Preventing my characters from just leaving a setting.
I’m working on a horror piece set in a rural town that has a creature lurking around. I’m having trouble finding a reason why my protagonists won’t just drive away. Right now my two main thoughts are: 1) they could just be out of gas or 2) They get in a car accident in which the car needs to go to a mechanic or is otherwise unusable. Neither of which I really like. Does the creature slash the tires? Why would it do that? Idk every solution I’ve come up with so far just isn’t working in a way that I like. Advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
(Sorry if this kind of thing isn’t allowed or formatted wrong, this is my first post on this sub.)