Thanks for the reviews so far, glad to see I'm not the only one who watches the commentary. I like the part where Eliza talks about the camera catching a "crack shot" and Desmond is like "No, they didn't get your crack, but they got your fat ass." I thought that was so funny. Okay, anyway, thanks for the reviews!

Chapter Three

Jessie poked around the base of the tree trunks in the surrounding woods, gathering up rocks, pinecones and anything else she could use to create a distraction to get the mountain men out of the house so she could rescue Chris. So far, she only had a handful of soggy pinecones that didn't look like they'd create much of a distraction when thrown against anything. The rest of her plan certainly wasn't masterful (more like something out of The Three Stooges cartoon) but it involved throwing rocks against the windows of the cabin, getting the men out long enough for her to snatch Chris and for them to get away.

Gathering rocks and other ammunition was taking longer then she thought, which was something that was slowly worrying Jessie. Chris had stopped screaming, which meant one of three things: the rednecks had stopped torturing him -or whatever they were doing, he had passed out, or he was dead. She wasn't going to allow herself to think that the latter was the correct, though it seemed much more likely. Despite this knowledge, Jessie didn't stop in her search for rocks, continuing to poke around beneath the pine needles. She was going to rescue Chris, that was all she needed to know.

* * *

Chris felt as though he had been tied to the back of a truck and driven across a mile long stretch of smoldering ashes. His nerves felt frayed, overloaded with pain; his chest was slick with blood and his entire body was covered in knife wounds. He was surprised when the skinny one had finally seemed to get bored of knifing him and had gone off elsewhere in the cabin, leaving him bleeding on the cabin floor, dazed and surely seconds away from passing out.

He pressed his hand to his chest, his fingers coming away sticky with blood, which made him wince. Chris had never been a pessimist but he was becoming one now; he knew he was going to bleed to death unless he got help, which was something that was surely impossible. No one knew where he was, no one would be searching for him. No one could help him.

* * *

Jessie had finally given up her search for missiles to throw at the cabin windows and decided to make due with what she had. What she had were two soggy pinecones, one rock and a rather large branch that she figured was her best bet in getting both herself and Chris out of the cabin alive. Wrapping her hand around the branch, she returned to her hiding spot in the bushes and tossed the rock at the window as hard as she could. Though she had never been one for sports that required accuracy, the rock hit the pane dead on, creating a dull thud. Jessie just hoped that the men were stupid enough to investigate whatever was knocking against their windows.

* * *

Chris glanced up when something hard hit the windowpane to his left, which also got the attention of his disfigured captures. The burly archer grunted as he whirled to face the noise, cocking his head with interest as he started toward the window. He tapped the glass at the same time another object struck it from the outside, this one not as heavy but making a solid thud before it fell to the ground.

The archer turned and grunted to his companions, who grunted something in response; for a fleeting moment, Chris wondered just what they were saying but then decided that he really didn't care. Whatever they were saying certain got a rise out of the skinny one, who began laughing and scampering toward the window.

The other two mountain men watched him with hesitation until something else hit against the window, which seemed to seal their decision to investigate. The bulky man lifted his blood-stained axe from its spot against the wall and led the way to the door, grunting roughly.

Chris watched them vanish, wishing that he had the strength to care that he was alone.

* * *

Jessie felt her heart freeze when the trio of murderous hillbillies emerged from their cabin, heading over toward the window. Until that moment, she hadn't realized that she had no way of getting them away from the cabin, just out of it. What was she going to do now? They'd catch her if she tried to get into the cabin now, yet she had no idea how to create a clear opening for herself.

The man that had killed Sadie turned in her direction and grunted something to the other two that followed him, gesturing toward the woods. Jessie felt her muscles tense and her grip on the branch grow tighter and as she faced the real possibility that she had been spotted. The trio of hillbillies headed away from the cabin and toward her, grunting quietly to each other.

This is it, Jessie thought to herself, do or die. Her leg muscles tightened, preparing her for the possibility that she would suddenly have to leap to her feet and haul the club into the nearest murderer's face. She was ready, her breath was shallow, she had crossed the point of being afraid, of being hesitant. This was her only chance. She was ready.

Needless to say, Jessie was more then surprised when all three of the inbreed murderers headed directly past her hiding spot and walked into the woods. Brow knitting, she turned to watch them disappearing into the forest, grunting to one another as they spread out, no doubt searching for whatever had knocked against their window. Jessie stared at them in shock for a moment before suddenly realizing that this was probably her only chance to rescue Chris.

Springing to her feet, she kept a tight grip upon the branch and rushed toward the cabin, trying to be as quiet as possible. Glancing behind her quickly, Jessie nudged the door of the cabin open and peeked in before stepping inside; though she had seen Chris' captures leave the house, she had no idea what surprises still might lie inside. The cabin was more of a large room, with a few pieces of rickety furniture, a wood burning stove, and a rotted chest.

Upon first glance, Jessie thought the cabin was empty, which sent her heart plunging down to her feet. However, peering into the dimness once more, she saw a mattress-less bed frame pressed against the farthest side of the room, with Chris bound to the posts with barbed wire.

"Chris!" Jessie shouted, forgetting the circumstances for the moment, as she dropped her branch and rushed toward her boyfriend, who stirred slightly when she called his name.

Jessie stepped over one of the bars of the frame and dropped to her knees beside Chris, tears of relief filling her eyes. He wasn't dead after all; however, judging by how slowly he turned to look at her and the blood that was dark but obvious on his shirt, he wasn't doing so well. She reached out to touch his cheek, relieved when his skin felt warm.

"Jessie?" Chris muttered, as though he couldn't believe he was actually saying her name. "I thought you were dead."

Eyes darting toward his bloody wrists, Jessie said, "Not quiet. How badly are you hurt?" She didn't really want to know, but she didn't know how far away from the hospital they were. She reached up to his wrists, the barbs cutting the pads of her fingers as she worked quickly to free her boyfriend.

Chris sighed, his eyes never leaving Jessie. "Difficult to say, though I'd guess it's pretty bad." His right wrist dropped to the ground when she released it from the wire, and he could feel the blood begin to return to his fingers.

Jessie was silent as she reached over him to get to his left wrist; she hoped that Chris wasn't hurt as bad as he looked, or thought. She had come too far to have him die before they got to a hospital. "We don't have much time." She said finally, wincing as one of the barbs stuck her. "We've gotta hurry."

Chris nodded slowly, forcing himself to lean forward in an attempt to get to the wire holding his ankle. With his remaining wrist still bound, however, his reach fell short and he leaned back down. He watched the brunette free his left hand, thankful that she hadn't died in the woods like he had feared; she actually looked pretty kept together -though he knew Jessie's looks of composure were very deceiving- given the circumstances and he was thankful that it was too dark in the cabin for her to see her sister's corpse.

A noise from outside the cabin caused Jessie to jump and look away from the barbed wire holding Chris' right ankle. There was no mistaking the grunts, even from inside the room. The murderers were back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry it's taken so long to update, I have the flu, but I'm pulling myself together long enough to write. Thanks again for all the reviews, love you all!