A trucker with a bad driving record....
attempts to pass a car in a no-passing zone...
while a group of bicyclers are coming around the curve from the opposite direction.
After this accident, Johnny has become uninsurable. He goes to see his father's friend, a fellow trucker named Pete, who once had the same kind of problem. Pete now hauls a different kind of cargo, but he won't tell Johnny what the cargo is.
After much discussion, Pete finally promises to take Johnny with him on his next run tomorrow.
On the road, Johnny doesn't recognize the turnoff Pete made. He doesn't recognize the road they are on, either, and he's confused.
They approach a securely fenced compound.
An odd-looking guard opens the gate for them.
Inside the compound hordes of people line the fence, just standing and staring.
Pete gets out to give directions while Johnny backs the truck up to the gate.
Pete gives a cigarette to one of the guards, and tells Johnny to always keep a pack or two for bribes since the guards love "coffin sticks."
Johnny is more than confused now. The guard lights his cigarette with his hand.
The people are being herded into the bed of the truck by the other guards like cattle. Johnny tries to stop the guards when he sees how terrible they are treating the people.
Pete stops him, and says that there's no reason to get upset. The people are dead. Johnny still doesn't understand, so Pete takes his belt buckle, which hides a knife, and stabs a man repeatedly in the stomach. Nothing happens, and the man doesn't appear to have felt a thing.
Pete explains that he hauls the dead to Hell, and Johnny clearly does not believe it.
The guard comes over and berates Johnny for his interference.
The guard pushes Johnny with his finger, which burns right through Johnny's shirt and into his flesh. He's beginning to understand that what Pete is saying is true.
Pete intervenes, and hands the guy another cigarette. He threatens Johnny again and leaves.
That night, Pete talks about Hell, that it was created to be a holding tank for the evil, so they won't pollute the good.
It begins to rain and Johnny wants to put a tarp over the cattle car so the people won't get wet, but Pete stops him by saying, "You treat the people as you would any other cargo," like so much dead weight. They're dead and can't feel anything anymore.
They pull up to a truckstop on the road to Hell (really, aren't most truck stops on that road?) Johnny is surprised to see a truck stop there, but Pete tells him that where there are truckers, there are truck stops.
As Johnny checks the 5th wheel, several of the dead try and tell him that they don't belong there. He backs away and goes inside, uneasy.
There is a fight going on among three of the other truckers about the unrest among the dead that has lately sprung up. A number of people are being sent to hell that didn't deserve to be. One of them says it's none of their business.
When Johnny and Pete come in, the group breaks up. A trucker walks out, saying, "When it's your turn it'll sure be your business." Johnny heard the talk about trouble down the line.
Johnny says "Disturbances - among the dead?"
The last of the group gets up to leave, and he tells Johnny to watch out for himself and not worry about the dead. The less he knows the better off he'll be.
As they approach the turnoff to Hell, the dead begin to make a lot of noise.
When Hell comes into view, the dead are quiet; Johnny is surprised at the way it looks. Pete says that things are not always the way they seem.
As they drive up, they see the dead, fighting with guards.
Johnny jumps out of the truck and tries to help the guard who's being attacked.
Pete tries to stop him.
But when Johnny gets to the guard, the guard throws all the people off him, including Johnny.
The dead try to get Johnny to help them. A man tells him that his greatest sin was that he was dull; another woman tells him she was stupid and a pig, but didn't know any better. Another says that she thought only about herself.
Johnny tells them he can't do anything for them, and tries to get away.
He feels a hand on his shoulder, and a man helps him away from the dead.
The man, Gary Frick, tells him he used to be a driver till he was promoted to management. Now he's dead and in the Hell he used to manage. Johnny tells him that the dead were confessing to him, like they were compelled to. They didn't seem any worse than the people Johnny called friends, and they didn't deserve to be here.
Gary says, "No, they don't, and neither do I. But we're here anyway." Word is getting around Hell that so many are being sent there that should not be there, and that's fueling the disturbances. Gary is hoping that the big Boss will hear and take charge. He tells Johnny that he can help, if he has the courage. Gary knows where the high road is.
He whispers something to Johnny, and then runs off as Pete and the guards arrive.
The guard asks who Johnny was talking to, but Johnny can only say the guy's name. The guard says "Management is going to want to 'talk' to you."
Johnny meets the new man in charge of Hell (played by John DeLancie of Q fame, naturally), and he comes to understand why people who aren't evil are being sent to Hell. The Big Boss doesn't pay attention to the daily running of the place, and the new manager has his own standards, which are biblical and biased. Anyone who doesn't conform to his views is being sent to Hell, it seems.
Johnny now understands that he must stay on the job, since the new manager has explained his own twisted point of view. Johnny's got a mission in life, finally.
On the next run, Johnny stops his loaded truck on a secluded stretch of the highway to Hell.
He asks a few of the dead on-board what their crime was.
One says "...rape, arson, lots of stuff."
The next says she was a librarian, who never harmed anyone that she knows of. She fought to keep Vonnegut, Salinger and Huxley on the shelves when they were under attack, and that should count for something, shouldn't it?
The third says she was a junkie who poisoned herself with all kinds of drugs, and she admits she was stupid and only hurt herself. But why is she being sent to Hell for being stupid?
The fourth said that he never hurt anyone in his life; that's why he went to Canada instead of Vietnam. He knew he could never kill another human being.
The fifth says that he never did anything unethical or committed a crime. He stops a minute and says, "They wouldn't put me in Hell for being gay, would they? That's crazy..."
Johnny opens the back of the truck and tells the last four people to get off.
He leads them toward a road that leads over a hill. He tells them to go on for about 5 miles, then turn right for a mile or so, then take the high road. He can't tell them what's at the end of the high road; no one can. It's a risk, but at least it's a chance.
The librarian says that Johnny is taking an awful risk, too. Johnny smiles for the first time, and talks about Christ spending some time in Hell during the days between the crucifixion and the resurrection, rescuing souls. He's only following an old tradition. They all thank him.
The rescued run off to the high road, and the dead continue to moan. Johnny runs back to the truck and begins another long ride to Hell, confident that he's at least done something to help the innocent, and maybe even his own soul.
"Centuries ago, Hell was reached by chalk-white horses pulling shuttered coaches, by Spanish galleons borne on black sails through uncharted seas. Legend has it that Leornado DaVinci was once commissioned to build a flying machine to carry souls to Hell, but it never returned from it's maiden flight. But along this particular raod to Hell lies redemption for the damned, as well for drivers who have found work...in the Twilight Zone."