Bitch: Puncture (book 2)

“Ok ok. I’m looking for a little side road here, come up here you two and keep an eye out.” Arlene said. “It’s Indian Truck Trail and it’s supposed to run off to the left.”

She slowed at each turn. We spied a stick with the words Truck Trail hand painted on it. Apoc and I barked at the same time.

“Whoo-hoo! This is so exciting.” Arlene turned the mini bus onto the dirt road, well more two tire tracks through the woods.

We passed a little dilapidated grey barn, which had rotted and collapsed in on itself. The mossy green wood on the side an angular arrow that pointed up the hill and away from the highway that ran along the river ravine. We made a turn and the dirt shifted to gravel which crunched loudly under the tires.

I felt the change in the contact with the ground. Arlene was driving fast enough that I could feel the rocks shift and move. She slowed down, I could see little beads of sweat on her upper lip and on her forehead above her eyebrows.

She slammed on the brakes. We slid for another twenty or so feet on the gravel. She dropped it into reverse and we rolled back down the hill to where a tree with an orange ribbon fluttered. She turned off the road and into the woods. This had been a actual road at some point where the dirt had been hard packed enough to resist the seasons. Now it was overgrown to near invisibility, but the path was still here just covered in leaves. We finally rolled into a small meadow and pulled to stop under some trees.

There was a breathless silence after the engine shut off. And then she finally told us the rest of her harebrained plan.