I had never seen pure panic on Kyle's face until now. Whatever was outside, wasn't good. Kyle ran into the kitchen and grabbed a pair of binoculars and cursed loudly as he stared out the window. It hurt to bad to move so I decided to stay where I was. Marcus and Kyle talked in hushed words but all I heard was a boat. The noise was a motor on a boat. Someone had to be here to rescue me. Kyle looked harder as the noise became louder.

"Shit! It's the police!" Kyle cursed.

"Brooke! Come here!" Marcus shouted, his fists clenched as he stared out the window.

"I can only see two officers on board so when they get closer I'll make it obvious that I'm running into the woods and lead one of them away. We'll pick them off separately." Kyle said loading his gun as Marcus did the same.

"Make sure you stay with the girls." Kyle added as he headed to the back of the house.

"Brooke, sit down next to Kelly." Marcus demanded.

This was it! This was the big rescue, right? I prayed that there was backup coming and that these police officers were good at what they did. Brooke sat next to me and I held her hand comfortingly. We were anxious, excited and scared all at the same time. If the officers were killed, we would be doomed. We would be relocated and escaping would never happen.

"Freeze, stop Kyle." A man shouted.

Marcus was in the kitchen hiding, waiting for the officer to walk in the door so he could shoot them. Without even thinking about what could happen to me, I screamed, "To your right, in the kitchen," as the officer walked in the door.

I knew Brooke would never yell out, especially with Marcus having a gun. She was terrified of him so I had to be the brave one. The female officer slowly opened the door, using the door as a barrier between her and Marcus. I didn't recognize the woman but was thankful she had a gun and was ready to fight. She was a beautiful woman with long, brown hair that was tied back into a ponytail. Her emerald green eyes stared into mine, giving me a sense of relief that she was really here to save us.

"Girls, get down." The officered whispered towards us.

Brooke and I dropped to the ground, causing me to hold back a scream as my bad leg started to sting. The officer peeked around the door causing Marcus to make the first shot at her. She quickly ducked behind the door, holding her gun up. She returned fire at him but missed. Brooke and I covered our heads as more gunshots echoed throughout the house. Marcus let out a chain of curse words and the gunshots stopped. I prayed that he had been shot and this would all end.

"Come out now and drop your weapon!" The officer yelled, slowly entering the house.

She looked around the corner to see Marcus on the ground. She aimed her gun at him, waiting for him to make a move. His shoulder was gushing with blood that pooled onto the floor. The officer walked closer to Marcus and that's when I saw the glistening of his gun peek out from the corner and aimed at the officer. Bang! Bang! I watched as the officer fell backwards onto her back and Marcus lying on the ground motionless. I felt like everything was in slow motion. They both had shot each other and both made a direct hit. I looked up to see a tiny hole in Marcus' head, right on the forehead. It wasn't long before a pool of his blood surrounded him. His body was motionless and that's when I knew he was truly dead.

I crawled over to the fallen officer as best as I could because I was still injured and my leg was killing me but if she risked her life for me, I think I can endure a little pain to crawl over and help her.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

There was a bullet hole in her chest but I didn't see any blood. Then I remembered something, I opened up her buttoned police uniform to see a bulletproof vest. My dad would always wear a vest to work, even if he wasn't going out into the field. He always said, better be safe than sorry.

"Oh thank God." I said, knowing that she wasn't dead.

"I'm alright, still hurts like hell but I'm not dead." She said sitting up, rubbing her chest.

"Are you girls okay?" She asked Brooke and me.

She looked down at my leg and had a concerned look on her face. It probably looked bad but hopefully, it wasn't that bad. It was a through and through shot so I would heal. Between my black eye and my bullet wound, I probably looked a hot mess.

"He shot me, but at least he bandaged me up and didn't let me die." I said, trying to be hopeful and thankful.

The officer reached for her walkie talkie and said, "Dole, do you have him. Marcus is dead."

"Kyle is alive, I just cuffed him now. I'm bringing him to the boat now." The man named Dole replied.

"Okay, I'm going to keep the girls inside and away from him until backup arrives. They should be here any minute. I'll have two other guys ride with you and Kyle back to the mainland and I'll ride with the girls."

"Alrighty." He replied. I watched as the officer picked out the bullet from her vest and through it to the floor.

"My name is Officer Robbins but you can call me Robbins or Christi. Let's get you on the couch to rest your leg. When were you shot?" She asked as she and Brooke helped me to the couch.

"Um, about twenty minutes ago." I replied.

Robbins seemed surprised by my answer and she examined my leg. She was probably shocked at how well I had recovered from my injury, but the truth was that I was still in an excruciating amount of pain. That's when I noticed the same thing she did, the bandages were leaking with bright, red blood.

"I want you to add pressure on that until help comes; don't want you bleeding out on me." She said smiling.

Robbins went to check to make sure Marcus wasn't alive, even though he had lost so much blood that it seemed impossible that he would have survived it. Within minutes, I heard tons of voices outside. I looked out the window to see five or six police speedboats. I looked over and saw Kyle waiting in one of the boats; he caught my gaze and just smiled at me. I quickly looked away, not wanting to see him anymore. He was going to jail, hopefully forever. A medic came into the house to treat my leg and put new bandages on.

I had heard that Kyle was already taken away so it was okay to bring Brooke and me outside. I couldn't really walk so the medics had to put me on a stretcher to carry me to the boat. I was ready to finally get off this island. I just wanted to go home. I was placed in one of the speedboats with Brooke and Officer Robbins. The whole house and border of the island had crime scene tape around it. I watched as a coroner took Marcus' dead, lifeless body out of the house in a light blue body bag.

"Ready girls?" Robbins asked and Brooke and I nodded.

It was over with, I was going home. Wait what was my home now? I had no mom or dad. I felt myself become emotional and start to cry. What exactly did I have to go back too? I always knew I wanted to escape but what would I go back too? Who would be there for me? I never got this far in thinking about being rescued. At the moment, I was just happy to be away from Kyle.

"It's okay, you're safe now." Robbins said as she hugged me tightly in her arms.

The flight back to Colorado was never ending; I thought we would never land. I need to see my friends and try to get back to normal life. I wanted to forget this horrific part of my life and try to pretend it didn't happen. Being on a plane gave me some anxiety but Robbins was there with me the entire time which made me feel safe.

"Oh Kelly, we talked to your aunt and uncle and they will be at the airport when we land." Robbins said.

"Thank you." I replied softly.

I had never been extremely close with my aunt and uncle, only seeing them on major holidays. At this point, they were the only family I had left. My aunt, Catherine, was my dad's sister and her husband's name was Jim. I was actually thankful that the police called them; it would be great to see some family when I got off the plane. Finally, I felt the plane descend to the ground. I glanced at Brooke who gave me a smile, which I hadn't really seen her do before. I could hear a lot of noises outside the airport, it sounded almost like cheering.

I was given a pair of crutches so that I could walk. The small airplane's stairs were lowered and the door opened. One by one, everyone climbed out of the plane. It took me twice as long because I had to hop down each stair until I could walk on the ground with my crutches. Outside was an overwhelming scene, hundreds of people were out waiting behind police guarded walls. Everyone was cheering with excitement and amazement that Brooke and I were back.

I felt the urge to cry because of how much these people cared. I knew most of the people from my community but I saw many unfamiliar faces in the crowd. Then I saw my aunt and uncle run out from the crowd towards me. I wanted to run to them but I couldn't because of my leg, so I walked as fast as I could to them. They wrapped their arms around me as tight as they could and I could feel their tears fall on me. I couldn't help it anymore, I couldn't be strong anymore. I started bursting out crying as I hugged them back. Even though we weren't close, I couldn't describe how happy I was to see them.

"Kelly!" I heard a voice shout.

My aunt and uncle let go and I turned to see Maddie running up to me. She almost knocked me down as she ran and hugged me so tight that I thought she may squeeze me to death. I hugged her back and missed her warm hugs so much. She was my best friend and not knowing if she was alive or dead was the scariest thing in the world.

"I missed you so much Kel. I love you." She said as she started to cry.

"Now you know when you start crying, I have too." I said as more tears ran down my face.

"I love you, Maddie, you are my best friend and my sister. I missed you so much. I'm so happy you are okay."

It was my turn to hug her tightly and so I did. She was my sister, it didn't matter that we don't have the same blood, but it matters that we have been through everything together and that we have the bond of sisters.

"I'll leave you two alone." Maddie said.

"What-" I started to speak but that's when I turned to see Ethan walking over to me.

I turned back around to see that Maddie was gone. I gave him a hug as soon as he got close to me. He hugged me back and said, "God, I'm thankful you're okay."

"I'm so happy to see you again. I thought he would kill you." I cried.

I never wanted to let go of him. I wanted to stay in this moment forever and make sure it never ended. Ethan and I weren't as close but I still felt a connection with him, especially after what happened to both of us. I hugged him even tighter and said, "I was so scared."

"I know, I know. You're safe now. He can't hurt you anymore." He breathed.

It broke my heart to pull away from him but my heart was repaired when he leaned over and kissed me on the lips. He was the greatest guy I had ever known and his kiss was like nothing I had ever experienced before. His kiss was nothing like Kyle's. I actually felt something for Ethan when I kissed him and hugged him. This was real and I knew that for a hundred percent. I thought that I wouldn't be ready to kiss him but I was, he comforted me and the kiss was so magical and I never wanted it to end.

I was the one who pulled away, just so I could hug him again and tell him how much I missed him. I spotted Brooke over to my left and she was hugging her family also. I pulled away from Ethan and said, "I'll be back." I made my way over to Brooke and her family. She turned to me and hugged me.

"Thank you." She said.

"See I told you we would make it out of there." I whispered into her ear as I hugged her tightly back.

"I don't want to lose contact with you. Promise me that we will see each other again." She said.

"We can see each other whenever we want. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of each other anyway." I replied as I gave her one last hug.

"Kelly, we have to get you to the hospital to have your leg checked out. Just to make sure there is no damage down to the leg or nerves." Robbins said behind me.

I nodded and followed her to the ambulance that was waiting. My leg still was hurting and I just hoped that it was normal for a gunshot wound. I didn't think that I needed an ambulance but Robbins insisted that I have one so I got in. My aunt and uncle were following in their car behind the ambulance. My aunt was driving and was probably having a heart attack by how fast she was allowed to go. Robbins rode with me and several other police cars followed. Robbins' phone rang and I couldn't help but eavesdrop on the conversation because the man on the other line talked really loud.

"Dole, is he in custody at the jail? Make sure he has at least three guards guarding him at once until we can get him to a maximum security prison." She said.

"Okay will do. I just called the Colorado maximum security prison to get him in there. We have tons of paperwork to fill out." The man named Dole replied.

Robbins hung up the phone as we reached the hospital. I walked in on my crutches because I refused to let them treat me like I was broken and put me on a stretcher when I clearly didn't need one. I was seated at an ER station where a doctor came over to me.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Sails. May I see your leg?" He asked.

I nodded and he began to take the bandages off. I had a feeling the police called ahead and told them about me and that's why the doctor was ready when I came in. I flinched in pain as he touched my leg. My thigh was red and swollen with wet and dried blood all over my whole leg.

"Well, it's good that the bullet went all the way through, so the bullet isn't inside you. I'll have to do a few x-rays to make sure everything is okay but I think you may just need a few stitches." The doctor said with a smile.

He bandaged my wound up again and grabbed a wheelchair so that I could go get some x-rays. While we were waiting for my results, someone came and stitched my wound up. I stung but I fought through the pain. The nurse had given me some pain medicine while I waited which calmed me down extremely. I felt amazing once the medicine kicked in. I watched the doctor walk back over to me and said, "Well everything looks good, so I'll let whoever fill out the paperwork so you can leave." The doctor said.

"I'll take that." Robbins said as she walked over to my aunt who was waiting outside because she didn't want to be in the ER because she hated needles. I was scheduled to come back in a couple weeks to get the stitches removed. As we were leaving, I asked Robbins, "Can I get some rest before we start all this police business?"

"Of course, yes." She replied.

"Sweetie, you can rest at the hotel that we rented out." My aunt answered my question.

"Okay, thanks."

As we were about to leave Robbins pulled my uncle to the side and said, "Now we have no idea what kind of mental state she is, and so don't leave her alone."

She thought I couldn't hear her but I could. I had great hearing but I didn't even care about her comment. I drove with my aunt and uncle back to the hotel so I could get some rest. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I made my way to the hotel room and it was a two king sized bed suite. They were probably expecting me to stay with them here. I crawled into bed and crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow.