"Hum." I waved them away and turned over.

Someone sighed then everything was quiet.

Slowly I moved and opened my eyes. It was still dark but there was a fire blazing in the fireplace. I sat up confused. Looking around I spotted Howie and AJ asleep on the other side of the shelter.

"Kevin?" I looked around. Nick was gone too.

I got up and crawled to the opening of the shelter so I could look out. Kevin was just climbing back over the edge where the bus had gone over. I got out and went over to him, "Where's Nick?" I asked.

"Down by the stream." He said.

"Why?" I asked.

"The infection woke him up. The wounds were throbbing." Kevin said as he walked back over to the fire.

"…So why is Nick by the stream again?" I asked, not understanding.

"He's not by the stream, he's in the stream." Kevin said shortly.

"In the stream?" I was really confused; "He'll freeze!" Kevin had started to say something but I was already making my way down to the stream and didn't hear him.

"Nick?" I called when I reached the water.

"Right here." He moaned.

I spotted a dark shape in a shallow part of the water. I went over to him, "What are you doing? You'll freeze!" I hissed.

"I-I know." He shivered.

I could hardly see but I could tell something was wrong.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"No." He replied.

"What's wrong?"

"It's throbbing." He sniffed.

"Why are you in the water?" I asked.

"It doesn't hurt as much." He whispered.

"But…you must be cold…" I said.

He didn't respond unless he nodded. "I tried to wake you but you were sleeping." His teeth chattered.

"That was you…" I sighed, "Sorry Frack." I pulled up a log and sat down on it.

We sat in silence until Nick finally stood up. He came over to me and sat down beside me on the log.

He was shaking from the cold and I could see his breath.

"Common." I said as I stood up. We climbed back up the hill slowly. Then sat by the fire. Nick was white. He made Casper seem pale! I got up and grabbed a blanket from inside then brought it out and wrapped it around Nick's shoulders and kept my arms around him to keep him warm as well.

Nick rested his head on my shoulder. I starred into the fire until it seemed to spread out everywhere and became a blur of light and got smaller, and smaller and smaller….

"B-ROK!" A voice suddenly awoke me.

"What?" I yawned as I sat up from the ground. Howie was sitting across from me on the other side of the fire.

I looked around. AJ and Nick were over by Kevin who was helping them with their wounds.

"I heard you had a rough night." Howie said.

I was still a little sleepy, "Ah…yeah." I rubbed my eyes. I was so stiff.

AJ came back over holding a damp cloth to his forehead. I could smell the rubbing alcohol.

"You feeling better Bone?" I asked.

He nodded.

Howie got up and started to gather a bunch of berries and handed them to me in the bowl.

"We already ate." He said.

"Nick too?" I asked, taking the bowl.

"Most of us ate." Howie corrected himself.

Kevin returned followed by Nick.

"You okay Nicky?" Howie asked.

Nick nodded. He looked a little better than he had last night. "Where do you think the bus went?" Nick suddenly asked.

"Who knows?" Kevin shrugged.

"It's probably at the bottom of a lake now." AJ sighed.

I looked at Nick; "I know that look." I said. He had a look on his face that I had seen millions of times before. He was getting an idea.

"You want to go find it don't ya?" Howie asked.

Nick sighed, "Well, it has our stuff in it and everything, and maybe a few more things we could use."

"He's right." Kevin said, putting a few more sticks on the fire.

I had finished my breakfast and I put down the bowl. "Nicky, come here." I said as I got up.

Nick got up and followed me over to some trees.

"Any of these good for a fishing pole?" I asked.

He looked at them and finally picked out a long branch that was strong.

"Great." I said as I broke it off a stump sticking out of the ground.

"Now we need string." Nick said.

"Yeah…" I looked around, "But where we gonna get some…" I couldn't see anything in the camp that we could have used. Then suddenly Nick went over to the shelter and pulled a rope that had been strung into the tarp like a waistband.

"Good thinking Kaos." AJ said.

Nick pulled the string until it slipped away from the tarp and fell to the ground. He gathered it up and handed it to me.

I smiled, "Guess you are good for something."

He looked around for some mud. I knew that had been coming. "I'll get you later." He said as he went back over to the fireplace and sat down.

I laughed again as I went to join them.

"Now all we need is a hook or something." I started to tie the rope tightly around the end. There was no way the rope would slip off.

"I found this, this morning." Howie got up and went over to a bush. He pulled out a long metal wire.

"Cool!" Nick said.

Howie handed it to me. It was a thin wire but it was strong. I bent it to look like a hook.

"Hold on." Nick said. "Amateur." He took the hook from me and bent the tip of the hook forward into a barb. Then handed it back to me.

I tied the rope into a small circle I had made at the end of the hook.

"Looks good to me." AJ said when I was done.

"Let's hope it works." I said as I placed it beside me.

That afternoon Nick and I made our way down to the water again. We had waited in hope that it would get a little warmer but no such luck. It seemed to get colder. It was only January. I was surprised it hadn't snowed yet. We had crashed on January 17th. It must have been the 20th by now.

Nick took the pole and cast off. He stood there fishing while I dug a hole in the mud for a fire. We were probably going to be awhile and we didn't want to freeze. I gathered up as many dry sticks as I could.

The guys had started to tear down the shelter to build a better one. Nick had gotten an idea from a book he had once read. It was the sequel to the book called Hatchet. But was called Brian's Winter. I felt strangely weird when he had told us about the boy named Brian. It felt a little funny hearing my name I guess…

This boy had been trapped in the wilderness, not quite like we were though but he had to survive through the winter. This kid had built a shelter with a hole at the top of it and had built a fire in the middle of the shelter in the ground so he could keep warm. We all thought that it was a good idea. Nick also went on to tell us how he got most of his food and clothes to keep warm. Brian had made arrows and a bow to shoot rabbits with and he had even killed a moose.

Though we weren't going to attempt to kill any moose the story gave us a lot of ideas.

The first aid kit had matches in it and I struck one now and lit the fire. It took a few minutes for it to start to burn but finally it burned and gave off heat.

We waited in silence for what seemed like hours. But finally Nick moved.

"I got one." He said calmly. I got up and went to help him and together we brought in a large trout.

It wouldn't have been big enough to feed all of us but it was a start. With the fish sitting in a pot filled with water Nick cast off again.

"What're you thinking about?" Nick asked casually, as if it was a Saturday afternoon and we were just sitting around.

I sighed; I didn't really know what I was thinking about. A lot of stuff. But one word slipped out of my mouth. "Rabbits." I said.

"Excuse me?" Nick asked, not turning away from the water.

"Rabbits…" The word even had me confused but then the story that Nick had told us came back to me, "We could kill a few rabbits and use them for food and even their fur…" I started. I had no idea how to kill a rabbit let alone how to skin one.

I could tell Nick wasn't too thrilled. The thought probably made him sick.

"What'd the story say he did to kill the rabbits?" I asked.

Nick seemed to think, "He had a gun but I think he shot a few with arrows."

I went silent. There had been a funny noise that had come from behind me. I looked but nothing was there but a few bushes. One of the bushes looked dead. I shrugged then turned back toward Nick.

"Oh yeah. But he had made them from stone. How are we gonna make 'em?" I asked as a grunting noise, the same noise as before started up again. I looked but still didn't see anything.

"Sticks I guess. Carve points into the tips." Nick shrugged.

Suddenly pain shot up my spine again. From my butt. "Ah!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, startling Nick, then I jumped up and looked behind me at the ground.

Two beady eyes stared back at me.

"A porcupine!" I yelled as Kevin, Howie and AJ all ran down toward us.

"What happened?" AJ asked, breathing hard.

"Who screamed?" Kevin looked at Nick to me.

"I did!" I yelled, "That thing bit my ass!" I said.

"No he didn't Brian." Nick shook his head.

"Then what the hell did it do?" I asked, I was mad. And it hurt!

"It's a porcupine! It hit you with it's tail." Nick said.

"And what does that mean?" I asked.

"You have quills sticking out of your butt!" Nick spelt it out for me.

"Oh." I said then, "Ow. They hurt." I had to force the urge to reach back and pull them out.

"Don't pull them out." Nick warned, "They have the same thing as the fish hook. The barb I mean…" Nick thought, "I think they're poisonous too…"

"Oh great!" I threw my arms up in the air.

"Not so much that it'll kill you! Just make you sick, but I don't think that will happen. It kills small animals."

I sighed, "Someone get them out of me!" I must have whined because everyone suddenly started to laugh.

I crossed my arms and glared at my friends, even Nick was laughing.

"Alright Brian, we'll get them out of you." Kevin said. He was really amused with this.

"How are you going to do that if you can't pull them out?" I asked.

Everyone looked at Nick, he was trying hard not to smile, "It's better you don't know Frick. Trust me."

I sighed as we all started back to the clearing. Howie carried the fish and placed it by the mountains tall side, then came over to us.

Kevin told me to lye on my stomach and I did. This was so embarrassing. Kevin couldn't do it because of his arm but he probably would have. The others let Nick pull them out because they thought he knew what he was doing.

Finally after 7 painful times all the quills with their barbs were out.

"Oh." I moaned and rubbed the spot where they had been.

Nick's fingers were all bloody along with the quills.

"You know…" He said picking one up, "If Brian didn't waist all the poison in these they might work for the rabbits."

"Rabbits?" AJ asked confused.

"Yeah, B said we could make arrows to kill rabbits for more food." Nick said.

"But if we kill them with poison wouldn't that kinda be useless?" Kevin asked.

Nick looked at the bloody quill in his hand. "Oh yeah…" He sighed.

"It was a good thought though." I said.

He shrugged. "They might come in handy for something…"

"We'll figure that out later." Kevin said, helping me up from the ground, "Better get something on those."

"I can do it." I said, walking into a small shelter where the first aid kit was.

That evening for supper Nick cooked the fish the best he could. It tasted great. I was already getting sick of the berries but had a few hand fulls of them as well.

Nick still didn't eat anything. I could easily see that he was starving. He couldn't even watch us eat, he got up and went into the temporary shelter that held about two people. There was another one right beside it; it was a little bigger. We would sleep in them until we had the other one finished.

"I think something's wrong." Kevin started.

I know there's something wrong. I thought, but what?

Howie read my thoughts, "We'll find out soon." He said.

It was still light out when I put down my plate.

"I'm gonna go to bed." I said as I got up.

Howie and AJ were planning to go look for sticks to make into arrows. And Kevin was going to see what he could do with the new shelter.

Nick was lying as close to the wall as he possibly could.

"Frack? You awake?" I whispered.

"Yeah." He said quietly.

"What's wrong? Why won't you eat anything?" I asked as he sat up and turned around to face me. "Aren't you hungry?"

"'Course I'm hungry. I just…can't eat." He sighed.

"Why?" I asked.

"Every time I try to bite down on something my jaw hurts and it's gotten worse." He rubbed the back of his jaw right under his ear.

"Lemme see." I felt where a bone was supposed to be. "I think it's broken or something." I said.

He shrugged.

"Can you swallow okay?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I'll be right back." I got up and went out to the others. I grabbed a handful of berries then grabbed a rock that we had been using to crush things with.

"Find out what the problem is?" Howie asked.

I nodded, "His jaw's broken or something." I said crushing the berries in the bowl until they were nothing but juice and pulp. Then I poured hot water into the bowl and stirred it with my finger. The water had started to cool off so it wasn't that hot. I went back into the shelter and handed it to Nick.

"Here, drink this." I said.

He didn't ask any questions. He drank it until the last drop was gone.

"Better?" I asked.

"A lot." He yawned and laid down. "Thanks." He said as I took the bowl and went out of the shelter then washed it out with more water. When I crawled back into the shelter Nick was already fast asleep. I got settled and soon fell asleep too.