Young Writers Society

This is for tnme22's flash fiction contest.

A stream of fresh, crimson blood trickled down Tom's leg. He was just twenty-four, enjoying a hike with his friends. As he lay down in pain, with an extremely sharp thorn in his leg, he began to contemplate how it had happened in the first place.

It was a hot and humid mid-morning. The sun shot its rays out like laser guns, turning Tom and his friends into dripping fountains of sweat. The water that the guys had packed was no longer cold.

"I'm hungry," Tom had said. "Let's go get something to eat."

"Yes," agreed his friend Jerry. "I want to be done with this hike. Lets get some Arby's." Out of the four friends, Jerry was the weakest of the group, the one with the least endurance.

"We have to go back through the trail if we want to eat," Adam, another friend, reminded him. At this, Jerry sighed, groaning a little. "You can make it. If you don't, I'll tell Lucy you're a wimp." Lucy was Jerry's girlfriend, and a very fragile one, who only wanted the best boys around.

They sighed and went back to the trail. Tom was in front, with Jerry, Adam and Ben, respectively, behind them. As they were walking, however, Tom lost his footing and scraped his leg against the a thorn. He tripped and fell to the ground. The fall was sudden, making Jerry, Adam and Ben trip and fall as well. They all flew in different directions off the main trail - Jerry into a patch of poison ivy, Adam into a briar patch, and Ben in an area where ant nests were forming. Tom lay in the middle of the trail, bruised and bleeding.

However, pulling the thorn out only made more blood trickle down Tom's leg.
"Ben," he asked wearily, "Do you have the first aid kit?"
Ben didn't respond, for he was busy trying to get ants from crawling up his leg.
"Adam," He pleaded. However, because Adam had fallen into the briar patch, he was in much worse pain and he replied,
"Why should I help you, when you made us trip over?"
Tom rolled his eyes. "Jerry?"
"I agree with Adam," he said bluntly. "This is the worst hike ever."
"Listen," Tom said. "I'm sorry this had to happen. But I didn't make you trip over. We'll all go, get cleaned up." As his friends began to get out of their respective ares, Tom added, "Feel free to punish the real suspect."
And with that, Ben picked up the thorn and broke it in half.

Fair enough ending. Fair enough indeed. I didn't actually get into it until I read the ending, but that's because I'm picky and not much for mundane every day stories. Either way, it works.