GRAVE DANGER

Grave Danger Chapter 8

I wake up and it's light outside. Martin is still driving, the gas gage is at a quarter tank. How did it go so fast? "I'll drive now." I tell him.

Without a word, he slows to a stop and we swap seats. He puts his arm over his eyes and I start driving again. It looks like we're in a desert wasteland. The road is bumpy and cracked in spots, and I have a hard time imagining Martin will get much sleep. But I can't drive slowly, we have to get there as fast as possible. It takes four days to get to Whitewood in a car, and our gas is running out quickly. I slam the gas pedal and we fly down the road.

I had no idea driving was so exhausting. I've never had to drive for a long period of time before. My back, butt and legs are sore from sitting, steering and pushing on the pedals.

All of the sudden, the car starts slowing down. Oh, no... I look at the gage, which says the gas tank is completely empty. I push the pedal down as hard as I can, trying to get as much distance as possible out of what momentum the car might still be able to give itself. It picks up speed again for a couple seconds, then slowly coasts to a stop. I sigh and rest my head against the seat. "Come on." Martin says opening the back door.

He grabs the back of supplies off the seat and goes out. I stare at the road in front of the car for a few moments. It goes on as far as I can see. I feel nauseous at the thought of walking it for however many days it's going to take to get to Whitewood. I turn around and reach under the back seat to get the nightstick. But I don't feel it. I don't really want to say anything about it because I hate the memories I forced us both to associate it with, but we need to have it with us for when the bandits catch up to us. I don't remember putting it back in the car last night... "Raven, we need to get moving." he says.

I climb out of the car and make awkward eye contact with him. "What's the matter?" ge asks.

"Where's the nightstick?"

He looks down and bites his lip. "On the side of the road somewhere."

My face falls. "You didn't put it back in the car last night?" I sound more annoyed than I mean to.

He looks angrier than I thought he would. "What, you mean after you almost beat me with it?"

I didn't expect him to throw that back at me after he was so forgiving when it happened. "Yeah, after that." I say in a mocking tone.

"I guess I didn't think you needed to have it." he says angrily.

"So you left it on the side of the road?! How are we going to defend ourselves?!"

"I told you to leave them back in Inverness from the beginning!"

"And you wonder why I thought you were a bandit? How am I supposed to believe you're on my side when you're making me incapable of defending myself while murderers are on our tail?!"

He goes silent for a minute. "That's why you thought I was a bandit?"

Now I'm confused. "What was I supposed to think?"

He looks down at his feet, a very thoughtful expression on his face. "I have a plan, I promise... But I... can't explain it to you."

I narrow my eyes at him, but he's still not looking at me. "Why not?"

"I'm sorry, I just can't... " His voice is quiet and soft. "Please don't freak out on me about it, i'll tell you when the time comes, but for now I need you to just trust me."

I let out a long sigh. Why can't you tell me? It's gotta be something totally idiotic, something you know I won't go along with. He meets my eyes, a look of cautious curiosity lingering in his. "Please." he whispers.

I hesitate a moment, my scowl loosening. "Fine."

I'm tired of us bickering. If we're about to die, we might as well spend the last of our time together well. He looks down again and quietly says "thank you".

It occurs to me now that we should've brought a couple extra pairs of shoes, since we're going to be walking for a couple days, but there's nothing we can do now. So we start walking. On the bright side of things, at least we can both sleep tonight. But at the same time, when we were taking shifts we would still be covering ground since one of us would be driving. Either way, we're walking now. There's no other option.

By the end of the day, we've made it to a place where the ground is mostly rock. Every now and then you'll get some patches of sand or scattered plants. We find a decently sized alcove and decide to rest for the night. He lays out the three police jackets we brought with us and I lay down on one of them, covering myself with the fitted jacket I've been wearing all day. He looks at me, open mouth ready to talk, but I interrupt him. "Just take both of those, I only need one."

He doesn't bother arguing, just pulls them a couple feet away and lies down. I turn away from him and stare out the alcove at the landscape.