Young Writers Society

Chapter 2 Voices

Jed’s eyes flashed from Kassie to the road. A black sedan had crossed the yellow line and was headed straight for the pickup. Kassie screamed as Jed braked and swerved to the left to avoid the collision. His eyes flashed in an anxious glance over his shoulder just as the taillights of the other vehicle disappeared down the side of the slope. A heavy crash from over the ridge split the silence as Jed stopped the vehicle safely on the other side of the road. Kassie gasped, her fingers reaching up to the window beside her. Roughly, Jed switched gears to park and shoved open the driver’s door. A persistent knocking instantly exploded the silence, warning him that the keys were still in the ignition.

Kassie's wide eyes swept up to Jed as he gazed over the top of the vehicle. Her trembling fingers slid into her backpack, and she pulled out her phone. Jed stared blankly into the darkness across the road. The eager chirping of the frogs in the ditch beside the pickup became distinguishable in the silence as he searched the road for a sign of the vehicle. He shook his head as he slid back into the driver's seat.

His eyes met Kassie's as she lifted her phone to her ear. Her gaze lowered as she bit the edge of her thumbnail. “Yes...There—there’s a black sedan that just d-drove off the ridge,” Kassie mumbled in a shaky voice. Uneasily, she grasped the soda can in the cupholder, crinkling it loudly in the still air as she crushed it between her fingers.

Jed turned away and pulled the keys from the ignition. The quiet charming ceased, and the unsettling monotone of the nighttime insects grew louder. Jed's gaze rose to the windshield, and he stared out at the bugs zipping in and out of the headlights in front of him.

“I—I’m not sure,” Kassie admitted in a weak tone. She cast Jed a nervous glance, tightening her grasp on the soda can and causing the sides to dent sharply inward.

“Yes, yes that’s right.” Kassie’s voice grew stronger as she spoke. She swallowed uneasily and listened breathlessly to the voice on the other end of the line. After a few minutes, Kassie lowered her phone. She exhaled a deep sigh and forced a difficult swallow, her eyes moving subconsciously in the direction the other vehicle had disappeared in.

Jed turned to face her. “You okay?” he asked gently as he watched her eyes nervously scan the side of the hill.

Kassie nodded. Quietly, she released the partly crushed soda can and used her trembling fingers to smooth a strand of her hair. She drew out a forced breath and straightened her posture.

Jed cast the open door beside him a glance. His eyes rose. "I'm going to have a look down there. You want to come?"

Kassie frowned, her worried brown eyes lifting uneasily to her cousin's face. She shook her head.

Jed nodded. Shoving the door open a little wider, he slid out onto the gravel and lifted his phone. Kassie's gaze drifted to the other side of the road. Nervously, she lifted a finger and pulled a strand of her hair behind her ear. The soda can still sitting in the cupholder suddenly snapped back into its cylindrical form. Kassie startled at the sound, and her eyes shot toward the can.

Jed turned on his phone's flashlight, his eyes lifting again to his cousin's face. "You sure you don't want to come?" he asked, lifting the light beam and casting it on his cousin.

Kassie reached across herself, and Jed heard the seatbelt click free. "I'll come."

Jed nodded. He stepped back and let the door to the pickup slide shut. Stepping in front of the glowing headlights, he reached the road and began to cross it. Distantly, he heard the passenger’s door open behind him. He paused and shot a glance over his shoulder as his cousin jumped down from the pickup. Jed turned around and crossed the road. He halted at the edge of the gravel on the other side and glanced down the ridge.

A single beam of light pierced the darkness from an unbroken headlight at the side of the slope, guiding Jed's eyes to the scene of the accident. The sedan had collided into a tree. The right side of it had disappeared into a mass of warped metal. The other side stood unharmed.

A second beam of light joined Jed's at the edge of the forest as Kassie stepped up to her cousin's side. Jed made a faint gesture toward the wrecked vehicle. Faintly, he felt his cousin's fingers wrap around his arm. Jed turned to face his cousin. "I'm going to go down there...see if there're any survivors," he announced in a quiet tone, his gaze centering at Kassie's pale face. He attempted to slide his arm out of her desperate grasp, but she clung on, her eyes frozen to the site of the accident.

"Don't go by yourself," she whispered barely audibly, her eyes unmoved from the crashed vehicle. "I'll go with you."

Jed hesitated, his eyes running across the youthful face and eyes slowly lifting to his own. Jed's gaze lowered, and he nodded. Turning back to the forest, he started to descend the hill, keeping his pace slow enough to allow Kassie to fall into step behind him. Scanning the darkness ahead of him, he made out a pair of fresh tire prints in the soft ground leading down to the accident. He flashed his phone up. The red reflective strips in the taillights glared back at the glow shot at them from behind a particularly large section of thorns the vehicle had crashed through. Selecting a path to avoid the thorns, Jed led Kassie closer to the vehicle.

The scent of the burning gasoline wafted by the two, bringing with it the sound of the vehicle’s rumbling engine. As they rounded a tree near the accident, a muffled shriek suddenly caught the cousins' attention. Instinctively, Jed flashed his beam of light toward the vehicle. The shaft glinted uselessly off the window facing the cousins, and Jed lowered the light.

Kassie caught up to Jed, and she paused for a moment at his side, her eyes scanning the vehicle ahead. “Someone's alive in there," she whispered, the urgency in her voice evident as she stepped past her cousin.

Jed nodded as he ducked below a low hanging tree limb. Straightening, he stepped up to the side of the vehicle where Kassie already stood, her fingers pressed up against the window and beam of light pointed into the interior. "Jed!" she exclaimed, her eyes eagerly scanning the backseat. "It's a little kid!" Her fingers fell from the window and latched to the door handle. Throwing a wave of her hair over her shoulder, she pulled open the door. The screaming instantly grew louder. Jed tried to peer into the vehicle from around Kassie but was able to see little of the dark interior.

“It's a girl," Kassie reported, shoving her flashlight between her shoulder and her neck as she crawled into the interior.

Jed cast the front of the vehicle a worried glance, but the vehicle was stabilized in the center of the tree it had smashed into.

“She looks unharmed, but I don’t know for certain," Kassie continued, seating herself in the middle of the backbench. She lifted her chin and peered over the seat in front of her. "I don't know about the driver, though," she whispered softly.

Jed nodded, watching as the beam of Kassie's flashlight slid from the front of the vehicle. "The car's pretty stuck in the tree, but avoid making excessive movement," Jed informed her. "I'm going to go to the front."

Kassie nodded and turned around, her flashlight beam moving to the opposite side of the vehicle.

Jed stepped toward the driver’s side of the crashed sedan, listening subconsciously to the urgent shrieking of the little girl in the backseat. His hand fell to the door handle, and his fingers grazed a sharp, pointed object. Jerking his hand back, Jed turned his fingers over to find a faint bleeding line. His eyes shot back to the door. A small set of thorns lay arranged on a stick bent over the door handle. Flicking it to the ground, Jed repositioned his hand and pulled the handle toward himself. The door yielded to the pressure and opened.