Unexpected

Ch. 9: The "Short Cut"

April 7th, 1:00 pm.

"We should take this shortcut along the Killbuck Creek." He takes his eyes off the road to glance over to me.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I look over at him as he smirks. We've been driving for about 3 hours how, stopped for both breakfast and lunch, and now just a few hours from Louisville. At the thought of it I frown a little and look out the window.

"Yeah! I mean why not right? We'll get there by the end of the day." His voice grows a little quieter as his sentence goes on.

"Okay, where is this shortcut?"

"Just up here I think, I traveled over in this area with some friends after a gig."

"That's really cool! You'll have to show me some songs on the guitar sometime." I smile and look over at him and he glances back at me. Butterflies begin in my stomach.

Elsa. What are you feeling? No.

I don't like Jack like that. I don't. I love Hans.

Then why are you having these feelings.

I'm not sure yet.

"Ah, here's the turn off." Jack happily says under his breath.

I look around, looking at all the greenery around the car, not a building in sight. "It's like we are out in the middle of nature." Being from Seattle, you don't get used to so much nature around you. "Wow."

"You like it?" He chuckles a little bit, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Yeah, it's beautiful, reminds me of the scenic view we took yesterday."

"That was yesterday? Man if feels like a week ago." Amazement flows from his voice.

"Yeah, it's been not too bad." I say jokingly, it honestly has been fun. We haven't done a whole lot stuff but it's been nice.

Suddenly, the car begins to make weird noises.

"Jack, what's that." I say a little panicky.

"I-I don't know it has a full tank and everything." He begins to pull over and the car gets slower and slower.

"Aw man." He says as the car comes to a stop.

"What's wrong with the car?" I ask trying to keep calm.

"I have no idea at all." He sounds frustrated. After sitting there for a second he gets out of the car and pops the hood, bringing up a bit of smoke with it.

"Oh crap." I get out of the car and rush over to his side after seeing the smoke.

I get up to the front when I see Jack back up coughing up a storm.

"Are you okay?" I ask concerned.

"Oh yeah, just peachy honestly." He clears his throat and looks at me. "Do you want to see if you get any cell reception?"

"Yeah, good idea." I pull out my phone to look and saw it only has one bar, I try to call for help anyway.

"Here," Jack comes up to me and hands me his phone which has a number on the screen,"call this, and say Jack needs help by KillBuck Creek."