Free Euphoria-Z by Luke Ahearn

down, and he was just starting to feel good enough to be concerned about his situation. He was considering what to do next when a loud pop startled him. Soft light streamed in from an open door at his feet. He was in the back of a van. The light emanated from an electric lantern held up at the open door.
    “I told you, you fucked it…” It was a male’s voice and he seemed to be speaking to someone else, but then he clearly turned his attention to the interior of the van and to Cooper. “Hey, man, I thought I heard you moving around.” It was a guy with dreadlocks. He looked like the hermit on a tarot card as he held the lantern above his head. A young woman stepped into view next to him.
    “Hey, you OK?” She looked to be in her early twenties, but her appearance was rough and earthy and had the effect of aging her. Her eyes were slightly unfocused as she looked at him. Her head was a dirty mop of dreadlocks tied back with old ribbons, and her skin glistened with oil in the light of the lamp. She was wearing a tight white tank top, and he could see the outlines of large rings hanging from each nipple.
    The guy was much the same in appearance and hygiene. He was taller and stood as if he thought he was a badass, counter to his peace-and-love attire. His eyes were glassy and dead. He looked very stoned and sounded it when he spoke. “Yeah, you OK man? We were like, worried.”
    He leaned on the van door, blocking the opening, and as Cooper tried to exit it seemed he wasn’t going to step aside. Maybe he was so stoned it didn’t occur to him, but the girl pulled him away by the arm.
    “Let him out,” she said in a way that sounded like not letting him out was an option. Cooper thought that maybe he was just being paranoid because of the wreck. Hell, the condition of the whole world would make one paranoid.
    He stepped out into the night air. It was cold and fresh and made him feel better. He breathed deeply, feeling the dizziness passing but not the sore muscles and the painful bite. He was on the edge of a wooded clearing ringed by tall fir trees. The van was parked so the back doors opened onto the edge of the clearing. He could be anywhere along the coast for hundreds of miles.
    If it weren’t for the circumstances, the place would have been beautiful. The glade was a pool of moody light in the otherwise pitch-black woods. There were candles, lanterns, and a fire in the middle that cast an even, soft light all around.
    “What happened?” he asked.
    The guy hadn’t backed off too far and was standing, arms folded, expression deadpan, as he recounted his version of the events. “You fucking trashed that little car, man. Totally fucked it up.”
    “Yeah, I saw that much. I mean…where did you guys come from? Where are we?”
    The girl spoke calmly and with a hint of beguilement in her voice. “We were hanging in the park, you know, trying to stay away from the, you know, the dead people.”
    “Where am I now?”
    “A safe place.” She was close by and reached up to rub his shoulder. The guy just nodded. Cooper realized they were both standing really close and hadn’t stepped back to give him any room. But he wrote it off as bad social skills.
    “Yeah, real safe. No deadheads around, no people, nothing.”
    Cooper slumped back and sat on the van’s bumper. The guy stood there, arms folded. When the girl left to get him some water, Cooper noticed that the guy moved a little closer as if to block him in. That felt suspicious.
    The girl returned with his water in an old plastic cup. He didn’t drink it—she seemed to take note of that. She pulled a joint from the folds of her dirty, multi-patterned skirts. She lit it up and offered it to him; he declined. She looked at him with her head tilted to one side, smiling.
    “I’m going to figure you out.” She was smiling. “C’mon, let’s all get cozy in the van.”
    Cooper hated when people spoke that way. What was there to figure out? I don’t drink