Three people were driving through the Sahara desert one bright sunny day. The wind was blowing lightly, but the day was clear, and all seemed right with the world, despite their particular predicament.
The oldest who was driving had a compass and some keys, the second oldest, who was in the passenger seat, had a map, a rope, and some duct tape, and the youngest was sitting in the back apparently playing some games on their phone which they reluctantly let him use so he would stop bugging them.
There was also an emergency toolkit which included some miscellaneous tools and emergency supplies sitting on the back seat next to the boy.
Some time down the road, far from civilization, suddenly there was a loud "POP!" -- their car had a flat tire, having run over a nail.
Fortunately, the youth was able to replace the tire while the older two chatted away, for about an hour. He discovered that the battery to the car also was low, so he opened up the hood and charged that up as well while the two continued to chat about old times, although occasionally keeping one eye on the boy while he worked. Fortunately, this was a near miss, so they got back on the road.
After they drove for several hours, hearing a strange clunk clunk noise from the engine but thinking nothing of it, suddenly the engine stalled, and grinded to a halt, and they coasted some ways before coming to a complete stop. The engine would not turn over. Hundreds of miles from civilization on a deserted road, they realized that their only choice was to get out and start walking.
Each grabbed what they needed, and started down the road when suddenly at just that moment a huge sandstorm blew up out of nowhere and completely covered the road, and disoriented them.
They ran into a ditch and waited, but couldn't see anything in any direction during the storm. They were totally disoriented. 30 minutes passed and the sandstorm blew over, but their truck was apparently totally covered, they could not see it anywhere.
As a result, they had no way to know which way the road was, since it was probably totally covered beneath feet of sand. Now, they could not see the path back to civilization, just sand as far as the eye could see. The man looked at the woman as they gathered their wits and realized the boy was gone. They also found their pockets empty, their things must have fallen out in the storm.
Realizing the boy must have been caught in the storm, they continued on their way, and began chatting again about old times, hoping that maybe they'd find the boy, and thinking that maybe they might not.
Then out of nowhere the truck began rolling down the big sand dune behind them. They couldn't hear it coming over the wind, but one of them turned around too late, to see what looked like an empty truck about to plow them over. He jumped to the side but it was too late, the truck squashed their heads like watermelons.
What mysterious things happened this day in the desert?
