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The smell of smoke had nearly left the air. Kevin figured that that was a good thing. Only two hours ago, he’d been on the bus, on the phone with his wife. Would she be worried sick about now? He kind of hoped so. His head felt heavy and his entire body was sore. He had no clue about the time that had passed since the bus had tumbled down the hill. He shivered slightly, pulling AJs blanket a little closer around him. The man’s over-ability to pack properly had probably saved their lives tonight. It had taken away the risk of death by hypothermia, at least.

No, not really.

He watched helplessly as his cousin trembled and groaned in earnest. The cold was keeping the pain at bay, numbing everything and taking the edge of the worst agony. It slowed the heartbeat, and therefore the blood flow, making it close to impossible to die from blood loss. Kevin had carefully taken some of the melting snow, and put it on his flaming shoulder. The relief had been beyond words, and he’d felt close to fine as he sat on the ground, on another blanket they’d spread over the wet snow.

Like a picnic.

“Where’s AJ?” he grumbled suddenly, finally realizing the bearded man was missing from his sight. Kevin didn’t like that. He needed control, he needed for everyone to stay together, so they could figure out what to do without everyone wandering off by themselves.

Howie looked up from the map he’d been studying for what seemed like hours, “I don’t know,” he said perplexed, “He was here a minute ago, wasn’t he?”

“Jesus!” Kevin stood up on unsteady legs, balancing his weight as much as he could on his left foot. His right seemed to protest with every movement he made as he walked over to Howie, “This is just like I said! We need to stay together!”

“You think I don’t know that?” Howie questioned angrily, “You don’t need to tell me what to do, Kev! And AJ is a grown ass man, he can make his own decisions. I’m sure he can’t be far.”

Kevin frowned, his eyebrows furrowing together as he listened to Howie’s words. How could they be so careless?

They didn’t have a clue about survival, none of them did.

Sure, they’d all watched Discovery channel every now and then, but this was a whole lot different. But Kevin had grown up in the Kentucky mountains. He knew nature. And it wasn't as fun as Discovery Channel made it seem.

“No, I don’t think you understand, Howard,” he stated, trying to sound calm, “We can’t stay here forever, you know.”

“I know,” Howie answered, slowly getting to his feet, groaning in pain.

Kevin’s frown grew deeper, “You okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Why do you keep asking me that?” Howie muttered as he slowly began to walk away from Kevin.

“Where are you going?”

“I’mma go put some snow on Brian, if you must know.”

“I can put snow on myself, thank you very much,” came the grumbled reply a few feet away from them. Kevin sighed in annoyance. Brian seemed very intend on refusing to let anyone help him. He could be stupidly stubborn at exactly the wrong times. He’d spent a good amount of time trying to convince everyone that- aside from the chunk of bus covering nearly half of him- he was absolutely, perfectly fine.

Moron.

Kevin felt that he was rather afraid to know what his cousin’s legs must look like underneath the heavy metal frame. And if the nasty burns on his torso and back were anything to go by, Brian would be in for a very special kind of hell. His shirt was mostly torn and burnt to shreds, while some of the fabric seemed to have melted into his skin. Without the snow to ease the pain, Brian’s façade would have been very difficult to maintain.

“You guys are gonna love me forever!” An excited voice came through the darkness, along with the bright beam of a flashlight. Kevin whirled around on his heels, only able to make out AJ’s silhouette against the dark background.

“How did you get it into your head to walk away like this?” he shouted, angrily marching over to the shorter man, “Aren’t we in enough shit already? I don’t want to lose…”

He stopped right there. He didn’t want to say those words aloud, but could see that AJ understood. His face went from excited to serious in a split second. To lose another one of us. AJ sighed and dropped whatever he’d held in his hands in front of Kevin’s feet.

“Just thought you’d appreciate this,” he shrugged.
Reluctantly, Kevin shifted his angry gaze from AJ to the box at his feet. AJ’s flashlight revealed a bright red cross against a stark white background. Kevin’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. “Where’d you get this?”

“A couple of hundred feet that way,” AJ waved his hand about vaguely, “It still seems intact too.”

“This is great. I can’t believe our luck,” Howie breathed, coming over towards them slowly. He’d given up trying to put snow on Brian when the younger man had told him in no uncertain terms that it was cold enough as it was.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call getting into a bus crash and being left behind on our own, luck per say,” Kevin supplied, “But yeah, this might help.”

Slowly, almost solemnly, AJ bent down, sitting cross-legged on the ragged blanket on the ground. Taking a deep breath, he opened the first-aid kit and smiled. They weren’t doctors of any sorts, but the kit seemed to be stocked quite expertly and Kevin thanked the heavens for whoever had equipped the bus’ first-aid kit.

“Hallelujah,” he muttered as he rummaged through the medical objects. There were bandages, gauze, scissors, tape, antibiotics and above all, a small supply of pain killers. Not believing their luck, Howie grabbed a small bottle of iodine and held it up triumphantly.

“Here, put this on your skin!” he rushed, “It’ll keep it from getting infected!”

Kevin stared at him questioningly, but accepted the bottle, be it a little hesitatingly. He screwed the cap of and winced at the smell, “The hell?”

“Just do it,” Howie coached, “It’ll sting like a bitch, but you’ll be fine. Didn’t your mom ever put iodine on any of your scrapes?”

Kevin watched him thoughtfully for a few seconds before shrugging, deciding to just go for it. Cautiously he dropped some of the stuff onto his aching shoulder and cringed from the sharp sting it caused. He bit down hard on his bottom lip to keep from yelling out. He was surprised he couldn’t see the flesh sizzling, cause it felt like it was doing that. When the stinging feeling subsided, he gave the bottle back to Howie, “I’m not saying anything negative,” he grunted through clenched teeth and saw Howie smile back at him.

“The sting means it’s working,” The smaller man reassured Kevin, “Now we’ll just have to bandage it, and you’ll be as good as new.”

Kevin nodded, finally relaxing somewhat as he let Howie have his way with the bandages and gauze, “You could have been a doctor, D.”

“Doctor D,” Howie smiled, “I took a first aid class as a kid. My dad insisted.”

“I’m glad he did.”

“There! I think it looks pretty,” Howie stated seriously.

“Thanks Howard,” Kevin said as he stood up. For the first time since the crash, he felt somewhat clean and healthy.

He watched, suppressing a smile as AJ cursed out loud when he poured some of the iodine on the gash across his brow.

Glaring at the bottle, AJ reached for a clean patch out of the kit and pressed it against his forehead.

“I’m done,” he muttered, “Who’s next?”

“Howie,” Kevin quipped, grabbing the bottle and turning towards Howie, who took a step back.

“Oh damn,” the younger man mumbled. “Well alright, just get it over with.”

The cut in Howie’s side was quite deep, but fortunately, there wasn’t any glass left stuck in it. Kevin had to give his bandmate credit when Howie managed to stay perfectly still as Kevin dropped the iodine into the wound. He watched Howie squeeze his eyes shut tightly, grimacing as the stinging pain shot through him. A low grunt was all that escaped the short man’s throat and he quickly lowered his shirt back down after Kevin had dressed the wound the best he could.

“Bri? It’s your turn, honey,” Howie grinned wickedly as he turned towards Brian, who had been watching the others uncertainly.

He groaned and stared fearfully at the iodine, “I don’t think I’m gonna like that.”

“Oh doubtlessly, but it needs to be done. We’ll do it quick, I promise.”

Licking his lips, he hurriedly tried to think of something to say that would change their minds, but couldn’t come up with anything. He released a shaky breath and nodded, watching Howie get closer. Kevin swiftly grabbed one of his cousin’s arms and motioned for AJ to grab the other one. Holding him down, Kevin felt Brian jerk against his grip as Howie carefully poured the liquid iodine on his burnt chest. His cousin screamed a few profanities and stared hard and angrily at Howie, panting as the pain finally eased to a dull pounding. Howie held his hands up defensively.

“All done.”

“You guys are trying to kill me,” Brian snorted in disgust.

“Yes, that is exactly what we intend to do,” Kevin sighed, letting go of his cousin. He helped Howie carefully wet some of the patches of gauze to put on the worst looking burnt areas of Brian’s body. The melted pieces of cloth prevented them from being able to bandage everything properly and Kevin sighed as he watched their clumsy handiwork when they were done. He was glad his shoulder had been bare when it had come in contact with the heat of the explosion. He’d worn a sleeveless shirt that had been part of his PJ’s, to be honest. But as it turned out, it saved him a lot of trouble.

He shook his head, trying not to listen to the countless imprecations Brian was still muttering. He looked around, frowning suddenly.

“Where’s AJ?” he questioned.

“I don’t know,” Howie replied, “He was here a minute ago, wasn’t he?”

Kevin sighed.