Lone Survivors

Solutions and Anger

After several attempts, Parker and Stephanie finally agreed that they weren't going to get any signal. Stephanie had no idea where her phone was and Parker couldn't make any calls.

Stephanie wondered what everyone was doing at the lodge. She also wondered why she didn't see any police cars or ambulance.

"Maybe we should wait for the authorities." Stephanie suggested.

Parker shook his head and held up his phone. "The authorities won't know about this for hours."

"Let's check everyone else's cellphones." She suggested.

"If I'm not getting signal. What makes you think they are?" He demanded.

Stephanie racked her brain for any other possible solutions to their predicament.

She knew what would have to happen, but she was attempting to avoid it.

"We'll have to walk." Parker concluded. Stephanie's eyes widened.

"Walk where?" She asked in horror, though she knew it had been coming.

"Well, are we just gonna stay here then and freeze?!" He retorted.

Stephanie huffed and began walking in the opposite direction they had been driving.

Parker shook his head and hurried to catch up with her. If he allowed her to get any farther, he wouldn't have been able to see her through the heavily falling snow.

Stephanie wondered how in the world this could happen. Her mother always warned her about driving safe and taking extra precaution in harsher conditions but she never thought it mattered.

She'd only ever seen big accidents on television. She'd never actually been in one, it didn't seem real. The accident kept playing over and over in her head. She imagined different scenarios of how it could have went, but it always came back to the four dead bodies in the wrecked car.

Parker and Stephanie walked silently; the only sound was the crunch of their boots demolishing the snow underneath their feet. The scenery was gorgeous, as beautiful as any snowstorm in the middle of nowhere.

Stephanie turned squinted through the thick sheets of snow realizing that she could still see the truck in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Parker asked her.

Stephanie stared ahead. Realizing how long they had been driving. She knew it would take ages before they got anywhere. Days till they even saw the gas station where they had first stopped.

"We haven't made any progress." Stephanie replied disconsolately.

Parker sighed. "We just started walking." He reminded her.

He wondered how many times she would complain before nightfall.

Stephanie glared at him. "This is all your fault anyways!" She exclaimed. "If you hadn't been arguing with Shelbie, he would have been paying attention to the road."

Parker returned her intense glare. "Are you trying to make me responsible for the deaths of those people?" He challenged.

"And the fact that I'm stuck out here to freeze to death with you." she finished undeterred by his accusation.

"And what's wrong with me?" He demanded not even bothering to tell her that they wouldn't freeze to death.

He tried to sound nonchalant but he really did want to know why she supposedly hated him so much.

Stephanie scoffed. "It would be easier to list what's not wrong with you."

Genuinely hurt by the statement made by a girl he hardly even knew, Parker turned on his heel and continued walking.

Stephanie hurried after him. She wasn't finished yet. "Oh, now you're upset? Am I supposed to feel sorry for you when you treat everyone like crap because you're oh so high and mighty?"

He whirled around and bore down on her. "You know what? You're just like everyone else. You don't know me and you're already judging me. I treat everyone like that because that's how they've ignorantly labeled me. But you...you've spoken fifty words to me in your whole life, so don't try to act like you know what I'm like. Nobody has ever tried to get to know me and you're no better!" He spat.

Stephanie watched as he stalked away as best as he could in the snow.

She was frozen where she stood. His words had surprised her and made her feel awful.

Now that he had pointed it out she realized that he was right, she'd just associated the negative adjectives that everyone else created with him. Sure he was occasionally rude, but so was the rest of the human population. And she was no exception.

Parker was enraged. He knew that people spread rumors that he was a player and an arrogant jerk, but he didn't realize just how many people actually believed it.

He simply acted how they labeled him to humor them.

He felt Stephanie come up beside him but he proceeded to ignore her.

The scenery didn't change for another fifteen minutes. Parker and Stephanie did not know that however, they believed they had even walking for hours.

"It's really sad how they all died like that." Stephanie said quietly, breaking the silence.

"Yeah." Parker replied. "Did you know any of them?"

"No. You?"

"No."

They lapsed back into silence for a while as Parker contemplated whether to start another conversation. "Are you cold?" He finally asked her immediately wanting to take back the stupid question.

"Just my fingers." She responded.

Parker looked up. "It's getting late. He observed. "Do you think we should stop?"

"Do you know how to build a fire?" Stephanie asked.

Parker shook his head.

Stephanie rolled her eyes and impulsively grabbed his hand. "Come on. I'll show you."