(You would not believe how pissed off I am at myself, the creative juices are at an all time low, and it's just not coming to me, like it normally does. let me try this one more time! here, try to stomach this..pissed,pissed pissed!)

Not mine, not making any money, it's just for fun!

Wilderness

Stephanie could not believe it, after years of them playing an odd cat and mouse game, they finally got their heads out their asses and just listened to their feelings. Stephanie Plum and Carlos Manoso gave into their true feelings and got together. It had been a wonderful whirlwind romance. They dated for several months, before Carlos asked her to marry him. Of course Stephanie said yes! The wedding hadn't been a grand thing, just a small private ceremony on the beach at Point Pleasant. Stephanie's father gave her away, her sister and nieces had been there as had Grandma Mazur. Helen plum had been nowhere to be found, due to the fact that she did not approve of the marriage. She had said so several times that she didn't approve, even going as far as disowning Stephanie, in her eyes. It didn't matter to Stephanie, as long as she had the support of Carlos, and her friends, she didn't need her mother, who wanted to control every aspect of her life.

The two were now on a small private plane, going to a private cabin in the woods of the northwest. Stephanie and Carlos had been to lush island paradises several times, they wanted something novel now. Why not go into the woods and live a rugged life in a cabin for a few weeks. It wasn't a novel thing to Carlos, but to Stephanie, it would be. They wouldn't be roughing it, roughing it, there would be electricity, running water and indoor bathrooms, but they would be far away from everything and everyone. Not being in a ten mile radius from a mall or a store is what Stephanie considered roughing it.

Stephanie turned to her husband, she couldn't believe but yes Carlos was her husband, and asked, "Are we there yet?"

Carlos turned his eyes away from the planes windshield to look at his wife. Stephanie had been mildly surprise when she found out that Carlos had his pilot's license, he was steering the small private plane that he had charted to get to the cabin in the woods.

"Patience, Babe, we'll be there soon," Carlos said, turning away from Stephanie to look out into the setting sky, "We have to cross some mountains, but we'll be there soon."

Stephanie made a sound in the back of her throat, leaning back in her plane seat. They had been flying in the small plane for the last few hours. Stephanie's butt was getting tired, and she was starting to get cranky. Hopefully they would be at the little airstrip soon.

They had been riding in silence for a few moments, when something happened. The sky had just darkened, when the plane shook violently and suddenly. Stephanie and Carlos were jarred around in their seat. Stephanie turned to her husband, hearing him swear loudly, as he lost all power and control to the plane. Her eyes widen as Carlos turned to her and said, "The power is all out, I'll have to glide us down, and hopefully we land somewhere flat."

Stephanie looked outside the window in the darkness. They were over mountains and woods, there was nothing soft for them to land on! Stephanie turned to her husband and yelped, "But there is no flat land!

Carlos nodded his head and then said, "But there is a lake up ahead, I'll try to see if can land in that."

Carlos glided the powerless plane down close to the ground, just above the tips of the tree. In the moonlight, he could see the lake's reflection, if he could land there smoothly. Carlos told Stephanie to buckle up as he steered the plane down to the lake. the skipped on the surface a few times, slowing down, but Carlos knew that they wouldn't slow down fast enough. The two were jerked violently as the plane skipped on hard land sliding several feet into woods. The sound of crunch metal and breaking tree branches filled their ears, before the plane hit a large tree, nose first and stopped. The occupants inside the plane were out cold from the crash.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Stephanie swore she heard people talking. In a haze of pain and agony, she had heard a man and a woman talking.

"Needed to be done…can't have them having a way out of here…."

"They need to be found soon….the red moon is in a few weeks…."

Stephanie groaned, trying to move weakly, it had to be from the crash they just had. Maybe she was hallucinating. Stephanie gave up on trying to move, and let the darkness take her again.

The next time she woke up, she wasn't in the plane, but on a sleeping bag, close to a small fire. A piece of wet cloth was on her forehead and she had gauze wrapped around her arm, covering a wound up. Stephanie sat up and saw Carlos moving about close to the wreckage, trying to find and salvage some of the things they had brought with them on the plane.

"Carlos," Stephanie said weakly, making the man turn in the firelight and come over to her, "Are you hurt, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Babe, you were the one who got hurt the worst, a nasty cut to your arm, but I dressed it." Carlos said, kissing Stephanie soundly, "Babe, we'll have to go to the cabin on foot, it's just over this track of mountain, maybe several dozen miles away from here."

"We'll have to walk there?!" Stephanie echoed, earning a nod, "How long will it take us to get here?"

"It all depends on how fast we walk, maybe a week or so, if we can do 10 miles a day." Carlos said sitting beside Stephanie and giving her a power bar, "Eat up, and get some more rest, Babe, in the morning, we'll try to get some more things from the plane, and then we set off for the cabin."

Stephanie ate the bar in silence, her eyes drooping, she had just woken up, why was she tired again? After she ate her meal, she laid back down on the sleeping bag, letting Carlos spoon behind her. it was warm enough that they didn't need a top blanket, thank goodness Stephanie had wanted a late June wedding.

As the couple drifted off to sleep, a figure stood several yards away from them, watching them sleep. Eyes the color of pure honey filled with tears and the person whispered to no one, "Oh no, not again…"

(~~~~~~~~~~)

Carlos gave the satellite phone he had in hands a pointed look. It was a satellite phone, it should be able to pick up a signal anywhere. He had found it in the wreckage in a safe he kept in the charter plane, just in case. It hadn't been banged up, it was fully charged and ready, he should have been able to get a signal and call for help.

But he couldn't, the phone wasn't picking up a signal, which was the oddest thing ever.

Carlos slipped the phone into his utility belt and turned to Stephanie, who was still sleeping on the sleeping bag. When he had woken up, in the wreckage, he found the emergency exit to the plane and had dragged Stephanie out of her seat and onto the forest floor. She had received a nasty cut to her arm from a jagged sharp piece of metal. If Carlos hadn't been adamant about them getting their tetanus shot, things would have gotten ugly. Luckily all he had were a few bruises; the crash could have had a more fatal outcome.

The early morning sun crept through the woods, illuminating the beauty that it was. Carlos would have truly enjoyed the sight, if it wasn't for the fact that they would now be hiking through it, to get to safety. He knew the dangers lurking in the woods, and they would probably meet several of those dangers.

Carlos went over to Stephanie, and woke her up, they needed to get moving soon, he wanted to be near the base of the mountain by nightfall, hopefully his Babe won't put up too much of a fuss if they walked more than ten miles today. They would need to bring long sleeves and any jackets they could find, the woods up in the mountains would be cold, even in this nice summer weather. Carlos hoped that this would be an easy trek, but a gut feeling told him that it wouldn't. and like Stephanie, he usually listened to his gut first.