On the side of the road, while waiting to hitch a lift back to Charleston from school in Buckhannon, South Carolina, a young man and his companion, Fooey, are offered a ride from two surly men, Hammond and York, who’ve placed a $200 bet that they could drive the 136-mile distance from the Buckhannon courthouse to Charleston in 2 hours flat. 

York remarks that the young man and Fooey will act as the car’s ballast as they speed through winding backroads, averaging 80-90 miles per hour. They pass through several cities—Bulltown, where a frontiersman massacred a tribe of Indians; Flat Wood, where the Braxton Country Monster visited; Gassaway, named after a railroad tycoon, among others— at a nausea-inducing speed that stirs panic and fear in the young man and Fooey. In one especially perilous moment, Fooey points out that Hammond must slow down at an upcoming sharp turn. Hammond snidely dismisses this suggestion and begins to bounce “heavily, wildly.” Hammond emphatically demands he be let out of the car before they all die. At this point, he is threatened by York, who remarks, “You’re going to kill us all and lose my hundred dollars, and even if you live, I’ll kill you.” 

They meet dense traffic within the Charleston city limits that puts them over the 2-hour timer by 2 minutes. The two men drop the boys off, and the boys head home. The young man remarks that none of the cities they passed through seemed natural at lightning speed.