Zodiac Short Stories

Lost Together

Taurus didn't know where they were going. All he knew was that it was around two in the afternoon, he was hungry, and his phone was running out of battery.

Aries was trying to take control of the situation by yelling, waving the map around and generally not helping. "GUYS! CALM DOWN!" she hollered. Nobody listened and continued their mini-conversations. "Guys!" she snapped, crossing her arms.

When nobody even batted an eyelid, she groaned loudly, stormed over to Gemini and slapped his arm. "Stop pouting!" she growled at him, nearly hitting him in the face with the map. "GUYS!" she yelled. "We should split up. Me and Gemini  will go -" she squinted at the map. "Here." she pointed at a random spot on the map. "Come on, Gemini. Let's leave these losers moping around and actually do something useful."

Gemini crossed his arms and shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere until everyone shuts up." he replied, turning away. 

Taurus watched the two bicker, before offering, "I think I'll just stay here. Text me some updates."

Aries nearly slapped him with the map; fortunately, someone snatched the map out of her hands just in time.

"Everyone just chill. I'll use the map to find our way." Leo said, smirking slightly at Aries' frustrated expression. Taurus decided not to mention to him that he was holding the map upside down and decided to comfort Cancer.

"What are you guys DOING? We'll never find our way!" Cancer sobbed. Taurus patted her on the back. "Don't worry, Cancer. We have GPS, remember?"

Cancer stopped sniffling and looked up at Taurus, teary-eyed. "R-really? Well... who has their phones with them right now?"

"Me." Virgo offered, carefully making her way past Leo, Aries and Gemini. She pulled out her phone and pressed the power button. "Let me just..." she looked down. "Welp. My phone's dead."

Cancer was getting teary-eyed again. Sagittarius decided that this was the perfect moment to drop in and did so - quite literally. He jumped off his perch on a nearby rock and landed next to Cancer, nearly stepping on Taurus' toes. "Careful, Sagittarius." Taurus said, stepping back.

"Just enjoy the circumstances for right now. We'll make it out alive." he paused for a moment, then added, "Probably."

"Not helping." Taurus offered as Cancer started sobbing again. Sagittarius shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey, just stating the facts. By the way, you might want to... keep an eye on Pisces."

Taurus glanced over Sagittarius' shoulder. Pisces was rocking back and forth and sobbing. Taurus glared at Sagittarius, who shrunk back. Taurus was usually rather laidback, but when he got angry... well, to say, it wasn't a pretty sight.

He picked his way past the bickering trio and crouched down by Pisces, who was murmuring under her breath. "Hey." he said soothingly. "Don't worry. It's alright."

Pisces sniffled. "I-It's not that." Taurus gave her a pat on the back. "Then what is?" he asked gently.

"I-It's... HE'S DEAD!" she exploded. "W-who?" Taurus asked, slightly taken aback. As a response, Pisces gestured towards a butterfly on the floor. "Oh. Um. Rest in peace?" he said.

When Pisces didn't respond, he decided to leave her to her 'mourning' and decided to check on the rest of the team.

"This is all your faults! If you'd listened to me we wouldn't be in this mess!" Capricorn yelled. In response, Cancer started sobbing louder. Taurus glowered at her, but she'd already turned her back to yell at Leo, who was still holding the map upside down.

"I love our teamwork! This is going great!" Libra exclaimed cheerfully. Taurus wasn't even sure if she was sarcastic or not - knowing Libra, she probably wasn't sure about it herself.

"Shut up Libra. We're in the middle of nowhere. I hate all of you." Scorpio growled at her. "Maybe if you actually DID something instead of running around being so CHEERFUL then MAYBE we could have gotten something done."

Libra frowned at him. "And maybe if YOU did something instead of sulking then MAYBE we could have gotten something done and we couldn't be in this mess."

"DON'T STEP ON HIM!" Pisces yelled, nearly bowling Capricorn over. Capricorn was about to yell at her, too, when she saw the tear stains. She awkwardly stepped back, all of her confidence lost. "Okay...?"

Gemini stormed past, nearly whipping Taurus in the face with a half-torn map.

Taurus lost his temper right there. He wasn't one to get angry quickly, but when he did, everyone knew it was serious.

"QUIET!" he hollered. He was almost surprised when all noise died down. "Look. We need to work as a team to get out of here and you guys are making such a racket that I can't even hear myself think."

There was an embarrassed silence hanging in the air. Taurus took this as a sign to go on. "Okay, first of all, who has their -"

He was interrupted by a distant rumbling. Everyone was silent - then a car drove up to their area and stopped. "Hello, we heard distant screaming from below and we came up to check if everything's alright."

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the newcomer. Taurus finally spoke up. "Well, yes... I mean, not really. Would you mind telling us how to get to the closest... town?"

The woman in the car laughed. "That's easy. Just take these stairs -" she gestured at a flight of stone steps, half hidden by the undergrowth - "and take the path straight ahead."

"Thanks," Taurus said, relieved. She nodded in response and drove away.

"Well... maybe if you all paid more attention to where we were going instead of screaming at each other, maybe we would have noticed it." Taurus said, turning to walk down the stairs.

"Come on." he called. "Let's find the closest McDonalds and chill out there. Let's hope they have air con."