Yyaayl: OMW!!!!! You're alive!!!!! Well, I guess you're just gonna have to read to find out who da poor schmuck is. Heh

Turn-On-The-Stars: Oh, my goodness how did you guess?

Aphrodite100: You're never dumb!!!! And I try.

Don'tcallmemadeline: Amen to that!

Loser94: No worries! How's your story going?

Mwuhahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And now, pressing onward to this chapter!!! And people, loser94 has an amazing thing going with her new Alex Rider story called 'The One'…you seriously should go check it out!!

James recognized him. He saw him in the pictures Kae kept taped up around her bed. He had never needed to ask who he was. At first, she talked about him all time, total and utter adoration shining in her eyes when she saw the pictures. Lately, there had still been that same adoration, but there was sadness there as well…a deep haunting sadness. She had stopped talking about him as well. It wasn't uncommon for you to walk into the cabin and see her just sitting on the bunk staring at the wall where the pictures were hanging.

Kae had her hands over her mouth, trying to hold back what seemed to be a thousand emotions. Her eyes were wide and she had stumbled back. Her breath came in short gasps as everyone else stared in shock.

Luke was the first to recover. Being the group's medic, he went over and checked his pulse, placing his hands carefully on the pale, sickly looking skin. He put his hand on both his neck and his wrists, as if double checking.

"He's alive," Luke said. "His pulse is weak." Luke was already stripping off his jacket and placing it over the figure. He glanced at Kae. "James, do something or she's going to go into shock." James stared at him in disbelief.

"What do you want me to do?" He demanded. "This is her cousin, who she thought was dead for almost two months." Luke huffed.

"Talk to her, slap her, anything to keep her focused. Don't dump water on her though," he added as an afterthought. "It's too cold for that and I'm going to need it to clean these wounds."

"Spencer?" Kae whispered in stunned disbelief. James pulled her off to the side. Tom had already shed his own jacket and placed it over Spencer as well. Luke was barking out instructions, which were hurriedly being followed. There was a distraction, for the time being, and time seemed to pass much more rapidly.

Luke cleaned Spencer's wounds as best he could and instructed Jessie to go and get whatever snow had fallen into the cave before it was sealed. Surprisingly, there was enough of it for Luke to pack on the open wounds and swellings that he could see.

Kae had managed to rouse herself from her state of shock and had crept closer to her cousin. Hesitantly, she reached out and touched his cheek, as if assuring herself that he really was there. Jessie squeezed her hand comfortingly. Luke sighed and there was silence as everyone stared at the unconscious man.

The silence was broken by someone's stomach growling. A moment later, everyone else's followed suit. The kids couldn't help it. They chuckled a little. Kae still had her hand on Spencer's cheek. Luke had warned her that Spencer's hands were broken. Kae had almost started crying, but a quick slap from Jessie had taken care of that notion. They didn't need her getting hysterical on them.

"Do you think the blizzard's still going?" Tom asked quietly. There were shrugs and "I don't know" from around the tiny group.

Kae managed to keep it together for what seemed like forever. The five of them had huddle up against each other and around Spencer to provide warmth for each, Tom and Luke in the middle seeing as they had given up their jackets.

Then the flashlight burned out.

--

The blizzard ended around five in the morning. They had fallen into a light doze and it was the silence that had woken them up. Wolf had immediately roused his team and they yanked open to door, finding that they would have to actually climb over the snow bank to exit the mess hall. By now the rest of units were rousing themselves and rolling their necks, shaking out the kinks and knots in their joints.

The sun was rising and made the snow look like glittering diamonds. The men only spared the beautiful scene a brief glance before going to the Helipad. The snow was too high for the regular land rovers. Other units made for the storage shed where the snowmobiles were.

A pilot made it there ahead of them and was already starting up the helicopter. K-unit climbed in without a word. The pilot didn't even look at them, he was so engrossed in starting up the chopper. K-unit strapped themselves in, making sure they had a ladder to drop down. There would be nowhere to land if the unit were to jump out.

There were at least five choppers in the sky, doing a complicated flying pattern(1) to make sure no area would be missed.

--

Alex had somehow managed to survive the night. His fire had died out a long time ago, but he was able to pace to keep his blood flowing. He was exhausted. He had stayed up all night and when he had opened up a can of food, his hands had been so numb that he had cut himself on the sharp tin edge and hadn't even realized it until he had slapped his face to keep himself awake and then glanced at his hands to make sure they weren't frostbitten.

A sound caught his attention. It made him jump. He hadn't been expecting it and in the snow and eerily silent landscape, the sound seemed magnified by a hundred. It took his sluggish brain a moment to process what it was.

His head snapped up, his eyes frantically searching the skies. Then he saw them. He saw two choppers swerving and zigzagging through the sky. Alex opened his mouth and let out a hoarse yell. He began jumping up and down, waving his arms.

At first he thought the choppers were going to fly right over him, but then one began circling and the other simply began making its search pattern a little wider. A rope ladder was dropped and a soldier began descending rapidly. Alex dimly recognized him as a man from another that K-unit hung out with. Lynx or something.

Lynx didn't say anything, only scooped Alex up and placed him on his hip like a child. Alex didn't know how the man was going to climb the ladder carrying the teen like that, but he didn't have to energy to care or protest at being picked up.

Lynx had this worked out though. He put his left foot on the ladder first and settled Alex's weight there. Then he grasped the ladder and brought his right foot onto the ladder as well. He lifted his left leg and Alex and slid his hands up the ladder before raising his right leg. They continued up the ladder in that fashion.

Another soldier grabbed Alex and hauled him in. A blanket was draped around his shoulders and Alex jumped in surprise when he was embraced.

"Get him warm," Lynx instructed. "Falcon, he has an injury on his hand." Alex protested weakly as his shoes were yanked off.

"I'm Falcon," the soldier said, a little gently. "I need to check your feet to make sure they're not frostbitten. Can you feel anything in them?"

"They're burning," Alex said slowly. He wasn't trying to insult the man. He just couldn't talk any faster. Lynx was speaking into a headset, no doubt alerting K-unit they had found Alex. Then he knelt in front of Alex.

"Bear is holding you," he said, explaining the mystery soldier to Alex. "I need you to tell me what happened." Alex swallowed and his foot jerked when Falcon touched a ticklish spot. Falcon smirked before pulling Alex's socks back over his feet.

"We were walking down the mountain," he said. "There was a man…with a gun…"

"What did he look like?" Lynx asked.

"Tall…blue eyes…red-brown hair…what was left of it anyway…"

"That sounds like Panther," another soldier said tensely. "The-" Lynx held up a hand to stop him. The man fell silent and Lynx turned back to Alex.

"What happened next, Alex?" He asked. Alex swallowed and continued.

"He sealed the others in a cave and he was going to ah-ah-AH-CHOO!" Alex sneezed. Falcon sighed.

"A cold," he said. "Possibly pneumonia. Lucky he still has all his digits after a night in that weather." Lynx shot a glare at the man, but Alex ignored him, wiping his nose. He was still in Bear's embrace and he shifted slightly.

"The others in a cave and he was gonna take me to a helicopter," Alex finished. Lynx was focused on him.

"Alex, can you tell us how to find the cave?"

--

They were running out of air. There had been no breeze and Luke had lit a match only briefly to see if there was one. There wasn't and he blew it out. They couldn't waste oxygen on a fire. Nobody spoke as they sat there in the dark. It used up oxygen. Talking wasn't a luxury they could afford.

When the flashlight had burned out, they had turned on the other one. Eventually that one had flickered and died too. They had tried to eat while they still had light, but the temperature had frozen the contents inside the cans. Kae was willing to bet the food in the cans tasted better than the food at the mess hall.

Kae felt her eyelids growing heavy. She was getting drowsy and she knew she wouldn't be able to stay awake much longer. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to hit something and to forget that she was buried alive and dying. She didn't have the energy.

I wonder if this what the ancient Egyptians felt like when they were sealed in the tombs, she thought blearily, rubbing her eyes.

A scraping noise captured her attention, but she dismissed it as a dream. She was having a nice one right now. They were getting rescued. Someone was calling their names but…she was getting pulled down the tunnel. She frowned, this dream wasn't so nice anymore. Especially they started shining bright lights. She didn't like that at all. Or the voices. They were crowding around and Kae whimpered. This was turning into a nightmare.

--

Eagle cradled Kae in his arm as he climbed the rope ladder. D-unit's helicopter hovered close by as Lynx carried Tom up to the bird. Snake was carrying Luke, but the boy stirred and murmured something that caused Snake's eyes to widen, dump him in Wolf's arms and dive back into the cave. Fox frowned, passing James off to Falcon and then followed his teammate back into the cave.

He pulled himself into the chopper and wrapped a blanket around Kae, settling her next to Jessie. A moment later, Luke appeared and Eagle grabbed him, setting him gently next to the other two and helping Wolf in.

"What was that about?" He asked. Wolf shrugged.

"I don't know," he said. "How are they?" He gestured to the kids. Eagle scowled.

"I'm not Snake," he said. "I have no idea what's wrong with them." Wolf glowered and Eagle settled down a bit. He really shouldn't take his anger out on Wolf. It wasn't his fault, after all. Feeling a little stupid, Eagle draped another blanket over all three of them. Who knew a chopper could carry so many blankets?

"Holy…" Wolf's shocked and quiet voice drew Eagle's attention and he joined his leader at the open door of the helicopter. Snake was carrying a grown man out of the cave.

"Drop the stretcher," Wolf ordered and Eagle obeyed, not hesitating. Snake placed the man on the stretcher and strapped him in. A moment later, the man and the other two members of K-unit were inside the chopper.

"We don't have time to go back to base," Snake was saying. "They all need medical attention now."

"I'll radio the sergeant," Wolf said. He turned to the pilot. "We're not going back to base. We're going to St. Dominic."

"Did we ever find out what happened to Panther?" Eagle asked, looking at his older teammates.

"Alex tied him to a tree," Wolf answered grimly. "We've still got units out looking for him."

"And the odds of finding him are…?"

"Not good."

--

"Ever get the feeling you're really cold but you can't get warm?" Kae scowled at the wall in front of her. The kids were gathered in Alex's room. It was about a week since they'd been locked in the cave and K-unit was prowling the halls like over-protective fathers. The fact that D-unit was scaring the poop out of everyone in the lobby wasn't helping any either.

Kae was curled up on Alex's bed, having deemed that if they could all have visitors, he could share the bed. She was wrapped up in the blanket from her own room though. Alex may be good at sharing, but he wasn't that good.

"Kae, you asked that question yesterday," Tom said, rolling his eyes. Kae turned her glower to him.

"Tom, me yelling it across the hall because I wasn't allowed to get up and go ask you personally doesn't count as asking it already."

"You didn't just yell it to the hallway," James snickered. "More like the entire floor. I'm pretty sure everyone heard you." Kae grabbed Alex's pillow from underneath him in one fluid motion, but before she could throw it at her boyfriend, Alex grabbed her wrist and wrestled it back. Kae abruptly changed the subject.

"So you're a spy," she said. Alex sighed. He knew it would come up eventually, but that didn't stop him from wishing that it wouldn't. Everyone was silent.

"I knew," Tom said. "Before you guys." Everyone turned to him, taking the focus off Alex, something he was grateful for.

"It makes sense," Jessie said thoughtfully. "I mean, all the times you've gone missing and coming back with cuts and bruises and all sorts of injuries."

"Kinda shocking," Kae put it. "Definitely wasn't suspecting it. Reminds me of how I felt when I asked this guy I really like to the Sadie Hawkins dance and he told me he was gay." There was a snort of laughter from Luke.

"Really?" Kae nodded sagely.

"Yeah," she replied. "One of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Of course I didn't believe him. I thought he was saying it because he didn't want to go with me."

"What made you believe him?" James asked, not bothering to try and hide the smile on his face. Kae scowled at him before answering.

"I was walking through the parking lot because I was leaving a football game," she said. "I saw him and his boyfriend making out in the backseat of his boyfriend's car."

"How long ago was this?" Alex asked, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Last year," Kae answered. "It was even more embarrassing when his boyfriend looked up and saw me." Everyone burst out laughing.

"Okay, I've got to ask," Jessie said, giggling. "Who was on top?"

"His boyfriend," Kae answered, scowling again. "So not only did I pick a gay guy to like, but I picked a bottom gay guy!" There was a snort of laughter from the doorway. Wolf and Eagle were listening but a moment later, they were brushed aside by the doctor. Kae sat up instantly.

"How is he?" She asked. The doctor sighed and shook his head.

"You are a very impatient young lady," he told her. "He's still unconscious, but his vitals are stable. By the way, there's a woman named Elle Greenaway and Derek Morgan. Do any of you know them?"

"I do," Kae said automatically. "Can I go see them?"

"They can come see you," the doctor said. "I must be out of my mind to let you wander to each other's rooms but you are in no way, shape or form going down to the lobby." He left, leaving Kae grumbling under her breath.

"We're in a hospital," she muttered. "What could happen?"

"You'd be surprised," Alex said sagely. "I was here before. Some terrorist organization was trying to kidnap the boy across the hall from me."

"Oh…" There was an awkward silence before Kae broke it. "Abraham Lincoln!"

"Erm…"

"Nutty Americans," Tom said, shaking his head.

"I rather resent that," a voice from the doorway said. Everyone's head snapped around and Kae's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Morgan!" She squealed. James swore that she flew across the fifteen feet between the bed and the door when she launched herself at the black man standing in the doorway.

"Hey, baby doll," he said, wrapping her in a bear hug and lifted her in the air. "What on earth did you get yourself into?" Kae pouted and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Why do you always blame me?" She sulked before lighting up again. "Guys, this is Morgan and Elle. Morgan and Elle, the blond boy on the bed is Alex, the redhead girl right next to him is Jessie, the redhead boy scowling at them is her cousin, Luke, Tom is the boy with black spikes and then James is my boyfriend."

"You know, for someone who supposedly hated it here," Morgan said. "You certainly do seem to enjoy their company."

"Morgan…" Kae whined. "Of course I have. They're amazing people. And maybe I don't hate it anymore." She squirmed. "Will put me down now? Elle still needs a hug."

"How about you tell who the people glaring holes into our backs are?" Morgan asked, ignoring her. Kae huffed.

"That really scary one right there is Wolf," she said. "Eagle is the one right next to him. I don't know where Fox and Snake are, though."

"Getting coffee," Wolf grunted. Kae smiled and stage-whispered to Morgan and Elle, "Wolf is really just a big teddy bear once you get to know him." Seeing Wolf's death glare, Kae buried her face in Morgan's shoulder. "Ah, maybe not a teddy bear. More like Chuckie." They all clearly heard of her whimper of, "I'm gonna die later."

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm done with chapter 25…not entirely sure I totally liked how this one turned out, but hey, Happy Turkey Assassination Day!!! The day in which turkeys are assassinated because we're thankful we're still walking around on this earth because we're all horrible rotten people who should be struck dead by lightening. Don't try to deny it. You know it's true.

1: I have no ideas what type of flying patterns can be used for search-and-rescue so bear with me, please lol.