The fishing trip had not gone as planned. Anything and everything had gone wrong. It had rained the entire time and they hadn't caught any fish. Johnny had broken his new reel and the only thing Roy had caught was a cold. The night before, the tent's waterproofing had given up and they ended up sleeping in the cramped quarters of the Rover.

Johnny and Roy were thoroughly disgusted and decided to call an end to their misery and head home a day early.

"Ah, Choo!" Roy sneezed loudly.

"Geshundheit." One.

"Ah, Choo!"

"Bless you." Johnny smirked, That's two.

"Choo!"

"Bless you." That's three.

"Ah, Ah Choo!"

"Bless." That's four.

"Choo!"

"Bless you again." We're up to five. Will he go for the record?

Johnny was amazed at how many times his partner could sneeze in a row. Counting Roy's multiple sneezes had become his private little road game. As far as he was concerned it beat counting bottles of beer on the wall and state license plates.

Roy noisily blew his nose.

Darn, I'm sure he could have gone for six or maybe seven that time.

"How ya feeling?" Johnny felt for the guy, he really did. Even though Roy's misery had become something to keep him amused on the long drive home.

"Nokay," Roy sniffed, reaching back into his backpack for his Vicks inhaler and some more aspirins.

JoAnne is gonna be pissed at me. She warned me this trip was a bad idea and that it would probably rain the entire time. But no, did I listen.Left nostril, inhale deep, inhale. Right nostril, inhale and inhale. She also told me I'd better not come home with a cold. I'm dead meat!

Roy popped two aspirins into his mouth and considered sticking his head out the window to wash them down, thinking the rain on his face would probably feel pretty good right about now. Instead he took a deep swig of water from his canteen and swallowed.

Roy closed his eyes and tried to doze off. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before in the Rover. He'd spent the night shivering in between Johnny's punches, jabs and carefully placed kicks.

"Roy, do you see what I see?" Johnny exclaimed, pointing to something down the road as he slowed the vehicle.

Roy jumped and blinked, trying to follow Johnny's finger.

"Pull over!" Roy yelled, as he made out the object Johnny was pointing at.

On the right hand shoulder of the road there was a small dark mound. It appeared to be a body.

Before Johnny had the Rover to a complete stop, Roy jumped out of the car and ran over to the still form.

Johnny stopped the Rover and jumped out to assist Roy, he stopped in his tracks as he saw his partner jump back.

"Come on over, join the party," a strange voice invited.

Johnny approached the two slowly. Within a couple of feet of them he realized why Roy had suddenly stopped. In the man's left hand there was a gun and the barrel was pointed directly beneath Roy's chin.

Roy stood as still as he could with his hands out at his sides. He didn't want to do anything to provoke this man. He wished he could keep from shivering and prayed that he didn't sneeze.

"Hey, take whatever you want. Just don't hurt any one man. It's cool," Johnny held out his keys as an offering to the gunman. He hoped that the guy would just take the keys and go.

"Don't worry, I intend to. But first, we're going for a little ride."

Neither Johnny nor Roy liked the sound of this.

"You," the man gestured to Johnny with his free hand. "Get back in that jeep. I wouldn't try anything cute, or your friend here will need some serious plastic surgery."

Johnny knew the man meant business and didn't dare do anything that might get Roy shot. He slowly went back to the Rover and got in behind the wheel.

The man spun Roy around and grabbed the back of his collar, pushing him towards the Rover. Reaching the Rover, Roy opened the passenger door. The man pulled back hard on Roy's collar causing him to choke.

"Me first," he said with a very sick smile.

The man shifted the direction of the weapon to Johnny as he climbed into the backseat, never taking his grip off of Roy's shirt.

Roy thought his own collar would strangle him, as the man pulled him into the front passenger seat and continued to hold on.

"Drive!"

Johnny started the Rover and pulled back onto the road. He didn't dare to ask where. He stole a quick glance at his partner and noticed that Roy looked very pale. Looking into the rear view mirror at his own reflection, he could see that his coloring wasn't much darker.

"Turn right at the next junction."

Johnny complied making sure that he didn't make any sudden turns. The man now had the gun pointed to Roy's left temple.

The gunman had Johnny drive for what seemed like several hours, taking many twists and turns through the mountainside. At first, Johnny had tried to keep track of how many turns they had made but had lost count. He had no idea where they were. The rain slowed and then stopped as they reached their destination.

"Here we are, turn left."

Johnny complied and pulled onto a very muddy dirt road.

"Stop!"

Johnny pulled the vehicle to the quickest stop he could without alarming the gunman.

"You out, go to the front of the jeep and put your hands on the hood."

The man motioned to Johnny with the gun.

Roy watched as his partner followed the man's instructions.

"Now your gonna get out nice and slow, and you're gonna go join your friend."

Roy got slowly out of the passenger side again. Gagging as the man kept a firm grip on his shirt collar. He waited for the gunman to get out of the back seat and they walked over to the front of the Rover.

"You," the man indicated pointing the gun at Johnny. "Sit down over there." The man used the gun to point to a spot about 6 feet away.

Johnny held his hands in the air as he went slowly over to sit on the wet ground that was indicated by the gunman.

"You, join him." The man commanded, as he flung Roy in the direction of Johnny.

Roy managed to maintain his footing, he was thankful that he didn't fall face first into the wet ground beside his partner.

Both men sat quietly staring at the man with the gun before him.

"You know, I'm just not sure what I should do with the two of you. I could just shoot you both and no one would ever find your bodies, except maybe a couple of wolves."

Both men shuddered at the thought the man proposed.

"But that wouldn't be very sporting of me now would it? Seeing as how you two Good Samaritans tried to do me a favor, I'm going to do you one."

Johnny and Roy glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

"In fact, I'm feeling quite magnanimous at this very instant. So take of your shoes!" The man ordered.

Johnny and Roy sat dumbfounded.

"Ah gentlemen, I said, take off your shoes. Socks too. NOW!" The man pointed the gun directly at them.

Johnny and Roy quickly untied and pulled off their boots and socks. Placing them in a pile before them.

"Now, I'm sure that we all agree that your lives have value and that you enjoy living. So I'm sure you won't mind paying me to stay that way. So please feel free to make the appropriate donations to a good and worthy cause – ME!"

Johnny and Roy pulled out their wallets from their back pockets and added them to the pile with their shoes and socks.

"You, yes you. You have the honor of putting this into the front seat of the jeep." The gunman motioned to Roy and then to the pile of their belongings. "No funny stuff, or I might get very angry and kill your friend."

Roy quickly rose and followed the man's instructions, placing his and Johnny's boots, socks and wallets onto the front passenger seat.

Roy held his hands in the air as he slowly walked back to where Johnny was still sitting.

"Tell you what, with all this generosity I'm feeling at the moment. I'm gonna count to five, and if either one of you is still here. You're dead. One…"

Roy quickly ran over to Johnny who was still sitting on the ground and hauled him to his feet.

"Two…"

They both turned and ran in the opposite direction of the gunman.

"Three…"

They had made it about 10 feet away from the Rover.

"Four…"

Roy knew they weren't out of shooting range and both of them were nice big targets.

"Five…"

Roy grabbed Johnny's arm as he jumped over the edge of the roadway into a ravine pulling Johnny with him.

They both heard the shot ring out and felt it whiz by their heads as they began their fall into the crevice. They tumbled and somersaulted about 20 feet before coming to a stop at the bottom.

They could hear the man's sick and twisted laughter drift down to them, as they lay at the bottom in a tangled heap too afraid to move. The next sound they heard was that of the Rover starting up and being driven away.

"Ah, Johnny do you think you could get off of me?"

"Oh, sorry."

Johnny tried to shift his position to get off of his friend.

"Ouch!"

In shifting his position, Johnny stepped on Roy's right hand.

"Sorry. I guess you should be thankful I wasn't wearing any boots."

Roy wasn't amused as he started to sneeze again.

Johnny wondered how Roy had managed not to sneeze when they were with the gunman. He was thankful that Roy hadn't, or he'd probably be dead right now.

Both of them began to take a physical assessment to see how much damage they had done to themselves in the fall.

Johnny found that his left knee seemed a little strained. He could put his weight on it and as long as he didn't press it, he would be alright. He also had a number of cuts, scrapes and bruises on his arms, face and chest.

Roy seemed to have an equal number of cuts, scrapes and bruises on the same places as his partner. But his right arm was bothering him. He ran his left hand down the length of his forearm but found no broken bones, but it sure hurt like it was broken.

Johnny watched his partner and saw him checking out his arm.

"Here, let me take a look at it." Johnny stated as he grabbed Roy's arm.

"It's okay, nothing broken."

"Let me be the judge of that."

Roy rolled his eyes at his partner as Johnny assessed his arm.

"Ow! Would you be careful, that hurts." Roy exclaimed, trying to pull his arm back.
"So what's your diagnosis Dr. Kildare?"

"It's not broken."

"No duh, I told you that."

"But the bones feel bent."

"What? What do you mean bent?" Roy was beginning to think that Johnny had hit his head in the fall.

"I dunno, they just don't seem straight. They are kinda arced. " Johnny was confused, he had never felt an arm like that.

Roy pulled his arm back away from his partner and slowly rubbed it with his good hand trying to ease some of the pain.

"Roy, we're gonna have to get out of here. Just in case our friend decides to come back and pay us a little visit."

Nodding, Roy rose to his feet and pulled Johnny up from the ground with his good hand.

"Let's just get one thing straight. That guy was no friend of mine." Roy growled as he rubbed his left hand around the ligature marks on his neck. "Well, which way do we go?"

"That way." Johnny pointed to the right. "Maybe if we keep the road on our right we can find our way back out of here."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Crunch.

"Ow!"

Snap.

"Ouch!"

Crack.

"Damn!"

Crunch.

"Umph!"

"Ah, Choo!"

"Geshundheit."

"Ah, Ah Choo!"

"Bless you." That's two.

Each step was a new experience in agony. Without their shoes everything they stepped on; twigs, rocks, pine needles, seemed to embed themselves into the soles of their feet. At the rate they were moving it would be a very long and slow journey back to civilization.

In their wanderings, they had become separated from the roadway by a small hill. Neither one of them had the energy to climb to the top of the hill to keep the road in sight. Both had opted for going around the front of it instead.

About two hours into their journey, it began to rain again.

Roy looked up to the heavens with a "why me" expression. Wishing he had his warm sheep skin jacket and his new hiking boots, the ones JoAnne had given him for his birthday. But both of them were in the Rover, he sure wished that guy caught his cold.

"We're gonna need to find shelter for the night." Johnny uttered to his partner.

Johnny had noticed that Roy had become very quiet. He really hadn't said much in the last hour except to swear, sneeze or cough. He knew that with Roy's cold, he needed to get him out of the rain.

"Where do you suggest?" Roy was tired and sore. He really wasn't angry with his friend, he was just sick and wanted to go home. He had been really looking forward to sleeping in his own nice warm bed that night.

Johnny ignored Roy's grouchiness, he knew he probably wasn't angry with him. Looking over to his partner so that he could assess Roy's physical condition, he spied a dark opening near the hillside.

"Over there!" Johnny exclaimed, running towards what appeared to be a small cave.

"Oh goody." Roy mumbled, as he tried to follow his partner. Where the hell does he get all that energy!

Johnny pulled up short as his left knee started to protest and completed the trip limping. Roy noticed Johnny suddenly pull up lame and quickly ran over to check his partner.

As Roy reached Johnny, he started to cough. Hobbling and coughing they made their way over to the cave's opening.

"I sure hope nobody's home?" Roy managed to eke out between the sporadic hacks.

Suddenly, the two of them began to laugh. With the luck they were having, it would probably be a bear cave.

Johnny picked up a rock and threw it inside to see if anything stirred or came out. Luckily, nothing appeared at the entrance and they couldn't hear anything except the rock hitting what they hoped was the far back wall of the cave.

"After you Alphonse." Roy bowed and gestured with a wave of his good arm.

"No, after you Gelfant." Johnny mimicked Roy's gesture.

"No, I insist."

Roy spun Johnny around and kicked him in the butt towards the opening of the cave.

"Hey!"

The cave wasn't very large and both men had to stoop over when standing, but at least it was dry. They sat across from each other shivering from the wet and the cold.

Roy started to cough again, with more intensity this time. Johnny knew that he needed to do something to warm Roy up before he caught pneumonia, if he hadn't already. Johnny headed out of the cave.

"Hey, where you off to?" Roy asked.

"I'm gonna see if I can find something to start a fire with."

Johnny was gone about five minutes before he returned with an armload of leaves, twigs and branches. He noticed upon his return that Roy had managed to dig out a small circular pit to use for the fire.

Placing his armload upon the ground toward the back of the cave, Johnny put a couple of handfuls of leaves and some small twigs into the hole and taking two larger sticks began rubbing them together.

Roy looked on in amusement as Johnny vigorously rubbed the two sticks together.

"How's it coming? Think we'll have a fire before next week?"

"Cute. And I bet you can do better?" Johnny shoved the two sticks at Roy.

Roy shrugged as he slowly reached into his front pocket and pulled out a packet of matches. Striking the match he lit one of the leaves.

"I was a Boy Scout."

"Very funny. What does that have to do with owning matches?" Johnny replied unamused.

"We're always prepared." Roy smirked, "Maybe it's a good thing that you're a fireman and not an arsonist."

"Oh, you're a regular laugh riot!"

Taking that as a cue, Roy headed out to retrieve the next armload of flammable material. Returning he placed his armload further to the back of the cave as his was pretty wet. The fire wasn't large but it was giving off some heat and starting to warm the small confined space.

Roy went to the front of the cave and took off his woolen shirt to ring it out. Wearing his undershirt he went back to lay his shirt on some of the branches near the fire to help dry it out.

Roy had goosebumps running down his arms as he sat next to the fire trying to warm up.

Johnny was grateful that he was wearing his long johns as he looked across at his friend. He had already shed his flannel shirt and had it drying near where Roy had placed his.

In the pale light of the fire, Johnny could tell that Roy's right arm was discolored and swollen.

"Here, let me take another look at that arm?"

"It's okay, don't worry about it." Roy looked down at his injured arm, as he rubbed his left hand over it.

"Humor me." Johnny stated as he stood and tried to make his way around the fire to his friend.

But Johnny had problems of his own; his sore knee had become stiff. He almost fell into the fire as he took a step.

Roy jumped up and reached out to steady Johnny helping him to the ground beside him.

"Boy, aren't we a pair." Roy started to chuckle shaking his head.

"Yeah, I guess we are." Johnny began to laugh.

This had been one hell of a day for both of them. They were lucky to be alive, even if they were the walking wounded and totally lost.

Roy started to cough again and was relieved that he no longer felt that cold.

Johnny noticed his friend's flushed complexion and reached up to feel Roy's forehead.

"Roy, you feeling warm?"

"Some."

He had to admit that Johnny's cold hand felt good on his forehead.

'Here why don't you lay down and get some rest."

Offering no resistance, Roy complied. He was exhausted and his whole body seemed to ache.

"Let me look at that arm again."

Sighing and knowing that Johnny wouldn't let him rest unless he complied, Roy held out his arm.

"Something's just not right with this arm."

"Is that your expert opinion?" Roy knew there was something wrong with it too, because it hurt like hell.

Johnny ignored Roy's question.

"I'm gonna splint it just in case. Hold still."

Before Roy could voice any objection, Johnny grabbed two of the straightest sticks from the pile and using his belt, splinted Roy's arm.

Roy desperately wished he had his aspirin with him. Between his cold and his throbbing arm he could really use something for the pain.

"Why don't you try and get some sleep. I'll keep an eye on the fire."

Nodding, Roy turned over onto his left side to face the fire. He was too tired and sick to argue. He was asleep within minutes.

Johnny reached over to check to see if Roy's shirt was dry, it wasn't. Checking his, he found that it was. Retrieving it, he draped it over his partner.

During the night, Johnny kept a silent vigil over the fire and his sleeping partner. He dozed in between placing wood on the fire, retrieving more wood from outside and checking his friend's condition.

At some point in the early morning, Johnny woke to find that Roy had rolled over and had his head resting against the cool outer wall of the cave. He had also discarded Johnny's shirt. Johnny reached over and felt his head and found that Roy definitely had a fever, probably somewhere around 101^o, Roy was also wheezing as he breathed.

Johnny went to the front of the cave and pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and held it out under the trickle of water that ran down the mouth of the cave. Going back to his partner, Johnny carefully rolled Roy back closer to the fire and placed the wet cloth onto his forehead. Retrieving his shirt and Roy's he used them to cover Roy's torso in an attempt to keep him warm.

Worried, Johnny went back to his place across the fire from Roy.

The sun rising awakened Johnny, stiffly he crawled over to check on Roy. Roy's forehead seemed cooler and he appeared to be breathing a little easier. Johnny decided it was best to let Roy sleep and headed out to check their surroundings.

Stepping out into the warm sunshine, Johnny stretched and found every strained and aching muscle. Each step was a new experience in pain because of his battered feet. His left knee was really beginning to give him trouble, and he was no longer able to put his full weight on it.

Looking around, he realized that they had totally lost sight of the road they had been following. But that no longer mattered, because neither he nor Roy were in any condition to continue the hike out of the mountains.

He decided that it was better to just "hug a tree" and stay where they were and let help find them. Looking down the slope he spied a small stream. Hopefully, this one will have fish in it.

Glancing around he found some vines encircling a tree. He remembered something he was taught as a small boy and went over to cut a couple of the vines. With any luck, he would be able to catch something to eat. Heading down to the stream, he went in search of anything that they could use to make life more bearable.

Roy awoke the next morning feeling a little better. His throat was sore and his chest felt congested, but at least his fever was down. He definitely was in need of a good antibiotic. He was surprised to find his and Johnny's shirts draped over him keeping him warm. As he sat up and looked around, Johnny's handkerchief fell to the ground. He smiled at the thought of his partner looking out for him during the night.

Glancing around, he realized that Johnny was no longer in the cave. Putting on his shirt, he got up and headed over to the entrance trying to see if he could tell where his partner had wandered off too. Not seeing him anywhere nearby, Roy checked the matches in his pocket to insure they had enough to get by, before dousing the fire with dirt.

The day was warm and sunny, definitely better weather than they had the last couple of days. Figures, the day we would have gone home and the weather turns nice. If it weren't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all.

Not seeing Johnny in the vicinity, Roy decided to call out for him. He was surprised to hear his own voice; he sounded like Orson Welles.

Hearing some rustling in the brush nearby, he headed over to see if Johnny was there. He found a small rabbit in a makeshift snare. Instead of rope, the snare appeared to be made of a vine.

Roy's heart sunk as he stared at the trapped animal wrestling to free its rear leg from the trap. He quietly went over and picked up the little animal and using his knife cut the vine from around its foot. Scratching it behind the ears, Roy bent over and set the little rabbit free.

Roy was so caught up in freeing the poor animal; he hadn't heard his partner come up behind him.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Johnny demanded to know. He couldn't believe that Roy just released lunch.

"I, uh, let him go. Poor thing was trapped." Roy replied sheepishly. He looked like a small boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I could see that. Why?" Johnny had a puzzled look on his face, both because of what he had just witnessed and how funny Roy's voice sounded.

All Roy could do was bow his head and shrug his shoulders as he stuck his hands into his pockets. He really didn't want to explain.

Johnny was getting more than a little angry, he knew Roy could be kind hearted, but they could both use a meal and Roy had just freed theirs.

"Roy, that rabbit could have been our lunch."

"Bunny."

"What?"

"Bunny, I can't eat a bunny."

"Why not?"

Roy just stared at his dirty feet, he really didn't want to explain to Johnny that he had a pet rabbit as a child and just couldn't bear to eat one. He just couldn't eat something that was cute and fuzzy.

Johnny could tell he wasn't going to get Roy to answer, so he went over and cut down the vine.

"Sometimes I just don't understand you." Johnny was exasperated with his friend. "Well it looks like we need to try our luck at catching some fish instead. Come on."

Roy followed Johnny silently down to a small stream that ran through the countryside.
Reaching the waterway, Johnny pointed to a large boulder that was near the water.

"Why don't you have a seat over there, Roy and I'll see if I can't catch us something to eat." Johnny said as he rolled up his jeans and waded into the cold water.

Not wanting to be anymore trouble, Roy quietly complied.

"The trick to this is, as the fish swim by, you need to scoop them up and throw them to the shore."

Roy bit his lower lip to suppress a laugh. He had seen Cary Grant do the same thing in a movie once and at least he looked more dignified in the attempt.

"Ah, gotcha!" Johnny exclaimed as a fish swam between his legs. In his eagerness to grab it, he slipped on the rock he'd been standing on and fell backwards into the stream with a large splash.

Roy could no longer contain his mirth and began to laugh at his thoroughly wet friend. At least when Cary Grant did it he caught the fish. Roy rolled up his jeans and waded in to help his partner back up and out of the stream.

"Need some help there?" Roy asked. Stepping into the stream, he noticed how good the cold water felt on his sore feet.

'Yeah, thanks." Johnny replied, putting out a hand for Roy to grab and pull him back to his feet with. For a moment, Roy thought he would follow suit and go face first into the water, luckily he maintained his footing.

As soon as Roy had Johnny back on his feet, Johnny sloshed his way back to the shore and went over to sit on the boulder that Roy had just vacated.

Looking into the water, Roy thought he would give it a try. How hard could this be?

"Hey, think you could catch us some fish, seeing as how you don't eat bunny?" Johnny teased.

Roy gave him a sideways glance and went back to staring down at his feet. A couple of minutes later a fish came into view. Roy bent slightly and put his hands into position. Just as the fish was about to swim through his legs, he grabbed it and tossed it over his shoulder to the shore.

SMACK!

"Hey, watch where you're throwing your fish!" Johnny yelled.

Roy's fish had hit Johnny square in the face and caused him to fall backwards. Roy just smirked and then went back to work to catch a couple more. Next time I go fishing the hell with the pole.

Roy was having great luck fishing that day and caught a total of seven fish before he started to get chilled again and needed to get out of the stream.

Johnny used the vine from the snare to tie up three of the fish and left them to stay cold in the water of the stream. He grabbed a couple of old cans that he had found and cleaned up using dirt and stream water while Roy was fishing. Filling them with water, Johnny led the way back to their cave.

Reaching the cave, Johnny handed the fish to Roy.

"You caught em, you clean em."

Roy went over and sat down by the cave to perform his assigned chore. Johnny returned seconds later and held out his hand.

"What?" Roy asked.

"Matches."

Bending over, Roy picked up two sticks. Chuckling he handed them to his partner. For a brief instance, he thought his partner would hit him with them.

"Oh, you're real funny."

Roy handed over the matches then went back to cleaning the fish.

JoAnne DeSoto was beginning to become very worried. Roy and Johnny were over an hour late returning from their fishing trip. Anytime Roy was going to be late, he called to let her know so she wouldn't worry.

Taking the slip of paper he had left with her in case of an emergency, she had called the ranger station at the campground. She wasn't happy with what she had found out. Roy and Johnny had left the previous day.

Picking up the phone, she called the only other man she could think of who might be able to help – Hank Stanley.

Hank Stanley arrived at the DeSoto residence about an hour later. He had notified the police department and had filed a missing person's report on both of his paramedics. Luckily, they did not have any unidentified persons fitting the description of the two men.

He had also notified Chet Kelly, Marco Lopez and Mike Stoker of the situation. The three of them had decided to take a drive up to the campground to try and retrace Roy and Johnny's route.

JoAnne found Hank's presence reassuring, but her endurance was wearing thin as the hours proceeded slowly by without word from or about her husband.

An hour later, Roy and Johnny were definitely feeling much better after a meal of fish and boiled water. Heading back out of the cave, Roy noticed a pronounced limp by his partner.

"Hey, let me take a look at that leg." Roy offered, pointing to Johnny's injured left leg.

"Nah, it's okay. Just a little stiff."

Now it was Roy's turn to insist. "Let me take a look at that leg." He again said, taking Johnny by the arm and directing him over to a small boulder to sit on.

Johnny knew that Roy wouldn't take 'No' for an answer and protested no further.

Roy was not happy with what he found. His partner's knee was purple and swollen. Shaking his head he began to splint the knee with his belt and a couple of branches.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

Johnny shrugged his shoulders in response.

"I figured we had enough problems."

"Ain't that the truth," Roy mused.

"But hey, things aren't all that bad. I mean we're safe and relatively sound." Johnny stated enthusiastically, always the eternal optimist. He jumped up as soon as Roy finished splinting his leg.

Roy watched in awe at how energetic and jubilant his partner was, given their current situation.

"We have water to drink, fish to eat and a roof over our heads." Johnny continued motioning towards the cave.

"And besides, many things in the forest are edible." He intoned, mimicking Ewell Gibbons from the Grape Nuts television commercial.

But before Roy could warn him, Johnny reached out to make a point during his goofy imitation and grabbed a couple of leaves from a bush and offered them to Roy.

"Ah Johnny, that was unwise." Roy recognized the plant from a family vacation to a small farm.

"Why, they're just a couple of leaves Roy. Nothing to be frightened of."

"Johnny, that's poison ivy."

"What? No. You're pulling my leg."

Roy just shook his head sadly.

Johnny's imagination got the better of him and he began scratching.

"Don't scratch, you'll just make it worse." Roy warned, getting up and going over to his friend.

"But it itches."

Shaking his head in disgust, Roy dragged his friend down to the stream to wash the man's hands. As soon as Roy had washed his hands and scrubbed them with mud, Johnny again started to scratch his hand. Roy had enough and slapped Johnny's arm.

"Ouch!"

"You're worse than my kids. STOP SCRATCHING!"

Johnny responded by sticking his tongue out at his partner. Roy fought the urge to just throw his partner into the stream.

That's when they smelled the smoke. They had forgotten about the fire they had left burning at the cave and rushed back.

Roy could see the headlines now "Firefighters Burn Down Forrest".

Arriving at their campsite, they were relieved to find only a small fire around the opening of the cave. The rain from the previous day still had most of the vegetation soaking wet so there was more smoke than fire.

Johnny and Roy rushed to douse the growing flames with dirt.

Chet, Marco and Mike were driving down the road and saw the smoke rising through the trees. They knew that this area was a wildlife preserve, and like old war horses, headed to put down the fire.

They stopped in shock at what they found. There stood Johnny and Roy barefooted and covered in dirt and soot.

"Hey, Lil Abner and Daisy Mae, how's things in the big bad forrest?" Chet teased, relieved that they had found the two men.

Roy and Johnny for once were grateful to hear the voice of Chet Kelly.

Mike and Marco went over to finish putting the campfire out.

All of the smoke caused Roy's coughing to return and he began to hack.

"Hey, I know you're glad to see us. But it's nothing to get choked up over." Chet taunted, his concern growing the more Roy coughed.

Mike ran back to the car and returned a few minutes later with a canteen and handed it over to Roy.

Roy took a couple of sips gratefully, as Johnny filled everyone in on the details of their ordeal.

"So tell us, did you catch any fish?"

Roy and Johnny groaned and rolled their eyes. Leave it to Chet to miss the point of the story.

"Come on guys, let's get out of here." Marco stated as he walked by Chet and elbowed him. He grabbed Johnny's arm and throwing it over his shoulder began to help him up the hillside.

Mike went over and grabbed Roy's good arm and helped him up the embankment. Chet followed by bringing up the rear.

Roy and Johnny slept the majority of the way down the mountains and to Rampart. Stopping to get gas, Mike called to inform JoAnne and Hank Stanley of the good news.

Relieved, they met them at the hospital. JoAnne was never so happy to see her husband. She ran over to him and hugged him tightly. He was filthy, needed a shave and smelled bad, but he was definitely a sight for sore eyes.

Dixie McCall arrived at the back door with two wheelchairs and orderlies and ushered the two wounded men into treatment rooms.

The next day, both men lay in their hospital room relieved at having successfully survived their "fishing trip".

Johnny took pleasure in razing his partner. Roy had indeed bent both bones in his lower arm and had spent the morning having them slowly and painfully bent back into place. He now wore a cast up to the middle of his upper right arm. Between his severe case of bronchitis and the cast he could find no way to get comfortable.

Johnny was as equally uncomfortable, with his left leg in a brace due to the badly damaged ligaments in his knee.

Both men would be guests of Rampart for the next several days. At least until their badly injured feet had a chance to heal.

Later in the afternoon, the police had come by to take their statements and presented Johnny with a small gift. A picture of what was left of his Rover. All that remained was the frame. His prized possession sat on cinder blocks, minus doors, seats and engine.

Johnny had thrown a pillow at his friend in the other bed when Roy asked the police if they'd come across his new hiking boots. Roy had returned the favor, when Johnny had again started to scratch.

"Hey Roy?"

"What?" Roy answered, rolling back over to look at his partner.

"When we get out of here, you wanna go fishing?"

Groaning, Roy rolled back over onto his other side and threw the covers over his head.