Last Girls

2

Angel came to withBetsy's hand on his shoulder, shaking him. His neck ached. He playedfootball in high school, and been in a car accident before, so herecognized the injury. "Everybody okay?" he asked, his whiplashpreventing him from turning his neck far to check more than thirtydegrees.

"Weseem fine," Alan said. "Injuries you'd expect from a caraccident, so far I'm not seeing anything toocatastrophic." He squeezed himself through the hole between thepassenger eat and the door. He helped Denny out, then Betsy, thenAngel.

Angel stretched,feeling the tension in his back. He was going to need to do somesquats to loosen things back up.

Then he saw wherethey were. It was an auto yard, with crushing equipment scatteredaround. A heavy fog hung over the place. "What the hell?" heasked. "They just towed us to the wrecking yard?" he asked.

"Apparently,"Kelly said, from behind the front-end.

"Wasanyone conscious?"Angel asked. "Did anybody see what happened?"

They exchangedglances, but no one was volunteering anything.

"Thatcan't be legal,"Betsy said, "just towing injured people to a scrapyard andabandoning them."

"Howdoes it look?" Angel asked, walking around the hood to Kelly.

"Scrapedup the driver's side. Dented in the front end a bit. No functionaldamage I can see- with the caveat that without something beingvisibly crushed or spewing a fluid I might not actually knowsomething was broken."

"Starther up, then," he said, "I'll watch for anything spurtingfluids."

Kelly got into thedriver's seat and tried to turn the engine over. It growled, butrefused to start.

"Giveit some gas, first," Angel said. He watched as the peddle pulled acord, then listened again, but again it growled.

He walked around tothe driver's side door. "Try the lights," he said. She flickedthem on, and they seemed to work. "Huh. So it isn't the battery."He looked to the horizon, which was dark. "Which means this islikely to be more complicated than we want to handle at night."

He put his hands onhis hips and sucked in a deep breath, letting it swell out hismuscular chest and make him bigger still, "I think we should takeour gear and find a place to camp."

"Aren'tyou supposed to stay in one place when you're lost?" Kelly asked."Let the rescuers come to you?"

"If we were lost in a forest,"Angel said, "yeah. But we're in a scrapyard. There's a chance if wepitch tents here we get run over by the next shift coming in. It'salso possible that they don'thave a regular crew.They might just have a townie who comes here once a month to crushcars and tidy the place up."

"Youjust don't want to give up on your camping weekend," Betsy said.

Heshrugged. "It's really not either or, though. For all we can see wecould be sitting right in the middle of a usual roadway here. But ifwe huff it to a soft, safe area we can still salvage the night while being safe. What's everyone else think?" He glanced around at theothers. "Everyone okay for a little hike with some gear?"

That questionelicited a few murmurs and nods.

"Good.We'll divide up the gear."

Angel took chargeof that, too. It was what he did, take charge, because it was whatmen were supposed to do, especially in a crisis. And when it came tothe cooler, easily the heaviest piece of their equipment since it wasloaded with beer and ice, he took it himself, without asking forhelp.

"Whereto?" Alan asked, hefting a backpack and a pair of sleeping bags.

Angel glancedaround. There definitely seemed to be a path, and beyond that hecould see trees, and he pointed in that general direction.

Angel walked toBetsy, and asked, "Coming, babe?"

She glared, anddidn't respond. He knew that look well enough to know to let heralone. He sped up, to Alan, who was pressing ahead.

"Bets'spissed?" Alan asked after a moment.

"Youknow her."

"Well,"Alan said, "yes and no. We almost dated, once."

"Almost?"Angel asked, his back tensing painfully, which Alan noticed.

"Timingdidn't work out- nothinghappened. But she isn't much of a cold fish; I mean, sure, she's mostintroverted, but she only gets icy when you talk over her."

"Ididn't-"

"Youdid. And I'm not even saying you're wrong, to argue we should leavethe junkyard. But as somebody on the outs, I feel like I shouldwarn you, because you don't want to be where I am, and not justbecause most of our girl friends give me 24/7 stink eye."

"Thereason you lost Kelly wasn't that you were too assertive- you cheatedon her. And it's not just our girl friends who look down on you forthat." Angel pushed the edge of the cooler into Alan's side as hemoved past him. He knew he wasn't always the most sensitive guy, buthe would be damned if he was about to take romantic advice fromsomeone like Alan.