___~Chapter One~___

“God, it’s cold.” Nick Carter mumbled as the group of six trudged through several inches of hard, silver snow. The horses followed and grunted behind them.

“God knows Nick, God knows.” Brian Littrell replied and Nick grinned widely at Brian who looked sleepishly back at him.

“If you look on the ground, you can see fresh deer tracks.” Helena Johnson stated as she walked in front of the line guiding her guest. A.J. McLean sighed.

“Is there any bears out her?” he asked looked around. Helena laughed.

“Yes, but they’re asleep. They really do hibernate in the winter.”

“Polar bears?” Nick asked and Brian laughed.

“Shut up Nick.” Howard Dorough said and Nick chuckled. Howard struggled to keep the stubborn horse from biting the one in front. He did not want to know what the other animal was going to do, nor did he want to find out.

“There’s a creek ahead. Let the horses drink and rest here.” She said and looked around with squinted eyes and her small, slender fingers on her hips., "We can camp here tonight." she said nodding.

"Come on you." Howard growled in the horse's ear and it grunted walking forward.

___~~___

By nightfall a fire was alive and roaring, its orange flames dancing against the purple sky and tall silhouettes of think, bare trees. It was deathly quiet except the occasional move in the bushes or crackling of the fire. The group sat quietly starring at the dancing flames until Helena grew so curious she was about to burst.

"So why are you all here?" she asked as she held her hands up to the fire. She had a smile on her pale face while the rest sat around doing various activities to ignore the question rather than her. Howard seemed to drift off into his own little world as Nick began to toss small twigs into the fire. Brian's focus remained entranced into the dancing fire. Kevin moved closer to the fire.

"We all thought this would be a good experience to get away from the real world. Experience nature." he said and she nodded, A.J. looked up.

"Why are you here? You're beautiful, gorgeous. You could be a model instead of shoveling horse shit all day in the snow." Kevin and Brian shot the younger man daggers but he ignored their burning looks.

"Why do you say that?" she laughed as she rubbed her hands together,

"I mean you are. You've got that All-American sexy babe look down. With the baggy, big clothes and pretty face." he said smiling.

"Why thank you." she giggled and Howie's head snapped toward them.

"You hear that?" he asked suddenly and a quick hush came over the group.

Everyone glanced around. Everything was so deathly silent it was almost as if in a horror movie. Helena smiled.

"Guys, settle down." she laughed, "It was probably a deer or something. I can tell ya'll city people."

"And what's wrong with that?" A.J. grinned titling his head.

"You're just fine." she replied laughing, She glanced at her small tent and stood brushing herself off. She sighed before stuffing her hands into her pockets.

"Well, I'm beat. I'm off to bed." she said with a small, sleepish smile. The remaining group nodded as she disappeared into a small, blue tent, Howie stood and started to the separate, much bigger tent towards the left of hers.

"Night." Howard said.

"Don't let the bed bugs bite." he whispered softly behind a snowy bush with a grin on his face.

~___Chapter Two___~

She knew she was the first one to wake. She walked to the fireplace and removed the tarp. She glanced around and didn’t notice the silence. Normally Hazel would have at least been awake. He was a Chestnut colored mare that was fiercely strong.

She starred at the other tent that looked like a snow capped mountain and then looked around. There was a fresh blanket of white across the forest that seemed to vastly stretch forever. It was beautiful. Right before she had started the fire, she had placed a ruler in the ground. She looked at it and smiled faintly. Four inches of it hard and thick with an additional two of powdery, fresh snow.

She tossed the tarp on the ground and started a fire. After clearing the logs off, she sat near the fire while rolling turkey and cheese into a tortilla as breakfast. She finished off with a small fruit cup she had made before she left containing pine apples, pears, and grapes with a pinch of sugar. She stood and walked over to where the horses were and stopped dead in her tracks. She dropped the unfinished fruit cup and a scream ripped from her throat as she starred horrified at the clumps of red and brown, speckled white, grey and black.

She stumbled back and was caught by Kevin as he starred solemnly at the discovery. A.J. screamed while Brian’s dinner found its way up his throat and out of his mouth. Howard saw it and then crawled quickly back into his tent.

“Okay, can someone tell me what the hell is that?”

“It’s the fucking horses!” Nick squeaked back at Kevin.

Everyone heard something moving around in the big tent and everyone’s attention was redirected to inside the tent.

“What are you doing?” Helena asked as Brian came back wiping his mouth. His face was pale.

“I’m packing my stuff you see and getting the heck out of here…now!”

“I think we should go back. Everyone,” Helena started, “Pack your-”

Right then everyone was blown from their feet by an explosion and confusion was everywhere. The tent caught fire and Howard dove out with his book bag and was on his feet trailing behind everyone else’s lead.

“What the fuck!” A.J. yelled. They splashed across a small creek and ran till their lungs burned.

“Brian, what the hell are you doing now?” Nick asked hearing as Brian seemed to be mumbling under his breath with his eyes closed.

“Can you let me pray in peace? I really don’t want to die.”

“God, I need a drink.” A.J. said, “While you’re conversing, tell him to drop one in my hand. I’ll hold it out for him.”

“Damn it!” Helena growled, “Let’s keep walking.”

“Can we wait till I can breath?” Howard snapped.

“Excuse me for wanting to get as far away from that campsite as possible! Somebody out here is playing a joke okay and it is not… funny.” she growled, “In my ten years of doing this never has this happened. I do not wake up to my horses dead. There was just an explosion; our transportation was just gutted, chopped up or something! Excuse me for wanting to get the fuck out of here!” It was like no one moved. Everything was silent and still. Seconds later, Helena groaned and sighed, “I’m sorry. I’m real sorry. I’m normally not like that. Man, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” he mumbled, “My breath is caught.”

“It just scared the bejesus out of me okay.”

“Well, you’re not the only one.” Brian said looking around.

“Some guy was in a tree. I saw him pour something into the fire.” Kevin stated rubbing his face.

“Can we walk?”

“Nick shut up.” Brian snapped and Nick rolled his eyes looking away.

“Great! A guy poured shit into our fire.”

“You have got a mouth on your sweet-ums.” Nick grinned. She ignored him.

“Where are we gonna go?” Howard asked adjusting the book bag over his shoulder.

“I don’t know. Well, we need to get on the main trail.” she said and they started walking through the tyhick snow.

“My legs are freezing.” Howard mumbled.

“So are my balls.”

“A.J., I applaud your honesty but not everyone wants to hear the exact truth of everything.” Helena said and the group was silent then. Everything was starting to register. The fire, the man Kevin had supposedly seen, and the horses. Everyone had said they heard nothing during the night. Everyone’s senses had been alert but now that they were remotely calm by the middle of day. But now the shock of that morning was starting to dissolve and just plain anger and some fear was beginning to surface.

Nothing had been said for what seemed like hours except for an occasional stop at a creek for water. The sky was soon splashed with pink and a violet purple. Helena groaned.

“We are so screwed.” she said and everyone looked at her, “Anyone, have a pocket knife?”

“Me.” Kevin said and she sighed relief.

“Cool, we need to make some cups or bowls. We need to make something to hold water in so we can boil it.”

“Wouldn’t it catch on fire?”

“Not if you don’t put it in the fire.” she replied looking around at the trees.

“And where exactly are we going to find this perfect piece of wood?” Nick asked starring at her with a smug grin on his face. She was starting to get tired of him.

“I don’t know.” she snapped, “You tell me.” She rubbed her hands over her face suddenly exhausted. Suddenly the woods didn’t calm her and the silence was unnerving instead of sensual. The snow that sparkled in the dim light was beautiful anymore and every sound wasn’t nature. The surroundings had a small clip of land where they stood. Underneath the narrow cliff was a bed of thick ice.

Everything was ugly and scary and reality was painful.

‘It was a joke.’ she told herself from an animal activist hate group. They just didn’t like the fact that they would rather preserve nature then construct a Wal-Mart.

“Maybe it was a joke.”

“Well,” Nick growled, “It was one hell of a joke!”

“Well yeah.” she snapped. His cute face and humorous presence was full-blown annoyance to her now.

“Maybe we should go back.”

“And what Howie, get our stuff. Our tent is toast”

“I’m sure the snow turned to water and stopped the fire. I’ve never heard of a forest fire in the middle of winter Brian.”

“Well,” A.J. mumbled, “I’ve never been camping and by the looks of it, I’m never going camping again.”

“I think we should go back.”

“Hell no!” A.J. yelled.

“Hell yes!” Helena snapped back, “What are we going to do? We have no food, no extra clothing and no place to make a fire nor to keep one going. Maybe it was a joke okay cause I think it was. they’re probably at home laughing their stupid asses off at home stupid and scared we are…were.”

“You’re saying maybe it was a joke. Well, what if it wasn’t. What if someone really wants us to go home.”

“A.J., I see where you’re coming from but what are the chances some bored teens decided to do this versus some psychopathic murderer.”

“Then explain to me why local teens would walk six miles to set fire to one of our tents and chop our horses up.”

“A.J., just settle down okay.” Helena said.

“Hello, I’m twenty two and I don’t want to die.”

“Look,” she snapped sighing, “We’re going back and that’s final.”