Colter Crane sat on his porch, faint music coming from a rusty radio. A glass of iced tea sat on the small table to his left, beads of moisture sliding down the cup. A breeze drifted by, carrying sand with it. The hot Desert sun beat down on the hardpacked dirt and sand around his house. A scraggly, brown piece of vegetative matter reached towards the sun, unknowing that it reached for its death. The sky was a cerulean blue, not a cloud in sight. At the farthest field of vision, mountains scraped the sky. All was quiet... until. The dirt road near his house stretched on for miles in either direction, into The Desert to the right and the Entrance to his left, about 700 feet. Of course, the road stretched on beyond that, and anyone going down that way would not come out of The Desert. The Entrance was just there like The Desert was laughing at him. Sometimes he laughed with it. Today was not one of those days. Nothing remarkable happened. There was no flash of light, no bang, nothing. There was just a car driving down the road. It pulled up to his porch, and cold dread filled him. The window rolled down, and a young woman looked out at him. Hispanic, dark hair and fiery eyes.
"Howdy, folks." he called out.
"Sir, I think we're lost."
"I'd say so. Ain't nothin' out that way for miles."
She cursed. "I told you we took a wrong turn." She turned back to him. "Do you have a map we could look at?"
"Sorry, I can't help you there." Can't came out sounding like cayn't.
She cursed again. "It's gettin' dark." he remarked, looking up at the sky that only moments before had been blue. The sun was now low in the sky, and everything shone with an orange light. "How many d'y'all got in there?"
She grew defensive. "Why do you wanna know?"
"Just, there's no hotels for hours, and I got an extra room." he pointed to his house with his thumb over his shoulder. She studied him, then rolled up the window.

Elena was loving the road trip so far. Driving for hours on end, seeing the unending desert and chaparral stretch on for miles, stepping out of the car and being hit with a wave of desert heat. The desert was definitely her element. She loved the heat. When they had checked out of the last hotel, she couldn't wait to get back on the road. They were driving her car, a cream-colored station wagon with one of the side view mirrors held on with duct tape and hope. Victor was the one driving, and he was doing a terrific job of it. She sat next to him in the passenger seat with a huge map in her hands. She was guiding him loosely in the direction of Phoenix, Arizona. She didn't mind taking a little extra time getting there. And besides, it had already paid off. They had found not one, not two, but three separate diners called "Al's BBQ". They had also found a cow skull sitting alone at the bottom of a dried riverbed, and twice she had seen a rattlesnake. It was nearing dusk when they saw the house pop up. It seemingly popped out of thin air. "Hey. Pull over." she nudged Victor. When he did so, she leaned out the window and talked to the old man sitting on the porch. He seemed strange, almost scared of them being there. After he offered a room, she leaned back in. "He says there's nothing for miles. No hotels, either. He says he has an extra room, but I don't know if it's an excuse to get us out of the car to murderize us. What do y'all think?"