It seemed to be weeks before we actually did something. We had gotten snowed in; we had run out of wood…almost everything anyone could think of happened to us. It was as if God was bored and decided to play tricks on us.

During those weeks when we didn't have, or couldn't do anything we worked on testing Nick. Sure, he could touch his own nose, but could he walk? Was he ever going to be able to talk again? Was there damage in his brain that we didn't know about? And if there was, was it curable?

There were so many questions we all wanted answers to, we got answers to a few, but not many. After about 13 days trying, Nick actually walked on the fourteenth day, on his own I mean. Hey, you'd do anything if you had to piss badly enough.

During the day Nick seemed fine, like we were just camping or something, but at night he kept having nightmares and he'd keep us all up. One night I thought I had heard someone calling my name. I slowly forced myself out of my sleep and looked around the small shelter.

Kevin, Howie and AJ were all asleep; I looked down to see Nick looking up at me. He was whispering something. Kevin had been working with him for about a week on how to speak. I leaned closer so I could hear him.

"The wood…under the blanket…" He whispered. He hadn't spoken for a while, and it was felt so unbelievably good to hear his voice again.

I tried to figure out what he was talking about. Then I remember, "You mean that night you ran away?" I looked at him as he painfully nodded. His wound must be throbbing again. I sighed. "What about it?" I asked.

"I…a bear…" He moaned and rolled onto his side away from me.

I got up and opened the door and grabbed some snow. I took it back over to Nick and held it against his bleeding wound. He winced for a few minutes then began to whisper again.

"The wood was frozen…I was warming it up to use for firewood…there was a bear outside…the one Shadow killed…I got scared…I ran…I fell…I can't remember anything else…" He breathed heavily.

"It's okay Frack." I patted his shoulder, "Try to sleep now." I said and waited until he closed his eyes before I went back to where I had been earlier and lay down again.

I opened my eyes to find it chilly in the shelter. That hadn't happened for a while and I slowly forced myself up into a sitting position and looked around the small shelter. Nobody was there.

I got to my knees and crawled to the doorway and looked out. The snow had begun to melt and it was warmer out. I hoped this was the end of the winter, but something nagged at me, telling me to expect anything.

What I didn't expect was getting a wet snowball right in the face. I sat there for a minute, trying to figure out what had happened, then looked at where the snowball had come from. I saw my friends standing in the snow laughing.

"Nice shot AJ!" Howie laughed patting AJ on the back. Even Kevin was laughing at me! I looked around to see only three of them.

"Where's Nick?" I wiped the access snow from my face.

"He went for a really small walk with Cloud. Shadow's with them, so they won't get into much trouble." Kevin said and smiled to himself. "He's just by the river, don't worry."

I sighed, a little relieved. That is, until I heard the gunshot.