Once the fish were all cooked, we split the bits of meat around the three of us. Melody ate slowly and in small amounts. She looked pale but she managed to keep it down this time around. I went with a pail to the river and let the icy water flow into the pail. I threw it over the fire once the pail had filled. Melody and Minho were still collecting our few belongings as we packed up to leave again. I went over to the river and tried to skip a few stones. It was impossible. The quick waves and jagged movement of water wouldn't allow for the stones to skip in the racing water.

"Kyle! Come on!" Melody called. I turned around and saw that Melody and Minho were waiting for me a distance away. Bags were swung around them, they kind of looked like hikers in that way. I took a deep breath in and tried to calm my pounding heart. I gave them both a fake smile and followed after them.

The rest of the day continued in such a way. It was the same pattern, over...and over...and over...and over again. At night we build ourselves a fire and stayed out of the wind's reach between a few boulders.

"Are we going to take shifts?" Minho asked. He was messing around with the sling that was holding his arm right. I know he didn't say it, but everyone could tell that he was in pain from it.

"No duh, Einstein," Melody mumbled.

"Huckleberry, you wanna take first?" Minho asked. His gaze was on me, but I couldn't figure it out if he was addressing me or not.

"Kyle, do you want to take first shift?" Melody asked me, repeating the same question.

"Yeah, sure," I stated.

"I'll take second," Melody said quickly. Minho flashed her another glare, but he didn't utter a word against her. The two of them laid down, their legs drawing closer to the licking flames of our fire. I laid my head on the Boulder I was sitting against. I studied the star filled sky. It was as though I could see every inch of the earth reflected in the shining stars. The moonlight hit the snow, making it sparkle just as much as the stars. It was like Heaven and earth met in that single moment.

"Pretty isn't it?" Melody asked. She was sitting up, her gaze on the stars as well. Minho's breathing had slowed down into slumber. I had figured that the same had happened to Melody. She had her curly hair braided, two braids on each side of her head. Her eyes sparkled as the moonlight shifted over her gaze. I didn't say anything. I let myself take in the moment. If I couldn't recall all my old memories, I might as well start making new ones.

"What are we going to do?" I asked her.

"Survive."

"No, but really. I know we're going down the river shore in hopes of coming across some town or something. I know that. I mean what are we going to do until we get there. What if we can't get more fish? What if we meet a coyote or bear?" It was silly asking such questions, but maybe it was the first time that it had sunk in for me that we really, really could die out here. That had processed. I think that it had. The part that I was still processing however was that our plan wasn't all too great of a plan.

"That sounds like something for you to stress about while I get to sleep," Melody said as she laid back down. Her eyes didn't close though. My eyes didn't leave her figure. She pulled on her braids and ran her hands down her face a few times before she noticed my staring. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing," I replied automatically.

"It's something," she replied.

"It's nothing." I was starting to realize that Melody rarely dropped anything.

"Kyle."

"Melody."

She rolled her eyes.

"One day, you'll want to know something that I know and I won't tell you."

"I can live with that."

She looked mad at me for a moment, or maybe she was just severely annoyed. She rolled away from the fire, and from me, and tried easing her breath. I turned away from her and back to the stars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note

I haven't worked on this book in such a long time. I feel like I should finish this book before this school year is over with. I haven't been able to write as much since of school, but I really hope to plan on changing that.

Word Count: 788