Chapter 1
Never Smoke and Drive
“Dude this pot is really good, where did you get it?” The wind was blowing through the car, and Kendra was throwing out last roach that the car had. Jacob’s words must have fallen on deaf ears as he repeated his question, “Dude this pot is really good! Where did you get it?” What,” yelled Will, the wind blowing in his ears making sound almost impossible to hear. The windows were suddenly being rolled down, and Will saw the cause. His girlfriend had rolled down the window. “Twilight what are you doing,” his girlfriend frowned at him. “I told you to stop calling me that”! Will smiled, “Ok . . . ok . . . Britney.” Britney gave a thankful smile, and looked back at Kendra her blond hair was long with red and blue streaks. She was a wild girl. She had many necklaces on some chokers one with a pendant of a skull. She had many bracelets and a couple rings on her pale fingers. “Hand me the blunt,” Kendra held up her hands to show her that it was out.
“Come on Kendra, you always hog the blunt,” Kendra smiled widely at Britney laughing slightly. Jacob was laughing too. He had bright red hair almost the color of a fire truck. He had huge studs in his ears, which made giant holes in his ear lobe. His shirt was skin tight and his hair was black like coal, which matched Britney’s. Jacob gave the back of the seat a kick with his knees, “Hey dude, where did you get this pot from?” The sun was setting in the sky, “I got it from a friend of mine. Jacob began to laugh trying to collect himself. “He supposedly gets it from a guy, who gets it from this crazy old guy who lives in the woods . . . supposedly he supplies the whole state of South Carolina.” Jacob began to laugh harder, “Some crazy old guy?” Kendra turned away from the window returning to the conversation, “Some crazy old guy? Who? Will’s brother?” Will began to laugh “Trey . . . Yeah he’s a little crazy. That’s why this spring break has got to be insane”! Kendra moved between the seats, “Oh . . . my . . . god, you keep saying that!” Will laughed a little harder, “Well tell me you wouldn’t want to out due a guy that goes down for spring break . . . parties so hard that he ends up marrying a chick. We never heard from him again just the letter about him getting married. He even sent wedding photos”!
“You see what happens when you two hog the whole blunt,” yelled a disappointed Britney. “Sitting around yapping about Will’s long lost brother. Do we have anymore pot,” she asked. Will shook his head as Britney continued, “How the hell are you going to take me on spring break with only an eighth of pot.” Will rolled his eyes, “I am sorry, it was so good I thought it would last us.” He pointed at Jacob and Kendra, who were now looking at each other with pure hunger for each other in their faces.
“Look, it’s getting dark and I have to sober up. I am not worried about pot right now.” Britney growled, “I barely got to smoke,” Will shot back, “Calm down, we will find somebody there. My brother told me that you could get anything you want down there.” “Whatever happened to your brother,” asked Will. Will looked a lot like his brother. He had a baby face with blue eyes. His hair was spiked with blond streaks, and was the complete opposite of Jacob. Jacob dressed punk, and Will dressed more on the preppy side. “We don’t know. He went down to do spring break, but he said he found a girl, and they are now living together.” “Is he coming home soon?” Will shook his head. Britney decided to drop the conversation. She decided to check on Jacob and Kendra. She was lucky that she had checked, Kendra and Jacob were making out and looked about to rip each others clothes off. “Stop that you two,” Britney started slapping them trying to separate them. “You two are just like children,” “Why,” said Kendra asking like a child would. “You two always need to be watched,” they both laughed looking at each other fondly.
“You’re just jealous, that is why your being a blocker,” Britney gasped, “I am not blocking I just don’t want you two doing it in the back seat.” “So is the leash tight around your neck?” “Shut up Jacob,” Britney reached over and tried to slap Jacob, but Kendra came to her boyfriend’s defense. She grabbed the hands of Britney as they began laughing together beginning to rough house.
“Stop it Britney,” yelled Will, but they continued to fight, “Let go of me Kendra”! Kendra was still holding onto her hands, “Not until you admit you are a blocker”! Will reached over to try and separate them, “Stop it, your going to make us crash”! Could you call it destiny, could you call it fate? Will slammed on the brakes making the tires screech loudly and smoke began to appear behind them. Everything seemed to grow still as if the earth was set on pause. The deer that was crossing the street, flipped up onto the hood and slammed into the window. Everybody was screaming including Will as the car swerved to the left and then the right. Soon the car came to a halt, and Will smashed his head into the steering wheel. He heard the glass shatter, and his head recoiled back after hitting the steering wheel.
“Will . . . Will, wake up,” Will felt somebody slapping his face. His eyes opened a little. His vision was blurry and he saw Britney slapping his face. She had a huge cut on her forehead, “I can’t really see”. His vision was so blurry that everything looked like globs of clay. They were stuck on a rural road that was in the middle of a giant forest. Will exited the car, and he heard Britney do the same. Will began to rub his head as it throbbed in pain, “Oh no!” The car was wrecked, “Grab her feet, Britney.” Britney grabbed the feet of Kendra and helped Jacob pull her out of the car.
Jacob laid Kendra on the ground, “She’s still alive! We need an ambulance.” Will rubbed his face and could feel glass pouring out from his hair. “I don’t even know where we are. What road are we on,” Britney asked. Jacob had taken residence next to Kendra holding her hand, whispering softly to her, “Please Kendra wake up.” Kendra did not stir, and it seemed that the crash had affected her the most. “All I know Britney is we were heading to the highway.” “We are lost,” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “Look I have been high all day trying to get us to Panama City, and I can’t remember where we are!” Britney walked to the middle of the street and began to gaze down it. “Call 911 Will while I figure out where we are.” Will dug out his phone, “Wait we got to get rid of the all the liquor and pot.” Britney turned and shouted at Will, “There is no more pot! We could have died from being high.” “It wasn’t the pot that caused us to crash, it was this stupid deer.” Britney frowned as her face was all bruised up, “What will I tell the police, they are going to search the vehicle.”
Will and Britney argued well into the night. Jacob sat next to Kendra, whose condition had improved a little. Will’s vision had cleared up in the time of arguing, but finally Will had enough. “Look I have to clean up the car,” he turned and began to pull out bags of luggage and throw the bottles of liquor into the forest. “Wait, Will there is a car coming down the street” yelled Britney. Will threw a giant bottle of vodka into the forest, when he turned his head he saw lights creeping through the forest. Britney was waving her hands in the air trying to wave down the driver. The car still moved slowly down the street, “Please stop,” yelled Britney trying to get the attention of the driver. Will thought that the screaming was pointless. After all, the car could not be moving more than ten miles on hour. “It’s a sheriff,” screamed Britney, Will saw the red and blue light blare up, and the car pulled up to Britney. A woman’s voice could be heard. “Good evening miss, is there a problem?” Britney pointed towards the crashed vehicle, “What do you think?” The sheriff stepped out of her car, and Will noticed that she was very attractive. She had black hair and had a toned figure. She was definitely out of place. “Is there anybody hurt,” she walked around and saw Jacob on the ground holding Kendra’s hand. He had not moved from the spot. “Get her in the car, I’m going to take all of you to the hospital.”
She grabbed the feet of Kendra with Jacob and put her in the back seat of her car. “I am going to take you all to the hospital all right.” Britney seemed convinced by the sheriff and got into the car as did Jacob. “Listen officer,” he paused and eyed the name plate that was over her right breast, “Star . . .” he paused again saying the name over in his head. What an odd name to have, but putting his curiosity to rest he asked his question, “What about our stuff . . . the car?” Star got into the driver’s seat, “I’ll send a tow truck for it. We need to get you to the emergency room.” Jacob looked back at the car. This was too weird, this sheriff came out of nowhere as if heaven sent. However what else was Will going to do? They had all gotten in the car, and he had to follow them. He got into the car and Star pulled back on the road. Luckily it was faster than what she had been driving before.
“So, I saw that you guys hit a deer, now is that why you guys crashed?” The sheriff did not look at them when she spoke. She continued to drive down the dirt road taking the exact route she had come from. “So, where were you guys heading,” asked the sheriff trying to break the silence in the car. Britney however threw icy water on the conversation, “Look we don’t really feel like talking.” Will thought he saw a glower come from the sheriff, but when he tried to get a better glimpse, it was gone. They continued to drive in silence. A faint smell began to permeate the air. It was on the tip of Will’s nose, and he thought that he saw Britney put a hand on the window. She rolled it down slowly. Jacob even turned his head from Kendra and looked at Will. The car was beginning to smell like marijuana. Will could hear Britney shifting in her seat, “You know we don’t get a lot of people out here.” “Really,” replied Britney sounding sarcastic. Once again Will thought he saw a glower from the sheriff.
The sheriff took a right and traveled down that road for a couple of minutes. She then took a left, and they traveled down that road for a longer amount of time. The smell of marijuana getting thicker and Will began to shake his leg. It was only a matter of time before the sheriff would smell it or she already smelled it. “So, how far is the hospital,” asked Britney a little louder than normal. Will noticed she was trying to lower the window a little more. “Its a couple more miles up the road,” Star smiled at them. Will saw Britney’s face fall, “You don’t need to keep lowering the window, I know one of you was smoking marijuana.” Will’s leg began to vibrate faster, “No, we don’t smoke marijuana.” Britney shook her head too trying to look convincing. “You don’t need to worry. My husband and I are the only law enforcement in this town. We smoke marijuana all the time.” Will wished that he could chuckle, but the sight of Jacob holding Kendra in his arms was about as unfunny as you could get.
They pulled into the parking lot of a small hospital, or what they hoped was a hospital. The Neon sign that hug above the main entrance read Pinewood Forest Hospital. Most of the letters were out with just the two p’s and the word rest. It was run down and did not look to be sanitary at all. Britney actually snorted in disgust as Jacob was already trying to get across Kendra to get her out of the car. “This can’t be right,” said Britney turning to the sheriff with disgust on her face. “What is wrong with it,” asked Star looking at the hospital as if she could not see the problem. Will was even surprised that he did not see rats crawling over the building or even in the road. “This is not sanitary. You can’t treat somebody in an unclean hospital”! Will coughed really loud trying to tell Britney to keep her mouth closed. The sheriff opened the door, “Well this is the only hospital for over sixty miles.” “What,” screamed Britney in such disbelief. “Look, hun the town is dying, and there is hardly anybody left in it to keep it a town.” Jacob was carrying Kendra up the steps towards the main entrance, “So, I am sorry you will have to be treated by the staff of Pinewood Forest Hospital.”