"Are you guys okay?" Tom asked as he came from the front of the bus.

"Yeah, we're fine," Chris answered as he pulled himself off the floor and Joey helped Lance up.

"What happened, Tom? Why the sudden stop?" Joey asked once they were all back on their feet.

"Some animal was in the middle of the road. I served to the left and slammed on the brakes to try and miss it. I did miss it, but now we have a flat tire. A stick went right through it," Tom explained.

"How long will it be until it's fixed?" Lance questioned.

"About an hour," Tom replied.

"Do you think we can go for a walk in the woods while you're changing the tire?" Chris wanted to get off the bus if they were going to be stuck here for an hour and he figured that they could take a walk.

"I don't know. What if you guys get lost?"

"We won't get lost, Tom. We'll be back before the hour's up."

Tom looked at Chris. "Alright. Just be careful. OK?"

"Hey, no problem. We'll see you in a few." Chris left the bus with Joey and Lance following behind.

They had found a trail and Chris continued to lead Joey and Lance. Chris had no clue where he was going, but knew that they would be able to find their way back eventually.

"Shouldn't we mark the trail so we know how to get back?" Lance asked.

"No, we should be fine as long as we don't leave the trail and follow it back," Chris assured him.

"OK," Lance replied, but was still doubtful about what Chris said.

The three of them had been walking for a half hour and were already deep into the woods. So deep that they couldn't see the highway anymore.

"I think we should head back now," Joey said as he looked at his watch.

"Yeah," Lance agreed and they turned around to head back to the bus. They had just started walking when they heard a twig snap.

"What was that?" Lance asked looking around.

Chris shrugged. "It was probably nothing." They resumed walking when they heard it again. They all froze as they heard it coming closer and closer.

"Still think it's nothing?" Joey looked over at Chris. Chris shook his head.

"I think it's a…bear. Run!" Chris yelled when he saw it and they did. They all took off in the opposite direction. They knew that it wasn't the smart thing to do, but they didn't care. This bear was chasing them.

They zigzagged in and out of trees for an hour before they knew that they lost the bear. Each of them leaned against a tree panting from running for their lives. Lance looked around and then at his watch.

"Shit!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Joey panted.

"We've been running for an hour and none of this looks familiar," Lance explained as he waved his around the area.

"You're right," Chris said after surveying the area. They were a lot deeper into the woods than they were before. "We're lost."

"How are we supposed to get back to the bus?" Joey asked.

"Maybe we can call Tom and get him to come find us," Lance suggested as he pulled out his cell phone and turned it on. He cursed when he got no signal.

"That takes care of that idea," Chris told them. "Even if it did work, he probably wouldn't be able to find us. We're in too deep and the trails ended a couple miles back. This is all brush and trees. I don't even know how we managed to get through all of this."

"What are we supposed to do now? It's starting to get dark."

Chris looked over at Joey. "Find a place to sleep."

"Isn't there something else we can do?" Lance asked.

"No, I don't think so. There's no way that we can find our way back now that it's getting dark. Best thing to do is stay put until tomorrow and try to get out of here," Chris replied.

"Yeah, you're right." Lance sighed. "Are we just going to stay here or try to find a different spot?"

"We might as well stay here. Like Chris said, it's getting too dark," Joey said and Lance agreed.

"Anyone know how to get a fire started?" Chris asked.

"I do."

Chris looked curiously at Lance. "Your first aid class?"

"No, boy scouts," Lance corrected.

"Right. I should've known."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lance asked Chris.

"Nothing. It's just that your actions are a lot like a boy scout so I should've known." Chris caught the look Lance was giving him. "I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing. Now, how can I help?"

Lance finally got a fire going. Chris had gathered the wood for Lance and Lance had been able to get it started after 15 minutes of trying. They all gathered around the fire as the night chill began to set.

"Well it could be worse," Joey said trying to lighten the mood, but just then there was a flash of lightning and it began to pour.

Lance and Chris looked over at Joey. "You just had to say something, didn't you?"

Joey sighed and was about to reply when they heard howling in the distance. Joey immediately shut his mouth and the three of them didn't dare move. They waited a few minutes to make sure that it wasn't coming any closer before sighing in relief.

Chris cleared his throat. "I think we should take turns keeping watch. You know, just to make sure nothing tries sneaking up on us."

Joey and Lance both agreed. No one wanted to go through what they had earlier with the bear.

"Who's doing first watch?" Chris asked.

"I'll do it," Joey volunteered.

"OK. Good night, Joe." Chris and Lance made themselves as comfortable as they could against the trees. Chris had managed to fall asleep an hour later while Lance couldn't. He knew that he should, but he just couldn't.

A few hours later, Lance was about to dose off when he heard Joey snoring really loud. He looked down at his watch. It was almost three in the morning. Lance decided that he would relieve Joey of his duty since he couldn't sleep and Joey could.

"No sense in both of us staying awake," Lance said to himself as he walked over to Joey and tapped him on the shoulder. Joey jerked awake.

"Huh? What? I wasn't sleeping."

Lance chuckled. "Go on, Joe. I'll take over from here. Get some sleep."

"Are you sure?" Joey asked Lance.

"I'm sure." Lance nodded.

"Alright. Good night."

"Night, Joe," Lance replied watching Joey take the spot that Lance had occupied moments ago.

Joey fell asleep almost immediately and Lance just sat there listening to the rain beat down on the trees. Lance looked at his watch a couple hours later. He hadn't heard anything so far, but knew that he wouldn't chance it.

"Damn it. I knew something like this was going to happen," Lance mumbled as he reflected on their situation and what brought them here.

He tried not to think too much of the warm bus instead of the cold, saturated ground. He looked up at the sky. It had stopped raining a half hour ago, but the sky was still cloudy, threatening to pour down upon them again.

Lance watched as the sun began to rise and knew that they would be less likely to run into an animal during the day. He sighed in relief as he realized that they made it through the night. He couldn't help but question just how many more nights they would be able to survive if they weren't found.

----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile at the next city JC and Justin were sitting in their hotel room waiting for the other bus with Joey, Chris, and Lance to show up.

"Where do you think they are?" JC asked Justin.

Justin shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe they had bus trouble and it threw them off schedule. I'm sure they'll be here later today."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right," JC agreed trying to ignore the feeling that they wouldn't be back here later today.

"I'm just being overly worried," JC told himself quietly. He wasn't going to believe that they weren't going back until he heard it from someone else.