'Why am I in this position again?'
Phoenix looked up from the view in front of her and saw Ashton face looking down at her. She unconsciously gulped her saliva, uncomfortable with how close their face were.
"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly.
"Yes. I am."
Currently, Phoenix was on top of Ashton, from this position she could see Ashton face up close and she was reminded by what happened when she woke up.
She was trying to erase that image in her mind when her feet slipped. She let out a scream of surprise when she fell, as she wasn't paying attention to her steps. Ashton, who was walking behind her, tried to catch her, but the ground was too slippery, making both of them slide down the slope. Ashton managed to catch and pull her close to him. He held her so tightly in his embrace to lessen the impact on her and cushion their land by using his body.
That was how they ended up in their current position.
"I'm sorry." Phoenix was feeling really guilty now. It seemed like she was a magnet for trouble for Ashton.
'Why am I absent minded?! Look what happened! Get a grip, Phoenix!' She chastised herself in her mind.
Phoenix stood up and cleaned herself from the dirt. She checked her foot, and luckily, her ankle wasn't sprained when she slipped. But, unlucky for Ashton, his ankle was. When he stood up, pain shot up from his foot. Phoenix saw his face grimaced in pain and now she was feeling double guilty about their situation.
"Let me see." Phoenix helped him sit down and looked at his foot.
Phoenix took out a small first aid kit from her backpack, she used a pain relief spray on Ashton's ankle and bandages around it. She checked for any other wounds on Ashton and applied antiseptic. Other than Ashton spraining his ankle, he had a few cuts on his hands.
Before she could keep the first aid kit back inside her backpack, Ashton stopped her.
"You should put medicine on your wounds, too." He gestured towards the wounds in her hands. She has a big scratch on the back of her arm that she didn't notice. Phoenix was used to having wounds on her body that she barely felt if she wounded herself anymore. She applied the antiseptics on her wounds under the watchful eyes of Ashton and kept the first aid kit inside her backpack.
After she was done, she helped Ashton to stand up.
"Can you walk?"
Ashton nodded, "Yes." There was still pain, but it was bearable for Ashton, and it was not as bad as he felt before.
Phoenix was still worried, even though Ashton said that he could walk. Thus, she supported Ashton to walk by putting Ashton's arm around her shoulder.
This time, she paid attention to her step, so no more accidents could happen. Even though the close proximity between them had her feeling conscious towards Ashton, she put that feeling at the back of her mind.
After walking a few steps, they both stop.
"Where are we?" Phoenix asked, looking at Ashton. It was her first time in Sunny Hill, so she was not familiar with that place. According to what Mia said, Ashton had been to Sunny Hill a few times, so he might have known something or recognized anything.
They both looked around them and tried to find anything that they were familiar with or might have encountered before.
"I don't know where we are," Ashton finally said.
'Oh God, what have I done? Where are we now?' Phoenix panicked inside, hearing Ashton answer.
Forget about double the guilt, now her guilt has tripled! She was feeling even worse!
'Relax, Phoenix! It is just a hill not a mountain, we can get out of this place, no problem.' she pumped up herself.
Phoenix has faith in herself, she wasn't scared of the wilderness.
They walked around to search for the trail that they had taken the day before, but they already deviated from the trail when the storm came, and ran to find shelter, moreover with the fall down the slope, they were already far from the original track.
Even though Phoenix was convinced that they would be fine, but fate had other plans for them. Ashton's sprained ankle already made their movement slow, but now, his body started to burn up, Phoenix could feel it because Ashton's body was so close to her.
'It must be because of the storm, the temperature has become so cold, and with the fall and the sprained ankle, his body must have had too much shock.'
As much as she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, she couldn't push Ashton's body to his limit.
"Let's take a rest. You are having a fever."
Ashton's face was already pale and sweating, and he had trouble standing and walking with his sprained foot. So he agreed to take a rest and let Phoenix took care of him.
Phoenix gave Paracetamol that she had inside her first aid kit, together with the last source of water that they had.
"It's okay. I don't need water."
Ashton took the medicine tablet and directly swallowed it without the aid of water.
"No. You need to drink water, too," said Phoenix.
Ashton was sick, while she was not. It was not time for him to be a gentleman. She insisted for Ashton drink the water.
"Don't worry, they will find us," Ashton assured Phoenix, that they would be fine.
"How do you know?" Phoenix asked, but then it struck her. 'Ahh… that's a stupid question to ask. He had people who would be worried about him. Lucky to be him.'
At first Ashton was giving her 'are-you-serious?' look, but then he saw the changes in her eyes like she just had an enlightenment.
Unfortunately, luck really wasn't in their favour as it started to rain, and they had to find a shelter again. But, hey! Now they have water and Phoenix let the rain water filled their water bottles.
This time they found a small cave to take cover from the rain, the cave wasn't easily found if one did not take a look at it closely.
Phoenix helped Ashton to sit inside the cave floor as carefully as she could. She searched in her backpack for anything that could be used to keep Ashton warm. Luckily the backpack was waterproof, so her clothes and towel were dry.
"What are you doing?" Ashton watched Phoenix move in puzzlement.
"We need to keep you warm."
"I am fine. You should sit and rest too. Don't worry about me."
"How can I not? This is all because of me. Let me find something to make a bonfire to keep us warm."
"Fire? Forget it, there's nothing we can—"
Ashton watched Phoenix skillfully started a fire without a fire starter, with some dry leaves and branches that were inside the cave. His eyes went wide in surprise.
How many times had he been left dumbfounded by this girl?
'Who is this girl?!'