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(Author's Note~ All I can say is WOW!! Sarah thanks so much for your review, this one is for you and everyone else who has taken a minute to give me feedback. Happy fourth of July)
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Kevin and I stood there just staring at each other like two lost puppies. It was almost funny. Here we were in the pouring rain, no jackets, no back packs, not even a hat to shield us from the sudden down pour, but yet neither of us moved.

Not like we could go anywhere anyway. So we stood and stared at each other as the thunder cracked over our heads. "Well isn't this just great! Just GREAT!!" Kevin screamed at what my guess would be the God of bad luck, while I just looked on. I already was a little cold, now I was freezing. I should have brought my jacket.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked him as he paced back and forth making a noticeable indentation in the now muddy ground. "I have NO idea Nick so shut the hell up and let me think for a minute" Great now he was in one of THOSE moods. Who could blame the guy though. I understood that Kevin needed time to think, but the thought of Jim catching up to us suddenly flooded my mind and brought a new and sudden urge to want to run away.

"Kev, we really should move don't you think?"

He stopped his pacing and looked like he was about to yell at me, when suddenly his features relaxed and he nodded. "You're right, let's go...can you walk?"

I nodded. So, despite the heavy pounding rain we moved forward, now looking for shelter. What made things even worse, was the fact that the sudden thunderstorm brought with it a dark cover making it very hard to see.

"It was so nice out just a minute ago, what the heck happened?"

"No clue!" Kevin said spitting out the water that was making it's way into his mouth from his drenched hair. My hair was quickly finding it's way draped over my eyes. I now not only had to figure out how to stay balanced enough not to fall, but I had to push my hair out of my eyes every minute or so. The rain was that bad.

"Let's go up this way" He said pointing towards a small hill. Great nothing was better then trying to climb a muddy hill in the rain. Yay, I can't wait. "There might be somewhere to get out of the rain up here" He screamed to me as once again he found himself way up ahead. I tried to keep up, but my adrenaline from earlier had worn off and a headache had quickly taken it's place.

I looked up at this hill Kevin was insistent that we climb and it was much steeper then I would have liked. On a nice day, maybe it would be no big deal, but the quick way the water was pooling all around us, I just knew it wouldn't be easy. And apparently from the way Kevin was struggling with the first few steps, it wasn't.

Kevin grabbed at a tree branch to help pull himself up but slipped a few times along the way. When he got to the top he looked down, "Come on lil man! Let's go!" He yelled. I think he expected me to be right behind him. "I'm going as fast as I can" I picked up my pace and made my way to the base of the little incline. Grabbing the same branch that Kevin did, I attempted to pull myself up. He made it look easier then it was because I lost my balance and fell flat on my butt. Landing in a puddle.

"You okay?" Kevin started to make his way back down the hill towards me. Normally I would have protested. Demanded that I can make it on my own dammit! I am not a child, but I was too tired and wet to care, so I let him make it all the way down before I even bothered to answer him.

"I'm fine"

"Oh, great. Now he tells me" He extended his hand which I gladly took. He pulled me up with one swish and pushed my hair out of my eyes, "You sure you're alright?"

I nodded. Words escaped me because I felt myself wanting to lose it again. Just sit in the puddle and cry until someone found me. This little game was getting old and I found myself no longer wanting to play it. Let Jim come and get me, at least I would be in a warm cabin with food and a bed. The mere thought of food brought my stomach to life as it let out a huge growl.

"Kevin, why are we running?" I turned back to him and asked. He was walking a little behind me now, probably to push me along when I slowed down.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are we running? I mean I don't think they would have hurt us"

"You wanna go back now?"

"It's just that I think it's safer there then.."

"Nicky, trust me on this okay? It's not safer there. Jeremy was strangling me, And Jim...I don't trust him"

"I don't either, I guess it's too late to turn back now huh?" He once again pushed the hair out of my eyes and moved ahead of me. "Yup kiddo, it is. Sorry" He then pushed ahead of me by a few steps and guided me up the hill.

By the time we got up the hill the rain had let up a little bit. Not much but at least it wasn't a down pour anymore. We found ourselves in an open field. "So much for shelter" Kevin grumbled under his breath as we continued to walk forward. My guess is now we were probably parallel to the cabin but far enough away to be safe. It was hard to tell though because of the back tracking we had done at the beginning.

We stopped for a minute, just long enough for Kevin to try to get his bearings, poor guy was in denial. He refused to admit that he had no clue where we were. I wanted to put my hand on his shoulder and tell him it was okay to be scared, but I couldn't do it. Besides I couldn't reach his shoulder yet. That was still a year or so off in the distance. So, I just walked behind him as he tried to lead us to safety.

He stopped just short of another line of trees and dense foliage and sat. Just sat there on the wet sticky ground. "You okay Kev?" I walked next to him and squatted by his side. He nodded. "I'm just tried, I figured we could rest for a minute" He looked sad. His lips were beginning to turn a grayish blue. I placed me hand on his shoulder then, "It's gonna be okay Kev. We'll be okay" He looked up at me and smiled.

I was really happy to be able to rest. I sat right next to him and placed my head on his shoulder. "You're a good kid, you know that"

"Kevin are you delirious?"

"Yeah, probably" I hit him on the arm, but once again found a pillow in the form of his shoulder. He placed his arm around me and rubbed my arms, "You are a popsicle"

"I feel like a popsicle, but your lips are blue"

"I know, we really need to find a place to hide for the night"

"The night?" Now I moved away from the body heat he was exuding and tensed, "We can't spend the night in the woods Kevin"

"We have no choice kiddo, we can't travel in the dark, it's too dangerous"

He took my nervousness as a cue to start moving again, the rain had also started coming down heavier. He pulled himself up and lifted me to my feet before I could protest. "Let's go through those trees over there, maybe we'll see a cave or something"

We got a little farther before it began to downpour once again, this time accompanied by violent lightning. It was so close that it lit up the entire sky. The thunder made the ground underneath us vibrate. We really needed to get out of there. Big time.

We climbed over a ton of fallen trees as a bolt of lightning stuck that field we were just sitting in. The crack was so loud that we both fell to the ground. Getting up slowly we both looked at each other in disbelief, "Holy crap" He whispered. There was a black streak in the middle of the grass that was still smoking from the hit. After staring at the field for a few minutes, both of us thinking, that could have been me, we finally kept moving deeper into the woods. And thankfully farther away from the lightning.

"Look!" I kept my head down, trying to concentrate on each step, I felt miserable, wet, hungry and just blechy. So, when he stopped and said look I felt a small glimmer of hope. When I looked up I saw Kevin once again about ten steps in front of me, pointing at what looked like a cave. I didn't think we would ever find a cave. That seemed like something that would only happen in a movie or bad story.

He inched close to the cave and examined the opening. I just kind of watched on, "Kevin we can't go in there"

"Why? It seems big and most importantly dry"

"Something is going to definitely eat us if we go in that thing"

"Nick, you watch too much television, if you want to stay out in the rain, be my guest. I am going in" He grabbed a big twig and proceeded inside. Ooh like the twig was going to scare away a wolf or a bear or maybe even both. He disappeared in there, leaving me outside alone. When he didn't resurface after five minutes, I cursed my way to the mouth of the cave and walked in. Hesitantly.

"Kevin?" I whispered as I walked further into the darkness. I got as far as a foot before I chickened out and stopped. Maybe Kevin was already eaten and there was a family of bears waiting with forks and napkins tied to their necks, for me to jump in.

"Nick, come on in" I screamed. I mean a blood curling scream because it turned out that Kevin was standing right next to me and I didn't even know it. TI was so dark in there. He grabbed my mouth, "Shut the hell up, you want to just shout Jim's name and get it over with?" Once he felt me calm down, he removed his hand from my mouth.

"It is way to dark in here Kev"

"I know, but once we get a fire started"

"How? It's raining!"

"We'll get it done don't wor.." He stopped when he heard the sound. The same one I did. A distinct sound of something making it's way towards us from the depths of the cave.

"What was that?" I whispered taking a step closer to the opening of the cave.

"Shhh!"

"Kevin what was that"

"I said shh" The sound was getting closer, and with it came a glow.

"What the hell?" Was the last thing I heard Kevin say before I hauled ass out of the cave.

I stopped when I heard the shrill cry of Kevin's voice. I turned back towards the base of the cave, frozen.