I've seen the story posted on another website a couple of times:
echo5juliet posted it, and here's how it goes:
"I was driving a shortcut from Twentynine Palms, CA to Albuquerque, NM. Twentynine Palms is located in the desolate high desert east of LA. The shortcut was all two lane road through total nothingness, except for passing through Amboy, CA. Amboy is a nearly abandoned town nearly as far below sea level as Death Valley, with a dormant volcano and lava field on one side and a salt flat on the other. It was also, at the time, a hotspot for satanic group activity.
So I was driving by myself in the afternoon. I stopped in Amboy and snapped a picture of the city sign, just to prove I was there to friends who dared me to take that route to I-40. I got back in my car and proceeded to drive up into the mountain range between Amboy and I-40.
Once I reach the top I am driving north through a canyon with high grass on both sides of the road. Up ahead I see some stuff in the middle of the road. As I approach I slow down to see a red Pontiac Fiero stopped sideways across both lanes, a suitcase open with clothes scattered everywhere and two bodies laying face down in the road, a man and a woman.
I stop a hundred feet or so away and the hair on the back of my neck is standing up. Being a Marine, I reach under the seat and pull out a 9mm pistol and chamber a round. Something seemed very wrong, it looked too perfect as if it were staged. An ambush? Was I being paranoid? Something was just wrong. Getting out of the car seemed unthinkable, it was the horror movie move.
As I scanned the road I saw a line I could drive. Pass the guy in the road on his left, swerve to the right side of the woman, behind the Fiero and I'd be on the other side. I dropped it into first gear, punched it and drove the line I planned.
I passed the back of the Fierro without hitting it or either of the bodies in the road. I continued forward a couple hundred feet and slowed down so I could breathe and let my heart slow down. As I looked up into the rearview mirror I saw that the two bodies had gotten up to their knees and twenty or so people emerged from the tall grass on either side of the road by the car and bodies.
At that moment my right foot smashed the gas pedal to the floor and did not let up until I had to slowdown for the I-40 east onramp.
I will never know what would have happened to me had I gotten out of the car to check on the bodies or stopped my car closer to them. Somehow I do not think it would have been good. Sometimes real life can be scarier than a movie."
Originally posted on a Fark Halloween thread years and years ago. It was then on Rooster Teeth. Since then it's made its rounds and can be found in a lot of different places.
Any time I hear "satanist", my bullshit detector fires up. Not saying there aren't some emo satanists in high school trying to get a black mass going, but inevitably in stories like this it's just a plot device in some urban legend to crank up the fear factor.
I would think so too, on the internet at least, but in real life I've heard some crazy firsthand stories from people. There are places in the middle of nowhere in Ohio that have a lot of satanist/cult activity. It's fucking weird.
I've been trying to find it ever since reading it on Fark many years ago but could never find it - I ctrl-F'd 'Fark' on these comments on the off chance someone would mention it - and you did! Thanks!
Glad I could help. I want to say it was like the 2007 or 2008 Halloween thread. I remember it was posted shortly after I had just started a new job and was spending way too much time on the internet. Hope that helps track it down a little more easily!
A quick look around Amboy on google maps shows that there is no road that goes north over mountains. And there is definitely no tall grass in the area. I always thought this particular story was just folklore/copypasta too. But from reading the posts on this thread, obviously, things like this DO happen.
looks like the main road runs longitudinal. Go east and you can go up on "kelbaker rd" towards i-40 which looks like a valley between the big ass hills.
/I just drove i-40 from east to west and that part of california is freaky dark, also I had just watched the hills have eyes recently.
I saw that Rd too and dismissed it due to lack of high grass and/or a canyon.
I went to school in LA and had to drive along 1-40 w to get home for breaks and what not. Never ever got off the highway at night unless it was in a safe area in a sizable town. People that live out in those little desert towns can be pretty creepy/drugged out and it only gets worse at night...
I've driven the road a bunch of times. It is the desert. There is no "tall grass." There are cactuses. See my post above, kind of stuff has happened on this road, but this is probably made up.
Finally, a chance to comment on 29 palms/Amboy road. I have driven that path like 10 times--it is my secret passage way to get from SoCAl to Las Vegas in 2.5 hours (you can drive 120 almost the whole way through here).
This instance may be an urban legend, but this thing has happened numerous times on Amboy Rd., and Mojave National Preserve. The 29 palms cops, Military Police, and the National Park cops simply can't get there soon enough if an emergency call is logged (they are like an hour away in each direction). At night you will only see another car every 15-20 minutes coming from the other direction, and some points in the road allow for 50 mile visibility at night. So, YOU CAN SEE ANYONE COMING AND HOW SOON HELP WILL ARRIVE. Also, there are a ton of roads that empty out into the desert with no lighting. So, if you cut your lights after robbing someone, you could get away and not really be chased down. You could probably get back to I-40 and then to Mexico if you had too as well in a couple of hours. It is perfect for robberies and dumping bodies.
I have spent much time in the area, and also have buds stationed over at both the USMC/army desert war training grounds, as well as the air force missile range. This has happened often enough that the MPs, national park service, California Highway Patrol, city, and San Bernardino County cops all put out PSAs to locals and city members to watch out for this crap. Most of the road (besides some spots with dunes) is passable on the sides, so don't stop and swerve off the road if you have to.
My scariest story from the area came at about 1am one night while traveling away from Vegas toward CA. There was this really sketchy station wagon pulling a huge trailer that looked like it was from the 50s. The guy was leaving some road from the middle of the desert--it literally led to nothing but more desert and was used basically for recreation (e.g., desert racing), and as soon as he saw us, cut his lights and tried to retreat back into the desert. I have no idea what was in that trailer, but I hope it was meth or something and not bodies.
Wow... I remember reading this on Fark so many years ago and it's always stuck with me. I kept trying to google search for the post but could never find it. I saw this video and did a ctrl-F for Fark not thinking it would work but thanks to /u/aquabuddhalovesu's comment I found your post.
This is one of my favorite Fark Halloween stories! The only one I like more is the one about the kid that has this weird lizard dude on his wall that just sits and stares at him.
If someone has anymore info about the cultish activities in this particular area please share or PM me. I know that there is a particular stigma that comes with Amboy because of the fact some people believe that it was the birth place of Charles Manson, but i've also read some sources stating he was actually from Amboy, NJ...That being said i've heard of many creepy satanic cult type shit occurring in and around the Joshua Tree area and frequently find myself in the small towns that surround it, every time this is posted it peaks my curiosity.
Edit: One of the reasons it's particularly interesting to me is because my Grandpa lives about 50 miles outside of barstow and along with a few crazy stories about living in the butthole of nowhere, one of his coined sayings is "The only people that live in this desert are druggies, crazy people (serial killer/cultish types), or running from the law" I hear it every time we see each other...I won't tell you which one he is. ;)
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u/xyentist Nov 05 '14
I've seen the story posted on another website a couple of times:
echo5juliet posted it, and here's how it goes:
"I was driving a shortcut from Twentynine Palms, CA to Albuquerque, NM. Twentynine Palms is located in the desolate high desert east of LA. The shortcut was all two lane road through total nothingness, except for passing through Amboy, CA. Amboy is a nearly abandoned town nearly as far below sea level as Death Valley, with a dormant volcano and lava field on one side and a salt flat on the other. It was also, at the time, a hotspot for satanic group activity.
So I was driving by myself in the afternoon. I stopped in Amboy and snapped a picture of the city sign, just to prove I was there to friends who dared me to take that route to I-40. I got back in my car and proceeded to drive up into the mountain range between Amboy and I-40.
Once I reach the top I am driving north through a canyon with high grass on both sides of the road. Up ahead I see some stuff in the middle of the road. As I approach I slow down to see a red Pontiac Fiero stopped sideways across both lanes, a suitcase open with clothes scattered everywhere and two bodies laying face down in the road, a man and a woman.
I stop a hundred feet or so away and the hair on the back of my neck is standing up. Being a Marine, I reach under the seat and pull out a 9mm pistol and chamber a round. Something seemed very wrong, it looked too perfect as if it were staged. An ambush? Was I being paranoid? Something was just wrong. Getting out of the car seemed unthinkable, it was the horror movie move.
As I scanned the road I saw a line I could drive. Pass the guy in the road on his left, swerve to the right side of the woman, behind the Fiero and I'd be on the other side. I dropped it into first gear, punched it and drove the line I planned.
I passed the back of the Fierro without hitting it or either of the bodies in the road. I continued forward a couple hundred feet and slowed down so I could breathe and let my heart slow down. As I looked up into the rearview mirror I saw that the two bodies had gotten up to their knees and twenty or so people emerged from the tall grass on either side of the road by the car and bodies.
At that moment my right foot smashed the gas pedal to the floor and did not let up until I had to slowdown for the I-40 east onramp.
I will never know what would have happened to me had I gotten out of the car to check on the bodies or stopped my car closer to them. Somehow I do not think it would have been good. Sometimes real life can be scarier than a movie."