The night suddenly seemed surreal. She felt as though she had awoken from a horrible, vivid nightmare. She approached the driver's side door apprehensively, not knowing what to expect.

Apprehensively, she touched the car's cold metal door handle. She grimaced but nothing happened. There was no movement, no sound, nothing to indicate that the vehicle was anything but an ordinary car.

She opened the door slowly. Would she see the hitchhiker's mutilated body being digested inside her car? Would there now be a bleach white skeleton sitting in the passenger seat?

Gertrude looked inside and saw nothing. She slipped inside and sat softly in the seat. She left the door open, ready to dart out should the need arise. When nothing out of the ordinary happened she brought her legs in, shut the door and rested her hands on the steering wheel.

Had the whole thing been a hallucination? She stuck her head out the window and saw a pool of blood on the asphalt pavement, near the front left tire. No, what she had witnessed was real. As impossible as it seemed, the car had somehow saved her life.

But it wasn't just any old car, it was a living thing, an unnatural fusion of machine and flesh. She had mixed emotions about that notion. On the one hand, such a thing sounded evil and ominous. On the other hand, it sensed her danger and took action to protect its owner.

Gertrude placed her hand on the ignition and turned the key. The engine – or whatever made it run – sprang to life and purred like a kitten. Though she couldn't say why, the sound soothed her. Then her eyes fell on the fuel gauge.

The fuel gauge now displayed a full tank.

She made the mental connection and realized that the car was indeed an alternative fuel vehicle. A stray thought crossed her mind and caused her to chuckle. What kind of mileage would she get with a white man?

She carefully accelerated and pulled back onto the highway. The would-be killer was dead, gone without a trace. The world would be better off without him. He was one less problem that the universe had to deal with. Now, there was one thing that she'd have to take care of when she reached her final destination.

Without a doubt, the fuel gauge would need to be re-calibrated. She couldn't help but wonder which she would do. Should she take her car to a mechanic or a veterinarian?