Rey had grown up in the desert, but she'd never seen one this beautiful. It was endless. It was unbearably hot. And it was perfect.

The Land of Enchantment. She had taken a selfie with the sign at the state border. As soon as she had seen the faded sheet of painted metal, decorated with a chilli pepper and the constellation of bulletholes that seemed almost like a prerequisite now, she'd fallen in love.

That's how she finds herself here, in southern New Mexico in July. She's immediately smitten, despite it being so damn hot.

The beater car she'd bought on the cheap is starting to act up. The engine temperature keeps flickering towards overheating but turning off the air conditioning isn't an option. At all.

So instead she just pulls over frequently to rest it. Lets the car idle and fans herself with one of the gossip mags she'd bought at a very colorful and tiny convenience store that morning. Those, along with a dozen quart bottles of water, some junk food, and the required amounts of Tequila that she'd randomly developed a taste for.

Running away from her home had been stupid. Her friends had encouraged her. "Go out and see the world," they'd say to her.

Except then she went and did just that. Suddenly they changed their mind and started blowing up her phone, telling her how worried they were. Apparently "seeing the world" hadn't extended as far as hopping on a plane, almost broke, and then bumming around the United States on an expired visa.

She was having a great time. That doesn't mean it's been easy. Every time a police car passes her heart flops in her throat. But so far they've just stopped to see if she needed help. Only one had asked for her ID and thought her British driver's license was "a hell of a thing". Whatever that meant. But no further questions and no problems.

Rey knows that she won't always be so lucky. One day her recklessness will catch up to her and get her into one hell of a lot of trouble. And that's what brought her here, to New Mexico. To a place in the desert so remote that it could very well be listed in the dictionary under "middle of nowhere".

This was also where she first saw him. A stranger, strange in more ways than one, all by himself on a lonely stretch of westbound Highway 82. Between one town to the east that was barely fit to be called a town, and the city of Alamogordo where Rey had been hoping to get her engine looked at.

The stranger was an incredibly tall, dark haired hitchhiker. Dressed ridiculously in black jeans and a matching hoodie. Scowling in the small amount of shade cast from a rocky spire next to the road. How he hadn't collapsed on a day this scorchingly hot was beyond her.

She had slowed down when she saw him appear at the horizon. Wondering if he was nothing more than a sun-induced mirage on the edge of the blacktop. He almost looked like exactly that. A flickering dark shape that was so out of place that it just couldn't be really real.

Then he'd raised his hand, thumb up. She hadn't seen a single other car since early morning. There weren't even supposed to be any houses or towns out here.

The stranger takes a step out of his shade. Stands next to the white line. She realizes that she had kept slowing down as she was staring at him.

Okay, no. Single women don't pick up hitchhikers. Everyone knows that and tells her that. Especially monstrously tall, young male hitchhikers. Dressed like that. In the middle of nowhere.

With a pained expression, she waves to him in an apology. That was shitty of her, she shouldn't have slowed down like that and gotten his hopes up.

The stranger watches her. She can't bring herself to look at him. Instead, she swerves around him into the other lane and speeds up. Sees him in her rear view mirror step out into the middle of the road. Stand there watching her as they both get smaller on each other's horizons.

A few minutes go by. That was very strange and... kind of creepy, honestly. She tries not to think about it.

And then she starts to feel really bad about it.

Maybe he'd been in an accident and was stranded out there? Or... or needed help with something else?

But then wouldn't he have, like, tried to flag her down more? Looked more desperate? Not just broodily stare at her.

She should have asked him if he needs her to call someone or get some help. At the very least she could have given him some water. If nobody else comes by he might actually die out there. On a day like today and dressed like that.

Rey sighs, pulling her car onto the side of the road. The highway ahead of her is made of a narrow twist of black lines where the pavement has cracked under the intense heat. The terrain is starting to climb in elevation but goddamn is it still hot.

She unlocks her seatbelt and twists halfway into the back. Grabs four of the bottles of water and a little thing of fruit and nut mix. Dumps them in a grocery bag on the passenger side and strums her fingers against the steering wheel.

113 degrees. That's what the temperature on the dashboard says. Hotter than hot. It hasn't really changed even as she started ascending into the mountains. And the engine temperature had been edging a little over the safe zone but now the gauge has gone right back to the middle.

Maybe it's a sign. Do a good deed or do unto others or something along those lines. Gods know that she could use some good karma for when her luck finally runs out. That, and it's just the right thing to do.

That's the thought that settles it for her. Sticks to her conscience until she has no choice but to turn the car around. It's only a few miles back. She still hasn't seen anyone else on the road in either direction.

So she goes back. But the stranger is gone when she gets there.

She had locked the doors when she had gotten close to that rock spire. Had planned on handing him his survival kit through a quarter-opened window. Instead all she finds is an empty space next to the rocks.

Confused, she slows down and pulls off onto the shoulder. In those few short minutes since she'd gone past the sun had shifted and the shade is now gone.

Maybe he was nearby, hiding out under a tree or somewhere else where he could still see the road? It's possible, except that all the trees here are short junipers and you'd think a black behemoth shape like he was would stand out.

A few minutes go by as she lets the car idle. Cooling down the engine again while she waits. Then she honks the horn a few times. Maybe he'd gone further away from the road? Was she wrong and there actually were some houses out here somewhere?

Five minutes and still nothing. There's a scuffed area in the gravel at the base of the rock where she had last seen him standing. The faint outline of footprints in the looser silt. It's the only proof she has that he wasn't just some sun-addled hallucination.

If she was a really, really good person... maybe she could follow the prints and make sure he didn't wander off into the hills and collapse.

She's not that good of a person. The guy was creepy and it's too hot to even think about leaving her cocoon o cool air. However, if she sees a forest ranger or benevolent looking policeman, she'll tell them. Do at least that much.

Disquieted but out of acceptable options, Rey pulls her car away slowly. Scanning both near and far on each side of the road. Seeing nothing but rolling sandy hills and junipers.

The rock spire gets smaller in the rear mirror again. For a second she thinks she sees that dark shape on the horizon. She slams the brakes. The shape flickers and melts into the road. This time it really was just a mirage from the heat.

Her beater car isn't going to make it all way to Alamogordo. And now she's really in a mess.

It had started limping hard as the highway rose up into the mountains. Engine temperature spiking and knocking like it's got a gas tank of water even though it doesn't.

Rey has to pull over all the time now, barely making it a mile between cooldowns. She even has to turn down -but not completely off- the air conditioning. Her GPS tells her she's at just over 8,000ft and it's 78 degrees. It still feels much hotter than that. The sunlight is just insane over here. There's no other place quite like it.

Another miserable hour passes before she reaches a plateau. It's late afternoon now and the road is splitting off into two directions. There's a bigger town 40 miles to the north but she doubts she can make it that far. A faded sign straight ahead tells her "Cloudcroft 6 miles".

She doesn't want to risk breaking down and getting caught out here in the night. It's almost guaranteed to attract attention that she doesn't want.

So she goes straight.

And she sees him again. That same tall man in black. Thumb in the air, watching the only car on the road as it approaches him.

This time he's taken off his hoodie. Has a black T-shirt on under it. And just what kind of weirdo is he? Maybe having everything the same color makes getting dressed easier or something, she muses.

Despite knowing better, she starts slowing down. Still feeling guilty about before and now oddly compelled to offer her help. She pulls over after double checking that all the doors are locked. Opens the window a fraction and calls out.

"Hey?"

It's a dumb thing to say. She could at least have gone with hello or something less juvenile.

The man stares at her for a few seconds. Then pushes away from the pine tree he'd been leaning on. Walks a little closer. He looks tired and she can see a faint scar across his face. It makes her feel bad. Looking a crazy mess like that must have made getting a ride even harder.

"Hello."

"I saw you earlier," she tells him. "A couple of miles back. I'm sorry I didn't stop."

He stares at her. A long moment of increasingly awkward silence passes. She glances at the locks for the third time. Twiddles her fingers on the steering wheel.

"Why didn't you?" he finally asks. Such an odd, low voice that he has.

"Um..." She probably should lie. Definitely should lie.

"I was having car problems. I didn't want to pick you up only to have us break down in a few minutes." A half-truth. Those are the best kind of lies.

The man frowns. Then nods.

"We saw you pulled over. I asked him to stop but he didn't want to."

He tosses his jacket over his shoulder, looks up the road. He doesn't seem quite as scary now that she's seeing him up close. He still kind of is, though.

"He?" Rey asks.

"The guy who gave me a lift. We saw your car pulled over but you looked like you were taking a nap. He didn't want to stop and bother you."

Oh.

Well, she had taken a short catnap during one of her engine breaks. It must have only been for a minute or two, but that explains how he beat her up to here.

"So he just dropped you off again?"

"He was going north," He gestures to the side road behind them with a tilt of his head. "I'm heading west. Just like you are."

The stranger leaves the words hanging in the air. Rey fidgets again. Torn between a bad idea and a selfish act. It's... only six miles to town. She can be a good Samaritan and take him there.

"Do you, uh, know this area at all?" she asks.

He shrugs.

"I need a mechanic to look at my car. Do you know if there's one in town?"

He shifts from side to side, looking enormous, still kind of creepy, and hopeful.

"Yeah," he says. "At least there was one last time I was here. It's off the main street, though. Would be hard for you to find."

And the man's subtle, too. But her GPS hadn't listed any mechanics anywhere nearby so...

She sighs. Bites the bullet. "Would you... like a ride into town? I won't be able to take you any further but-"

"That's fine," he interrupts her. "I mean, that will be fine." He shrugs again. She realizes he's hunching over ever so faintly. Like he's trying to make himself look smaller and less imposing.

"Sure. Maybe you can find someone else to give you a lift from there."

He nods. Pulls on the door handle. It snaps and does nothing. He almost looks offended for a second, then hides it.

"Uh, sorry. I forgot." Rey presses the unlock button. He gives her an unreadable expression than gets in. Has to slouch so his head doesn't brush against the roof.

She puts the car into gear and they start driving. He's very quiet and spends most of his time looking at his shoes. The silence makes Rey even more uncomfortable.

So she starts talking to fill the space between them. Rattling off what she thinks is wrong with the engine. All the ways she could fix it herself if she only had the right tools. But of course she didn't take them with her and now she has to waste her money getting someone else to do it for her.

The stranger perks up after a while. Starts asking her a few questions. Questions about her accent and what she's doing way out here. He agrees about the middle of nowhere part. She doesn't ask him why he's here. Neither of them asks each other's names.

They have to stop again outside of the town to cool the engine. He asks if he can have a drink of water and she gives him one of the bottles by his feet. He seems grateful. Maybe he's not so bad after all. It can't be easy hitchhiking through the desert when you look like he does. Nobody's ever going to want to stop.

The car makes it into town. Barely.

The stranger directs her to a garage three blocks off the main street and behind a Family Dollar. She lets him keep the bottle of water and gives him another "for the road". They part ways with a thanks and a wave.

It takes a while to find the mechanic. No one was in the garage or opened the door when Rey had knocked at the office. She eventually asks at the store and the disinterested teenager there says that's her dad's shop. Calls him up and tells her to go to the blue house behind the garage.

Rey's pretty sure the mechanic's drunk when she knocks on the matching blue door. Or at least he sure acts like it. The middle aged man who answers is friendly enough, though, but slurring his words slightly. He says she'll have to come back tomorrow.

"Do you think I can make it to Alamogordo like this?" Rey asks him.

They're standing out in his driveway. He's bent over the open hood and she's clinging to the edges of the shade. It's getting cooler as the evening approaches, especially at this altitude. Cloudcroft is actually a pretty appropriate name, even the air is thinner here. But despite that she can still feel a sunburn start. It's that New Mexican sun... it's just indescribable.

He pushes away. Looks skeptically at the engine and back to her. She likes him, even if he's drunk at this time of day. A man who doesn't ask too many questions can be forgiven for a lot.

"Doubt it," he says, fiddling with one of the connectors. "You said it's been getting worse?"

She nods. "Very quickly. Much worse since this morning."

"Then I wouldn't risk it. Alamo's all the way down in the basin. You've got to get off these mountains first. Takes me a few hours. It'd take you all day on this engine."

"If I even make it there."

"If you even make it there."

Rey sighs. Then explains her financial issues to him. Says she's handy with fixing things.

They strike an agreement that she'll come by tomorrow. She'll help him out with some of the other jobs that he's got lined up. Then he'll make her a good deal on fixing her engine. At least enough to get her a few hundred more miles.

He tells her about a hotel nearby. She smiles and thanks him. Pretends to drive off in the direction he'd pointed to.

Then she circles back and heads out towards the forest to the south. Gods bless these Americans and their free camping in the national forests. Without that she'd have been sleeping in her car every night for the last six months.

Outside of the town, on a narrow paved road to some place called Sunspot, she meets him again.

She had stopped at the local Ranger Station to fill up her large 20 gallon water cooler she'd stolen from a Walmart a few weeks back. The main office had been closed, but she'd went into their vestibule to get some maps of the area. By the time she gets back to her car, the Stranger in Black is standing next to it.

She freezes mid-step. Drops one of the maps onto the sidewalk. Stranger in Black turns to her.

He smiles warmly at her. "We've got to stop meeting like this," he jokes. Then his smile fades as he takes in her frown. "I'm not stalking you. I swear."

That does nothing to convince her. This is starting to go beyond just mere coincidence.

His shoulders slump and he steps away from her car. Steps sideways, neither closer or further from her. It takes Rey a moment to find her voice.

"What are you doing here?" she asks. "I thought you were heading west?"

He looks down at the ground. Sticks his hands in his pockets.

"Tried to. But no one was around. Anywhere. You're the only one I've seen driving out of town."

That's very true. No one was around. They were alone in this parking lot together. A fact that Rey is suddenly acutely aware of.

"This isn't the main road out. This goes to some little town and dead ends." She doesn't want to sound like she's making an accusation, but...

"I was... going to sleep out. Tonight. I heard there's a hotel in town but I can't afford it so... I'll just sleep out."

He's choosing his words very carefully. She looks him over. Not a single piece of luggage on. Just his hoodie.

"It's over 9,000ft here. I think it's going to get pretty cold tonight," she tells him.

He nods. Then swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing with the movement. "It always does out in the desert. Temperature plummets at night."

Both of them stay rooted to the spot. He stares at her. When it starts to make her visibly uncomfortable he nods again, returns his gaze to the ground. Hunches that little bit like he did before.

"You didn't get your car fixed?"

Rey blinks at the sudden change of subject. "Not yet. The place was closed."

"Oh. Okay."

The silence comes back. Rey scowls at him deliberately this time. Hoping that the Stranger in Black takes the hint. He doesn't.

She sighs. "I need to get going. Could you... Um... Well, good luck with sleeping out tonight."

She takes a few steps closer to her car. He stays right where he is, standing forlornly next to the rear door.

When she gets to him and he still doesn't move, she opens the drivers door and tries to get in. He stops her with a featherlight tap on her shoulder.

There's nothing threatening in the gesture, at least not beyond the context of the situation. Still, her arm jumps and she has to fight the impulse to recoil. The creepy stranger just touched her. He shouldn't have done that, even if it was only for a microsecond. Her heart begins to race and she struggles to come up with some appropriate objection but she's having a hard time thinking.

"Hey?" he says, repeating the first word she had ever said to him. "Thanks for giving me a lift into town."

She wants to say "you're welcome" and get in. Drive off and find an extra, super hidden nook in the woods to set up her tent.

But she finds that she can't. It's like she's frozen to the spot. He's staring at her intensely now. Leaning towards her slightly.

Then he touches her shoulder again. Pats it twice and holds it under his palm. Never breaking their eye contact. "Why don't you take me with you."

It's not a question. Rey's head feels muggy. Almost as if she's having an out of body experience. But his suggestion actually seems like a great idea. A perfect idea, in fact.

"Why don't you come with me?" she asks. Her voice sounds strange to her own ears.

"We can find a place in the forest and camp tonight."

That's an even better idea.

"We can camp together. I have a tent. You'll be cold in the forest without one."

"I can sleep in the car. You won't feel uncomfortable if I do that."

"You can sleep in my car, if that would make you more comfortable?"

Everything makes perfect sense. Rey holds her breath, hoping that he'll say yes to her offer. He smiles.

"Okay." He lets go of her shoulder.

She leans against the door frame, blinking. Feeling lightheaded. She must not have eaten enough today or all the sun finally got to her after all.

The stranger walks around the car and gets in the passenger's seat. "Let's get going. Make camp before it gets too dark," he says, looking cheerful once again.

Rey sits down in the driver's seat. Puts the keys in the lock and shakes her head, trying to clear the fog from it.

"Are you ready to go?" she asks, putting on her seatbelt. He does the same. "We should find a campsite before it gets dark."

The stranger smiles at her. Nods. She puts the car in reverse and he helps her back up out of the narrow parking lot without hitting anything.

"We should find some place private," he tells her as she turns onto the main road and starts heading out of town. She's starting to feel a little better. "There might be a lot of other tourists around. It's the middle of summer and all..."

Great point. She hadn't seen any tourists all day, but... great point.

"That sounds good. I don't really like other people too much."

He looks at her from the corner of his eye. "Me neither. Most people. Some are okay."

She nods. "I hope so."