Chapter 6

"Grace..." Stella called ahead to her, feeling out of breath. "We should stop, take a break."

With the adrenaline long gone and no longer dulling them, Stella's aches and pains had made themselves well known, and she had fallen behind Grace. Her head throbbed with every heartbeat, and her legs shook beneath her with every step. Her chest and whole torso hurt with every breath, and the heavy breathing from walking for so long wasn't helping either. She was worried that if she didn't stop now, she wouldn't make it any farther. Grace had started to slow down, too, and they had little light remaining.

"Yeah, okay," Grace agreed, coming to a stop.

Somewhere along the way, Stella was struck with the realisation that they were going in the wrong way if they wanted to follow the tall and muscular guy's directions, and they'd been aimlessly walking in, what she hoped to be, a straight line for what felt like hours. She hoped Grace hadn't noticed, but his note was pretty clear; it was obvious they weren't following it.

Stella tried to hide her pain; she—and Grace—had enough to worry about with Grace's gunshot wound, and she didn't want to trouble her.

As Grace sat down against a wide trunked tree, Stella eased her shirt off, followed by her t-shirt, trying to keep her discomfort from showing. "What are you doing?" Grace sounded sceptical.

Stella chuckled. "Don't flatter yourself. It's for your wound." She slipped her shirt back on, buttoned it up, and sat down next to her. "Can I see?"

Grace nodded, moving her blood stained hand away. Stella lifted her shirt and expected the worst, but was relieved to see it wasn't as bad as she imagined, though still not good—it was a through and through, right on the edge, like a bloody, jagged notch was missing. A few centimetres and it would've missed her completely. It still looked like it was bleeding, but it wasn't severe. She took her bundled up t-shirt and pressed it against the wound, and Grace hissed as she pulled away. "I think it's safe to say you're going to live to see another day with your boyfriend." It came out automatically; she couldn't help it. She looked up at Grace. "Sorry."

Grace shook her head. "Whatever."

"No, really—I'm sorry. I shouldn't be saying that kind of stuff. It's none of my business."

"That's right, it isn't."

"Grace, I'm sorry. I'm trying here," Stella emphasized.

There was a silence between them for a few moments before Grace said anything. "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but," she looked up to Stella, "You're not as terrible a person as I thought."

Stella couldn't help but chuckle.

"Seriously, you've really taken charge and handled the situation very well."

A mixture of embarrassment and pride went through her, and she hoped she wasn't blushing. "Well, don't think this is over just yet. Those guys back there are just knocked out, and when they come to they might search for us. We're not out of the woods yet. Literally."

Grace sighed, "I know."

"Here," Stella gestured for her to hold the t-shirt in place, and then shuffled to sit next to her against the tree, feeling some relief to not have to support herself. "I think we should stay the night. We can continue on at dawn. There's no use in wandering around in the dark."

Grace nodded, agreeing.

The spot they were resting at was nicely tucked away amongst tall trees and thick shrubs. It acted as a buffer against the chilling wind. Being in the open air reminded Stella of what they'd been through and how they were now so close to freedom, but the sough above also reminded her that they were alone and with no direction for help. She was worried they wouldn't find it in time, that they had been walking around in circles or were going in the opposite direction to the closest civilization; she hadn't exactly paid close attention to where they were going when they had made a run for it.

Unconsciously feeling a stinging on her hand, Stella looked down to see a long cut across her palm, and after sifting through her enervated mind, she remembered the glass during their escape. She must've gripped it tighter than she thought. She balled her hand up before Grace noticed.

"How are you feeling?"

Stella tensed up, thinking maybe she saw. She didn't want to draw any attention to herself, to let her guard down while they were still in potential danger. She wanted to stay strong. "Fine, why?"

"I saw you took a pretty heavy beating back at the cabin."

Stella relaxed, opting for a playful reply to casually redirect the subject. "Please, I kicked his arse and then saved your life. You're welcome, by the way."

"M-kay," Grace sounded defensive. "Thank you for 'saving my life'," she added.

The sky had been rapidly dulling since they stopped, and would soon get to the point where only the faint moonlight would illuminate shapes. Stella wished they could make a fire to keep warm, but doing so would accentuate their position, which was the last thing they wanted. From their captors at least. They were on their own in finding help, and it felt like a one in a million chance of help finding them.

—

When Stella woke up, the first thing she felt was warmness on half her face. She opened her eyes and was struck by the sun in front of her. She felt stiff all over, and even though she'd barely moved, most of her body throbbed with pain. The warmth from the sun came through in beams, but only partially hit her. She shivered, watching her breath come out. She slept terribly, for the second night in a row—she woke up several times because she knew she had to be on alert, so every little sound had disturbed her.

She looked across to Grace, who was sitting next to her against the tree, still sleeping. She looked pale, but she just told herself it was from the weather. She nudged her shoulder with her own.

"Grace." She didn't move. "Grace," she tried again, reaching across to shake her arm.

"Mmm," Grace started to stir, opening her eyes. "Yeah?" she looked around, momentarily confused, and then landed her fatigued gaze on Stella.

"We have to keep moving," Stella said, despite not actually moving herself. The swift sunrise had progressively swept the pleasant rays of sunlight to reach more of the pair. Stella tried to relax her shivering and breathing; it was painful enough without involuntarily tensing her muscles. As much as they needed to continue, not only to get more distance between them and the guys they left unconscious, but to also find help—she just wanted to stay in the partial sunlight for a bit longer, to thaw out.

"Surely we have to be close to something," Grace said.

She was right. They'd covered a great distance the previous day, so they were bound to come across something or someone sooner or later. In retrospect, Stella wondered if they had've followed the driveway to the road instead of delving into the brush, if they'd have found help faster. Her stomach grumbling loudly reminded her that she did not have time to dwell on things that could not be changed.

When Grace stood up with the help of the tree, Stella pushed herself to get up as well. She attempted to hide her struggle, the stiffness not helping her case, but she caught Grace looking at her in a certain way that made her think she noticed. "I'm fine," she waved it off, trying to convince herself as well as Grace. She felt worse than the day before, and trying to belittle her own injuries, she reminded herself that if Grace could move on with a gunshot wound, then she could do the same.

"Which way?"

"Uh," Stella looked around, trying to remember which way they came from. The last thing she wanted was to end up back at the cabin. "This way, I think."

"You think? Comforting."

"Hey, I'm trying my best here. I don't see you helping."

"You don't think I'm helping? Stella, I have a chunk missing from my side!"

"I don't care, we're both making sacrifices here. If we want to survive we have to find help, and the only way to do that is to keep walking, which we need a direction for. So please, lead the way."

"Well I don't know the way. For all we know, we could be within a hundred meters of someone and not realise it."

"Look, we're both on edge; we're hungry, tired, sore, but we can't stop now, and we certainly can't revert back to old habits and turn on each other when, right now, we're depending on one another. So, let's just shut up and walk that way." Stella turned and set off with a start, not waiting for Grace to reply.

With their arduous walk ahead, Stella was glad that their exchange had brought the blood to the surface of her skin—it gave her a head start in keeping herself warm enough to move. Her stiffness dissipated as they went on, and both gave her relief and caused more pain. Somehow, it had masked new aches, but eventually they broke through and Stella wasn't able to hide her pain any longer. She felt exhausted. As many times as she told herself to be strong, she couldn't help the moan or wince that came out when there was an obstacle or a sudden change in terrain. Lucky for her, Grace was a few meters behind her and wasn't aware of it.

The bush had become less dense after over an hour of walking. In the distance, Stella saw something flicker brightly between blowing leaves. She stopped, looking at it. As the wind blew the branches about, she could just make out the side of a house at the top of some rolling green hills. She couldn't believe her eyes, it felt too good to be true. Grace stopped next to her, looking where Stella was. "Is that what I think it is?" Stella asked.

Guest - yay, thank you!

Billy1990ism - thank you! Since the next chapter is the last, I'll drop some details on the sequel then.