The next morning Jay climbed out of the makeshift bed. The cot creaked slightly as he stood up and stretched. He went to the closet, pulled some clothes and his toothbrush out of his backpack, and headed into the hall. He saw a few girls lined up outside one of the bathrooms but no line outside the other, so he walked over and opened the door.

Just as the heavy wood slid open, Caden was stepping out, buttoning a white, long-sleeved shirt and carrying more clothes over his arm. "Oh, sorry," Jay said, moving aside to let Caden pass.

Caden smiled, the same unnerving smile he'd displayed the day before. "No problem."

Jay took a quick shower in the small bathroom and changed into clean clothes, then brushed his teeth. He brushed his hair back with his hand and picked up his dirty clothes to carry them out. He remembered seeing a washer and dryer in a tiny room and wondered if it was already being used by someone else.

As he passed through the living room, he heard Diego arguing with Nolan and Trinity.

"We can't go out. It's still pretty rough out there," Nolan was saying.

"You said that yesterday! Are we supposed to wait another day and night to find out anything? I don't plan on spending the whole winter here," Diego said.

"Go if you want to," Trinity told him sharply, "no one is stopping you. But you won't get far in that weather. It's still pretty early, let's give it some time. It might let up."

Diego's hard expression changed to resignation "Alright. I'll wait a little longer, but I'm not letting another whole day get wasted."

In the laundry room, Jay found Harper and Kyrie standing by the washer, dumping in clothes. He decided to try again later and turned to leave, but Harper stopped him. "What color?" she asked.

"Um, excuse me?"

"Your clothes," she said, pointing to the bundle of laundry in his arms. "Are they all dark?"

Jay nodded.

"Oh, you can't wash them with our stuff then," she said, holding up a handful of white and pastel colored clothing. "You can do a load of dark clothes later."

Jay said, "Sure," and left the room. He'd been doing his own laundry at home for the past four years so he knew how to use a washing machine, but it wasn't like his mom taught him how so he was new to the idea of separating things by color.

He passed through the living room again and dumped his dirty clothes on the floor of his room. Back in the hall, he almost collided with Kat as she came out of the bathroom. Some of the clothes she'd been carrying slipped from her hands and Jay stooped down to help her pick them up. "Sorry about that," he said, feeling like he'd been apologizing all morning. Kat shook her head to dismiss the apology and the two of them stood up as he handed her a pair of jeans and a small towel.

As she reached out to get them, he caught a glimpse of dark red marks across the underside of her white wrists. He quickly looked away and pretended not to notice as she thanked him and quietly returned to her room.

In the living room, Nolan and Trinity were sitting on a couch together, talking. It didn't appear to be a casual, friendly conversation, as both of them appeared deep in thought and kept looking at the window to check the status of the blizzard outside. Nolan held a sheet of paper and a pen, and would occasionally stop to write things down.

"Looks like those two are planning something."

Jay flinched at the sudden voice behind him and turned to see Mickie. He smiled by reflex. "Oh, hey Mickie."

She smiled back. "Hey."

He looked back to Nolan and Trinity. "They're probably figuring up how long the food will last or something. Those two seem to be on top of things."

"Yeah," Mickie said, "but I'm still curious." She walked over to them and Jay followed.

Nolan looked up. "Did you guys sleep okay?"

Mickie nodded. "Uh huh. So what are you writing down?"

Nolan held up the sheet of paper. "Trinity and I were just writing down everything we know about this place, everything that happened before we were knocked out or whatever, how much food there is, things like that."

"Sometimes you can notice things you didn't see before if you write stuff down," Trinity said.

On a couch nearby, Diego sighed and rolled his eyes. "I keep saying there's no point in rehashing stuff we already know over and over. You guys are wasting time. We could be out there looking for a way home right now."

Mickie turned to him. "Aren't you the one who thought I was stupid yesterday for thinking we could find help outside?"

"I still think it's stupid. But we might find a road or someone might drive by. We have no chance of getting out of here if we don't do something."

"Look out the window, Diego," Trinity began. "We don't have the gear to be out in that weather for long. We all had a coat in our bags but they're all 'winter in Tennessee' coats, not 'survive a freaking blizzard' coats."

Nolan spoke up too, but with a calm, even voice. "Besides, there's not a lot of visibility out there. None of us are familiar with the area. It would be way too easy for us to get lost in the woods and end up freezing to death."

"I wish they'd left us a clock," Jay said, watching the snow blow past the window. "Then we could at least know how much longer it is until dark."

Mickie shrugged and headed toward the kitchen. She looked at Jay over her shoulder and said, "Wanna join me for breakfast?"

Jay grinned and went with her, ignoring a soft chuckle from Nolan.

The day crept on lazily as various people went to the kitchen for food, washed their clothes, or repeatedly checked the weather. Most of them were surprisingly calm, except for Ginger who occasionally sniffled and wiped her eyes. Nolan sat beside her for a while, giving her a reassuring smile. Jay stood next to the couch as Ginger dried her tears and headed into the kitchen for a snack.

"You're good with kids," Jay remarked.

Nolan looked up at him. "I have a lot of younger siblings, so I'm used to taking care of people. I've had to be an adult since I was twelve."

"So you're the closest thing to an adult here?" Jay asked.

Nolan laughed. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Mind if I ask how old you are?"

"Sixteen," Nolan answered.

"Same here," Jay said. "You look older."

"A lot of people don't look their age. Would you believe Ginger is fourteen?"

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"No way!"

"That's what she told me anyway," Nolan said.

"I thought she was twelve, tops," Jay said, then he remembered the incident in the hallway and said, "Have any idea how old Kat is?"

Nolan looked across the room to where Kat was curled up in a rocking chair with a book in her lap. "Judging by looks alone, I would say twelve. But judging by personality? I would guess older. Maybe fifteen or sixteen."

"What about Trinity?" Jay asked. "She's gotta be eighteen."

"Sixteen, at least for another month," Nolan said.

Jay thought for a moment, then said, "Everyone here is sixteen or younger? Who's the youngest? Shouldn't we figure out what the age range is?"

Nolan sat up. "Yeah, it'd be a good idea to know everyone's ages. I'll round everyone up."

Within minutes, the living room was full of people. Nolan took a clean sheet of paper from the drawer of an end table and went from person to person, writing down their names and asking their ages. As Jay had suspected, everyone was under seventeen. The youngest were Ginger, Quentin, and Leah at fourteen. Fifteen year olds included Harper, Kyrie, and Caden. The rest of them were sixteen.

As Nolan went over the list, his brows slowly knitted together. "Wait, this is only twelve. There are thirteen of us."

Trinity looked around the room. "Who's missing?"

Everyone looked at each other, then Harper suddenly said, "Ah! I know! The guy with glasses!"

"Who?" Diego asked.

"You know... bright blonde hair, polo shirt, kind of a snob..." Harper said.

"Wasn't his name Scott?" Mickie asked.

Nolan looked around the room. "Okay, has anyone seen Scott?"

No one said anything.

"Has anyone seen him since last night?"

Several people shrugged or shook their heads. Nolan headed toward the hall of rooms. "Which room is his?"

Harper stepped ahead of Nolan and walked to one of the doors. "Here, I only noticed because it's right beside mine and I walked in here by mistake yesterday while he was searching the closet."

Most of the others had followed Nolan and Harper into the hallway. Jay and Mickie were close to the front of the line when Nolan knocked on the door. "Scott?" he called, "Are you okay?"

After several seconds of silence, Nolan tried yelling through the door again. When nothing happened, Nolan put his hand on the doorknob. "We need to check. He might be sick or something."

Jay felt a sense of dread as Nolan twisted the doorknob and drew in a sharp breath, holding it without thinking until the door slid open. A gust of wind and snow suddenly hit their faces and the room was freezing cold. Jay saw that the window had been broken completely out, leaving only a gaping hole for the snow to blow into.

"What happened?" Mickie asked, pressing into the room behind Nolan.

Jay followed after her, and once inside, was able to see the crumpled blanket on the cot and what appeared to be several splashes of blood. The blood made a trail that led out the window. "Where's Scott?" someone behind them asked, then Jay heard one of the girls, probably Ginger, scream.

Nolan ran to the window and looked out. "There's blood out here too," he said, before turning and running to his own room. He emerged seconds later with his coat on and headed for the door leading outside.

"Wait," Trinity said, pulling on her own coat, "I'll go with you."

Jay hurried back to his room to get his coat too then the three of them headed outside. The winds were harsh and strong against their faces, making Jay feel like his skin was being cut with a knife. It was still daylight, but it was cloudy, and it was the coldest weather Jay had ever felt.

Trinity, Nolan, and Jay walked slowly around the building, toward Scott's window. When they reached it, Nolan bent down and examined the snow beneath the eave of the roof that hung out over the broken window. "There's still some blood here," he said, then moved a couple of steps away from the window and began digging through the snow with his bare hands. "More blood here. It got covered up pretty deep so it's been here for a while."

"What could have happened?" Trinity asked, raising her voice above the wind.

Nolan looked toward the line of dark trees. "No idea."

"You think he might have gone into the woods?" Jay asked.

"I don't know why he would, but it seems likely. He was definitely out here."

Trinity shoved her hands in her pockets. "Let's go back inside. We can't do anything for Scott out here."

In the living room, the three of them shook the snow off their coats and stood near the fireplace. Everyone else had gathered around. "So? What did you find?" Diego asked.

Nolan held his hands closer to the fire as he spoke. "There was blood outside, but some of it had been covered by the snow. It looks like Scott was outside at some point."

Diego gave him an incredulous look. "What, he threw himself out his window and ran into the woods?"

"If that were the case, there would only be blood outside," Trinity said, "but there was more blood on his cot than we saw in the snow."

Diego turned to her. "And who are you, CSI Camp Blizzard? He could have broken the window from the inside, bled all over the cot, then jumped through."

Jay frowned at him. "Why the hell would he do that?"

"How should I know?" Diego said. "Maybe he was on crack. Maybe he's a psychopath. We literally know nothing about this guy. He could be running around out there with an axe for all we know."

Ginger gasped and Kyrie put an arm around her shoulders, saying, "Don't worry, Diego has no idea what he's talking about."

"He didn't take his coat," Mickie said.

Diego turned to her. "What?"

She held up a dark green coat. "This was in his closet. He didn't take it, which means he probably didn't intend to go outside."

Jay felt that creeping dread again. Everyone instantly thought it, but Jay was the first to say, "Someone pulled him out."

There was a silence over the group for several moments as everyone let the information sink in, then Diego suddenly said, "Who did it?"

Everyone looked at each other, suspicion and fear on several faces. "Is one of us a murderer?" Ginger asked.

"No," Nolan said, still facing the fire, "No one here pulled him out."

"How do you know that?" Diego demanded.

"Because I saw footprints under his window. The eaves of the porch kept most of the snow from covering them."

Jay was surprised. He hadn't seen any footprints and he wondered why Nolan hadn't mentioned it outside. "How do you know none of us left the footprints?" he asked.

Nolan's eyes never left the fire as he said, "Because they're way too big to belong to any of us."

Silence again, then Diego broke it once more. "So now we've got Bigfoot outside?"

Nolan didn't respond, but Trinity shot Diego a warning look and said, "Whatever or whoever it was, they clearly attacked Scott. We should assume they could possibly attack again."

Ginger was crying again and Kyrie pulled her closer. "You can sleep in my room tonight," she said.

"That's a good idea," Trinity said, "Everyone should double up."

Harper spoke up. "I'm not sharing a room with anyone. Any of you could have killed Scott and made fake footprints in the snow! I don't trust anyone here."

"That's actually a good point," Mickie said.

Trinity sighed. "Alright, double up if you want to. If you don't, no one can force you. But if you want to stay in someone else's room, you better start moving your cots now. It's getting late and it'll be hard to make sleeping arrangements after the lights go out."

Several people headed to the hallway and Jay heard the sounds of cots being dragged across the wooden floor. Nolan finally left the fire and approached Quentin. "Want to stay in my room tonight?" he asked.

"Sure," Quentin said, looking a little relieved.

Jay walked over to them. "Room for one more?"

Nolan smiled. "Of course."

"Thanks," Jay said, "I really didn't want to room with Diego and Caden creeps me the hell out."

Jay went to his room and began dragging his cot out. In the hall, he bumped into Mickie, who was heading into her room. "Are you really sleeping alone tonight?" he asked.

"Yeah. Until I'm sure no one here is secretly a serial killer, I don't like the idea of sleeping beside them."

"But what if it was someone else? Someone from outside?" he asked. "You'd be in danger."

She gave him a smile, obviously detecting the concern in his voice. "I'll be real careful. I'll sleep with one eye open."

With that, she walked into her room and shut the door behind her. Jay couldn't help worrying that he wouldn't see her again. He forced the thought out of his mind and finished dragging his cot to Nolan's room, where Quentin's cot was already set up. Nolan was checking the locks on the windows when Jay came in.

"The locks probably won't help since Scott's window was broken, but I thought I might as well check them anyway," Nolan said.

Jay sat down on his cot after settling on a position for it. "Okay, be honest. Is there a chance one of us made those footprints?"

Nolan sat down on his own cot. "I guess so. They looked awfully convincing though."

Quentin wheeled up close to his cot and lifted himself over to it with such ease that it was clear he'd been using a wheelchair for a long time and was very used to it. "Did they really look like Bigfoot prints?" he asked.

Nolan shook his head. "I don't know what Bigfoot prints look like, but these looked human. Just... really big."

"That's why they call him Bigfoot," Jay said.

Quentin laughed and Nolan chuckled.

"If one of us did fake the footprints," Jay said, "who do you think it would be?"

Nolan laid back on his cot, his hands behind his head. "I don't even want to think about it. If we start suspecting each other, we'll all fall apart. We have to stick together until we figure out what's going on."

Jay laid down too. "Okay, I'll just throw this out there, but I think Caden is an axe murderer."

Quentin had laid down but he shot back up. "Really?"

Jay nodded. "Yeah. I don't even know why, but something about him really freaks me out."

"He's just a little strange," Nolan said, then after a brief pause, added, "probably."

"But let's keep this to ourselves, okay?" Jay said, "If he finds out I'm talking shit about him, he might stab me or something."

Quentin laughed again. Nolan closed his eyes and said, "Don't worry. If he tries to murder you, I'll back you up."

Jay grinned as the lights went out. "Thanks. I feel safer already."