They could tell the lava was getting closer to them. Laura could feel her hair slowly being incinerated by the heat of the lava. Luckily, the lava made the slow start to melt, and pulling the sled became easier for her. Brian was thankful for that and Sam was getting jealous because he could tell that Brian was starting to have feelings for her, and not just being friends.

Sam, Laura, and since he was being pulled on a sled, Brian were noticing a sort of ramp, that led down a hill that they could get down. But Jack didn't seem to be so lucky. He had tripped over something that Laura had dropped, and had injured his ankle and could not run well, if not at all. And the lava was coming dangerously close.

But then there was a sudden change in the unpredictable weather. And once again, the temperature plummeted, and along with the natural hardening of the lava, it was not so cold, it had frozen. They were all in complete shock.

The three of them had gotten down the slope, and were waiting for Jack at the bottom. They finally saw that the lava did not get him. When he got there, they had a few questions to ask him.

"What temperature does lava freeze at?" Laura asked

"I, I don't know." Jack replied quietly because he was out of breath.

"I didn't know it could!" Brian added

"That's not what we should be worried about now." Sam said, pointing at the slope that had saved their lives.

"What, what is that?" Laura asked

It was nothing that they had seen before, nothing they know how to ward off. It was something that had managed to survive under the snow, with the heat of the magma. It looked like a mountain lion mixed with some sort of tiger. More like a Saber-tooth Tiger.

"It looks like and extinct Saber-Tooth." Brian said

"But they are extinct, how could it be one?" Sam replied questioningly

"Well whatever it is, I don't want it to get close, we already have to outrun a lava flow, and I don't want to have to try to out run some sort of Saber-Tooth Tiger type animal." Laura told them

It was just a mountain lion. But it was in no condition to be friendly. It had not had food in over five weeks, its fur was mangled and up on its ends, it was scowling and baring its teeth. And it was charging right at them.

--------------------------------

They were still exhausted from running away from the lava, but had to keep going to not become the first meal that it had in a while. Laura had to pull even harder than before, this land was flat, but very bumpy, and plagued with displaced rocks. And Sam was beginning to show signs of extreme pain in the leg he had injured. Jack was only one who was only carrying himself, and was the most used to the conditions, but had really tired out trying to escaping the lava flow. And was the closest to the savage animal.

He wasn't as lucky this time. And once again, something had fallen out of the sled, and had tripped Jack. The mountain lion was much faster than they had thought, and he didn't have much time before the creature got to him. Sam wanted to run back to save his dad, but it was too late. If he did that, the mountain lion would have gotten him too. All he could do, it make sure that he, Laura, and Brian would be able to get back and tell what had happened to them, and Jack. He wasn't sure how his mom would take it that he had survived walking to New York, but had been attacked by a mountain lion no more than 50 miles away from the Embassy of the United States. But they didn't know they were that close to it, or they wouldn't have stopped, and waited the night to move on again.

The mountain lion luckily didn't get the sled, with the food on it, so they could eat, but only if they could eat. They still had to leave the corpse of Jack lying there, if they did not, it would make it wore for them, whenever they did try to eat. Now, they had to trust there instincts, and try to find their way back to the place that they now were longing to see.