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“Why did you take this turn? We needed to go right.”
“We did? I couldn’t hear clearly over the thunder,” Aiden replies.
“All the other cars turned right.” Why didn’t he just follow them?
“Sorry, I was lost in thought. It will be fine. I’ll turn around when possible.”
Just that there isn’t a safe spot to make a U-turn, and the sat nav already calculated an alternative route. It only adds another twelve minutes to the trip, so we decide to just drive on. Ah well, at least it wasn’t my fault this time.
After a while, though, I’m starting to get nervous. We seem to be the only car out here. If we drove off the road for any reason, no one would find us for a while. Then again, given his line of work, Aiden would have a tracking device on his phone, wouldn’t he? The thought calms me somewhat.
The sky, already dark, grows more ominous with every passing minute. Lightning illuminates the sky, the thunder loud and cracking. The trees sway and bend in the wind, leaves and small branches hitting the car.
“With our luck, there’ll be a fallen tree across the road,” I half-joke when a large branch breaks off ahead of us in the opposite lane.
“Don’t jinx us,” Aiden mumbles.
I glance over at him. He still is the epitome of calm. His focus is fully on the road as he maneuvers us expertly on the slippery winding roads.
And I realize something.
I feel safe with him.
Really, really safe.
Huh, go figure.
Suddenly, the satellite navigation screen goes black. I tap it a few times. “It says connection lost. I don’t think we’ll be able to find our way without it,” I say, a little panicked.
“Oh ye of little faith,” Aiden teases. “Don’t you worry, Sunshine. I’ll get us to Atlanta.”
His assurance does little to stifle my rising uneasiness. He briefly glances over. My anxiety must be written all over my face.
“Riley, I promise we’ll be fine. If it makes you feel any better, let’s use the navigation app on my phone. Our location and the weather most likely killed the car one, but nothing will mess with the reception on my phone.”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, trying to scan his fingerprint to unlock it. He soon succeeds and passes it me.
Just as I’m about to take it, Aiden drives around a bend in the road and suddenly swerves, narrowly missing a large tree that’s half obstructing our path. The phone slips from my fingers and I fumble to catch it. But it goes flying backward and lands somewhere in the backseat.
I quickly grab the door handle to hold on to something. We’re not out of the woods yet… pun intended.
More heavy branches litter the road ahead, and the ride is bumpy. Lightning flashes right in front of us, and not a second later, a loud boom crackles the air, scaring the living daylights out of me.
My scream is ear-splitting as adrenaline hits my bloodstream like a drug. I watch the tree that was just split in half by the lightning strike begin to fall toward the road.
Aiden hits the gas, and we clear the area just before it comes crashing down.
Holy shit!
I’m sure I’m white as a ghost.
Crap, that was close!
My heart is beating frantically, and I can hardly breathe, my entire body trembling.
Eventually we reach a stretch of road with no trees on either side and Aiden stops the car.
“Are you okay, Sunshine?” he asks, concern in his voice.
