Miranda [Watty Awards 2013]

Chapter 33

I went out the side door of the garage, stepping out into the false sunlight and shivering in the cold. My legs shook as I descended the three stairs leading to her yard, barely looking behind me to make sure Jack was following.

            It might’ve been a little bit selfish, but I didn’t really care about Jack right now. We were all going to die anyway. Reality was finally beginning to hit.

            I walked rapidly to the wall of pine trees, slightly encouraged by the lack of noise in the open. Hopefully we hadn’t been with Amelia long enough for anyone to notice our car spun-out in a ditch, and hopefully, I would be able to get it out of said ditch.

            Jack said my name quietly as I forced my way through the tree branches, but I pretended I didn’t hear him. It was a vain hope, because I knew he would just say my name again louder to stop me, which he did.

            I came to a halt, but my eyes remained on my feet. There was a moment of silence, where I would feel his eyes boring into the back of my head while he tried to find the words.

            Eventually he gave up trying. Instead, he turned me around by the shoulder, gently tilting my head up by the chin when I wouldn’t meet his eyes.

            “Alexa,” he said quietly, eyes full of worry, “are you okay?”

            I almost laughed at the question, but it would’ve been a terribly inappropriate time for such a response. It was such a standard question in such a horrible time that I almost thought he was kidding.

            “No,” I finally answered, staring him in the eyes.

            And he didn’t know what to say, because he had already known from the beginning that no, nothing was okay.

            Turning back around, I surveyed the complete damage from earlier for the first time. In the middle of the road was a crater from the shotgun shot, and a few yards ahead was the car, a burnout marking its path off the road. The car itself seemed to be in decent condition, so that was one less thing to worry about.

            Sighing, I brushed the hair out of my face, but the chilling breeze only blew it right back into disarray. In a fit of frustration, I willed my hair short so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. Jack gasped behind me, but I didn’t really care about scaring him right now.

            Climbing into the car, I sat there for a moment, staring blankly at the steering wheel before shaking my head. So we were out of ideas. But that didn’t mean we had to give up. Right? We just had to find another option, and before Grim found us.

            Jack silently got into the car as well, and I could tell by the way he wouldn’t look up from his feet that he was concerned about me. Even as he clicked on his seatbelt, he didn’t look up. I opened my mouth to say something, but drew a blank slate, so I just closed my mouth and started the car, grateful that it seemed to be working alright.

            Carefully maneuvering out of the ditch, I counted it as a blessing that we weren’t stuck long. It barely took anything to get out of the indent, and that saved me a lot of problems. Jack, too, probably.

            Pulling back out onto the road, I drove along like nothing had happened.

            The car was silent for a long time as I took us away, drove us to a mystery destination. My plan was to find the closest place to stay, get as good a night’s sleep as I could, and then figure out the next plan.