“What is your location?”
“I think we’re on Lincoln Highway? Can’t you track our location?” Adrian yelled, hopefully loud enough to be heard.
“I’ll see what I can do. Is anyone hurt?”
“Yes!” Aria was the one to respond. “Heavily!”
“Alright, miss. Please calm down.”
“No, no, you don’t get it, they’ve killed people in there. We need the police or something.” Mira was becoming more frantic.
The operator changed their tune. “Miss, there’s heavy snowfall coming up in the area. We will dispatch a police officer and an ambulance to your location as fast as we can.”
“Please!”
“Are you able to stay on the line?”
The static noises on the line got louder.
“Miss―” The low battery of the phone cut the operator off.
After a moment of silence, Aria spoke, “Adrian, you heard the lady. Heavy snowfall.”
He nodded. The snow was already sprinkling down, but to hear that it will only get worse? That was definitely ‘no bueno’ situation at all.
Crazy people aside, they were in a car with no heating, no winter wear, and if—when their gasoline runs out, they’ll be subjected to the elements. It wasn’t like they weren’t cold already. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Aria try to rub her arms for warmth and Mira shivering.
If those lunatics didn’t catch them, hypothermia might.
Not too long later and just as predicted, the car began to show signs of running out of fuel completely. The only good thing that was coming out of the situation was that he couldn’t see the headlights of the other car. Snowfall might suck but at least it helped cover them.
Instead of staying on the highway, he pulled over to the side in the hopes that there would be no snowstorms, avalanches, or anything else that would make his life so much more fun.
The car eventually died and Adrian did his best to keep his hopes up. After all, the operater knew what was happening, there was a dispatch on their way, and . . . and someone was bound to find them.
Right?
Still, that didn’t stop the cold from creeping up on them. Aria moved to the back to check on Mira where not a moment later, he heard some great news.
“She’s burning up.”
He had to check Mira’s temperature to confirm that statement. The situtation they were in immediately went from bad to worse. If Mira was coming down with the cold then she should be fine, but that was under a normal circumstance. Right now, they were in the least ideal place to take care of a sick person; not to mention that it might not be the common cold. It could be an effect of whatever that insane woman did to her.
“I hope the EMT gets here soon,” Adrian whispered. “What about you? Are you okay?”
Aria looked at him. “Physically, I’m fine. Mentally, I’m shaken up.”
Adrian agreed, “We’ll get out of here. We have to.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Adrian.”
“What?” He tried to lighten the mood.
“I can’t believe that in the most dire of situations, you try to pull a joke.”
He cracked a small smile with little joy. “It’s what you do in times like these.”
“Times like these . . . has this happened before?”
Adrian shook his head. “This isn’t normal if that’s what you’re asking. I mean I’ve heard stories about this, but I never thought that it’d happen. I’m sorry about all of this by the way, I didn’t mean for you to get into this sh*t.”
“It’s not your fault, Adrian.”
“Maybe.”
“It isn’t.”
“I just . . . I just want you two to be okay.”
Aria reached out to him. “I want all of us to be okay, too.”
Adrian then took the hand that she offered and noted how cold it was.
“You’re so warm,” Aria noted.
“Thanks. You’re freezing.”
A pause.
“So―” they both said at the same time.
“Ah, you go first.” Aria looked at him.
“Wait, no, you go first.”
“No, no, you go first.”
“Aria.”
“Adrian.”
He looked at her with a brow raised.
“Damn, you’re too stubborn sometimes,” Aria huffed and a cloud of warm air appeared to contrast with the cold. “Anyway, what I was going to ask was, what’s gonna happen after all of this?”
“I don’t know. I mean we’ll have to talk to the police first, then my dad and Alpha Joel will probably help sort it all out. Hopefully, they’ll catch everyone who’s involved in all of this bullsh*t, and get some justice too.”
“What about Mira?”
“We’ll have to get her to a hospital. They’ll probably get a psychiatrist for her too. I can’t imagine her being okay after any of this.” He glanced back at the sick girl, knowing that there was no way she was ‘okay’ after all of this.
“What about us?”
Why did it sound like such a relationship question?
“What do you want?”
Aria didn’t respond right away, so he did.
“I mean, I’ll understand if you don’t want to be around me anymore. After all, it’s kinda the reason why you’re stuck in this hell. I mean, you could’ve died twice in the same month. So it’s like―”
“Do you really think I’m gonna leave just like that?”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”
“Then what about you?”
“I’ll deal with it. Believe me, I can. I’ll have to.”
“But I don’t want you to ‘have to’.” Aria became stubborn again. “Look, remember what I said before? At the very least we’ll be friends.”
“Yeah, but still. That’s a lot to ask for. Your life could still be in constant danger around us.” He didn’t want to exclude Mira because he needed Aria to understand how interwoven everyone is.
“I can’t promise that something like this won’t happen again.”
“You’re right, but I’m already in too deep
