As it happened we needed wood before the next morning. Howie and I went out after dinner and spent all afternoon gathering wood. Though I was looking for Cloud.

"You still don't know how to tell him huh?" Howie asked.

I shook my head. "No. It's been what? Three, four hours since I told Nick he went after a rabbit? I need to tell him but I can't." I was hoping that Cloud would suddenly start barking and come running up to us. But that never happened. I didn't know what to expect of him. I was kinda a little worried that we'd come upon a mangled little wolf body, but we never did.

The wood that we had gathered wasn't going to last very long, probably just through the night, if that. It was mostly kindling but that's all we could find. It was also damp so it wasn't going to burn easy.

I knew Nick was wondering but he never asked where the wolf was. He kept giving me looks, like I knew something he didn't. But when he caught me looking at him he'd quickly look away.

That night I settled down to go to sleep. But the opening of the door stopped any chance of that. A cold air rushed right down my back and I was left shivering.

"Cloud! Cloud!" I heard Nick calling. "Common boy!"

I sighed.

"You gotta tell him now Brian." Kevin's voice came from behind me.

"I know." I sighed again.

Nick finally came back in. I sat up as he sat down shivering.

"Frack, I think we need to talk." I said as he looked at me.

"He's dead isn't he?" Nick asked, looking into the fire. His voice carried a sound of such sadness that my heart ached.

I started to tell him the whole story as the others also sat up and listened. They hadn't heard it yet. Not all of it anyway.

"Are you all right?" Kevin asked when I was finished.

Nick stared into the fire. I could see the tears forming in his blue eyes. But then he nodded, keeping his head low, "As you kept saying Kevin, he was only a wild animal. Goodnight." Nick slowly crawled over to the far wall and huddled against it covering even his head with the blanket.

I sighed, wishing I could do something. But slowly I lay back down and tried to go to sleep.

The next morning I sat up and yawned. It was really cold even though the fire was going strong. Kevin, Howie, AJ and Nick were already up. I remembered the night before and I looked at my friend. He looked miserable as I watched him stare into the fire.

"Why's it so cold in here?" I asked, moving closer to the fire. I rubbed my hands together to try to keep them warm. They were rough and calluses had grown on my fingers and min my hands. My feet were sore too. I hadn't even bother looking at them, I hadn't taken my socks off since we crashed, but thinking about it then I needed to wash them.

"It snowed again." Howie replied shortly.

I heard Nick sigh deeply.

"Oh." I nodded then became quiet. Cloud could never have survived the attack of those two wolves. He was just too small and probably weaker. He died protecting me…

I looked over at Nick wondering if he blamed me. I couldn't tell much. He was looking into the fire and no where else. Probably did.

"Anyone hungry?" Kevin asked.

We all mumbled yes as he got up and dished out the berries into the bowl and placed it beside the fire, where we could all reach.

"Aren't ya hungry Nicky?" Howie asked, swallowing a few berries.

Nick just shook his head.

"He might have survived you know." AJ said quietly.

"Probably not." Nick sighed and moved so he could lye down. We were all silent for what seemed like forever. Nobody knew what to say to make anyone feel any better. I wanted to go back home. I missed my mom and dad. Everyone. But for now we were on our own. In the middle of no where and we didn't even know if we were in BC or Alberta.

"Ah man." I sighed.

"Huh?" Everyone looked at me.

"Nature calls." I sighed as I sat up as I opened the door I said to myself, "Wish nature would call collect or not call me at all." I sighed, I was talking to myself. But I knew the others had heard.

Nature hadn't really called. Outside I looked around for any sign of a wild animal. Mostly a wolf. There were no prints in the snow anywhere near our camp. "Howie said it had snowed." I sighed, remembering.

Every part of me wanted to believe that some how Cloud was safe, maybe hiding in a large rabbit hole unhurt. But all of me believed that he was gone. Wolf food.

I sighed as I headed back into the shelter.

"Are we going to?" AJ asked as we walked along the path. It was that afternoon.

"We gotta." Kevin said, "I mean, he kinda does have the right to know."

"But don't you think enough has happened already?" Howie looked at the other two. They both shrugged, then looked at me.

"Do you think we should tell Nick?" AJ asked.

I sighed. Nick would want to know when his birthday was, but with everything that had happened who knew what was right? The four of us were walking along a path to the fishing hole. I wasn't eh only one who thought my socks needed to be cleaned. The others did as well and we were gathering water to heat up and clean our clothes for. AJ also mentioned about taking a bath, but that was a little impossible, that is until we found the bus.

Nick was back at the shelter fixing the net, which had come undone in places. I think it was just to keep himself busy though.

"How's your head?" I changed the subject as I turned to AJ.

"It's better." AJ nodded, "My ears have stopped ringing." It had been better for awhile but I didn't want to talk about Nick right then. AJ got the message and went along with it.

Suddenly I lost my footing going down the hill and fell onto my very sore ass. The porcupine wounds, which, up until that very moment I had forgotten all about. But as I slammed into the ground they started to throb.

"Ow." I moaned as I rubbed my back.

"Hey, look on the bright side." Kevin said as he helped me up, "This time you didn't fall into the stream." He said, then suddenly I slipped again and took Kevin with me and we both slid down the hill toward the stream and with a splash landed in a shallow part.

"You just had to open your big mouth huh?" I looked at him as he sat up.

He sighed as he got out of the water.

"A little cold for a swim isn't it?" Howie asked as he and AJ joined us.

"Shut up before I throw you in." Kevin hissed as he tried to keep warm.

"Oh well, what better way to get water then to swim in it." AJ shrugged as he began filling one of the water bottles.

It didn't take us long. That was good, I was half frozen by the time we got back to the camp. I think I almost made Nick smile with my chattering teeth and blue lips.

"N-now I kn-now what a-a Popsicle feels like!" I chattered as Howie threw more wood onto the fire. "Again!" I hissed looking at my cousin.

"Shut up! I should've drowned when we were in the water! I wouldn't have to listen to you now!" Kevin shot back at me.

"You should've drowned me!? You did! You sat on me when we fell!" I hissed. This was just for fun…I think. I started to laugh anyway. Kevin did too. Howie and AJ joined in too. Nick looked at us as if we'd all gone nuts. Maybe we had ya never really know with us.

The look on Nick's face made us laugh harder. Usually we'd be the ones giving him the look. Finally we calmed down enough to eat something.

"Do I gotta force something down your throat to get you to eat?" Kevin said when Nick refused to take anything.

Nick didn't reply just looked into the fire the way he had all afternoon. It looked as though he had lost his best friend. I was there but I knew he really missed Cloud. I had gotten attached to the little rat myself and I could tell the others did too but were just covering up how they felt so Nick didn't feel any worse.

Even Kevin missed him.

"Leave him alone for now Kevvy." Howie said gently. "He'll eat when he's hungry."

I looked at my little buddy. He was hungry. Nick had become dangerously thin while we were out here and he looked as white as a ghost. He hadn't even been able to treat his wounds so who knew how bad they were. I hadn't even checked the back of his head. It was probably worse considering how deep it was.

"Hey, Frack, how's your head?" I asked, trying to get away from the thought of Cloud.

He shrugged, not even moving. He probably didn't even hear what I had said.

I put the rest of the berries I had in my hand into my mouth and chewed them as I got up and crawled over to him. His hair was short enough now that he was sitting up, so I didn't have to move it out of the way. I leaned on my knees. Once I looked I wished I hadn't. It was worse then what the tree branch had done. It was red and turning black in places. Around the wound was swollen and looked really sore. I must have had a look on my face.

"What now?" Kevin asked as he came over, "Uh! Geez, that is disgusting!" He moved back and reached for the first aid kit.

Nick noticed this and moved away from him, backing up into me and knocked me off my knees where I had been sitting.

"Nick." Kevin said sternly.

"Just leave me alone." Nick said softly.

"No!" Kevin hissed as he clenched his teeth. He had been trying to look after all of us and it was getting to him. "Look, we don't want you to die. Brian almost died for you, you know. He almost drowned while getting the first aid kit."

We hadn't told Nick about it, I hadn't wanted him to know anything about anything that had happened before he had woken up. About how we had found him right in time and the first aid kit. We had all agreed not too but Kevin was on a roll.

"You know, if Brian hadn't have found you when he did you would be dead right now. The tour bus would have crushed you!"

Nick just looked at the ground then closed his eyes. He didn't want to hear it and neither did I. I shot my cousin a look that told him to shut up. Luckily he got the message and shut up.

We all sat in uncomfortable silence. At least Kevin hadn't told him what day it was. Or what tomorrow was. The guys were planning on telling Nick that it was his birthday on his birthday. I was wondering how. I got bored. What? Do you walk up to the guy and say "Hey man, did ya know it's your birthday today?" I don't think so.

I sighed as I moved back over to my spot and sat down. I couldn't get comfortable so then I lay down and looked at the fire. But I fell asleep almost immediately.