"Dru! Don't be stupid!"

"Dru, we need you here!"

"Leave her, she's going to go with or without us."

"I can't just let her to go out there and die!"

"She's smart, she knows she has most of the medical equipment, she knows Mason and Cara needs is- she'll be back soon."

Crap. In my rush to push myself away from our clearing and get closer to Jesse I hadn't even considered those that I was leaving behind. They needed me. But so did Jesse.

Jesse was out there defenceless with a killer on his trail. My friends were safe. As long as I made it back quickly, to check up on Mason and Cara.

This just made my legs push harder and faster, my hands pushing aside the branches in my way. I let the voices disappear behind me, along with the clearing.

I knew they had spoken loudly to each other so that I would hear, they thought they could change my mind by talking about the injured. Any other circumstance it would have worked but I wasn't in control of my limbs.

The limbs that were telling me I had to keep moving and moving faster.

I was following the materials left on the trees; clearly guiding me threw the path that the boys had taken that morning.

My strides were large, driving me forward with all the strength I could muster up. I was thankful for Caila for forcing me to eat, thankful for actually getting a hour or two of sleep last night.

I fed of the food and sleep and dug into strength I hadn't had since we'd crash.

My arms were out in front of me and to the side, shielding my face the best I could but I was still getting small branches scratching over my face and exposed skin on my wrist.

A large tree stood 10 meters in front of me, it's branch hung a meter off of the ground. There was a shield wall of grass below is so I prepared myself to get over it. I took 6 strides and then on the seventh I pushed back onto my left leg, brought my left hand up to the branch, and used my legs to bend down and propel upwards.

I flung both of my legs to the right, tensing up my hand as I was in mid air over the branch. My legs cleared the branch and headed back on their way to meet the ground again. Except, instead of finding more grass there was something else waiting.

There was a collection of rocks. They stuck up, the rough edges jaggered and uneven. There was grass and sticks scattered between the rocks, they were almost disguised and I had no time to land anywhere else.

I was too far down to do anything about right foot meeting the rocks. A sharp pain shot up my leg as I felt my ankle buckle. It caught me off guard, my body still not having any balance, which left me defenceless.

I fell forwards, my hands trying to shot out and brace myself for the fall but I fought that instinct. I tucked my arms into my chest and spun to my side.

Squeezing my eyes shut my body tensed up, I coiled by abdominal muscles- much to my stitches disapproval- which allowed me to hold my head up so that I wasn't in danger of being impacted.

A rock dug into my hip, dragging up at the rest of my body landed. I couldn't wince, couldn't scream out in pain, couldn't even acknowledge the pain- I didn't have the time.

Edges of the rocks broke my skins surface near my knee, above my ribs and the top of my deltoid. I could feel the sharp slicing sensations everywhere, could feel the wind being knocked out of my diaphragm.

I wasn't even breathless for a moment before I reached my hands out and attempted to find a smooth surface to push myself up from. There wasn't one.

Groaning my palms extended out, slowly pressing down onto the rocks- I wanted to minimise the injuries to my hands. I needed them.

I didn't waste time, pushing my body up at quickly as possible. I pulled my hands up immediately using them to help my balancing as I inspected a way to get away from these rocks.

They continued for a couple meters and no matter how badly I was itching to get back to running I needed to take my time to ensure I didn't get unnecessarily hurt again.

Step at a time I reached my foot our, ensure it was on a stable base before I moved my weight forward and followed it with my next foot. It was painstakingly drawn out and I was itching to just break into a run again.

My impatience was building, as I was only a meter away from the end, unable to take it any longer I jumped it.

My foot got caught on the final rock, tripping me up but not taking away my balance. I recovered quickly from the slight trip and set off again.

I'd wasted enough time.

I could see the next red material around a tree and this only drove me further. I could see his face, I could feel my whole being aching for him. I couldn't live with the guilt of him being dead, the one person who made me feel like what I was trying to do possible. I just needed to see his face in person, rather than just picturing his face from the over the fire.

~~~~~~

I hadn't seen a red band around a tree in a few minutes, the speed at which I was travelling should have brought me past one or two by now. My body slowed down into a slow jog and then eventually into a slow walk.

My hands went to behind my shoulders; this opened up my chest and allowed for me to get more air in. Although I was out of breath slightly and sweat had drenched my shirt and my forehead I didn't feel tired. I'd had a coach for the last five years that had me run hours on hours, insisting that I'd thank him one day. "

"Thank you Steve, even though I wanted to kill you two months ago you're helping me save a life today." I whispered to myself, allowing myself to chuckle at the thought of what my trainer's response would be.

The sun had disappeared behind the dark grey clouds, each lined with a thin silver band. The sky was possessed with darkness, a chill running down my spine and spreading throughout my entire body.

Rolling my shoulders I stretched out my neck.

I needed to think.

Why weren't there any more red bands? They must have not had it this far. This is where they were attacked!

That thought jolted me out of my shivers; my head searched around for answers- a left behind weapon or even a blood trail. I paced back where I had come from, who knew how far they'd gone since they tied that last red material piece.

I made it the whole was back to the tree with no sign of anything, nothing that told me where to go from here. Nothing that told me where Jesse had gone.

I hadn't thought this one threw at all.

I had been in such a state of desperation that I hadn't even given myself the chance to think logically about this. But that was the thing, I didn't need logic- I wouldn't have listened even if I knew I would find my self here with nowhere to go.

My back fell against the trunk of the tree a sigh leaving my lips.

"What do I do Darcy?" I looked up to the sky, praying for a moment of clarity- for something to click and for me to finally know what to do.

But there was nothing.

What would I do if I were Jesse? Run the opposite way of our base and then when you thought you had n opportunity, leave something that said you'd continued forward and then circle back.

He would have circled back by now. The boys were gone for no more than four hours; I'd ran it in no more than one hour. So give 5 hours or so - Jesse should have already circled back by now. The fact that I had not come across him told me he was either still being chased by the man, had found another way back to base- or he was injured somewhere.

Or he could be dead.

A small voice whispered in the back of my mind but I couldn't give it a second thought, something told me that he was alive and okay. I just knew that he could survive this- he was Jesse after all. The most stubborn person I'd met.

Where does that leave me? Do I go back to base and wait for him? Do I continue and see if he's stuck?

I didn't get to answer when I heard something rustle a bush to my right.

It definitely wasn't the wind.