I don't own any of the Higher Ground characters except Dawn and her dad.

Shelby was off the cliff when Dawn could be clearly heard. She looked to Kat and Daisy for direction. They motioned for her to leave. She shook her head no. Kat mouthed that they would be fine.

Shelby gave them a parting glance before running regretfully down the path and into more woods.

Up on the open cliff, Daisy and Kat turned to face the inevitable. They turned to face Dawn. All the sudden Daisy broke out laughing. Kat gave her an 'I don't know you' look.

"It's just funny," Daisy said. "To think Little Miss Manipulation would be the one to kill us. One troubled teen kills two others." Kat couldn't help it. She started laughing too. When Dawn found them, they were laughing hysterically.

Shelby tore through the woods. She knew how Jules felt when she broke for the lodge. Running as if your life depended on it. Or worse, someone else's life. She hadn't heard a shot yet, and she hoped she wouldn't. She stopped for a moment to get her bearings. Only then did she realize she'd never been this deep into the woods. She had no idea where she was.

She felt a slight sense of desperation. She was lost in the woods with someone who wanted to kill her. And the only two people who knew where she was were sure to die within minutes. She couldn't help it. She sat on a rock as the tears began to flow.

"Shelby!" Scott was getting frustrated. He should have seen something, heard something by now.

"Daisy!" Ezra sounded almost as desperate as Scott felt. He exchanged a look with Auggie, who proceeded to call for Kat. No luck for him either.

Scott sat on the ground and buried his face in his hands. This isn't happening, he thought. This can't happen.

Ezra put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find her, Scott. We'll find them all."

Scott got up and started pacing. "That's what I'm afraid of. We'll probably find Dawn too."

"Maybe we should split up," Auggie said. "Ya know, cover more ground. These woods are huge."

"Yeah, over a hundred acres," Ezra agreed. "OK, we split up. But no one do anything that could get Daisy, er, the girls killed or hurt."

Scott smiled despite himself. "OK, Ez, we won't get Daisy, er, the girls killed." Ezra glared at him and they separated, each praying to find the girls without Dawn.

"Do you think it's a bad sign the woods are this quiet?" Peter asked Sophie. "I mean, you were out here. Were they noisy or were they this quiet?"

"I never heard a peep from them," Sophie said. "They know their lives' depended on them staying quiet."

"Hey, listen," Peter said stopping. The pair stood silent for a moment. They heard the unmistakable sound of laughter. Female laughter. They raced forward. They found Kat and Daisy on the cliff, alone and in hysterics.

"She went that way," Kat said, pointing to the path at the bottom of the cliff. She wiped tears from her eyes.

"Who? Shelby or Dawn?" Sophie asked, praying it would be Shelby.

"Both," Daisy said. Peter and Sophie ran for the path.

"Get back to the lodge," Peter said before disappearing into the dense woods.

"Ah, Romeo and Juliette embark on a romantic gait through the woods," Daisy said. She and Kat broke into fits of giggles again as they headed for the lodge.

Shelby was still sitting on the rock. She wasn't just crying now, she was sobbing. Her body was hunched over, wracked with sobs. She cried about Scott, losing him to Dawn, her friends being killed by her, and because she was next in line. And she sobbed endlessly because she knew that everything she was crying about was her fault. Dawn was after her, and her friends had paid the price.

"Shel-by" Dawn's voice rang through the woods. It might as well been a gun shot, for even the sound of her voice piercing through the silent evening was enough to make Shelby's blood run cold. But what had Shelby trembling in fear wasn't the voice or the gun. It was the sound of the gun being cocked. Ready to shoot her at any second. A hand clamped itself over her mouth. She tried fruitlessly to scream. The hand was firm. She couldn't make a sound. Another hand clamped on to her arm.