Chapter Two

"Set down at the nearest clear land," Ventura said to the pilot. "We'll hike from there and find them."

"Yes sir," the pilot said and started to look for a clear patch of land to put the helicopter down on.

At the crash site, they had covered both Vin and JD with blankets to keep them warm and Nathan tended to the others. He gave Chris a shot of morphine for the pain and to help him sleep a little and he soon fell asleep. Using tape, he taped Buck's broken fingers together. He cleaned Ezra and Buck's cuts above their eyes.

"I'll keep watch out for anything first," Josiah said to Nathan. "Get some sleep. I'll wake you if JD or Vin wakes up."

Nathan nodded in agreement and settled down on some blankets and soon fell asleep. Soon Josiah was the only one awake. He sat on a stump not far from the downed plane and kept watch out for any predators or any signs of rescuers. Tiredness soon started taking over and he started nodding off when he heard someone moving around near him. Looking over, he saw that JD was starting to come around. He got off the stump and hurried over to the youngest.

"Take it easy JD," he said putting a hand on JD's shoulder.

JD felt a little warm and when he felt the forehead, he found he was starting to burn up. Cursing under his breath, he hurried over to where Nathan laid and shook him awake.

"JD's waking up," he told Nathan. "And he's starting to burn up with a fever."

Nathan got to his feet and hurried over to where JD was. "We need to find some water to keep his fever down," Nathan said to Josiah.

"Me and Ezra will go and see if we can find a stream or something," Josiah said as Ezra came over to see what was going on.

They entered the plane to look for anything to put water in and soon left with bottles and a couple of canteens they found and went looking for any source of water. Nathan watched them leave and then turned his attention back to JD, who was watching him through pain-filled hazel eyes.

"Hurts . . ." his whispered voice said to him.

"I know JD," Nathan said retrieving his medical bag and setting up a shot of morphine. He knew he shouldn't give JD more than one shot, but it will help ease his pain. He gave JD the shot and soon JD's eyes slid closed and he went back to sleep.

"He okay?" Buck asked as Nathan came over to check on him and Vin.

"He's running a slight fever," Nathan said to him. "I gave him a shot of morphine and it should help."

Buck just nodded as he checked his fingers and loosened the tape a little bit because his fingers were turning a little blue and then moved to check on Vin. He checked the splints on his leg and found nothing wrong. He checked to see if he was running a fever and found he was just a little bit. He checked on Chris and found he was awake and watching the scene.

"How you feeling?" Nathan asked as he checked his ribs.

"Hurts but not as much as before," Chris said grimacing as he sat up. "That morphine really helped."

While Nathan waited on Ezra and Josiah to return, the checked on JD's legs and saw they were a little swollen and knew he had to clean the wounds and then rewrap them. He didn't have long to wait as Ezra and Josiah returned with the bottles and canteens filled with water from a river not far away. They put a cloth on Vin and JD's forehead and then proceeded to help Nathan tend to JD's legs. The cloth stuck to some of the dried blood but it wasn't hard to free them. Using clean water and a clean handkerchief he dabbed the wounds gently and finally the dried blood was gone and the wounds were clear of dirt and rocks. He used clean clothes to rewrap JD's legs and then sat back.

Travis and Mary arrived in a private airstrip at the foot of the Rockies and was met by the Search and Rescue leader, Jackson Buehlmann, who greeted him warmly.

"I see you were able to get here so quickly," Jackson said shaking Travis' hand. "We believe that their plane went down somewhere over the Rockies. We're heading over there now to start the search and we'll split into teams once we rendezvous with the other teams.

They climbed into a SUV and started toward their destination. An hour later, they came to the base camp they had set up at the foot of the Rockies. After all the teams got their assignments, Jackson turned to Travis and Mary.

"We'll be going up in the helicopter," he told them. "It'll probably be better to see the crash site from up in the air."

They headed over to the helicopter and was soon airborne. Ventura and his men had landed and was hiking up the mountain in search of the team.

"We need to split up," Ventura said to them. "We'll cover more ground that way. If you find them, radio us and we'll meet up."

With that, the six men split up into two teams and set off in different directions. Ventura and his men headed to north while the other three headed south. At the site, Vin's eyes fluttered open and the first thing he saw was Chris sitting beside him.

"Hey cowboy," Vin said hoarsely. His voice was dry.

Chris lifted Vin's head far enough for him to get a drink of water from the canteen he had in his hand then laid his head back down on the blanket they had folded underneath his head.

"How you feeling Vin?"

"Like I've been run over by a truck," Vin said. "How's JD?"

"Sleeping," Chris said looking over at the youngest. "He woke up once but was in too much pain. Nathan gave him a shot of morphine and he went back to sleep. You in any pain?"

"Some," Vin said. "But it's not too bad right now."

Chris took the cloth off of Vin's forehead and wet it once more and replaced it, since he was still running a slight fever. Josiah and Ezra had managed to find some food in the ruined plane; mostly candy bars that JD and Vin had brought along. Also they found some sandwiches and some chips. Chris was passed two sandwiches and two bags of chips for him and Vin to share. They were able to prop Vin up against a tree and they started to eat. They would help get some food into JD once he woke. After filling his stomach, Vin drifted back to sleep. Night soon fell and they all got ready for the night. Josiah was able to get a small fire going and they laid around it and soon dropped off to sleep one by one. In the helicopter, the pilot turned to Jackson and shook his head.

"We're going to have to go back to base camp," Jackson told Travis and Mary. "It's getting too dark and the fuels low. We'll start early tomorrow morning."

"Are you sure you don't want to push on?" one said to him.

"We won't be able to see much in the dark," Ventura said. "We'll get up early and press on further."