Dakota's Suite

Hike Gone Wrong

The car had slowly come to a halt, and the truck shook and vibrated along the unstable path that Hannah was driving. I gazed down to see nothing but gravel beneath us. No wonder the tire fucking flattened. I wasted no time to hop from the back of the car. My legs felt a weird sensation due to them falling asleep during the ride.

Hannah also stepped out of the car to see for herself, and her hands flew to her disheveled hair. "No!"

We both gazed down at the back left tire that had decided to give way. We needed a new plan, especially since we have no source of transportation. We don't have an air pump in order to inflate the tire, much less, I don't know if it's a good idea to even stay out with the truck for this long.

I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth.

Hannah started to pace back and forth, anxiously hugging herself as she chewed on her thumbnail nervously. "This isn't good...this isn't good at all." She stated in almost a whisper.

I gazed back in the truck. Bryant had fallen asleep sitting upright in the backseat. Drool had started to stream down the crevice of his mouth as he snored loudly. My eyes shifted over to Daphne. She had her legs reeled up to her chest, her body slightly trembling as she stared off into space. She was in no state to answer questions, much less give an opinion (not that either would make an impact), so that meant that I'd have to figure out our next move once again.

We're left with the ultimatum, walk until we find help, which isn't at all a smart idea to me. We'd either burn ourselves out or, even worse, run into more of those things. We only have one gun for protection, so that option cancels itself out. Our next, yet also dumb option, is that we could camp in the woods for a short period of time before we look for a better place of shelter.

"Okay, let's not panic just yet." I said, halting Hannah and earning a bewildered look from her.

"What are you talking about?" Hannah questioned. "We're stranded, Dakota."

"For now." I shot back. "I have a few things in the truck that can help us settle somewhere more discreet, in the meantime."

Her eyebrow raised, and she folded her arms. She looked like a younger, sharper version of Daphne by doing that.

"Come on, Hannah. We're out of options here." I begged, shooting her a sincere look. "I don't exactly like the woods either, and if I could avoid it right now, I would do so." She continued to stare at me for the next couple of seconds before she took a deep breath.

"Fine." She said in an airy voice. "I'll be brainstorming too so that way we can find ways of getting help."

Help, right.

I approached the window, poking my head in to face Daphne. "In case you didn't know already, we got a flat tire. We're going to head into the woods now." I explained, not bothering to justify my reasons with her. Just from one glance, I can tell that she's not even entirely aware of what's happening right now. That can either be from the line she did before leaving the house or just the events leading to that...maybe both. Either way, she was in no real condition to be reasoned with right now.

Hannah approached the other side of the truck, opening the door on Daphne's side. "I'll grab her Dakota. Wake Bryant up."

I nodded my head and whistled as loud as I could. Bryant jolted in response, eyes wide and paralyzed with fear. "Hey. This is as far as the truck is going. We're camping out in the woods."

"The woods? Are you insane?" Bryant retorted, his nose scrunched, and his eyebrows knitted together.

"If you have a better idea, we're waiting." Hannah chided as she guided Daphne out of the car by her hand. "We can't stay out here all day twiddling our thumbs."

Bryant groaned and glared at me. "I-"

"We don't have time for this. If you want to go in circles, go ahead, but I'm telling you what we're doing. So you better figure out where you stand in this." I continued before stepping in the truck to grab my cigarettes and the bags that Hannah packed that were also in the backseat with Bryant.

"Fine." Bryant grumbled.

--

We're twenty minutes in the woods. Hannah and I walked beside each other while Daphne hobbled behind us. Her head faced the ground while Bryant was behind us, walking as slowly as ever.

I gazed up at the sky. It had been framed by tall, skinny pine and magnolia trees, giving us a nice shade as we continued down a slope. The leaves, pine straw, and twigs crunched underneath our shoes as we ventured further. Not wanting to stop ogling the forest, I glance at the collapsed, decaying tree logs. Cicadas had dared sing their familiar tunes, as they didn't have to worry about a pandemic wiping out half of your kind.

"When do we stop?" Hannah piped, her voice was low enough to not be acknowledged but loud enough for me to hear.

"When we reach the river." I answered in a monotone voice.

She glanced over at me. "Dakota...are you okay?"

No.

"I'm fine for the most part, at least physically." I half-lied. "Why do you ask?"

Hannah got quiet for a second but then decided to continue prying. "Everything that's happened so far...you saw Allen die after all..." She carefully answered. "Doesn't it scare you?"

I sighed. "I don't think I had time to be scared."

"I'm sorry, Dakota." Hannah's voice broke as she apologized.

"What about you?" I nudged her with my elbow, I didn't want her to do her head in having to worry about my feelings and whatnot. Also, I really was curious about Hannah's take on all of this.

"I'm terrified." Hannah honestly spoke out. I glanced over at her to see her also facing her head to the sky, a dejected look plastered over her face. "You almost died several times trying to protect us all...Mom hasn't been in the condition to say or do anything...Bryant is..."

"A dumbass?" I retorted, causing Hannah to snort.

She playfully swatted at my arm. "Stop that!" She whispered, snickering.

I shrugged. "You know I'm right."

"Uh huh." Hannah hummed, her hands behind her back as she started to walk a little faster past me and further down the path.

"Hannah, don't go too far-" My sentence ended abruptly as I saw Hannah trip over something that protruded from the pine straw and leaves, making it hard for me to see what it was. This had sent her tumbling down the slope. I immediately started sprinting down after her.

"Hannah!"

I felt my body weight shift awkwardly, and I crashed onto the ground face-first, the palms of my hands followed suit. I realized that something, much more like someone had grabbed a hold of my ankle. I raised my head and glanced over my shoulder to see a boy snarling at me, dragging himself closer up my leg as his white eyes stared back at me. Strings of drool had escaped the corners of his mouth as he groaned once again.

My gun had fallen further than I did, as it wasn't in my reach.

I raised my free foot and began kicking at him as hard as I could. My heart started to run a goddamn marathon. I kicked the boy in the face again.

"Dakota!" I heard Hannah scream. I could her her rushed footsteps, and Bryant swearing as he finally caught up with Daphne, who just stood over me and stared with an expressionless face and clenched the lapels of her robe. Leave it to these two to not do anything.

I started to crawl further away and resumed my kicking. Hannah had managed to pick herself up from her vicious fall and started to run back up the hill. Her hair was even more disheveled, and she had pine straw and leaves sticking out of her long braid. Her wide-legged pants had been torn in the process. She dove down the grab the 9mm and raised it towards us.

Another set of footsteps had surprised us all.

As a much different voice had sternly shouted. "Don't shoot!"