Tom woke up at dawn. He was worried that Chris, Joey, and Lance still weren't back. He had gotten worried last night when they hadn't returned to bus an hour later as promised, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to find them in the dark and he would do them no good if he got himself lost.

A small part of him had hoped that they would return in the middle of the night while he was sleeping, but the rest of him knew that wasn't going to happen.

Tom sighed as he stepped off the bus. "I guess I should start walking the trail and see if I spot them anywhere."

He followed the trail until it ended. He was really worried now; he hadn't seen any of them while walking the trail. He looked out in front of him and saw all of the brush and trees bunched tight together making it hard to see, let alone walk, through it. He knew that there was nothing left that he could do except notify Johnny, Justin, and JC.

He pulled out his cell phone and noticed that there was no signal. "OK. No big deal. Maybe it'll work out by the bus," Tom mumbled to himself as he put the phone back in his pocket.

Tom walked the hour and a half back to the bus and pulled out his cell phone to try again. This time he cursed when there was no signal.

"Damn trees must be cutting off the signal." Tom sighed heavily. "I guess that means I'm going to have to drive to the next city to let everyone know what happened."

He climbed into the driver seat and settled himself for a six hour drive to the next city. He felt nervous leaving the three of them behind, but knew that he had to get word to Johnny, JC, and Justin because they would be wondering where they were.

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

Chris was the first one awake since he had been the first one to fall asleep. He looked across from him to see that Joey was still sleeping. Then he looked to his left and saw that Lance was still awake.

"Morning," Lance said noticing that Chris was awake.

"Morning. What time is it?" Chris asked.

Lance looked at his watch. "10 o'clock."

"How long have you been up?"

"I didn't get any sleep. I heard Joey snoring around three in the morning and figured I would let him get some sleep since I couldn't. So I've been on watch for seven hours now."

"Wow, no wonder you look like crap," Chris told him.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Thanks a lot, Chris. I really appreciate that."

"No problem, man." The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, then Chris interrupted it by saying, "You know you can get some sleep now that I'm awake. I'll keep watch."

"I know, but I really don't think I'll be able to."

"I know what you mean. The ground is nothing like sleeping in a warm, cozy bunk," Chris agreed.

Just then Joey's snoring stopped. Chris and Lance turned to see Joey stretching his arms above his head with his shirt riding up a bit, exposing some skin.

"I'm hungry," Joey said after he yawned.

Chris and Lance looked at each other. They had completely forgot that they hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday. They had been too busy getting away from the bear and then building a fire to think of food.

"I guess we have to go hunting or find some berries or something." Lance ran his hands through his hair and looked around, not sure which direction they should take.

"Do you happen to have a pocket knife?" Chris asked Lance.

"No, sorry. I left that in my other boy scouts uniform," Lance quipped.

Joey sighed. "I guess that shoots down the idea of hunting."

"Well let's look for berries then. There's got to be some around here somewhere."

"Which way should we go?" Lance asked Chris.

Chris closed his eyes, pointed out in front of him, and then spun around. He stopped after nearly losing his balance, opened his eyes, and found that he was pointing to his left.

"Left it is," Chris answered and led the way. Somehow he had become the navigational leader when they were in the woods. He didn't really mind though. In fact, he kind of liked it.

The three of them had been walking for two hours before they stumbled upon a waterfall that had lots of berry bushes growing beside it.

"Berries! Great, I’m starving!" Joey exclaimed while reaching out to pluck the berries off of the bush.

Lance smacked his hand away. "Don't touch those," Lance scolded. "You don't know if they're poisonous or not."

"Well are they?" Joey asked impatiently. He felt so hungry that he was sure he could eat a cow.

Lance inspected the berries by looking at their color and smelling them. "They seem okay," he said at last. "The red berries are okay to eat, but not the black ones. Those are poisonous."

As soon as Joey heard those words, he started filling his mouth with berries. Chris walked over to Lance and pat him on the shoulder.

"What would we do without you, Lance?"

"Well Joey would be dying for one."

Chris laughed while Joey protested, "I can't help it that I'm that hungry."

Joey's comment made both Chris and Lance laugh before they started eating the berries with Joey.

After they had their fill of berries, Chris thought it would be nice to go down the waterfall like a slide and go swimming. Joey agreed, but Lance didn't.

"I just don't think it's safe. You could hit your head on the way down or the water could be shallow and you'll land on a rock," Lance explained.

Joey leaned over the edge of the cliff and looked down. "The water looks deep enough to me," he said.

"C'mon, Lance. You've gotta have some fun in your life. Take some risks for a change and if we fall and crack our head open, we'll know you were right." Chris laughed.

Lance scowled. "Chris! That's not funny. Don't even joke about something like that."

"OK. I'm sorry. I promise nothing will happen. You watch," Chris told Lance. Chris rode the waterfall down into the water. He surfaced minutes later, laughing.

"See, I told you! Now c'mon!" Chris shouted. Joey went down immediately and a few minutes later, Lance went down the waterfall too.

They spent an hour goofing around and briefly it reminded Lance of the time the five of them were swimming in the lake a year ago. They eventually got out and built a fire because it was starting to get dark again.

"Do you think we should've stayed in the same place as before so it's easier for them to find us?" Lance asked while they were sitting around the fire.

"No. I mean, yeah it's best to stay in one spot, but not when there's no food. We'll just stay here from now on. It's nice here," Joey reasoned.

Lance had to agree. It was quite nice here, but he couldn’t help but wonder how long it would stay that way.

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

"What do you think this meeting's all about?" Justin asked JC as they walked down the hall to the conference room. Johnny had called their room five minutes ago insisting that they come down because they had something to talk about, but he wouldn't tell them what it was over the phone.

"I'm not sure, J," JC replied. His worry had almost doubled in the past 24 hours. He had a bad feeling that this meeting was about Joey, Chris, and Lance.

They reached the conference room, walked in, and sat down at the table. They immediately noticed that sitting next to Johnny was Tom.

"What are you doing here? Where're the others?" Justin asked.

"That's what we're here to talk about," Johnny answered.

"What happened?" JC's panic had risen after hearing that his feeling was right.

"We had a bus accident." Tom stopped as soon as he saw Justin and JC's eyes widen. "Nothing serious. I just got a flat when swerving to miss an animal in the road. Chris had wanted to walk in the woods for an hour while I was fixing the tire. I agreed and when they weren't back in an hour, I was worried. But I knew that I couldn't look for them in the dark so as soon as the sun came up the next morning I looked. I followed the trail they took, but didn't see them anywhere. I tried calling, but the trees block the cell phone from getting a signal. That's when I drove here."

Justin just stared while JC sank down in his chair. "Do you think they're okay?" Justin asked after letting everything sink in.

"We're not sure, but we can hope. They're a bunch of smart boys. They'll be fine until we can find them," Johnny assured.

"What exactly are we doing for them?" JC asked lifting his head temporarily to look Johnny in the eye.

"Everything we can. I'm going to hire people to look for them."

"What if they don't find them?" JC questioned.

"They will find them, JC."

"What if they don't?" JC asked Johnny again still skeptical about it.

"They will."