It was weeks before they figured out if Brian was alive or if he was not. He was not dead, but not really alive. They could see him breathing, but not any movement. Sam's leg wound had started to heal, but it wasn't getting any better. Laura and Jack still were forced to move both of them when they walked, and had to worry about whether they were on the edge of an unseen cliff.

"I am glad that Brian is not dead. He was kinda the one that kept us going, even though he didn't really seem to do too much." Laura told Jack

"True, but we can't worry about that now; we have to find somewhere to sleep tonight." Jack responded

Just then, a moan was heard. Laura asked Sam if it was him- he quickly told her it wasn't. It was Brian. Now they had definite proof that he was not dead. All they wanted to do was hug him; so that he knew him being hit wasn't for nothing.

Luckily, they resisted. And only because Laura informed them that if they did, they could crush something and he would die. At this point, Brian could talk, and thanked her for saying what she did to save him.

They figured that they couldn't be too far from the embassy, but they didn't know how far they were. Since the plane incident when they thought they saw it, they had guessed they had gone about 250 miles or so.

But, the truth was, that they had gone 250 miles west, instead of north-west. And once again, they had to find their way back to the spot they were before. They started to walk, but then remembered that they had gone that way to try to get around the plateau edge, so they started to go north to try to see if there was a better way down, than straight down.

"What if we are stuck on here until who knows when?" Brian asked

"And what if we can't find anymore food, or a source of a shelter?" Sam added

"Well, we are going to have to move on through the night, and hope we don't go crashing off a cliff and plummet to our death." Jack said to that

Laura stood there and listened to them bicker and chuckled at the sarcasm of Jack, or she hoped that it was sarcasm. She was feeling the same way as Sam, and thought that if he didn't get hurt, he would have been more of a valuable leader, than his dad was. She didn't say this though, or she felt that Brian would try to jump of a cliff, to show that what she said had an effect on more than just Sam.

The next day was sunnier, and they could barely see because of the glare from the snow. But they still had to keep moving. Sam had begun to be able to walk. And now they could only hope that he would not fall, or slip, so that he would be in the same position he, and they were in before. They felt that they were almost worse off than they were when had had to be pulled in a sled.

What they didn't know was that during the storm, a volcano had risen, and was just waiting to erupt. And it wasn't going to wait until they had passed by it for that to happen. But it wouldn't really matter- because even if they were passed it, the lava good get to them, a melt what gear they had.

"What is that smell?" Brian asked

"I don't know- but it's definitely not something I have ever smelled before." Sam replied

"I know what that smell is" Jack said "it's a volcano, and it's erupting!"

"But I thought that there are no volcanoes in the middle of whatever country we are on" Laura said "I didn't even think that it was near a plate line."

At just that moment, they saw they lava coming close to them. They didn't know where to go; it would get anywhere they could go. All they could do was run, and hope the lava couldn't catch up to them and that they won't run off in the wrong direction, and head right for the ocean.