STRANDED

"Queen! Wake up! Come on, we have to get out of here." Chris yelled, but Ashely didn’t respond. Ashley groaned in pain, her head bleeding profusely. She gasped as she realized they were trapped in the car, she felt darkness bunching around her. They had fallen into a hushed clearing, leaves gently.

Ashley tried to open her door, but it was jammed shut. She looked around and saw a broken branch nearby. With all her strength, she managed to break the window and escape the car. She crawled over to Chris’s window and pulled him out.

"Come on, Chris. We have to get out of here before that car comes back." Chris groaned and stared at her with half-opened eyes. Ashley looked around and saw that they were deep in the forest, with no road in sight. She knew they had to find help, but she didn't know where to start.

"Okay, Chris. We're going to have to walk. Can you stand?" she questioned.

Chris nodded weakly, and together they stumbled through the forest, looking for any sign of civilization. As they walked, Ashley's mind raced with questions. Who was in that car? Why were they trying to kill her and Chris? And most importantly, how were they going to get out of this alive?

As Ashley and Chris stumbled through the dark forest, their flashlights flickered and dimmed. Ashley's heart pounded as they continued to walk, with no sign of the others. Suddenly, she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her, and she stumbled to the ground.

"Chris, I don't feel so good," Ashley said, her voice shaky with fear.

Chris turned to her, concern etched on his face. "Shit! You have lost a lot of blood."

Ashley’s face was covered in blood. "I think I might die."

Chris quickly examined her head wound but didn’t know what to do to stop it from bleeding. "We need to find the others, and get you some help," he said urgently.

As they continued walking, Ashley's vision started to blur. She stumbled again, and this time she couldn't get up. "Chris, I can't go on," she said weakly. "I need to rest."

Chris helped her to the ground, and Ashley closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw Chris tied to a tree, with thugs surrounding them.

"Who are you?" she asked, fear creeping into her voice.

The thugs didn't answer, but one of them stepped forward with a handgun. "You're not going anywhere," he said with a menacing grin.

Ashley's heart clenched as she realized they were in serious trouble. "Chris, hang in there; I am going to get you out of there." She whispered and tried to reach for the gun in her pocket.

"Don’t move, they are going to kill you!" Chris exclaimed, his voice sharp with fear in his eyes.

Ashley's fear grew. Could they ever escape this nightmare? The leader of the gang was a brown-haired guy with a cold look on his average-looking face.

"Who the fuck are you?" She roared.

"I am the cousin of the man you brutally murdered!" He snapped.

"Y-you mean N-Noah?" She asked, her voice barely audible.

"I am Mason, this is the last time you are going to see me, might as well go to hell." He said and fired his gun at her, hitting her in the back. She winced in pain, her body shivering in agony as her breathing grew shallow. Mason was about to shoot her again when he was abruptly interrupted by a fist flying toward him.

Xander was the one that interrupted him, and he started throwing powerful punches at Mason that eventually knocked him down as he wrestled for his gun. Jake went to free Chris from the tree.

Ashley, though distracted by the chaos surrounding her, felt a momentary spark of hope. With a few swift movements, Xander was able to wrestle the gun away from Mason. While Jake was fighting with his other henchmen to keep them from attacking Xander. Xander picked up the gun and pointed it at Mason’s head. Mason lifted his hands in the air.

"Get out! All of you!" Xander yelled at them.

"I will be back!" Mason got up from the floor and started running away into the dense forest while his henchmen ran after him.

"My queen!" Jake said in a shaky tone and hovered around unconscious Ashley on the floor.

Xander and Chris decided to set up camp in the serene forest with what they could find, surrounded by the tall trees that rustled in the gentle breeze. At the center of the campsite, they carved a sizable space and set up fire to keep them warm. With fire blazing, they prepared a bed with the leaves they gathered.

Jake’s hand was shaking with fear as he carefully lifted Ashley’s shirt away from her back. As soon as he saw the bullet lodged in her skin, his heart sank. He had to do something to help her. With trembling hands, he carefully grabbed a tweezer and got to work.

He took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves as he slowly pulled the bullet out of Ashley’s skin. It seemed to take forever, and he nearly dropped the tweezer several times. His heart was pounding in his chest as he finally managed to remove the bullet and toss it aside.

Afterwards, he wiped away the blood from the wound. He stripped off his own shirt, revealing his muscular chest, and used it to wrap Ashley’s back as best he could to stop the bleeding. The makeshift bandage wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do for now.

Xander and Chris had been traipsing through the forest for hours in search of an animal to roast and eat for dinner.

Xander spotted a small rabbit who was taking a nap under the moonlight. He calmly fixed his eyes on the rabbit and squeezed the trigger, feeling the familiar jolt in his shoulder as the gun fired. The rabbit fell to the ground with a thud. The two of them ran to it, and Xander carefully bent down and retrieved the lifeless body, a gentle sadness passing through his heart.

"I am not eating that." Chris whined.