Shifting Chapter 2
It was dark out in the misty air of upstate New York. Seth’s hands clenched the steering wheel as he concentrated on the dark and narrow road. The summer air was cool as the rain from earlier help brings down the humidity in the air. The street lights gave everything a soft glow. The peaking lights help Seth see his girlfriend that was sleeping next to him in the passenger seat.
Holly’s long curly brown hair was matted towards her chubby cheeks and forehead. The air in the car was humid but the echoing breeze from the outside of the car made it bearable to sit in.
“Fuck dude, you should have fixed the air conditioning before we left” Daniel grumbled as he sat up in the back seat of the car. Daniel was the best friend that Seth needed for this type of joy ride. Things can get dull very quickly on a road trip such as this, but this is more of the reasons why Daniel needed his best friend with him.
“My bad Dee” Seth explained. “I was in a rush” Seth kept his soft green eyes on the road ahead. But, he can tell by the energy in the car that his cinnamon hair best friend didn’t by his bullshit.
“Yea okay” Dan huffed. “It’s not like I told you to fix this shit a week before the trip…”
“Oh my god, shut up!” The sweet voice of Holly woke up from her nap. “You are to loud right now” she grumbled over to Daniel that was still sitting over in the back seat of the car.
“I’m using my indoor voice” Dan joked. Seth couldn’t help but chuckle at his friend remarks.
Finally, Daniel’s girlfriend, Lacey, that was sitting next to him in the back seat was having enough of her boyfriend’s bitching.
“Jesus Dan, give it a rest,” The raven-haired- blue-eyed girl said. “You have been complaining this whole time we have been on this trip!” All Daniel could do was roll his eyes.
In truth, ever since this trip started, Daniel has been thinking of ways to end his relationship with Lacey. Ever since their college graduation last month, things were just spinning out of control for them. That’s when Dan decided it was time to call it quits with Lacey. It had been a long time coming.
But it has been the total opposite of Seth and Holly’s relationship. Their romance had grown over the four years of their college schooling together. After graduation, that’s when Seth knew he wanted to marry his college sweetheart. What better way to propose to the woman he loved than on this road camping trip?
The arguing coming from the back seat of the car by Lacey and Dan didn’t stop Seth from feeling happy and excited about this trip. Just as Seth looked over at his tired girlfriend that was just about to fall asleep again; for just a split second, there was a loud pop and a screeching sound coming from the front wheels. Everyone yelped in surprised as Seth tried to control the car from steering off from the road.
Seth stomped on the break as hard as he could to make the SUV come to a complete stop. Everyone in the car was breathing heavily and panicking.
“What the fuck Seth!” Daniel yelled.
“My God! What happened?” Holly blurted out as she tried to compose herself. Seth didn’t make a word as he stepped out of the dark SUV. He made his way to the front steering wheels to find both of them were severely popped. He fully started to examine what puckered the wheels. He found several pieces of a gooey black slimed spikes at the front of the wheels.
‘What the hell?’ Seth thought as he tried to make sense of what he found.
“You okay?” He heard his best friend from behind him.
“Yeah!” Seth blurted from the surprise of his best friend behind him. “Something broke the front two wheels,” Seth said standing up from his crouched position.
Daniel decided to take a good look for himself what the damage was. Just as he saw the sharp gooey spikes on the wheel, he tried to reach out for it, just to see if he can get it off himself. Once his hand landed on the object, a sharp pain shot throughout his hand. He let out a sharp and piercing grumble.
“You okay dude?” Seth asked worriedly. Daniel stood up from his spot and looked at his hurt hand. He was bleeding slightly, but he took the end of his shirt to wrap around his hand. “Yea, I’m good.” The pain was excruciating, but Dan didn’t want to worry any of his friends.
“We’re gonna have to get to safety,” Seth said out loud so the women in the car could hear what he was saying. “I saw a supermarket just a mile away, we can walk it there”
“Ugh, I don’t want to walk…” Lacey sighed in frustration.
“You really don’t have much of a choice…” Daniel blurted out in annoyance. He made it around to his backpack to find his first aid kit to wrap up his cut. His hand was still stinging, but this didn’t stop him from gathering up his belongings. Everyone got what they needed from the car that they could carry and made their way out into the dark open road to get to safety and to get some help…
