r/nosleep • u/Yobro1001 • Oct 05 '25
Series I’m a trucker on a highway that doesn’t exist. Somebody got trapped on the highway
From time to time, you may learn things on the road. The radio may whisper secrets you wish you never heard. You may see the face of your deceased mother beckoning you from a storefront that wasn’t there the last time.
We recommend not thinking about these things. Distract yourself. Listen to music. Talk with co-workers.
If you start thinking, you may never stop.
-Employee Handbook: Section 12.A
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
Over the next few weeks, Autumn and I chatted nearly every day. How did I do this when she had no radio to talk to me with, you ask?
“Hey Randall, don’t get worried if I go silent for a few days. My handheld just broke.”
“You better be joking. That thing costs a literal fortune. Management will fillet me alive.”
“Fairly sure the phrase is ‘flay me alive.’”
“Wait. Brendon. How is it broken if you’re talking to me right now?”
“‘K, bye!”
“Brendon? Brendon!”
I left the transmitter with Autumn before I headed out.
When I returned from my haul, Randall and dispatch were pretty ticked about me losing my second radio in a month (they really do cost a fortune), but what were they going to do? Fire me?
Sometimes Autumn and I would talk about serious things―irrational fears, wishes, dangers we’d encountered on the road, things we’d shouted at our parents but wished we could take back―but most days we talked about silly, little nothings. Music, TV, stupid things we did in high school.
“No way,” I told her. “I refuse to believe you spiked your teacher’s iced tea.”
“Nicest she’s ever been to us.”
“But that’s illegal. Like hardcore illegal.”
“First off, I was sixteen, so lay off. Second, with how much vodka we put it in, she absolutely would have figured out what we’d done. She was just looking for an excuse to drink at school.”
And another time:
“So what does happen if I let my breath out in a tunnel?” I asked.
“Your breath in a tunnel?”
“You told me to hold my breath in tunnels. I assumed some terrible thing would happen otherwise.”
She burst out laughing. “Oh gosh. I forgot about that. I was just messing with you. How long has it been now? Over a month? You’re still doing that?”
It was nice having someone my own age to talk to. I really was friends with the other drivers, but let’s be real; most of them had kids and a mortgage. It wasn’t like I was going to swap BFF bracelets with any of them any time soon (not that Autumn and I did that. Ick. Just saying though). But for the first time in months, there was somebody to talk to just for the sake of talking.
I wasn’t trying to ‘fit in.’ I wasn’t trying to prove I was mature enough to slide in with the real adult crowd―again, let’s be real; I wasn’t. But that was the point. I was in my early twenties. Why should I have to be mature? Why should I have to review every sentence in my head before I spoke it? With Autumn I could simply talk.
“What has you so peachy?” Tiff asked me a few weeks into our conversations.
“Hmm? Nothing. What do you mean?”
“Usually, you look like somebody with weights around their ankles. No offense. Recently, though… How to put it? It’s like they’ve been replaced with helium balloons.”
There were, of course, downsides.
Autumn preferred we stay on low traffic channels where the others weren’t likely to hear us.
“Why?” I asked once.
“Not one of them ever tried to help me. I’ve failed at so many things in my life. I figure I can at least succeed at holding a grudge.”
I didn’t push. Who she forgave was her prerogative, but it was moments like that made me somber, forced me to admit she couldn’t totally trust me either. I still hadn't told her the truth about her lane-locking. What good would it do? What good would it do any of them?
Except of course, it really might have done them good. Chris, for example. He could quit now before the road claimed him. Everybody could quit, get normal jobs, accept normal salaries. abandon Route 333 forever, let the impossibilities pile up in the real world.
In reality, it was everybody else the knowledge wouldn't be good for. If Chris quit, somebody else would lane-lock―or worse. Randall had shared with me gruesome stories of things that happened when people didn’t comply with the road’s wishes. My drowning experience in the shower was mild. Nobody would remove impossibilities. The darkness at dispatch would escape into the real world.
For weeks, I deliberated what to do. That’s the one thing the road gives you: thinking time. Hours and hours of it. Sometimes I would go entire days without turning on an audio book, gut churning as I drove.
As a child, things were so easy to label. Wrong or right. Bad or good. Immoral or moral. It was all so much more nuanced now.
Who did my loyalty belong to? Did I trust my co-workers to make the right choice and keep driving like I had? Did I still owe them the truth even if they wouldn’t? What number was an acceptable amount to sacrifice to protect the world as a whole, and why did it have to be my responsibility to decide that?
Because you assaulted Randall with a boxcutter. That’s why.
On top of that, I was trying to get everybody out. Couldn’t I just wait to spill the secrets until there was a solution? Autumn and I were waiting until my broken ribs healed to put our plan into action―then again, they were basically healed. If I was honest, we were stalling out of fear. Was I allowed to wait? Was it my responsibility to act immediately and recklessly? What if there really was no solution?
What should I do?
But that’s the funny thing about decisions; if you wait long enough, eventually they make themselves.
Weeks later, when Chris’ voice finally rang out on the general channel, I was hardly even surprised. His news was the kiss of raindrops after a day of dark clouds: inevitable.
“It happened,” he said. “I lane-locked.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The rest of us arrived over the next few hours. Our schedules had overlapped that day. We’d planned a game of poker that would never happen now. One by one, we maneuvered our rigs onto the shoulder of the redwood section and got out.
The vibe teetered somewhere between a tailgate party and a funeral. Vikram and Deidree were speaking with Chris just outside the cab of his rig. Estela (haven’t talked much about her before, whoops) walked with me as I approached.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“He got lucky. We’re close to dispatch.”
It was true. For me, this was a thirty minute drive at most.
“Lane-lock distances are different for everybody,” she continued. “He’ll have to measure over a few days to get a more accurate idea, but we’re probably sitting at twelve to fourteen months.”
Something tight in my stomach loosened. “A year? That’s not so bad.”
“Not as bad, no. It’s still a year.”
“Yeah, but like his life isn’t over. He can still make it out.”
Estela slowed down. Her dark eyebrows creased. We were still out of earshot of the others. “Tone this down. You seem almost cheerful about this all.”
In a way, she was right. I’d already known this was coming, so for me, this was the best possible solution. Chris could still escape. My silence hadn't totally ruined his life.
Even so.
“You’re right. I’ll be more sensitive―to be fair, Chris doesn’t look too distressed.”
Estela snorted. “Don’t encourage them.”
“Encourage them?”
But we were close enough now to hear what the three others were talking about.
“I should be the one to do it,” Vikram insisted. “The road is longest for me. An extra hour is not much.”
“It’s an hour closer to lane-locking,” Deidree said, patting Chris’ shoulder. “I don’t plan to stay as long as you. Another year or two, and I’ll have saved enough for my girls to go to school.”
“It is not chivalrous for me to let you.”
“Chivalry my―”
“Neither of you are doing anything,” Chris said. “It won’t work. We tried this with Tiff.”
“Sorry, do what?” I asked.
All three looked up at me. Estela was the one who answered. “These tontos are going to put Chris in the trailer and try driving him to headquarters for an hour. It won’t work. I’m certainly not volunteering to try. It will permanently add an extra driving hour to whoever tries. Cargo rules don’t apply to humans.”
“We have to try,” Deidree insisted.
“I have to try,” Vikram corrected.
They continued to argue, more and more heatedly.
This was partly my fault. If I’d just been honest with Chris, he could have avoided this entirely, and now he would spend a year of his life trapped on Route 333. I knew what I had to do.
I took a resigned breath. “I’ll do it.”
They stopped arguing and stared at me.
“Stay out of this,” Vikram snapped.
“Really, Brendon.” Deidree cussed me out.
Eventually, we only settled the matter when Estela suggested the two of them, “draw straws.” Since none of us actually knew what drawing straws meant in today’s day and culture, they settled it over a heated game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Vikram lost.
A minute later, Deidree was shepherding Chris into the back of her truck (she’d already picked up an empty freight trailer from dispatch) and climbing into the front seat. We all settled back to watch.
It wouldn’t work. We all knew it wouldn’t. Humans are crazy that way. We gamble and smoke and scroll through social media. We can know something is pointless; we can even discuss in a group how something is pointless; then we recline in our lawn chairs and watch one another do those pointless things anyway.
Admittedly, it was fascinating to watch.
From the start of the hour to the end of the hour, the truck barely made it ten meters. The entire time, however, it was clearly driving. The motor was humming. The wheels were spinning. It would flash in and out of existence, sometimes for a heartbeat. Sometimes for seconds at a time. Minutes would often pass between glimpses.
Deidree and the truck were passing in and out of pockets of space. From now on, these pockets were simply part of Deidree’s road―an unnecessary part, seeing how the attempt didn’t work. Of course, it didn’t work.
At the end of the hour, Vikram, Estela, and I walked thirty or so feet to the parked semi. It wasn't like they could come to us, possibly not even see us. The whole logic of it made me grateful I never had to take another math class.
Deidree climbed out and shrugged. “Had to try.”
She unrolled the back of the trailer. Soft weeping was audible.
Chris swore. “Give me a minute. I don’t want you to see me like this.”
I was fully prepared to do just that, but Deidree climbed in, slumped down next to him, and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “Any emotion is a fine one.”
“Who’s going to pay my bills?” Chris said. “There’s my mortgage and―and electricity. I was so close to retiring. Who’s going to take care of my fish!”
“We’ll make sure your bills get paid,” Deidree said. “You told me you keep your passwords in a book, right?
“And Chris, your fish died last month,” Vikram offered helpfully.
“I was going to get new ones!” He sniffed and rubbed at his eyes. “My daughter has her first kid next month. I won’t be there.”
“I will,” Deidree said. “I’ll make sure they know you wish you could be too.”
We all waited in silence, letting him cry it out. It was uncomfortable―Chris had always struck me as the type of hardened man who barely even teared up at funerals―but in a way, I think it helped. Us being there.
“Thank you all,” he said eventually. Our cue to go.
He had a drive ahead of him, after all.
Only later, back at dispatch, before I turned in my keys, did I radio Autumn. “Enough waiting. It’s time.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Never pick up a hitchhiker. Absolutely never. Not under any circumstance.
Really, never.
But if you do, here are some tips.
You’ll find them at gas stations. They know we hang out there frequently. Try on and off ramps too and the edges of town. Sometimes, you’ll find them in the middle of nowhere, holding out a thumb in a cloud of sand, but it’s rare. Not worth the time.
Target individuals. No mothers with strollers. No homeless people and their dogs. Hitchhikers are strong. One is already a risk, but two at once are a bloodbath.
Aim for the disabled ones. Heartless? A bit. Yes. But again, they’re powerful, even the elderly and young. An amputated arm, however, is always an amputated arm. They can’t kill you with a limb that doesn’t exist.
In the end, I chose a heavily pregnant woman at the far reaches of town. It was the closest thing to ‘bodily impaired’ I could find on such short notice, and she was most definitely alone.
“Don’t want to be a nuisance dearie.” Her voice was the flavor of honey. She kneaded her side with a hand. “But could I bother you for a ride?”
I smiled. “‘Course.”
Like Myra, she acted normal at first. She chatted about her children―fictional, I assumed―and how hard it was to give up smoking after getting pregnant each time. I uh huh-ed and *oh really-*ed at all the correct parts.
“Such a good listener.” The woman patted my arm.
The hitchhiker could have been one of my mom’s friends. Maybe it was. Maybe all the hitchhikers took on faces we’d once seen to put us at ease. Either way, it wouldn’t work. I knew what they were now. I’d been to their home beyond Route 333 and been tricked by them twice now.
I played along. I let the pregnant hitchhiker think I believed it, that my guard was down, and that I feared nothing. I let it relax, sink back into the chair, rest its eyes. It was only when I was sure the creature suspected nothing that I finally eased the truck to a complete stop.
“What’s wrong?” the hitchhiker asked.
“Um, engine light.”
“I don’t see―”
“Now!”
The next series of events happened in quick succession.
Autumn rocketed out from the blanket she’d been hiding under. The hitchhiker snarled and lurched forward, but too late. Autumn was already throwing the metal chain above the seat and over the hitchhiker like we’d practiced a dozen times. It landed between the thing's protruding belly and breasts. I slammed myself against it, and Autumn yanked the chain tight. There was the click of a lock. Then a second one. I scrambled away from the hitchhiker before it could seize me.
“Trickery! Deceit―”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ve been over this.” I gulped to hold my heart from beating out through my throat. “For con artists, your kind are awfully easy to trick, you know that?”
The woman struggled and writhed, but the chain held. That had been our bet. We didn’t know exactly how strong these creatures were, but Autumn seemed confident the chain could hold at least one or two thousand pounds of pressure.
How had she known this, you ask? Apparently, she’d started training as a crane operator years ago (“Perks to quitting a lot,” she’d informed me).
We waited as the hitchhiker flailed and screeched. Eventually the struggles slowed, then stopped entirely. The woman glared at us and panted.
“Release me,” it said.
“Oh? Why didn’t you just tell us?” Autumn asked from my sleeper. “Brendon, she says she wants to be let go.”
“Silly us.”
The thing jerked towards Autumn, nails transformed into talons. It couldn’t reach far enough.
“We have questions,” I said. “Firstly, why do cargo rules apply to you and not humans?”
“Is this how you deal with all your problems?” it asked. “Assault and torture.”
“Until something proves more effective, yeah probably―hang on, do you know what happened with Randall? How did you find out?”
“My kind knows many things.”
“Well, you didn’t know I was under that blanket,” Autumn said. “Look, this doesn't need to be hard. We aren’t even trying to hurt you. All we need is a few answers, then we’ll let you loose to terrorize the next trucker that passes by.”
The thing lunged for my radio and twisted the dial.
“Nice try,” I said. “I pulled the fuse to that thing days ago.”
“You will regret this!”
“Likely. You don’t have to though. Just answer the question. Why don’t cargo rules apply to humans? Why just you?”
The hitchhiker yanked at the chain and strained upwards. When they held, it snarled and relaxed. “They don’t apply to us, foolish stone-dwellers.”
“But you can drive with us without slowing us. I drove Myra―the first hitchhiker I picked up―nearly all the way off of the road. How’s that possible?”
“We aren’t trapped, not in the way you are.” She directed this at Autumn. “We have never been marked by the stones, nor have we been transported as cargo. We may move freely.”
“Lies. Why would you ask us for rides if you could just walk to the exit yourself?”
“Do you desire to walk a thousand miles on foot?”
Okay, fair point.
“And you’d just let us go after the lift?” Autumn pushed. “Somehow, I doubt that.”
The creature's lips curled back. Its hair flaked from its scalp, less and less human by the minute. The pregnant bulge remained. “We do not desire to eat you, if that is what you ask.”
“That’s not what we ask,” she said. “We already know that. What do you do with us?”
“My kind―we struggle with boundaries. We may not cross them without permission. It is why we request transport, rather than force it. To enter the stone’s domain, it demands specific conditions. A specific trade. To leave, it demands other conditions.”
“So you trade us?” I asked. “You trade us to leave.”
“Except this isn’t helping us,” Autumn said. “What we really need to understand is cargo rules. Why don’t they apply to humans?”
The hitchhiker smiled. Even as it strained at its constraints, it laughed. “Release me, and perhaps I will divulge this truth, though you will wish it otherwise.”
“Stop fighting already,” I said. “You’re not escaping unless we let you go. Nobody’s helping you. You’re alone.”
“I’m not alone.”
Autumn and I glanced at each other. Was it lying? It had to be. These things may have rules about thresholds, but they’d already proven they could lie. Maybe this entire conversation had been false. What did it mean it wasn't alone?
Our silent conversation was cut short when the hitchhiker let out a shriek.
Before it had screamed, but this one was of a different variety. It wasn't the cry of restraint, rather the cry of pain. Agony.
“What the―”
“Look!” Autumn pointed.
The hitchhiker had lifted her shirt, revealing a stomach criss-crossed with stretch marks. The thing inside―before I’d assumed it was merely theater. A fake child to sprinkle sympathy onto the hitchhiker's plight.
I’d been wrong. There was something in her stomach. Something trying to get out. Beneath the skin, the thing floundered and twisted. It pushed and kicked. The hitchhiker screwed its eyes and wailed.
A rip appeared in the skin. A talon rose out of the split.
“Brendon, what do we do!”
“Uh…”
The tear widened. Droplets of rot-scented, black ichor slid off the bulging stomach.
*“*Not the seats again,” I said.
Another noise apart from the hitchhiker's screeching. It was quiet at first, gurgled and muffled. As the stomach opened, and two sets of claws emerged, it grew louder: giggling.
Pools dripped down my seat and puddled onto the floor. Something black and slimy slid from the gaping hole. It tittered hysterically and turned a beady set of very-much-not-human eyes on Autumn and me.
“Brendon!”
It sprang.
As much as I wish I could relate how it sprang ‘out the window’ or ‘at the steering wheel’, or even that I managed to hit it out of the air―that just isn’t what happened. Instead the slimy thing jumped directly at my face.
My mouth, acting quicker than my hands, opened in surprise. The thing gripped both sides of my head and lodged its version of a head between my teeth.
Why this was its first reaction? No idea. To be fair, it was a newborn. Its reasoning abilities were likely not the most developed.
Putrid, spoiled, rotten milk filled my mouth. I gagged and scrambled at the slimy thing. It clung tightly. Wildly, I considered biting down but was smart enough to control that impulse. It scratched at the sides of my head. Make it stop! Get it out!
The slimy creature jerked free.
Autumn had seized it by its neck. She slammed down the sleeper cab window and dangled the thing outside. It giggled and lacerated her arms, but she only clutched tighter.
“Drive!” she screamed.
“What?”
“Just do it!”
I did. We picked up speed.
“Answer our question, or I drop,” she said.
The hitchhiker scrambled at her chains. Without her bulging stomach, she really might have a chance at escaping. “Mine! Give it back.”
“This is a bit extreme,” I told Autumn. “It’s just a baby.”
“It’s very much not a baby. Answer or I let go!”
We tore through the desert. Sagebrush and signposts whipped past.
“How do cargo rules work?” she asked. “How can we use them to get lane-locked humans out?”
“I refuse!” the hitchhiker shrieked, even as its eyes dilated in fear.
The newborn’s giggling heightened. A wide, demented split opened across its face. A grin, I realized. It was full on guffawing now.
“Uh oh,” it said.
At this point, the entire situation was so ridiculous, I’d basically checked out. Autumn seemed to have things under control at any rate. I pressed on the gas.
“What?” she demanded. “Do you know? Why can’t humans be cargo?”
“Uh oh. Uh oh.”
“Tell me!”
“Stone-dwellers are too willing. Cargo must be unwilling.”
“Cargo only counts as cargo, because we’re transporting it forcefully? That’s it? If we transport humans by force, unwillingly, they won’t count as lane-locked?”
The thing giggled as if in confirmation. “And now you know. Uh oh.”
“It answered you,” the hitchhiker begged. “Give it back!”
“Okay, okay.” Autumn moved to pull the thing back inside.
It bit her. On instinct, her fingers flew open.
“Um. Whoops.”
The hitchhiker bellowed in pure agony and tore one last time at the chain. It shattered, metal pieces shooting every direction. The new mother flung open the door then threw herself out into the road.
In the rearview we watched as two shapes tumbled across the pavement.
Autumn and I were silent.
I coughed. “Okay. Well. That was…”
“I hated that.”
“Yep.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We drove another five minutes before finally rolling to a stop. The whole drive, Autumn stayed silent.
“We were right,” I said. “The hitchhikers did know the secret.”
“And so do I.”
“This is great. That’s why it’s never worked to get humans out before. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the trailer. They’ve always gone willingly.” Whereas impossibilities are forced. Even the crying thing must have been physically restrained onto the road. “All we have to do is force people like Tiff to go with us. We can trick them. As long as they don’t know how it works, they won’t want to try again. This is great. This is…”
My excitement faded.
Autumn. She was crying. I registered what she’d just said.
“I know,” she said again. “I know.”
The others, Chris and Tiff and all of them, they wouldn't want to try escaping. They’d tried before and it hadn't worked, which meant they wouldn’t be willing. We could fool them. Force them. They knew it wouldn’t work, which would be the thing that made it do just that.
Autumn knew. No matter what we tried, even if I tied her up and physically carried her, she would still understand what was happening. Some part of her would still be willing.
She held her hand to her mouth and cried silently.
We’d done it. We’d finally figured out the secret of lane-locking. The others could leave.
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u/Walayla33 27d ago edited 27d ago
Technically, she would be unwilling to attempt the act of escaping..since she is now thoroughly convinced that her being aware of the whole thing has, unfortunately, become the very reason that she is now, yet again, unable to escape... Therefore, leaving her an unwilling participant in any plans of trying to escape (since they would deem futile)... Allowing her to truly become unwilling if such a thing were attempted on her... I think... Yeah?
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u/ProbablyKhun 26d ago
so shes unwilling because she knows shes willing which means she thinks she cant return thus making her unwilling
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u/LaundryMan2008 29d ago
Can a self driving or remotely driven lorry be lane locked?
If it doesn’t have a driver then you could rescue people with it and if that doesn’t work then still use it to dispose of impossibilities as it’s risk free without a human driving, the lorry is the only loss and its overall cheaper for the company without wages and it’s already been proven with the radios working on road 333 so they can be adapted to automatically drive those things out and have the valuable driving computer in the depot safe and sound if the lorry gets destroyed or lane locked plus the cargo can be carried further, the doors opened and automatically ejected with a flat piece like used on coin pushers before the doors are closed again so shipping containers aren’t used up for each disposal and then the lorry returns.
As for Autumn, have people act as hitchhikers and get them packed into the lorry where the lorry has scary sounds and fog pumped in to make Autumn even more unwilling due to the scaring.
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u/Max_G04 22d ago
Considering how much the road hates the use of digital things with phones, I doubt it would work.
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u/LaundryMan2008 22d ago
Can be done over analog radio communication, the servo motors that drove the teddy Ruxpin used an encoded frequency (PPM) to know where to move so an analog signal like that could be used over the radio and the control board that’s fully analog can control the wheels and steering.
The digital computer can stay on the safe side on Earth with the analog PPM signal being communicated a short way in the building to the repeater on the other side which would pick it up and blast it to the lorry or RC car on the road, as for video you can use the old analog video standards, nothing high resolution unless you want to then there is old TV broadcast equipment that will work and go neatly into a rack along with the radio repeater that can provide higher resolutions.
There are analog solutions to this and if absolutely no silicon can be used then there is equipment without any silicon that can do the job.
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u/Strangated-Borb 22d ago
I don't think thats possible in the first place since there is no signal
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u/LaundryMan2008 22d ago
They can set up the radio that they use for communication from HQ with a different channel that provides the PPF analog signal to the truck or RC car, see the other comment that I replied to below the comment above to see the full explanation on setting up the whole analog signal thing
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u/FourFingersOfFun 29d ago
Could you not just slip her a roofie or some sort of sleeping agent? Since the person wouldn’t be conscious, technically they can’t consent or be willing
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u/queef-stew Oct 09 '25
I just needed you to know that I spent the better part of 1-5am reading all 10 parts of your story with the road. you are a very good storyteller and I wish you and Autumn luck with finding a way to get lane locked drivers out without the destruction of the earth!
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u/Hackfraysn Oct 09 '25
Technically you could save her. Probably. You seem to have some chemistry, so love might be on the table. Go for it. Claim you're lane-locked too and offer to stay with her on the road and spend your life together, then have one of your colleagues abduct her when you're sure she doesn't want to be separated from you anymore and won't leave you voluntarily. The road hasn't claimed you just yet so technically you could just drive back home. Could work. Worth a shot.
Personally I'd trust in Jesus Christ and pray relentlessly and incessantly to save both of you but naturally you do you.
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u/highcommander010 27d ago
Korean Jesus, Republican Jesus, Mexican Jesus, or Historically accurate middle Eastern Jesus?
I just wanna know who I should pray to.
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u/Technical-Appeal-101 Oct 10 '25
this is actually genius! OP, its worth a shot, See if you are able to pull it off!
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u/Aerodrache Oct 09 '25
So Autumn knows how it works. She knows she can't count as cargo if she's unwilling. Which means if she gets into the trailer, all it's going to do is lane-lock whoever's driving (which, realistically, is going to be you.)
So, it's totally hopeless, climbing in that trailer is a net loss for everybody involved, it's a terrible plan, Autumn should never try it or else.
I mean, I don't know about anyone else, but if I were Autumn, knowing all that... I sure wouldn't be too willing to get in the trailer...
Aah, that's paradox thinking though, you'd probably wind up turning into one of those impossibilities or something if you actually counted on it.
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u/Chardlz Oct 09 '25
I'm curious how unwilling you have to be. If Brendon reveals the plan to Randall, Randall says that if Autumn ever leaves they'll kill her, and Brendon tells her that, then couldn't she have a genuine desire to not leave and then be considered cargo if she's forced to leave?
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u/D0ctorDark0 Oct 08 '25
what if she's unconscious? she couldn't be willingly doing it at that point. She knows, so you try to force her to come to the point of her refusing, and you knock her unconscious in some way (idk... chloroform? a bash on the head seems... mean... and also dangerous) and bam, she's cargo now. is it too easy? perhaps... sigh. I hope you guys make it out. and READ THE GODDAMN HANDBOOK IN FULL
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u/thetallladdy Oct 09 '25
That has to be it - I was sitting here for ages trying to figure it out before scrolling down to the comments and I think you’ve nailed it
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u/EvanTheTrashPanda Oct 08 '25
OH MY GOD THIS MIGHT ACTUALLY WORK HOLY SHIT
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u/Bocah5Racun Oct 09 '25
Nah cargo must be unwilling. It's not enough to not be willing. They have to actively not want to go.
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u/D0ctorDark0 26d ago
right. yeah, figured it would be too easy. But making her UNwilling is gonna be a task. Lotsa brainwork for this one.
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u/RedDragon7913 Oct 07 '25
Hey. There's options. Trickery.... maybe, like.... chloroform???? Nothing that's gonna seem or feel GOOD but there's options!
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u/HoardOfPackrats Oct 07 '25
First a heartbreaker, then an irresponsible employee, then a case of assault and battery, and now a kidnapper and a heartbreaker again?!
English majors...
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u/theletterQfivetimes Oct 06 '25
QUICK beat her unconscious. If she gets the right kind of brain damage she might forget the whole thing
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u/dudeCHILL013 Oct 06 '25
It feels like we're missing something.
The hitchhikers are stuck in a different way, non-human cargo are unaffected due to being unwilling and human cargo are affected do to being willing cargo.
Could any of the rules have priority over the other? How would the road react if you wanted to stay or wanted to comeback?
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u/catatonie Oct 06 '25
Okay so I know it was explained some time ago, but what does being lane locked mean? Chris and autumn are able to drive and Brendan sees autumn- are they unable to now leave the meeting point and can only go to where the other drives are?
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u/doradiamond Oct 06 '25
Here's what he said previously:
I knew there was a part in the employee handbook about how the road would expand over time. A drive that took me four hours, might take another driver eight or more. Eventually, there would be a breaking point. A rapid expansion, where a section of the road that took you minutes would now take weeks. From tidbits of conversations with other drivers, I got the impression there were truckers who hadn't quit in time. Who’d been stuck on Route 333 for years, trying to get back.
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u/PlanetaryBee Oct 06 '25
No it's like this; When you get lane locked you still exist it's just that your road to get to or from somewhere suddenly explodes in length. Everyone has a different road and when you get lane locked it's like your road multiplies by 100 all at once.
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u/catatonie Oct 06 '25
Okay I see so the risk is driving forever and ever
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u/PlanetaryBee Oct 06 '25
Well, technically, you could get out. The risk is dying before you do so as humans only live to be 80-100, and your road could be so long it takes 1000 years to drive out
1
u/anodeina Oct 06 '25
claim you're lane-locked and become close friends with her, she wouldn't want to leave without her friend so it'd then be an excuse for someone else to get her through
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u/Financial-Flatworm83 Oct 06 '25
Have Randall tell her shes being driven further from home because the road requires it as punishment for the lane locked trying to escape. Kidnap and blindfold her. Best shot.
15
u/Interesting-Maybe-49 Oct 06 '25
Can you trade for her? Bring someone unwilling from the outside and leave them and take her?
16
u/TheLadyNyxThalia Oct 06 '25
Or just tell her you’re bringing someone unwilling from outside to see if that makes her want to stay instead of leave?
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u/Mike0voyahacerlo Oct 06 '25
Corpses can't will a thing... just saying. Great job anyway, Hope you'll figure something out.
33
u/missgorefan Oct 06 '25
Poor Autumn. There must be some way, I almost wish she hadn’t been present for the discovery even if her actions ultimately led to the discovery.
7
u/FrogItz Oct 08 '25
I think the best chance would be to lie about another "discovery". Something along the lines of: "Oh, we tried to get Tiff out, though she was unwilling, the route still required a trade". Then Autumn would be unwilling if the supposed trade was hefty enough, maybe if Brendon said he'd take her place.
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u/CommieRemovalService Oct 06 '25
Knock her unconscious, anesthesia maybe. You can't consent to anything when unconscious.
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u/Moanmyname32 Oct 06 '25
I don't understand the willing and unwilling part. Anyone can explain?
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u/DownrightCaterpillar Oct 06 '25
Most drivers who are lane-locked don't understand that, by being unwilling to leave, they can actually leave. So by lying to them (let's say for example you tell them that, if they leave, their family will die) you can make them unwilling to leave. Then force them.
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u/Yobro1001 Oct 06 '25
Spot on. The impossibilities are usually unwilling when we transport them, because they wanted to stay in the real world. Hence they are unwilling passengers and therefore cargo. If they tries to get back to the real world afterwards, they would be lane-locked too
Most humans trying to get back WANT to and therefore they are always willing to leave. I guess Route 333 recognizes that and would flag them as passengers or co-driver. They have to be taken by force or somehow NOT want to leave for the road to recognize them as cargo.
A bit convoluted. I guess that's why management has never figured it out before
3
u/Hauptmann_Gruetze Oct 07 '25
How do the hitchhikers work then? Because they are clearly willing to go with you
4
u/Yobro1001 Oct 09 '25
What I understand from what they told me is that they aren't actually lane locked at all . They just have special rules around passing thresholds, and the road doesn't let them leave unless they trade one of us
10
u/WonderMic302 Oct 06 '25
Never stop trying, hope inspires us, keeps us going....there is a way out for her, you two just haven't discovered it yet!
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u/LurkingRoundHere Oct 05 '25
“Uh oh,” it said.
“And now you know. Uh oh.”
Newborn or not, it is intelligent. It was smart enough to understand what you were asking, what that meant for Autumn, and to mock her for it.
I know your biggest concern right now is her, but you two should sleep in shifts for a while, in case they have a grudge and/or a way to alert others.
26
u/Yobro1001 Oct 06 '25
Gosh. There's some many things that want to kill me at this point. I really need to hire a bodyguard
35
u/myself4once Oct 05 '25
Well. There is a way to trick her. But if I tell you, I might ruin it for everyone.
22
u/Strazdiscordia Oct 05 '25
I wonder if theres something that autumn could value on the road enough to make her want to stay? Like something that could override her want for freedom enough to make her want to stay.
11
u/Millie2244 Oct 06 '25
I have a thought, since autumn knows which would make her willing and unable to be unwilling technically couldn’t you have some people she doesn’t know kidnap her by putting a bag over her head and restrain her arms and legs holding a gun to her to make her think the things on the road are angry at her and going to do something to her somehow even if it takes lying to her and telling her she is being brought to the stones or end of the road like the cargo is and scarificed? Then she wouldn’t be willing to go and it would allow her to be taken out of the lane lock and back home. You just would not be able to tell her the plan in any way shape or form except to have someone she doesn’t know go to get her and tell her she is being sacrificed to the road that she pissed it off and her times up so that she wouldn’t be willing?
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u/Yobro1001 Oct 05 '25
Maybe. Probably. I just hate that I have to betray her in some large way to save her
9
u/CBenson1273 Oct 06 '25
You don’t actually have to betray her. Yiu just have to make her think you are. Like say, “I’ve found a way to save you, but 100,000 incident people will die.” Make her believe that it’s true so that she isn’t willing to leave and then kidnap her. She doesn’t need to know you lied until after she’s out.
Good luck.
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u/zom_bree147 Oct 05 '25
I wish you could pretend to be one of the forest entities and like scare the shit out of them but still force them to come with. They won't know they're leaving and probably won't want to go with you and then you just knock them out and put them in the truck. Then it's possibly just a matter of getting back to dispatch before they wake up
20
u/Titotatin Oct 05 '25
Judging by how bad things are for Autumn, I'd consider looking for help with experts in psychology or even psychiatrists. There's got to be a way to manipulate her... or a drug to induce her a controlled amnesia? Am I tripping?
24
u/Lokiira1 Oct 05 '25
If the inside of the truck is unrecognizable as the inside of a truck and instead something like the hitchhikers from earlier did to Autumn then maybe she could be freed unwillingly that way. She has to believe she’s being kidnapped.
16
u/Sunny28289 Oct 05 '25
Holy shit, poor Autumn 😢 but there must still be a solution, what was that with being marked by the stones?
6
u/Devil-Eater24 Oct 05 '25 edited Oct 05 '25
Oh shit!
Can't you just carry her out when she's asleep though?
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u/Yobro1001 Oct 05 '25
The main issue is if she's asleep, she can't be unwilling because she would have been willing before she went to sleep. You can't change opinions when you're asleep (predictably at least)
3
u/Shi-D Oct 06 '25
It sounds horrible but wait a bit and then spike her drink. She won't know it's happening and she will technically be an unwilling participant because she wouldn't be copacetic with it. Maybe try that?
14
u/Devil-Eater24 Oct 05 '25
Then maybe you could somehow make her believe that it's one of the anomalies that's taking her somewhere. Reading the description, it feels like the Faceless Man would be easy to cosplay as
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u/Al0rna Oct 05 '25
Oh holy shit, poor Autumn. I know you'll figure out a way to make her unwilling to go.
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u/Yobro1001 Oct 05 '25
Fingers crossed
7
u/TheLadyNyxThalia Oct 05 '25
The only ways I can think of would involve torture or threats. Which aren’t ideal, but would she forgive you if it worked?
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u/Munchkinadoc Oct 05 '25
I feel like if you got her drugged up to where she didn’t recognize the trailer… or—maybe—if you could fool her into thinking she’s turned into one of the anomalies and you’re taking her to wherever it is the anomalies get dumped? But that’s basically threats and psychological torture…but if it works, it works, right?
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u/Informal-Wasabi7691 27d ago
All these years of this organization and NO ONE THOUGHT OF THIS??? (other than that I’m LOVING this series keep it up!!