Next.
It was a cold, pleasant morning. Overnight their breath and the heat from their bodies had fogged all the windows in their stolen car. They could’ve been almost anywhere. The Driver, Ali, not as old as she looks, stirred. The Passenger, Ash, was still, his chest rose and fell softly. Ali peeled and old hand from her armpit and wiped a window in the condensation with her sleeve.
Trees, leaves so cold their green looked grey. “Did they find us?”
Ash’s question wakes Ali up more than the cold did, “How long have you been awake?” Answering questions with questions of her own seemed to be her go to. “Not long” Ash replied. Ali didn’t look at him, or respond. Just kept on looking out her window. Ash started saying something else, but just then Ali opened her door and got out of the car.
Ash didn’t react, just looked out of the same patch of clear glass, already starting to mist back over, out towards the grey trees. Outside the car Ali looks around. Hungry and grumpy, guilty for not answering the first question, angry for having pretended to ignore the beginning of the second.
A damp patch of rough gravel ground, a clearing in the middle of no where. She’d told Ash they’d be safe here, at least for the night, it’d been dark when they arrived, and driving down here with no headlights had been difficult. There was no damage to the car that she could see, but she knew they wouldn’t be able to go any further with it.
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“Pop the bonnet will you?”
Metallic clunk and it lifts, she finds the catch and lifts it, looking for the support, then clicks it in. Ash opens his door, “What is it?”
“Nothing, stay in the car. It’s warmer.”
“I want to help.”
“It’s fine”
Then Ash slammed the door. Ali sighs. She fishes something out of her pocket and fiddles with it under the bonnet. After about 30 seconds, she stops, and straightens up, closes the bonnet. Then heads around to the back doors of the car, and pulls out their two backpacks.
“C’mon. We’ve got to keep moving.”
