Sam winced as she came to. The carriage had rolled completely on its side and was now stuck steadfast into the ditch. She put her hands out to steady herself. Her head hurt but it wasn't bleeding which was a good thing. Nothing looked broken, I mean she wasn't a doctor but nothing didn't look like it wasn't in the right place. Her hands had a few cuts and bruises but nothing that looked like it was too bad. As her eyes began to adjust, she could see a figure in front of her. Blue was covering most of it, so it must either be Crabtree or Higgins. She went over to the figure lying on the ground and shook it gently.

"George?" She whispered trying not to attract unwanted attention.

Crabtree groaned as he slowly woke up. He tried to get up but Sam kept him down just in case he was injured.

"Stay still." Sam whispered, checking over Crabtree to make sure there weren't any really bad injuries.

"What's going on? Where are we?" Crabtree asked wearily.

"We're in a ditch on the side of the road. Do you remember anything?" Sam worried Crabtree had lost his memory.

"Sort of. Someone drove us off the road."

Another groan came from behind them. Pendrick then came into view hobbling towards them. Obviously he had hurt some part of his leg and needed medical attention soon.

"You two alright?" Pendrick knelt down as best as he could next to them.

"I think so. Are you?" Sam said, looking at Pendricks leg where he had been limping.

"I'm fine." Pendrick moved his leg so Sam wasn't staring at it.

Sam was still worried about Pendrick but it was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it anymore. She then turned her attention to finding Higgins as he hadn't appeared yet. Another set of footsteps soon calmed her however, as Higgins loomed over them. She breathed a sigh of relief when he used the lantern he had in his hand to check them over.

"How long do you think it will take for someone to find us?" Sam questioned as she sat down on the floor.

"Someone will know we're missing." Higgins yawned sitting down next to her, which showed he wasn't injured.

Sam winced as she moved her arm a little. Higgins soon sat to attention when she did this. She really didn't want to cause a fuss but let him check it over. She didn't want to argue out here.

"Ow!" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry. Looks like a sprain. No bones at least I suppose." Higgins winced as he said this.

"No blood either hey?" Crabtree spoke up smirking.

Higgins covered his mouth as he made a little noise. Sam smiled over at Crabtree when he said this. At least they were making light of the situation.

Sam moved her head over to where the carriage now lay. It was broken and by the looks of it, the driver had run. The horse was nowhere to be seen, so whoever had taken that must have thought herself and the others were dead. Hopefully they won't come back to check!

"We need to get back to town. We can't stay out here, we'll freeze!" Sam got up holding her arm so it wouldn't bother her too much.

"It's not that bad! Plus the others will find us before we even start walking." Higgins tried to stop her.

Sam looked towards the road. Maybe Higgins was right. With no horses or carriage they weren't going to make much of a hedgeway before tomorrow. She then carefully sat back down again.

"Fine but if they don't come in the next five hours, then I'm walking back if you come or not." Sam made sure everyone knew about that.

"I'll be joining you." Crabtree put his hand up from where he was lying, still listening to Sam's orders not to move.

"Are you sure you're okay George? It's just you haven't moved since we found each other." Pendrick asked.

"I have orders not to move." Crabtree said, pointing at Sam.

"That was not an order!" Sam fought back.

Crabtree listened to this and tried to get up using his elbows but to no success as he fell back down again. Sam rushed over to him to check what was wrong but she was waved away before she could. Pendrick took her to one side as Higgins tried to secretly check Crabtree.

"I'm so stupid. Why didn't I think to ask him to move?" Sam said frustrated.

"It's not your fault." Pendrick tried to keep her calm.

"I miss everything. I bet you I've missed something with the case. Maybe Watts should have taken over."

"Don't think like that."

"I can't help it."

"Sam, this case won't be solved unless you're in charge."

"We all know that's not true! As soon as we get back to the station, I'm handing control back to Watts."

"If that's what you want, maybe you should rethink that."

A groan and moan came from Crabtree's direction. Sam was feeling worse as Higgins continued. Pendrick took her away more to check and see if they could find anything near the carriage to see who had done this. He was sure it wasn't an accident and he was ready to prove it.

He knelt down next to where the carriage had ended up. Carriage tyre marks were next to it. Thank God it wasn't raining!

"Found something?" Sam asked.

"How far are we from the road?" Pendrick asked back.

"Quite far why?"

"Well it seems a carriage came down here. Why would they do that? I mean surely if they just wanted the horse then they would just come down here by themselves."

"True." Sam nodded, leaning down where Pendrick was.

Sam had a closer look at where Pendrick was. The tyre tracks weren't too deep so it hadn't been too long since they had been here. It clearly wasn't the carriage that had run into them.

"James." Sam said quietly.

"Yeah." Pendrick looked her in the eye.

"I'm scared." Sam said quickly so Crabtree and Higgins didn't hear. She didn't want to worry them right now.

Pendrick looked over to Higgins and Crabtree. He could tell how worried Sam was about them.

"It's okay Sam. We'll be out of here soon." Pendrick nodded.

Sam nodded and went back to checking over the carriage. Most of it was broken with glass strewn everywhere. No wonder Crabtree might be injured, if a piece of glass had hit him it could cause a lot of damage.

They suddenly heard a carriage pulling up. It didn't look familiar so they kept their heads down and told Higgins to do the same. They just hoped it wouldn't stop or see them.

"Look there's no one out there. Let's get back to base." A voice came from the direction of the road.

"The boss said to make sure." Another said.

The carriage door swung open. A person, well more like a shadow, came out and checked near the road. Sam and Pendrick breathed quietly trying not to draw attention. The shadow got closer and closer to them, they were frozen still.

"Anything?" The person from the carriage shouted.

"Doesn't look like it. Come let's get back." The shadow shouted, footsteps receding.

The shadow then stopped. Something was shining and casted shadows where Sam and Pendrick were sitting. Over to the other side they could see two shadows where George and Henry were. The shadow mimed for the other person to join him. Sam let out a little weep as they came closer and closer. Someone out there must be looking for them. Right?

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Murdoch and Julia were heading towards the scene in the carriage that they had called over. Miss James and Watts were right behind them in another. Julia was keeping a very close eye on Murdoch as he had only just gotten out of hospital and he wasn't even supposed to be out yet! However, Murdoch had insisted that he came.

"If anything happens to your injury then don't blame me." Julia mumbled on the way to Sam and the others.

"It won't. Anyway I'm going straight back to the hospital when this is done." Murdoch reminded her.

"What do you even think happened?"

"It's that note. It's all my fault."

Julia really wanted to say something against that but before she could the carriage came to a stop. They looked at each other, worried and then got out to see why they had stopped. The other carriage pulled up behind them as they rushed over to what was left of the carriage.

"Sam?! Crabtree? Higgins?" Murdoch called out.

No answer came back however. Watts made sure Murdoch didn't move from where he stood and then went to see why they didn't get an answer.

"Watts." Murdoch hoped they were still there, as ambulances and other cars pulled up.

"They're not here." Watts shook his head.

"No." Julia whimpered.

Murdoch then saw another set of tracks. They led away from the scene and headed elsewhere. His blood boiled as soon as he saw these. Whoever had taken them, they were going to get the full rage of Murdoch.