Chapter 4

The sky was half dark as Tim and John drove through the winding country roads. Tim was quiet as the truck moved through what Tim could see really wasmiles of cornfields. He couldn't stop thinking about how stupid the fight with Tony had been, and how incredibly stupid it was for him to go off on his own in the middle of nowhere. Tony would not die out here because of him - he wouldn't allow it.

John usually enjoyed a quiet drive. There was no traffic out here to contend with, like in the city, and the only noise he had to deal with at night were crickets and frogs. This quiet drive, however, was disconcerting. His young companion obviously had something weighing on his mind, other than finding his friend.

"What's bothering you, Tim?" he asked, more abruptly than he had intended.

"I'm worried about my friend," Tim said. It was a half-truth, and John saw right through it.

"There's something else on your mind."

Tim let his eyes flutter closed, and he averted his gaze to his lap.

"My Father died from cancer a couple of weeks ago."

"I'm sorry for your loss, Tim."

"Thanks."

"Can I ask why you're taking a road trip?"

"Tony, my friend, thought it would get my mind off things for a while. He said I needed a vacation."

"Sounds like he had good intentions."

"Yeah, that's what makes this whole situation worse than it is. He was trying to help, and all I did was yell at him because his car broke down, then left him in the middle of nowhere in a place where he can't call for help. I'm a terrible person."

John pulled the truck over and turned it off.

"It isn't just leaving your friend alone that's got you beating yourself up, is it?"

Tim sighed and shook his head.

"Can I tell you a story?"

"Sure."

"I was at odds with my father growing up. We never saw eye to eye about anything. He was a hard man to live with. After high school, I moved out of his house, and we didn't speak for twenty years. After he died, I regretted it all."

"Why are you telling me this?" Tim asked.

"I have a feeling your Father was a hard man, too."

Tim nodded.

"We didn't talk much. He wanted me to be in the Navy, follow in his footsteps. I didn't want that. We've been fighting about it since I was sixteen. We tried to make amends when I heard about his diagnosis, but he was still a stubborn bastard."

"What do you think your Dad would tell you right now, were he sittin' here in this truck?"

"He'd probably tell me I was being an idiot, and that it was stupid to let a friend go off on his own. He'd probably lay it into me."

"And what do you think I'm going to tell you right now?"

"Excuse me?"

"You were a fool to wander off on your own in this kind of heat, and you were a fool to leave your friend alone. It sounds like your friend was trying to help you cope on this road trip."

"You have no right to say anythingto me! You don't even know me!"

"You're right, I don'tknow you one way from another, young man, but I doknow that I could have left you on that road to die of heat stroke, but I stopped and gave you water, invited you to stay at my home. I'm also helping you find your friend, who's probably chained up in the Cobbs' barn by now. If you're going to be ungrateful, you can get out of my truck right now, and try to find your friend by yourself."

Tim looked down at his lap was being a huge jerk. This man saved him from death in the hot sun. If not for John, Gibbs would be peeling his dead body from a dirt road, rather than coming to find him and the broken down car.

"I'm sorry," he finally said. "I'm being an ass. You could have left me to die in the dirt, but you didn't. I'm sorry for disrespecting you."

"Apology accepted. Let's find your friend, shall we?"

Tim nodded, and John started the truck again. They were back on the road, and one step closer to finding Tony.

After an hour of driving, John was getting tired, and wanted to give up. As they turned another corner to head back toward the farm, Tim spotted something in the distnace. Something big.

"There! There's our car!" he said excitedly. John pulled up next to it and Tim jumped out. John followed him.

Tony was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it, he must have started walking to find help. There's no telling where he is now... with the miles of cornfields, he could have easily gotten lost."

"If I'm right, and he walked the opposite way you did, he probably wandered onto the Cobbs' property."

"We have to find him. I won't have his death on my conscience."

"It's nearly dark. It'll take twice as long to find him out here at night."

"I don't care," Tim said, and stopped to face John. "I'm not going to leave him alone out here. He wouldn't even bealone if I hadn't taken off. I'm finding him."

John nodded.

"Well, get what you need from your car and hop in the truck. We'll find him."

Tim excitedly ran for the car to gather some supplies. It was going to be a long night.

TBC...