No Turning Back by Kim Flowers

Author:Kim Flowers [Flowers, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Queerteen Press
Published: 2020-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17: Nowhere

Ash squinted into the sun. “Let’s take a break.”

“We’ll find a city soon,” Dayna said, dropping the cooler and flopping down beside a tree stump.

“Yeah, we’ll find something any time now,” Kevin said.

Ash leaned against an oak and pulled her knees to her chest. They had been closer to civilization at the schoolhouse than she’d thought. After crossing the creek and walking through a few more trees, they’d reached the other end of the fence enclosing the school grounds and found a town. However, after walking past several houses, one church, and a tiny auto body shop, they realized there was nothing else there. No grocery store, no gas station, nothing. Their food was almost gone.

Kevin took a sip of water, and then uncharacteristically put the bottle away.

“Drink as much as you want, I can’t let you die of thirst,” Ash said. She felt like a complete failure.

“It’s okay. I’m fine.” He curled up on the grass and put his head on his bear.

Ash looked from him to Dayna in wonder. It had been three days since they’d left the schoolhouse behind, and they had changed. Dayna’s black eye and swollen lip had healed. Her skin was bronze from the sun; combined with her shorter hair, she looked like a different person. Kevin’s eye had only faint yellowish marks around it. He was still red from sunburn, but said his skin didn’t hurt. He’d also pulled his loose tooth. Ash had put a quarter by his head as he slept.

Ash flipped through her notebook. “It’s Thursday, June fourth. Lots of people go on vacation in the summer; we might not seem so strange when we walk through towns.”

“You’ll be strange no matter what time of year it is,” Kevin said.

“Hey!” Ash yelled. She laughed and passed their last bottle of water around. Well, they did have one jug left, but it was the creek water. “Kevin, could I see the map again?” she asked.

He unzipped a side pocket of his backpack with a flourish and thrust the map at her. She looked at it, scratching her head. None of them had been able to figure out the name of the town or village or whatever it was they’d walked through days before.

“I must have gotten turned around when we walked through the storm. The only thing I can think of is to just keep walking in the direction of Matt’s town and hope we find a place to get more supplies soon.”

“Sounds good to me.” Dayna slung her duffle bag over her shoulder and stood.

Kevin yanked the cooler from her. “My turn!” he sang.

Ash handed the map back to him and grinned as they started walking. Despite all the hardships, she couldn’t have asked for two better travel friends.

“If we don’t find anything by the time the food runs out, I’ll catch a squirrel and cook it,” Kevin said, trotting ahead with the cooler banging behind him. “Ash, you can make a fire and Dayna can look for plants to eat.

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