Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews and I'm happy that you like the story. Feedback is what keeps me going :) Also a BIG hug to my beta reader Alice who have done it once again. Thank you for taking time in helping me out even though I know that you're really busy :) And here comes chapter 4...

The moment I woke up; I wished I hadn't.

If I thought I had felt bad last night it was nothing compared to the aching feeling I had in my bones now. The headache was still there, hammering inside my skull, and the nausea who'd come to be my companion for most of this trip threatened to erupt again. Luckily it seemed as if the vomiting had died down, but that could just as easily be because I didn't have anything in my stomach to throw up.

Groaning, I opened my eyes only to discover I was alone in the tent and judging by the streaks of sunbeams on the tent canvas it had to be late morning. Listening closely I could hear Don and Larry talking outside.

Sitting up I noticed that my arm was really sore and taking a good look at it I saw that the blister from yesterday was still there and seemed to have grown overnight. The sting had changed colour into reddish purple and the blister looked as it contained some dark nasty substance. It was truly disgusting.

Feeling with my hand over the "bump" on my arm I made a face. It didn't hurt all that much as I had first expected and pushing on it I awaited the sting to be soft but instead it had a hard surface. Strange…I never remember stings looking like this and the fact that the blister looked as though it might be filled with pus made me want to press even harder on the sore which I did. Against anything Dad or Don or even Mom had told me I pressed on the sting even if it hurt determined to get the stinger out of me. What came out however was a nasty looking dark fluid that smelled bad.

Swallowing hard I did my best to force the impending nausea down. I've always been a wuss when it comes to sores like this, not like Don who has had his legs scraped about a thousand of times while being out with friends playing baseball. Me; I mostly stayed home working on math problems.

When the sore started to bleed I decided that it was 'mission accomplished'. Hadn't Dad told me once that if you press on a sting you should stop when its start bleeding since it's a sure sign that the poison is out of the wound? In any case, I needed something to wrap this up with since I couldn't go out showing Larry and Don what a mess my arm was.

This was no time to cave into something as small as a sting. We had a long hike ahead of us which was mostly comprised of terrain like we had already seen or rocks and other hard to walk trails. I was the only one that knew this place since I had been up here years ago and that meant that I was the only one that could find the trails, which resulted in my companions being dependent on me.

I couldn't screw up; our lives were dependent on it.

Searching with my good arm inside the backpack that Dad had packed, I finally found what I was looking for. There in the bottom of the sac was a first aid kid. Pulling it open with my good hand I found a large plastic band aid and put it on my sore. Hopefully this would stop the bleeding. When all of that was done I decided it was time to make my appearance.

We needed to get going and it wouldn't do me much good just lying around here. Besides this was the weekend I had been waiting for all year; okay almost all year, and I wasn't going to let anything spoil it, not even the sickness I felt inside. Being able to spend time with my brother and best friend was much too valuable to waste.

After putting on my sweatshirt, suddenly I felt a bit chilled, and my jeans; I crawled outside to meet up with the rest of the guys. The sun was strong and the moment my eyes came in contact with the beams I felt as if I was blinded and it made my eyes pound twice as badly. With a low groan I put my hand up to shield them.

"Charles?" Larry called out in surprise as he hurried over to me. "Are you all right?"

Still on the ground, wincing against the soreness in my eyes I mumbled that it was too light outside and that I needed a pair of sun glasses. Larry handed me his without questioning why I was acting like a bat in daylight. Relieved that I could once again see I laughed nervously. "Sorry…I slept so late."

Larry, who was by my side now, a hand reaching out to help me up, shook his head. "Charles you don't need to apologize. Don told me you had a rough night so we decided that you should be able to sleep in. He said that you needed this." Frowning he took in my dishelved appearance. "How are you feeling this morning?"

Taking my friends hand I felt a bit embarrassed. It's not every day I was found crawling on the ground like this and if one didn't know me better they would probably think that this was a result of a drinking binge, like attending one of Don's high school parties when he was a teen. Speaking of my brother, where was he?

Larry was either a mind reader or he could see how my head was constantly turning as if I was looking for someone. "Charles, are you looking for Don?"

I nodded. "Where is he?"

"He went away to take care of some…eh personal business."

"Okay." I laughed. That was a bit more than I wanted to know.

"You want some breakfast?" Larry asked as he handed me one of those lovely chicken sandwiches that were my father's speciality.

Feeling my stomach churn at the mere thought of putting something inside my mouth I started to say no when another thought struck me. Going without food in my stomach would not be such a good idea and even though nausea lurked I forced myself to accept the offering.

"Thanks."

Nibbling on my sandwich I did my best not to gag and there was a brief pause when we said nothing and only concentrated on eating breakfast. I was the first to break the silence. "We need to get going soon. It's a long and tiresome hike we have ahead of us." I rubbed my head that hurt even more than before.

Larry looked at me, concern in his eyes. "Charles, I don't want to ruin your plans but do you think that you're well enough to travel today?"

Determined not to let any of the sickness I felt show, I replied quickly, "Yes. I'm feeling much better today. It was either the twenty-four hour bug or something I ate." I paused drawing my breath. "I think it was the latter."

Scratching his head Larry looked as if he didn't really believe what I was saying. "Are you sure Charles because Don told me you were very ill this late night?"

"Of course I'm sure." As if to prove my point I took another bite from the sandwich, ignoring the feeling that it felt as if it was choking me and then smiled. "I'm hungry and that is a good sign." What I didn't calculate however was the way my arm felt when I made a sudden move. Afraid to let out a yelp I bit my lip, hoping that the pain I felt surge through me didn't show in my actions.

I know it was both childish and stupid to act as if everything was just peachy when in fact all I wanted was to roll back to sleep, but I couldn't do that. If I was to cave in then what would happened to the others? Feeling that for once I was the one that held the responsibility for my friends I had way too much to live up to.

Usually it was Don that held this role. He was the caretaker of the family: The one that helped Dad out and was there for mom when she died. I was the weak one that had to be looked after, especially since I was in Don's eyes, NOT capable of looking after myself. These were the roles that we'd played all our lives, except for this weekend when the roles were reversed. This weekend it all depended on me and I wouldn't let them down. No way!

"Your arm still hurt?"

Apparently my actions hadn't gone unnoticed to Larry's hawk eyes.

"A little, but it's not all that bad." It was better to say a little bit of the truth than to spell it out.

"Can I take a look at it?"

I frowned. Why?"

"Charles you might not think so but I grew up in the country and we had a lot of wasps. I've had several bad experiences with dolichovespula arenaria and that taught me a thing or two about dealing with stings like that." He pointed at my arm. "Can I take a look?"

I felt surprised over the sudden concern over something as small as a wasp sting. It confused me. Shaking my head I replied gently, "Thank you Larry for the offer; but no. I've already taken care of it and I put a band aid on." Letting on that I was telling the truth I showed my arm. "See…and it's already better. Not as red as it was yesterday."

"I see." Larry looked at me and I could see in his eyes that he didn't believe me fully, but he let me be, thinking that I had my reasons.

"Besides as soon as Don returns we have to pack up the things and get moving." I looked at my watch. "It's already late in the day."

"Only because we let you sleep in." Don had sneaked up beside me and he smiled at me. "I see you're looking much better than last night." Sitting down beside me he went on. "Man I thought for a moment that you were going to rip your stomach apart."

Wincing at the vivid description I nodded. That wasn't all that far from the truth. A slow roll in my stomach told me that things hadn't calmed down yet. Doing my best to ignore the feeling I plastered a smile on my lips. "Hey, Don; nice to see you too."

Don's brown eyes looked at me, this time a bit more concerned. "I see that you put a band aid on that arm. Does it still hurt?"

I swear that the next person that asks something about my health I will clock them in the face. Okay not quite but that was how I felt. It was as if my health was the only topic that we would discuss on this journey. Annoyed over being questioned like I was an inmate in a prison; I sneered, "Its better." Putting down my half eaten sandwich, which I didn't want anyway, I stood up. "We need to get going now. I'm going to start to pull down the tent."

Both Larry and Don looked a bit startled over my sudden actions but didn't press. I guess they thought I had my reasons for acting cranky and they were right; truth was that if I was going to stay, there was no telling what the outcome would be. I only had a little strength left and if I slowed down I wasn't sure that I would make it.

After we've packed up our gear and pulled the tent down we were on our way again. The hike across the hills proved to more strenuous than I remembered, and I wished I hadn't been so stubborn. Every move hurt and even though I did my best to keep up and to take the lead I felt myself wanting to slip all the time. The sun was high in the sky and it didn't help that it was beastly hot either.

The weather this time of year wasn't normally this hot and if I didn't know better I would say that a thunderstorm was on its way. I had however checked the weather prognosis and they said that the probability of a storm coming up was very low, but there was always the possibility. I had shed my sweatshirt a long time ago and climbing over the rocks it felt as if my whole body was sweltering away. Looking back I saw that both Don and Larry were lagging behind and they were doing their best to follow me. They sweated just as badly and for a moment it felt as if we had died and gone to hell. That's how hot it was.

"Can't we take a break?" Don called out and I could've hugged my brother for saying those words. My strength was reaching its limits and to tell the truth I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep on walking. I desperately needed to sit down and rest. Larry looked as if he was close to passing out and he constantly wiped his sweat streaked forehead with his handkerchief.

I slugged my backpack down on the ground and then sat down on a rock. It felt so good to get a rest that I immediately closed my eyes. When I looked up I saw Don peering down at me. "Hey, Charlie; how you're doing? You spaced out on us again." His tone was soft and gentle and I had to fight to not let go and tell him how miserable I felt. Instead I shrugged.

"Okay."

"It's damn hot today." Don panted as he picked up a water bottle handing it to me. "Here take it, you'll need some liquid in your system after being sick all night. We don't want you to dehydrate."

Nodding I accepted the offer. Don was right. I needed the liquid. Hopefully the sick feeling in my stomach would go away if I drank something. It felt good the way the cooling liquid ran down my parched throat and slowly I felt myself come back to life again. Larry seemed to feel the same as he seemed to look less tired.

"Charles this is no doubt one of the more strenuous adventures I've partaken in." He took another sip from the water bottle and then a smile lit up on his face, "but you know what? I'm enjoying it."

That last comment was so unexpected coming from a professor that spent most of his time inside his office, studying physics that I started to laugh. Even though I felt as if the flu was still lingering inside my system I agreed. It was great spending time with two out of three men that I cared for most in the world; Don and Larry.

Don however didn't look too amused. He was sweating too profusely and after drinking up the last drop of water he put the empty water bottle in his backpack. "Maybe we should get going then," he said as he looked up across the hills. "So we can set camp before it gets dark."

Still feeling a little woozy from the hike I agreed and picked up my backpack. My arm started to hurt again and every move made it shoot pain through my whole body. Yet I kept on walking like a zombie. The terrain was bad and we had to do a lot of climbing. Even though the natural beauty around me was amazing I concentrated mostly on taking one step after the other and keeping my balance. The headache was at times so bad that all I wanted was to sit down and rest, yet I forced myself to the limits of my endurance.

Suddenly I either stepped wrong or dizziness overwhelmed me; but the next thing I knew I was sitting on the ground with both Don and Larry by my side.

"Charlie…Charlie," they called out for me.

I blinked. Twice.

"What?"

"Are you all right?" That never ending phrase was asked once again.

I nodded, feeling subdued. "Yes."

"You sure?" Don sat hunched beside me.

"Yeah." Sweat rolled down my back, making me feel uncomfortable. "I just needed to sit down."

"Really? To me it looked more as if you took a fall or passed out." Don gave me a sceptical look. "You hurt anywhere?"

'Everywhere,' I wanted to answer. Yet I shook my head. "No, I'm fine."

Larry who had remained quiet most of the time suddenly asked pointing at the horizon. "What's that?"

All eyes turned to the direction the professor pointed at and the sight that lay before us made my heart stop. There, not all that far away the sky was very very dark and by the look of it there could only be one thing.

Storm clouds!

"That's not possible," I whispered as I looked at those frightening dark clouds.

Don changed his expression and back was that irritated big brother look. "I thought you checked the weather channel and that it was no bad weather in sight."

" I did. And it wasn't." Panic surged up inside of me. Spring storms were not exactly unheard of over the mountains, especially when it's April.

"It's a storm coming up." Larry informed us and then started in a rambling way telling us the probability that the storm would hit our location. I had carefully checked several times that there were no storms sneaking up on us and even if the probability showed that there was a small chance that something like this would happen this special weekend. It looked as if fate wanted something else.

"This was not what was supposed to happen," I mumbled as my mind swirled around. The headache made it difficult to think and even though I knew that I was the one with the experience it was Larry that came up with the solution.

"We need to seek shelter. If it's a storm coming; it will most likely be a thunder storm due to the hot climate we've experienced today. There will most likely be a high percent of heavy rain and due to this there will be wind gusts probably reaching 10 to 25 mph and it can go up to over 40 mph."

Don nodded. "You're right Larry. I say we better get going before this thunderstorm hits us." Grabbing his arm under mine he said, "Come on Charlie. Think you'll be able to make it?" The sun that had been so vibrant was gone and replaced by dark almost black clouds. It scared me how fast everything changed up here and how small I felt being in the hands of the weather gods. Don and Larry looked as if they felt just as scared and after we've found a secure space to put down our tent, seeking shelter against the winds that were starting to blow, I sat down; arms wrapped around my knees. Everything on this trip had gone bad so far and by the look of it the worst was yet to come.