STALKED AND STOLEN

Chapter 8

I counted four sunrises as everything repeated. We drove and we slept, they took turns sleeping and watching me. It felt like they were stalling  waiting for something. I refused all their food and survived on sips of water and chocolate bars. But on the fifth sunrise I was ready to collapse.

“Dude, I think there’s something wrong with her,” Jay said.

Blue eyes pulled up onto the side of the road and made his way to the back. My head rolled on my shoulders and my vision blurred, dipping in and out. Then I finally fainted. I felt a rush up to my face and everything went black.

When I finally came to, I could barely open my eyes. They felt as heavy as an anchor and my limbs felt weak.

“Shit, Tommy, I think we killed her.

“We didn’t kill her you moron. She needs food. She has barely eaten a thing.”

Tommy. I liked that name. I thought about a little bear I had as a kid that I’d named Tommy Bear. Dad had bought it for me after mum had given birth to Sam on our living room floor. That made me think about Sam, and I felt guilty for how much I had envied him since the day he was born. People looked at our family like we had everything, but there were some things money couldn’t fix.

My eyes sprung open when Tommy Blue Eyes splashed cold water onto my face from his water bottle. I spluttered and sat up, almost bumping heads with him. I felt woozy and my upper body swayed.

“You good?” he asked. He held my chin up and examined both my eyes. I felt like I needed to vomit, but my stomach never had enough food in it to do so. “You drive.” Tommy tossed the key to Jay, and he quickly disappeared and off we roared again. The motion of the moving vehicle made me dizzy.

I put my head in my hands while Tommy sat down in front of me. He dragged the blue box to us and opened the lid. He scooped out a cold bottle of water and opened it for me. It splashed and a few drops spilt when Jay turned a corner. With shaky hands I took it and brought it to my chapped lips and drank.

“You have to eat. Here,” he said. He held out a wrapped sandwich and I took it. I felt fatigued in a way I hadn’t ever before. I handed him the half drunk bottle of water and looked down at the sandwich. ‘Chicken Mayo’ displayed on the label. I shook my head and held it out for him to take back. I felt I didn’t even have the energy to speak.

“Nah. You have to eat it. You starving yourself in protest or something?” he said. I looked up at him and he smiled like he really did think it was funny. “Ok. I get it. Not the time.” He cleared his throat and turned back to the box. “We got prawn. Chicken and stuffing. Ham and cheese?”

I didn’t even care that he looked so intimidating with his mask on, I just wanted to push him out the way and crawl up into a ball in the corner.

“I’m a vegetarian.”

Tommy pulled his head back and his eyes widened.

“What? I’ve never met one of them before.”

“We aren’t an alien breed, no need to be so shocked.”

He turned back to the box and this time used two hands to rifle through it.

“We don’t really have anything. I mean... wait.” He opened the chicken sandwich like it was a bag of crisps, and he peeled the two slices of bread apart. He took out the two slices of meat and closed it again. “There. A butter and lettuce sandwich.” He held it out for me and I had a reaction that I never expected. A lung full of laughter exploded from my mouth. It was a nice thought, I supposed, so I took it.

“Thanks.”

“More chocolate too.” He placed another purple chocolate bar in front of me and I bit down into the bread.