Where the Highway Ends

David Edward Trench was seventeen and hitchhiking across western Texas. He had ten dollars in his pocket, and everything he owned was in his backpack. He was wanted by the law in three states for small-time robberies, but none of that was going to matter to him after tonight. In three hours David would be dead.

David looked up at the dark and threatening sky and moaned, “Oh, man. I’m going to really get soaked this time.”

A brown, long-horned steer in the pasture across the road looked up a...