Nolan watched nervously as Grace unwrapped several white packages of medical supplies. The younger man she'd sent to build a fire was still working on setting the logs upright, and after a few moments he seemed satisfied with its structure and lit one of the few matches Grace had retrieved from the camp.

Soon a tiny fire sprang up between the dry logs, issuing more smoke than warmth. It was enough for Grace, however, as she sanitized her instruments.

She walked over to Nolan and knelt down next to him. "Alrighty," she said with a forced smile and began organizing the instruments on the ground.

Nolan noticed a large, bloody spot on her leg. "Hey, you should take care of that first."

Grace followed his stare. "It's fine."

"Grace, I'm serious."

Her eyes bored into his. "We need to get that piece of metal out of there." She glanced around at the people strung around the growing fire and gestured for one of the two women to come help.

The woman, who was somewhere in her thirties, walked hesitantly towards them. She was the one dressed in the dirty business suit and Nolan noticed a cut on her leg. She'd been the one who'd been carrying the man that was shot. "Is there something I can do?" She asked meekly.

Grace nodded. "Nolan has a few other wounds here to take care of. I figured we could get him fixed up quicker if we worked together." She nodded towards the two people lying unconscious. "So we can get to them as soon as possible. What's your name?"

"Angela..." The woman said, her voice carrying a slight tremble, "Angela Tyson."

Grace handed her a roll of gauze and a tube of liquid. Her eyes flicked up at Nolan. "Ready?"

"Go for it." Nolan said with what he hoped was an encouraging grin, although it looked more like a grimace.

Grace carefully peeled his shirt away from his bloodied skin to reveal the shrapnel wound. At the same time, Angela began cleaning the gash on his forearms with antiseptic wipes.

Grace placed two fingers on either side of the wound to keep it open and brandished a set of medical tweezers. Her brow was bent low and she kept biting the side of her lip nervously, which didn't make Nolan feel any better.

When she gently touched the metal to the wound, it felt like she's stabbed Nolan's stomach with a knife. He flinched and Grace immediately jerked back with a curse.

"If you're going to be jumpy, I can't do it!" She said.

Nolan clenched his jaw. "Scared?"

Her eyes shot daggers as she bent back over her work. Nolan braced himself.

She went back in with the tweezers, and Nolan shut his eyes tightly. He focused on the other wound that was being mended by Angela. The slow wrapping and tightening of the gauze around his arm was somewhat calming.

"Almost got it." Grace whispered to herself. "This is going to hurt."

Nolan wanted to look away, but couldn't. Grace clamped down on the sliver of metal imbedded in his skin. He held his breath.

She pulled out a long piece of tin, and it felt like Nolan's insides went with it.

He gasped in pain and tightened his muscles, which proved to be a bad idea.

Finally, he relaxed with a sigh. Even though the pain was still sharp, there was a significant amount of relief in knowing that the metal was gone. "Thanks." He breathed.

"No problem." Grace said, holding up a one-inch piece of shrapnel between her tweezers. She exhaled to still her shaking hands. "Angela, you can wrap up his midsection and I'll go over here." She dropped her hand to her side and looked as if she were about to pass out from exhaustion for a second.

"Grace?" Nolan asked worriedly.

She sat up straighter and gave another weak smile. "Take it easy, mister, or I'll have your head," she warned.

Once she was gone, Angela secured the gauze on Nolan's arm.

"Been a rough day." Nolan said.

Angela pushed her hair away from her dirt-smeared face, not acknowledging Nolan's comment. She probably didn't want to talk about it.

"Where are you from?" He asked, feeling uncomfortable as she unrolled a long strip of material.

"Cambridge." She replied shortly, bringing the gauze underneath him and wrapped it around several times. "I left on a three day trip," She said quietly, not meeting Nolan's eye, "I usually work from home, but the agency called me in to do a field job. My husband's staying home with our two children..." Her voice trailed away into what Nolan couldn't decipher as a sigh or a sob. So Colossus must have taken them hostage during that time. "How long have you been here?"

Angela scooped a safety pin into the gauze to keep it in place. She rolled her eyes upward. "I dunno...six, seven...maybe even eight days. The time...it gets a bit muddled, I suppose."

"I'm sure."

She stood up to move on to the next patient.

"Hey," Nolan said before she could go, "Not many people can handle that kind of psychological stress,"

"Yeah, I'm lucky."

"No. You're brave. All of you. Look, I spent four years in the SEALs and I've never witnessed this kind of courage before. You people, you agents, are the bravest people I've ever met; you're doing things I've never thought possible." His eyes wandered over to Grace, who was putting stitches into an older man.

"But you're still compassionate and kind. You don't need the weapons or the drills or the tough attitude; you just are. It's incredible. It won't be the military that will win this war, it'll be people like you who will change the course of it all." He realized he was rambling and shut up. "Anyway, thanks for fixing me up, I really appreciate it."

Angela gave a small smile and went off to go alongside Grace.

Nolan carefully adjusted his position against the tree, doing a quick scan of the area. They were pretty deep into the woods, so it would take a while for anyone to find them...but that didn't mean they weren't looking.

They'd have to leave as quickly as possible.

He looked down at his bandages abdomen. Escaping through the woods wasn't going to be fun at all.

He gazed at the flickering flames about twenty-four inches away from his feet. They twisted and swayed in a mesmerizing dance. Even though they remained in danger, it still felt immensely good to rest for a while. Who knew what the next moments would bring?

Nolan mulled over the past events, trying to think about their next move. Should they just go home and let the government take care of the EMPs? Even if they could somehow shut down one device, there were dozens of others. How many had already gone off in the short time Nolan and Grace had been captured?

Nolan was pulled back into reality when a middle-aged man came up to him.

"The name's Jim Betany," he said, squatting next to Nolan. His face was hard and wrinkled and most of his hair was a yellowing grey. His bushy eyebrows carried a stern expression, but his soft blue eyes suggested something kinder beneath the surface. "I just wanted to thank you for rescuing us," A small wince rippled across his features. "I don't know if we would have made it without you."

"Don't mention it." Nolan replied. "The one you should be thanking is Grace, though."

"Who sent you?"

"Um...no one," Nolan said cautiously, "We were captured like you and escaped. We saw...we saw another hostage get executed and figured there was more, so we searched for you."

Jim's expression darkened. "Her name was Leslie Graham."

"I'm sorry."

He looked up and gave a single nod, settling down to a sitting position on the damp leaves. "What did they capture you for?"

Nolan didn't answer right away. He wasn't exactly sure himself. Did Egor truly hold them hostage just to kill them slowly? It was very plausible, but it would have been smarter to dispose of them right away.

"I understand it's hard to talk about." Jim patted his arm sympathetically.

Nolan lifted a half-amused brow. "Thanks." He sat up straighter against the tree, not seeming to be able to find a comfortable position. "So what about you?" He nodded towards the others, "Are you all together? Angela mentioned she was part of an agency..."

Jim rubbed his chin, sizing up Nolan under his sharp eye. "Who do you work for, son?"

Nolan sighed. This guy was smart. "No one." He replied and briefly explained their situation.

His answer seemed to be satisfactory enough for Jim because he finally consented to describe his own situation.

As it turned out, the EMPs were the very reason Jim and his group were captured. They were a specialized group who did undercover work for different governments.

Jim was from Scotland and worked for a subdivision of the UN, gathering intelligence. Angela and the other woman, Bethany, did similar tasks, except they worked in online terrorist surveillance. A few days before the EMP went off in Kavala, their team had assembled in Greece to research the same hacking scheme Maddie and James had discovered.

While they were there, they'd found the EMP in the basement of the school. Before they could alert anyone, they were found and captured by Colossus.

"So did you find anything out about the EMP device itself?" Nolan asked curiously.

"A lot, actually. Kurt is an electronic engineer..." Jim's voice faltered, "or...he was. But he was able to survey the device. It's all on a timer of sorts...a recharging system that's connected."

"All of the EMPs?"

"All thirty-seven." Jim bobbed his head, "It's brilliant because you can set them off without being in the same continent. However, they feed off of each other's power. The first EMP to go off is run by raw energy, but after that it stores and builds power to be given to the next device, and the next." He folded his arms in contemplation. "Which sounds great, but it needs time to build up. Kurt figured that for the first eight EMPs, it will take forty-eight hours for the next to recharge and gather energy. After that, the gap will grow closer together because it builds up the energy."

Nolan ran a thoughtful thumb across the bandages on his stomach. "So it needs to gather power in order to expel it and set off a blast?"

"Precisely," Jim agreed, "It works a lot like the sun. It converts its own mass into energy by combining protons into helium, squeezing out some energy afterwards. It takes a while, of course, but once it gets going it gets easier."

Nolan nodded again, pretending to understand. How could someone create any type of machinery to be able to do that? "How long has it been since the Kavala attack?" he wondered out loud.

"The Kavala attack?" Jim's voice carried the slightest hint of surprise, as if he'd expected it but still hated to hear it.

"Two days ago..." Nolan murmured, his thoughts whirling.

"And another's on its way soon." Jim's expression was dark as he stood up.

Nolan got to his feet slowly with a grimace. "Do you know how to stop it?"

"Kurt said there was some type of algorithm that can lock up the processes."

By the look on his distressed face, Nolan could tell Kurt hadn't figured it out before they were captured.

He limped over to Grace, who was stitching up another man's arm. He waited, semi-patiently, as she finished and stood up. When she turned around, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Nolan! I wasn't expecting you to be standing there; you're supposed to be resting."

Her unusual reaction made Nolan frown. "We have to go."

"What?"

"First of all, they'll be looking for us. Second...some new developments have put us on a tight schedule."

Grace lowered her voice. "New developments?"

Nolan told her about the intricate way the EMPs recharged themselves and how they finally had a chance at stopping them—if they could figure out the algorithm.

Grace listened attentively and nodded her understanding. She thought for a second.

"What about them? We can't just leave them on their own."

Nolan sighed. "You're right." He hated when other people were involved. It was always so much easier to work alone.

He walked over to Jim. "Grace and I are leaving. I don't know what you guys want to do, but it would be best if we left together. We'll get to the nearest town and then go from there. Do you think your crew will be able to make it?"

Jim glanced around, his eyes hesitating over the woman who was in pretty bad shape. "I think so. We'll be able to get Bethany along."

They put out the fire and packed up what little supplies they had, which mainly consisted of guns. The quiet, chilly woods surrounded them as they continued forward.

The injured woman, Bethany, had woken up and was pretty much able to walk with a little help. Jim led the way, which didn't bother Nolan, who was too weak to move faster.

They made their way through the thick forest of poplars that were black against the purplish hue of the moon, continuing to walk for thirty minutes.

Grace fell beside him with a limp. "Hey." She said breathlessly.

Nolan smiled. "Hey." He gave her a sidelong glance. Her movements were sluggish as if it was all she could do to stand upright. His gaze traveled up to her face. She'd tied her curly hair into a messy updo, leaving a few pieces to dangle about her face. Her skin was like silk in the moonlight that illuminated her soft, delicate features.

Nolan immediately averted his eyes and cleared his throat. "Thanks for fixing me up."

"Don't mention it." She said with a tired smile. "How're you feeling?"

"Great."

"Ready to run a marathon?"

"Definitely." He gave her another look, worried this time. "You look exhausted. What about your leg?"

Grace's eyes met his. "I'll be okay, it's not that bad."

"It looked pretty bad." Then Nolan saw that she hadn't doctored it at all. Most of her leg was dark with blood. "Why didn't you wrap it?"

Now Grace refused to meet his stare.

"Grace."

"I ran out of supplies." She admitted.

"So what? You're just going to let yourself bleed out?" Nolan said, just barely below a shout. He was afraid everyone else could hear their conversation, but the group was far ahead.

"We needed to get moving!"

"I have never met anyone as stubborn as you..." He snapped, "And guess who's going to be the one who has to carry your dead body through these godforsaken woods—me."

"Oh, shut up." Grace rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to die."

"And what if you do?"

"Why do you even care?"

The air immediately became thick as both of them lapsed into stunned silence at Grace's words.

Nolan stopped and turned to her. "I don't know yet," he said, "But I do."

Grace took in a quick breath and blinked. "Nolan—" She murmured quietly, but Nolan had already turned away.

"So we don't have any medical supplies at all?" He asked abruptly.

Grace shook her head and crossed her arms. "No. But, seriously; we need to keep going." She looked up at the group ahead who were still moving forward.

Nolan sighed and took off his flannel under shirt beneath his jacket. "Here. This should help with the bleeding for a while."

Grace took it gratefully and quickly made a tourniquet for her leg. After she'd secured it tightly, she straightened and tested her weight with a wince. "I don't think I should've stopped, it hurts worse." She said with a dry laugh.

"What's the hold up?" Jim called. Everyone has slowed to a stop.

"We're coming." Nolan replied and turned to see that Grace was swaying back and forth as if she were about to go to sleep. How long had it been since she'd had a good night's rest? The one night at the Kavala inn hardly counted.

Nolan placed a hand on her shoulder, partly to keep her from falling over. "We'll get there soon."

Grace nodded. "I hope so."

They slowly caught up with the others and continued their trek through the forest. Nolan kept thinking about the other side of the trees to keep going. His ribs burned at a low simmer and his stomach radiated pain down to his feet.

"I haven't properly introduced myself."

The sudden voice made Nolan flinch. He looked over and saw a younger man, the one Grace had told to start a fire, waiting for him.

"Collin Fletcher." He said.

"Nolan Clay."

Collin proceeded to thank him and Grace for rescuing them. To be honest, Nolan could care less and listened to his rambling for over five minutes. In that five minutes, Nolan had pinned him as the nervous-chatter type. His hand motions were jerky and his eyes darted from place to place.

Finally, once Collin realized Nolan was unresponsive, he turned his attention to Grace. "Can I get you anything?" he asked.

Grace's taught features offered a curt smile. "No thanks."

"Do you need to rest?"

"No."

"I have a sister back in Oregon..."

Nolan shook his head, wondering if he'd ever be quiet. Luckily for him, the conversation was directed to Grace, but she was looking more tired and more perturbed by the minute.

"She got married and moved to London; that was before she started her Pilates classes at the local gym. You two would get along—"

"That's great." Grace interrupted. She took a misstep and stumbled, almost dropping to a knee if Collin hadn't caught her by the elbow. "Woah there!" He said nervously as she righted herself.

"Do you want me to carry you?" he offered. "I can—"

Grace glared at him, pain and exhaustion written all over her face. "If you don't shut up, I will shove your eyeballs down your throat."

Collin's next words stuck in his mouth. His twitchy eyes turn to Nolan.

"She hasn't slept in a few days." Nolan whispered. "But to be honest, I think she's like this anyway."

Collin nodded slowly. Coincidentally, he shied away from Grace after a while and rejoined his own group that was a few paces ahead.

Nolan couldn't hide the smile that was creeping across his face. He looked up at the sky above them, hoping to see the glow of a town. He never dreamed civilization would be so far away from the concentration camp; it had to be close.

Suddenly Grace grabbed Nolan's good arm to balance herself. "Sorry," she whispered, but didn't let go.

They kept going.

How was this even possible? There didn't seem to be an end to the forest...

Grace rested her head against Nolan's arm with a slow, halting exhale. "I think it's going to have to be amputated..."

"Wouldn't be surprised. No one survives getting shot in the leg." He replied sarcastically.

"Oh, don't think I haven't heard your moaning and groaning over a few cracked ribs and a cut on your stomach."

"Funny."

Then, Nolan saw it; a break in the tree line. It was still pitch black ahead, but at least they wouldn't be in the forest anymore.

"Freedom!" Jim shouted and hurried ahead.

Nolan and Grace picked up the pace as well, hope surging in their hearts.

They'd made it...

Once they were out of the woods, however, everyone froze.

There wasn't any light filtering to the sky from the city because the city itself was dark.

The EMP had gotten there first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading. Just so you know, this is (more than likely) the last chapter I'm going to post until December. I'm doing a little (highly stressful and insane) thing called NaNoWriMo, hehe, so I won't have a ton of writing time to spare. So sorry, but I'll get back to the Where the Ghosts Lie desk as soon as it's over! Thank you guys for understanding!

~What are your thoughts on the chapter?

~What do you think of this group of former hostages?

~Also, that ending...I'm sorry XD

Thank you again for reading and don't forget to comment, vote, and share! <3