The Travelers, part 1

The moon shone on her features only slightly, but enough to show her pale, frightened face.
"I told you this was a bad idea." Frank spat, running one hand over his coarse blond hair.
Taylor looked down at the ground. "I know."
She looked down into the deep gulley at Frank's car. The front end was wrapped around a sturdy gray oak tree. The branches of the tree, the very wind, still seemed to reverberate with the force of the crash.
"I know, and I'm sorry--" Taylor began, reaching out to touch Frank's arm.
Frank jerked away from her. "Don't."
"You're bleeding, Frank," Taylor said. "There's a huge scrape on your arm."
"Yeah, well, what did you expect?" Frank shouted. "We just wrecked the car, Taylor. We could have gotten killed. All because I listened to you."

After a few minutes, Taylor finally picked up her head and looked around. They were in the middle of nowhere. The town they lived in, Hughston, was at least ten miles away. The woods were thick on either side of the dirt road. In both directions, the road stretched out of view and into darkness. Taylor heard the trickle of the stream as it flowed past the tires of the wrecked car, splashed off the twisted bumper. All of this had begun fine, a drive to a late-night Friday party. Then somehow Taylor had convinced Frank to take a shortcut through Trenton Valley, a country road that Taylor had heard would take miles off of their trip. Now she looked down at the crumpled directions in her hand. So much for that. They had been driving through Trenton Valley for an hour when Frank swerved to miss a large tree branch, causing the car to skid. Frank had lost control, and the car slid sideways down the steep embankment. It had stopped only when it reached the bottom and collided, head-on, with an oak tree. Thankfully, both of them had gotten away with only minor scrapes and bruises. Taylor had been trembling ever since the accident, though.
"What about your phone?" Taylor asked.
"It got crushed," Frank said, "I left it sitting on the dashboard. Yours?"
"I couldn't find it when I got out of the car," Taylor said. "I suppose it's broken, too."
"Well, I guess we have no choice but to walk." Frank said. "Should we get going?"
Taylor took one last look at the twisted, crushed car, grateful she wasn't in a similar state, and nodded. She shivered. The night had grown colder.
'The Travelers', Copyright 2012, by Katy Allie. All rights reserved.