Chapter Five

Jessie yawned as she shifted, trying to stretch her legs so they wouldn't get cramped; she glanced over at Chris, who was sleeping soundly a few feet from her, leaned against the trunk of a tree just as she was. As tired as she was, she couldn't bring herself to sleep either, feeling content, for the moment, to watch the woods around them for any signs that they were being chased. She had yet to see any, but wasn't getting her hopes up.

Also, being alone without having to worry about being silent and forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other gave Jessie a chance to think about what had happened lately. All her efforts to save and protect her sister had been for nothing, because Sadie was dead, a reality that was beginning to truly sink in every second she really thought about it. Her precious little sister, the family butterfly, was now dead, decapitated, her corpse still in the hands of her murderers; Jessie couldn't think of anything worse.

Sighing, she pressed her palms against her face and ran her hands through her tangled, matted hair. She hadn't showered in nearly forty-eight hours and she stunk of sweat and blood, a combination that she had smelled in her nightmares many times when she had dreamt about what had happened in the woods a couple months ago. Now she would have a whole new set of nightmares to experience.

Jessie pushed herself to her feet and, with a glance at Chris, headed away from where they had been resting. She was too upset, her emotions churning inside of her too roughly for her to be able to sit still any longer; she wouldn't go far enough to get lost, plus it wouldn't hurt to check out the terrain before Chris had to move again. She was worried about him, for he seemed weaker then he had only minutes before they had stopped, and he was bleeding a lot; Jessie prayed they'd get to a hospital in time. She didn't know what she'd do if she lost Chris as well.

Stepping over a fallen log, she walked slowly through the woods, every so often dragging her fingers across moss cover tree trunks, forever going straight so that she wouldn't get turned around. It wouldn't do her or Chris any good if she got lost in the woods.

When Jessie got what she judged to be thirty feet away from Chris, she prepared to turn and go back, pausing when a sound she hadn't heard in a while filled her ears. It was a sound that she had heard every day of her life, a sound that one would often not even notice until it was heard somewhere out of place: the sound of car tires driving across asphalt.

After her ears confirmed that she was truly hearing passing cars, her heart practically leapt into her throat. They were saved! After all their walking, running, after all the fear and death, she and Chris had finally made it out of the woods. Jessie turned and rushed back they way she had come, eager to get to Chris and bring him to the road while cars were still traveling down it; it was roughly an hour away from sunrise, so there really wasn't a possibility that the early rush hour traffic would diminish.

"Chris!" She shouted when she could see her sleeping boyfriend again. For some reason, she was no longer worried about attracting attention, no longer worried about being quiet. "Chris!"

At the sound of her voice, Chris began to stir, blinking sleepily up at her. "Jess, what's the matter?" He questioned, looking at her worriedly as he spoke.

Jessie knelt down in front of him, tugging on his arm with child-like impatience. "Nothing's wrong, I found the road Chris." She told him, unable to keep the relief and happiness from her voice.

At first, Chris looked surprised, as though he hadn't heard her clearly. Then, suddenly, he brightened. "You found the what....the road?" He said, eyes growing wide with the relief that was coursing through Jessie, who nodded quickly. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." She assured him, helping him to his feet. "Come on, I want to get the hell out of these woods as soon as possible." She grumbled.

Following the exact path Jessie had taken only moment before, Chris and his girlfriend managed to break through the thick net of forest foliage and reach the side of the road, which was populated with a handful of cars, headlights still blaring. Leaving Chris' side, Jessie stepped off the shoulder and raised her arms above her head, trying desperately to signal one of the passing cars.

The first two cars passed by her without even slowly, but the third began to slow down, allowing the driver to a get a better look at the dirt and blood covered brunette hailing her from the side of the road. The middle-aged woman in the driver's side rolled down the passenger window and leaned forward slightly. "Are you all right?" She called out toward Jessie, who limped toward her.

"No. My brother and I really need to get to a hospital." Jessie explained, hoping that the woman wouldn't suddenly decide she was an axe murderer. "Can you help us?"

The woman peered past Jessie, looking for Chris, who had begun heading their way; one look at his blood covered shirt and jeans told her all she needed to know. "Of course, get in." She unlocked the locks on the back doors.

Jessie smiled gratefully and headed toward the back of the car, throwing the door open and turning to face Chris, who offered her a weak smile. "We did it." He muttered weakly, doing his best to not just fall into the back seat of the car.

Sliding in beside him, Jessie didn't find the need to say anything.

* * *

For ten minutes, the woman that had driven in silence, only looking in the rearview mirror at her passengers every so often; the silence and gentle motion of the car had been more then enough to lull Chris off to sleep and he dreamed with his head on his girlfriend's shoulder, unaware of the woods passing along the sides of the road. Jessie found it somewhat amazing, if not ironic, at how quickly the woods vanished when there weren't trees, brush, roots and killer hillbillies to stop one from traveling through them. As she stared at the woman's cup of coffee and half-eaten blueberry muffin, she was reminded of how hungry and thirsty she was, but didn't have the heart to ask the woman that had saved their lives for her breakfast as well.

Finally, the woman had had enough of the silence and said to Jessie, "What happened to you guys?" She didn't look like she was quite sure she wanted to know, but asked the question nonetheless.

Jessie thought for a moment about how much to tell the woman before deciding that there was no harm in the truth. "We were chased by these disfigured men; they captured my boyfriend and probably would have killed him if I hadn't gotten there in time." She answered, keeping the woman's gaze as she spoke.

The woman nodded, gazing at the road before returning Jessie's stare. "Why were you in the woods in the first place? Camping?" It seemed perfectly reasonable to her, after all, that a young couple would be in the woods camping. The killer mountain men, however, was the part that unnerved her the most.

For a moment, Jessie was silent, tears prickling the corners of her eyes. "No, we were...my little sister, Sadie, had gone camping with her friends and the men had attacked them. She called my boyfriend and I for our help; we went to rescue her." She wasn't quite sure she wanted to share her memories of Sadie with this strange woman, but she owed it to their rescuer to answer her questions.

The woman's face softened at her words; it didn't take a genius to put two and two together and realize that there was no little sister any longer. "I'm sorry." She muttered, as sympathetically as she could. She had never lost anyone close to her, so she couldn't come up with any more words to say then that.

Jessie simply nodded and leaned her head against Chris', taking a deep breath and then releasing it in a long sigh. Thankfully, the rest of the ride to the hospital was taken in silence.

* * *

When the woman pulled in front of the emergency room entrance of the Lakeview Hospital, Jessie almost regretted waking Chris up; he had suffered through so much, he needed the sleep, but he needed professional care even more. Jessie and the groggy Chris emerged from the woman's car and shut the door behind them. "Are you sure you're going to be all right?" The woman questioned, looking at the brunette as she spoke.

Jessie nodded. "We will be now." She answered. "Thank you." She was shaking again, this time from a mixture of relief, hunger and the adrenaline that was draining from her body. The woman didn't look so sure but waved nonetheless and pulled out of the parking lot, leaving the couple standing on the sidewalk.

Slipping her shaking arm around Chris' waist, Jessie helped her boyfriend hobble through the sliding doors and into the hospital; loss of blood, among other things had made him weak and she found it difficult to support him. Jessie managed to drag them both over to the nurses' station, where the plump woman behind the counter looked at them with a mixture of shock and concern.

"My boyfriend needs help." Jessie told her, though that much was obvious. Chris leaned against the counter for support, staring at the nurse through foggy eyes. "He's been stabbed."

The nurse looked at Chris, then down at his bloody belly and pants and called out for a doctor. She turned to look at Jessie, who was watching Chris worriedly. "What about you, miss, do you need a doctor?"

Jessie shook her head. "Just help him, I'm fine." She said, seconds before she fainted into blackness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Thanks for the reviews, I was getting worried there for a while ;) Glad everyone's liking the story so far, thanks!