Rick Larn was your average 18 year old. He went to high school in a quiet suburb in Ohio and was planning on living his life out quietly as a computer programmer. Never the most popular kid, Rick had still created a core group of friends. Rick was about 5' 11" and fairly handsome, with light brown hair and hazel eyes, he never questioned his appearance or his self worth, he was just happy talking to his friends.

Rick was walking to his usual spot underneath a tree in the school courtyard. It was still early fall so the leaves were just turning and the temperature had not become too cold to sit there. His friends always sat there before school and they would talk about whatever was on their mind. He was only a few feet away from the tree when Kevin Jackson, one of his best friends came running up behind him.

"Rick! Rick!" Kevin was out of breath from running, Kevin was only a sophomore but was still a trusted friend, even though most of the people in Rick's grade thought he was a dork.

"What's up?" Rick said as he stopped to give Kevin a chance to breathe.

"Have you seen Liz?"

Elizabeth Nikra was another friend, though they almost all gave her a lot of crap (almost always in fun), "No, why? You got another joke planed?"

"No, something's weird, she's not here and she's not home, we just called. We all went looking around where she normally would walk."

"That's not good, I help look, and I don't have class till 3rd period today anyway."

And Hour later Rick was in the middle of the woods that were about a mile from the school. Liz often walked though these woods before school, or she claimed she did.

"LIZ?!" Rick called out when he suddenly heard crashing sounds across the woods. Rick broke into a run towards the sound. Rick was catching up on the sound quickly when it stopped with a high-pitched scream. He ran behind a tree and saw a small clearing where a rather large guy was standing over a crying girl. Rick instantly saw it was Liz. Her shirt was partially torn with one of her pale breasts visible. He also noticed the hunting knife in the man's hand. Rick was no dummy, a knife and a fallen girl meant something nasty was about to happen. Rick was well trained in martial arts and a gymnast. He jumped up and grabbed a tree limb and swung at the man, knocking him down hard.

"R-R-Rick?" Liz stammered as she tried to get her slight frame out of the way.

The man stood up and swung the knife, narrowly missing Rick. Rick knocked the knife out of the man's hand with a roundhouse kick then slammed the man twice in the stomach with hard punches, the man fell hard.

Rick pulled off his light jacket and put it around Liz's shoulders, "Are you okay?" He asked gently as he helped her up.