Only Can Salmonella Outlast

ONE

PART I

~

He finally got around to throwing the last of his required belongings into his cramped suitcase, he tried to prepare as best he could, this upcoming tournament meant everything to him and he had to give it his all so it wouldn't hurt to have a few pleasure items to bring along. He grabbed his horde of things and made his way to the kitchen where he found his yawning mother over a sizzling pan of french toast. She had a prepared plate just for him and gently placed it in front of him.

"I'm not hungry." He said, hurriedly glancing at the plate.

"You have to eat something, Sammy. You're not leaving until you do."

"Alright." He hurried back over to the plate and shoveled the toast into his mouth. It was surprisingly delicious and definitely got him to wake up more but after he ate, he continued to hurry around the house, double checking for things he might have forgotten.

His father waddled into the room, also yawning.

"What's the big rush, Samuel?" His father always called him by his full first name whenever he was joking about him, it was kind of like a subtle sign that if he made a joke that Sam wasn't supposed to take it seriously. This time, however, Sam only laughed while he continued his checks around the house. When he felt he had everything, Sam went over to the key hook and yanked his keys off it, he ran over, hugged and kissed his parents goodbye, gathered his things and exited the front door to the driveway. The air was crisp, his breath was like a heavy cloud. He opened the trunk of his little junky sedan and threw his things in, he then rushed to the driver's side door and threw himself in, shoving his keys in the ignition, starting it up and driving off.

~

"Ella!!" A group of snotty girls, she never really liked, came running up to her, screaming her name. She turned towards them, equipping her poker face once again, and greeted them. "Are you excited for the tournament?" One of them asked.

"Sure, I guess, I'm pretty nervous though, I just hope that I'm prepared."

"Yeah, I bet." The same one replied. Ella glanced down at the clock on her phone, then she looked outside to the front doors, the bus had finally arrived. Ella grabbed the handle of her suitcase and adjusted the strap of her backpack and joined the group of other competitors out to the bus. The storage bay doors of the bus were opened and were overcrowded with teenagers' suitcases and other supplies that they might need on their trip, soon it was also going to house her suitcase. After she threw her things in, she went over to the line of people waiting to get onto the bus.

~

Sam had just barely made it into the parking lot when he saw people getting onto the bus, he had made it just in time. He parked his sedan in the closest spot to the bus and gathered all his things out of his trunk. He ran over to the bus just in time to throw his suitcase into the storage bay and get in line for the bus, he was last in line. Samuel really wished he hadn't stayed up all night trying to finish his U.S. History homework ahead of time, he had made a personal goal for himself to try and finish homework as soon as possible, almost the same day it was assigned, he was doing much better after his rough spot, he was much healthier and noticed that he kept getting taller and muscular ever since he decided to get better. His red hair looked more vibrant than it used to and his skin felt much smoother, he was happy in the spot he found himself in. He got onto the bus at last and tried to find a spot to sit, he looked around and saw an empty spot next to one of the kids on the team he didn't know that well, Sam was almost one hundred percent sure he was a freshman.

"You mind if I sit here?" Sam asked the boy.

The boy looked over, he had a headphone in and was looking out the window, he yanked the headphone out quickly, embarrassed. "Sorry, what was that?" The boy asked.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Sam said, more firm as he pointed to the seat.

The boy smiled. "Oh no, not at all." Then he put his earbud back in and returned to the entertaining window. Sam sat down in the seat, getting out his own earbuds and placing them in his ears.

~

She was glad to get a seat on the bus next to her friends, she would be bored to death if she hadn't. Ella laughed with them while they waited for the bus to take off. Since the bus was going to be full of people, sleeping for almost 10 hours would not be an option, so she made sure that she was going to be entertained the entire ride, she brought lots of travel games and made sure her phone was charged just in case she wanted to watch something if her friends were bored with games. Then one of her friends turned to her.

"Hey, do you mind if I do your hair?"

"Oh, sure." Ella said, turning her back towards the girl so she had a good vantage point. She could feel her friend grab chunks of hair and place them hither and thither, around different places on her head, she could only guess what kind of hair style her dirty blonde hair would be in afterwards.

Eventually, the bus jerked forward and started to make its way out of the parking lot and on the road, they drove through their small town and onto the freeway entrance. Their 10 hour journey began at last..

~

At first, the ride was not so bad until about 3 hours had passed and Ella realized that she had already exhausted all her entertainment options. So she exiled herself to a bus ride full of mostly watching downloaded movies and being cramped and sweaty. This was going to be pleasant. The bus ride also subjected Ella into thinking more about her life, Ella wasn't a special girl, she wasn't known for being a popular girl, but she wasn't a weird girl either, and she sort of just hung out with whoever was near but none of them stayed for very long which always made her wonder if she did anything wrong, she always watches her tongue before she speaks because making fights out of pointless things is well... pointless. After all, you can't win a game of chess with a pigeon. No, Ella did not have an elaborate backstory, she had loving parents and she really had nothing to complain about, she had a lot to be grateful for and yet, she still felt empty, like something was missing. Ella got it in her head that she was missing being in a relationship, and while that was definitely true, even now she still is looking for a relationship, she had always been hesitant after her last relationship, she had been with this guy for quite a long time, well long enough for her, and then he just got tired of her and went and cheated on her. It broke her heart clean in two and she never quite recovered but if the right person came along, she wasn't going to just give it up because she couldn't trust anyone else after another guy cheated on her, she was stronger than that, at least, she tried her best to be.

~

Sam had never been on a more uncomfortable ride, he had no pillow and he couldn't exactly figure out how the seat went back so he mostly just laid his head on the headrest and listened to his music with his eyes closed. After a while, Sam looked over at the boy he was sitting next to and gave him a good look. Something about the boy made Sam jog his memory, he looked familiar. It was a weird feeling but soon enough, he shook it off and returned to his music which didn't help in putting him to sleep.

The road to their destination was long but the good part was that they had taken the scenic route, the landscape in front of Sam was absolutely stunning, he thought for a moment that he wouldn't be able to take his eyes off of it. The scenery made him remember his dream of someday maybe living somewhere in the mountains, the city stressed him out, he was never a huge fan of the city, too many loud noises made his head hurt, besides, his favorite thing to do was go camping with his parents and his cousins, he loved to go out and pretend he was surviving in the wild with his cousins, I guess he thought he would need those skills later on in his life but he hadn't found a good use for them quite yet.

~

After a while of adjusting, Ella and Sam had finally found a comfortable position to try and fall asleep. They closed their eyes and sleep slowly but surely came to them, blackness overtaking both of their minds.