Stranded

By Asia Ali

Burnt oil wafted into my nostrils, making my eyes stream.

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked as we all peered into the van’s engine.

We had pulled over on a country road, and there were no other vehicles in sight. Darkness was approaching, the only light source a flickering lamppost a few yards away. It made the scene more eerie than anything else.

“Beats me,” replied Clay, scratching his forehead, making the wavy curls bounce, and studying the engine cavity pretending like he’d be able to tell if the entire thing had been hollowed out. My boyfriend’s specialty was optimism instead of being helpful.

“Do I look like an engineer?” Polly, Clay’s older sister, demanded. She was still dressed in her armour, which was a good thing; being stranded in the middle of nowhere with the blanket of night closing in felt like the perfect opportunity for monster attacks.

“It looks like the left battery cable has corroded,” Grace supplied. She was fifteen years old, a decade younger than the rest of us.

We all stared at her.

“What?” She shrugged. “I watch a lot of YouTube.”

Clay smoothed his hair out of his eyes after a billow of wind. “Can you fix it?” he asked his younger sister.

As Grace studied the engine—though for what, I had no idea; it all looked like a jumble of wires and gears to me—I kept my peripheral vision sharp, watching for threats, tempted to scamper back into the van to grab my weapons.

I couldn’t help remembering the family road trip last September. Giant spiders went surprisingly well with the beat to Don’t Stop Me Now, but I wasn’t in a hurry to repeat a similar event.

“I’ll need something to keep these plates apart,” Grace reported, digging her gloved hands into the maze of wires.

“What about a stick?” Clay suggested. He turned to me with a lopsided grin. “Could you get some wood for me, Anthony?”

Before I could reply, Polly mimed gagging herself.

Grace shook her head. “It might burn up. Something metal will work better.”

We all looked around thoughtfully. Trees towered above us, interlocking into a verdant patchwork. There was nothing around for miles. Where would we get metal? The only thing metal was…

“Can you use parts of the van?” I asked.

It was Polly who shot that down. “Look at this pile of junk,” she said, landing an irritated kick to the vehicle. It’d been a gift from their grandma. I was convinced it’d been manufactured in the stone ages. “If we start taking it apart, who knows if it’ll stop coming apart?”

Grace nodded. “It’s a bit risky…”

I could hear the churn of our collective idea factories, predictably coming up short.

“We could just wander about,” Clay suggested eventually. “Maybe we’ll find some scrap metal someone dropped?”

I glared at him. “Are you crazy?”

Clay was never fazed by my sharpness. “I don’t think we really have a choice.”

The others were nodding in agreement. 

I had a bad feeling about this, like a damp fog spreading inside. But it was true, we couldn’t just stay here as easy pickings. We had to at least try. “No-one should go alone though,” I warned.

“I’ll go with Polly,” Grace said.

“Oh, joy,” I drawled, glancing at my boyfriend who blew me a kiss. 

He turned to his siblings. “Are you guys going to be okay?”

Polly ran her finger intimately down her bow. “I’m sure we can handle ourselves.”

It was now pitch black as we walked through the trees, the darkness eroding into the grass. The disappearance of sunlight came with a chill, and after I couldn’t suppress the shiver rippling through my muscles, Clay wrapped an arm around me. 

We stopped for anything that looked remotely shiny on the ground, but we weren’t having much luck. After about half an hour of wandering around aimlessly, I finally saw a light in the distance. My retinas protested at the sudden introduction of something so bright.

“Can you see that?” I pointed to what I was looking at.

Clay followed my gaze and nodded. “It looks like a campfire. Let’s go check it out.”

Without waiting for my response, which would’ve been something smart like Hell no, he traipsed towards the light. 

I groaned irritably and followed, damning his curiosity and lack of survival instincts. They were the two traits that’d led him to fall in love with me though, so I couldn’t be too annoyed.

When I got to the edge of trees that opened into a large clearing, I realised that it was a campfire. Not for anyone friendly though.

“Giants?” I hissed. “Clay, we need to get out of here.”

Thankfully, Clay nodded. “Yeah. They’re the man-eating type for sure.”

“I sincerely hope not.”

He pointed to the campfire. “Those bones look human.”

I followed his finger and saw that he was right. At the feet of the two giants were an assortment of old human bones decaying into the ground, the only remnants of life being the shadows dancing into them. The giants themselves were so huge, the ground vibrated beneath our feet with their breaths. Although boils and craggy scabs adorned them, I could tell their hides were so thick, the disease didn’t even bother them. Their teeth were thick, spilling out of their thorny mouths, equipoising the narrow paths into their pupils.

“So, shall we go?” I whispered urgently, heavily disliking the image of my fluffy, cute boyfriend getting picked to the bone. It wasn’t like he couldn’t take care of himself. Just, sometimes, he could get distracted during training, and he hadn’t had as much practice as I had with death-defying situations; I wanted to keep it that way.

Clay was ignoring me though, squinting his eyes, the fire illuminating his irises as he inspected the scene.

“They have some metal,” he replied.

Sure enough, the one on the left was using a pair of tongs to tend the fire.

“Good for them,” I said dryly. “I personally think we should try and find something else. Preferably one that isn’t guarded by massive giants who would want to eat us.”

Clay apparently didn’t agree. “How well has that plan worked so far? We’re here now. We might as well try.”

He always did this, biting off more than he could chew. He was like one of those yappy puppy dogs that thought they could take on the tiger from the documentary on the TV.

Before I could throw that insult at him, I remembered the other day, when he’d sat me down, brows drawn into his unusually melancholic eyes and told me that he felt I never took him seriously enough.

“Do you even have a plan?” I asked,  though unable to mask my scepticism.

Clay stared at the scene thoughtfully, lines crinkling his forehead. “We’ll need a distraction…” he muttered absently. “I could go stand over there.” He pointed to the right. “And start flashing my torch to taunt them. Then you enter from over there.” He pointed to the left. “And retrieve the tongs.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s a terrible plan,” I snapped. “What are you going to do when two hungry giants come barrelling towards you?”

He shrugged. “I’ll dodge out of the way.”

I scoffed at him. “You’re an idiot.”

“Hey,” Clay said. “Do you have a better plan?”

“Yes!” I hissed. “We leave.”

“I like my plan. I think it could work.”

“Any plan is better than your plan,” I snapped. “Out of all the pathetic, idiotic…” I trailed off, the scenes having been fabricating in my mind’s eye involuntarily, like a puzzle that needed to be solved. “Okay, how about after I get the tongs, I’ll confuse them by calling out before they get you?”

Clay grinned, clearly pleased he’d appealed to my creative side. He dipped a fingertip around the loop of my collar. “So you’ll save me, you mean?”

His touch sparked a flame deep within. “Yeah, because it’ll be very inconvenient for me to recount your gory death to your siblings.”

Clay smiled teasingly. “I know it’s hard for you to see me put in danger,” he purred. “I get it. You’re overprotective.”

I crossed my arms. “I am not. I’d just rather you not be killed before I get a chance to do it myself.”

He laughed. “You can sugar coat it however you want,” he said smugly, “but in reality, I know you don’t want me in risky situations because you can’t stand the thought of losing me.”

Obviously. Not that I would admit it. “You can do whatever you want,” I told him stubbornly.

He gave me a defiant smile, dripping with honey. “What if I walked right up to the giants?”

Panic started building in my stomach. He wouldn’t. He was bluffing. “Do whatever you want,” I repeated. 

The way he tensed his shoulders meant he wasn’t going to back down. 

For god’s sake.

Before I could protest, Clay started strolling into the clearing like he was visiting a salon. This wasn’t even part of the plan. We weren’t even in position. He was only doing this to prove me wrong, to taunt my stubborn streak, the little—

“Clay!” I hissed as quietly as I could. “Come back here now!”

He gave me an innocent look and continued creeping forward. 

“Admit it, Anthony…” he challenged as he edged closer.

In my peripherals, the giants were stirring. If they had any amount of brain cells, they’d spot him any minute.

“Clay!” I pleaded. “Come back! You’re going to get yourself killed.”

He tutted. “That wasn’t an admission.” He continued walking. 

I would have lunged forward and grabbed him, but I didn’t want to make any sudden movements to attract the giants’ attention quicker.

“You’re bluffing,” I insisted irritably.

Clay shrugged. “Why are you risking it?”

For god’s sake.

“Fine!” I whisper shouted.

Clay retreated, a smirk staining his lips. “Fine what?” he goaded.

I gritted my teeth. “You can’t go and put yourself into a risky situation, because I love you too much.”

Clay smiled triumphantly. He leaned in and pecked me on the lips, dissolving my death glare into a minimalist scowl. “And I love you too,” he said happily.

My lips tugged upward. “Whatever,” I replied. 

“Anyway,” Clay said, “we still need a distraction. I know you’re scared, but my plan is the best we’ve got, and I’d like to get back home sometime soon.”

I sighed, the memories of his admission cushioning my natural inclination. “Do you really want to do this?”

He nodded. “I can do it,” he said. “But if you don’t want me to, we can think of something else.”

I hesitated. Putting him in the line of fire wasn’t ideal. But if he thought he could handle it, who was I to stop him? Besides, I’d be right there if anything went wrong. I didn’t know what I’d do to prevent giants squishing him into an entrails pancake, but I was sure that I could think of something in the moment. I did my best work on instincts, and when they were fuelled by someone I loved, it got much more intense.

“Fine,” I relented. “Let’s do this.”

Anthony’s kiss still tingling on my lips, I crept around to the opposite edge of the clearing, keeping my movements as slight as possible. I kept one eye on the giants as I did, but they were too engrossed in themselves. Despite being curious about what giants spoke about (although I was pretty sure that why humans with osteoporosis got stuck in their teeth was one riveting possibility) I blocked out their conversation.

Telling myself that I’d be able to dodge them if they came running towards me, I tried to smoothen my frayed nerves. The disadvantage of a huge size was slow manoeuvrability. Maybe they could outrun me if we were on a flat, clear terrain, but I hoped that I could be the faster in the chaotic knitted trees of the forest.

I took my position, inhaled deeply, then walked into plain view. It was a good thing I’d taken my flashlight with me because the giants hadn’t spotted my entrance. Were they really that dumb?

The handle on the torch was stiff, but it only took a moment of encouragement to start turning at full speed. The glow began dimly and expanded out until the entire head was alight with a soft brightness that illuminated the entire clearing.

The giants turned their greasy faces in my direction with expressions that were part confusion, shock, and hunger.

“What is it?” asked one, sniffing a string of snot back into its tumour-shaped nose. He sounded gravelly, though he maybe just had a cold based off the bogies.

“Can we eat it?” asked the other, dropping his tongs.

“Yes!” I cried as I spotted Anthony peeking out of the trees opposite. He was dressed in all black as usual, his slim figure contrary to his foreboding aura. “You can eat me!”

The giants eyed me, then grunted at each other. “Why is it stupid?” Snot asked.

Tongs shrugged. “I dunno. But it smells good. I think we should try it.”

They both came to a silent agreement so fast, I almost didn’t have time to react before they thundered towards me.

“Oh, godt.” I squealed as I turned and fled back into the safety of the tree line. It wasn’t really safety though, since the giants were so huge, with muscles the size of cars, they were shoving the trees over, summoning an earthquake to follow me.

“Come back here!” Snot yelled.

“We want to eat you!” Tongs yelled.

My glowing torch created a bright golden target, but I had to keep it on for enough time to let Anthony steal the metal by the fire.

I leaped out of the way before a massive oak tree could fall on me, its leaves tearing at my arms, and just about managed to keep upright as I stumbled over a knobbly root in the ground. I continued sprinting, curving my direction around, mixing it up as much as possible. Hopefully, the giants were less smart than they were strong. 

After a few minutes, I realised that I’d circled back and entered the clearing again. I saw Anthony had made it into the tree line. I sighed in relief and went to turn my torch off, hoping that it would give me some cover. 

Unfortunately, I’d forgotten it didn’t have an Off button. It just kept running until the power ran out and I’d been turning the handle for at least a minute.

Also, the campfire glowed in the distance and with its light too, it was more than enough for the giants to keep their eyes locked onto me. 

“It’s stopped!” Snot cried.

“I like when they sit back and let me rip their limbs off,” Tongs replied.

An indignant sound of fright escaped me, and I sped off again. Anthony’s cries for his promised distraction got swallowed by the drumbeat of the giants’ footsteps, ones that I could feel growling behind me. I realised that I was headed straight for where Anthony was hiding though, and I couldn’t lead the giants to him. So, without thinking about the consequences, I stopped in my tracks and turned in the opposite direction.

Unlucky for me, that was where the giants were. They also stopped running and looked over at me, smiling wickedly. They licked their leathery lips over their teeth, and their jaundiced eyes bulged near to popping out. 

“We’ve got you now,” Snot taunted. “Stay still while we skin you.”

He lunged at me so incredibly fast for his size, and it was all I could do to roll onto the floor to get out of the way, the grass blades scraping my bare arms. When I popped up again though, I was right in Tong’s path, and he thrust out with his beefy hand to grab me. 

Reaching behind myself, I grabbed an arrow from my quiver. I hadn’t been planning to use them because they weren’t strong enough to deliver a fatal blow, but they were all I had at the moment. 

Before Tongs could wreathe his chubby fingers around my torso, I jabbed the arrow into the fleshy part of his palm. The softer skin allowed my weapon to piece into his nervous system.

“AGGGHHHHH!” he cried, spitting venomed words as he retracted his hand, staggering back. “IT HURTS!”

I sidestepped him and skidded into a sprint once more, but although Tongs was still howling in pain, Snot had caught up with me. He managed to grab onto my quiver, and yanked me backwards with so much force, all the air got shattered out of my lungs.

Landing on the ground unceremoniously, I started coughing and spluttering and flailing my limbs.

“CLAY!” I heard Anthony’s voice scream from somewhere in front of me. 

But between him and me was a furious giant with ravenous triumph gleaming in his eyes. He didn’t bother with any preamble before he reached out to grab me. 

I managed to pull another arrow from my quiver and stab his outstretched hand with it. But because I was at an odd angle, the oxygen in my blood flattening, my psyche dazed, the weapon barely scraped part of his knuckle. 

It still bought me a couple of milliseconds though as he withdrew his hand. Not that I could do anything helpful to my situation in that time. I was still trying to breathe properly even though every inhalation felt like red-hot spikes were stabbing into my chest. 

He lunged with his other hand outstretched, and this time, I couldn’t stop him. He grabbed my leg and dragged me towards him. I flailed my limbs and screamed in defiance, but he was too strong, and I didn’t have any energy left.

Before he could pull me any closer, I heard a squelching sound, and the next second, a gleaming silver something stuck out through the top of his forehead. Snot’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he promptly crashed into the earth, tectonic plates trembling with the weight.

The offending weapon was a curved blade with which I was very intimate. I looked up to see Anthony’s hands extended from where he’d thrown it.

I smiled in gratitude, though I was still panting like a sick puppy, so who knew if I was giving the right message?

He didn’t look happy though. In fact, his eyes widened as he pointed behind me, and he started pumping his legs. “Clay! Look out!”

I vaguely registered the reverberating footsteps coming up behind me, since my skeleton was already shaken enough. My instincts took over, and I rolled sideways out of the way before Tongs could ram into me. 

He wasn’t even fazed though. He just slid to a halt twenty feet away from me and rushed me again. I saw arrows flying past his head, courtesy of Anthony, but my boyfriend couldn’t get a proper aim since Tongs had learnt from his friend’s mistake and was running in a serpentine pattern.

I tried to gather more of my strength to stand up and run away, but I couldn’t find it in me. I felt like I wanted to collapse instead of contracting any one of my muscles.

Just as he was about to crush my skull, Anthony appeared in front of me, his form fabricating from the shadows, and he met the giant’s charge.

A scream knifed its way from my throat.

I tried to do the physics. Could a seventy-kilo man survive a direct hit from a five-thousand-pound giant on a stampede?

I didn’t have time to do the equation, because the collision skidded to a halt as the giant dropped to his knees. Having found my resolve again, I was on my feet, pounding across the grass to reach the scuffle. Lucky I’d gotten there when I had because Anthony, although his trusty dual blade was embedded skilfully to the left of the giant’s breastbone, had been winded from the force.

Before the dying giant could topple forward and crush him, I dragged my boyfriend to safety (if next to a monster who smelt of decomposing vomit counted as safety). 

“God, you’re not dead, are you?” I choked. “Are you all right? Are you okay?”

Anthony let out a tired groan. “Please shut up. I’m just… contemplating why I ever listen to your hellish ideas.”

A laugh bubbled out.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I nodded; the adrenaline was wearing off, and I was incredibly tired, but I didn’t feel like I wanted to throw my lungs up anymore. Although, I was concerned about meeting another opponent in our weakened states.

“We need to get back to the van,” I decided. “Can you walk if I help?”

Anthony nodded and I hauled him up, threading an arm around his waist.

“You did get the tongs, right?” I checked.

“Yes,” he said as we walked sluggishly. “And I’m going to use them to clamp your throat in your sleep.”

“Kinky,” I teased.

He groaned again.

When we got back to our broken-down vehicle, victorious with our spoils, I noted my siblings were pacing around on the road, looking disgruntled.

“Where have you been?” Polly demanded. “It’s been ages!”

“We bring goods!” I exclaimed happily, hoisting the bloody tongs like an Olympic trophy.

“I fixed the van an hour ago,” Grace informed us.

I dropped the metal on the road with a clatter.

“Excuse me?” Anthony asked incredulously, then clutched his head to ward off an impending headache. 

“So…” I stuttered, “we just did that… all for nothing?”

Anthony gritted his jaw. “Of course we did,” he muttered, climbing into the van.

I followed him. “You had fun. Don’t deny it.”

“I passionately deny it.”

“I love when you’re passionate,” I teased.

The engine roared to life and Polly pushed into gear. We’d gone a few yards before a loud bang ensued, like grinding metal.

“What was that?” Grace demanded, her face shrouded in fear.

Anthony was already jumping out, his blade hoisted. He was so sexy when he took that stance. Piercing dark eyes. Gaze raking the surroundings. Giving me a look of irritated exasperation.

Wait.

“What?” I asked.

He gestured to the left of the van.

Where the tongs I’d dropped onto the road had busted the tyre.

“Oh.”

“That’s all you have to say for yourself?” he asked. It looked like he was trying really hard not to laugh.

I grinned sheepishly. “Hey, it’s always good to practise changing a tyre,” I offered.

She’s had a fierce enthusiasm for writing romance and creating communities since her debut as a fanfiction author. She has received thousands of messages detailing how her stories have touched lives and given a realistic but light-hearted lens unto underrepresented voices as a queer POC author herself. One of her short stories recently won first place in a competition published in Andromeda Literary Magazine, she was a finalist in this year’s Eyelands Book Awards, and her fanfiction on AO3 has received over 7,000 kudos.