So I drive a cargo van and transport folks who work for the railroad, and a couple weeks ago I had to do some driving around some tracks in the mountains. No big deal usually, as pretty much all of the roads right by the tracks are typically well maintained and used often, so getting stuck isn't really an issue unless you are purposely being reckless. As I am working with a crew that's on a work train, after a good stretch there comes a point when me and the brakemen are pretty much left to our devices until the train reaches it's destination where it will need the brakemen again. Well, the brakemen is only a couple years older than my brother, and has a similar personality, so the raport between us is familiar in that we bullshit well together.

Anyways, we decide to kill time by following the train on the access road for as long as we can, which eventually brought us to a point where we found a dirt road that lead up into the hills toward the paved road we came off of, or so we thought. Turns out it was just a road that lead to a wide turn around and then forked off in two directions. We take the right as it looks like the most beaten down path, only to find that it was actually just a fire break plowed by a dozer. We get to what looks like a drop similar to the gif, with no turn around room, on a road that is too steep to back up given the weight of the vehicle.

At this point, I'm close to tears. We tried backing it up to no avail. The camera in the van is blinking red so I'm thinking all of this is being recorded for my boss to use to fire me later. When we decide we can't go back, the brakemen goes to the edge of the hill to see just how steep it is and where it leads, and just starts fucking laughing. I'm even closer to tears. Sure, the fear of getting fired is the most worrisome, but it's bc of my fear of plausible heights that is making me physically impossible for me to be able to remove my foot from the gas pedal. So brakemen offers to drive it. This...if the camera caught it, would get me immediately terminated. It was still blinking red, but never went steady (goes steady when actually triggered), so I decide to let him drive it. Tears are welling up at this point and the only reason he didn't see them was bc, when I strapped myself into the passenger seat, I covered my eyes with my hands. I just couldn't watch. But really, I didn't need to. Bc the whole way down the only thing keeping me from laying all over the dash and windshield was my seat belt. We both were just hanging there by the belts as we slide down slowly, as he couldn't take his foot off the brake without the van wanting to take off like a bat out of hell.

We got down just fine, cameras for all vans took that most opportune moment in time to start fucking up in all vans everywhere, so nothing was recorded, and my legs were like noodles when we finally got to where we were going to meet up with the train. I do not know what I would have done if that particular brakemen wasn't with me. Most of the dudes I work with are endlessly nice to me and love how I make them feel like they aren't going to die when I drive them lol so I feel like most would offer to help, but this dude being so much like my brother, it at least felt like my big brother helping me down off of high shit like he always has my whole life, since climbing up shit and reaching the top was always so much fun lol.