All the Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)

Detour + Complications

By the road they would be in Sheffield in two hours. But if they took the shortcut, in one hour and twenty minutes tops, according to Kosmo's map.

The late August sun rose the temperature to 100 fahrenheit, so to avoid being in the oven for long they all agreed to the short way out.

40 miles into the road, the landscape was deserted, with no promise of near entertainment Candy fell asleep, Joe observed her. Paul sketched cars, Mick read the paper, Mattey sang songs to herself, Piper fiddled her fingers in the air, Topper conversed with the newest addition to the caravan; Lily, and Kosmo drove.

Suddenly they all stopped their doings as the bus began to shake and slow down, it made a strange noise they all feared knew the reason for.

"You forgot to fill the tank?!" Asked Mick getting off his seat.

"It was Paul's turn to do it!" says Kosmo defensively.

"We had turns?" Paul scratches the back of his blonde head.

"Idiot! What are we gonna do in the middle of nowhere with no fucking gas?!"

Candy rose from her nap frowning, "What's the fuss about? I'm trying to sleep, shut the fuck up!" She covers her face with a jacket (that belonged to Joe) and lays back in her seat.

"Cool it Mick, there's probably a station near by" assures Joe making his way to take a look at Kosmo's map. Mick follows him to the front,
"you're right, there's one at the city limits of Sheffield, 30 miles from here, hmm maybe if we run there we'll make it...fucking tomorrow!"

"Well what else can we do?" asks Paul's naturally relaxed voice

Joe looks up, "you tell us Einstein"

"Are you guys serious, are we stuck in the middle of nowhere?!"

"Don't panic love," Mick tries to comfort Mattey, "I'll figure it out."

*** 20 minutes pass and Mick hasn't figured it out ***

"Well this is fucking great, its been twenty minutes and not a car has passed by. Yep, we're gonna die out here."
"Shut up Piper"
"You shut up Paul, its your fault we're here!"
"Both shut it, my head begins to hurt, none of you are helping" demands Joe. He makes his way to the only one unaware of the situation and whispers, "wake up, we've got a problem and I need you."
"What do you want?" she mumbles.
"The bus ran out of gas."
She rubs the sleep from her eyes, "I'm surrounded by imbeciles" she declares loudly as she makes her way out of the bus.
"Rude" whispers Piper to herself.

Candy takes a look at the engine,
"What are you doing?" asks Mick
"My dad's a mechanic, he would make me fix cars with him on Sundays...
This shit's dry empty, and it needs oil too."
"So now what?" asks Topper bored from all the sitting around.
"We need to walk, sitting here obviously does no good"
"Joe's right" Candy says. He smiles at her but she doesn't smile back.

Kosmo continues, "some need to stay back, we can't leave the bus here all by itself."
"I'm not staying here! There's killers out there"
"Right, in the middle of nowhere." Mattey rolls her eyes at Piper.
"I wouldn't mind staying" says Lily
"I could stay with."

In the end most of them stay except for Joe, Mick and Candy. They'd have to walk the mile, hopefully hitch a ride, and by a miracle, be back before sunset and the gig.