What now? I sat up and looked around. Kevin was fast asleep, leaning against the wall of the mountain. Howie was stretched out using a log as a pillow and snoring lightly. AJ was…I couldn't really see AJ. He had his feet leaning up against the mountain beside Kevin and the rest of him was covered by the blanket. Nick was curled up in a ball as close to the wall of the shelter as possible. He had no blanket and was shivering uncontrollably but he was fast asleep.

Why had I woken up? It wasn't cold where I was, it was just perfect and it was quiet. I was confused until I heard an almost invisible sound. It was a faint barking. Barking! Cloud! I knew that high pitched barking that ended in a squeal well enough to know that it was Cloud. I got up from the ground and quietly opened the door, careful not to wake anyone. I didn't want to give hope if there wasn't any. I crawled outside and closed the shelter door. Then got up and started to run where the barking seemed to be coming from. Down the drop near the river.

I slipped and slid my way down to the bottom, in my boxers I might add. It was pretty cold. Finally I reached the bottom.

"Cloud?" I asked not really knowing what to expect.

"Ruff!" A bark came from almost right beside me.

"Cloud!" I turned and looked down at the little pup. He looked pretty beaten up but he was wagging his tail as I picked him up. "You're alive!" I hugged him. He was shaking and looked starved. "Don't ever scare us like that again! Geez, I owe you my life don't I?" I looked at him. He whimpered as he yawned.

As I climbed back up the drop still holding the wolf, the sun had started to come up. I took longer than usual because I was so cold and by the time I got up to the camp the others were up and out, except Frack.

"Where's Nick?" I asked right away.

"Inside, he's still awake-" Kevin stopped and looked at the mangled bunch of hair in my arms.

"You found him!" Howie said coming over to make sure he was alive.

"He was barking last night. Or this morning I guess." I said as Cloud lifted his head and licked Howie's hand.

"Nick's birthday might not be so bad after all." AJ said.

"Nick…" I started then looked at the little pup again, "Common Cloud." I said as I went back over to the shelter and opened the door.

The others went in first.

"Brian, next time grab your pants." My over-protective cousin said as I crawled in as well. Acting as if I loved to run around in my boxers when the temperature was below freezing.

"Shut up." I hissed.

"Hey Nicky." Howie said as he sat down.

Nick nodded but didn't say anything.

"Hey, happy birthday Kaos." AJ said as he sat down.

Nick looked up right away, "Birthday?" He was confused and shocked, "How'd…where?" He didn't know what to say.

Howie showed him the watch around his wrist.

Nick looked at the date and suddenly he started crying.

"Hey, let it out." Kevin went over and sat beside him. Nick hid his face the way he always did but he didn't bother holding anything in.

Cloud whimpered knowing his master was in pain and struggled to get out of my grasp. He jumped to the ground and ran over to Nick and started to lick his face. This startled Nick and he looked up and jumped back at the same time.

"Cloud?" It was a question not a statement as Nick looked down at the wolf astonished. Then he looked up at me.

"It's really Cloud." I nodded.

"Thank you!" Nick said as he hugged the dog tightly, still allowing it to breathe. Cloud, feeling that Nick felt better yelped and barked happily. "Where'd you find him?"

"He was down by the stream this morning. I heard him barking." I sat down in front of the group, "Happy birthday." I smiled.

Tears streamed from my best friend's face as he thanked me again. Cloud continued to lick Nick's face and hands happily until he became tired and feel asleep in Nick's lap.

"You should feed him the next time he's awake." Howie said as he threw more wood onto the dying fire.

Nick nodded as he looked down at the mutt and gently scratched behind his ears. The pup stirred but didn't wake.

Kevin must have thought about something, "Will you eat now?" He asked making everyone looked at Nick.

Nick looked at everyone, then slowly nodded.

Howie was closest to the berries so he grabbed the bowl and filled it with berries. AJ handed him a water bottle and Howie poured water into the bowl. Then handed it to Kevin who handed it to me. The crushing rock was right by my feet picked it up and started crushing the berries from my friend. Then I handed him the bowl when I was done.

"Thanks." He said then took the bowl and drank the mush.

The rest of the afternoon we stayed inside. I had gotten a chill running around in my underwear and I kept putting more firewood onto the fire. By nighttime we were almost out.

Nick had fed Cloud and was now playing with him in the back of the shelter. Kevin and Howie were talking as AJ stared into the fire. I kept myself busy by rubbing my hands together, trying to stay warm.

"Look what ya did now Brian!" Kevin suddenly said, "We don't have any wood for tonight!" He said as he and Howie stopped talking. Everyone looked at me. Even the mutt stopped playing and stared at me.

"Bite me." I finally hissed, shivering again.

From the corner of my eye I saw Nick smile then continued playing with Cloud. He had a piece of rope that had been left over from the net and they were playing tug 'o war with it. Cloud was winning.

"Nicky and I can go get some more." Howie said as he looked at Nick.

Nick nodded in agreement.

"You do that then." I said. I was feeling really grouchy. I was cold, hungry.

"We will then!" Nick hissed in the same tone I had used then he smiled. He and Howie set out to get more wood. Cloud followed them.

They walked to the usual spot where we had been gathering our wood. It was a place sheltered from the snow and it was literally covered with dead trees and fallen branches.

Nick had an armful of wood when Howie called him. "Come help me with this!" Howie said. Nick looked around the wood and spotted Howie by a large fallen tree trunk. Nick placed the wood he was carrying on the soft ground and walked over to Howie.

They both tried to lift the fallen stump. It was heavy and it creaked and cracked. Suddenly Nick thought he felt the ground move. "Howie, Howie, stop!" He said looking around.

"What?" Howie asked.

Nick stood silently for a minute trying to see if he had imagined it or it had happened. It didn't happen again so he figured it had been his imagination.

"Nothin'." He said as they started to lift again.

Suddenly the ground beneath them collapsed and they fell into a deep hole, probably where the stump had once been.

"Ow!" Howie landed hard on the rocks below. He had heard and felt his ankle crack. He coughed and choked on the dust and dirt that fell on top of him. "Nick? Where are you? Are you okay?" He asked. His voice echoed off the tall walls surrounding them. "Nick? Answer me!" Howie said frantically.

He waited for his eyes to get used to the dark, then he slid carefully across the rocks to try and find our friend. He stopped, finally coming to a body lying unconscious on the other side of the whole.

"Nick!" Howie shook him. "Geez, not again." He said as he spotted the red blood oozing from a gash on Nick's forehead.

Barking echoed down into the hole.

Howie covered his ears from the sound. "Cloud!" He said finally looking up. He could see the small wolf's head looking down at them. "You gotta get help boy, go get the others. I know you aren't Lassie but please do this!" Howie said.

Cloud barked again then took off out of Howie's sight.

Howie moaned as his ankle throbbed. He moved closer to Nick to try to keep him warm. Then slowly closed his eyes to wait.

"What's taking them so long?" Kevin asked. We were all getting cold by this time. "It doesn't take this long to get wood for the night." He shivered.

I looked out the shelter door again but didn't see anything. It was almost pitch black.

"What time is it?" AJ asked.

"Howie has the watch." Kevin said.

"No he doesn't." I said, "Nick had it." I pointed to where Nick had been sitting. The watch sat on the blanket. AJ slowly reached over for it.

"It's 3:00 in the morning." He shivered. I could see his breath. The fire was dying down and the coals would soon go out.

What could have happened to them? I wondered to myself. Finally I got sick of just sitting there freezing. I got up and pulled my pants on.

"What are you doing?" Kevin asked.

"Going to get some wood." I said and stepped outside into the cold air and freezing snow just as Cloud ran up barking.

"What's wrong boy?" I got down to pet him. But he jumped back and ran back to the path Howie and Nick had taken hours before.

"Ya think he's trying to tell us something?" AJ asked.

"I don't know." I shook my head. "I'll be right back. You guys stay here." I followed Cloud into the dark. The path had been covered by freshly fallen snow so I couldn't see their tracks. Only the ones Cloud had made on his way back.

Cloud led me to the sheltered area where we got our wood. He went straight over to a hole and started barking.

"No! Not a hole, I wanna know where Nick and Howie are." I said, walking around trying to figure out where they could have gone.

"Brian?" A faint voice asked.

"Howie? That you?" I turned around and tried to follow the voice. It was coming from the hole Cloud was looking into. "You down there?" I got down on my knees and looked down. It was pitch black. I couldn't see anything.

"Yeah." Howie said. "Get us out of here!"

"Are you guys alright? Where's Nick?" I asked, looking around for something to help them.

"He's right here. He's unconscious. And I think my ankle's broken." Howie's voice was getting weaker.

"Common D, stay with me." I said, getting up and looking over tree branches. There wasn't anything there! Then a thought came to me. The fishing net. It could help.

"Howie, I'll be right back alright?" I said down into the hole.

"Hurry Brian…" He trailed off.

"Don't fall asleep!" I warned, "Cloud, please keep barking." I said as I took off running back down the path I had come. I didn't stop until I had reached the shelter.

"What's wrong?" Kevin asked as I opened the door.

"Both Howie and Nick are trapped in a hole. Nick's unconscious and Howie's foot is broken. And Howie's starting to fall asleep, we gotta hurry!" I said as I pulled the fishing net out of its place and started out the door.

They didn't ask any questions just followed me down the path. We stopped at the edge of the hole as I started to untie the net.

"D? D?" AJ called, "You down there?"

There was no answer. Cloud was whining.

"Howie!" Both Kevin and AJ yelled.

"Don't yell!" Howie moaned again.

"Don't scare me like that D!" AJ shook his head, "You okay man?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Howie said.

Kevin got up to help me and together we got it untangled and started to lower it into the hole.

"What the hell is that?" Howie asked, it had probably fallen right on him.

"The net, can you see well enough to get Nick into it?" I asked.

"Yeah…" Howie said then something began to pull on the rope. There was the sound of rocks being moved. Finally Howie sighed, "Alright!"

Slowly Kevin and I began to pull the rope up. And slowly the net appeared with the bloody body of my best friend. We quickly picked Nick out of the net and sent it down again. He was still alive but we'd have to hurry. We brought Howie up the same way and struggled back to camp.

We sat in the shelter shivering again because we had no wood.

"Just like the first night." AJ commented. "Except now we got snow."

"Yeah right." I shivered as I checked on Nick again. We had the blankets around us and we were all huddled together to keep warm. Nick was sitting across my lap and I had my arms around him. Cloud was lying in the middle of all of us. We were in a kind of a circle. Howie's ankle had definitely been broken.

"Damn it!" Kevin said, "I don't think I've ever been this cold!"

"I know what you mean." AJ shivered.

I closed my eyes and started to feel myself drifting off. "Hmm." I shook myself awake.

"That's it, I'm going to go get wood." AJ got up

"I'll come with you." Kevin said as he too got up.

They left the shelter. "Howie you okay?" I looked at him in the dark.

"Yeah." He shivered. "How cold was the water?" He asked, talking about my near death experience, one of them anyway.

"Not this cold, don't worry." I shivered, though I really couldn't remember all that well.

We sat there shivering, trying to keep each other awake until the shelter door open and Kevin and AJ came in carrying wood.

"You didn't fall down a hole!" I joked. But they ignored me.

They put some wood into the fire pit and Kevin struck a match after the kindling was ready. The fire took a few minutes but finally it started to burn and heat filled the shelter slowly. My shivering calmed and I laid Nick on the ground, keeping him covered with the blanket then sat close to the fire.

"Better!" AJ said as he almost stopped shivering as well.

"We have enough fire wood for the night." Kevin said, "Brian, you are not allowed to touch any of it." He said.

"Bite me." I said again.

When it was warm enough for us to go to sleep, we all got settled and fell asleep.