"Wait, wait. My leg hurts too much, can we stop for a moment?"

Jager and Meredith guided the one-legged Buck to a tree stump where they gently sat him down. As Jager went to check on Buck's wounds, Meredith scouted ahead for where they would go, though she didn't get far before Jager called for her to come back.

"Don't even think about it."

"Do you still think I'd run? Really?"

Jager shrugged. "One of us is injured, the other is tending to his injuries. I'd be tempted too if it were me."

"Well I'm not like you." Meredith said "Even if I planned on running, which I don't, I would know that now is not the time to do it. This is a big forest and I have no navigation or anything to protect myself with. Oh, and I'm still fucking handcuffed."

"You're not getting out of those handcuffs." Jager promptly said "Even if I wanted to let you out, neither of us have the keys, so quit your whining."

With a groan, Buck got back up. "Alright, let's go."

"Is your leg not hurting anymore?"

"Nope, its excruciating actually, but walking with it is better than hearing you two argue."

Jager and Meredith glared at each other one last time before helping Buck as they began walking again.

The flimsy metal lock of the door fell to the ground as Zofia forced her way inside. If the tree stumps surrounding the shed wasn't enough indication that this was used by loggers, the stored cutting tools confirmed it. This also meant that civilization wasn't that far off. Maybe an hour or two at most, however as for what direction that civilization was, none of them had a clue. And if they went the wrong direction, they'll just be digging themselves deeper into the hole they were in.

"What now Harry?" Zofia asked.

"Hold on, I'm thinking."

"Do we not have any way of communicating with the others? Can we not reach out to Hereford?" Frost asked.

"I lost my phone when we fell." Harry said "Although I did tell Eliza that I'll be messaging her every hour. If I'm not able to send one, she is to wait for fifteen minutes. If she still hasn't received anything, then she is ordered to send out a search party to look for us."

"Smart." Zofia said "When did you last send her a message?"

"Right before we crashed."

The ray of hope Zofia just got started to dim a little. "That was barely twenty minutes ago."

"So we'll have to wait for another hour before she sends anyone?"

"Fifty five minutes actually." Frost said "But she also has to consider how far we could have gotten in the time that you hadn't sent her a message, which is a pretty large area. Depending on the size of the search party that she'll send, its likely that the earliest that they can find us is when its almost dark."

"That's going to be a long wait." Zofia added "Not to mention the fact that we still haven't found the others."

"They're way out ahead of us, that's for sure. They know that as well, so they'll most likely come towards our direction."

"Then shouldn't we keep moving? If we can meet them halfway, then we'll have less things to worry about."

"That's not entirely true." Harry said "The white masks shot a plane out of the sky in the light of day, where anyone could see it. If they were willing to do that, they wouldn't give us a chance of getting out of here alive."

"He's right." Frost said "If they went through all that to try and kill the white mask you caught, they would make sure she's dead. They're probably on their way right now if they're not here yet."

"All the more reason we need to find the others." Zofia said.

"We don't have much to go on though." Harry said. "I don't want to be that guy, but how are we even sure that they're still alive?"

"I have faith in them. They're still alive."

"I hope so." Harry said. "But even then, this is a huge area. How are we supposed to find them like this."

"With a truck." Frost said.

"Great, do you have one of those?" Zofia asked, her sarcasm not so subtle.

"No, but they do. Look at the ground, tell me what you see."

Sure enough, the dirt they stood on was marked with tire threads fresh enough to have been less than a day old.

"Well shit, would you look at that. This could lead us to the locals, we can ask them for help." Zofia suggested.

"There are tree stumps all over the place. These tracks could lead us deeper into the forest."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Split up." Frost said. "These tracks look fresh, which means the loggers come back here often. One of us can wait for them to come back while we look for the others."

Both Zofia and Harry seemed in agreement.

"Fair enough." Harry said. "I'll stay here and wait."

Zofia and Frost both wanted to go look for Buck and the others, but neither of them expected Harry to allow them after showing him how well they get along. At least not that easily.

"Wait, you sure?"

"Of course not, but you two will just keep pestering me to let you go look for them anyway, so fuck it. Just remember that you won't be able to find them if you kill each other while looking."

They both nodded and went on to search for their friends.

We're coming Sebastien. Zofia thought to herself. Just hang in there.

"For the last time Zofia, we don't need it."

"Its not a matter of needing it Jeremiah." Zofia argued. "I just think that it can make things better for us."

"If you're insisting this much then it clearly goes beyond that."

Jeremiah had no intention of backing down, and neither did Zofia. "Why don't you just give it a chance?"

"I don't want to be like those people." Jeremiah said, throwing the flyer for marriage counselling down on the table. "This is for those couples with abusive partners or those who fight all the time."

"And you're saying we don't fight? What do you think we're doing right now?"

"The only reason we're fighting is because of this marriage counselling bullshit."

"You're so quick to call it bullshit Jeremiah."

"Well it is." Jeremiah said. "Tell me, what part of our marriage isn't working?"

"Its not a matter of our marriage not working Jeremiah. It's the fact that there is something missing from it."

Jeremiah groaned. "Great, there you go again, going on about how we don't actually love each other."

"I don't see why you're denying it so much Jeremiah. I know its hard to admit but things won't get better if you keep acting like nothing's wrong."

"There is nothing wrong with our marriage Zofia."

"We're not happy either."

"The only reason we're not is because you keep on insisting-"

A beep from their pager cut in on their conversation. "Hello?" it said. "Hey Zofia, Jeremiah, I'm dropping off your daughter from school."

Jeremiah took it upon himself to answer the pager. "I'm on my way."

On his way out, Zofia called after him. "We're not done here Jeremiah."

"Yes we are."

"Hey Tina."

"What?" Frost responded, hints of hostility already in her voice before Zofia even said anything.

Zofia pretended not to notice. "Why didn't you tell Harry about me and Sebastien?"

"Did you want me to?"

"Clearly not. I'm just curious."

"Don't get any ideas Bosak." Frost said. "I kept my mouth shut for Sebastien, not for you."

"Don't flatter yourself, I wasn't planning on thanking you." That was a lie. She wanted to thank her. In fact, she wanted to say a lot of things to her, but her pride can't help but fight back. Not this time.

"Tina."

Frost groaned, annoyed by the fact that the person she clearly wanted nothing to do with still kept talking to her. "What do you want?"

"To apologize to you."

"I would ask what you're apologizing for but there are way too many that come to mind."

Zofia sighed. She was taking the high road for once. "I'm sure we both know what I'm about to apologize for."

Frost stopped walking and turned to face her, arms crossed. "Not really. Enlighten me."

Why the fuck was she doing this again? "For being with Sebastien."

"Are you seriously apologizing for that?" Frost asked. "You do realize that he chose you, right? Apologizing for that is basically rubbing it in my face so can you please just fuck off?"

"That wasn't my intention."

"Then what is your intention? Because its not clear to me as to why you're doing this."

Good question. What was she hoping to achieve with this? "I just don't want us to be fighting all the time, especially if it affects our performance on the field."

"Fine, I'll play nice when we're on an op. Are you happy?"

"No. Its not enough."

Frost ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "What more do you want Zofia? You already have Sebastien."

"No, as a matter of fact I don't. Not anymore."

The shock was so much that it actually made Frost curious enough to actually keep on talking to Zofia. "Wait, what?"

"You're really going to repeat myself, aren't you?" Zofia sighed. "Yes, we're not together anymore. He broke it off last night."

As much as Frost resented Zofia, she couldn't bring herself to say anything that could hurt her this close to what she assumed was a very messy break up.

"I bet you're happy." Zofia said. "This was what you wanted wasn't it?"

"Zofia, no. I don't like you, and I don't think you two should be together, but no."

Zofia eyed Frost suspiciously, which made her feel obligated to specify that it was for Buck's sake and not hers.

"Look, it stops here."

Frost exhaled in relief. "Thank god, that conversation was awkward."

"I meant the trail, Tina."

Frost looked at rather steep fall a few feet from them. "Well shit. Let's head back."

"Wait, not yet."

"What? Why not?"

Zofia stepped past Frost and towards the edge, testing how stable the ground was before taking another step. Behind her, Frost went to stop her, though it was more out of annoyance than worry.

"What the hell are you doing? Get back here."

"I'm looking for the wreckage." Zofia said "That can at least tell us which direction to go."

"And if you fall? I don't want to have to look for you too."

"Then don't look for me." Zofia retorted "I'm not asking you to."

"Well Sebastien will so can you please just get back here before you-"

Frost stepped forward to grab Zofia when they felt the ground rumble before falling apart from underneath them.

"Argh!" Buck yelled as the pain in his leg worsened with each step he took.

After nearly falling down one too many times, Meredith finally had enough. "We can't keep going like this."

"Oh really?" Jager groaned. "What do you suggest we do then?"

"We go look for help by ourselves." Meredith said. "Come back for him once we've found the others."

"You want us to just leave him?" Jager asked. "He can barely stand on his own, do you really think he can be out here by himself?"

"Well we won't be able to find him help in time if we keep going at this rate."

Fair point. "Fine, lets ask Sebastien what he wants to do."

Buck stayed pretty silent during Jager and Meredith's brief argument, which was uncharacteristic for him since he'd usually break them up, and when he didn't answer Jager, they began to get worried.

"Hey Seb?" Jager asked, nudging Buck as he waited for an answer.

"Shit, no wonder he was quiet." Meredith said, crouching down so Jager can set him down on the ground.

The two of them looked over him, panicking. They were too busy arguing to notice that Buck had already passed out. Neither of them thought to check on him every now and then that they had no idea how long he had been out.

"Come on Sebastien, wake up." Jager said, lightly slapping Buck's face.

"This is bad. We're too late."

"Shut up." Jager said "That isn't helping."

"Look at his leg." Meredith said, pointing to the previous white fatigues of Buck that was now almost completely red. "He's losing blood too fast."

"I can see that, you don't have to point it out!" Jager yelled, more in panic than in anger. "Why don't you suggest what we can do instead of telling me things I already now."

In the midst of their argument, they heard Buck stir up before weakly telling both of them to shut the fuck up.

"Sebastien! Jesus christ we thought you were dead."

"So did I." Buck groaned. "The gauze isn't doing much, at this rate I'll bleed out before we find the others."

"What do we do? We don't have anything else to stop the bleeding."

"Yes we do." Buck said, groaning as he sat up and undid his belt. "We can cut off the blood flow entirely."

Jager took the belt from Buck, both of them aware of what could happen. "You could lose your leg Sebastien."

"I'll lose a lot more if I don't. Tie it."

Buck groaned as Jager tightened the belt around his already very sore wound. Their already bad handicap just got worse. The only thing keeping him going at this point was wanting to see Zofia again, if she were still alive that is.

Unbeknownst to him though, she was in fact still alive and looking for them at this very moment, along with a large number of white masks. Now as to which of the two would find them first, that was anyone's guess.