Olivias POV

Groaning, wake up and rub my head. Scanning my surroundings, I see that Maddie is still asleep. I look over to Austin sleeping beside me and smile, gently caressing his cheek and planting a small peck on the area. There’s a but of stubble on his cheeks, but the tickle of it on my lips only makes me smile wider.

After a while of laying in my make do bed, I walk over to Maddie and feel her head.

“Alright, good, no fever”, I mutter softly, looking around for a canister of water.I spot it near where I was just laying down and head back over to pick it up before returning to Maddie’s side to clean her wounds. Sighing softly as I clean, I glance around, noting the fact that it’s roughly 3 am, so everyone is asleep. I should be too, but I can’t help staying up. I’m too worried about Maddie.

A couple of hours pass before Ari is awake and trying to scrape up some breakfast for the remaining survivors. A few of our squad members have gone back to the campsite to get blankets and gather up anything that has not been scorched. Everything is quiet, and it’s a little frustrating, but I understand. The sound of footsteps snaps me out of my thoughts and I see Sara standing nearby, looking at Maddie.

“Will she be okay?”, she asks, her voice full of concern.

“For now, though her wounds are great.” Sara nods and takes the water.

“You go rest, I’ll take it from here. Go spend some time with Austin.”

“No, I have to-”

“Go”, Sara states.

“Okay…” I sigh and stand up, making my way over to where Austin is cleaning up the area where we slept. I yawn and step up to him, laying my head on his chest and rubbing my eyes.

“Tired?”, he asks, rubbing my back gently.

“A bit”, I reply, “couldn’t sleep last night.”

“I can lay a blanket down so you can sleep.”

“No, no, I’m fine. I’m waiting for Maddie to wake up.” Austin nods and stretches out.

“When she does, we have to leave ASAP”, he says.

I nod in agreement and look over with a sigh, “on second thought, I will lay down.”

This cause Austin to chuckle. He nods and grabs a blanket from the bucket to lay down. I lay down onto it and pull the edge over my body. He then leans down and kisses my forehead, bringing a smile to my face.

“I’m going to get firewood for us to arm up until Maddie wakes up”, he says before standing and grabbing two guys to take with him.

Sara’s POV

I huff as I lean on the tree beside Maddie. It’s been two hours since Olivia went o sleep, and almost everyone in camp is awake and helping clean to get ready to leave. I close my eyes, then open them again and look over when I hear a groan and see Maddie struggling to get up.

“Hey, hey, don’t”, I say quickly as I head over to her, “you’re hurt.”

“I’m fine, we just have to go, so they don’t come back.”

“Maddie, rest for the time being.”

“No, I’m fine, could you help me up?”, she asks and holds an arm up.

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I hesitate, but take her hand, and she stands to her feet with a wince.

“Where is Olivia?”, she questions, and as she does, Austin walks up to us.

“Hey, you’re awake”, he says, looking around, “I’ll go get her, no worries.” Austin walks away and I look at Maddie.

“You are reckless”, I chuckle and shake my head, causing her to grin.

A couple of minutes pass and Olivia comes running over with a smile.

“Maddie, thank god you’re okay”, she says. I look around as they talk, quickly losing track of the conversation. I look into the sky and arch an eyebrow.

“H-hey guys, what is that?”, I say, and point up towards a drop ship, which is heading towards us, and fast.

Maddie’s POV

Hearing Sara’s words, I squint into the sky, though it is hard to see through the crack in my left lens.

“I-is that…” I trail off.

“A drop ship”, Rei finishes, and as soon as she does, parachutes are deployed and the drop ship lands on the ground roughly five minutes after we watch it cross the ravine and drop into the forest. Out of instinct I grab my bag and some rope and turn towards the ravine.

“Woah, woah, where are you going?”, Sara asks, turning me around.

“To the other side”, I reply, as if it’s obvious.

“But it’s a day long trip around the ravine”, she argues.

“Exactly”, I say, “that’s why I’m going through.”

Sara then steps in and draws the line, stating firmly, “Not by yourself you aren’t, you’re still hurt, so I’m coming with you.”

“So am I”, Rei joins in and I huff.

“Fine, but please hurry, they could be hurt.” I turn around again and walk over to the ravine. When I get there, I nod and tie my rope securely to a nearby tree.

“Alright”, I address the group, “if we go down here carefully we can easily make it up beside the spring on the other side, but have to be fast.” I grab ahold of the rope and start inching my way down, the pressure killing my back. After I go, Sara follows, and then Rei. We all reach the bottom in about fifteen minutes, and I scan the area to make sure we don’t have any ‘visitors’ before making my way quickly towards the spring.

“Not so fast”, Sara speaks up, catching my arm and halting my progress, “you don’t want to be hurt more than you already are.”

“I’m fin-”, I start, but am cut off by movement at my feet and a weight moving swiftly over my shoes, almost causing me to scream in terror.

“What the hell was that?!”, I shiver and look over to see a lizard at Sara’s feet. It’s obviously a sun gazer, but it seems different than normal. It’s larger for one, with three tails and two differently coloured eyes. All in all, it measures about twelve inches in length and it’s sheer size causes me to shiver again. Sara awed and bent to pick the up the lizard, grinning.

“Hey guy!”, she coos, holding him up to her face.

“Aw, can I keep him Maddie?”, she pleads and I chuckle.

“You aren’t creeped out by how big it is and the fact that it has three tails?”

“No, not at all. And his brown eye and gold eye are absolutely gorgeous”, she gushes. I roll my eyes and sigh.

“Yeah, yeah, lets just get out of here before a bigger one shows up.”

“Well that just makes me want to stay”, she says. I chuckle and shake my head before beginning to climb up the rock. Sara sets the lizard on her head before beginning to climb as well, and Rei is already halfway up by the time we start.

Another thirty minutes pass before we finally make it to the top and Sara looks around to see smoke.

She points and shouts, “Look! C’mon!”, before taking off towards it. Rei and I follow, and we soon approach the drop ship, which is rather small.

“What?” Rei says absently as she gets closer, before prying one door open and peeking in. I pry open the other one and we find two people: A male, who is rather tall with wavy brown hair and soft freckles dusting his face, and a female, who has soft black hair that reaches her back and who seems to be around 5’3” with an hourglass figure.

“Hey, wake up”, I say as I gently shake the female, Rei doing the same for the male. When there’s no response, I unbuckle her, pulling her out and onto the ground to listen to her chest.

“Well she’s still alive”, I say and look over to Rei, “Is he?”

Rei nods and pulls him out as well.

“Come on, we have to go.”

After I say that, I hear groaning and turn to see the female moving her head slightly. I kneel down to look her in the eyes.

“Hey, you’re alive thank god, that was quite a crash you took there”, I joke with a smile. I notice her head seems to be bleeding, but not too badly.

“We are going to take you back to camp to fix up that wound, is that okay?” I ask. She seems to be still trying to comprehend my words. She just nods and I help her when she attempts to sit up.

“S-squad two”, the male says and I turn my head, confused.

“What?”, I ask.

“They are alive”, he says, and we all fall dead silent.