GB: Taken

Ch 8: Survival & Brotherly Bonds

Meanwhile, deep in the Hunter-West Kill Wilderness, the Ghostbusters were slowly making their way through the thick woods. It had been several hours since they had escaped from Hardemyer's property and it had been a slow, but calm journey as no animals had tried to attack them.

The exhaustion the team was feeling was immeasurable and the pain from their injuries was flaring up again. The burn marks on Peter's abdomen felt like they were on fire. There was a dull pain in his right side probably due to some injured ribs and bruised muscles. His shoulders were also incredibly sore as his right was bruised and he was supporting Ray with his left shoulder since the former couldn't walk well. The engineer wasn't faring too well either. He could barely walk since his right knee was swollen and bruised making it very painful for him to walk. Ray also had a headache from the bruise on his forehead and his hand was in pain because of the deep cut.

Winston walked next them with Egon leaned against him. Without his glasses and his eye being swollen shut, the physicist could barely see in front of him. His ankle was broken and bruised making it difficult to walk and the stab wounds on his abdomen were throbbing. Winston was in somewhat better condition than his friends but barely. He felt the bruise painfully throbbing in his face and a pain in his forehead due to the cut he received. The former Marine felt a pain in his side due to some injured ribs, but he tried to ignore it for Egon's sake.

The four friends trudged slowly through woods in spite of massive pain. Despite having some water with them, the team was still quite dehydrated and, having found no food, were also starving.

"How's everyone doing?" Winston asked masking the tiredness in his voice.

"Surviving..." Ray answered.

"Yeah me too." Peter added.

"I'm functioning, but barely..." Egon said, sounding a little weak.

"You guys want to stop and rest for a bit?" Winston asked.

"Let's keep going for about another half hour." Peter suggested.

"Yeah, I want to be as far away from those bastards Peck and Hardemyer as possible for the moment." Ray said.

"Second that." Egon added.

"Alright, but if you want to rest, just say something." Winston replied.

"Ah!" Ray yelped as he and Peter fell forward a bit.

"Ah, sorry Ray, tripped on a root." Peter replied with a bit of annoyance.

"It's good Pete."

The four friends walked slowly through the thick forest for another 15 minutes before coming to stop at a rocky cliff. A large waterfall fell overhead from several jagged rocks into a large pool of water at the bottom which then fed into a small river.

"Crap, how do we get across that?" Ray asked.

"Looks like there might be a small path that goes right behind the waterfall." Winston asked.

"Looks kinda narrow." Peter remarked.

"Probably is..." Egon replied, "And slippery."

"Yeah, we're gonna need to be extra careful." Winston warned.

The four walked over to where the waterfall almost met the side of the cliff it fell from. Beneath its arch was a slick, rocky and narrow path that ran across the side of the cliff to the other side.

"Oh this is going to be fun..." Peter muttered

"Just what I feared." Egon added.

"Alright, looks we're gonna need to walk with our backs against the cliff and slowly." Winston said, "Peter and I will help you Ray and Egon. Just follow our lead and move slowly."