The Silent Forest

Summary: A field trip becomes a nightmare when the gang is separated from the rest of the group in the middle of a vast forest. Things go from bad to worse when they discover that they are not alone.

Pairings: Chaylor, Troyella and some mild Zekepay. Ryan will also feature but with no pairing.

Disclaimer: Yep, I own it. *Keeps dreaming*

Warnings: Possible character death(s). Rated T for some language and quite a bit of violence/blood. Probable spelling and grammar mistakes due to my lack of beta.

10. For Zeke


It was beautiful. The evening sky. A gorgeous mixture of golden orange and dark brilliant blue. Out there, away from the unnatural city lights, the stars were glimmering already brighter than city stars ever shine. The wonderful, bright, round moon glowed white. Truly beautiful.

But the world beneath its blanket of perfection was far from beautiful.

Fear. Pain. Death.

Amidst the trees, awful things were happening…

"He'll be okay, you know." Troy told Sharpay, putting a supportive hand on her shoulder. Zeke was sleeping. Sharpay watched him intently as if, if she looked anywhere else, he'd slip away.

She nodded and tried to believe his words. "Thanks." She was grateful for his faith. She needed it. Even if she didn't deserve it. All the times she'd been a complete bitch to him and Gabriella. The amount of times she'd tried to split the two up. All of it was forgotten. It didn't matter. This was bigger than that.

"And Ryan," Troy continued. "He'll be back soon. With Taylor and Chad and…." He trailed off, looking wistfully in the direction that Gabriella had disappeared into. She was taking too long. She said she'd come straight back. She promised. It was nearly night now. And there was no sign of any of them.

"They're fine." Said Sharpay. She sensed Troy's uncertainty and thought, since he was being so kind to her, the least she could do was return the favour. They both needed the assurance.

"They're fine." Troy repeated. He tried desperately to make himself believe it. He knew he was wrong. "They're fine."

Chad was light-headed. He was dizzier than he'd ever been. He could feel himself swaying. But he didn't stop. His eyes struggled to focus on anything. His ears were ringing. His lungs, burning. Hands, trembling. But he wouldn't stop. He could distantly hear Ryan shouting at him to quit but it was as if the other boy was miles away. And he couldn't stop anyway.

Eventually, Taylor would wake up. She'd open those sweet, warm brown eyes and smile at him again. She had to.

Ryan wasn't the only one shouting now. Gabriella was at it too. They were telling him to stop. It was over. She was gone. They were saying that he was seriously damaging himself. He was putting his own life at risk.

His life didn't matter. Taylor's did. He ignored their cries and continued mechanically, the movement so familiar to him now that he was doing it on auto-pilot.

Suddenly, Chad felt two firm hands on his shoulders, forcefully pulling him back. He blew a final desperate gulp of air into Taylor's lungs before he was yanked away from her. He fell onto his back and lay motionless for the first time in what felt like years.

He wanted to move. His brain was screaming at him to move. Get back to Taylor. But his body was screaming back. He physically could not move. His entire body was exhausted beyond reason. His joints ached. His muscles were sore. Every bone in his body felt like it had been shattered. And, to top it off, his heart-…

A cough.

A watery, gasping cough.

He thought he'd imagined it. But Gabriella heard it too. And Ryan. They must have. Because Gabriella gasped and Ryan laughed breathlessly with disbelief.

Chad tore away the invisible restraints that held his body down and clambered wildly to Taylor's side. New tears formed in his eyes. He never thought he'd see her move again. But there she was; eyes open, coughing and spluttering through stifled tears. Colour slowly returned to her face as she took in repeated gulps of air, looking around with both panic and disorientation.

Chad took her head in both hands. She visibly calmed, but continued to cry. Her lungs were on fire. Her whole body was burning.

"You're okay." Chad assured her softly. "You're…. You-…" He couldn't stop himself. He broke down into a fit of hysterical sobs. "I'm sorry." He cried, shaking his head furiously, trying to make himself stop. "I just-…. I thought…."

He buried his head in his hands. He didn't mean to be so weak. She was the one that had almost drowned after all. Almost. The adrenaline that had been keeping him going had suddenly worn off. Now, reality was finally sinking in. All he could think of was how close he had come to losing her.

She too was weeping. She'd been dead. And she'd felt it. She'd been trying so hard not to give in to the darkness; the entire time just hanging on to Chad's distant but unmistakable voice. She was emotionally and physically drained. She really thought she'd never wake up. And, according to his reaction, Chad had been thinking the same.

"Chad…" She whispered, her voice raspy and rough. He removed his hands from his face and looked at her.

"I love you." He said.

She feebly raised her arms and he pulled her up to a seated position. She fell weakly into his wet embrace. No words were spoken. They remained in each others arms, just being grateful for one another's existence. They were both shaking. Cold and wet. Exhausted. Weeping. But they were alive.

They were still alive.

Meanwhile, after collecting Chad's thoroughly soaked jacket from where it still floated on the surface of the river, Gabriella and Ryan had sloped off, not wanting to intrude on the clearly tender moment. As they trudged back to Sharpay, Troy and Zeke, they began to talk.

"That was intense." Ryan sighed. It was as if he'd been watching a movie. The events didn't seem real. "I really thought she was-…" He couldn't bring himself to say the word.

"Me too." Gabriella admitted. "And Chad… I thought he'd lost it. I thought he was going to kill himself."

Ryan chuckled sadly. "Yeah." He paused. "I should never have told him to stop." He thought aloud. Now he thought about it, if Chad had stopped when Ryan had asked him to, Taylor wouldn't have woken up.

Gabriella gave him an assuring pat on the back. "Don't think like that." She said, seeing him digging himself into a hole of regret. "We were both thinking the same thing. We weren't to know."

By now, they had returned to the others.

Upon seeing his girlfriend, Troy rushed forward and hugged her with relief. "You came back." He said happily.

"Yeah." She sighed, glad to be in his arms. What she's seen and what had happened today had enforced how strongly she felt for him. She now realised that, in the blink of an eye, what they had could disappear.

To her dismay, he abruptly let go and looked around. "Where are Chad and Taylor?" he asked.

She just wanted to be held again. To be safe. All this time she'd tried to be strong. For Troy. For the others. But she was so scared. She'd nearly died today. Troy had nearly died trying to save her. And then seeing Taylor like that and how devastated Chad was. It was too much. She didn't trust her voice so, rather than answer Troy's question, she just shook her head and looked at the floor.

Troy grew concerned. Gabriella tried to hide it but he could see her eyes filling with tears. Something had upset her. But what?

"Little help here?" Ryan asked as he knelt beside Zeke, wet jacket in hand, unsure of what to do.

For now, Gabriella had to ignore the dismay welling up inside her. And for now, Troy had to set aside his growing concerns for his girlfriend. But only for now. They had a job to do but, as soon as they were done, Troy was going to find out what was troubling Gabriella. And why they'd returned without the couple they'd gone in search of.

They walked briskly to join Ryan and Sharpay beside Zeke.

"So, what do we do?" Sharpay directed expectantly at Gabriella. She was so relieved that Ryan had returned. Not only was he safe, but he'd brought the water that would save Zeke.

Gabriella inspected Zeke's tender leg. The night was getting darker but even in the dim light she could see what a mess it was. His open wound was oozing liquid; a mixture of blood and puss. His shin was swollen to almost double its original size. It didn't look good. And, what the others didn't realise was, the water probably wouldn't make much difference. If Zeke didn't get to a hospital soon he would definitely lose his leg. And probably his life. The water may put it off but eventually, the infection would spread and his tissue would start attacking itself; shutting his body down. To add to that, Gabriella had no idea how the acid in the water would affect the wound. It could have dire consequences.

"Well…?" Sharpay said impatiently.

Gabriella had been so lost in her thoughts she'd forgotten she was being waited for. "Uh…" Think Gabriella, think. "Someone will have to hold his leg." She said finally. "To stop it moving while someone else squeezes the water on it and another person gently wipes the wound."

"I'll hold the leg." Ryan offered, definitely not wanting to be the one to wipe away the blood. He positioned himself near Zeke's feet and held on tight.

"Alright." Gabriella said. "Well, I'll… clean? If no-one else w-."

Troy raised his hand, cutting her off. "Don't worry." He said. "I'll do it." He could see that she was already quite traumatized. Getting her hands covered in her friend's blood wouldn't help.

Ryan handed her the dripping jacket. "You squeeze." He suggested.

"And me?" Sharpay asked. The entire time, no-one had even assumed she would want to help. Not that she didn't want to make Zeke better, but all that blood didn't really seem her thing.

"You just…." Ryan thought. He couldn't come up with any other jobs for her. "Watch?"

Sharpay pulled a begrudging face but said nothing. The other three began their task, working together carefully but swiftly. It was nasty; like something out of a horror movie, but they got on with it without protest. For Zeke. They worked in silent concentration and focused on nothing but the leg. When they were done, they sat back and had a look at their efforts. It certainly looked cleaner. But time would tell.

Troy crawled around Zeke's body to sit next to Gabriella. Now that they were done, they could pick up where they left off. Gabriella no longer had other things to focus on so her thoughts returned to how desperately she wanted to be safe and secure back at home.

Troy put his good arm around Gabriella's shoulder. She was shivering lightly. It scared him. Gabriella was never the strongest of people. She was sensitive. She wasn't afraid to cry. And she got nervous just like anyone else. She even got stage fright. But she over came that. She was brave. Troy had never seen such fear in her eyes. "You gonna tell me what's wrong?" He whispered in her ear. He felt her shoulders tense under his arm.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened to Chad and Taylor. If not, then where were they? He'd never been so afraid of what Gabriella might say. If something had happened to Chad…. Him and Chad had been best friends all their lives. They were a team; unstoppable together.

Before Gabriella could reply, Sharpay asked the question that had been bothering both her and Troy. "So, where are Taylor and Chad?"

Gabriella and Ryan looked at each other, neither of them wanting to tell the story of what they'd seen. Gabriella's bottom lip quivered for a second. Then, before she cold control them, tears started spilling down her cheeks.

At first, Troy was too shocked to know what to do. He pulled her close to him and she buried her head in his shoulder, letting his T-Shirt soak up her tears. "Hey," he soothed rubbing her arm up and down. "Don't cry, Gabi. What's wrong?"

Both he and Sharpay looked to Ryan for answers. Gabriella's reaction had been surprising and worrying. What had happened to make her so upset?

"Where are they, Ryan?" Sharpay uttered quietly. Something in her didn't even want to know. From what she'd seen, she was certain they were dead or missing.

Ryan decided to get straight to the point. "I don't know how," he began. "But Taylor must've ended up in the water."

Already, Sharpay didn't like where the story was going. Her fears were heightened when Ryan mentioned that she was unconscious. She gasped and covered her open mouth with her hand.

Ryan continued. "Um, Chad was giving her mouth-to-mouth… I didn't even know he knew how." He added, thinking about it. Chad was full of surprises. He jumped back to the present. "But, uh… it didn't look good." He explained.

Troy was shaking his head. He held Gabriella tighter still. Her crying died down and she sniffed and pulled her head out of his shoulder. There were still tears in his eyes and she was clearly still upset. She didn't mean to cry. They'd survived. But life out here was getting harder and harder to live with each passing moment.

"She wasn't breathing." Ryan continued. Sharpay was now close to tears. "She looked…." His memories flashed back to Taylor's unmoving body. "Well, she looked dead."

Gabriella's shaking intensified as the images returned to her memory.

Retelling the story was clearly causing Ryan discomfort. He was rocking back and forth slightly and his eyes darted around to focus on anything but the faces in front of him. He sucked in a deep breath, his gaze fixed on the night sky, and prepared to finish the story. "And Chad…" He added. "Chad was exhausted. And he'd been doing CPR for so long. We could see he was doing himself damage."

Troy couldn't take the suspense any more. "Are they okay though?!" he asked more harshly than intended. Chad and Taylor weren't there, which suggested that the answer was no.

Okay? Ryan considered. He looked at Gabriella for help.

"They're alive." Was all Gabriella could manage.

Ryan nodded, grateful for her assistance. "We left them to… catch up."

The word 'relieved' could not describe how Troy and Sharpay felt. A huge weight was lifted from their shoulders. For a moment they'd thought…. But, they couldn't think like that now. No-one had died.

Gabriella looked up at Troy to find that he was gazing warmly back at her. The way he looked at her was always enough to make her come undone. "I can't take any more of this, Troy." She admitted finally. "I just wanna go home."

"We'll find a way out of here." He promised, holding her close to him. "I won't let anything happen to you."

Gabriella appreciated how much he cared. She believed every word. But it wasn't herself she was worried about.

"Look who's here." Sharpay called out all of a sudden, alerting them to Chad and Taylor's arrival.

Chad carried an understandably worn out Taylor in his arms, setting her down on the ground once they reached the others.

"Hey, dude." Troy said as Chad took a seat between him and Taylor. He took his friends hand and pulled him into a one-arm hug. Chad simply nodded, too tired for words.

"Taylor," Troy greeted, giving Taylor a smile. She returned it weakly. "It's good to see you." He said.

"And likewise." She replied.

Gabriella leaned over Troy and Chad to give Taylor a gentle squeeze on the hand. "Don't scare me like that again, okay?"

Taylor squeezed back. "I'll try my best." Her voice was still slightly hoarse and uncharacteristically child-like.

"How did you end up in the water anyway?" Gabriella asked. She knew Taylor wasn't a confident swimmer and that she was always wary of deep water, keeping her distance.

A momentary pang of pain flashed Taylor's features but was gone as quick as it had come. "Slipped." She lied. She just wanted to sleep. The story was too long to tell now and they'd undoubtedly have questions if she told the obscure truth; that she was hit in the head from behind by a mysterious shadowy figure. Maybe she'd tell them tomorrow. But for now, they all had enough on their plates with Zeke on the brink of death and no hope of rescue on the horizon.

Sharpay sensed Taylor's discomfort and quickly and discretely took the attention off her by playfully punching Chad on the arm. "Talk about knight in shining armour, eh?"

Chad chuckled. "Guess so." He shrugged. His gaze fell upon Zeke who lay sleeping in front of them. "How's he doing?"

Nobody answered. None of them knew really. He wasn't shaking and he didn't seem to be in pain. Whether or not that was a good thing, they weren't sure.

"I'm drained." Chad said, shutting his eyes and lying down with a long, loud yawn.

Taylor lay beside him. "Same." She agreed.

Gabriella also settled on the floor and Troy next to her, while Sharpay made herself comfortable between Ryan and Zeke. Tonight, they didn't mind sleeping on the bare floor. They were already dirty. They were already cold. All they cared about was sleep. They drifted off almost immediately; their bodies thankful for the rest. It had been a long day. Hopefully, tomorrow would be better.

A/N: So, once again, I killed no-one. Sorry. Sometimes I just can't! That's not to say our heroes are safe though...

Thanks to all my readers. Special thanks to my reviewers; ChocolatexChicaxCasey95, EllaKnight22, chaylorlover101, charlotteloveszacefron, Saynt Jimmy, Kt luvs., Always-Here-Imani, TheDiamondPrincess, RissaIzDeBomb, ILuvZacEfron, BrownEyedGirl97, utmy123, ChaylorTwilightQueen10, tiff1686, zanessatroyella4evr620 and megan. Did I mention that I love you guys?

Thanks to you guys, we've reached 100 reviews! Wow! Thank you so much. I'm honoured.
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