We Can't Back Down

Chapter 1

On a spring day in 2015, the Bellas' bus was driving down a rural road on the way to a gig.

"You guys, it's my first performance," Emily pointed out, feeling excited.

"Calm down; it's just a chance for us to rehearse for Worlds," Chloe reminded her.

Later, the Bellas were in the dressing room, getting ready for their performance.

"How'd we get this gig again?" Beca asked.

"They called us," Chloe said.

"Well, in that case, this better go well," Beca said.

"I hope it does. Because if we fail at this, we won't win Worlds. If we don't win Worlds, there'll be no more Bellas, and without the Bellas, my life has no..." Chloe stopped, unsure if she was going to finish her sentence.

"Malaria?" Flo guessed.

"...meaning, Flo," Chloe corrected her with an annoyed glance.

As it turned out, their performance went well at first but then turned into a disaster when the top of CR's head accidentally caught fire at some point during the song due to her hitting the pyrotechnics that were on the stage.

While the other Bellas went to check on her to make sure she was okay, all Beca and Chloe could do was watch what happened in horror.

Back on the bus, it was silent. It seemed like the Bellas were going about their business as usual, but Chloe was still worried.

"Are we just going to ignore what happened back there?" Chloe asked.

"Not me. I almost burned to death because of you guys," CR said.

"If you almost died, it's because you were standing in the wrong spot," Amy said.

"No! Flo flipped into me," CR corrected her.

"Hey! Don't blame me," Flo fired back.

"ENOUGH! Okay, clearly, the props were a bad idea. We did just fine for years without them," Beca said.

"I agree. It's obvious now that just trying to add props is just throwing us off," Chloe pointed out.

"Well, we need a way to build ourselves back up, but I just don't know what else we can do," Beca said.

"Well, I do! Desperate times call for desperate measures. In these desperate times, there's only one thing left to do," Chloe said.

"Fake your own death and flee the country?" Flo guessed.

"NO!" The other Bellas responded.

"Close; we're going on a retreat," Chloe said.

That night, back at the Bella House, a very worried Chloe decided to call Aubrey. Last Christmas, Aubrey had invited her and the group to the Lodge of Fallen Leaves for a retreat, and after their recent disastrous gig, Chloe knew it was time to take her up on that offer since she knew the only way the Bellas would have any chance at winning Worlds is by working together to find their sound again.

"Hey, Chloe," Aubrey greeted, answering her phone.

"Hey, Aubrey! You know how you mentioned I should come visit you at your new job?" Chloe asked.

"Oh, yeah! Have you been giving it some thought?" Aubrey asked.

"Well, I'm coming, but I'm bringing the Bellas. We need your help for Worlds," Chloe said.

"Well, bring them over for a two-day boot camp," Aubrey suggested.

"That'd be great. When can we come by?" Chloe asked.

"Bring them up this Saturday," Aubrey said.

"Great! Just text me the address!" Chloe said.

"Absolutely! I'll see you all this weekend," Aubrey's voice was excited.

"See you then," Chloe said, hanging up.

Just seconds later, she received the text from Aubrey with the address and plugged it into Google Maps.