Wanderlust

Chapter 7

A bird chirped from a distance while the sun shined directly into my eyes. I sprang up. Where was I? Why was I here? What the fuck is going on? Jason was nowhere in sight. What happened last night? Leaves crunched from behind me, I spun around prepared to fight off whatever was coming towards me. It was only Jason.

"Where the hell are we?" He asked.

"I have no clue. How did we even get here?"

Jason stood there, staring at me as if waiting for a better answer.

"I don't remember anything after we ate those shrooms, man." He said trying to puzzle things together. I stood up and looked at my surroundings. It was still early, I think, so if we were lost we still had the entire day to try and find our way back to the tiny town.

"Maybe we can find some footprints. Hopefully they're ours and they'll lead us back."

We walked in what we thought was the direction we came from, but there was nothing. So we walked the other direction, again nothing.

"Let's just try and find a road. Once we reach people we can ask them which way to Troy."

So, we walked and walked and walked. By now the sun was in the middle of the sky. High noon. We had to be coming up on something soon, we've been walking for hours.

The more we walked the closer the sun got to the horizon. Then we heard it. Something that sounded like a car engine starting. We stopped in hopes to hear it again and there it was. It was coming from ahead of us. We ran towards it.

The sound of cars running and tools drilling got louder as we came up a rusty "Carl's Car Shop" sign. Our faces lit up as we picked up our pace towards civilization.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" All of the garage workers turned to us. A man with grey hair and oil covered clothes came towards us, "Yes? Is there something wrong here young man?"

"Which way to Troy?"

"Troy? Troy, Indiana?", we nodded, "Boy, you're in Kentucky. Some how you fellows managed to cross the Ohio River made your way into our lovely Hardinsburg, Kentucky! It'll take atleast 3 hours to walk back."

Kentucky? Jason and I looked at each other confused and worried. I don't think either of us could figure out how we traveled so far. 

"That means that all our money, all of our clothes and all of our... you know," he nudged my side, "are back at the hotel." Jason screamed allowing the entire garage to hear us. I put my face in my hands then ran my fingers through my hair.

"What if one of you drove us there? And when we got back to the hotel we could pay you something."

"Son, none of these cars work. They're all here 'cause they're broken and we all walk here. It's a small town you know." 

News just got worse and worse as we stood there. I shoved my fist into my pocket and was surprised at what I pulled out. "Jay," I exclaimed, "I completley forgot I put some of the money in my pocket just in case. We didn't lose it all." As I reachd deeper into my pocket I found my illegal stash. "And I didn't lose our..you know!" Jason's eyes lite up from my news.

I could see the gentlemen that greeted us whispering with another young man about 5 feet away. 

"Now I don't know how you boys got yourselves here or what your story is, but I don't judge. So if you boys can do some work around for I'll say about five days. I think we can work up an arrangment. If you need somewhere to stay. I'd be more then welcome to let you stay with me, but only for a couple of days. I can't be letting strange young men into my house for too long."

The idea sounded fine with me. We only had to stay here for five days, I don't think we could get too attatched in five days. I couldn't tell what Jason was thinking, but I really do hope we're on the same page with this one. We'd have somewhere to stay, probably get some nice meals and a nice warm bed to sleep in. Jason shot me a quick nod as I looked his way.

"It's a deal, sir."  At that moment a smoking car with an entire smashed in front struggled to make its way into the garage. "Phil! What'd you do now?" Carl yelled at the man pushing the car. "I'm sorry, but I have to take care of this." Carl walked towards Phil. "Oh and I know what you have in your pocket." I blushed.

Five days that was it. That's all we had to last here. It would be over before we knew and we could change it again.