Chapter Six: On the Way

Sara had been walking now for some time, arms folded across her chest. It had taken her what seemed like hours to climb the face of the cliff, but it hadn't been that hard. It was much more suitable to climb than the last one was. Still, being cold and wet, Sara had been moving slow.

Getting out of the water had given her time to dry off, and though she was still cold, she was dry, for the most part anyways. After reaching the top of the cliff, she had circled back down, following the rushing river downstream, looking for Greg.

It was light outside now, with clouds hanging in the air, still threatening to let loose another downpour. There had been no sign of Greg, but Sara wasn't willing to give up on hope quite yet.

Her entire body was sore, Sara was fairly certain that nothing was broken, but each step was painful. It was a given however, she was still trying to figure out why she wasn't dead, and the thoughts that Greg might be didn't even cross her mind.

Making her way over a hill, Sara came to a stop, staring down. She shook her head as she sped up her pace, limping as fast as she could. She dropped to her knees, next to the form of Greg. She did nothing first, afraid of what she would find. Then slowly, she reached a hand out, shaking him.

"Greg?" she called, her bottom lip quivering.

He let out a groan, prompting her to call out his name again. His eyes opened, watching her through small slits before closing them.

"Come on Greg," Sara told him, finding her voice once again, "you need to get up."

"Uh uh," Greg muttered slightly, letting out a pained breath. He had no intentions of moving.

"We have to get back," Sara argued, shaking him again.

Greg let out another groan, opening his eyes again. "It hurts," he told her, still not making any move to get up.

"You have to, we can't stay out here. I know you hurt, I hurt too, but we'll die if we stay out here."

Greg shrugged, grimacing as he did so. His entire body was on fire, had been on fire since he drug himself out of the river. Breathing hurt, and he felt extremely nauseated, at this point, moving was the last thing on his mind.

"You can't be serious Greg," Sara said softly, watching him still, his eyes had closed again. "We have to get going. I don't think we're too far out."

Greg let out a couple of short coughs, groaning at the pressure it was placing on his ribs. Slowly he moved his hands under him, lifting himself to a sitting position. Sara helped him, sympathizing with each short cry he let out.

Now sitting, Greg wrapped his arms around his ribs, his breathing hitching as he tried to fight the pain. If sitting was this hard, Greg doubted he could walk, but one look at Sara told him that she wasn't going to leave him behind.

"We could be anywhere," Greg told her, his voice withdrawn. He was taking short breaths, holding them in as long as he could before taking another one. It hurt less this way, but his body wanted to fight him for deeper breaths. "That river could have taken us miles."

"All we have to do is follow the river back up. I'm sure someone's looking for us by now. It won't be long before we're found."

"Then let's just stay here," Greg argued, taking another short breath.

Sara just stood up, holding her hand out towards him. Greg took that as a no, and with a sigh, clasped Sara's hand in his. He grimaced as she pulled him up, slowly but firmly. Once on his feet, he swayed slightly, Sara held onto him until she was certain he wouldn't fall, and with a simple nod, they began to walk.


Catherine leaned against the vehicle, a black SUV with a dead battery. The door had been left open, the lights on for hours now, had drained the battery, meaning they would more in likely have to tow it back, seeing that trying to jump start it in the middle of a lightning storm wasn't the best idea.

She had only taken an extra minute to grab a hooded coat before heading out. Brass met her when she arrived. The thunder and lighting was gone now, but rain still came down in sheets. They had checked the scene over twice since her arrival, and found nothing.

Nothing but the car, and their cases. Greg and Sara were gone, just like that. As well as the car from the previous crime scene, but that was granted since they never expected it to last through the storm.

"Theories?" Catherine asked as Brass came up next to her. Brass just shook his head.

"What if they saw something?" Catherine continued after a minute, talking loud enough for him to hear her over the rain. "Got stuck somewhere, storm got really bad, had to take shelter?"

"There's no where to take shelter around here," Brass pointed out, "bleak and isolated."

Catherine nodded, her eyes tracing the scene once again, day had now come, it had been raining off and on, stopping for short periods of time before picking up again. "It was dark, you couldn't see an inch in front of your face…what if they thought they were going the right way, but in fact," her eyes followed the path opposite towards the cliff, then exchanged worried looks with Brass.

"You don't think?"

Brass shrugged as he followed Catherine over to the edge. On her hands and knees she glanced down at the dirtied water below, still moving quickly. "Looks run down," she said softly as Brass knelt next to her.

"Like someone was trying to climb up," Brass finished.

"I'll call search and rescue," Catherine said, a sickly feeling rolling around in her stomach.

TBC