Thanks for taking the call. I've been mullin' over whether to say this out loud for a few years now. This happened back in '99. I was driving hotshot freight back then, mostly night runs through the Midwest. You get used to the weirdness on the road, you know? The loneliness of it. But this was, this was different. I was on Highway 2, headed west out of Alliance. If you know that stretch, it's just endless Sandhills. Empty. It was late, maybe 2 AM, and this storm had just rolled through. Not a normal storm. The sky was this bruised purple color, and the air... it felt heavy. Like static electricity brushing against your skin.
After the rain stopped, this fog settled in. I'm talking thick, pea-soup fog. Instant whiteout. I had to drop my speed to a crawl because I couldn't see past my own hood ornament. Literally zero visibility beyond five feet. It was like driving into a wall of cotton. That's when the truck died. No sputter, no warning. Just cut out. I coasted to the shoulder, fighting the wheel because the power steering was gone too. Just dead silence. The radio cut, the dash went black.
I tried to turn the key, but got nothing. Not even a click. Then I smelled it. That sulfur smell of a fried battery. I popped the hood and shined my flashlight in there. The battery was split wide open. Acid everywhere, terminals melted. The whole electrical system was toast. I was completely dead in the water. No power, no lights, nothing.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]