“Can’t remember nothing but the colours black and red.”

Here's a short story inspired heavily by the rock song "Reno" by Red Vox. I suggest listening to the song before you read this story. (Even the thumbnail is a reference to the music video's thumbnail (I use the word music video loosely)

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Scott Harlow was stunned by the sight he saw. He never thought the desert could look so beautiful. The sky was ablaze with red, the clouds burning and the sand complimenting the whole thing. The sun was a tiny dot to his left, and he could see a star or two poking through the haze. The man was not alone in the car. Him, his younger brother, and older sister also sat in the heat. Harry sat in the back, playing on his 3DS and not paying attention to the beauty which surrounded them. Felicia simply did not care enough to watch the sky. He looked at them both in turn. “Come on you two! It’s pretty!”
He did not get a response. He laughed. “Mom and Dad give us a car and a credit card to go on a desert road trip and you wont even take advantage of the scenery! When I get back I’m telling them all the money was wasted.”
“Wow, so pretty.” Harry said utterly unenthusiastically.
Felicia scoffed. “I didn’t want to go in the first place. It’s too hot.”
“And dry.” Harry added.
Scott looked back momentarily. “You voted for a road trip. A road trip is what you got.”
“Yeah, ‘cause I thought we’d go to Disneyland or some shit!” Harry whined.
Scott chuckled. “Well, we’re doing the next best thing. Haven’t you ever wanted to explore the Nevada Desert?”
“No.” Harry and Felicia said in unison.
Scott laughed once more. “Our next stop is coming up. You’ll cheer up then I’m sure.”
“What’s next, then?” Felicia asked.
Scott took out his map, where he had planned out the entire rout. “Well, we should be coming up on…”
He passed a road sign, and looked up. Reno. He immediately did a double take. “Wait a minute…”
Felicia looked at him. “Don’t tell me we’re lost. I will kill you if you lost us in the desert.”
“No it’s not… well, that sign we just past? It said Reno, right?”
Felicia nodded. “Yeah? Is that where we’re going?”
“No…”
“So we are lost.”
“No!- Yes?! I don’t know!”
“Whoa, bro. Stop freaking out!”
He kept his eyes on the road ahead of him as he pointed to the map. “See where we were heading?”
Felicia’s eyes grew wide. “Boulder City? Yeah… and Reno is here… four hundred miles away?!”
Harry chuckled. “You drove the wrong way.”
“I’d have to be driving the wrong way for seven hours and not notice. Something’s wrong here. The sign must be tampered with.”
“And my phone, too?”
Scott looked over at Felicia, who had her phone out. “What?”
“My phone says we’re minutes away from downtown Reno.”
Harry finally put down his game and leaned into the front seat. “You guys are jus fucking with me, right?”
“Language, Harry. And no. I don’t know how, but…”
They crested a sandy shrub covered hill and sure enough, at the bottom were the lights and sounds of the casinos and other vices that made up the biggest little city in the world. The three simply cruised down the deserted hill in stunned silence. Soon a cough from the car made Scott jump. “Ah, shit!”
“What?!”
Scott punched the wheel. “We just ran out of gas.”
Harry gulped. “But we got gas an hour ago…
Scott tapped the empty fuel gauge to no avail. Felicia sat back in her chair and rubbed her temples, something she did to relieve stress. “Do we have a leak or something?”
Scott grumbled. “I don’t know, but we’re getting to the bottom of this.”
He took a right turn into a small road, running off fumes before stopping a few feet away from a gas and service station. Dusk was setting in now, and the fiery sky from earlier was diminishing. He popped open the door. “Stay here.”
There were two other door opening sounds as Harry and Felicia also exited the car. Scott knew better than to argue with them. He noticed something strange as he and his siblings walked towards the station. The small parking lot was filled, and cars were also lined up down the street ahead of them. He tried not to think about it as he walked into the nearly empty station. He rung the call for service bell, and a very tired looking attendant stepped out of the backroom. “Yes…?”
“Um, I need you to check our car… We just- just got gas and now it’s empty. We think there’s a leak.”
The attendant animatedly retrieved a toolkit and walked for the door. Harry stayed in the station fiddling with a vending machine while Scott and Felicia followed the attendant. He placed a creeper on the pavement and rolled himself under the car. After a tense moment of tinkering the guy rolled on back and shook his head. “You got a leak alright. Yer car’s got an exposed tank down here, not ideal for desert driving. I can fix it for you in the morning, but we’re closing up for the night.”
Felicia groaned as Scott stroked his chin. “Alright…”
The attendant yawned and scratched his back. “See y’all later. I’m headed home.”
He walked back into the office, shooed Harry out and locked up the store. Harry walked up and offered Scott some cheese doodles. “I heard what the guy said. What are we going to do?”
Scott took some doodle and shoved them into his mouth. “I don’t know! We’ve teleported to Reno and now we’re stuck here!”
Felicia was holding her phone again. “Maybe I can call someone… No service?”
Harry spun around and began walking towards the city. Scott called to him. “Hey! Get back here!”
“Nah, man. Screw all this freaky shit, I’m going over there and I’m going to go into the first hotel and figure out what’s going on.”
Scott was about to propose the same plan, so he followed Harry. The walk wasn’t long, about ten minutes or so until they passed the first buildings. Another minute they were passing under a giant sign that read: “RENO: The Biggest Little City in the World!”
For a moment, the dazzlement of the street took their worries away. Lights spilled into the streets, shifting and sparkling in waterfalls of colour. Even the sounds astonished. Slot machines and music from a nearby casino drifted through the crowds, which themselves were producing a steady stream of content chatter and laughter. Harry smiled. “Well, this place is nice… Just would be nice if we knew how we got here.”
He put his hands in his pockets and walked into the nearest casino. Scott went after him. “Wait!”
He turned. “What?”
“I don’t want you running around inside a casino. Let’s go to the hotel across the street.”
Harry laughed. “Nah, this place looks cool! I can already feel the stress melting away.”
He ran further inside. No one even stopped him to check his ID. Scott turned to Felicia for support, but she was just smiling complaisantly, nodding to the background music. Scott waved his arm in front of her face. “Hey!”
“W-what?”
“Harry just ran off!”
She blinked a few times. “Oh… I spaced out.”
She laughed. Scott frowned. “What is wrong with you people?”
He grabbed her arm and dragged her through the casino. He had lost sight of Harry, and now navigated the endless rows of slot machines to find him. “Where are you? Harry?!”
“Here, Scott!”
He let go of Felicia’s arm and ran over to Harry as he pulled down the arm on one of the machines. “Someone left a quarter in here!”
The two looked as it spun, and spun and spun. One cherry. Two cherries. Three cherries showed up. There was a noise, and a flood of quarters spilled out into the prize trey. Harry’s face lit up. “Jackpot! Alright!”
He scooped up the quarters and started shoving them into his pockets. Scott smiled for a moment. It was kinda cool that Harry happened to win a decent pot. But after a moment he shook his head. “Alright, that’s enough. We’re leaving. C’mon you two-”
Felicia was nowhere in sight. Scott scanned the crowds, the tables, but she was nowhere. Harry put another quarter into the machine and pulled the lever. He lost. “Damn.”
He tried again. Scott tugged his arm, but Harry pushed him away. “Hold on a sec, I got a good feeling about this…”
Scoot looked at him. “Stop playing around. You’ll never win at that.”
“Watch me.”
He pulled the lever again, and lost. “Damn.”
Scott sighed. “Fine, you stay here, I’ll find Felicia.”
He walked away from Harry, without even a response. He headed away from the slot machines and through the many tables. People laughed and yelled over each other as the dice were rolled, or the wheel spun, or the cards flipped. He stopped to peer over the shoulder of a man playing Texas hold’um. The man had a garbage hand, a two and an eight, with a queen, jack, and a nine on the table. Yet he still bet large amounts. The other players looked less confident in their hands, and one after another they all folded after a five, and ten came up. When the man revealed he had nothing, and despite taking them for a good chunk of money, they all laughed it off and put more chips down. Scott found himself laughing too, even having a little exchange with the man on bluffing, and was offered to sit and play. If he hadn’t caught himself, he would have said yes. But he didn’t, and continued searching, Soon he spotted Felicia’s hair in the crowd. Red and shiny. He headed over, only to see her sitting a roulette wheel. She slid some chips onto twenty three and black. Scott didn’t know Felicia even knew how to play roulette. He knew he didn’t. Yet as he looked at the table, he could see what he might do if he was playing. He would put his chips on seventeen, 2to1 and 2nd12, and hope for luck. He shook his head. He knew he’d never get it. He tugged Felicia’s arm. “Hey, we gotta go.”
“After this spin.”
The wheel spun. Twenty eight. She made a fist and punched the table. “Ahh… It’s your fault, Scott! You threw off my mojo!”
“Your mojo? It’s luck!”
She ignored him, and placed more chips on twenty three. At this point, Scott was thoroughly confused and exasperated. He walked away from that table, away through the crowds to gather his thoughts. He sat on a bench, and looked up once more at the casino. He get to thinking how nice and comfortable it looked. They sure did a good job of ensuring long term comfort, if nothing else. As if from nowhere, the man from the poker table was sitting next to him. “You look lost, mate.”
“Wha- … Yeah, a little. My siblings seem none to eager to leave. We even… We…”
Scott tried to think about the events that brought him to the casino, but he only remembered walking through the door. He shook his head. “Weird…”
The man clapped his back. “Aw, they’ll get board of gambling sooner of later. Why not join a game of blackjack and wait it out?”
“... But they’ll lose our money…”
“Consider it part of the Reno experience. C’mon, mate! What’s the harm in one game?”
Scott did like blackjack. It was his favorite card game, though he never played for stakes. Something at the back of his head was yelling at him not to go, but that part was won out by the ‘what the fuck’ part of his bran. He followed the man, and sat at the table. Scott looked at the man. “I don’t have chips, though…”
The man laughed. “Check your pockets, mate!”
Sure enough, a ten dollar chip sat in his pocket. He put it down. The dealer smiled a shark like smile at him and dealt him a hand. He had a total of fifteen already. Not high enough. “Hit me.”
A seven. “Damn.” Scott said. He reached for his wallet.

“Damn!”
Steven punched his wheel. Out of gas? Already? He sighed and pulled off the highway towards a service station. There were many cars parked nearby, and a tired looking attendant sat nearby. He parked, and walked suspiciously towards the station. He peered into one of the cars. There was a 3DS in the backseat.

Dust had settled on it. The car was rusted to hell. The tires had actually rotted, and were now flat. He shrugged, and flagged down the attendant. “Hey!”
“Yeah?”
“I think my tank is leaking…”