OddityVille: Harrowing Hills (Book Two)

Chapter One: Roadtrip

    
Yellow stripes rapidly pass under the car as the wind blows through both front seat windows and out those in the back. Ashley entangles her curly brown locks in a hair tie as James lipsyncs the words that emit from his radio. Ahead of their silver car is a rumbling red truck, spitting black clouds from an exhaust beneath the tailgate. Ashley turns in her seat to face the back window, being sure that the yellow bug they left with was still following. As her eyes meet with those of the driver, he waves and smiles at her. She can see two other passengers in the vehicle, but neither notices her as they appear to be heatedly arguing with one another.

"Anything good back there?" She faces the driver of her own ride before pressing her back into the seat and throwing the freshly bundled ponytail over her shoulder. "How far do we have to go still?" Ashley pulls a phone from the center console and turns the screen on, checks the time, and puts it back. "Well?"

"Half an hour still."

"Can you convert that to miles?" She sighs and looks up at the ceiling.

"The same number of miles as minutes, if this is the last road we had to turn on."

"How do you figure?" Her brow raises as she looks over at the speedometer. James looks down at it as well. The pointer jitters in place over the number 60. He shrugs and looks back at the road. "Oh."

"Why are we doing this again?"

"Uh, because you wanted to?" Ashley rolls her eyes, glaring at James before turning to watch the trees that pass in a blur.

"I didn't actually want to go. I just told Cody I would so he'd leave me alone about it." She jabs a finger in the direction of the truck's taillights and keeps her emeralds set on the woodlands.

"Well, why didn't you tell me that?" James turns the volume knob on the radio, silencing the rhythms that go on elsewhere anyways.

"I figured you knew. I never want to go anywhere."

"Too late to turn around now."

"Is it?"

"Yes." James lets out a huff and tightens his grip around the steering wheel. "It could do you some good, anyways."

"What? Camping our weekend away with strangers in a place we aren't even allowed to be at?" James doesn't respond and taps the brakes as the vehicle ahead of them slows down. "What's going on?"

"We're slowing down."

"That all you got?" Ashley scoffs without waiting for a response.

"This is going to be a looong weekend."

After several more minutes pass the truck pulls off to the side of the road, barely getting all four tires across the white line. James and Ashley park behind it and the yellow bug does the same behind them. The driver of the truck- Cody- hops out and waves everyone over to him. Five people make their way from the other vehicles and swarm around him, watching both directions for other cars that might be coming their way. Ashley notices that the two passengers from the bug are avoiding each other, but the driver is all smiles and runs his fingers through the charcoal mess on his head as he approaches Cody.

"Rough drive, Mike?"

"Not at all." Cody passes Mike a pair of large wire cutters from within the cabin of his truck and chuckles at the response before turning to face the others. Mike leaves the group and goes to the opposite side of the vehicle.

"Alright, everyone. We're at the trail now, so are we sure we have everything we need?" The irritable two from the bug look over at one another from the corners of their eyes before nodding. Ashley and James follow suit and watch the passenger from Cody's truck come around to them with a rolled-up map in hand.