A/N: Truth be told, when I started the story back in February, my plan had been to publish and update (and finish) this quickly. And then I hit a wall. Mentally obviously. While I just discovered earlier I actually have three more chapters of this, the story is still quite a bit away from being close to getting finished. But it will get there. I'll try to work on this one parallel to Cover Star and hopefully have both wrapped up sooner rather than later.

Since it seemed like everyone but me wanted to get the real experience and built their own hut or cave or whatever they would be doing, Lester decided to join Bobby's group as a second advisor and therefore split the group into two smaller ones. While I figured eight weren't that many, I guess if you had to explain to all of them the basics of construction it made more sense to have less people in a group so that everyone would listen to what you actually said.

"Looks like it's you and me, Stephanie," Carlos said to me when the throng of people had left further into the forest, probably scouting locations or things they could use to build their quarters.

"I didn't know this was an option. But I am also not sure I would trust myself to build something durable that would withstand the pressure of weather."

"In my experience out of the eight, four will probably have a very cold night ahead of them, assuming they think that they know everything and realizing they don't."

"How many of these weekends have you held?" I asked curious and he seemed to think about this for a long moment.

"Does it sound bad if I say way more than I'd like to admit to?" he asked, sounding amused to some degree without actually smiling. There was something in his voice that laced it with a hint of hilarity.

"Aren't you enjoying them?"

He let out what I would describe as a mix between sigh and a breath as first response. "Mostly. People's ways and their expectations are just changing."

Amen to that. While my job didn't require me to be around a lot of people, it was hard for me to imagine being around people regularly who seemed to wait for the world to come to an end and prepare for that to happen. A little bit too much on the side of pessimism for me.

"While everyone else is going to build something, I should maybe get my stuff out of the car and get started on my own shelter," I suggested, got up and walked the short distance towards the car that thankfully was still unlocked.

Retrieving my duffle bag as well as my small tent, I walked my way back towards what I figured would be the camp grounds and placed everything on the ground.

"I figure we'll stay here?" I asked Carlos, who just nodded. "Can I just pick whatever I like best or should I wait for the others to come back and make this a somewhat fair contest?"

"There's plenty of space around here and even if someone might want to have a space that is a little more protected from the elements, they could just go further into to woods. Pick whatever you fancy."

I looked around and for unknown reasons found the spot between a large tree as a massive bush most appealing. It seemed well protected from wind and if it started raining the tree would hopefully keep most of it away from me and my tent. The grounds were pretty even and flat, free from wrenches and rocks and debris and not as covered in moss and other wet plants as other spots around me. While my tent was waterproof – at least I hoped it was – it might be beneficial to not pick the wettest spot in the entire forest.

"You did good," I heard Carlos all of a sudden behind me, having moved closer to inspect what I had chosen.

"Yeah?" I asked incredulous. I had no idea what I was doing and went with what I liked and maybe what made some sort of sense. But maybe an expert would state that the bush could provide a problem with predators hiding in there, or that a tree could be a problem when lightning struck. Not that it seemed like there were thunderstorms in my near future. But you never knew.

"Pretty well sheltered, good base to erect your tent and also the added benefit of hiding. While animals won't be much of an issue around here, it is always smart to not be in plain sight. Especially when nature wildlife isn't the only thing you need to worry about."

"Alright then, let's put this thing up."

Removing the protective sleeve of what I hoped would be my tent and not a mislabeled umbrella, I placed all the parts around me and studied the instructions on how to put this thing together and taking the first few rods to create my first pole.

"I take it by the way you approach this, that you haven't put up a lot of tents in your life?"

"Should I be offended?" I asked amused, placing the instruction manual next to me on the ground.

"No, the studying of the instructional manual just doesn't show off a lot of confidence," he stated and with a bit of an imagination I could even pretend to see a smile. He took my just assembled pole and disassembled it again, just to put another rod with my first one. Within seconds he had all my poles together and I guess I could get started on my actual tent.

"Erecting a tent is actually rather easy," Carlos explained, moving closer to my side and pressing one of the poles in my hand. "You just take the tent, find the opening for the first pole and insert it until you create an arc."

To show me what he was talking about, he took his pole and placed it into a tiny opening at the bottom and pushed it in, bending it at the top slightly to make it go down the other side of the tent.

"That's the first part. Now you try," he offered and I took my part of the tent and tried to find the opening at the bottom and slowly inserted the rod for a few inches until I was met with resistance. I pushed a bit harder until the pole moved some more and after some while managed the same result as Carlos had, being presented with something resembled a tent. I figured this wasn't all, but it looked like a good start at least.

"Next you decide where you want your tent, place a mat on the ground and put your tent on top. Once you established that, all that's left is to secure it to the ground so that it doesn't get blown away if unoccupied during the day. For that you use the little cords at the bottom corners of your tent and fix them with hooks that come with every tent. You just have to get them well into the ground and you are set."

I looked at what he was talking about, saw the four slings and found the hooks pretty quickly in the bag the tent came in. While the tent came with a small tool that would help me get these hooks into the ground, I figured since I was on a Survival Trip I might as well get a little creative and use what was around me. Wasn't that what this trip would be about eventually? So, I got up and looked around, finding quickly some heavier and bigger rocks that could work well as a hammer.

Carlos seemed to look confused at first but only nodded somewhat approvingly when I came back with the rock and used it on the first hook.

"I'm here to learn something after all," I only remarked, finishing with my task quickly, though struggling with the last hook. It was after all only mid-February and the ground was occasionally still a little frozen from the last snow a few weeks back.

"Can I ask you a slightly stupid question?" I said after a long while had past and we had been silent for most of it, while staring dumbly at my tent.

I saw him just nod and realized that Carlos didn't seem to be a man of many words. Whenever he spoke it was usually not more than necessary and hardly any flourishing. Straight and to the point. Maybe he only blossomed – so to speak – when it was about something he needed to explain to the group and that was involved with the whole survival aspect of things?

"Maybe question was the wrong term. It is more along the lines of a request," I corrected myself and saw him look at me with a slight confusion marring his face. "I'm almost certain this might cut into your curriculum of things, but do you think we could get a head start on creating a fire? I don't mean to rush things along and get ahead of things, but a little bit of heat would be wonderful," I suggested and didn't care that I sounded like I was begging once more. I was starting to get really, really cold and the last thing I needed to take home from this was a bronchitis or even pneumonia.

"Are you cold?" he asked and as if to prove a point my hand reached for his arm, just so he could come to his own conclusion.

Previous boyfriends had always complained how I seemed to be always cold and how I challenged an icicle on some days, usually flinching away when my cold hands – or feet – come in contact with any body part of their. So, me being cold wasn't unusual as such. What was, however, was the fact that I felt the chill down to my bones. While I wasn't shivering or anything in that regards, I did feel like parts of my anatomy were no longer functioning properly.

"How are you this cold," he asked, seeming confused at this seemed to be a possibility.

"I don't seem to get warm at all. Ever since we arrived, I have tried to heat up, but nothing really has worked so far."

He looked at me for a long moment, seeming lost in thought and probably contemplating what to do next, before he walked away without another word.

'Okay than', I thought to myself, watching him walk into the woods, but returning after a few, long minutes, carrying an array of sticks and wood.

"We can always repeat the process at a later stage, especially since most people need a few tries to succeed and I consider saving you from pneumonia more important than teaching you how to create sparks."

It was almost impressive how quickly Carlos got to work and produced a fire within seconds, feeding the flames until I could feel a nice heat start to penetrate my skin and seep into my bones. It was slow process, but it was for once something that seemed like it could work. And for now, that seemed all that mattered – and that I wouldn't die of pneumonia of course. Life was all about priorities…