Here We Are || HG Sequel

Chapter One

The sky is clear blue, the sun beams down upon the hot black metal of the hovercraft. Trees give shade to the six tributes, but not much. The sun's rays are too strong, and they continue to heat the area of the crash. Ashton is the first to stir in the chaos. He attempts to stand, achieving said goal within a few tries. He looks around, noticing the damage. "What the hell..." he gasps. The entire craft was wrecked. Trees had fallen on top of it, bits and pieces had broken off, and the engine was dead. Immediately realizing the others could not be seen, Ashton began to search for them. He found Karalyn first not far from where he had landed himself. "Wake up, Princess," Ashton coaxed, standing her up. 

"Huh? Wha-" she started to fall back to the ground, but Ashton caught her. 

"Careful! Ah!" he winced. He still wasn't fully healed from that sword to the back. It was still sore. 

"What happened?" she finished asked, once she regained her footing. 

"We crash landed. I don't know much after that. I just woke up, and here we were." Karalyn looks around, and then, like Ashton, realizes that the others are still missing.

"Where is everyone?" she asks, in a more panicked tone than Ashton's was. 

"I don't know. Help me look." The two of the circled the hover craft and around it. 

"I found Rhett!" Karalyn shrieks, running to help him. 

"Yeah, and I found Luke..." Ashton huffs to himself, rather annoyed. 

"Help!" a female voice then cries. Karalyn and Rhett rush to her, as Ashton hauls Luke to his feet. 

"Wake up," he says, giving him a few gentle slaps to his face until he comes to.

"Help!" Karalyn and Rhett find her, stuck underneath part of the hovercraft.

"Whoa..." Rhett gasps. "Hold on, Annie, we'll have you out soon." Karalyn flags down Ashton and Luke for assistance, and together they managed to free Annie. She whines, grabbing her leg. 

"Ow..." she silently cries. 

"Where's Niall?" Rhett asks.

"He's still inside! I don't think he got out when we crashed." Ashton instantly crawled into the remains of the hovercraft alone, trying to find him.

"Ashton, wait!" Karalyn tried to call after him. He didn't listen. After a few minutes, the others started to get worried. 

"Maybe someone should go in after him," Rhett suggests. Just then, Ashton's arm became visible again, dragging Niall out with him. Luke grabs Ashton first, helping him out, and then they grab Niall, who is unconscious, but still alive.

"He's knocked out from the impact and the engine fumes, but he's fine," Ashton says. Annie falls to the ground beside him, hugging him. 

"Thank you, Ashton," Annie says, proceeding to give him a hug too. Ashton accepts the hug, awkwardly and uncomfortably. 

"Yeah..." he replies. He gets up, brushing off his pants. Annie fetches the last water bottle remaining that she can find, and tries to coax Niall awake to give him some after sharing a sip each with the others and herself. 

"That was pretty brave of you," Luke says, trying to be nice.

"Yup. No thanks to you, Hercules," he rolls his eyes.

"Are you kidding me? What did I even do?" 

"Everything," Ashton answers. He doesn't say anything else; no more, no less. Rhett assists Annie in bringing Niall to come to while Luke pulls Karalyn aside to talk to her.

"What's his problem?" The girl shrugs. 

"I couldn't tell you." Luke sighs. 

"Well I don't think arguing with him is going to get us anywhere, and obviously we can't just ditch him. What do you propose we do?" the blonde asks.

"Try to endure it?" she suggests. "He's not going to get any nicer. That's just the way he is. I've tried, with him, and he doesn't want to cooperate. Just let him do his own thing, I guess, and then we'll go from there."

"He's okay!" Annie shouts from the hovercraft. Niall is sitting up, holding his head.

"Annie..." he whispers. She kisses him on the cheek, smiling and crying at the same time. "What happened?" he asks, looking at the others.

"I'd like to know too," Karalyn agrees. Rhett sighs, running a hand through his hair.

"I have no idea. One minute, I was flying the hovercraft, and everything was perfectly fine. Nothing in the sky, nothing below us, and then, we just started crashing. Then the engine blew, and everything went downhill. Literally. I tried to stop it, but when the engine blows you can't really help that." 

"Luckily everyone's fine, and no one got hurt too badly," Luke praises. "But it's a shame we lost the food and drinks on the hovercraft. We've landed in the middle of... well, nowhere."

"Maybe we should look around," Annie suggests. Ashton rejoins the group, holding something in his hands.

"Look what I found," he says, handing it over to Annie. It was her gun. Her eyes lit up when she saw it. "I guess something did survive the crash after all. You know, aside from us." Annie thankfully took the gun, and was even more pleased to see some of her darts were still there. She would need to recreate a poison to fill them, but they would work just as well.

"Thanks, again," she laughs.

"You're actually being nice now?" Karalyn teases, surprised.

"Don't get used to it, Princess." Her smile fades too quickly.

"And back to the old Ashton," she huffs. 

"Anyway," Luke continues, glaring at Ashton every now and then.

"Proceed," Ashton smirks.

"I think Annie has a good idea. We need to explore... here, wherever we are, and see what we can do for food and water." 

"Damn, it's like The Hunger Games already," Karalyn rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, but this time no one has to die," Annie mentions. Niall tries to stand, his legs a bit shaky.

"We better go soon. Better to leave now and have more time to look around. Should we split up?" Some agree, some disagree.

"What if we can't find each other again?" Rhett proposes. 

"He has a point," Luke notes.

"What's the matter, Hot Lips? Afraid you'll get lost in this big bad world?" Ashton remarks. Luke clenches his fists, but eases back when Karalyn places a hand on his shoulder. Ashton seems amused. 

"Fine, we'll stick together," Annie agrees for the group. "Did anyone else keep any weapons on them?" Rhett notes that he still had one of his bombs, which surprisingly didn't go off in the crash, and Karalyn had her dagger attached to her belt. The others grabbed a few rocks and sticks as weapons. Ashton didn't bother. He's his own weapon. 

After a good period of time, the tributes stop, realizing a familiarity about the area. "We're going in circles," Ashton hisses. "We've been by here before." The others groan, annoyed. 

"Well we have to find another way to go, then. What about-" Rhett is cut off by the others, and a sound, in the woods. Weapons raised, they form a circle, back to back, each covering an area of the woods. 

"No one move," Niall whispers. "And stay quiet." The rustling in the leaves gets louder, and louder, but it seems to be coming from all directions. No one can quite pinpoint the location, so they all remain alert. Then, when the rustling is at it's loudest, is when they realize that they are not alone in these woods.