Re-Routing

Act Two: Scene Four

The woods seemed endless, memories of the farmhouse haunted Sam as he kept running through the woods. "Nicole! Alan!" How long has he been running for? Was it minutes? Or was it hours? How did this happen? How did everything fall out of his control like this? Was this a game? Sam tried to imagine finding his family waiting for him. That they were just in a game. Where was the curtain where they found out this was just some elaborate ruse or contest? Instead he was out of breath, drenched in a layer of sweat, looking for his children. Praying to any God that would listen that they were safe. 

That's when he heard something in the distance.

"DAD!" It was faint. The sound was drowned out by the rushing sound of the creek.  

"NICOLE!" Sam ran, almost tripping on a rock jutting out of the ground. There was something flying above the creek, a crow. It kept diving at something... He saw the little fluff of hair sticking out of the water. Nicole! Sam picked up a stick and swung as hard as he could. "GET AWAY FROM MY BABY!" The crow flew into the endless abyss, disappearing the second it hit the white horizon.

Sam didn't know how to process what he saw. His daughter was desperately clinging onto a rock, her legs dangling towards the horizon, where the creek just stopped. There was no way to describe it other than it just stopped. The water ceased to exist...

"Grab my hand!"

"Daddy!" Nicole gargled, her head went underwater. She started to let go. Sam jumped, his hands catching her arm and back. He felt her entire weight, the cold water, the pull of the creek.

"I got you! Daddy's got you!" Everything in his body fought it, he didn't want to picture what would happen if he let go. He couldn't. Not to his baby. "Just hold on tight!"

Nicole screamed, she looked back, her foot was missing, slowly she was being drawn into the horizon. "Daddy! Don't let go!"

"I got you!" Sam pulled her in, picking her up out of the creek, setting her down. She held onto him sobbing. He looked down and saw both feet where they belong. "I told you I got you."

"I almost drowned..."

"I know... It's okay, you're okay now."

"The animals chased us."

"They're gone now."

"I was going to die."

"Where's your brother?" Sam tried to distract her, looking around, her cold, wet body pressed against his chest. 

"He went to get help."

"Shit." Sam cursed under his breath.

"You're not supp-supposed... to swear..." Nicole still kept sobbing.

"Sometimes it's perfectly okay for grown ups to swear." Sam laughed. 

"Can I swear?" Nicole asked with a tone of innocence.

"Do you know any swear words?"

"Drowning sucks!" Nicole exclaimed.

"That's right drowning does suck." Sam said it with the intensity before they both started to laugh. "We should find mom." Sam encouraged her. "Do you want to walk or should I keep carrying you?"

"Carry."

"Okay honey."

Sam nearly jumped out of his own skin, suddenly in the distance he heard the repetitive blasts of a car's horn. Michelle was driving at breakneck speeds, weaving in and out of traffic with Alan in the front seat. Sam didn't know whether to be angry, scared, or proud. The only thing he did know was he'd better get out of the way.

"Dad, look, its mom!" Nicole pointed.

"I see that. Damn straight, that's mom." Sam chuckled to himself.

"You said a bad word."

"Remember what I said?"

"Damn straight." Nicole repeated.

"Don't tell your mother." Sam watched as the car stopped right in front of them. 

"Get in!" Michelle shouted, waving her arm out of the window, Alan repeating the same motion, Sam ran up to the passenger side, Alan kept waving him on. 

"I'm the navigator!"

"Honey, if you didn't like the car-" Sam started to joke.

"Not the time!" Michelle snapped.

Sam and Nicole barely shut the backseat doors before Michelle started to drive. The car whipped through the tree's and skirted the edge of the creek before speeding up. 

"Watch out!" Sam yelled.

"Do not backseat drive me right now!" Michelle snapped right back at him.

"Yes Ma'am!" Sam leaned over towards Nicole, fixing her seatbelt. 

The car jolted to the right, almost crashing into a tree. There was a stag running next to the car, ramming it over and over again. Crows dived into the ceiling, the loud rhythmic banging only increased in volume, until a crow crashed into the window right next to Nicole. It cracked the glass, causing her to cry and scream. 

The bird rammed it's beak in deeper, scratching with it's claws. Desperately trying to get in, squawking as much as possible, wings flapping. Nicole buried herself into her fathers chest as he started to smack at the beak.  

"Where are we going?" Michelle screamed.

The stag wound up, Michelle braked, it hit the hood, Michelle sped up, the stag flew off into a tree. It's wide bulging eyes glared at them. 

"Mom, to the left!" Alan pulled at the wheel. Three crows crashed into his window, denting the door, trying to bite him. 

"The gas station!" Sam yelled over everyone.

The stag chased the car again, catching up to them. "Why the gas station?" Michelle cried in response.

"Just trust me!" Sam started tossing what he could out of the backseat towards the giant hole where their back window used to be. A suitcase crashed through, catching the stag right in the face. The stag tripped, rolling, fading into the distance behind them as they kept driving towards a clearing in the forest.