We formed letters, symbols, pictures of things out of the pieces from the bottle. We still had no clue about anything.
“I guess we have come to a dead end,” Peter said.
“What? Do you want to die here?” I asked.
He sighed and shrugged.
“Come on, we can't give up! We were on a roll. We have to think, I'm very positive it's not that complicated or far–”
“Oh my God, look!”
Michelle's voice was shaking as much as her hands were. She was holding up a piece of folded paper.
“The fuck…where did you find that?” I said.
“In the small ball! I was playing with it. I pressed on it a little hard by mistake and it just popped open!”
“Nice Michelle!” Peter exclaimed and asked for the paper.
“I cry out in pain
Red liquid dribbles down my chest
Eventually it fades
Long after I lay down to rest," he read out.
“Well, these clues got dark fast. Have any clue what this one could be talking about?”
“Nope,” I said, ignoring his pun.
“I think I might have an idea,” Michelle said.
“What is it?” I asked
“Michelle let's hold on for now, okay? Let's go and see what we can do about ourselves first,” Peter said, sighing in exhaustion.
I looked down at my clothes. As expected, our clothes were filthy, our hair was in the worst condition and we hadn't had a proper meal in days.
“Yeah, first what do we do about our clothes?” I asked.
“We can dry clean them,” Michelle suggested.
“Well there's soap.” Tanya emerged from the tent and sauntered over to us. She stopped and stood above us with her arms crossed.
Somehow, she managed to look a bit less unkempt than the rest of us. And that wasn't helping matters with me and the whole situation.
“So we wash them and put on what?” Peter asked, giving her a pointed stare.
“There are some clothes in ther–"
"What? No fucking way I'm putting on clothes that I don't know how long they've been here or who has put them on."
"There are actually some neat clothes there. Freshly washed jeans, some t-shirts." She uncrossed her arms and let them fall. "We don't have to put them on for long. Once our original clothes dry, we change back. Sounds good?"
“That's the best idea we could get, I think,” Peter surrendered. “Alright you girls go right ahead. Larry and I will come later."
“Come on Michelle.”
They walked into the shed and emerged with some clothes, a bar of soap and a rope. Then Tanya gestured to the right and they started to head down.
“She's looking down in the dumps.”
“Yeah…”
Peter raised an eyebrow at me.
“Hey, she started acting that way ever since the both of you came back from the whole sunset thing. Did…anything happen between you guys? Did you argue? Now I see it, I haven't even seen you guys exchange words since.”
I felt like I couldn't really hide the hurt and guilt. It was hard. I felt like I could talk to Peter at least. And I really wanted to tell someone.
“She um…told me that she liked me.”
YOU ARE READING
Fall in San Diego
AdventureHaunted by the death of his family that he caused, Larry cuts himself off from the world and relapses into depression, subconsciously craving anything that would make him happy. He finds himself lost in the woods after his swirling emotions forces h...
