"Nice try B-ROK!" AJ laughed.

I mumbled something under my breath so he couldn't hear. I had tried to shoot a rabbit with an arrow but had missed. My friends were watching and had laughed. I would have laughed too but I had other things on my mind.

"He'll be okay." Kevin said for like the 1000th time that day.

I just took another shot with an arrow and struck a tree.

"At least you hit something today." Howie grinned.

I sighed then went over to the arrow sticking out of the tree. Then carefully pulled it out. I was thinking about our friends and family. I wondered what they were doing right at that moment and if they were looking for us. I kept wanting to hear a helicopter. It was almost expected. But one never came. We were going to be stuck out there until we all died. And I could feel that Nick was going to be the first to leave us.

"Brian, hey man! Wake up!" AJ was suddenly beside me.

I jumped, startled.

"Whoa!" He backed off, "How many times do I gotta tell ya to stop thinking!" He said jokingly.

I wasn't in the mood for joking around. I sighed again and handed him the arrow.

"Common, let's get back to camp." Howie said as he, Kevin and AJ started back down the path we had come. I slowly followed well behind them.

What if we didn't get home? What would happen to us? We couldn't survive for long. The way things were going we needed help really quick.

Finally we reached camp. Howie said it was about 4:30 in the afternoon and I was getting hungry. My feet were cold and my runners were soaked from the snow.

"We need more food…" Kevin started.

"I'll get it." I grabbed the bucket and started walking down the path to the berry bushes. The bushes were almost empty. We'd have to find more somewhere else.

After I had filled the bucket as full as I could with the good berries I got up, taking the bucket with me and I started to search for food.

I came to another small clearing. By this time my feet were getting cold. But I had kept my mind from wandering.

I spotted a bush covered with more berries and went over to it, then started to pick them.

I had only been a few minutes when growling came from behind me.

"Cloud, go back to camp." I said.

The growling continued until I turned around. "Oh my God!" I jumped back to find three full-grown wolves surrounding me.

They looked starved and looked as if they had been beaten or something. Saliva dripped from their red mouths. One looked as if it were foaming at the mouth.

"Please…" I prayed as I slowly backed into a tree.

Suddenly a high pitched barking came from behind the wolves. The wolves and I all looked.

Cloud was standing on a small hill of snow barking loudly. The fur on the back of his neck stood straight and his tail was between his hind legs.

"Cloud, no." I whispered, but the wolves started over to him. He was too small to take on one of them let alone all of them.

A scrap started three against one. I saw my chance and grabbed the berries then ran as fast as I could back to camp. I didn't want to leave the pup alone but there was nothing else I could have done.

I felt terrible that night when I went to bed. I had eaten but it hadn't helped much and there was this emptiness growing inside me, just like when Kevin and Howie had first told me that Nick was gone.

Nick…he's going to be upset when he finds out. Great. Slowly I fell asleep.

I opened my eyes. The tent was quiet, except for the crackling of the fire. What had woken me up? I looked around. Kevin, Howie and AJ were fast asleep. Then I looked over to where Nick had been lying. He wasn't there anymore.

A chill ran down my spin as I realized that the door was open and the wind was blowing in.

I got up and went out, closing the door behind me.

Footprints lay freshly in the snow. Not going in a straight line either and patches on the ground as if Nick had fallen, probably had. I followed the tracks the best I could. There wasn't a moon out and everything was pitch black.

Suddenly something hard ran into me and I was knocked to the ground.

I sat up and rubbed my head. "Nick?" I automatically asked.

The creature, which was also lying in the snow moaned.

"Frack!" I got up and went over to him then helped him sit up, "What are you doing out here?" I asked as he stood then fell into the snow. I wasn't really expecting an answer.

He moaned loudly and held his head.

"Okay." I whispered as I helped him to his feet, "Common."

With Nick leaning on my shoulder, using me as a crutch we made it back to camp. Then crawled inside.

Nick fell to the floor and lay there unmoving.

"Are you okay?" I crawled over to him and looked at his face.

He tried to say something but what came out was too slurred to understand. I grabbed Nick's blanket and covered him up again and pushed him closer to the fire.

"You hit your head pretty good." I sighed, "Don't try to talk."

Slowly Nick's eyes closed and he had fell sleep.

I sighed and lay back down in my own spot. At least we knew that he was alive.

I sat up and yawned.

"Mornin' cuz." Kevin's voice came from behind me. I turned around.

"Hey." I smiled as I stretched.

"Rough night?" He asked, he was eating breakfast. I knew he had heard me run into Nick.

I shrugged. "He scared me more than anything."

"Yeah, I would have been too." He nodded his head in agreement. I sighed and looked down at the fire.

"What's wrong?" Howie asked.

"I don't' know how to tell him about Cloud…" I sighed. "I mean…I don't know. Without Cloud Nick's going to go crazy out here. We all had things to help us stay focused, ya know?" I said down.

"Yeah." Kevin nodded in agreement again, "AJ had his bow and now he's carvin' everything in sight!"

We sat in silence, "Where is Bone anyway?" I asked looking around.

"He went to get more water down by the lake. And go look for some more wood, to carve." Howie said looking into the fire.

We were all silent again. "I better go check on Nick." I said, breaking the silence.

I turned around and crawled back into the shelter. Nick was lying facing the fire. I moved the blankets away and looked at the wounds in his side and back. They had started to get worse, now they weren't green, they were black.

Nick moaned and winced.

"You really don't look so good Frack." I said. Sweat poured off him.

Nick started to cough all of a sudden and red liquid rolled from the corner of his mouth.

"Kevin!" I yelled, "Kevin! Get in here!"

I could hear Kevin get up and come over, "What?" He asked.

"Nick's coughing up blood!" I said.

"Brian, he hasn't eaten, that's what happens." He said calmly.

"Oh yeah…" I had heard that on a program on the Discovery channel one day. I sighed and sat back. Relief washed over me. My nerves were gone; I was so jumpy all the time. Why had this happened to us?

"Brian?"

"What now Kevin?" I asked not really paying attention. But Kevin wasn't there anymore; he had gone back out to join the others. "Huh?" I looked around.

"Brian?" The voice was a whisper.

I looked over at Nick's body as he slowly sat up.

"Nick? Oh God, are you alright?" I asked as I helped him to a sitting position.

He held his head and kept his eyes closed, "I think so…what happened?" He asked, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"We don't know. We found you in the woods. You hit your head pretty badly…you almost drowned." I said. "Why'd ya run away Nicky?" I asked.

He slowly shook his head as he winced, "I can't remember."

"Well, don't hurt yourself too hard Frack, we all know how much it hurts you to think." I joked.

A smile crossed his face.

Nick finally opened his eyes and looked around. "Where's…Cloud?" He asked.

I caught my breath, now was not a good time to tell him, "He went after a rabbit about 10 minutes ago." I said shortly, trying to smile.

"Dumb mutt." He smiled.

I smiled a fake smile but he bougth it, "Hungry?" I asked.

"Yeah." Nick nodded.

"Alright, I'll be right back, we even have rabbit."

"Jaw, remember?" He said as I got up.

"Oh yeah…sorry man." I said as I got up and crawled out of the shelter.

"Here to help us?" AJ asked. He had returned from getting water.

"Nope." I shook my head and grabbed the bowl and filled it with berries then poured water into it and grabbed the crushing rock.

"Nick awake?" Howie asked when he had noticed what I was doing. I nodded.

"Did you tell him about Cloud?" Kevin asked.

I shook my head, "I don't think now's a good time…" I said. "I mean, he just woke up and all…"

"What did you tell him?" AJ asked.

"I told him that Cloud had just chased after a rabbit about 15 minutes ago. Stick with the story. I'll tell him when he's stronger." I said as I finished with the berries and went back into the shelter.

Nick was quietly sitting by the fire.

"Here ya go Frack." I handed him the bowl.

"Thanks Frick." He took it and sipped from it.

I looked at him. He looked so pitiful it hurt. We probably all looked a like. I needed to shave. I wanted to be warm again.

"Brian!" Nick suddenly said.

"Huh what?" I looked at him.

"I've called you four times now. What were you thinking about?" He asked with a worried expression.

I smiled, reassuring him, "Not much. Just, I guess what we'd be doing if we were home."

He nodded, then looked back at the fire; "I'd be sleeping."

I smiled, "Yeah me too. Once I get home, I'm taking a vacation, and it's going to be far, far from any snow."

We were both silent for a few minutes. Then Howie popped his head into the shelter.

"Hey Nicky." He came and sat down. "It's gettin' cold out there." He shivered, putting another log on the fire.

"Looks like we need some more fire wood." Kevin said as he and AJ joined us.

"It'll last until tomorrow." Howie said. "I'll go tomorrow first thing."

Kevin went over to Nick and put a hand to Nick's forehead. Nick pulled away, "You're hands are cold." He complained.

"Sorry." Kevin shrugged, then sat back.

"Hey, least he's not a doctor, it wouldn't be your head he was trying to touch!" AJ said smiling.

"Ah Bone!" I laughed.

"You feeling better?" Kevin was still talking to Nick.

Nick nodded, "Yeah…but I'm really confused…"

"That's nothing new." AJ joked. Nick shot him a look but smiled.

"About what?" Howie asked.

"…I can't remember why I put the wood under the blanket…" Nick said. He had probably been thinking about it ever since I asked. I hated when I forgot why I did something; sometimes it really bugged me.

"Don't worry about it for now." Kevin said, warming his hands by the fire.

I sat back and closed my eyes. I wanted to ask Howie what time it was but then that would give away that we had a watch to Nick and it was still the 26th. Two more days.