A/N:

Thanks for the reviews.

Julie: They are in the Pinelands for now but will not be there for long. Thanks for the info on what is around in the way of food and animal life. I will be using it as the story progresses.

Chapter 5

Humor before the storm

Phoebe was the first to wake and her loud yawn woke everyone else up from the not so comparable slumber. It was hot as the sun was coming over the horizon and sweat was staining there clothing.

"When we get back, the elders are so paying for a chiropractor," she said and stretched her body feeling the muscles pulling and tug.

"Right like that's going to happen," Prue said as she smacked her lips together.

"This reminds me of when I used to sneak out when I was a teenager and sleep pretty much anywhere," Paige said while getting some water.

"You and Phoebe would have given grams a run for her money if you grew up with us," Piper chimed in and stood up.

"I was not that bad Piper," Phoebe made her attempts in diminishing her aggressions.

"You know now that I think about it, did you ever get grounded Piper?" Prue asks.

Piper thought about the question and could not recall ever being sent to her room without supper, but she was not about to admit she was that lame," Sure I did," Piper replied and began to fidget with her canteen.

"Oh my god you never got grounded did you?" Phoebe asks as she too was trying to remember any time she pissed off Grams.

"You know I had my rebellious stage," Piper replied while taking a drink of water and this created the opening that they all would have fun with.

"Did you stay out until 9:30," Prue asks while smiling.

"Get a b- on your test?" Phoebe continued the assault.

"Let a guy get to first base, oh Piper say it ant so?" Paige put the nail in the coffin as Piper just rolled her eyes.

"That's it just gang up on me, like I was not used to that in high school," Piper said in hopes to make them feel guilty but all they could do was laugh.

"Hay I have a question that has plagued me for years," Prue said and Piper squinted her eyes at her wondering what could possibly plagued her for years. "Remember when you had all those boy band posters in your room and then they were gone the next day, what happened there?" she asks and Piper's face began to blush and not because of the heat.

"Oh its something bad," Paige said as Piper only did that when she was embarrassed.

"Ok first we have to make an agreement, this never gets talked about outside of the swamp and second we never talk about it again," Piper said and now everyone was able to ignore the stifling heat, their growling stomachs as their curiosity was at its height.

"Man I wish I had popcorn right now," Phoebe said and sat down while crossing her legs to get good and comfortable.

"Agreed?" Piper asks and all of them nodded to accept the terms but she made Phoebe pinky swear. "Ok I was 13 and I was trying to learn how to roller skate."

"Was that a cool thing back then?" Paige asks.

"It's not really a cool thing now," Prue replied and Piper cleared her throat.

"Anyway I had to go to the bathroom and did not have time to take off the skates, so I haphazard rolled into the bathroom and did my business. Unfortunately when I stood up I lost control and ended up skating outside to the hallway," Piper said as she tried to avoid eye contact as she was remembering the memory. "On the way out I grabbed the wall and accidentally pulled down one of my posters. The rest is kind of a blur but I ended up on my back with the poster on top of me and my underwear below my ankles," she said and then closed her eyes tight as they all seem slightly confused about why her posters were gone.

"Ok what does that have to do with all the posters?" Prue asks.

"Grams found me tossing about and for some reason got this weird notion into her head that I was doing something else," Piper replied as all of them gasp while trying not to laugh, mostly because they did not want her to stop the story. "So she took down my posters and tossed them in the trash and then we had the dam talk," she finished and all of them broke out in laughter. Phoebe was on her back while holding her stomach and for the first time Paige snorted heavily as she was trying to get air.

"Wait even the Kermit poster?" Prue asks through tears.

"Yes clearly she thought I was into puppets," Piper replied as the laughter became more prominent. Paige managed to be able to breathe normally as she could not help but add fuel to the fire.

"Hi ho, I got to third base with Piper," Paige said doing her best impression of Kermit.

"I don't know what's more disturbing, the fact that you just said that or that you actually sound like Kermit," Piper said as she too was beginning to laugh quite hard.

"That's the funniest fucking thing I have ever heard," Phoebe said as she was still rolling side to side on the ground.

"Oh Piper we love you," Prue said and got up to hug her as they all needed to be cheered up.

"You know Piper we are in his neck of the woods, maybe you should give your come hither look," Phoebe said as they all got ready to move on.

"Hay if it brings him so I can kill him and eat his legs, I will give the best come hither look you have ever seen," Piper said.

"Black widows do that," Paige said out of the blue.

"What?" Prue asks.

"Mate then kill the male," she replied as they all began to walk forward. They walked for a few hours giggling and making jokes along the way at Piper's expense but the joking stopped when they came across more water. It wasn't that high only about angle deep but there were tree stumps sticking out of the ground that basically came to a spike and covered most of the surface.

"Ok guys we need to be really careful, I don't want to fall on one of these things," Prue said as she began to trudge through the water.

"So poisonous snakes, alligators and spiders are not enough, now we have the Temple of doom to worry about?" Piper said while trying to avoid the sharp remnants of ancient trees.

"Do you guys hear that?" Phoebe asks as she stopped and could hear something rustling in the trees in the distance.

"What?" Prue asks as all of them stopped moving and focused their ears on the noise.

"Whatever it is, it's coming hard and fast," Piper said and pulled out her machete along with the others.

They remain still is the noise got louder and could hear growling along with the loud thuds. Running was going to be a challenge not just because they were in ankle deep water, but the many obstacles that could kill them if they made one misstep. What emerged stunned them all as it came rushing right towards them. Paige had to dive out of the way as the large black bear barreled through the group and almost hit Phoebe dead on. All of them were now soaked as they had to move quickly out of the way of the black bear. They watched it run away into the trees and gathered what ever they dropped.

"What the hell was that about?" Prue asks.

"Your complaining, that thing could have killed any of us with one swipe," Phoebe replied as they heard some groaning a few feet from them. "Paige," Phoebe said and made a run to where her baby sister was. The moment she got there, she covered her mouth as one of the spikes impaled Paige in the upper leg. The others joined her and tried to keep Paige calm.

"Your ok," Prue said and cradled her head on her lap.

"Heal we need a heal now!" Piper yelled and the elder orbed in. "Well?"

"You need to take her off it first," he replied and Prue did not hesitate and pulled her leg up and off the 4 inch in diameter spike. Paige screamed bloody murder as blood tainted the water next to them. The elder used his heal and after a few anxious moments, Paige's leg was healed. He orbed away as they helped her stand.

"You ok?" Prue asks.

"No this place sucks," Paige replied as weakness from the ordeal was sinking in.

"Great we have all used a heal," Piper said.

"You haven't," Prue said.

"Oh right the shot," Piper said as she recalled taking a syringe and not the heal.

"Let's hope you don't need it," Phoebe added.

"Do you guys smell that?" Prue asks while looking around.

"Shit because I may have pooped myself," Phoebe replied.

"No smoke," Prue said and they all began to sniff the air.

"I do, wait that means people right?" Paige asks.

"That means civilization, or close to it," Piper said and they felt hopeful a and surge of energy as they ran in the direction of the smoke. They moved past the ankle high water, and were now on dry land and could move much quicker as they made a run to the maker of the smoke. The air got thick and a fog seemed to be moving in around them.

"Something's not right, this is way too much smoke for a small fire," Prue said as she came to a dead stop when she saw what was causing the smoke. "Run back to the water!" she yelled as flames made its appearance by flashing through the smoke.

"A forest fire are you kidding me," Piper said and they all made a run for it. The fire was moving extremely fast as the dryland was like cotton to a flame. The smoke became so dense that it was hard to see let alone breathe.

"Prue!" Phoebe yelled as a tree fell a few inches away from her and was engulfed in flames.

"Paige!" Piper yelled while covering her mouth with her shirt. Their eyes were stinging and watering badly while trying to get some distance between them and a raging inferno behind them.

"I think we know what the bear was running from," Paige said mostly to herself as everyone seemed to be separated and running in different directions. They were at least a half an hour away from the water when they came across the fire, so getting back without getting lost or ending up in the center of the inferno was a good chance. They continued to yell for each other but the noise of the fire and the crashing trees made it impossible to hear a response unless the person was close.

Prue had to dodge falling trees along with random balls of fire that came from the upper tree limbs as she ran. "They're all going to go to water," she said and hoped she would become their. But everyone was getting turned around and some were even heading more into the flame then out of it. Paige could see a small opening in the trees and made a dash as fire raced behind her. The next thing she knew, she was up to her chest in mud. The cold dampness gave a shock to her body, "Well at least I won't burn to death," she said somewhat jokingly until she tried to move. The more she did the more she sank deeper into it as it created suction and locked her into place. Then she recalled the Amazon and something familiar like this they ran into. But this time she did not have a long stick to use as leverage and any movement would just suck her deeper in. "Help!" she yelled as trees fell close to her. She was able to use the mud to put out the flames that got close, but she was stuck until her sister's founder or she managed to get free on her own. "Stay calm, just stay calm," she said and covered her head with mud to keep the flames from catching her on fire.

Piper could barely see a few inches in front of her face as the smoke became so thick that it affected her breathing badly. She went down on all fours to clear out her lungs. It seemed like she was surrounded by flames and just kept crawling hoping to hit water. She finally got to her feet and maneuvered around obstacles along the way. She had no idea how long she was running but her shoes finally hit water and she immediately began to look for her sisters. Visibility was only down to a few feet and just as she was fleeing the flames so were other animals. Alligators swam past her along with some pythons and water moccasins. She knew they were not interested in her, but she was still wary of moving around too much and was so focused on them that she did not notice the fallen tree behind her and stumbled over it. She hit her head on a protruding stump and was lucky she did not impale herself in the process. The hit was hard and blood was running down the side of her face, she managed to get out of the water and into a tree a few feet off the ground and was about to yell for a heal, when she lost consciousness.

Phoebe was completely lost as she just kept running. She too was having to dodge alligators and other animals that were fleeing the area and decided to follow them as they may know were to go. It was an odd thing to be running next to a 12 foot alligator that was moving faster than she believed they could. She prayed it did not feel like a snack on the way and stayed behind it for the most part. The smoke was clearing slightly but when she looked behind her she could still see the flames. "God let them be ok," she said as the site was frightening as any of them could be in serious trouble. All she could do was just run but had no idea what direction she was heading in.

Prue was doing the same as her sisters for the most part and had no choice but to keep moving as the flames were also keeping pace. She was stopped by a wall of tall grass and when she looked behind her the flames were getting closer. She had to move forward and ran into the tall grass that was like running through small razor blades as they cut her forearms like hundreds of paper cuts. Occasionally she would see some of the grass catch on fire behind her and now began to wonder if she just walked into a death trap. She had to go backwards into it as she was bleeding heavily from her arms and some on her face. She would occasionally stumble and land on her back and get entangled in it. Finally she emerged at what looks like a small river, but just as she was making her way to water so were other animals including bobcats. She needed to cross as the grass was engulfing in fire. She could see alligator heads piercing the water line, but they say it's not the alligator you see, its the one you don't see. She had to make a swim for it and dive into the alligator infested water, she decided to swim underneath the surface so she did not look like a turtle or something small. She never felt that much fear in her life as she swam the short distance. She emerged on the other side and put her hands on her knees to catch her breath while her body shook. The cuts stung and her lungs still hurt from the massive amount of smoke she inhaled earlier. She immediately moved away from the water's edge and was greeted by a bobcat that was more interested in getting away from the fire then her. It made a small growl and then ran off into the other trees. Once she felt she was far enough from the water she turned around and ran her hand over her wet hair as she got a look of the devastation the Forest fire caused. All she could think about was her sisters and hoped they made it out, or to water. Once she had enough strength, she would head back and look for them. All she could do now was wait until the fire subsided.

To be continued...