Road Trip

I

Day 27

 All I could think about was that Jensen has been gone for close to an hour and I don't know if I should be going out to find him or not. Neither of us knows what's really out here and for all I know, he's dead! Why couldn't I worry about something normal like how high gas prices are or what to make for dinner? 

 I let out a puff of air and the pathetic attempt at a fire was out. I kicked some dirt over where the fire had been just to be safe and tossed my bag over my shoulder as I took off in the direction Jensen left in. 

_

Almost an hour later and the addition of more bumps and bruises, I'd found Jensen sat up against a four foot tall tree stump, just barely able to keep his eyes open. My bag hit the ground in a cloud of dust and I took off in a three second sprint and fell to my knees in front of him. Cupping his face in my hands, I brought his face to eye level.  "What the hell happened to you?" I let out with a quick breath. 

 Jensen let out a huff of air, almost sounding like a laboured laugh. "What happened to me? What happened to you? You look like you literally went to hell and back." 

 I punched his shoulder lightly as I stood up to fetch my backpack. I threw it down next to Jensen, against the stump and fell back down the the dusty, dirty ground and took out a bottle of water. Cracked the cap open, took a quick sip and passed it over to Jensen, telling him to drink it up and we'll rest for the remainder of the evening. 

 It turned out that Jensen was simply suffering from dehydration so as long as I paid enough attention to him and made sure nothing else was going wrong, we'd be able to move forward through more bush, vines, and trees the following day. 

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Day 28

 With a killer headache, Jensen and I got up early the next morning to beat the mid day heat and avoid drinking up the last bit of water with a week left to go. 

 "If we follow this little creek, we might find a location to rest up ahead and get something to eat. We can't go on much longer without eating something," Jensen pointed out, sounding out of breath. I nod in agreement while continuing to track on behind him. 

 The longer I watched Jensen hacking up vines and little branches in the way, the more walking in the water made more sense. "Jens, hold up!" I called his direction. Mid swing, he stopped and spun around to face me, giving me a weird look as I slipped off my boots and socks and tied them on my bag. I could tell he was thinking I was crazy to even dare taking my shoes off in the middle of nowhere. 

His gaze followed me as I walked towards and then straight into the creek. A gasp escaped my lips as the water rose higher up on my ankles. The rocks were smooth and the sand in between kept the ground beneath fairly level. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. Your really going to chance walking in the water while we're out here?" 

 I lifted my eyes from the rushing water and looked at Jensen with a pout. "The water is cooling me down, plus there are no over hanging branches in the way so I don't have to chop my way through." He let out a sigh almost like he didn't have the energy to fight back. It wasn't long before he slipped his boots off as well and was then following me through the water.