AJ knew he had to get out from his hiding spot some time no matter how long he had been stalling it. The fear of the bad guys finding him had diminished but forcing himself to go up to Nick's lifeless body was something else. Finally, after realizing that his legs had gone totally numb for squatting too long made him get up. He let out a huge sigh and made the first step forward to Nick.

The body remained still. His bloodstains now dried and cracked, his lips still blue, his face pale and lightly covered with snow. He felt the tears coming, knew he could no longer hold it in.

"Damn it Kaos, damn you!" AJ cried, still not wanting to touch him. "How am I gonna do this alone huh? You can’t die on me damn it!"

AJ moved away from his body, looked up to what little sky he could see and hoped that somehow by doing that, he could get an answer. "Why him? Why leave me alone?"

"Oh please, you're giving me a headache!"

"Wha-" AJ turned towards the voice. It sounded weak. It couldn't be the bad guys but somehow he knew doom was near.

Doom never came. No bad guys waiting to blow his brains out.

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

That voice again! AJ thought. Then he saw that Nick's eyes were wide open. It was the only thing that changed. His body still lay unmoving, the bluish tinge never left his lips, and the bloodstains remained. But his eyes were wide open.

"Nick? Kaos? Was that you? Please tell me I'm not loosing my mind!" AJ cried as he knelt down beside Nick for the first time.

"No way am I gonna die for you, dream on Bonehead." Nick said weakly, managing a half-smile.

"Oh thank God! You're alive! You didn't die!" AJ cried as he hugged his brother, careful not to hurt him.

"If I did, I could be the ghost of Christmas." Nick replied. "Since it's snowing and all."

"How did you do it, stay so damn still? It's the best prank you've ever pulled so far."

"I knew you wouldn't have the heart to do that." Kevin smiled after getting himself out of the pit with Brian's helped.

"Glad for the faith." Brian smiled.

"Can't say the same about what you just did to him though." Kevin replied as they both looked down into the pit, where Brad was. "Didn't know you had it in you to do that."

"There's always a first for everything." Brian said. Kevin laughed.

"Glad to see you two reunited. Wish I could just walk away and let you two bond but that would be out of the question since I just got shot in the leg and I’m bleeding to death. But don't let me stop you!" Howie interrupted sarcastically.

"Don’t whine D, doesn’t suit you." Kevin said as they rushed to his aid.

"Hey D, sorry about what I said earlier on. You know I love ya." Brian said.

"Sorry I didn't take that leap of faith with Kev. It's the leg, you understand." Howie joked.

"Glad the humor didn't bleed together with your leg." Brian replied. "Wish I could say the same about my head."

"Chat chat chat...Can you help me with this?" Kevin interrupted. He had just torn a portion of his T-shirt as a bandage.

"Wait, I think I got some face towels in my bag." Brian said as he started rummaging through it. "Here, got two."

"Great." Kevin said as he applied pressure to the wound. Howie grimaced in pain but Kevin ignored it. "Tie this around the towel."

"Like this?" Brian asked, as he did the best he could to hold the towels together around the leg.

"Yeah, that will do."

"You're gonna be okay D, didn't seem to hit your bone. It's a clean shot." Brian replied. Howie nodded.

"Can't believe you actually survived that fall, what with that head and all. I thought you would probably die of the cold." Howie stammered.

"I thought that too. The fall wasn't bad; it's the head that knocked me out." Brian explained.

"How did you get that gun anyway?" Kevin asked, eyes staring at the shiny object.

"I don't know. I woke up and it was there. Like it fell from heaven or something." Brian replied.

"What was heaven doing giving away guns to people?" Kevin chuckled at his own joke. He was rewarded with giggles from Brian and Howie.

"Is he gonna be out long enough?" Howie asked, referring to Brad.

"Considering Brian's blow to the head, it's gonna take awhile." Kevin replied.

"Great, I need to breathe." Howie sighed in relief as he lay flat on the ground.

"Where are Nick and AJ?" Brian asked. "I can't believe they missed my Rambo moment.”

"We, left them at the same spot we slept last night." Kevin replied cautiously, his eyes not daring to look at his cousin.

"You what? Whose plan was that? It sucks!" Brian scolded. He knew the feeling of being alone and lost and he knew with Nick's and AJ's condition, they would need all the help they could get.

"We know but there was no choice. We had to get you back and they weren't strong enough to walk back all the way here." Kevin replied.

"So Nick suggested that they wait for us there so that they could save up their energy to continue with us later." Howie added. "It sucked but it was the only option we had."

"Then we have to get there fast. I don't see the other two bastards; they might get to them for all we know." Brian said.

"Wait, before we do that, Nick wants me to give this to you." Kevin went to the pile of stuff littering the ground, things that had been emptied from his bag. He picked up a brown leather covered book and handed it to Brian.

"Isn't this Nick's journal? What is it doing here with you?" Brian asked.

"Nick wants you to read the last entry if I got you back. So I guess you better read it before we go." Kevin suggested.

I found it odd that Nick would want me to read his diary if we were going back to him. It didn't make much sense at all. But curiosity got the better of me and I quickly ran to read the page to the last entry.

Nick sure had a lot to say in there. Most of his entries were two or three pages long and he mostly scribbled in it. I wouldn't be able to read it if I had wanted to. But I saw some entries with my name on it and I wished I could have read further but the instructions were to read the last entry. So, that's just exactly what I'm going to. I'm just not cut out to be AJ no matter how much I wished I could be him sometimes.

I was surprised by how neat the entry was written. Even in the cold, his writing never betrayed him. It was in blue ink, his favorite. I sank down to the ground as Kevin and Howie hovered over to read it too. My headache was giving me problems but still, I read it out loud for my brothers to hear.

Dear Brian, (Kevin and Howie)

If you're reading this, it means you're alive. Hey, that's great news for us! Look, the only reason why we told Kev to let you read it first is because if we had told him to read it, he would have done so before he even got to you. That would mess up everything.

"Mess up what?" Howie interrupted. If he had let me continue, maybe we could find out why, but I didn't say it out loud. Howie's just panicking, I understand.

"Nick is always up to something. I should have known." Kevin shook his head in regret. Kevin was being too hard on himself in my opinion.

Anyway, notice the word 'we' instead of 'I'? See, I'm writing this with AJ by my side, this is gonna be our entry together. I can't believe AJ got to do this, it's like a victory sign for invasion of my privacy.

I heard Kevin smirk and found myself chuckling too. Maybe that was a bad move, cause it sent new waves of a terrible headache into my head. But I can't help myself imagining the grin on AJ's face, finally getting even with Nick, and the young prankster couldn't do anything about it.

Back to business...guess what, your two youngest brothers finally agree on something. See, last night, while everyone was asleep, I realized that we have been going the wrong way all along. I could hear the soft sound of the river not far away, which means the highway, is the other way dude. Howie, you can throw out your compass now.

"Is this true D?" Kevin asked. I looked up at Howie too, waiting for some kind of an explanation.

"The compass is right; our sense of direction is not. We thought the highway was to the south when it was to the north this whole time." Howie explained, wincing in pain as his hand rested on the injured leg. I stole a glance down at it, it had stopped bleeding, that was good.

Anyway, I'm not doing too well. I don't have feeling in my left hand and-okay, so AJ is freaking out right now cause he just found that out too-and I can't walk with these ribs. I'm coughing blood and that was like "whoa" to me.

"What the hell? You guys didn't know he was coughing up blood?" I raised my voice. I didn't mean to sound angry but it did come out wrong. Like as if I was blaming them for all this. And all they were trying to do was come and save me.

"That little monster! Why must he keep all this from us?" Howie asked. He sounded guilty and I felt ashamed of myself for being angry at them.

"I can't believe we fell for this. I can't believe they tricked us." Kevin cried. Now it was my time to feel guilty. All this happened because of me. I wanted to say something but I had nothing to offer. I know that if I were in Nick's and AJ's position, I would have done the same thing. But the stupid thing was to have them still find me when it was obvious that the chance of my survival was like one in a million. No, this is not stupid; they did this out of love. Oh God, this is gonna kill my head.

AJ is developing a fever and a headache, not to mention the shoulder. So anyway, we feel that if we were to follow Kev and D to find you, we might slow them down and you could be dead because we came too late to save you. (Hey Kev, if you're reading this that means Bri's dead. That would suck, but anyway, same rules still apply).

I was crying by this time and I couldn't continue. The sobbing had caught me in the throat. How could the babies of the family be thinking and planning all of this? That should be our job. We should be the ones responsible for them. Going out on our way just for them. Die for them. It's not supposed to be the other way around.

What happened to Nick in these woods? Did the broken ribs change him suddenly? How did he get this wise? And since when had AJ agreed to anything that Nick suggested? Why suddenly were we the ones who seemed helpless even when we are better off than them? Kevin took the journal from me and put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me nearer to him. Somehow, the hand on the shoulder thing helped a bit. He continued where I left off, seeing that I wouldn't be reading any time soon and time is what we don't have.

Now, we know the highway is on the other side, so please, go find your way home. Don't come back to us because we will not be here to wait for you guys. No, you won't find our bodies here too. We are going to go for the river and if luck is by our side, we won't be dead by then. So the next thing to do is try to find some way to survive before you guys get help or you know, just die. The reason why we want to go to the river is that if we do die before help arrives, we would want to see the sky and hopefully the sun for the last time. You know, got to end it perfect.

We were shattered by then. All three grown ups crying like kids, emotions outpoured and mixed together. The love for our dear brothers, knowing their suicidal attempt to save us. Knowing we could have done much better for them. Wishing that things could have been different. Wising that we would be together as five and not separated. Wishing that we hadn't been on the bus in the first place. Wishing we weren't lost in these damn woods.

Don't worry about us. If help comes too late, it isn’t your fault. We're just not strong enough to hang around. The thing is, we will die next to each other, so it won't be that bad. But to leave B and let him die alone is simply cruel.

Leaving me behind was cruel? What do you call this? Not letting us have a choice on what to decide. How could they just talk and decide that they will die and we should live? Don't we have the right to this? Here's a thought, maybe if they hadn't wasted their time trying to get to the river and came with Kevin, they could still be alive, I mean I'm not left far behind right? I don't know, I didn't have the time to ask Kevin how much deeper they had gone yesterday. But still!

Listen to us; do not come back to us. If you really want us alive, find help pronto. That will do us good. Don't waste your energy and time. At least the Backstreet Boys will still have 3 members left to tell the whole world of our ordeals. Don't let them win guys.

Right, 3 members left! What are we gonna be, The Hanson Brothers? Okay, my hand is getting lifeless so got to stop. We love you guys and we know you guys love us too. It has been one hell or heaven of a journey. No matter what happens, we’re brothers to the end.

FrackBone (Heh, sounds like broken ribs to me...get it?) (See who I get to spend the last few hours of my life with? Sigh)-Mc Lean

Kevin closed the journal and shook his head. Howie and I, lets just say we were too shocked to find the right words to even begin to speak. The throbbing in my head fastened its pace, as if asking me to make a decision now. And I thought my brain should be doing that. I could have just blacked out right then considering how my ailing heart nearly stopped after learning about their plan but I didn't. If my brothers are willing to sacrifice their lives for us and for Kevin and Howie to be put in such a situation as to come back for me, I will do my part too. No matter what decision we will take, I am going to make sure that I get them back alive.

I feel like Mel Gibson in Braveheart.