The sun was bright and warm in the cloudless sky. With all the walking we've been doing today, I almost would have thought it was too hot if not for the shade provided by the thick tree cover. The dense forest made it hard to navigate and ensure we were heading in the right direction, but then again I was fairly confident that we were.
The guys and I were relatively quiet as we walked. It was a comfortable silence though. I assumed everyone was probably just tired and worried—same as me. Eventually, the silence was broken when Adam decided to speak up, lightening the mood like he always did.
"Jakeeee will you carry me?" He whined.
I couldn't help but laugh at his tone. He couldn't be serious.
"Fuck no," Jake replied.
"But I'm tireeeed and my feet hurt."
Jake chuckled, "Sorry buddy. Not really my problem."
I stole a glance back at Adam who was now rocking a fake pout. "Luke?"
Luke scoffed. "No way. You're fine."
Wes chimed in from beside me. "Dude you whine more than anyone. Even Cassie isn't complaining and she's got a bum ankle."
I was about to say something in response to Wes's comment when Wes stepped on pile of leaves, and there was a loud crack. Then, suddenly, Wes disappeared from my view. Since I was the one standing right beside him, I was quick to lunge after him, reaching out my hand.
I wasn't quite sure what was happening, but it looked like Wes had fallen into another trap of some kind? I just knew I couldn't let him fall into this pit—he could hurt himself. I reached as far as I could after him and Wes's hand brushed my fingertips as he fell. I lunged so far forward that I almost fell into the hole after him when Adam grabbed my feet to hold me in place.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and I watched in horror as Wes tumbled down into the deep pit. "No!" I yelled.
Jake and Luke each reached down to grab one of my arms to pull me back up, but I never took my eyes off of Wes as I was lifted out.
"Wes!" I called, "Are you okay?" I felt horrible. I didn't truly get what it felt like to let something slip through your fingers until now; I felt like I had failed Wes.
I had watched him fall, and luckily it looked like he didn't land too horribly. He hit the ground feet first and sent himself into a roll. He was quick to push himself into a sitting position, but was cupping his leg with a grimace on his face.
"Ugh... my leg... I think it's pretty messed up guys," he called up to us.
"What do we do?!" Adam exclaimed.
"Wes! Is there any way you can climb out of there?" Jake asked.
He took a moment to survey his surroundings before responding, "I don't think so! It's pretty steep and my shoulder still doesn't have full strength from the dislocation... and now my leg is fucked!"
I felt a pang in my stomach. I could tell Wes was scared and in pain and there wasn't anything I knew how to do at the moment to help him. I looked at the guys and they all looked as scared and flustered as I felt. Well, not so much Jake.
I saw the look on Jake's face and knew immediately what he was thinking. "Jake don't," I said.
He cocked an eyebrow at me, "Don't what?"
"You have your hero face on. Don't go down there. There's no way you'd be able to climb out with him—it's way too steep and then you'd be stuck too," I reasoned.
"She's right Jake! All of you stand back. Don't try and come in," Wes called up.
"So what do we do?! We can't leave him down there," Jake questioned.
I wracked my brain. For some reason this reminded me of when I was alone at the bottom of the well, and then it dawned on me. "The well!" I exclaimed.
"What about it?" Luke asked.
"There's a rope by the well, long enough to reach Wes! If we can go back there and get it, we can use it to pull him out."
"It's so far away though! At least 4 hours each way, you'd be gone all day," Adam said.
"Do you have a better idea!? I'm good with direction; I'm confident I could get us there."
"Right," Jake said with a nod. "Okay, Cassie and I will go and get the rope. You two stay with Wes. We'll be back as soon as we can."
"But shouldn't one more of us come with?" Luke asked.
"No; two of you should be together up here incase something happens— Wes won't be much help from down there," Jake replied.
The thought of something going wrong made me very uneasy. "Jake leave them a weapon just incase."
We didn't have much, but Jake handed them one of the largest knives we were able to bring with us.
"Alright," he said, "We need to get moving if we're gonna make it back by nightfall. Let's go Cass."
Luke gave us a reassuring nod, "Be safe."
"Hang in there Wes! We'll be back as soon as we can!" I called down before reaching for Jake's outstretched hand.
We didn't have any time to waste as the two of us headed back towards the well; the place that was my nightmare and now Wes's salvation.
The first 30 minutes or so of our trek back to the well we were both silent. I think we were both lost in thought; focusing only on Wes and getting to the well as fast as possible. I also was focusing hard on our surroundings. We didn't have the time to make any wrong turns.
Jake was holding my hand in his with a strong and steady grip. I wasn't sure if my touch did the same for him, but to me just having him close with his hand in mine made me feel that everything would be okay.
I had grown used to the lingering silence between us, so when Jake finally spoke I was almost startled. "How you doin' Cass? You okay?"
I looked up at him to reply, "Yeah I guess so. I don't know Jake... I feel like I really failed Wes today. I was so close to catching him; just a hair further and I would have had it. I don't know. I feel like I could have done more."
Jake blinked at me, his emerald green eyes searching my face, "Well, first of all, I was kind of talking about your ankle..."
"Oh oops," I said, my face tinging pink at the overshare of my emotions. "It's okay I guess. It doesn't really hurt like it did last night, but it's still doing that clicking thing."
"Okay, well let me know if it starts to give you trouble. Also, don't feel like you let Wes down. What happened is NOT your fault. None of us were able to catch him, and you tried your best."
"But I was the one closest to him— none of you guys were close enough to grab him but I could have if I had reacted a little sooner or reached a little bit further..."
"Cass I'm gonna stop you right there; I watched the entire thing and you did everything you could have done; you reacted right away, and you lunged after him so far you nearly dove into the hole yourself. If Adam hadn't caught your legs you'd be down there with him. So it's not your fault; it was just bad luck."
I knew he had a point. "Thanks Jake. Plus, we're gonna get the rope and get him out of there—he's gonna be okay."
Jake gave my hand a squeeze, "Hell yes he is."
After that we fell back into our comfortable silence, alternating between jogging and speed walking to get to the well as soon as possible.
Finally, after a few hours, we arrived at our destination. I'm not gonna lie, I was already dreading the journey back to the guys. My ankle throbbed and we were both hot and tired already. However, when I first saw the well, a new spark of energy hit me.
"There it is!" I exclaimed, "and there's the rope!"
"Thank god," Jake agreed.
We continued making our way over to the well when we heard shuffling in the forest behind us. We both stopped in our tracks, searching the area.
"What was that?" I whispered.
The shuffling continued.
"I don't know..." Jake whispered, "Stand behind me."
I did as I was told, standing behind Jake and holding on to his arm. I just had a bad feeling.
And that's when I heard the click of a gun being prepped to shoot...
I froze immediately while I scanned the area, my heart coming to a dead stop when I saw none other than Garret, standing behind us with a gun in his hand. "Well well well. Look who I have here," he chuckled.
"Garret," Jake greeted with a flat tone.
"I should shoot you both right now after the shit you pulled. You," he pointed the gun to me, "for seducing me to get me away from Wayde. And you," he pointed the gun to Jake, "for knocking me unconscious. Now, I do still have 2 bullets left in this gun. One for each of you," he sneered.
2? I had thought they had 5. This was even better. Apparently they both didn't have full guns when we got rid of their ammo and we just assumed the worst. Not that this situation was good... there wasn't anything stopping Garret from shooting us this time.
I was about to respond and hopefully plead with him for our lives when I felt Jake break away from me. I watched in horror as he lunged at Garret, tackling him to the ground.
Garret looked stunned as he struggled against Jake. Jake had a firm grip on Garret's shooting arm, struggling with it to get the gun. He guided their arms so that the gun was pointed straight into the air as he pulled the trigger.
Although the sound was deafening, I was relieved to see that Jake was not hit and continued to fight. They were both on the ground, Jake had him pinned underneath him as he swung Garret's hand repeatedly against the ground, knocking the gun free.
At that point I willed my feet forward, running to pick up the gun when I was stopped. Wayde had emerged from the trees, picked up the gun before I could, and aimed it right at Jake. We should have known he wouldn't be far behind.
For a nanosecond, I thought about the possible scenarios. One, I could charge Wayde and try and get the gun, but ultimately I figured he would either shoot me before I could get to him or I would fail, and Jake would be shot. So, I acted quickly on option number two.
Barely thinking about it, I started running, and as the trigger of the gun was pulled, I had gotten myself into position, ready to take a bullet for the man I loved.
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Hello hello hello!
Guess what, I've decided to do a DOUBLE UPDATE for you guys! So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will try and not leave you hanging for too long. The next chapter is more of a bonus written in Jake's POV. Hope you like that kind of thing!
Thank you for your support!
-Haley