Chapter 1

It was a cloudy afternoon, close to sunset, as Kat Taylor drove down the winding country road. The map was on the passenger seat, along with her purse. Her iPod was in the glove compartment with her cell phone. She had forgotten to charge both of them at the hotel last night. Her iPod was totally dead, and her cell phone battery was in the red.

According to the map, she was thirty miles from the next town. She was making better time than she had thought. She glanced up at the darkening sky. The clouds were taking on a dark gray shade. It looked like it was going to rain soon.

"Only I would volunteer to drive down to check out the vacation house," she said shaking her head. "Eh, easy come easy go. Worked out better for me anyway."

The week before, her family had gotten a message that their vacation house had flooded. Summer vacation had just started, and she was the only one still home in New York. The rest of her family was on a cruise.

When the message had come, her aunt had asked her to take the trip down to check out the damage and how the repairs were going. The house had only been purchased a year ago, and she had only been there once. Her aunt had offered to pay for her plane ticket, but she had volunteered to drive. She had time to kill after all. Two months before school started, and before she went back to work.

She had just finished her first year as a teacher, and was surprised by how much she missed the kids. She needed the distraction, and she needed something to do. A road trip seemed just the thing. She had always wanted to go on one, but she had never had the time. Her summers in college had been spent working. Besides, in college she couldn't have afforded to take a road trip anyway. Tuition had been insane.

One year of working full time, and she knew how to balance out her finances. She had made up her mind that after her first year of being a teacher, she would take the trip. It just so happened that the flooded house had given her an extra reason.

She had been staying in cheap hotels, ones that had no known name. One night she had stayed in a local bed and breakfast. She wasn't trying to get there very fast. She was taking her time, checking out different points of interest on the way. In essence, she was taking the long way. She was stopping in towns that were way off course, just because they had something she thought might prove interesting.

The trip down should have only taken her two days, but at the rate she was going it would probably take a week. She didn't care though. She was enjoying it. Who was it that said it's not the destination, but the journey to get to it?

She had slept in this morning at the motel. Last night she had eaten in a local bar, and the food hadn't sat very well with her. She had stopped in the pharmacy to pick up some medicine, and had waited until she was sure she was alright. On these roads, getting sick wasn't a good idea. It was miles between houses.

She had hopped into the car around eleven, and was about to get going when her aunt called. Her aunt told her that she had gotten a call that the repairs were going smoothly, that she could take her time getting to the house.

This made her smile more. She had hung up the phone and checked out her map. She had been planning to be at the house in the next two days, but knowing now that she could take her time, she readjusted her route.

Even though she was a New York girl, her family had taken quite a few road trips down through the South. Mostly they had been going to Disney World on these trips, but that wasn't the point. She had always loved the trips when she was little. Everybody was a lot nicer in the South.

She had looked at the map and decided that maybe she would finally make her way to a few places she had always wanted to see. She had always wanted to drive through Louisiana, and see New Orleans. Likewise, she had always wanted to go to Texas. She couldn't think why, but she had always wanted to. Now with the time to kill, she decided to take the highway through Texas, stop there, then head through New Orleans, and finally come back around to the vacation house in Georgia. She had plotted out her new route after her aunt had called that morning. That had been at eleven thirty.

Now it was getting dark. She had been on the road for a few hours. She was in Tennessee at the moment, going toward the border with Mississippi. The manager at the motel this morning had told her of a different road she could take, one that would get her through to Mississippi without much traffic. The man had been right. She had only seen two other cars the entire time. It was a lonely stretch of road.

She was now about twenty miles or so from the next town, and had made up her mind to stop there. She refused to make herself drive in the South once it had gotten dark, unless she was on a well lit highway. It was ridiculously dark on these roads at night, and she didn't want to risk getting lost.

She was going along smoothly when all of a sudden she heard a popping sound.

"You cannot be serious! I knew I shouldn't have tried to take this trip in a rental…" Kat said in annoyance. She jumped out of the car and instantly saw the problem. Her front left tire was completely flat.

"I'm in the middle of freakin' nowhere with a flat that I have no idea how to change. God I love my life," she mumbled to herself. "How can this get any worse?"

As if in answer to her question, thunder rumbled. She groaned in annoyance as she climbed back into the car to decide what to do.

"Well let's see, I can always try to walk to the next town," she thought out loud. "Of course it looks like it's going to pour and with my luck I'll get eaten by a bear." She laughed to herself. "I could try calling someone, but who the hell would I call here?"

A thought occurred to her. She still had her AAA card. Someone would answer right? She pulled out her almost dead phone, and made the call. Luckily a woman answered almost right away. She patched her through to the Tennessee branch, who said they'd send someone as soon as they could. They told her to see in the meanwhile if she could flag down someone who was heading toward town.

Kat hung up, and decided to try her luck. The clouds were darkening, and she waited almost twenty minutes before another car came down the road. The guy in the driver's seat looked normal enough.

"You having some car trouble there?" he asked. He looked to be in his very early twenties.

"Yea, I'm waiting for a tow truck. Any chance you might give me a lift to town?"

The guy jumped out of his car and went toward her. "I'll give you somethin' alright."

Instantly alarmed, she moved back, but he was too quick. In one quick movement he knocked her down, sending her headfirst into the hood of her car. He reached into the car, grabbed her purse and sped off.

It happened so fast, she didn't even get a plate number off of his car.

"So much for Southern hospitality," she mumbled, holding a hand to her head. "Bastard's lucky I didn't have my knife handy."

A light drizzle began to fall, and she got into the car to keep dry. It was dark now. She turned her hazard lights on, but turned her headlights off. No need to kill her car battery. It was soon pouring, but half an hour later the rain stopped. She opened the car door and was sitting sideways with her legs out, keeping an eye out for the tow truck.

She caught sight of her head in the mirror, and realized she had a nice cut across it. She gently began examining it, using the hood on her sweater to wipe off the dried blood. She looked up and saw a set of headlights coming down the road behind her, and hoped that it was the tow truck. It wasn't, but the driver seemed to see her hazard lights. In the wash of the headlights of their truck, she was clearly outlined. The truck slowed down, and pulled over beside her car. The passenger rolled down their window.

"You need some help?" It was dark, so it was hard for her to make out anything of what the person looked like, but the voice was male. It even sounded a little familiar. Her mind must be playing tricks on her.

"Yea, my car's got a flat. Another guy stopped to supposedly help me, but the bastard knocked me, grabbed my purse and sped off. Now I'm stuck here."

"You're kidding," said the man. The passenger turned to the driver. "Any objections?"

The driver spoke; his voice too seemed a little familiar. "It's fine by me. We can hook her car up and tow her."

"So you guys are gonna help me?"

"Well we can't leave you here. Turn your headlights back on, we're gonna need all the light we can get. We'll hook you up, and head out."

Kat turned her lights back on, and felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Got it?"

She turned around and looked up in surprise.

"I'm John by the way," he said.

"And I'm Randy," said another voice, coming around from the driver's side of the truck.

Kat blinked a few times. Was she seriously looking at John Cena and Randy Orton?

She shook her head smiling. "I must be hallucinating."

At this John grinned. "I'm guessing you know who we are then?"

She nodded. "Most definitely."

"It never fails John," said Randy with a smirk, "no matter where we go, we always find some crazy fan girl."

Kat looked up at him. "I'm Kat by the way." She raised an eyebrow. "Who said I was a crazy fan girl?"

Randy smirked again. "You know about us, so you must like us."

Now it was her turn to smile. "I never said you guys were my favorite wrestlers. I just said I knew who you were."

Cena grinned. "Ooo burn Randy. She shut your ass up."

"Oh shut up Cena, and help me hook up her car."

The two hooked up the car, while Kat watched. "What are you guys doing around here anyway?" she asked.

"We're on our way back to the town actually. We're staying there for a few days. We were supposed to do a show in Mississippi, but the plan fell through last minute. So we're kinda crashing here until management works it out," Cena answered.

"Just the two of you?"

"Nah a lot of the guys are there. The divas got off lucky. They were in Cali for some movie event. They were supposed to come down for the show, but when the deal fell through, they just stayed there. So it's just us guys. We're all staying at the motel."

Just then Randy turned to Cena. "Uh John, did you let him know we were coming back a little later than we thought?"

"No why?"

"Cuz' I think that's his truck coming up the road now…"

"Oh no…"

"What is it?" Kat asked.

"We're about to get it," said Randy.

The truck pulled over, and Cena went over to it. The driver was clearly annoyed, Kat could tell from his tone. John was trying to tell him what had happened, but the driver was having none of it. Randy went over to the truck as well, trying to calm the driver. The truck door opened and closed and the sound of footsteps came closer. John and Randy were walking in front of the man, shooting each other what seemed to be nervous glances.

"Now explain to me what the hell made you two stop in the middle of damn nowhere!"

Kat stepped up behind the man. "That would be me…" The man stopped arguing with Randy and John, and turned to look at her. She looked up in surprise once more. The Undertaker? You've got to be kidding, she thought.

She took another step closer to him, looking up a little nervously. He was a lot taller than she'd thought he'd be. "They stopped because of me. My car broke down, and I got robbed. They stopped to help me."

The Undertaker turned, casting suspicious looks at the two younger men. "Did they now?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry that you drove all the way out here to find them. Twenty miles is still twenty miles."

Taker turned back to her, looking her over. She was a mess. Her clothes were wet from the rain, and it looked like she had a cut on her head. He shook his head. "Alright you two, you're off the hook. Get her car hooked up, and let's get off this damned road."

Randy and John nodded quickly and then got to work hooking up Kat's car.

"You're coming with me," Taker said to her. "You don't need to be standing out in this miserable weather. I'll take you to town."

"You sure Taker? She can ride back with us," Randy said. He was nervous for her. Taker wasn't quite the easiest man to get along with. He had his moments.

"I'm sure," he said firmly. "She's coming with me." He turned to Kat. "Let's go."

Author's Note: So there you have the first chapter. Please review! =) More is on its way!