They continued in this vein for almost an hour before Kelly Norton held them up with an upraised hand.

“What is it?” Cat asked. “Why are we stopping?”

“I?m not sure,” the doc replied, voice slightly muffled. “I can?t see much, but there?s something about this that I don?t like.”

As if by providence, the moon chose that moment to sail out from behind the rapidly dwindling clouds. By the moon?s eerie, ghostly light, they were all able to see that Norton?s instincts had undoubtedly saved their lives.

“Holy Jesus,” Cat breathed, looking down an almost sheer cliff face that dropped off below them not more than five steps away. “I guess I wasn?t kidding when I said I was afraid we?d wander off a mountain, was I.”

Dylan slowly lowered her end of the stretcher, prompting Cat to do the same. Once Johnson was safely on the ground, Dylan came around his prone body and walked almost to the edge of the cliff. “Long drop,” she remarked softly.

“You?re not kidding,” Norton replied eyeing the almost bottomless well yawing before them.

“What do we do now?” Cat asked.

A low scud of clouds crossed the moon, painting the world black again.

“I think it?s best if we stop for the night,” Dylan said, her voice discouraged. “I know it won?t help Horace any, but we can?t risk walking any more in the dark. It?s just too dangerous, now that we know what we?re up against. We can start out again at dawn.”

Cat nodded and touched Dylan lightly on the back, knowing how much it had cost her coach to make that decision.

“I?ll have to agree,” Norton said, turning away from the chasm. “Let?s move back to that little clearing we passed through and pray that no one walks in their sleep.”

While Kelly Norton took care of settling Johnson and tending to his needs as best she could, Dylan and Cat took care of gathering as much fallen wood as they could. Many of the branches had been sheltered from the worst of the storm by the trees towering above them, and they both soon returned with armfuls of kindling with which to start a fire. Norton leant them her Zippo and soon a warm fire was blazing in a good sized clearing in the woods.

“With any luck,” Dylan remarked, “any rescue passing overhead will see this and know where we are.”

“I hope so,” Cat replied rubbing her arms with her hands as her teeth chattered. “God, I?m freezing!” Then she doubled over with a coughing fit that left her cheeks an alarming shade of plum. “S-sorry b-bout that,” she said when she could finally straighten.

Dylan moved to her smaller friend, expression deeply concerned, and opened her arms. “Come here.”

Cat moved to her and they settled down together next to a downed tree and near fire. They booth looked at Norton, who gave them a grim thumbs up.

“He?ll freak if he come to and sees this,” Cat remarked between the shivers, as Dylan drew a coat over them.

“Ask me if I give a flying fuck at the moment.” Dylan felt her knee really starting to stiffen and visions of more surgery flashed through her mind. “Are you getting warmer?”

“Yes, thank you. You?re a great hot water bottle.”

“Well, sharing body heat is about the only way we?re going to ward off hypothermia, so feel free to cuddle all you like.”

“You know you didn?t have to order a plane crash to get me to put my arms around you.”

Dylan chuckled and kissed the top of Cat?s head. “Well, you know me, when I do something I do it big.”

As the night wore on, Cat finally fell into a restless slumber. Dylan remained about half awake and could hear Cat?s cold coming back with a vengeance as she began to cough and wheeze. She held her tighter, relishing the feel of the smaller woman in her arms, and rested a damp cheek against Cat?s soft hair.

Please God, get us out of here.

Dawn was still many hours away when Dylan was roused from a light, very fitful sleep by a sound out of place with those around her.

As she blinked the sleep from her eyes, she cocked her head, willing the sound to return so that she could identify it.

The rain had stopped, allowing the normal night sounds of the thick forest to take over once again. A soft moan came from slightly below her, and Dylan looked down to see Cat huddled tightly against her, face streaked and shiny with sweat. She was mumbling incoherently within the grip of some fevered dream, and her body was emitting a great heat.

“Shit,” Dylan swore softly through gritted teeth as she shifted slightly, trying to make a more comfortable nest for the uneasy Cat.

“Dylan,” Norton called, sharply. “Help me. He?s coding.”

“Wha—?” Carefully, but quickly, easing herself away from Cat, Dylan half ran, half stumbled her way around the fire to where Johnson lay, ignoring the agony in her knee.

“You need to help me. We have to start CPR but with this broken arm, I can?t do compressions. If you can do them, I?ll work on mouth-to-mouth, okay?”

“What about her?” Dylan asked, pointing to the platinum blonde head that peeked out from beneath the solar blanket as she awkwardly knelt down beside Johnson.

“Dead to the world. C?mon, Dylan, I need your help.”

“Alright,” Dylan replied shortly, getting into position and placing the heel of her hand on the lower third of his sternum as Norton knelt at his head and tilted his head back, opening his airway. “Ready?”

Nodding, Norton bent her head and delivered two quick breaths. Coming up, she nodded to Dylan, who began compressions, counting each one out in a slow, liquid rhythm. After two rounds of compressions and rescue breathing, Norton called a halt and felt for a pulse.

There wasn?t one.

“Shit. Ok, start again.”

Several more rounds continued in the same vein. With the same result.

They were getting ready to resume when Dylan stiffened and cocked her head, listening.

“What is it?”

“Helicopter.”

“You?re kidding, right?”

“No, listen.”

As Dylan continued compressions, Norton looked up through the leafy canopy, then grinned when she saw a large searchlight playing back and forth in slow arcs over the ground. “They found us!”

“Not yet they haven?t.”

Taking a deep breath, Dylan briefly rested all of her weight on her injured knee and lashed out behind her with her good leg, impacting the stuporous body of the blond bimbo behind her.

Said bimbo rolled over from the force of the blow, and remained where she lay, completely out for the count.

“You sure she isn?t the one we should be doing this to?” Dylan asked, eyebrow raised as her hands continued to press down on Johnson?s sternum.

“Hey, that was some powerful shit I gave her.”

“You sound like a streetcorner drug dealer.” Dylan gratefully took a rest as Norton breathed for Johnson. Looking behind her, she noticed Cat?s huddled form near the fire. She looked up, still tracking the circling helicopter. Shit. I don?t wanna do this. She needs her rest. Damn.

“Cat!!”

Hodge fought her way up through layers of fevered images, horrifying and terrifically sharp in their intensity.

“Cat!!”

It was as if she was swimming, and the nebulous voice calling out to her was some bizarre lifeline. She headed toward it as the dizzying dream images conspired to lay false traps for her consciousness.

“Cat! Wake up!!”

Her eyes snapped open and she quickly, without realizing it, rolled to her feet, balanced on the balls like a fighter ready for attack.

Then the nausea hit, sinking its claws into her belly and twisting.

Dylan was saying something to her?screaming it, really?but she couldn?t understand the words over the sick thumping in her head and the queasy accompaniment of her guts. To take her mind off of both, she squinted, trying to determine, through a fuzzy and vapor locked mind, exactly why Dylan was kneeling by Horace Johnson and why she was pressing his chest like that.

The answer hit her like a ton of rubble, and she stagger-stumbled her way over to Dylan?s side, bighting back the urge to collapse into a shivering ball only with the greatest of wills.

“Oh my god! Is he?”

“Never mind that,” Dylan bit off, resuming her rhythmic compressions. “There?s a helicopter out there looking for us. Grab the spare flashlight and try to flag them down, okay?”

“Um?yeah. I can do that.”

“Still nothing,” Norton said, feeling for a pulse as Dylan paused.

“Cat?”

“Yes?”

“Hurry.”

The urgency in Dylan?s voice cut through the fever-fog, and Cat jumped to, bending quickly to scoop up the large flashlight and running out into the forest. When she tipped the light upward, she realized that the canopy above was much too thick to allow the beam to penetrate, so she continued to run forward, half-remembering another large clearing they?d passed through earlier that night. Or this morning.

Or whenever it was.

Finally, the overhead canopy broke and she strode out into the large, roughly circular clearing, and swung her flashlight upwards in large, beckoning arcs. “Hey!!” she shouted, knowing they couldn?t hear her, but some part of her needing to try. “Hey! We?re here!! Hey!!!”

The shouting touched off another coughing spell, this one so silent that it doubled her over and almost caused her to lose her grip on the flashlight. As she gasped for breath, she feebly waved the light, praying desperately that they would see her and respond.

A moment later, the helicopter?s huge searchlight blinked on, then off, then on again, and a thin rope lolled out of the open door, followed quickly by a man clad in an orange jumpsuit who shimmied down the rope and to the ground.

“Oh,” Cat gasped, “thank you god. Thank you.”

When she was finally able to straighten, she saw the man hit the ground and come running toward her, bulky duffel in his hand. “Miss? Are you alright?”