"Every sunrise is an invitation for us to arise and brighten someone's day."

― Richelle E. Goodrich

Julian was feeling tired. After all that walking he was losing hope. Maybe he should have stayed back at the plane, he would have definitely be rescued by then. It had been 5 days, and there was nothing. Rachel was looking tired, he wasn't not any better. The only one who was enjoying it was Muskaan who seemed to think everything was an adventure.

"We're almost out of granola bars." Rachel checked, emptying her bag. "And we only have one frozen tilapia dinner."

"I hate tilapia." Muskaan frowned.

"I was so sure we would have found someone by now." Rachel muttered. "Maybe even a town or something, assuming this place is even inhabited by humans-Julian?"

"Do you see that?" He was looking into the far distance.

"What? What is it?" Muskaan asked trying to jump up and see.

"I think there's a fire there, well whatever is left of it. That means someone else is here, we just need to get closer-guys?"

Rachel and Muskaan were nowhere in sight. "Really funny guys. Just because you guys are hiding is not going to the change that fact that we are walking."

No answer.

"Fine, I'll carry you guys." Again no response.

"Ok I'm serious."

Julian looked around wildly. And then he was blind. He felt movement. Someone was carrying him and they were speaking in hushed tones.

"They took the other two, girls."

"Freaking Prepies."

"We're prep too."

Julian couldn't makes sense of what they were saying, but he knew they had Rachel and Muskaan.

He was dropped to the ground and the blindfold was removed. A group of girls were looking at him. They each had on purple plaid skirts and deep purple blazers embellished with a gold logo.

"Can you hunt?"

"What?" Julian asked bewildered. There were real live people in front of him!

"Can you hunt?" A girl walked forward. Like the rest she had on the same uniform expect hers was tattered and she had tied the skirt making it rise higher than the rest.

"I don't know." Julian said. He stood up. "Who are you?"

"We're from Montgomery Prep. Our bus crashed here when the driver disappeared. We've been here ever since."

"Where are my friends, Muskaan and Rachel? Which one of you took them?"

"Oh the two girls?" A blond chewing gum asked. "The boys took them. Probably hoping one of them can cook." They all sniggered.

The first girl walked to Julian. "Just like we're hoping you can hunt. We've been eating nothing but gum and candy for days."

"I need to get them back." Julian said.

"Please help us. We've had nothing to eat except what we brought for the trip." The blond said. "The boys are probably hunting right now, they know how."

"Why don't you ask them for help?" Julian raise a brow.

"We have a history. Between our schools- we're not supposed to get along."

Julian shook his head and fumbled for his bag. The last Tilapia dinner he had. The girls looked at it wide eyed.

"Go ahead." Julian said. "It doesn't taste great to be honest."

A fire and a few burns later the girls had cooked the fish and offered Julian a small piece. "Thank you."

He was surprised the girls could share the fish into 10 people and to his delight it was better than when Rachel cooked it. "This is amazing."

"Cressida here can cook almost anything." One of the girls said. "She made a casserole out of what we had, best meal we had until now."

The blond girl, Cressida blushed. "Bet the boys have more meat than this, they had weapons last time we saw them. All we have is this bus."

She pointed to the Montgomery Prep bus. Julian closed his eyes. "I'll help you hunt, although I have no idea where to begin, but after that you have to help me get my friends back."

The girls looked at each other and nodded in unison.