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I looked up startled at the horrified look that crossed my friends' faces as the same appalling thought crossed their minds that had crossed mine. Suddenly Shadow appeared at the top of the drop off, where we went down to reach the stream.

Nobody said anything, we all just looked as Shadow collapsed on the ground and growled loudly. It wasn't her attacking growl. It was a noise I had never heard before, and I never want to hear again. She was in sheer pain. At first I couldn't see why, then I saw it.

The snow turned red with her blood as she rolled onto her other side. I quietly got up and ran over to her to check it out. There was a bullet whole in her chest and blood oozed from it like a small red waterfall.

"Ah Shadow." Tears suddenly fell from my eyes. She had become a friend, and this was not the way for her to die. She purred softly and pawed at my face gently. She seemed to take a breath, then forced herself to her shaky feet.

She then grabbed my hand and began to pull me down to the river. I followed, with the others right behind me. I could hear Kevin and Howie trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Maybe there were hunters passing by…they saw Shadow with Nick and thought she was going to attack him…" Kevin said.

"Then where's Nick?" Howie asked back, a silence fell over the two.

When we reached the bottom of the river Shadow stopped and seemed to sniff around. There was no sign of anyone. Then AJ went over, closer to the water and knelt down. "Guys, there's footprints." He said.

We all crept closer as if something where going to come out of the shallow water and grab us. I looked at the footprints. They were huge! Too big to be any of ours. They were hiking boots as well, having the spikes and all.

Beside them were a smaller set of tracks, not much smaller mind you, but it was obvious the other person hadn't been wearing shoes. At the sight of the smaller tracks everyone seemed to stop breathing.

"Those are Nick's." Kevin finally whispered. We followed the tracks for a while; Shadow limped after us, until finally she stopped, not able to go any farther.

"Howie and I'll take her back. You and Kevin keep looking for Nick." AJ said as he and Howie picked the large black animal off the ground and began to carry her gently back to the shelter.

I looked back at Kevin when they were gone. He had a questioning look on his face as he stared at the tracks. "You don't think these people are friendly do you?" I asked.

Slowly he shook his head. "It looks as if Nick was being dragged Brian. If they were friendly, they wouldn't drag him." He said softly.

I sighed, knowing he was right. I had noticed that the footprints with no shoes on disappeared in the mud and looked as if there had been a struggled around until the prints showed up again a few feet away.

We began to walk again in silence. We followed until both sets of tracks stopped dead, walking right into the river. I looked at Kevin. He was trying to think of a way across the rough water without being dragged in and swept away.

I looked around, trying to figure out a way as well. That's when I spotted a tree with a branch going across the river and onto the other side. I smiled and went over to the tree to see if it were easy to get up. It was and I threw some snow at Kevin to get his attention.

We climbed the tree and crawled across. I kept my eyes closed tight, not being able to look down. Finally we fell to the other side in a soft pile of mushy snow. After we had crawled out of it we were soaking wet from the melting snow. But we couldn't stop now. We had to find Nick.


Kevin and I had been following the tracks for over an hour before we finally heard something in the bush other than us. It was laughing. Not a good kind of laughter either. Like someone was looking into a trap he had built and was laughing at the poor animal caught inside.

Kevin got down in the snow and peered through a bunch of bushes. I quietly got down too and followed his gaze. I spotted a fire and there were about six men sitting around it, guzzling beer and eating some kind of meat. At the sight of it, my mouth began to water.

One of them men laughed louder and threw something toward the side of the mountain their camp was situated by. That's when I spotted Nick and Cloud. Nick had his hands tied behind his back and his feet were bound together. He was gagged with a greasy cloth.

Cloud began to bark at the men, which made them laugh harder. Cloud bared his teeth and slowly staggered over to one of the guys. Nick was trying to get Cloud's attention, to make Cloud back off, but Cloud was pissed off.

"So, you think you're tough huh?" One of the guys grabbed his gun.

I saw how wide Nick's eyes got as the hunter pointed the barrel at Nick's friend. Cloud wouldn't back off, protecting Nick. Suddenly, there was a loud clap and Cloud swayed a little, then fell to the ground.

He looked up at the man that had shot him, then looked back at Nick. Time seemed to stop before Cloud gently lay his head in the snow and then there was no more movement.

Everyone watched and I even saw tears fall from Kevin's eyes, as the white snow, surrounding Cloud's body grew redder and redder by each passing minute. I buried my face in the snow, not wanting to look at my best friend.

Kevin patted my shoulder, telling me to look up. I did. I wish I hadn't but I did. What I saw was horrible.

The guy that had shot Cloud was laughing hysterically at Nick. He went over to my friend and ripped the gag from his mouth, still laughing. "You wanna say something to me? Maybe tell me where to go?" He looked down at Nick.

Nick didn't even look at him. His eyes were still wide, disbelieving. He was still looking at Cloud's lifeless body. I fought the urge to get up, but I didn't have time anyway. Another one of the guys got up and walked over to Cloud.

"This what you want?" He asked, picking the poor pup up and taking him over to Nick. Nick only moved when the guy held Cloud's dripping body over Nick's head and blood fell onto him. Then the guy dropped the poor animal into Nick's lap.

Nick closed his eyes, not wanting too look, but curiosity got the better of him and he looked down at the dead body. With that, Nick burst into tears. There'd be no lying to him about Cloud running off this time.

"Shut up!" The man that had killed Cloud swung the butt of his gun at Nick, hitting him square in the head. Nick was knocked out immediately and fell into the snow.

I felt my body tense up, but I couldn't do anything.

The two guys that had gotten up sat down around the fire again. "Ya think there could be more of em?" The one who had dropped Cloud asked.

"Prolly. We'll get em all though. I have a feelin' this one's got somethin' ta do wit the rest of em. 'Less he's a jungle kid or somethin' like that." The one that had shot Cloud said, he seemed to be the leader of the small group.

Small? Brian! There's more of them then there is of you! They've got Nick. They've got guns, what do you have? That flimsy bow? How many arrows will it take to kill these bastards now? A voice yelled at me in my head from the thought. Whatever it was, it was right.

"Kevin! What are we going to do?" I finally asked, looking toward my cousin, who happened to be like our leader. He had been quiet when everything was happening to Nick and how as I studied his face I noticed how sick he looked, and ready to pass out.

After what seemed like hours to me Kevin spoke, "I don't know." Was all he said.

I sighed, not satisfied with his answer, but it had to do for the time being. I moved suddenly, noticing my leg had gone numb. As we sat in the melting snow it felt as though I was being attacked by millions of bees.

Suddenly I heard a moaning and my first reaction was to clamp my hand tightly over my mouth. But the soft sound continued every few minutes. I waited until the pins in my leg subsided a bit, then I moved so I could look around easier.

I saw Nick waking up. His nose was bleeding and as he struggled to sit up, using his elbow to prop himself up out of the melting snow, Nick spit out the blood from his mouth.

Slowly he looked around. He spotted Cloud's body a foot in front of him. Quietly, he looked over at the group around the fire. When he knew no one was looking Nick carefully made his way over to Cloud, struggling since his hands were tied behind his back, and then he gently laid his head against Cloud's body.

Nick wouldn't cry, I knew that, but he looked close to it. You're probably thinking that Cloud was only an animal, but to Nick he was a source of sanity. And Cloud had protected him until the very end. I knew Nick, he felt like he owed something to the poor animal.

"We gotta get him outta there." Kevin whispered into my ear. I looked at him and nodded, but had no idea of what we could do to get Nick back to the shelter.

Suddenly there was a crackling sound that got everyone's attention. One of the guys got up and went into a tent and came back out with a hand radio.

An idea crossed my mind and I looked at Kevin. The same idea had crossed his mind.

"No. We haven't found 'er yet. We saw one today but it was wild and gonna attack the brat." The guy with the radio replied into it.

I thought for a minute and realized that they were talking about Shadow, the brat was Nick. They had no idea that it hadn't been a wild panther that they had shot.

There was noise from the being on the radio but I couldn't understand it.

"Yeh, yeh. Once we find her we'll bring 'er in. But first, we gotta git rid 'a this brat." The guy glared over at Nick.

My heart went into my throat at the thought of that. They had just killed Cloud, right in front of Nick; I wouldn't put it past them to hurt…or killed Nick.

Nick stayed quiet. The snow around him had been dyed red from Cloud's blood and Nick's own blood.

I knew the look that was on his face well. He'd get it when he was concentrating hard on beating a Nintendo game, or drawing his comic book. He was getting an idea.

"How we gonna do it Rodney?" One of the guys asked as, I guess his name was Rodney sat down around the fire.

I missed Rodney's reply. Seeing the fire I realized how cold I was. The snow may have been melting but it was beginning to get dark and the air was a lot cooler. We had been tracking them and listening to them all day. My pants had been soaked by sitting in the snow and now they were beginning to get stiff as the water began to freeze.

I saw that Kevin was having the same problem, and Nick whose clothes had been soaked from lying in the snow. His teeth chattered and as the hours went by Nick became whiter from the cold.

Finally, the hunters fell asleep in their warm sleeping bags. Rodney and another guy had thrown a tattered, ripped old sleeping back in a small bear cage and had forced Nick into it.

Nick huddled under the blanket with his arms through the metal bars, gently petting Cloud. I could see tears streaming silently down his face.

I wanted to go over to him and tell him everything was okay, that we were going to get out of his all right. But I couldn't for two reasons. The first and the most obvious reason was, I'd probably wake up the group and get myself caught.

The other reason was because I was beginning to have doubts about all of us getting home alive.