NANCY FELL BACK IN SHOCK, her arms wheeling, trying to hold herself up. Drew caught her quickly, placing a finger over his pursed lips to signal her to shut up - if she still wanted to try to run. But it was too late - Nancy no longer wanted to go through with the scheme; she had seen too much. She now knew what these guys were really capable of. Whether or not you were on their good side, they would kill you. And by following through with their 'plan to escape', Nancy and Drew would be getting on their bad side - something Nancy never wanted to see. So she had to back out, and hopefully her counterpart would comply. Unfortunately for Nancy, Drew insisted on being the braver of the two, and daringly took off into the deep, dark, and dangerous forest. Nancy's eyes widened in shock at his audacious move, and she opened her mouth again to yell at him to come back - but she realized that would be giving away his position.

Regrettably, as Nancy had shrieked with disgust when she encountered the scene of the murder, her captors had been alerted that something was off. They came barging out of their luxurious tent (armed with guns and knives) before Nancy could even process what was going on. She gaped at the pair, unable to handle to current situation; her thoughts were swirling around in her head faster than a tornado.

She watched, incapable of formulating any words, as they trained their guns on Drew, who had only made it about 30 feet. That definitely was not enough. He would never make it in time. Nancy found her voice, and screamed for him to duck. He obeyed, taking a sharp dive onto the rocky ground. Her detainers hesitated, then turned to Nancy, instead sizing her up.

"You care for him?" The man's voice rumbled, making Nancy tremble out of fear - but she quickly nodded. "He cares for you?" Nancy again nodded her head, but at a more slow rate. Did Drew care for her?

As Nancy thought this through even further, she came to a sudden realization: they were going to use the duo against each other. Even though they weren't "star-crossed lovers", it was like Nancy was Katniss and Drew was Peeta and they were in the story 'Mockingjay'. Nancy covered her mouth, and bit back tears. She wished she could take back the [at first not seemingly] valuable information. Either she or Drew was going to come out of this hurt or even dead. And it was all Nancy's fault.

She peered at them, her eyes partially closed out of fright. Her blood ran cold as she looked to Drew, who was crouched down behind a medium-sized boulder, gazing intently at her, waiting for a signal of some sort.

Nancy never had a chance to give it to him, for shortly thereafter, she felt an excruciating pain in her calf muscle. Her muscles started to spasm, and her leg gave out from beneath her. "Nancy!" She heard a deep voice echo through the starry night, but her thoughts were a blur - she couldn't comprehend what exactly was happening. She was in too much pain. A boy's face came into her line of sight, his features slightly distorted in her clouded vision. "Stay with me!" He seemed to be saying, his fat tears falling onto her porcelain skin.

Nancy was rapidly losing blood from the bullet wound in her right calf muscle, and with that, went her energy. She felt herself beginning to drift off. "Nancy!" The boy called, his body trembling over hers. "Please! Don't leave me here!" But Nancy couldn't help the physical pain she was in, and she began to slowly drift away from consciousness and towards the dark unknown.

-

Drew knew that this was all his fault. He was the reason that Nancy may or may not be dead. He sunk to the ground beside his fellow captive, shaking her roughly - just hoping that would wake her up. He had realized in the somewhere in the back of his mind long ago that it would never work, but he still had to hang onto the small hope that she might pull through.

"Why would you do this?" Drew roared, his body shuddering violently with pure anger.

"Well, you came back, didn't you?" The man shrugged indifferently, while his partner grinned maliciously.

"Why didn't you just shoot me, then?" Drew desperately wished that he could've taken the brunt of the impact, and decided to voice his thoughts.

"Relax, she isn't dead," The woman answered nonchalantly, as if she were announcing that she was going to get a snack.

"That's just dandy." Drew remarked dryly, trying to regain his bearings. He felt himself begin to panic. He knew that if he had caused the death of someone else, he wouldn't be able to cope. He wouldn't be able to live with himself. He had already witnessed enough deaths to last him a lifetime. After watching his broken family finally apart, Drew had been sent to live with his grandparents in the small town of Moonlarkville, North Carolina. That was when he decided that he wanted to help other people out, and solve their mysteries. That was his way of dealing with his parents' deaths. Who killed them was a mystery to him, and he didn't want anyone else to have to experience that. But being the cause of death was a whole different story.

Drew's vision was blurred with tears, which he didn't even try to hold back. He was just as bad as the people who kidnapped him.

"Are you going to sleep?" The woman asked. "You're going to need it. There's going to be a hell of a lot of hiking tomorrow."

"Did you seriously just ask me that after you killed my friend?" Drew exclaimed, incredulous.

"She's not dead, calm down. We're saving the deaths for last."

"CALM DOWN?" Drew yelled indignantly, now infuriated. They couldn't just tell him to calm down and expect him to be fine after they shot his friend. He gently picked up Nancy and proceeded to storm into the tent.

Damian was sitting in his corner, wide awake. He had a nasty smirk plastered across his face. "I told you so."

Drew could no longer control his anger and made a ferocious leap at the badly-tempered delinquent. A few punches were thrown before Drew was hit over the head with an unknown object. All he knew has that it was heavy, and it hurt more than anything Drew had ever experienced. It wasn't enough to knock him out, but he got the message. Stop fighting, or you're dead - and Drew didn't want to die. He had to stay alive for Nancy.

Nancy. He looked to her, crumpled up into a ball on the grimy floor. If he caused this girl to die, Drew wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. If Drew had any say in the matter, he would have bravely taken her place, but that was thing - as captives, they never had any say in anything. As Damian had said earlier, death was inevitable. Drew hated to admit it, but that statement was entirely too correct. As he looked around, all he saw around him were broken bodies. Inside and out. They all had something tearing them apart at the seams, breaking them down until they were just a shell. For Drew, it was his parents' death. For Nancy and Jess, they were obviously "broken" on the outside, but as for the inside, Drew couldn't figure them out. Nancy had been taken on accident, so he didn't know what was up with her. Drew's captors had said that Jess had been starting fights at school, but Drew couldn't draw conclusions from that. Maybe things were going on at home?

Then there was Gunnar. Poor, fifteen year-old Gunnar Clements. The one with the broken family. Their finances were down in the dumps, causing Gunnar and his siblings to go to drastic measures in order to get food. But, as expected, these people didn't care about that. They were cold, heartless murderers.

Damian Pullman was someone Drew knew nothing about. Either way, Drew didn't like to think about him or what he might have done to be here with the rest of them. Drew already knew that he didn't like this guy, and he had known of him for less than 24 hours.

Drew lay down next to Nancy and closed his eyes, aiming for a shot at a deep slumber that he would never awaken from. He wasn't sure if he ever wanted to go back to reality. He then realized that he hadn't done the cliché that he saw all the time in the movies. Lifting his right hand to his opposite arm, he pinched himself - to see if this was all just a terrible dream. Instead of waking up in his warm bed at home, all he got was a nasty sting shooting through his arm. He decided that it would probably be best if he got at least some sleep, even if it was only for two hours.

-

He awoke thirty minutes later in a cold sweat, having heard a shriek coming from somewhere fairly close. That could only mean one thing: Jess had awoken. Drew sat up ramrod straight and looked to the disheveled blonde, who was already being tended to by Gunnar.

"Are you alright?" Drew heard Gunnar whisper, as he began to made his way over to the pair, who were quite close together.

"W-where are we?" Jess murmured, brushing her hair out of her face - only to reveal a deep gash on the side of her head from the rock that had been thrown at her earlier in the day.

"We're taking a break for the night," Gunnar explained softly.

"Hey, Jess," Drew approached them, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He needed more sleep and he knew it, he just wanted to check in on the other two before he drifted off again. From all the horror movies he had seen in his life, he knew that he wouldn't be safe just because there was some almost nonexistent fabric shading them from the outside.

"I think I'll just go back to sleep." Jess mumbled, collapsing back down to her original position.

"Um, where's Damian?" Gunnar asked tentatively, gesturing over to the abandoned corner where the sulking teen once slept.

"You think I know?" Drew responded irritably, ill-tempered at the late hour. "Honestly, I don't care."

This was how Drew was. He pushed everyone away before they could get too close - or even really talk to him at all. He put up a front at all times, but Drew knew that once he started to like someone (even in the slightest), that it would come crumbling down.

"Fine, whatever," Gunnar grumbled, blinking his eyes rapidly. "I'll just check on Nancy. Then I won't bother you anymore."

"Sorry, Gunnar. You go to sleep, I'll check on Nancy." Drew immediately felt bad for snapping at the younger boy.

He took the two-step journey over to the limp body of his scheming partner. He felt for a pulse, but instead got nothing in return. "Nancy!" He whispered, shaking her roughly - just as he had done earlier - in hopes that it would make a change.

It didn't.

a/n: oh shoot im scared actually [bc i don't know where i'm going with this]

im kidding i know exactly how this is going to end

any guesses??