"It's time to go shopping!"
"No its not", I replied.
"Yes, it is!"
Before I could get a response in off she went into the bathroom to wash up. 'Great' I thought.
Ten minutes later, despite my protests I was sitting shot gun in her beat up mercury sable on my way to the outlet mall an hour away. Shopping is not my thing, never was, never will be. The only time I'm happy shopping is when she's actually out the door done shopping. That's my favorite part.
With the window down just to annoy her I leaned over and flipped the station to the rock one I always listen to. With a snort she flipped it back.
"You should open your mind to more ... different music Rach. Maybe you'll learn to like it."
"Maybe I'd like it more if they were less lovey dovey."
"You're a lost cause."
I gave a mock hat bow from the seat, still leaning back enjoying the highway breeze. "Thank you mi'lady."
She sniffed in frustration.
Twenty five minutes later I realized that we were alone on the highway, and this is at the point when its always congested with everyone trying to get on the highway on the right or off of it on the left. But this time today there was absolutely no one. I looked behind the car and saw storm clouds off in the horizon, 'the weather man didn't say anything about rain today' I muttered. Courtney didn't say anything, which was unusual as well. I figured it was because she was fighting the wind... wind? When did the wind start? We both looked at each other and knew that something was wrong. I rolled up my window and shut off the radio which was beginning to be affected by a strange static.
"Maybe you should pull over Court."
"I - I can't. I'm not driving anymore." I looked at the wheel, it was turning the car off the highway by itself.
The car rolled down over the embankment separating the woods from the road and kept driving into the woods. I put my seat belt on, I hadn't had it on this whole time and grabbed for something to hold onto, all I found was Courtney's hand, and I could tell she was scared too. On the car drove, right into the woods, following a path that had been there, just wide enough for a car to pass through. Around us the woods began to grow dark, and shadows played through the trees, as if the sun was still trying to reach us. On and on the car drove, driving us farther into the darkening woods. At the base of a large tree, its branches beginning too high up to see them begin, entangled in the branches surrounding us. The car seemed to rev up and drive into the tree prompting Courtney and I to duck, fully expecting an impact with the air bags to go off, but it didn't. The tree opened up below the trunk, lifting the roots up as if they were merely a skirt of weeds. Loose roots from the surrounding trees encircled the car, wrapping us in a cocoon of wood, impenetrable. I could feel the earth sucking us into the ground, pulling us under the trees...
Courtney's still next to me, but she's sick. Neither of us had had anything to drink in days. We are using our cellphones as flashlights, hers died first three days ago. Mine is shut off for now to save the battery. The car won't turn on, the battery is dead, the lights won't turn on either. We're both scared. We don't know where we are. We broke the back window but we couldn't break the branches surrounding us, we don't have the tools too. I don't know if anyone will ever read this, before it's too late. Please save us.
To Be Continued...
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