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backseat while Mike rode with their gear in the back end. Paul
turned to Sophia in the passenger seat, keeping the Jeep at a cool thirty-five
miles per hour. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. The morning sun
drenched her olive skin that never burned, even on the hottest of days. She was
beautiful and he loved her more than anything in the world, which is why he
worried about her the most.
    She flashed him a quick smile. “I love
you,” she mouthed over the Black Keys.
    Paul kissed her hand. “I love you.”
    “I would love to take a leak!”
    Paul looked at Dan in the rearview
mirror, eyebrows dipping. “Grab an empty water bottle and make a trucker bomb.”
    Mike and Matt groaned their disgust
before morphing into a slow moving laugh while Sophia peered at Paul over the
top of her sunglasses.
    “Don’t be gross,” she said, pushing her
shades back up.
    “Mom?” Matt said in a
high voice. “What’s a trucker bomb?”
    “Never mind, Peanut .”
    Mike laughed. “It’s when you pee in a
bottle, kid!”
    “You’re a kid!”
    Carla chuckled, shaking her head at Paul
in the mirror.
    They could be loud now as the Jeep
rolled down the interstate with Dan’s iPod plugged into the deck. Paul jerked
forward when the vehicle slammed into a deer that came sprinting from the tree
line. Blood sprayed the windshield, blocking his view. He fought the wheel for
control, everyone falling deathly silent as the SUV fishtailed through the
milky powder. The brake pedal clicked beneath his boot, doing little to slow
their speed. The rear end swung out to the right and slid back hard left, sending
the vehicle careening into the right hand ditch. A booming crunch filled their
ears as the front end plowed up a mountain of snow and earth, snapping them to
a shuddering halt at an awkward angle. The engine sputtered and died. Time froze
as they caught their breath in the thunderstruck silence that followed.
    Paul turned to Sophia, hands still glued
to the wheel. “Are you okay?”
    She looked down and watched her chest
undulate beneath her coat. “I think so. Are you?”
    Releasing his seatbelt, he twisted
around to face the others in back. “Is everyone alright?”
    “Holy shit.” Dan looked up
from his lap, face drawn and white as a ghost. “I just peed my pants.”
    Matt wrinkled his nose and scooted
closer to his mom.

 
 
 
 
    Chapter Eight

 
 
 
 
 
    The good news was they crashed next to
an empty field where nothing could sneak up on them except the wind. The bad
news was the rig wasn’t going anywhere ever again. The crinkled right front end
looked like an accordion, the tire beneath it peeled off the black rim.
    “ Unfuckingbelievable ,”
Paul muttered, staring at the mangled tire. “Of all the times
for something like this to happen.”
    Dan frowned at him. “Don’t tell me you
let your Triple A run out.”
    “Are you ever serious?”
    “Oh yeah, look who’s talking!”
    Paul kicked the tire. “Fucking airbags
didn’t even deploy. We could’ve been killed.”
    Dan released a white stream of breath.
“My underwear is starting to freeze.”
    “Shit!”
    The wind stung their cheeks and eyes and
the worried looks staring back from inside the car broke Paul’s heart. This
wasn’t good. They had kids now to think about for fuck’s sake!
    “There’s gotta be a car we can snag at the next exit,” Dan said, shielding the sun with his
hand.
    Paul followed his distant gaze south,
squinting against the bright white. What other choice did they have? They would
have to hoof it from here, and even though six or seven hours of daylight
remained, they had to hurry. “Let’s grab everything we can carry and get going.”
    Sophia was a strong twenty-eight year
old woman and had grown a lot stronger over the past week, but when she found
out they would have to walk…she finally lost it. This would be the first time
they went anywhere on foot and she didn’t want any part of it. None of