A/N:

Thanks for the reviews, sorry for the long wait.

I have done a trailer for this story and its on my YouTube channel. Go to my profile and into my website and there is a link to my channel.

Chapter 10

Cabin in the woods

They have been walking now for over three hours and the landscape did its best to not become more interesting or more inviting. The mosquitoes were out in full and the humidity could strangle an oxygen tank. Paige and Phoebe were walking ahead as Prue and Piper were behind them with enough distance to not hear the conversations.

"So how long do you think Phoebe will hate me?" Piper asks.

"She doesn't hate you, disappointed but she could never hate you," Prue replied.

"How does it feel giving up the reins for a while?" Piper asks as she stepped over a fallen branch.

"Good, trust me it's not fun being a leader, you get blamed for everything or god one or the other," Prue replied as she too stepped over the branch.

Piper sorted slightly as for the most part she was right and then cringed as occasionally her missing finger would make it clear it was sliced off. "You ok?" Prue asks.

"Yeah just every now and then it hurts like hell," Piper replied.

Paige moved a branch out of her way as she went underneath it. "I still can't believe Piper did that."

"I don't think she had a choice," Phoebe said as she had to maneuver quickly to avoid being hit by the branch, "Hay."

"Sorry and I don't mean her finger, I mean Coop," Paige said.

"Alcohol does weird things to people especially when their angry. When Piper and Leo fight it can sometimes be epic but so can their love, I guess it's just a double-edged sword," Phoebe replied.

"How do you think he will react?"

Phoebe pondered the question for a moment," Probably not well but nothing really happened and I may have blown things out of proportion," Phoebe replied.

"If it was Henry, I would have orbed him to the Arctic and then I would have turned Piper into a frog," Paige said.

"The thought did cross my mind of doing some kind of spell, but Paige she was hurt and drunk. Never a good combination especially for her," Phoebe said.

"Is that a cabin," Paige asks while trying to pierce through the assortment of trees and could see an outline of a building.

"I think you're right oh god I hope someone is there," Phoebe said as they may have found a small portion of civilization.

They began to move faster as Piper and Prue try to keep up and at first thought they were running from something.

"Hay slow down," Prue said as they caught up to her.

"Its a cabin," Phoebe said and they all quickened their pace.

Prue put her hand out to stop them. "Wait we have no idea what were walking into," she said as Phoebe let out an audible sigh of aspiration.

"Oh for gods sake Prue this isn't the movies, were not going to hear banjos playing," Phoebe said as she knew what Prue was referring to as this was in the middle of nowhere.

"First of all I hated that movie and secondly were trespassing," Prue said.

"And I thought I had the lead," Phoebe said with her hands on her hips.

"Well it's not like we are going to rush in and tear up the place, so knocking would be a good start," Piper said trying to stop the argument.

"Fine I will go knock and you guys stay back," Phoebe said and before Prue could even open her mouth Phoebe was heading for the front door.

"I really wish we had our powers," Prue said as she hated feeling helpless or powerless.

Phoebe took in a deep breath and tried to straighten herself up. She gave up the attempt as there was no way to remove the sweat stains and grime that has accumulated on her body without a good shower. She knocked gently on the door and hope someone was home. "Hello is anyone there?" she asks and waited for a reply but got nothing. She began to look at the old cabin and in some ways it looked abandoned, so she knocked again but nothing occurred from the attempt except silence. They were hungry and thirsty and needed shelter for the night, so she decided to see if this place was truly abandoned. She put her hand on the rusty doorknob and began to twist. The door was not locked and opened easily as Prue began to run up to her.

"Phoebe don't!" Prue yelled as entering someone's house in any neighborhood was never a good idea without permission.

"Its ok its abandoned," Phoebe said with a smile as she looked at Prue.

Bang! Was the noise that shattered everyone's eardrums and even made the wildlife jump. The image of Phoebe leaving her feet and going backwards was now being pierced into everyone's mind. She landed hard on her back about 5 feet from the door.

"No!" Prue yelled as she and the others ran up to her. Paige kept her eye on the door but all she could see was a shotgun with no user attached.

"What the hell," Paige said out of breath.

Phoebe was moving her body side to side trying to get air in as it was knocked out of her. Her chest felt like 1000 bees stung all at once she began to feel nauseous while her ears rang from the blast. She could hear muffling and see blurred visions of people above her.

"Oh god," Piper said as she began to remove Phoebe's shirt. Her hands were trembling as she unbuttoned or tried to, but the lack of one finger and hands that would not cooperate made it impossible. Prue just grabbed hold of bloody cloth and ripped it open to get a look at the injury. Their minds were thinking the worst as being shot with a shotgun at close range was a death sentence. Paige came around and held Phoebe's head. She could see the panic in her older sister's eyes and shock.

"Your ok," Paige whimpered while moving some wet strands of hair out of Phoebe's face.

Prue got a look at the injury and could see what looked like small round white chunks mixed with blood. It was not what she expected, she expected to see a gaping hole or unfixable carnage. Instead it was rock salt and she rested her body on the back of her legs as the rest of her slumped. Phoebe's face was contorted in pain as an open wound and salt do not mix well.

"What is that?" Piper asks while looking at Phoebe's chest that resembled a pincushion covered in Crimson.

"Salt pellets," Prue replied and felt a huge amount of relief. Phoebe was in pain but she would live and that was all that mattered.

"Oh god it hurts," Phoebe's voice cracked as she could not keep her body still.

"We need to get the salt out and then we kill who ever did this," Prue said.

Paige got up also filling relief and went to the cabin. She was mindful of the shotgun that was sitting on a tripod and from what she could tell there was a string going to the trigger. She maneuvered around it and behind it. She then kicked it over out of anger and frustration. She then got a good look at the cabin, it was not abandoned just not very well maintained. There were jars of food on shelves, a unmade bed and other living essentials. She looked for anything that would help Phoebe and found some water and a somewhat clean rag.

"Here this might help," Paige said while coming back out. "Apparently that is their alarm system here and its not abandoned."

"Phoebe try to relax your ok," Prue said as she began to pull out the salt pellets. There was probably over 50 in total and it was going to take some time.

"That is insane, what if it was a child?" Piper asks as she ran her hand through her hair. She was still shaking they all were.

"I don't think they get many children out here and to be fair we are kind of trespassing," Paige replied.

"You definitely are," a man's voice made them all turn. He had a rifle in his hand and had it pointed right at them.

"Whoa, we are lost and have been out here for almost a week, we don't mean you any harm," Piper said as she had her hands up.

The man said nothing as he look them over. He could tell by their appearance that this was not a vacation. He lowered his gun and walked into his cabin to make sure nothing was stolen.

"You could have killed her," Prue said while following him.

"Prue not now," Piper said as the man could change his mind in a instant and kill them all.

"If I wanted to kill her I would have used real bullets. You should not just go around walking into people's homes, we are a little protective up here and from what I can tell you're not from Louisiana, cityfolk right?" he asks.

"Yeah cityfolk," Prue replied almost with a snarl.

"So let me guess you thought you come and see the big bad swamp, take a few pictures of alligators and have great stories to tell your friends. Then you made a wrong turn and because you don't have your GPS or your fancy phones you can't find your way out," he said while starting his old stove that looked like it belonged in the 1900s.

"Not exactly and for what it's worth you wouldn't last 5 minutes in the city," Prue said as she took offense to being basically called stupid, or a tourist.

He laughed a little." Right because we don't have cities here," he said and put a coffee pot on the stove.

"Listen we just need to get our sister stable so if you don't mind considering its your fault, we could use a little help and then us cityfolk will leave you alone," Prue said as Piper helped Phoebe stand. He peeked over Prue's shoulder and could see that the woman who got hit with the pellets was struggling. She was pale and having issues with breathing.

"Fine, put her on the bed and I will make something that would ease the pain and clean the wound. But then you leave and don't come back," he said and Piper took Phoebe in and gently laid her down.

"Its ok honey," Piper said and wiped the tears out of Phoebe's eyes as the wound still stung badly.

The man gathered some things off the shelves as the sisters found places to sit, mostly on the floor while he put ingredients in a bowl.

"At least you have a good story," he said while grinding whatever he put in the bowl into a pulp.

"Trust me we have plenty of good stories we don't need anymore," Paige said.

Once he was done he walked over to Phoebe and put the bowl down next to her. Prue immediately became protective as Phoebe's chest was exposed and she didn't like the fact a stranger was looking at it. Prue moved her blouse back over to cover her up a little. The man just raised his eyebrows and walked away.

"Rub it on the wound and it should stop the stinging. After that use clean water, I will boil some. Here are some clean rags. The last thing you want here is an infection," he said and looked over at Piper who was holding her hand and he could see that a digit was missing. "Looks like you've already had to deal with infection."

Piper just looked up at him and then back down, she did not have the energy to come back with some snide remark as the adrenaline was wearing off and now her hand was in more pain than before.

"Here let me take a look," he said and bent down but Piper was reluctant. "I've lived here most my life trust me I seen a lot."

Piper relinquished her hand into his and he began to remove the dirty wrapping as she began to rock back and forth. She didn't want to see it but then again it's human nature to hope for the best or expect the worst. He looked at the stump and could see blackness where the flesh was charred. There was massive bruising all the way around it. He just shook his head side to side while examining.

"What?" Piper asks slightly frightened at the answer.

"You're lucky a few more days and this would have been uninfected again you would have lost your whole hand," he said and took out some of the pulp from the bowl and came back to Piper. He gently rubbed it on the stump and Piper cringed as it was still extremely tender. He then used the clean water to wash around the area and put on new bandaging. "Your are still not out of the woods, it needs to stay clean. Supposed to rain tonight maybe you should stay until the morning get some rest, eat and get rehydrated, it's always the hottest after it rains," he said and poured some coffee into cups and gave it to them.

"Thank you," Paige said as he could have just kick them out.

"Don't get many women up here, let's just say it's a much more pleasing site then the swamp right now," he said and sat down at the small table.

Prue was not sure what to think of him and her guard was up as she continued to clean Phoebe's wounds.

To be continued...