The sound of struggling brought my thoughts back into reality. I realized, upon my eyes flicking open, that I was upside down. The seat belt was cutting painfully into my neck and shoulder.

Groaning I fumbled for the clip. My hand skimmed across its surface and I attempted to push on it. Nothing happened. Glancing down I noticed that it was smashed and twisted.

"No." Shaking my head to collect my thoughts I tugged harshly on the strap. My head was pounding from the blood that was now pooling there. Scanning the ceiling of the car I spotted a jagged piece of the roof.

Struggling to reach it I felt my back crack painfully, but my fingers managed to clamp around the object. With shaking hands I began to saw at the seat belt. It was slow work but at last it snapped and I tumbled down onto the roof of the car.

Struggling to orient myself I finally spotted Max crawling slowly out the shattered window. Layla was already outside but the others were in a bad state. Ashton was still out cold, James on the other hand was sweating and trying to ease blood coming from a wound in his leg.

Maneuvering towards them I shook Ashton gently. "Ashton, Ashton get up."

My voice was hoarse and my thoughts were fuzzy. He stirred slightly, eyelids fluttering, until  at last they snapped open. He panicked on instinct.

"Calm down. I need you to get James out of here." Ashton's eyes darted over to his brother and an intense look of worry covered his face. He made no protest as he moved to aid his brother.

Crawling back to the front of the car I spotted Meg eyes closed, hair sticky with blood, hanging upside down. Carefully I reached up and unclipped her seatbelt catching her so she didn't hit the floor hard.

"I got you." She didn't respond but that was alright for the time being. Grunting I turned pounding my foot against the window. It didn't give. Layla appeared outside and held up a hand.

She disappeared but came back a moment later with a rock in hand. She gestured to cover my face and I did as told. Seconds later there was a loud smash as  she bashed the rock into the glass.

"Come on." Layla breathed grabbing my leg and tugging me towards the opening.

"Wait. We have to be careful, Meg's hurt ." This caused slight alarm to flare in her eyes. Together Layla and I managed to pull Meg from the destroyed vehicle.

Everyone made it outside and it was here that I realized the entirety of the damage. The back bed of the truck had snapped off and rested a bit to the right, twisted and covered with gaping holes poked in the metal.

The windshield was spiderwebbed with cracks. One of the doors had imploded. A tire was twisted inwards under the car. The engine hissed and steamed like a dragon getting ready to spit fire.

"What happened?" Max asked studying the mess.

"We hit another car. Spun off the freeway..." James breathed pointing up the side of the large cliff like hill. "Rolled down this way."

He traced a diagonal path from the busted railing I couldn't see, as it was too high up.

"Landed in the trees." He grunted putting further pressure on his wound.

"People should have shown up to help by now." Layla frowned. Shaking my head I knelt next to Meg's unconscious form. There was a large gash on her head, the source of the blood, with a thick piece of glass embedded in her shoulder.

"They can't see us. It's dark and the car rolled too far into the fringe of the woods." Ashton explained tugging James' hands away from his leg wound.  "Shit, man."

"I think on the way down a branch pierced through the car. Got me in the leg." James explained a large thick piece of jagged wood impaled in his calf.

"What do we do? We need medical help!" Layla insisted upon seeing the state of both James and Meghan.

"Use your phones." I suggested, using the same jagged piece of metal to tear off the sleeves of my shirt as I had to cut my seat belt. Using the cloth I pressed it to the wound of Meg's head trying to ease the bleeding. Tucking the makeshift tool into my back pocket I scanned the others expectantly.

Max hurriedly reached into her pocket as did Ashton. Layla headed back to he car and glanced inside of it.

"Mine's broken." Max sighed.

"Busted too." Layla said holding up a bent phone. I attempted to turn mine on but it buzzed angrily in my hands. Meg didn't have one on her, having left it at home most likely, and James hadn't brought his. Everyone looked to Ashton.

"It-It's out of battery." He glanced at the ground.

"How many times have I told you to charge you phone?" James yelled.

"I didn't think I had it on all night! I wasn't planning on using it much." Ashton yelled back.

"All of you shut up!" Each head turned to look at me with wide eyes. "Arguing isn't going to fix anything. We need to figure out a plan."

"Like what smarty pants?" Layla questioned raising her eyebrows.

"Find anything we can use from the car." Layla nodded and dove back into the mangled machine. "Ashton, is there anyway back up to the freeway?"

He turned on his heel to study the cliff side and made his way to the edge of the trees.

"Max, help James." She seemed reluctant but replaced Ashton. Layla scrambled out of the car in a panic the engine steaming more until a loud pop sounded and the hood of the car blew off. The metal beneath was mangled and covered in oil. A spark set it ablaze quickly.

"Ashton! Come on we gotta move or this thing could blow us to bits!" Layla yelled running away from the car. Urgently I attempted to pick Meg up but I struggled under her limp weight.

Ashton scooped James up with ease all of his football weight training paying off. Max started to follow before pausing in her tracks.

"Max come on. Please." A look of indecision passed across her face before she nodded. She held Meg by the feet while I hooked my arms under Meg's shoulders. The two of us stumbled away from the car as the blaze spread.

"Guide me I can't see." Nearly stumbling on a rock I figured I'd do better listening to directions than trying to look over my shoulder.

"Right, okay. Tree to the left. " The two of us skirted to the right . She relayed directions as best as she could but there were mistakes and stumbling that were inevitable.

Max and I eventually joined the others panting from our efforts when a loud bang sounded and there was a surge of color in the distance.

"What now?" Ashton breathed.

"We go back." James proposed having been set back on the ground.

"Not possible. If anything that blast is gonna set off a nasty forest fire." Layla explained shaking her head. "Our best bet is to head that way."

She gestured to the path the freeway took, the way we had been going on before all this occurred.

"Stay ahead of the problem. You can already see the drier underbrush is burning." James agreed pointing up ahead where the light was getting brighter.

"That's a wonderful idea but we won't be able to move very fast. Not with Meg like this." She had yet to stir but her chest was moving so at least she was alive, though it didn't ease my worry.

"I'll get her. Layla, Reyna, you guys support James." Ashton and I switched places. James managed to clamber to his feet. Layla and I tucked his arms over our shoulders and guided him along. Max set the pace and soon we were stumbling off into the woods in the right direction. Hopefully.

We walked for a long ways fumbling through the dark. All I could really hear was Layla's heavy breathing and James' occasion whimper as his wounded leg was jostled.

"Alright we gotta stop. I can't keep going." Layla exhaled stopping in her tracks sweat beading on her brow.

"Alright." Carefully the two of us set James down and propped him up against a tree. Ashton and Max stood a bit aways but they too stopped in their tracks. "We need to figure out what we're doing for the night."

"I don't know." Layla admitted. "Everything hurts."

"Why did we stop?" Max demanded having walked back to meet us, Ashton trailing behind.

"I'm exhausted." Layla admitted sitting down on the forest floor legs shaking slightly from fatigue.

"How? We should keep going until we can't walk anymore. Maybe there's a way out." Ashton proposed.

"Not all of us are athletes okay?" Layla frowned. "I'm not athletically inclined."

"Clearly." Max snorted.

"Listen prissy, you didn't have to come so just shut the hell up, no one asked for your opinion." Layla snapped in response.

"Don't talk to her like that." Ashton glared down at Layla setting Meg down on the ground.

"What? You want me to be polite?" Layla asked glancing at all of us her eyebrows raised. "Not happening. Since when has Max ever said anything nice about us?"

"Layla just be quiet please. It's not worth it." James groaned closing his eyes.

"Easy James I know your leg hurts." I sighed taking a seat. Layla snorted at his comment.

"Sorry James but I'm not about to be quiet." Layla shook her head and clambered shakily to her feet. "All you do is make snarky comments about everyone else but the only person here who deserves such comments is you."

"Yeah? At least I'm not the one dating every theater guy in the school because she wants a starring role in a musical no one gives a crap about!" Max and Layla were nose to nose now, the tension could have caused electricity to spark in the air. "Face it, you aren't good enough at anything to get a scholarship to some ridiculous school. You think sleeping with eighty two people is gonna give you that?"

"You don't know anything about my life so you better stop acting like you do. Not everyone gets the lucky break you did Max." Layla took a step back. "You went from poor to rich. Now tell me how that happens?"

Max opened her mouth to respond but Layla turned her back. "If we're stopping here we're gonna need a fire."

With that she turned back the way we had come. James looked worriedly at her, "Where are you going?"

"Back to the fire. It's easier than making one ourselves." Layla was gone. She disappeared from sight leaving our group in fractured silence.

"Come on let's get to sleep." Ashton mumbled wrapping an arm around Max's shoulders and leading her over across the way so they were far away from he rest of us.

"I'm gonna check on Meg." James nodded at my words and closed his eyes leaning his head back against the tree. Crawling over to where Meg rested I examined her head wound. It had stopped bleeding and scabbed over which was good. As for the glass jutting from her shoulder, it needed to be removed.

"Ashton!" He sat up hearing my voice. "Ashton I need your shirt."

"What? No way." He shook his head in protest.

"Please. I need something to stop the bleeding once I pull this out." There was a long pause before he grudgingly yanked off his shirt and wadded it up, throwing it my way. "Thank you Ashton."

He said nothing as he settled back down wrapping his arms around Max. Turning my attention back to Meg I closed my eyes gripping the glass.

"Sorry about this." With a jerk and a sickening noise the glass came free and I hurriedly pressed the shirt to the wound. It was the first time I'd seen Meg stir. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment and I was hoping they'd open... but nothing happened.

I remained by her side well into the night until I was certain she wasn't about to bleed out. Hesitantly leaving her side I returned to James. "Now to take care of you."

I didn't have to ask him and argue as I had with Ashton, he simply nodded and pulled off his shirt handing it over. "Just make it quick yeah?"

"You got it." Grasping the thick piece of wood embedded in his calf I let him steel his nerves. Once he gave me a nod I pulled roughly, the wood tugging out slowly. James gave a cry of pain but I was too busy trying to ease the bleeding to notice much else.

With shaking hands I folded the shirt and tied it snugly around the wound. "There. That should hold."

"Yeah. Yeah okay. Thanks." James closed his eyes again and focused on easing his breathing. Blood covered my hands, it was something I never expected to happen, have my friends' blood coat my palms. Hastily wiping them on my pants I found a place to settle.

I didn't sleep, Layla was still out there, I needed to make sure she would return. Not to mention that animals roamed these woods. The last thing I needed was a bear tearing through the woods. Then again, maybe it would ease our predicament.

Sighing I studied the trees and listened to the sounds of the birds and animals. In the distance an owl called out into the night. Smiling to myself I could only imagine what it was up to.