The Seven

Chapter 4: The Cold

A couple hours later, the group were all beginning to get extremely tired. It was cold out, they had little to eat and drink, and they had been walking around for what felt like an eternity. Cam was determined to find new shelter because they didn't have the supplies to make a new one. However with night quickly approaching, he was losing hope.

Rick went up to Cam and tapped him on the shoulder. "Cam, I think we need to set up camp for the night." Rick whispered, not wanting to get anyone else involved in the conversation. Cam whispered back, "With what supplies Rick? I don't even know how to build shelter in the wilderness. Look around us. It's all pine trees and snow. Nothing to build a shelter with."

"I think I can, I read about something called a Quinzhee once, you can make it out of snow. It's like a snow dome." Rick replied. In his typical fashion, Cam Immediately rattled off a few questions concerning the safety and viability. "Can one fit all seven of us? Will it be warm enough with just our sleeping bags? What if it collapses? Will we be be able to dig our way out or is that just certain doom?"

Fortunately, Rick had answers to all of them, as he was used to this behavior by now. "No, but we can make multiple, yes it should be because our sleeping bags are meant to withstand temperatures of 0˚F, and the walls are only about one foot thick so we should be fine if it collapses which is unlikely in the first place if we make them properly." Cam didn't have anything more he needed to ask, because this was the only good idea that had come upon him so far. He turned to the group and motioned for them to gather around.

"Alright Rick has an idea for shelter for the night, we're all gonna build 3 snow huts and then we'll sleep in them. The groupings are as follows; Me and Rick, Harley and Claire, and Nathan, Sena and Cosmic. Everybody cool with that?"

They all nodded in agreement, Cosmic's excitement about the snow huts was a mood lift, although Sena had her doubts. She gazed at the leader of the group and saw his determination; her thoughts slowly clearing away as she knew she could trust him.

Rick told everybody how it would be done. The three groups worked together to make three domes out of snow, about 7 feet high and 10 feet wide according to Rick. After that they let them sit for around an hour and a half, during which time the sun set. After their wait, they began to hollow out their huts, and eventually they finally had a place to sleep. While everyone else got settled into their shelters for the next night, or few nights, Cam pulled Rick aside to talk to him.

"Ok, everyone's happy we have shelter and that we can relax a little bit, but what if the wendigos attack during the night? We're defenseless and all of us will die. I didn't want to let anyone else know but you and I need to figure something out."

Rick thought this over, wondering what line of defense they could set up all the way out here. Their shelters were easily breakable, and they'd all be asleep. The hope for even two or three people to make it out from a night attack was slim to none, and that's in a real shelter. Chances were, they wouldn't make it. They sat together, conversing for over an hour about the predicament they were in, constantly saying things like, "What if we...no that wouldn't work." In the end, they both thought of nothing, and their stomachs began to growl. "Well, if we get attacked, fight like hell?" Cam said jokingly.

"You know it." Rick replied.

Eventually, Cam called everyone out of their huts for dinner. Tonight? Half a can of chili each along with some boiled water to drink (delicious). The lucky thing was that they'd never run out of water to drink. Sena was smart enough to snag a pot from the cabin they were staying before they had left, so they could still boil water.

After everyone had their fill, they each crawled into their huts and went to sleep. At least, most did. Cam couldn't sleep. He was wide awake, wondering what would happen next, what would happen if wendigos attacked here. When they would all get out of this dreaded forest. If all of them could make it out in one piece.

Rick turned over, surprising Cam. The circles under his eyes suggested a similar thought process.

"Can't sleep either?"

"No. It's too stressful, what if something happens? What if one of the others gets hurt again? I don't think I could live with it. I would just blame myself over and over again."

"I'll tell you what," Rick responded, "how about we take shifts on watch? We rock, paper, scissors, loser gets first watch. Then we can switch every 2 hours."

Cam shook his head."No need for that, I'll take first shift. I'll wake you up in a few hours."

However, Cam never woke Rick up. He sat outside, pistol in his lap, and waited. Stared into the dark forest and waited. Looked over to the other's huts, and waited. Waited until the sun started peeking over the horizon. Rick woke up as soon as light started shining through the roof of his hut. He walked over to Cam who holstered his gun and walked up to him. "Let me guess, you were out here all night?" Cam nodded. "Well get inside and sleep for a few hours, I'll keep watch and wake you up when the others wake up."