North

North Chapter 3 / 6

As Daniel slowly woke at the first light of dawn he waved his hand in the air, trying to push away whatever was pressing down on his leg. In his half awake state it felt like someone was kneeling on him, pressing all their weight into his calf, and he blinked his eyes open.

The pain came over him him like a Tsunami returning to the land it had receded from overnight, smashing into him and knocking the breath out of his lungs. Only the anchoring weight of Johnny's arm wrapped securely around his chest kept him from crying out.

Daniel took a few piping breaths, trying to get himself back under control, as he remembered the accident the day before and the memory of the trees spinning as the car turned over and over.

They should both be dead.

"Still probably gonna happen," a voice in his head chimed.

He wasn't sure what had woken him, but then Johnny twitched behind him, driving his nose into the back of his neck as he curled tightly around him.

"Johnny," Daniel said, as the twitching happened again. "You need to wake up."

Johnny twisted his head away from the light and towards the ground, letting out a small groan.

"Hey, Johnny," Daniel said, as he shook his arm gently. "Wake up, man."

Johnny let out a small whining sound, and for a second Daniel was scared that he actually wasn't going to wake up, then he pulled his arm back from Daniel's chest and ran his hand over his face, shielding his eyes from the bright morning sunlight.

"Jesus," Daniel said, as Johnny sat up, and he saw the dark bruising that was tracking down the right side of his forehead and under his eye. "You feeling OK?"

"Not a morning person, remember?" Johnny mumbled.

"You look like shit, man," Daniel added. "Although, all the beer you drank last night probably didn't help either."

"Whatever," Johnny said, as he moved towards the dead fire and started piling more twigs on top of it. "Before I make breakfast, do you need a piss? I don't want you putting the fire out because you throw like a girl."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I do."

Johnny tossed Daniel an empty beer can. "Knock yourself out."

Daniel pissed into the can, then carefully threw it towards the trees in a direction that was absolutely nowhere near Johnny. He couldn't believe he was littering a forest, but promised himself when they got home he'd recycle twice as hard as before... If they ever got home.

He watched Johnny hold out the lighter to the tinder at the base of the fire, his left hand gently shaking. Johnny used his right hand to steady the shaking limb, and as the fire took hold he reached into the rucksack and pulled out the packet of hot dogs.

"We need to start walking," Johnny said, as he threaded a hot dog onto a thin twig, his left hand shaking the whole time. "No one is going to find us here. We need to find a road."

"No," Daniel said. "Everyone knows that if you're in an accident you stay in the last spot that anyone knew you were."

"And who knew where we were?" Johnny asked, as he held the hot dog over the fire.

"My phone has location data," Daniel said. "It's still in the car and they might be able to track it."

"You mean the phone that stopped knowing where we were before we crashed, and that's currently underwater?" Johnny asked, twisting the hot dog above the flames. "You want to stay here because people will be able to find us from that phone?"