Lost And Found

Lost and found - Chapter 1

"This can't be happening to me" she thought as she slammed her fists on the steering wheel. Sophie couldn't believe her car had broken down right in the middle of nowhere.
She had known from the beginning that driving alone in one of the most secluded and deserted areas of the Australian Outback wasn't a good idea. Yet, she obviously had done it anyway. It was for a good cause though: she had embarked on that crazy journey to visit her grandma, who was suffering from lung cancer, and of course she lived on the other side of Australia.
Why didn't Sophie take the plane, you might ask? Fear of flying, she had had it since she was a young, adorable and chubby kid.
Now, Sophie - 26 years old, fit and slim, with long, brown hair and green eyes - was officially lost.
Her black Chevrolet, which had once belonged to her dad, had now abandoned her. Oh well, it had served its purpose decently enough: that car had been Sophie's faithful companion on all of her trips from home to university, and after that from home to the small bookstore where she worked. She didn't exactly love her job, but she was happy enough with it, (Sophie was a real bookworm, so anything involving books would have suited her well.

It was about 11 am, and the weather was now getting hotter by the minute. It was a beautiful cloud-less day, too bad Sophie couldn't fully enjoy it because she was stuck in a remote and lonely place that could possibly kill, her worst case scenario.
Since there was nothing to be done and she was getting a bit bored as well, she decided to make the best out of that situation: she took out from her backpack one of the dozen books or so she had brought. It was The Stand by Stephen King, one of her favorite authors.
She got out of the car and grabbed a snack before sitting on the hood of the black Chevy with her beloved book.
That's when it popped into her mind that she had a cellphone with her, why hadn't she thought about it earlier?! "No signal, obviously" she grunted, shoving the phone back in her jeans' pocket.

She only had a few snacks and a water bottle with her, and she knew they wouldn't last long. It was only supposed to be a few hours drive, hopefully her grandma would send a search party for her as soon as she didn't see her arriving when it was dark.
But what if no one found her? What if she died? Would anybody even miss her? Sophie didn't have many friends, she had never been the popular kid in school.
Her mind was too clouded to be able to concentrate on the book. She eventually gave up on reading and started thinking about a way to get out of this mess. Fixing the car wasn't an option - she had never been very good with her hands - and walking under the hot Australian sun wasn't either.
Apparently all she could do was to wait and hope someone would pass by and rescue her. HAHAHA like that was likely to happen, with the luck she had.

Hours went by, she was almost out of snacks and more importantly, out of water. Suddenly, she heard something that sounded a lot like a car engine. Sophie immediately jumped out of her car and was almost run over by a big, black Jeep when she stumbled in the middle of the road, frantically agitating her arms in an attempt to get the driver to stop, which luckily, he did.
"Looks like you need a lift, come on get in" he said with a smile. He had a deep voice, a perfect British accent and he was very handsome indeed.
Sophie grabbed her few belongings and without hesitation she climbed into the passenger seat.
"Thank you so much, I'm Sophie by the way."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Benedict." He replied with a wink.

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"Goodbye kids, see you later!" Jess exclaimed as she sent the twins off to school. "Bye mom" Chris and Lily replied in unison.
"And behave yourself!" She added. "Don't worry, I'm sure they will" Ben said as he zipped up his leather jacket and got ready to go to work himself. He was one of the cleverest detectives at the precinct.
"I know they will" Sophie replied as she kissed him and walked him out the door.
"Daddy, we'll be late!" Lily yelled from the car.
"Coming!" Ben chuckled as he jogged towards the big, black jeep parked in the driveway.