"Get the flashlight from the glove box," he whispered, his voice making James jump. "We're getting out of here."
"We're not even near a town though," James whispered. "We could be walking all night."
"Walking is better than staying here."
With those words said, he made his way slowly to Guy's truck. Guy had always kept one of those huge battery powered lights under his seat and it was way more powerful than the one Alex kept for emergencies. He would feel bad for taking it from his friend but, if Guy shared the same fate as Tom, then he wouldn't be needing it.
Once he opened the door, Alex could see that they did. Guys hands still gripped the steering wheel, his head resting against it as if he had fallen asleep, but his hands were covered in blood, small droplets dripping down into a puddle on the floor. His blood supposedly, but Alex couldn't see the wound from that angle. Crouching down beside the open door, he slid his hand under the seat, feeling around for the light. The carpeting was squishy and wet and he could feel the hole in the floor where the spike had come through. It was just a little bit bigger round than his fist, but it had already proven the kind of damage it could do.
Leaning against the door frame, Alex probed further under the seat, finding the light under the passenger seat, then felt around for anything that might be used as a weapon. All he found was a tire iron, but that would hardly be effect against..whatever it was under the sand. Alex stood and took one last look at Guy before shutting the door then turning back to his car. Tom had Alex's flashlight in his hand and was casting the beam around in various directions.
"Come on," Alex said, the large beam produced from Guys light piercing through the darkness. He walked around the truck and headed in the direction away from the passenger side, James quickly catching up and walking along side him.
They made their way across the sand in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. James kept replaying the events of the night in his head, more as a distraction than anything else, but also taking an attempt at figuring out what went wrong. One minute they were having fun, the next, two of his friends were dead. Alex was also thinking about this, but he the let the question run freely through his mind that James was working so hard at keep back. Would this be the end of them as well?
While James hoped with ever fiber of his being that it wouldn't be, it was safe to say that Alex really didn't care. Death is death, it would happen eventually. Why should it matter if it was now or later? It was unexpected that it should happen this way, if it indeed was to occur. He always thought it would be in a gang fight or perhaps in a scuffle with the Confederate Police. God knows they had nearly caught them in this or that act of "malice" that would have certainly gotten them locked away, perhaps even executed. That was the way to go out for the common criminal, not standing up to your ankles in sand while a subterranean thing shoots up between your legs to impale you where the sun doesn't shine.
The night grew longer, their journey into the desert seeming to stretch endlessly into one sand dune after another. Neither of them knew the time as they wore no watches. Alex always thought time was only relative if you had to be somewhere, and the others followed his example no matter what he said or did. Added to that was the overcast sky, giving away no traces of the moons position which may have given them some idea of the time. As close as Alex could figure as he remembered what time it was when he left home, it was early morning.
He was trying to figure out an approvement time when he noticed the rustling sound. It was loud at first then faded slightly, just barely heard, but still there. He didn't pay much attention to it at first, figuring James was shuffling his feet or kicking up sand for something to do. When it kept up though, Alex glanced over to see that he was just walking along.
"Is that you making that noise?" he asked.
James shook his head, raising his gaze up from the ground to look at him. "I thought it was you. Must be a desert animal or something."
Alex nodded, turning back to the front. It was a logical answer. After all, who knew what could live out here, in the desert smack dab in the middle of nowhere. This thought brought him no comfort and only added to his unease as he was now wondering what did live out here in the middle of nowhere.
"Think we could rest a minute?" James question was a welcome interruption.
"Yeah," he said, slowing down to a stop with James following suit. "A few minutes won't hurt."
James bent over a little, his hands resting on his knees. "We should have stayed at the car. Maybe somebody would have come by and picked us up."
Alex shook his head. "Who would have? We're in the middle of the desert in the dead of night. You'd have to be either a cop or a criminal to be out here that late, and with two dead guys and a murdered girl not ten feet from us, I would rather not run into either."
James didn't say anything for a while then nodded, righting himself and stretching his arms up over his head with a yawn. He was tired, they both were. While neither of them were out of shape, this walk was taking a lot out of them.
Alex covered his own yawn with his hand, blinking away the look of tiredness he could feel starting to creep into his expression. His ears popped with the movement of his jaw and, as his hearing returned to normal, he could hear the shuffling again. It was closer this time and it was only now that he noticed it had ceased for the moment they had stopped. He opened his mouth to mention this to James but, as he glanced to his face, Alex could see he already knew this.
Then all was quiet. James looked over to Alex, gulping nervously. Neither of them moved nor made a sound. It seemed as if an unspoken communication had passed between them. Maybe if they were still then whatever it was would forget they were there and move on. But this wasn't the case. The shuffling was replaced by a low rumble, and it took them a moment in their respective states of panic to recognize it as a growl.
p align=rightContinued...