The one thing I needed right now was faith. I needed the belief that everything was going to be okay in order to get through this. Yet a part of me didn't even want to believe it was happening. Those few moments of sleep I got, I was almost in another world that was peaceful because I couldn't remember anything that had just happened. But all that changed the moment I woke up.

The first sound that hit me was the forest noises. The chirping of insects, buzzing of bugs and rustles of leaves with wildlife. It was then I was instantly reminded of where I was. I could hear footsteps around me as leaves crunched on the ground. Then I heard a voice above me.

"Wake up lovebirds." it said bitterly.

My eyes snapped open as I took in my surroundings. The sun had barely risen, with only a small amount of light in the sky. The green from the forest was the only thing I could see as I looked off into the distance. It was then I realized something else - I had fallen asleep on Eric. My first instinct was to pull him closer, but I quickly rolled off him as I knew Mackenzie was observing. I landed softly on the dirt ground, feeling twigs poking my back. Leaving his warmth was immediately unsettling. I hadn't even realized how comforting it had been being that close to him and his touch. I tried to shake the thoughts out of my head.

Mackenzie was already awake, getting rid of the fire from last night and packing away the water bottles in the backpack. She moved at a quick pace, not even bothering to look at us after her abrupt wake-up call.

Eric hopped off the ground in one swift move, his hair slightly messy from sleeping on the ground. It took all my strength to peel my eyes away from him as I took in his morning appearance. I couldn't believe a person could wake up in the wilderness, the morning after a plane crash and still look that good. God knows, how bad I probably looked. During the night, dark purple bruises had formed all over my arms, especially on my wrists, where I had been restrained by that RFI spy.

"We need to get going now," Mackenzie spoke after gathering all our items together. "If we want to make real progress before sundown."

Eric nodded in agreement, clearing his throat as he stretched out his limbs quickly.

I pushed myself off the ground, standing up as I shook the dirt and leaves off me. I tried not to think about the fact that we were going to spend almost the entire day hiking up a massive hill - but it was hard not to. It was going to be tough and tiring and it was safe to safe that none of us were in the best state to begin with.

I quickly glanced at Eric and caught his eyes. He looked pensively at me for a moment before shifting his eyes to the trees ahead of us.

I sighed, looking forward also. We had a long journey ahead of us.

I walked behind Mackenzie, but in front of Eric. I wondered why he didn't walk alongside me. It was likely he was just keeping an eye on me, making sure I was keeping up. While I was an official RUA agent, I was still only a teenager and a new recruit, and it was times like these when I was reminded.

A part of me also wondered if he didn't walk alongside me because of what had happened this morning. I hadn't meant to fall asleep on him, I couldn't even really remember how it had happened. One moment we were staring at the stars, the next, I shut my eyes for a moment as I grew tired.

I could already sense the tension between us after Mackenzie had woken us up this morning. I didn't know what any of it had been about, all I knew was that I'd felt safe being that close to him. But to anyone else, it might look like something more - I questioned if it was myself, almost hoping it was. I, however, was well aware of the 'no dating your fellow colleagues' rule that Eric had seemed so determined to follow. I sometimes wished we could be like Turner and Cassie, who cared more about each other than their work and dated in secret anyway. But it was a lot to ask of Eric to value me over basically his own family. The RUA took him in when he had no one left, and for me to walk right in and take that away from him would be selfish and cruel - I had come to understand that. Plus it had been months since we'd shared that surprise kiss in Seaville, he could have very well gotten over it in all that time. I knew I hadn't though. Sometimes, it would be all I could think about when in his presence.

I wondered if Mackenzie suspected anything too serious. She'd called us 'lovebirds' when she woke us up yet in another sense, hadn't said anything else about it. Instead, she was focusing on getting us to higher ground so we could get a signal and send a flare for help. By this point, it was blatantly clear she didn't like me - not that I cared that much. But if that was the case, it would make perfect sense for someone like her to dob me in straight away to Captain as soon as we got back to headquarters. It would be a serious accusation, enough to get us both in trouble regardless of whether it was true or not. And I think that was why Eric was keeping his distance from me. Because he was thinking the exact same thing.

We continued walking on for what felt like hours. The sun had fully risen a while later and was soon beaming down on us. I could feel the beads of sweat on my forehead as my breathing got heavier and heavier. My feet were starting to get really sore and I knew blisters were forming.

After a bit longer, we stopped and took a break. I rested against a tree and had a few big gulps of water, which made all the difference immediately. Eric finally directly spoke to me for the first time that morning when he offered me some food, which I gratefully accepted. It had been more than 24 hours since I had last eaten and I had been starting to get dizzy. The packs had come with beef jerky as well as assorted dried fruits that we were trying our best to ration carefully. We didn't know how long we'd be stuck out here.

"Are you holding up okay?" Eric asked me after I handed the water bottle back to him. I nodded my head slowly, not really knowing what to say. I didn't know if I was holding up okay at all, but I wasn't going to worry him.

I watched as his eyes looked over to Mackenzie who was seated on a rock, looking up at the top of the mountain, not focused on us.

He sighed as he stood beside me. "We're making progress. This will all be over before you know it." I knew he could see straight through my attempt to come off as if everything was okay since he was trying to reassure me. I sometimes was surprised by how well he knew me. It was refreshing to have someone know how I was feeling without me really having to put it in words. I pushed the thoughts of him out of my head again, reminding myself about how strictly professional this all needed to be. We were in a life or death situation after all.

"I hope so," I muttered in reply.

The walking continued for hours more, making each step more painful than the last. My feet were aching and the fact we were walking up a giant mountain definitely wasn't helping. We barely stopped for breaks and drinks of water and when we did, they only lasted a few minutes before we resumed. The only thing that was going to stop us was the loss of light. When the sun finally began to set, I was immediately grateful. It had been on us all day and I knew already that I had been slightly sunburned. It also meant that we could finally stop and rest. Over the past two nights I hadn't gotten much sleeping because I couldn't. But now there was nothing more that I craved.

As we set up our camp, I had to fight every urge to just collapse on the ground right then and there from pure exhaustion. Eric had gone off to get firewood while Mackenzie and I rolled out the sleeping bags.

"There are only two." I pointed out as I laid one flatly on the ground in front of my feet.

"Wow," Mackenzie replied in a dull, sarcastic tone. "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

I rolled my eyes, convincing myself not to reply to that. It would only agitate her more and by the time Eric got back we'd probably be on the ground ripping each other's hair out.

"Should we just unzip one and use it like a blanket to share?" I offered. The idea of being close to her as I slept wasn't exactly comforting but after last night, I had experienced how cold it could get - and I didn't want to go through that again. Even with the fire going and the warmth of Eric, the night air was still cool and with every breeze, I would shiver.

"Why don't you just share with Eric? You two seem to have no problem being that close to each other," she answered, not even looking up at me.

I froze at her words, feeling my face go pale. "I accidentally rolled onto him." I lied. "I tend to move around a lot in my sleep."

She let off a half smirk glancing up at me momentarily. I tried my best to give off a neutral expression, not giving away any emotion. "Whatever you say."

Without any further discussion of the topic, she continued moving branches and other objects out of the way so the ground around us would be flatter. I slowly let out the huge breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding. With all luck, she was going to believe me and not bring it up ever again.

Without a doubt in my mind, I knew I would much rather be in a sleeping bag with Eric rather than her, but I already knew that even suggesting that idea would cause suspicion. It looked like I was stuck with Mackenzie.

When he came back with wood, the sun was already almost out of the sky and we were all begging for sleep. With the fire started, I was next to Mackenzie sitting on our sleeping bag while Eric was opposite us on the other side of the fire.

I rested my head on my knees, deep in thought after I'd had something to eat and drink. I just really wanted to get out of there. There was nothing I wanted more than to be back in my own bed. I would even settle for some crappy small house in Russia to monitor the RFI, which was where I was supposed to be.

"So today was absolute hell," Mackenzie announced loudly after a few moments of silence. I shifted my head slightly to look at her. I wanted to agree but the childish part of me didn't want to have anything in common with her so I stayed silent.

"We're making progress," Eric replied, leaning his weight on the hand he had firmly placed on the ground. "If we keep it up we should be there the day after tomorrow."

He announced it like it was good news, but the thought of walking for another two days didn't make me feel any better. Mackenzie had already tilted her head back and began groaning. A part of that reminded me of Cassie, who probably would have reacted the same way.

Thoughts of her immediately also brought Turner to my head. Were they looking for us? By now they must have known something was wrong. Chances were they had already begun searching. The flare would hopefully bring them to locating our exact location. But I prayed it would be them who found us first. The RFI had to be looking too.

My eyes looked over to Eric's whose own were dark and already watching me. He stared at me intently, almost looking sad. I wanted to be on the other side of the fire, snuggling next to him but I reminded myself for the millionth time that I couldn't do that sort of thing. I wondered if that was why he was looking at me sadly - because maybe he was thinking the same thing too. 

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A/N: Omg I know that was a bit filler-ish im sorry, things are really going to pick up though and I think we all needed a break after how hectic the last chapter was.

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