The next day the campers still hadn't heard any word on Courtney. By now Duncan was freaking out. His wife had been shot and to make matters worse, he hadn't been there to protect her, even though the others had told him several times there was nothing he could have done. The level of stress among the campers was at its highest point yet and they were growing more and more anxious by the minute. Finally, sixteen hours after she had been brought in, they got word on Courtney's condition. She was alive, but it had taken an enormous amount of work to save her. Both bullets had punctured her lungs and she lost nearly all of her blood. They were lucky they founder her when they did, a minute longer and she probably would not have survived.

"So where is she now?" asked a frantic Duncan.

"She's in recovery." replied the nurse, who was becoming a familiar face. "She's under heavy sedation right now, so it'll be awhile before any of you can see her."

"Let us know when she's ready." said Bridgette. The nurse nodded and left. "Listen, Duncan we gotta go, were meeting with Thomas in about twenty minutes." said Bridgette.

"That's fine." said Duncan. "I'll call when Courtney's awake." Bridgette nodded and she and the others left. Twenty minutes later, they were in Geoff and Bridgette's room, meeting with Thomas. They told him what happened to Courtney and then got down to business.

"I'm sorry to hear about Courtney." Thomas said. "But this should put into perspective just how serious Dorian is about killing all of you."

"Not sure we needed Courtney to get shot to convince us of the seriousness of the situation, dude." said Geoff. "We kinda figured that out back when Izzy was hurt."

"You still don't trust me, do you?" asked Thomas.

"Well what do you think?" asked Noah. "You're at the scene of every accident, and then you just happen to show up and say you want to help us? I don't know about you, but that kinda screams suspicious to me."

"I can see how you would think that." Thomas replied. "But you must believe that I want to end this just as badly as you do. I was at the scene of each accident, if you still want to call them that, because I was trying to prevent them."

"So why the hell didn't you?" shouted Owen.

"Because I was afraid of exposing myself. Look you must understand that there is a mark on my head too." said Thomas. "Dorian wants me dead just as bad as he wants all of you, and when Dorian wants something he won't rest till he gets it."

Just then, Bridgette's phone rang. She stepped into the bathroom to answer it, emerging a minute later with a smile on her face. "That was Duncan, Courtney's awake." she said beaming at the room.

"Well alright, let's get back down there." said D.J. The others got up excitedly and exited, leaving Thomas alone with Chris and Chef.

"We'll continue this later." Chris said. "Sorry about the-"

"No, I understand." said Thomas. "They need to see their friend, but Chris, we must make them see that they are at risk, and unless they trust me they will die." Chris nodded and he and Chef followed the others out.

Back at the hospital, which was almost a weekly occurrence now, the campers checked in on Courtney, who had been moved in with Duncan, Lindsey, Beth, and Izzy. "Hey, Court, how's it going?" said Geoff.

"I'm doing okay, I guess, considering I have two bullet holes in my chest." Courtney replied. She was hooked up to an IV and had tubes and wires sticking out from under her gown.

"Whoa, what's with the machinery?" asked Tyler.

"They're helping me breath until the skin grafts on my lungs heal." Courtney replied casually. "Cause, you know, it's kinda hard to breath with holes in your lungs."

"Well we're just glad you're okay." said Gwen.

"It's strange though, isn't it?" said Beth, from her bed. "Five of us have been hit now and yet we're all still alive. It's like fate is still on our side."

"Or at least some of it is." said Gwen. "If it all was I'm pretty sure none of you would be here right now."

"Your probably right about that Gwen." said Trent. "Let's just hope that we continue to dodge the bullet."

"Yeah, no kidding." said Duncan. "But we can't rely on luck alone. We need to have a plan in place to prevent this stuff from happening anymore. I want the rest of you to go talk with this Locke guy and find out everything he knows. He can help us and we can trust him."

"How do you know that, you haven't even met the guy?" said D.J.

"I don't need to" said Duncan. "Chris and Chef trust him, I can see it in their eyes. And if they can trust him, we can trust him, got it?" D.J. nodded and the others moved out. An hour later they would be back once again.

They were sitting in Geoff and Bridgette's room, eating dinner when Owen's phone went off. "Now what?" he grumbled, "I'm eating." He answered the phone. "Hello, what do you want?"

"Owen, Owen put your phone on speaker." Duncan's excited voice said.

Without questioning, Owen did. "Guys guess what?" "Duncan?" Tyler said.

"Yeah, it's me." said Duncan's voice. "Now shut up and listen. Get your asses back down here, Izzy's awake." Owen's eyes widened and he dropped his fork. After a few seconds in stunned silence, he tore from the room like a crazed animal. The others quickly followed and they arrived at the hospital in record time.

A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I last updated. I've been kinda busy lately working on my senior thesis, but I'll have some time in the coming weeks to update, so stay tuned.