Julia opened her eyes to find Lara snuggled underneath the blanket. She lifted her head and then reached for the radio and pressed a button to see what time it was...
7:03 AM.
The rain had stopped falling and there were a few patches of blue across a mostly clouded sky. She put her seat back up, and then yawned and blinked her eyes several times.
"Hey!" she spoke, jostling Lara's shoulder underneath the blanket.
"Uhh!" Lara murmured.
"Come on, get up."
Lara finally threw the blanket off of her. It was still cold inside the car. Lara snuggled herself back under the blanket.
"Let's trade places and get out of this place." Julia said.
Lara reluctantly sat and put her seat back up.
"Are you sure?" Lara asked. "You're going to get your feet muddy again."
"Let's see if we can crawl over each other and switch seats." Julia offered.
The two girls looked as if they were playing a game of Twister, with one of them nude. The smaller Lara had leaned in between the two seats, putting her hands on the backseat of the car. Julia meanwhile leaned forward and put her hands on the driver seat. The two started laughing as they crawled around each other. Lara had ended up fully into the backseat, eventually crawling into the passenger seat once Julia got herself into the driver's seat.
Julia started the engine. Lara turned on the heater to its hottest setting, waiting patiently for the engine to warm up the air. After a few revs with the accelerator, Julia put the car in gear and hit the gas.
The front tires spun, but the car went nowhere.
She hit the accelerator pedal harder, and engine revved louder, but the car went nowhere.
"No!" Julia cried out. Don't tell me we're stuck!"
Lara sat looking at her unsure of what to say.
Julia put the car in reverse and tried backing out. But it had no effect. The tires simply spun and the car went nowhere.
Lara felt guilty, having driven the car to this point.
She opened up the passenger door and carefully stepped out. "I'll try to push." She said.
Her feet sunk into the mud with each step. She kept her hands on the car to brace herself from falling. She got to the rear of the car, and yelled out "OK".
Julia hit the gas, and Lara leaned forward putting all her strength against the car, while her feet slowly started sliding backwards through the mud. The front tires simply spun, and the car went nowhere.
Lara was just too small to make an impact. Lara walked slowly through the mud towards the driver side. Julia rolled down her window. The two paused for a moment, trying to think of what to do.
"How far back are we from the main road?" Julia asked.
"Quite a ways" Lara answered. "I went up one dirt road, and then turned down another. I didn't keep track of how far we went."
"Maybe I can walk back and find a car who can pull us out."
"I don't know, maybe".
Julia sat in the car thinking for a couple of minutes. Lara leaned up against the car, enjoying a beam of sunshine that burst through the cloud layer. Finally, Julia opened the car door to find thick gooey mud surrounding the car.
"Your shoes are still on the other side, you want me to get them for you?" Lara asked.
"Yes, please!"
Lara retrieved the shoes and banged them together to get all the mud off. The mud flew everywhere, even landing on Lara's bare skin.
"Eww, they're all soaked!" Lara said.
Julia opened her door, waiting for Lara to bring her the shoes.
She picked one up, took in a breath. "Well, here goes."
Julia put her foot in one of them.
"Oh my God! They're so dirty!"
She put the other foot in the other shoe, and slowly stepped out of the car, holding on to the door to brace herself. She closed the door and used the key fob to lock the car.
The two started walking down the road, towards the direction they came in from last night...
