The band drove through the countryside. Dreary brown grassy plains and charcoal black tree stumps peppered the landscape.

Thad Penguino tried putting more unicorn pearls on his phone. “It doesn’t seem that Cookie’s pearl from Candy Mountain or Kevin’s from Roboxy gives my GPS any more power. Which I suppose is fine because we’re getting very accurate locations as it is.”

“But we need to be quicker,” Candii said. “Every moment longer means more suffering for my unicorns back home.”

Thad Penguino nodded. “Candy Mountain was crazy but get ready for an even colder experience. It seems we need to go straight west at the next road. We’ll be driving into a tundra wasteland where two unicorn pearls are hidden.”

“Oh boy.” Candii slumped behind the wheel. “Nothing is going to be easy on this trip, is it? Well, if that’s where we have to go, then here we go.” Candii turned at the next intersection and drove them toward a blinding white horizon.

After about an hour, the depressing landscape they left behind almost seemed welcoming compared to the cold indifference of its fierce western tundra. The band bundled up with what few meager clothes they had packed as the van got colder.

“The Land of Rock does not disappoint when its tourist brochures say everything here is hardcore,” Key Gullz said. She tried to peer out the frosted window but could not wipe away the ice building up on the inside. “Hey, the heat is on, right? I feel like it’s just as cold in here as it is out there.”

Candii tried to find an outside temperature gauge but the van was too old and did not have one. She held her hand over the air vents but felt nothing.

“Hmm… we may have a problem,” she said. Despite the snow on the side of the road, Candii pulled over and toggled all the heat switches.

Sir Taco poked his head up front. “What’s going on?”

“I think the heat’s been off for a while now, but it was so gradual I don’t think any of us noticed there was a problem.”

“Now that you mention it, I think my hands are numb.” Sir Taco wiggled his fingers. “Yep, definitely numb.”

“Okay, let me just try…” The car’s engine shut off. She checked the engine temperature gauge and saw it was deep into the cold mark. “I think the engine just froze.”

“What do we do?” Key Gullz asked wrapped up like a burrito in a freezer.

Thad Penguino checked his GPS. “I’m not sure if this is good or bad luck but we are not very far from one of the pearls. It’s maybe ten minutes down this road and it’s in the middle of a lake.”

“It’s possible it’s sitting on top of the ice,” Sir Taco said.

“It may also be twenty feet under, Let me try calling Krawl at the van rental and see if we can get a tow.” Thad Penguino called while the rest of the band huddled together to stave off the chilling winds slipping into the van.

Begin Hold Each Other by A Great Big World ft. Futuristic

INTRODUCTION & VERSE 1

I … oh!

“Hello, this is Thad Penguino. We rented the tour van earlier today. We’re stuck in a snowbank and our battery is dead. Can we get a tow and a battery repair? Uh huh. I don’t remember.”

“What’s Krawl asking?” Sir Taco asked.

Thad Penguino cupped the phone. “He wants to know if we bought the snowbank and frozen battery insurance.”

“Well, that’s rather specific. Where’s the receipt?” Sir Taco began digging around the van looking for it.

CHORUS

Something … other.

“I’m getting colder. I think I can’t feel my toes now,” Candii said. “I’m so worried and frustrated. What if you all die out here because of me?”

“Scoot in closer,” Key Gullz offered from inside her sweater wrap. Candii climbed into the back and squeezed in close to warm up, but one of the windows would not roll up all the way and the breeze was cutting through their jackets like a knife.

Sir Taco’s fingers had trouble feeling anything under the van’s seats. He just wildly yanked anything he felt. “Why are there so many empty bags of Tias chips?”

VERSE 2

Everything … oh!

“Can we retroactively purchase snowbank and frozen battery insurance? No? That would defeat the purpose of insurance? Well, what do you suggest, sir?”

Candii’s breathing began to slow. Her mind was beginning to fog and her eyes blinking slower and slower. “I can’t believe this is happening. I’m so sorry, everyone. I’m so…”

Key Gullz remembered her phone had a weather app. She checked and learned it was twenty degrees below freezing outside. She noticed Candii was barely breathing at all.

“Candii?” She tried to shake her awake but she fell limp. “Folks, we have a problem! I think she overexerted herself with empathy for us!”

CHORUS

Something … other.

Everyone took off their light jackets and wrapped them around Candii.

Sir Taco opened the glove box and found the receipt. “Here it is! Let’s see…we do not have the snowbank and frozen battery insurance.” He handed the receipt to Thad Penguino.

“Listen! We’re freezing out here! I don’t care how much it costs. Just help us get a tow!”

Sir Taco put his hands on Candii’s cheeks but they were so cold. He felt her slightly moving ensuring she was still breathing, but barely.

VERSE 3

Yo … okay.

“Thank you!” Thad Penguino hung up his phone. “Krawl will be out here with a tow helicopter in fifteen minutes.”

“That’s service!” Key Gullz said.

Candii slowly began to warm up and breathe more steadily. Everyone began to shiver so they huddled around Candii.

“Are we going to make it fifteen minutes like this?” Key Gullz asked.

“Keep yourself awake. Just don’t fall asleep,” Thad Penguino said.

“Sir Taco, sing us a song,” Candii muttered with half-opened eyes.

BRIDGE 1

I … now.

Sir Taco sang to the band.

BRIDGE 2

You … you.

Sir Taco sang to Candii.

CHORUS

Something … other.

Sir Taco laughed. “Of course that goes for all of you.” He giggled a little, but his cheeks were hurting from the cold so he stopped.

“That goes without saying,” Key Gullz said. She wanted to say more but was losing consciousness.

Sir Taco’s lips turned blue and he felt like he could not keep singing.

Key Gullz wanted to ask for another song, but she could not inhale enough air in her frozen lungs to speak.

Thad Penguino forgot what was so important about staying awake and he fell asleep.

They stayed huddled in a ball.

End Hold Each Other by A Great Big World