SOULS INTERTWINED | m. fishbach

three

By the time the morning had come again, a slight chill had settled in your bones. Despite the small fire that provided no heat and the little sleep you'd gotten, the night had gone okay. You and Seàn split the night into two watch shifts, and you had decided to take the first. Even if you liked your sleep, watching the new sky up above was better than anything else. Still, you had to sleep sometime, and so you woke up Seàn sometime in the twilight to get some sleep.

The routine you had developed took no time to get through, and after you'd finished your can of peas and carrots and stamped out the fire, it was finally time to continue on with the aching trek through the woods. There was nothing to it, aside from the occasional chirp of the birds up above and the crunch of leaves under your feet as you walked, avoiding roots and branches as best as you could.

If there was one thing left from before, it was nature. Even when forests were demolished in favor of skyscrapers towering along city skylines, nature always found its way back. It always managed to reclaim the Earth as its own, just like it once had been. Today though, as you walked and walked until you found your way back to the highway and into Klamath, you felt the pull continue to grow stronger, almost willing you to go forward, to keep pushing.

The walk took hours, morning passing into midday and midday into afternoon by the time you reached the cracked asphalt of the highway once again, the ocean spanning out to your right, filling your ears with the sounds of crashing waves, blowing saltwater air in your direction. You watched the man beside you smile when you got the first whiff of it, and it put a smile on your own face. It encouraged you almost the same as the pull. Despite the pain in the soles of your feet, you kept going, pushing further with Seàn at your side.

"So, what's your little radar feeling today?" Seàn asked, failing to hide the twinge of a smile on his face as he glanced over at you, eyes occasionally drifting to the ocean behind you.

"Dunno," you shrugged, glancing up at the sky with squinted eyes. It was getting warmer out, and underneath the chill of the breeze, you could feel a slight hint of the sun's warmth. "Hopeful. Like we're reaching something, and soon. It's a nice feeling. Definitely better than when we started."

Seàn nodded. "That's good. It means that this is almost over."

"I hope so. I'm kind of getting tired of all this walking," you said. "Besides, I'm dying to know what's at the end of this, you know? After walking for so long, you get curious."

Seàn huffed in agreement, and the walk continued in silence.

As you reached more wooded parts of the road, cars began to line the roads, parked at awkward angles and covered in old leaves, dust, and dirt. Almost synchronously, you and Seàn went to opposite sides of the roads, searching cars for materials and one that you could hot-wire.

After a few cars, almost halfway into the ditch between the forest and the road, an old Honda Accord sat, coated with a layer of dirt and grime, untouched. It was the ideal car, really. So, you made your way to it, happy to find its doors unlocked and the inside empty.

As you leaned over the driver's side, you twisted your head as best as you could to shout out to your friend. "Hey, Seàn, can you find a jerrycan? Something to start siphoning gas with,"

He called out a response of agreement and you heard him shuffle around behind you, getting to work while you searched the car for any possibility of finding keys. Upon finding nothing, you sighed and shifted positions, aligning yourself with the steering panel to begin another hot-wire.

Seàn came back to the car a few minutes after you began hot-wiring it, the sloshing of liquid accompanying his steps. "I got more than last time, but I doubt we'll need it if this one's as full as the others."