Our World Of Stars And Fireflies

Chapter 6- Danger

From their close call escape, Sadie and Thomas hadn't stopped. They rode for miles, swerving around trees, ducking under low hanging branches and revving through small streams. Thomas suggested they try to stay to the coast line to avoid swamps and bayous. Luckily they had both grabbed vehicles with full tanks of fuel. Sadie rode a deep forest green quad bike, whilst Thomas had taken a similarly coloured motorbike. They were some of the most noisy machines but they stayed away from any type of civilization so that they would not be heard or seen. Well, away from any civilisation that still existed. Nothing really survived anymore. 

Thomas tried to focus on the non-existent road in front of him. His mind kept darting through all his memories of Charlie. How their life together had been. How they had grown up. How Charlie had just been there for him ever since he walked into Thomas's haphazard life. It was gone. It was all gone. His mind flashed to Charlie's face. How brave he had looked in his last moments. The heartbreak clung to him, draining him. He felt tears sting his eyes, blinking profusely to stop them misting his view. Taking a deep breath, Thomas shook the thought of grief from his head. He needed to focus in order to ride. If Charlie ever thought Thomas was sad about something for too long, he would slap him. Not harshly, but hard enough to get Thomas to break out of his state of sadness. Thomas didn't want something to slap him in place of Charlie. It had happened before. There were too many branches swinging at him to risk it.

They had been riding for about 3 hours when Thomas said they should stop. The tanks were nearly out of gas and they needed a fire. With all the damp wood around them their only choice was to use the petrol in the tanks to start one. There was some dry wood, but it was difficult to find. They hoped the petrol would help them start a fire. It was getting dark, and in the dark bad things would hunt, whether it was creatures or other humans. They needed the fire more than they needed both the bikes.

"We should use the fuel from the bike first" Sadie pointed at the beaten motor bike that lay on its side.

"Why the bike first? The quad has less fuel."

"Then we transport some of the bike's fuel into the quad and the rest can go to the fire." Sadie's matter of fact tone continued. "Plus two of us can easily fit on the quad and it's better for getting over this terrain....and quads are more fun to ride." Thomas looked up from picking up wood.

"Ok I agree with the first two statements, but I'm gonna have to disagree. Bikes are more fun to ride." He smiled at her. "Lemme guess you disagree with that statement?" Sadie shrugged before laughing slightly. Thomas perked up from picking up sticks. "How old are you?"

"16."

"And you have prefer quads?"

"I might. I've never ridden a bike before. Quads have always been my thing which is why I grabbed one." She went back to picking sticks before bobbing up. "How old are you then, since you asked me."

Thomas took a moment to answer.

"25... and bikes are definitely more fun to ride. I tried a quad before. Too heavy, too much to carry." Thomas recalled learning how to drive Charlie's quad when he was younger. He had not quite revved the engine enough then over revved. It hadn't easy for Charlie to help Thomas off the floor and to stop laughing. For some reason Thomas had found a bike easier to ride but he remembered Charlie mentioning something about him learning from the quadbike about not over revving. 

Thomas shrugged. They stared at each other for a moment before looking down and continuing to pick up wood.

Shortly after they had gathered enough wood for the night, Thomas took the fuel from the bike and put some of it into the quad and then the rest onto the wood. He felt sore about discarding the bike, but decided if Sadie was driving the quad, he didn't have much to argue about. They sat and let it soak for a while until they lit it. There had been a small box of slightly damp matches which they used to light the fire. If the bikes had been so useful already, they were even more useful now. Small packs had been left on them, with a few survival items in them. A small flask, matches and bullets. Thomas had wondered whether they were just odd bits left by another soldier after a scouting trip but still thanked whoever it was who left them there. Unfortunately, due to the flap being slightly open as they had driven neither of them knew whether anything had fallen out during their escape.