*Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities between people, places or names are entirely coincidental. I do not own the book or the movie "The Last of the Mohicans" or any of the characters in it. I also do not own any other books mentioned in this story or any characters from those books and I do not profit from writing this story in any way. I am writing it just for fun.

Chapter 1: The Cliff

He knew now that he couldn't do it.

When he saw the handful of warriors leading Alice away from the Huron village, he thought he'd be able to take them on and free her. What he hadn't realized was that there was actually this many of them. He also hadn't taken into account that the jump through the falls the night before and the struggle to get out of the river afterwards, combined with the all night run and the climb up the side of the mountain a few moments ago had completely drained him of his strength. He hadn't felt tired when he took off by himself after Alice's captors, but he did now. That was how Magua had managed to cut him with the knife.

Magua wasn't tired, but he was exhausted.

Looking down at the fresh wound across his lower chest, Uncas saw the blood flowing out of it through the tear in his shirt. Raising his head, his eyes met those of Alice. Beautiful hazel eyes that just moments ago were full of the hope that she would be rescued, that he would save her. Now those eyes were full of despair and anguish….and the knowledge that she was going to see him die.

'I'm sorry Alice.' he silently tried to convey to her with his eyes across the short distance between them. 'I thought I could do it, but instead I let you down.'

Then he saw the look that she gave him in response. The look that said she understood, that he didn't let her down, that she didn't want him to die, that she…loved him? It was that look from her that replenished his strength and gave him the determination to defeat the Huron leader and fight every last one of his remaining warriors if necessary.

He had to do it. For her. For them.

With a groan from the effort, he shoved Magua backward with all of his might and climbed up onto the large slab of rock the Huron had jumped onto. Attempting to swing his tomahawk at the older warrior, he was once again taken off guard when the man lunged forward and grabbed hold of him instead, easily throwing him down. His exhaustion had dulled his reflexes and the loss of blood had weakened him. He had not seen that move coming.

Normally he would have.

Landing hard on his back, Uncas fought to catch his breath after having it knocked out of him and he grappled with the warrior to try and get a grip on him. But because the Huron was not wearing a shirt, there was nothing for him to grab onto. He himself was not so fortunate.

He was wearing a shirt.

Feeling the warrior's hands grasping his sleeves, Uncas shifted his weight in an effort to get out from underneath his opponent and the two of them rolled over each other several times until they came to a stop dangerously close to the edge. Finding himself once again on his back, Uncas tried to get up. But before he could, the war leader slammed a well-aimed arm against his wound which knocked him flat and the resulting pain momentarily incapacitated him as his vision blurred. Rapidly blinking several times to clear his eyes, Uncas attempted to regain his senses as Magua repositioned himself on top of him, but before he could do anything more than make a few clumsy attempts to grab hold of the Huron, a sharp searing pain in his right shoulder nearly made him pass out again when his advisory's knife plunged into it. Unable to move, he laid sprawled on the rock and stared up at the sky as he felt the warm blood flowing into his armpit and down the back of his neck from the fresh wound in his shoulder. He was not going to lie there and be slaughtered like a dog.

He was Mohican. He would die fighting.

Mustering up the strength to move, he shakily rose to his feet with his right arm hanging useless at his side, blood dripping from his fingertips, and he stood for several seconds as he faced the Huron. It was now or never. He knew he couldn't do it before he even tried. But he had to try. Feeling his trembling legs about to give way from under him, he looked his killer in the eye and raised his left arm to take one more backswing at him with his tomahawk. It was no use. Magua easily stopped his intended blow by grabbing his wrist, keeping his outstretched arm in place while once again putting the knife to use, plunging it twice into his exposed left side. He cried out from the agony.

This was it. This was the end.

With no strength left in him, Uncas leaned back helplessly against his opponent and stared up at the sky. It had started to rain. It was just a drizzle. Very light. Misty, almost. Despite the excruciating pain coursing through his otherwise numb body, he found the scattered raindrops that landed on his face to be oddly refreshing. Strange, that. Then his thoughts shifted to her, and the events of the past several days flashed before his eyes….but only the ones involving her.

Alice.

Beginning with the moment he caught her by the arms as she started to run after the horses he'd just chased away, to when he watched her waiting her turn to climb up the rocks alongside the river and the way she had looked at the falls to her left, he thought about nothing but her. She seemed to like waterfalls. She had been mesmerized by the larger one they had taken shelter behind after the massacre. Was that just yesterday? Right now it seemed like that had happened a lifetime ago.

Perhaps it had.

She hadn't seen him sitting there, but he had seen her. And he'd also seen how close she was getting to edge of the rock path. Too close in fact, and he had called out to her to get back as he reached up and pulled her down on top of him. Oh how frightened she was as the realization of how close she'd come to falling off the edge struck her. He had held her then, cradling her in his arms as he stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.

Sweet Alice.

She had clung to him as he tried to calm her down. Then she did something he wasn't expecting. Something he had wanted to do to her, but didn't have the courage to. She kissed him. Then she kissed him again, harder. Startled, he pushed her away and stared at her with the confusion he felt clearly visible on his face. Then she said his name as she placed the palm of her hand on his cheek and this time he was the one to kiss her. Holding each other in a tight embrace, their lips and tongues explored each other until finally he stopped. He knew she didn't want him to. The expression on her face told him that. She wanted him to take her. He wanted her too. He wanted nothing more than to make love to her, right then and there. But this was not how he wanted it to happen. Not now. Not in this place. He wanted it to be someplace beautiful, someplace private where they could take their time and enjoy each other. And he wanted it to happen when he was sure it was what she really wanted. When he was sure that he was what she really wanted. He knew how he felt about her. What he didn't know at the time was how she felt about him.

But now he did know. And it was too late.

With the Huron's arms around him being the only thing holding him up, he waited for the final cut from the knife to end his life. He knew it was coming. It was just a matter of time. And it was just a matter of how. He already felt his life leaving him with the blood flowing from his wounds. Too weak to even hold his head up, he had no choice but to rest it on his enemy's shoulder and he knew it left his throat exposed. So that's how it would happen. Still staring up at the sky, he felt Magua moving and he didn't need to see him to know what he was about to do.

When it came it felt like a tickle. Should it have?

He had expected it to feel different, sharp and deep, with more force. Not feathery light. It was almost as though Magua had been distracted in some way. Then, after receiving a shove, he found himself pitching over the edge of the cliff, on the mountain they called the Promontory. Sliding for several feet down the rock face, he finally found himself freefalling head first until his body naturally turned in midair and he fell the rest of the way facing upward as though lying on his back. With the sky still above him, he watched helplessly as the side of the mountain flashed by in his peripheral vision and he could tell by how rapidly the mountaintop was growing farther and farther away that the ground was approaching fast.

He had planned to do it this winter.

He had planned to finally take a wife and settle down. Start a family. Up until a few days ago he hadn't known who his wife was going to be yet. He was going to choose her from among the young women in the Lenape village he'd be wintering in. Then he met Alice, and everything changed. He had sworn to protect her with his life. He hadn't realized when he said it that that's what was going to happen. But it was alright. He had no regrets about dying for her. He would do it again if he had to. His only regret was that he never had a chance to tell her how he felt about her. Did she know?

He had to tell her. While there was still some time left.

Locating the ledge he had fallen from as it grew smaller and smaller the farther he fell, the ledge she was still standing on, he summoned up the strength to speak the words he'd wanted to say to her since the day he'd watched her standing by the river.

"I love you, Alice Munro."

Then he felt his body hit the ground, and everything went black.

Why did he do it?

Backing up slowly, Alice felt the ground with her booted foot and knew that the edge of the cliff was right behind her. Why did he come here by himself? Did he actually think he could defeat all of them alone? Maybe he hadn't known there would be this many. Or maybe his father and brother were coming. That's what she had hoped. She had waited for them to appear….but they never came. They still hadn't. Where were they? What was keeping them? Didn't they know this would happen? Surely they must have. They would never have left him to die. Something must have delayed them.

Why did he have to die? Why him?

She loved him. She never had a chance to tell him so, but she loved him. From the moment she first saw him on the George Road, he was all she could think about. Several young men had courted her in the past, bewitched for some odd reason by her shyness. But she had felt nothing for them and she turned all of them away. Often she had wondered what kind of man would steal her heart. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine it would be a man like him. He was the one who made her pulse quicken. He was the only one she wanted to kiss. The only one she wanted to touch.

Uncas.

She had kissed him. And she had touched him. And he had done the same in return to her. All in that brief, glorious moment they had shared in that small recess beneath the waterfall. She hadn't wanted him to stop, and she would have given herself completely to him if he had wanted to take her. But he didn't take her. Why? She thought it was because he didn't want her. That he had no feelings for her. But that wasn't true. He did have feelings for her. He never would have done something like this if he hadn't. He tried to save her. He fought for her. And he died for her.

And now he was gone.

Turning her head, she looked down to the bottom of the ravine at the base of the mountain. Where was he? She couldn't find him. Wait! There he was. Even from this distance she could tell he was lying on his back. No doubt he was staring up at the sky, with eyes as lifeless as his body. A body she had longed to see unclothed, and now would never have the chance. Shameful thoughts! No. Not shameful. Beautiful. Beautiful thoughts about a beautiful man. A man she had wanted for her own….and now could never have.

'Why did you have to die?'

She had wanted to share her life with him. To make a home with him. She had wanted to take care of him and love him. She had wanted to be his wife, wanted to bear his children. It would have been so wonderful. They would have been so happy, but now they could never do any of those things together. Slowly, reluctantly, she turned back to face her warrior's murderer.

'You killed him.'

'You killed the only man I will ever love. Your hate destroyed a beautiful man. A brave man. You are not a warrior, Magua. You are a coward. He was the warrior. A warrior that you will never be. With every ounce of her being, she silently relayed those thoughts to him. Staring at him, she saw the uncertain look in his eyes. What else did she see there? Fear? Was he afraid? What was he afraid of? Was he afraid she was going to jump? He must have been, for he lowered his knife, and gestured for her to come to him with a hand covered in blood.

Uncas' blood.

'Oh Uncas! You gave up everything for me. I would have given up everything for you too. I would have given up the only life I ever knew to be with you. Perhaps I still can. If I cannot lie beside you in life, then I will lie beside you in death.' Raising her eyes from his bloody hand to his face, Alice stared once again at the Huron leader and silently spoke to him.

'Do you think you can have me, Magua? Do you think I will go with you? I will never go with you. I will go with him.'

Turning away from the Huron leader, she glanced for a moment at the mountains in the distance before looking down once again at the body of Uncas as she leaned to the left and allowed herself to fall from the edge. 'I'm coming, Uncas! Wait for me! I'm coming!' His body, which had been so far away when she'd looked down at him from the cliff, now grew closer and closer. Reaching out with her hand, she touched his bloody shoulder right before she impacted with the ground, and she barely had time to speak out loud to him before she submerged into darkness.

"I'm here, my love."

Beep….beep….beep….beep…..

Gradually coming awake, Uncas became aware that he was lying on his back on something soft and comfortable, and could hear a strange beeping sound coming from somewhere to the left of his head. He also became aware of the voices of several people, two males and one female, who were speaking to each other near him. Fighting the urge to sink back into the darkness that still surrounded him, he moved his head from side to side as he struggled to come fully awake and open his eyes. Listening to the voices, he was unable to recognize who they belonged to, and although the voices were speaking English, the manner in which they spoke was not like anything he'd heard before.

"He's starting to come around." said male number one.

"Should we put his arm in the sling?" asked male number two.

"No, let's hold off on that for a bit." replied male number one. "I don't want to have the weight of his arm resting on top of that chest wound right now, especially if he goes ballistic on us. Let's give him a chance to wake up first and we'll see how active he gets. Do you have the Lorazepam ready?"

"It's right here." replied the female voice.

"Good." said male number one. "Let's hope we don't need it."

Still moving his head slowly from side to side, Uncas tried to recall where he was and remembered the fight with the Huron and the fall from the cliff. These people who were talking didn't sound like they were Huron though. Who were they? And it didn't feel like he was lying on the ground at the base of that cliff either, which is where he should be. Whatever he was laying on was too soft for that. Where was he? And what was that strange beeping noise? Creasing his brow as he continued to try and open his eyes, he tried to speak to whoever was standing next to him, but found it nearly impossible to get the words out.

"Wrrhhh..." he moaned in an attempt to ask where he was.

"Hey buddy! Can you hear me?" asked male number one.

Annoyed that someone had begun to tap his cheek with their hand, he tried to tell whoever it was to stop.

"Nnnhhh…sssttaaa…."

"Come on, buddy. Wake up." said male number one. "Try to follow my voice. Come on, that's it. Open your eyes. Come on, buddy, you can do it."

Becoming more alert as he regained consciousness, Uncas finally started to win the battle to get his eyelids to cooperate with him, and it was at that same moment that he became aware of something that was looped around his ears and ran under his nose. Whatever it was, it felt cool and was blowing air into his nose. What was going on? Where was he? Who were these people?

After several attempts, Uncas finally managed, with a tremendous effort on his part, to open his eyes and keep them open. With his vision out of focus, he stared straight up and wondered why the sky above him looked different before he noticed three blurry figures leaning over him.

"Hey there, buddy! How do you feel?" male number one asked him. "Get ready." the man added in a lower tone to his two companions.

Settling his eyes on the figure looming closest to him on his right, Uncas blinked several times while trying to focus on the person and when his vision finally cleared, he saw the figure was a Yengeese man. Appearing to be about the same age as his father, Chingachgook, the man had light brown hair that was slightly dusted with grey and was cut short in layers. Turning to his left, he saw another male Yengeese with even shorter dark hair and who was considerably younger than the first man. Standing next to him was a young woman with pale blond hair pulled back in a way that resembled a horse's tail and who appeared to be not much older than himself. He also noticed that all three individuals wore strange shirts made in the same style, with sleeves that barely went below their shoulders, a v-shaped neck and were of a solid color; the older man's being an odd shade of light green and the other two wearing identical shades of light blue.

Becoming more aware of his surroundings by the minute, Uncas took a closer look around and realized he was indoors in some sort of room that resembled nothing he'd ever seen before and was lying on a bed of some kind that had a….a fence on either side of it?

Looking at the fence on the left, he noticed a skinny silver tree growing outside of it next to the bed. Following the trunk up to the top of the tree, he saw several pouches which were hanging from two silver branches. One pouch looked like it contained a clear liquid, like water, and the other held a dark red liquid that reminded him of…..blood? From the bottom of each pouch, a long vine filled with whatever was inside the pouches trailed downward and as he followed the vines to where they went, he saw to his horror that both of them were attached to the back of his left hand! Startled, Uncas' eyes grew wide as he began to breathe faster and he became aware that the strange, continuous beeping sound was getting faster as well. Searching for the source of the noise, he turned his head to the far left and saw another shorter tree with a square box perched on top of it. On the front of the box, several rows of thin green lines danced across the black front of the box and another vine ran from the box over to him. Now in a panic, he followed where that vine led to and discovered that it branched out into four separate vines, each of them going to four round white patches that were attached to his bare chest.

"Come on, buddy, take it easy. Everything's ok. Just calm down now." he heard the older Yengeese male say to him.

What was going on? Who were these people? What kind of a place was this? Where was Alice? Was she here? Had they taken her captive too? What were they doing to her? What were they doing to him?

Turning his attention back to the older Yengeese, Uncas watched in frightened confusion as the man removed yet another y-shaped vine-like object that had a long tail from around his neck. Placing the two top forks of the object into each ear, the man then took hold of the tail end which had a round silver disc on it and began to move toward him with it. Terrified, Uncas realized the man was about to place the silver disc on his chest over his heart and he lashed out at the man to defend himself.

"No! No! Ge…get away…..get away from me! Al….Alice…..ALICE! ALICE! Whe….where…..where is she? WHERE IS SHE? ALICE!"

"Hey, hey! Come on! Calm down. Calm down now! WE NEED SOME HELP IN HERE!" shouted the older man. "Hold him down! Come on, buddy, calm down! WHERE'S THAT LORAZEPAM!"

"I GOT IT!"

"Watch out for his shoulder!"

"Jesus, he's strong!"

"Fernando, keep his leg still!"

Struggling to fight off his attackers, Uncas saw more and more similarly dressed Yengeese rush over to him until about half a dozen of them had him pinned down to the bed. Whipping his head from side to side as he continued to try and fight back, he saw the young woman with the pale blonde hair approach him with a small cylindrical object that had a long needle sticking out of one end. Firmly held down to the bed by his attackers, Uncas could do nothing but watch helplessly as she rubbed something on his arm and stuck the needle in.

Feeling the pinprick in his arm, he immediately felt a warm and tingly sensation spread through his body before everything went black again.

"Un…cas?"

Resisting an overwhelming urge to go back to sleep, Alice tried to open her eyes but found the effort to do so was too great. Shifting her head to the side, she realized she was lying on her back….but that didn't make sense. She remembered falling and landing beside Uncas. Uncas! In her mind's eye she could still see him lying there as she'd plummeted toward him. It was strange how much she noticed in those last seconds before everything went dark. He was lying on his back, and she had touched his shoulder right before she landed. It was wet. Wet with blood. And she remembered his body had felt warm. Strange, she had expected it to be cold. And his eyes were closed, not open and staring into nothing as she had thought they would be.

Fighting against the sleepiness, she realized she was lying on her back on what felt like a bed. That couldn't be right? Even though she was groggy, she distinctly remembered falling face down next to Uncas' dead body. Why was she on her back and in a bed of all things? She should be lying on her stomach on the ground with her face against the dirt. And where was he? Where was Uncas?

"Uncasss?" she softly mumbled again.

Slowly turning her head from side to side, she stopped when the movement caused pain to shoot through her skull. Still unable to open her eyes, she tried to move the rest of her body and found it to be very sluggish in response. Her right leg felt heavy and weighed down, almost like it was encased in something, and her right wrist and hand seemed to be confined the same way as well.

"Hey there young lady, time to wake up." said a male voice off to her right.

"Huhhh?"

"Wake up! Come on. Can you hear me?" he asked.

"Ye….yezz….."

"What's your name?"

"Huhhh?"

"What's your name?

"Al…..Al-ice Mun-ro…Wherezz Uncasss? Wherezz he?"

"Who's Uncas? Is that your friend's name?" the male voice asked.

"Yezz….Uncas! Uncas, I love you….Uncasss…"

Unable to fight off the overwhelming sleepiness anymore, Alice gave in and allowed herself to sink into the oblivion that enveloped her.

Two men in green scrubs stepped away from Alice's bedside and stood in a corner of the room. One of the men folded his arms and frowned as he regarded his patient lying in the hospital bed. Beside him, his friend and colleague inquired about the condition of the young woman.

"How's she doing?

"She came around for a little while there, but she blacked out again. How about your guy?"

"Ha! Well, just as I expected, he was pretty confused when he woke up since the last thing he probably remembered was fighting his attacker."

"Did he get violent?"

"Oh yeah! It took six of us to hold him down. I didn't want to, but I had no choice but to sedate him. If Fernando hadn't ducked when he did, he would have gotten clocked a good one in the eye with a fist."

"Did you get a name before he went under?"

"No. Not his anyway, but he kept calling out for someone named Alice."

"That's what she said her name was. Alice Munro…and she kept asking for someone named Uncas. Said she loved him. Think that's your guy? Boyfriend maybe?"

"Could be. Wait! What did she say her name was again?" the friend asked with an incredulous expression coming over his face.

"Alice Munro."

"And she was asking for someone named Uncas?"

"That's right. Why? Do you recognize the names?"

"Yeah….yeah, I do." the friend replied with a frown as he looked at the unconscious young woman lying in the bed.

"Norman, that's great!" said the first man, who was happy to know they may have found out the names of their two patients. "Do you know if they have any family?"

"Oh, they got family alright."

"Well let's contact them and get them down here so they can identify these two kids!"

"Yeah, well there's a little problem with that." said the friend as he rubbed his eyes.

"What do you mean? What kind of a problem?"

"Their families have been dead for over two hundred years."

"What! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Come on, let's go out in the hall and I'll explain."

Exiting the room, Dr. Norman Harris leaned against the doorway and stared at the patient sleeping in the bed inside. At fifty five years of age with a tall, trim build and light brown hair that was becoming tinged with grey, he had been practicing medicine in the trauma unit of the hospital for over twenty years, and in that time he thought he'd seen every type of case there was, but somehow he had a feeling this one was going to be different…very different.

Joining him outside of the room, Dr. Richard Spencer waited to hear the other man's explanation for his surprising statement. Tall, yet slightly shorter than the other man who he had attended medical school with, he ran his hand over his thinning dark brown hair before folding his arms across his chest and looking at his old friend as though he had lost his mind.

"Ok Norman, talk to me. What's going on in that head of yours?"

"Oh, just a possible explanation for the clothes our two patients were wearing when they were brought in. You know I'm a history buff, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well, one of my favorite periods was the French and Indian war, particularly the siege of Fort William Henry, which took place just north of here up in Lake George. The man in charge of the fort during the siege was Colonel Edward Munro and with him at the fort were his two daughters, a Miss Cora Munro and her younger sister…..Alice."

"I still don't get where you're going with this. So what if my patient has the same name as this colonel's daughter. Alice Munro isn't an unusual name….granted Uncas isn't one you hear every day." said Richard.

"Exactly. Let me tell you the rest of it. Cora Munro kept a diary, which was published by one of her descendants about ten or fifteen years ago, and in it she told of how she and her sister were attacked by a Huron war party while they were traveling to the fort with a military detachment. Apparently, the leader of this war party had it in for the colonel and he led the attack intending to kill the man's daughters. Traveling nearby were three men, who rescued the sisters. The men were members of the Mohican tribe and the oldest of the three went by the name of Chingachgook. With him were his two sons, Nathaniel Poe, who was his adopted white son, and the Mohican's blood son…..Uncas."

"What?"

"You heard right. I don't think Alice Munro and Uncas are the real names of these two."

"So what's your theory?"

"You saw the clothes they were wearing when they came in? She had on a dress that was right out of the 1700's and his clothes were the kind worn by the Indians who lived in this region during that same time period." explained Norman. "I think these two might have doing some kind of roll playing up there on the Promontory. Maybe they're members of a historical reenactment group or something and they were out there rehearsing. Funny thing though….those clothes looked authentic. I mean really authentic! Reproduction clothing always has a slightly different look to it…newer and not made quite the same, you know what I mean? Their clothes weren't new at all. They were well broken in and looked like the real thing. And the knife, sheath, wampum belt and brass bracelets the young man was wearing? Those are definitely the real deal. I know collectors who would pay a fortune to own those items. Those tattoos of his are authentic designs as well, and they weren't done in any tattoo parlor, that's for sure. They were applied in the traditional way that tribes did tattoos back in those days, by scraping the design into the skin and rubbing charcoal into it."

"So the guy was wearing some family heirlooms from his ancestors in order to rehearse for some role he was intending to play and he had tribal tattoos applied old style. There's nothing wrong or unusual about that." said Richard. "And I still don't get why you have doubts about what she said their names were. Alice Munro could actually be her name. Look Norman, they're both just starting to come around and they're on some pretty heavy duty pain meds. I'm surprised either of them were able to say anything coherent at this point."

"I agree with what you just said, however we have to take into consideration the clothes they were wearing and his personal effects. I'm no expert at this, but I think the trauma they experienced has caused them to block out who they really are and instead, they both assumed the identity of the people whose roles they may have been cast to play." said Norman just as two men wearing suits approached them.

"Excuse me? We're looking for a Dr. Richard Spencer and Dr. Norman Harris."

"You found us." replied Richard. "I'm Dr. Spencer and this is Dr. Harris. What can we do for you gentlemen?"

"I'm Detective Frank D'Angelo and this is Detective Chris Porter with the State Police Violent Crimes Division. We're investigating the attack on that couple in Promontory State Park." said the older of the two men as he looked in the doorway of Alice's room. "How's she doing?"

"Physically, she'll be fine." replied Richard with a glance toward his friend. "Psychologically?...the jury's still out."

"How's the guy doing? Did he make it?" Det. D'Angelo asked.

"Yeah, he did." replied Norman. "It was touch and go for a while there, but he's one hell of a strong fella. He's gonna be ok."

"I'm glad to hear it! My partner and I arrived on the scene just as they were getting ready to load him into the helicopter. We couldn't believe what that lunatic did to him! When I saw the puddle of blood he'd been lying in, I thought for sure he was a goner."

"He nearly was. Did you find anything at the scene to identify either of them?"

"No, not a thing. They didn't have any ID on them and we couldn't locate anything they may have dropped in the area. Have either of them said anything as to who they might be?" asked D'Angelo.

"Not really. Each of them partially regained consciousness for a short time and mumbled a couple of names, but between the physical and emotional trauma they received, combined with the meds we've got them loaded up with, I have doubts about the accuracy of what they said." Norman replied.

"What were the names they gave?" asked D'Angelo.

"Alice Munro and Uncas."

"Uncas? What the hell kind of a name is that?" asked Porter.

"It's Mohican. The young man is definitely an American Indian and it's possible he has a traditional name, but….we'll see what we can find out after they fully regain consciousness. Dr. Spencer and I will keep you posted on what we find out." said Norman.

"And we'll do likewise." Det. D'Angelo offered.

"What I can't understand is how either of them survived the fall from that cliff! If there hadn't been eyewitnesses to it, I wouldn't have believed it!" said Det. Porter.

"What exactly happened out there anyway?" asked Richard.

"Well, apparently four hikers were making their way along a trail that runs along the base of Promontory Point. They were still quite a ways off when they heard a man cry out in pain. When they looked up toward where the sound came from, they saw our boy plummeting down off the cliff up there on the Point. Then the girl backed up to the edge as though she were trying to get away from somebody. Less than a minute later, she pitched herself off the edge and fell down to where the guy landed. She must have figured her boyfriend was dead and attempted suicide rather than face whatever the attacker had in mind for her. After she fell, the hikers saw a guy peek over the edge of that cliff and then took off." explained Det. D'Angelo.

"We're positive whoever did this is the same guy who's been attacking people in the park for the past three months." added Porter.

"I've heard about this on the news. How many people has he attacked so far?" asked Norman.

"Including these two kids? Nine, but this latest one was by far the most brutal. The State Police, along with several other law enforcement agencies have put together an all-out manhunt for this guy. There was quite a bit of blood up on the cliff where the fight must have taken place between the two men. Our CSI unit found a clear set of bloody footprints on the rocks up there leading away from the scene. The suspect must have stepped in the blood when he was fleeing the area. We've got search teams combing the entire park by ground and air, along with roadblocks on all major roads and highways in the area. Don't worry, Doc, we're gonna find this bastard. He's not gonna to be able to hide anymore." Porter stated confidently.

"We're think we're pretty close to finding him too. One of the search teams located a cave that the suspect has been living in. His tracks led straight to it and then went off into the woods again. It seems he liked to collect souvenirs from each of his victims, which we found inside the cave. Based on statements given by the other victims at the time of their attacks, we were able to match all of the items found to what they claim the guy took from them…..except for these. We think they might belong to these two." said D'Angelo, who removed three clear plastic evidence bags from a briefcase he'd been holding as his partner stepped away to answer his cell phone. Holding the bags in front of him, he allowed the two physicians to read the covers of the books inside of them.

"The Siege of Fort William Henry', 'The History and Culture of the Mohican People' and 'An Actor's Guide to Playing Historic Roles'." said Norman as he read the titles of the books out loud, then turned to look at Richard who was shaking his head in dismay.

"Frank!" Porter called out to his partner as he hurried back over to the group. "That was Jamison that just called. He said they got the guy in custody. We gotta go!"

"See if you can find out anything more from our victims. Porter and I will be back later to try and get statements and fingerprints from them." said D'Angelo as he put the books back inside the briefcase and hurried after his partner.

Standing in the middle of the hallway, Norman and Richard watched the two detectives sprint toward the exit doors of the ICU. After they'd gone, the two doctors shared a resigned look with each other.

"Looks like you might be right, Norman." said Richard.

"Yeah. For the sake of that young couple, I wish the hell I wasn't." replied the other man, who dreaded what he had to do next.

"I'm going to call the Psychiatric Department and have them send somebody down here."

Author's Note: What if you were knocked unconscious and when you woke up, the world and the people in it resembled nothing you had ever seen before, and although you know who you are, you have no memory of how you came to be there. What's worse, the people in this strange place have no idea who you are either….and they don't believe you when you tell them! That is what has just happened to Uncas and Alice.

While you may think this story resembles a previous one that I've written, I assure you it will be nothing like it. It is not a fantasy about being given another chance at life. It is about what happens when two people wake up from one nightmare, only to find they have somehow been thrust into a new one that is worse than anything they could possibly have imagined. How will they react to this situation and how will everyone else react to them? Are Alice and Uncas who they say they are? Or aren't they? Please join me as we find out! MohawkWoman :)