North

North Chapter 2 / 6

Daniel groaned as his vision cleared, then let out a gasp as pain radiated up his left leg.

For a moment he couldn't remember what had happened, or why he could smell something pungent in the air and hear the strange sound of creaking, but then the memory of the world turning upside down as the car rolled down the hill came back to him.

He looked to his right where Johnny was slumped in his seat with blood streaming down the side of his head.

"Jesus," Daniel said, as he reached over and shook him gently. "You with me?"

When there was no response he shouted, "Johnny?"

Johnny groaned and stirred slightly, then slurred, "Why you shouting at me, man?"

"We've been in accident," Daniel explained, as Johnny blinked and tried to wipe the blood out of his right eye with his sleeve.

Johnny bolted upright in his seat, finally aware of the situation. "What the hell did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Daniel replied defensively.

"You drove us off the road, dipshit!" he shouted.

"Maybe if you hadn't distracted me with the phone it wouldn't have happened!"

"Hey, don't blame me man, I wasn't even driving," Johnny snapped.

"As if I'd let you drive when you got in the car with a can of beer in your hand."

"Yeah, just the one and I wouldn't have run us over a cliff even if I'd had a six pack."

"It was a small hill!"

"It was a cliff!" Johnny shouted back, then he winced and held his hand to head.

"You literally had the other four beers of that six pack in your hand, which means you'd drunk two of them and that was before breakfast!"

"Whatever," Johnny replied quietly, still holding his hand up to his forehead. "Did you really try to dad save me?"

"What?"

"You stuck your arm across my chest, as if that was going to do anything when the car was spinning like it was in a clothes dryer."

"Force of habit," Daniel said. "It could have been Sam in that seat."

"Yeah, yeah," Johnny said. "You totally tried to save my life."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time," Daniel grumbled, as he placed his hands on the car seat and tried to pull himself upwards. His leg felt strange and awkward, and as he put his weight on it to push himself up, he felt it bend in a place where it probably shouldn't and he let out a strangled cry of pain.

"Hey, hey," Johnny said, grabbing his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"My leg hurts," Daniel replied, his hands shaking against the seat. "I think it might be bad. Like broken bad."

Johnny paused, as if he was listening. He unbuckled his seatbelt, then asked, "OK, do you have a first aid kit?"

"Glove compartment," Daniel replied, trying to breathe through the pain and settle himself.

Johnny opened the compartment, pulling out papers and documents, allowing them to fall to the floor, then he pulled out the green first aid box and threw it up the hill through the broken window of the car.

"What the hell are you doing?" Daniel shouted.

"Anything else you want out of here?" he asked, as he threw out the cans of beer that were still in the footwell.