Thanks, as ever, to all those who read and to those who reviewed. I love reading your comments! Keep 'em coming! To those Gordon fans out there, don't worry, he's finally woken up.

Standard disclaimers apply, as, sadly, I don't own the plots or characters and make no money from this.


When Alan had been five, Gordon had lost him.

The heart-stopping terror had only lasted a mere two minutes, although it had seemed much longer to the twelve year old as he raced up and down the aisles of the toy department searching for a glimpse of gold hair. He'd finally found Alan sat on the floor merrily telling another little boy which of the toys they were currently assessing he wanted for his birthday. Gordon had been so relieved he'd actually skidded on his knees to hug the indignant child and although time had dulled the memory, he'd never forgotten that fear.

It was doubled now, so bad Gordon was having trouble drawing breath. He stood alone in the room which should have contained his little brother and for the first few seconds after his discovery, couldn't think what he was going to do. Then brain activity returned and he grabbed his jacket, fleeing the warmth to search outside.

"Please, please, please," he whispered, running to the middle of the road to stare in both directions. "C'mon Alan, where are you?"

Movement caught his attention from the top of the town and Gordon sprinted towards it, his mind running faster than his feet. What if Alan had had another vision? What if he'd woken, not known where he was and run off? The scene from the day before flashed into the red head's mind; John cradling a terrified Alan, two cars abandoned and skid marks burnt into the road.

"What is it?" he called breathlessly, reaching them.

"Search party," someone answered distractedly and Gordon realised it was Lee, the owner of the diner. "Some kid didn't arrive where he was s'posed to and now the ranger's got a whole mountain to go over."

"Teams of six!" someone else shouted over the shuffling noise of the small crowd. "Remember who your team leader is, and call them the moment you think you might have found something. Leaders, your job is to radio me immediately. Under no circumstances do you do anything without my go ahead."

Gordon recognised others in the crowd, Mark and Gil, who'd first suspected a man eater in the area, as they began to move in after the ranger.

"Why the mountain?" he asked Lee, an inkling of an idea forming with icy dread.

"His sister's up there, searching for their other brother. Reckon he's gone to try and find them," Lee replied. Suddenly he tilted his head. "You're with the crowd that came into town the other day, ain'tcha? Say, how's your boy?"

"Fine," Gordon replied absently. "I gotta get back to him."

"Sure thing. Take my advice and keep him inside tonight. There's an ill wind blowing and I …" Lee shook his head sheepishly. "I just got a bad feeling."

Gordon nodded, backing away. Lee wasn't the only one. He headed straight back to his room, shutting the door. Worry battled with anger, fought with frustration. If Alan had followed Gary up into the mountains, Gordon was going to hug him to pieces and rip him a new one. He couldn't decide which one sounded the most appealing just then.

"Little brat," he muttered to himself. "When Scott kills me, I'm taking Alan down too."

Taking a slow breath, Gordon forced himself to calm down. He centred his thoughts and disappeared from the room. The mountain replaced it, and he expectedly glanced around for the familiar figure.

"Alan!" he called, stepping forwards to look further. "Where are you?"

Silence answered and Gordon felt goose bumps rise on his skin beneath his warm clothing.

"This isn't the time for games!" he shouted. "Get your butt over here!"

Again there was no sound, no movement. Belatedly, Gordon also noticed there was no light. Alan might have rushed off with Gary with no thought, but the other boy had obviously had this planned and no doubt he'd thought of bringing a flashlight. They weren't here.

Gordon's terror was rising. He bit down on it, hard, trying to find the signal that was Alan. As it had done before, it blipped on his subconscious, but this time Gordon didn't follow it. The signal came again, from a different location and Gordon's eyes snapped open in horror. He couldn't get a lock on Alan.

It was pure speculation, but Gordon had a sneaking suspicion that the boy's illness was preventing him from locating him. Whatever the reason, Gordon would have to follow each one of those signals until he found the kid.

"Terriffic," he sighed, before gathering himself. With a deep breath, Gordon prepared to hunt for his little brother.


Alan and Gary hadn't made it to the midway point, as far as they could tell. Despite their resolution to keep going through the night, the woods had taken on a much more threatening air since nightfall and the two boys had quietly agreed setting up camp would be the best thing to do. Gary may not have grown up on the mountains', but he'd lived in a mountain town and the stories the men told were beginning to steal his courage.

For his part, Alan was more than happy to stop and rest. Although he was trying hard not to let it show, his cough was plaguing him more and more frequently and a distinct wheeze could be heard when the boys fell silent. A deep chill had replaced the intense heat which had drenched Alan's body in sweat, and he'd gratefully slipped into his sleeping bag while Gary built a fire.

The other boy's determination was fading and with it, Alan's. He'd had to sever the emphatic link he'd established, the weight of Gary's downturn almost crushing him and he knew he was to blame for it. Gary kept shooting him glances and Alan didn't need to be psychic to know what they meant. He was seriously doubting the wisdom of letting Alan tag along.

Alan was doubting it too. But Gary's conviction had been so strong and he'd felt so stifled, just doing something had been uplifting, a glorious high that helped bring him above his illness. Now, bereft of that support, Alan was beginning to wish he'd woken Gordon.

Gordon could talk to people. Mostly he talked them into things and talked them out of trouble once they'd been caught doing those things, but nevertheless, Alan was sure he'd have been able to stop Gary's headlong rush. He was beginning to realise he hadn't actually thought it through properly. He was already ill and had suffered a fever induced vision that had left him afraid to close his eyes, did he really expect it to all go away just because he'd wanted to explore and be a part of his brother's hunt?

Gary glanced at him again and Alan felt like crying. Tentatively, he re-established the emphatic link with Gary, hoping the older boy was at least feeling confident he knew what he was doing. Instead, Alan found worry. It felt strange on the teen, as if the emotion didn't fit and Alan understood that. Gary was the baby of his family, he was used to being the one others worried about, but here he was in the middle of nowhere with a sick kid on his hands. He was trying to push his own feelings aside to concentrate on doing something to help Alan.

Alan broke the link, drained as always by dealing with someone else's emotions. They were trickier than he'd ever imagined, he was beginning to realise. It wasn't a case of someone feeling happy or sad, in love or angry. There were much more intricate and complex things going on, and Alan found it hard to untangle them all.

Gary joined his side, tugging his beanie onto Alan's head wordlessly. The two sat in silence, watching the small flames flicker on the twigs Gary had gathered.


Scott woke to John shaking his shoulder.

"Roy thinks he heard something," the blond announced. "I tried to tell him not to leave, but he's getting his gun."

"Shit," Scott groaned, sitting up quickly. John crawled out of the tent and Scott followed him, leaving Virgil, who remained deep in sleep.

"I couldn't sleep," John told him, tapping his head. "I kept getting Roy shouting in my ear."

"What about?" Scott asked, waiting for the guide to emerge from his tent again.

"It's a bear, it's a bear, it's gotta be a bear," John monotoned, rolling his eyes. "Couldn't ignore him, it was driving me nuts."

Scott studied his pale brother, noticing the dark smudges under his eyes. "Woke you up, huh?" he guessed.

"What with Hayley tormenting herself last night, I'm beginning to think we should stick close to civilisation in future," John sighed. "I thought I'd get a bit more peace out here, but it's worse than ever. Everyone's so loud."

Scott clapped him on the shoulder. "When this is over, we'll see about some down time, okay? Just us, somewhere quiet."

Without waiting for a reply, Scott moved away when he saw Roy appear. The guide was checking his gun, looking up as Scott approached.

"I think I heard it," he told the younger man.

Scott cut him off. "Don't go after it."

"What?"

"We think we know what it is, and I'm telling you, that gun is no protection."

"I don't have time for this," Roy growled, pushing past Scott.

"I'm serious," Scott insisted, gripping his arm. "It's a near perfect hunter, you're not gonna get close to it unless it's ready for you. You're not the one hunting it, it's hunting you."

Roy turned slowly, deliberately. "I don't know what the hell you're trying to do here, boy," he ground out. "But I advise you to let me do my job."

Roy threw Scott's hand off him with a violent shrug of his shoulder and Scott reached for him again angrily.

"You need to listen to me," he snapped. "It's not anything you've ever hunted and it will kill you."

"If it wanted us dead, it would have gotten into camp," Roy replied, speaking with deep contempt.

"There's a boundary around us it can't cross," Scott told him, knowing he wasn't going to win this way. Even to his own ears, it sounded ridiculous.

Roy didn't deign to reply, turning his back on Scott again and hurrying out of camp. They had attracted the attention of Virgil and Hayley by now, both of whom had joined John. Scott let a growl of annoyance escape him as he hurried after the guide.

Virgil caught John's eye. "Stay here," he instructed.

"Where are you going?" Hayley demanded, clearly frightened at the thought of the three men leaving the camp.

"He's not going out there without me," Virgil replied, ducking back into their tent for his own gun. Hayley gasped, she hadn't realised they had come armed also.

"It's all right," John soothed as his next oldest brother left. "Scott and Virgil are good at this."

Hayley would probably have believed him, had a strange, animalistic sound not echoed through the trees just then. Even John glanced around worriedly.

"It can't come past the boundary," he said softly.

"Boundary?" Hayley repeated, a little wild eyed. "What are you talking about?"

"We're safe as long as we stay within the circle," John told her, but the sound came again, a growling promise of violence. Hayley jumped, giving a little gasp of fright and suddenly she was off, sprinting in the direction the other's had taken.

"Hayley!" John called, running after her. "Wait!"


He'd been searching all night.

Gordon had seen the mountain from every angle except under and he still hadn't caught a glimpse of his little brother. He hadn't even run into his older siblings, much to his surprise. Not that he'd been trying to; Gordon had a healthy sense of self preservation and bumping into Scott, Virgil or John in the middle of the night and having to explain what he was doing wasn't what the red head considered constructive to longevity.

He didn't much fancy Alan's chances when he caught up to him, either, although he knew he would only hug the little fool to death at this stage. Or collapse. He was so frazzled now, Gordon's stomach had been reduced to a bubbling pit of acid and he'd stopped switching from anger to panic in favour of remaining in a state of high anxiety. He'd tried to snatch something to eat, but it'd burnt a hole in his belly and he'd ended up throwing it back up again, so near starvation his body couldn't accept the rich snack. It was close to being a real problem, but Gordon shoved his own needs aside nevertheless.

There was a creature loose on the mountain and it liked to eat people.

The thought that his kid brother could easily have become its prey was enough to cause Gordon to gather his flagging energy and try again. He appeared just as someone turned off their flashlight in the faint dawn light and he hastily hid himself. He'd almost landed on top of the various search groups several times during the night, each time the sweep of their lights had sparked hope within him, only for Gordon to discover his hatred of disappointment. Scott might have turned it into a lesson of the never-give-up variety, their father's work-hard-to-be-rewarded speech tucked away in there, but Gordon could find nothing encouraging at the continued misses.

His arrival had caught the attention of the flashlight owner, Gordon noticed, as the woman came towards his hiding place and wearily, Gordon found the next random signal to follow. He hoped this one would prove to be his brother.


Gary had been thinking hard, staring at the tiny, and incredibly useless, map he'd swiped the day before. He had re-plotted their course to the best of his ability and discovered they were well off the mark, far too east. Orienteering had never been his strongest point, but he was surprised how easy it was for him to have lost them.

They'd waste time this morning having to cover ground they'd crossed already and if anyone had decided to look for him – Gary was under no illusions, Aunt Pam might have been old, but she was by no means senile and had a worry frown deeper than Hayley's - they were heading in the wrong direction. Tommy's camp was west and they were most defiantly not.

He glanced across at Alan, sleeping fitfully beside him, tucked up in his sleeping bag so tightly his knuckles must have been white as he held onto it. He'd offered Gary his hat back when the fire died, but in an act of consideration Hayley would have been proud of, Gary had told him to keep it. He knew it was important to keep the kid warm, which was why he'd also given him the scarf he'd been planning to wrap around his own neck to ward off the night's chill.

Despite the age gap, huge in Gary's eyes, the teen liked Alan. The kid had that fierce independent streak Gary admired and even though he'd worsened during the afternoon, Alan had used that trait to keep going. But last night he had sat passively as Gary twined the wool around his throat and tucked the ends across his chest, under his coat, more than happy to let Gary take charge. He was miserable and cold and just wanted to be a kid now. Gary could totally identify with that. It was scary being responsible for someone else and he'd never done it before. Gary was constantly asking himself what Hayley would do if he was ill.

Dawn had broken an hour or so ago, but Gary didn't wake Alan. As anxious as he was to get going, Alan looked like he needed to sleep a while longer. Gary hoped his sister had had a better night and refused to think how Tommy might have spent his.


John was a strong runner, a shining member of his university track team, but Hayley, as she had proved the day before, was no slouch and her fear gave her wings, aiding her flight. It was some time before John caught her up. He roughly gripped her arm, prepared to drag her back to camp if he had to, and she struggled against him.

Their movements came to an abrupt end when they heard the foliage move behind them. Hayley let out an involuntary yelp as figures emerged, but John only felt relief as his brothers joined them, whole and healthy.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" Scott demanded angrily, turning the group back in the direction of their tents.

"It came to the camp," Hayley told him, breathless with fright. Scott shot the middle Tracy child a sharp glance, who shook his head in denial.

"It was outside the line," John insisted.

"Where's Roy?" Hayley's voice trembled and Scott looked frustrated again.

"I lost him," he grunted.

Hayley looked even more worried, her hand shook as she wiped a droplet of rain off her cheek. She froze when the three boys paled, following their gazes to her fingertips. Red shone wet on her skin and looking up impulsively, Hayley screamed.

Roy hung upside down, his legs bent brokenly over a branch. One arm stretched towards the earth in supplication, his eyes open yet sightless. Hayley screamed again when his body slipped from its perch, falling towards her. She scrambled out of the way and into Scott's arms, her hands to her mouth and no more words left.

"Back to the camp," Scott ordered, giving John a shove in the right direction for emphasis. "Move, don't look back, don't wait for anyone, just get into the circle."

His brother's did as they were told, Virgil becoming the point man, vigilantly searching for signs of attack. Scott kept behind Hayley as rear guard, trying not to imagine the feel of the Wendigo's claws ripping into his back.

Hayley's legs weren't obeying her, she stumbled frequently in terror, finally dropping to the forest floor with a cry. Scott bent to hook a hand under her arm, dragging her to her feet again and urging her onwards. Virgil and John turned, alarmed at Hayley's cry and Scott hastily waved them onwards.

"Keep going!" he shouted and just as they moved off again, Scott's world faded to grey, pain exploding against the back of his head. Hayley dropped to the floor beside him without a sound and Scott tried to reach her through the daze. Then black enveloped the muted colours of his vision and his knees gave out. The last thing he saw as his body crumpled to the ground was Virgil turning back for him.