He sprinted through the trees and back towards the field. She was probably fine, he told himself. She would probably laugh at him for worrying at all. She was probably already on her way. Right?

He burst out of the trees and down the slope towards the wreckage of the old plane. A slumped figure lay in the grass ahead, easily visible in what was now a clear and starlit night. "Ava!" he cried.

She was unconscious, and so pale as to look gray in the silver light. He knelt down in the mud next to her and tried to shake her awake, but her side and stomach were covered in blood.