senior detective, in answer to a question from a West Palm Beach television reporter.  “He might have had beginning Alzheimer’s and took off on vacation and forgot where he lives.  We don’t believe this is a homicide.  He’s probably in a retirement home somewhere listed as a John Doe because he can’t remember his name.”


“That doesn’t wash detective,” said Jim Swopes of WFLA-TV.  “His doctor said that he didn’t smoke or drink and was in excellent health.  His health was closer to a man of 55 than 75.  So why aren’t you looking for him?”

“We investigated the case.  That doctor you spoke of contacted us after he missed an appointment.  We checked his apartment and found it empty.  The Postmaster at West Palm Beach told us that Chambers put a hold on his mail on March 5, so we figure that’s when he left.  All his bills are paid by automatic deductions from his checking account.  But there has been no other activity.  No bank transactions of any kind by Chambers.  He hasn’t used his ATM.  No phone calls. There are simply no clues for us to follow. He’s disappeared. His body hasn’t turned up, so I think I’m right about the Alzheimer’s thing. “

Jim Swopes, a roving reporter for the TV station began looking into the case after receiving a message about it on his tip line.  He did a few broadcasts from in front of the missing man’s apartment house and stirred up enough interest so that police were goaded into to launching a full scale investigation into the matter.  In August there was a new and puzzling development.  He filed the following report on the 7 p.m. nightly newscast on WFLA-TV.

“An elderly man who disappeared without a trace a half a year ago returned to his house this morning, giving no explanation as to where he was, and what he has been doing.  Warren Chambers was the subject of a state wide search beginning last month after this station told his story. What’s remarkable about his abrupt departure and surprise return is that there was absolutely no trace of him during his absence.  No bank withdrawals no plane tickets, not a single clue of where he had been.”
  
“Police floated a number of theories,” continued the TV reporter. “One school of thought was that he had been kidnapped.  There was little support for that because no ransom demands had been made and Mr. Chambers had little more than a thousand dollars in the bank when he went missing.

“Another possibility, according to the authorities was, that like a lot of old people, he was getting senile and perhaps had wandered into an institution where he was listed as a ‘John Doe’.   But according to his doctor that theory doesn’t hold up because Mr. Chambers is in excellent health and the doctor reports that although his calendar age is 75 he’s in better condition than most 50 year olds."

The next afternoon WFLA-TV sent Jim Swopes and a camera crew to the beautiful old villa where Mr. Chambers had a rented apartment, and the old gentleman made a brief statement that was broadcast on the nightly news.

“I was in a quiet and peaceful place, but I don’t know where it was.  I walked for a long time after I left my house.  I found a road.  It was wide with four lanes and had the smell of freshly laid asphalt. There was an unbroken yellow line painted in the middle of the road and on either side of the solid line, there were broken lines.  Though the road was built to handle four cars across, I never saw even one vehicle. 

“The long black highway with its bright yellow lines stretched along as far as I could see.  It was twisty and had a lot of turns. Though I never seemed to get anywhere and everything looked alike for mile upon mile, I began to feel wonderful. 

“I felt like the road was mine.  There was nobody else on my road.  No cars, no people, no four footed or winged creatures.  I felt like I was the ruler of the road.”

Though his name was Chambers, social media dubbed him ‘Road King’.  Every day brought fresh stories and speculation on where the old man had been and how he managed to completely hide himself from the world.

Gradually the disappearance of ‘Road King’ became old news and probably would have been forgotten forever, except that one year after he mysteriously returned to his home, Chambers vanished once more.

Radio, TV, newspapers and social media were all over it.  “Road King  Gone Again, Leaves No Trace!”  That headline or one very similar to it was in every blog, Facebook post, Twitter tweet, magazine article, and news report. 

For more than a year there was not a single shred of evidence that he was even alive, yet there was no proof he was dead.  He stopped at the Post Office the day before he vanished.  He told them to hold his mail, expecting to be gone for six months.  All of his bills were paid as they fell due, by pre-authorized bank drafts, so his household ran smoothly without interruption of electricity, telephone, and other things.

Over the next few months, other old men and women as well, were similarly absent from their home and community for extended periods.  Uniformly, when they returned home they gave few details as to where they had gone.  A common factor was that all were in excellent health.  Not one was able or willing to share the details of where they actually lived during their absence.
  
Jim Swopes interviewed more than a dozen of the missing ‘Road Kings’ including 88 year old Marsha Gareen who was absent from her apartment for four months.

“I don’t know exactly where I was, but it was a wonderful place and I was with friends.  I’m not sure how I got there.  There was a road.  The tar was so fresh that you could smell it. It seemed like the road had just been made.  It wasn’t hot and didn’t burn my feet but it had a brand new look, feel, and smell.  

“The road stretched ahead of me as far as I could see.  It was a wide road.  A solid yellow line was painted in the middle, dividing the road in half.  Each divided half had a broken yellow line painted down the middle, making four lanes. 

“I walked for a long time and never saw anyone else.  No cars, no people walking, no dogs, cats, birds, or any other living thing.”

“Mrs. Gareen,” asked the TV reporter, “You must have known that you were going away for a while because you went to the Post Office and told them to hold your mail, how do you explain that?”

“Easily.  If you’re not going to be picking up your mail for a while, you should have them hold it.  That’s what I did.”

“Then you knew you were going away and you planned it.  Is that correct?”

“I have already answered the question Mr Swopes,” that is all I have to say,”  Mrs. Gareen responded.

The reporter tried to ask her a few more questions but she maintained her silence so he reluctantly ended the interview.

Each man and woman he questioned gave answers which were nearly identical to the responses of Mrs. Gareen.  They all said that while they were away they were in a warm, safe place but they could not or would not say where it was.

The first missing person, Warren Chambers, dubbed ‘Road King’ by the media, became a symbol and a defacto leader of what appeared to be, a cult of old people with the ability to disappear and reappear at irregular intervals, leaving no tracks for the authorities to follow.  

In addition to the State and the local police, the FBI eventually got involved.  One high level FBI agent, approaching retirement age, began to suspect that something metaphysical was happening.  He believed that perhaps the old people never really disappeared at all, that they were in their homes the whole time but became spirits.

He was derided by the other people in the various law enforcement bodies.  But his conclusion was based on interviews with dozens of the 48 people in three states identified as Road Kings. He became convinced that somehow through meditation they were not only  able to transport their bodies to distant locations, but also to fabricate a system to enable them to talk to each other from remote locations by thought transmissions.

The agent, Samuel Ardley, told one of the Road Kings he wanted to join their group.  The Road King suspected that Ardley was merely trying to infiltrate the organization and refused to help him other than saying “if you really desire to be one of us, then ‘think it so’ and it can happen. “

Ardley puzzled about this until one night he had a life changing dream - a dream in which he was on a train.  A dream so real that even when he woke up, he believed he really was on an actual, moving train.  

He told the other FBI people about what happened and delivered his theory which is that the Road Kings never depart their homes.  Their spirit remains in their dwelling but the body travels thousands of miles in a split- second to a pre designated meeting place where the other Road Kings have gathered.

"They have no agenda," he told the FBI agents. "They live simply.  They never commit crimes.  They don’t own guns.  In a sense they are a ‘new’ human race.  By self-evolution, they have become a super race."  

"Doctor’s reports uniformly confirm that these men and women, ranging in age from 65 to 95 are in far better condition than most people at the age of 50," he continued.  "They have no heart problems, no failed eyesight or hearing, and no illnesses.  They may live 150 years or more in perfect health."  

“They are a threat,” replied his boss.  “We have to round up the whole bunch of them and put them in a camp.”

“How can they be a threat?” asked Ardley, “They have never committed crimes and are peaceable citizens.  You’ve interviewed them just like I have.  They are always respectful, meek, and mild mannered, even if they don’t give us many details.”

“They’re different” the boss responded.  “They have to be removed from society.”

A massive raid involving state and local police, the FBI, and the National Guard, was orchestrated to pick up and confine all of the old men and women in a facility in Southwest Texas.
  
After a final meeting at night in Washington D.C. to review the operation, the boss told his people to go home and get some sleep.

“The round-up will start at 0900 Eastern time, with the capture of some 50 Road Kings in 17 different states from Massachusetts to California.” 

Ardley went home and fell into a deep sleep.  He dreamed he was talking with the original Road King.  He told him what the FBI planned to do.  

 “Come to us,” advised the Road King. “You are now a member of our group.  There is nothing to worry about.”

In the morning at 8:30, a black sedan pulled up to Ardley’s house.  A man in a black suit hammered on his front door.  After a few minutes with no response from inside the house, he reported back to the car.  Two more vehicles pulled up.  Eight angry looking men in black suits broke down Ardley’s entry way.  A quick search confirmed that he was not in the house.

His dining room table was clear but for one thing, a sheet of paper.  The FBI boss picked it up and read a printed message.

“Keep looking for me boss.  I am here.  I’m always going to be here. But you’ll never see me, hear me, or touch me.  Blow up the house.  Burn it down.  Do whatever you wish.  I’ll still be here and yet at the same time I’ll be with the Road Kings.  

“I’ll be with them long after you and all your kind are gone. We’re no direct threat to you, but we are taking over the planet.  We are going to let you live out your meager lives, as society careens toward self-destruction.  We may be meek and we may be mild, but make no mistake, we are going to inherit the Earth. We are the Road Kings – soon to be Earth Kings.”

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'They' say the future, and the world, belongs to the young.  As our 77 year old author Bill Russo sees it - 'They' may be wrong!

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Bill Russo, best known for his appearance on Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America, and in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary; is the author of more than four dozen books and shorts stories, available on all major bookselling sites such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and more.  Much of his work is FREE on Smashwords.  He also is the producer, writer, and director of the FREE podcast, Short Story Theater.  Season One, with dramatizations of 39 of his short tales, is now playing on all Audio/Video sites.