Perseverance ( completed! )

Beautiful

A few hours passed and the car began to get bumpy and slow. I scrunched up my nose in confusion, wondering what was wrong with it. I glanced out my window and toward the ground, seeing if something was maybe up with the roads, but no such luck. They were as smooth as ever, resembling closely to perfectly smooth black ice.

"Um, Liam? What's up with the car?" I questioned softly, glancing over toward him. He looked slightly less confused than me, apparently having come up with something but not all to sure if it was correct or not. Or at least, that's what it looked like. I knew Liam long enough to be able to infer a lot from his expressions. He was fairly easy to read. But then again, extremely hard to read when he didn't want to be flipped through like a newspaper.

"Right, so, you see that little dial thing? Well, it continuously went down the longer we drove. I think it's the cars battery life? But then again, theres no place to refill the battery! I checked in the manual and there just this little, hole thingy," Liam struggled hopelessly, keeping his eyes on the deserted rode.

Nibbling on my bottom lip, a huff escaped my lips. I chose to ignore it for the time being, not seeing much that I could really do. But a few minutes later the car stopped all together. The four of us got out of the truck and looked around at where we were, Buddy wandering off to go do his business elsewhere. We appeared to have made it to the mountains that separate this town from the next. Dang, we had made it a long way! But the only issue was that now we were stranded without means of transportation.

Frowning, I glanced around for Buddy. Whistling loudly, my eyes landed on a flash of golden as it bounded back from the bushes, making his way towards me. Letting a soft smile cross my lips, I bent down and plucked him off the ground. Allowing my gaze to wonder around for a moment, I forced myself to turn and look at Liam and Josh.

"So. What do we do?" I directed the question toward both of them, but my eyes stayed focused on Liam.

"Well, I suppose we have to camp out here for now. Between the two of us, we only have seven water bottles, and that wont last us as nearly as long as it would need to to make decent progress." Liam concluded duly, a frown present on his rosy lips.

I nodded in agreement, and so we set off. We moved cautiously through the trees, staying high alert for people as well as animals. Who knew what kinds of animals lived in here. Twice I stepped on a twig and practically jumped into Liam's arms, much to my embarrassment.

Finally, after way too long of walking, we found a nice clearing like area that was fairly sheltered by bushes and trees. We only found it because my clumsy ass tripped on tree roots and tumbled into here.

"Okay, Liam, you go and find anything that we could use for shelter, like something we could make a tent out of. Josh, you're going to go gather kindling so we can make a fire." I spoke with authority, only afterwards did I notice their expression and cringe, striking back into myself.

"I-I mean, if, if that's okay with you guys," I ended lamely in a nervous mumble, digging the toe of my shoe into the dirt covered ground.

Liam just laughed gently while Josh chuckled, both had amusement sparkling in their pretty colored eyes.

"This little man is hella cool," Josh told Liam, who's smile faded a bit, but he nodded and chuckled again.

My cheeks darkened in color and I huffed, turning around quickly so they couldn't see my cheeks. I wasn't really used to getting compliments except from Liam so it was very strange getting them from someone else. A stranger nonetheless.

"I'll be back soon!" Josh piped up before moving away and into the woods for his quest to find kindling.

I could still sense Liam behind me and I frowned slightly. Was something the matter? I turned quickly and saw him gazing at me with a slightly far away look. Stepping closer, I gently tugged on the hem of his shirt, my eyes curious and wide as I gazed up at him.