"Warning, a convict escaped today. He was charged with attempted manslaughter and arrested. He is believed to be armed and very dangerous. His name is Brent Busto. He is six-foot-three, heavy-set with short blonde hair and with a large scar from a burn on his left cheek. Be on the lookout for him and alert authorities if you happen to see him. Now back to your broadcast," The announcer said, then the music resumed. The Grice family looked at each other and whistled lowly, then continued with their activities.
…
Brent grimaced as the radio's announcement stopped. He placed a hand over his burned cheek and cursed to himself. Now he couldn't hide anywhere. He accelerated the stolen car he was in, heading north. He wasn't quite sure where he was, but he knew it was close to the border of Canada, and he couldn't stay in the States any longer.
Brent stopped when he came to the ever-lasting line to get into Canada. He would never be able to make it in. He put the car in park and slipped off toward the right, hiding in the foliage and behind rocks until he got out of sight range. He then started sprinting, going off to the right until he was sure that nobody was nearby. He stopped running and stumbled from exhaustion, breathing heavily, his side aching from the stitch in it. After what felt like an eternity, his breathing slowed and the twinge in his side faded away. He sat up and looked at the sun's position in the sky. It in the afternoon, he could tell that much. He was facing west. He turned North, and started jogging through the underbrush and trees, not knowing what else to do.
Night fell, and Brent stopped jogging again. There wasn't any point in continuing because he couldn't see. He stopped for the night, his stomach complaining at the lack of food. He saw some berries, but didn't dare eat any. He had heard stories of people who had eaten food that they didn't know what it was, and had had horrible reactions to it, besides the fact that many berries were poisonous and he had no way of knowing what was and was not. He glared at the berries and lay down on the hard ground and fell into a light sleep, keeping his ears tuned in case of bears or other wildlife that could harm him.
…
In the camp, Deej and Garth sat around the campfire, happily roasting their marshmallows, laughing knowingly whenever anybody accidentally lit theirs on fire or dropped it. As Garth had said they would be; his family was grateful that he had brought the s'mores ingredients. They all made their s'mores and laughed and ate them, licking the last sticky parts off of their fingers. They stared into the fire and in time the laughter died, leaving the ring of people around the fire in a comfortable silence. Garth yawned. Deej shifted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder and stared into the fire again, trying to stay awake. She was tired despite having slept in the car all day. Garth yawned again, making her yawn. Somebody, Deej wasn't sure who, suggested that they all go to bed. Nobody disagreed. Garth got up, and practically dragged Deej to bed. They all got settled and fell asleep.
Garth woke up sometime in the night because of a movement to his side. He looked over in the dark at Deej, and saw that she was shivering. He tried waking her up like he had done in the car. It didn't work. She was too deep in her sleep. He unzipped her sleeping bag and pulled her out and put her in his sleeping bag, and zipped his bag back up. Sensing the warmth, she smiled in her sleep and moved herself closer to him and put her arms around him. He sighed and went back to sleep thinking, 'I should have seen that one coming…'.
The next morning, Garth woke up to his family talking in disgusted-sounding voices. He opened his eyes and looked to his right. His family was getting out of their sleeping bags and pointing at him. His ears tuned into what they were saying.
"Couldn't that have been done somewhere else? Come on man, that's just wrong!" And the like were being said. He looked at them, confused, until one of them pointed to his chest. He looked down and saw Deej on top of him, still smiling and murmuring in her sleep. He shifted her off of him gently and started protesting.
"We didn't do anything! She was shivering! I had to warm her up somehow! She moved in her sleep! You guys are sick…" Garth said. His family just laughed and continued teasing him. Garth got out of his sleeping bag and dressed, trying to defend himself and Deej. By the end of it, they had all, but Garth of course, decided that she was his fiancée. He sighed and decided to ignore them and headed outside to help start the fire and cook breakfast.
Deej was the last one awake. She got up and pushed her messy curls out of her face and looked around. She looked over at her sleeping bag. Her sleeping bag? She looked at the one she was in and recognized it as Garth's. Her eyes widened. Did she do something she didn't remember? Her imagination came up with some crazy things as she got dressed and put on a baseball cap and put her hair through the little hole in the back of it. She stepped out of the tent and put on her shoes and went over to Garth. How should she word this?
"Um, Garth?" She started. He glanced at her and asked her what she needed. "Why was I in your sleeping bag last night?" She asked. He sighed and looked over at his brothers, which were still laughing about it.
"You were cold and shivering. I put you in my bag to keep you warm, that's it. Don't let them make you think any different, either," He said, pointing to his siblings.
"aww!" Deej said, then hugged him and looked over at Garth's siblings. "They're really having fun with something…" She said. Garth explained it. "Oh…" Deej trailed off. She grabbed a piece of food and munched on it, watching his relatives having fun.
"Hey! Wanna go exploring?" Deej asked. She didn't want to go alone, and she knew that Garth liked to explore as well as herself. It all worked out.
"Yeah, just let me finish up here," Garth told her. She nodded and chewed slowly, looking around, trying to see which way would be the most interesting to explore while Garth worked on the rest of breakfast.
He was soon finished and set out the food, covering it so that it wasn't set out for the bugs, and grabbed a couple of things for himself, then started following Deej, who had started wandering in the direction that she wanted to explore in. They both ignored the whoops and teasing about them leaving just by themselves. Garth made a mental note so they wouldn't get lost. They were heading south.
…
Brent woke up after he had had enough rest. He stretched out the kinks in his legs and his sore back. He got up and starting jogging again, this time trying to think of what he could do next. He couldn't hold a captive or anything, it wouldn't be very productive, and there wasn't anybody out here. And if they were, they would have to be hermits.
He kept jogging and jogging for the whole day, not even pausing to eat. He couldn't, really. He needed to find something to eat, and soon. Even though he had a little extra fat stored away. He would lose it pretty fast. He did pause to rest, however, because he did need to rest his aching side and legs when the pain got to a point where he couldn't bear it any more. After he was rested, he always made sure that he was traveling north. He couldn't say why he had to keep going north, it was just a gut feeling he had.
Eventually he got tired enough that he had to start resting longer and longer. He even was starting to miss the meals in his jail cell, and the bed. The ground was always cold. He cursed it and its bugs. They seemed to be everywhere. And no matter how much he smacked at them, he could never be rid of them. When he got to be resting longer than he was running, he stopped and rested for the night, even though the sun was still up. He lay on the ground and complained to himself about everything that had gone wrong with his life.
…
Garth and Deej returned around noon for lunch, then headed out again to explore a few trails that they had seen, even though they couldn't go much farther than they had in the morning. The next day they were planning to just walk straight on a little deer trail that they had found. They were going to follow it for most of the day. They were both excited for it. They grabbed a couple of things to munch on, and headed out again. They returned at dinner time and ate and talked together for a while, letting the rest of his family do what they wanted. They had eventually grown tired of teasing the two and were eating and talking amongst themselves.
The night progressed much as the first. They sat around the campfire talking, but this time sipping hot chocolate. It even ended similar. Garth's sister started yawning and everybody went to bed because they were all tired. So they headed in and got settled, except for Deej. She sat atop her sleeping bag, nervously twiddling her fingers. Garth recognized her discomfort.
"What's wrong?" Garth asked her. She turned to face him and looked from him to his sleeping bag to hers, then back to him.
"Can I sleep with you again tonight? I don't want to be so cold again. I think it registered with me in my dreams, but not enough to wake me up…" She said, then stopped. She was starting to ramble. She tended to do that sometimes when she was uneasy. Garth looked over at his family, who were all paying attention. He glared at them and then turned back to Deej, who had looked at them as well.
"Yeah, go ahead," He said, bracing himself for more teasing. There were a few chuckles, but that was it. They must have run out of jokes. Deej grinned widely and slid herself into his bag beside him and wished him a good night. He repeated the wish, and fell to sleep quickly. Deej took a little longer to fall asleep. She relished the warmth and firmness of his body next to hers. It was a simple thing, but it made her happier than words can convey; at least until the call of sleep was too tempting to resist any longer.
…
Brent woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep on the rocky ground. Since he was awake, he figured he should start jogging again. The sooner he found food, the better. He placed a hand over his stomach as once again it reminded him that it was empty. He grumbled back at it, then started off.
It was hard to see in the dark, so occasionally he would trip in little dips in the ground or rocks. The stars he could see just fine. He was finally glad that he had taken astronomy in high school. He was following the north star. He just had to keep going, just a little farther. He kept telling himself and telling himself. He knew he wouldn't last much longer. He needed water as well. Just a little farther…