Joe and Kevin slid between the cold snow and the window-frame. A strand of Joe's jacket-thread temporarily got caught on the splintering wood, but it was quickly, frantically unhooked and Joe soon escaped the house. The two were soon out and searching the area for any sign of their little brother.
"So, Nick just went out snowboarding... by himself?" Kevin asked Joe. Joe was the only one who seemed to have known that Nick had left at all. Kevin thought he was maybe still up in his room asleep. How early did he leave.
"Yeah," Joe answered sadly, carefully scanning the risen snowbank for anything -anything- that could lead him to Nick (AN: I almsot just added a 'y'. NICKY! i'm used to calling him that).
"If he had told me, I would've gladly gone with him." Kevin said as he looked toward the mountain's peak. He had absolutely no idea where Nick had gone on the slope, nor where the avalanche could've dragged him. All he hoped -and he was hoping with all his being and more- that they wouldn't reach the adorable 15-year-old too late.
Joe considered Kevin's words. Maybe if he had volunteered to go with Nick... but then both of them might have been buried under the snow and... died. No, Joe told himself, shaking the thought from his mind, Nick's alive. He has to be. Maybe he somehow got out of the avalanche's path.
It didn't seem likely. The boys' rented cottage was set about halfway up the steep slope. The amount of snow that had fallen down the mountainside was far more than anyone probably would've expected. If Nick was completely buried in the avalanche, he'd be dead in just a few minutes from lack of oxygen and the weight of the snow. If he wasn't -if he had either been only partially buried or not at all (though both were extremely unlikely)- Nick would almost certainly freeze to death.
Joe felt tears prick in his eyes as he pictured his little brother wandering aimlessly on the snowbank, hoping to find the cozy little cottage, knowing that Joe and Kevin were sipping hot cocoa while his body temperature slowly dropped enough to kill him. Kevin was picturing a similar, nerve-wrackingly distressing scene. He was hardly able to keep the tears from falling onto his rosy cheeks as he imagined Nick dropping onto the snow, laying there motionlessly as he slipped into a deep, deep sleep... one he'd never wake up from.
They wandered around for several more minutes.
"He's... he's not here, Joe..." Kevin said after about ten minutes of searching, tears streaming down his face as he uttered the sentence. "Let's... go back toe the cottage."
Joe didn't wanna give up on Nick's life, but Kevin had a point. They couldn't find him, and Nick had most likely, almost undoubtedly, been buried under the snow. If he were to suffocate, he would've already.
He looked out into the distance. "I'm so sorry, Nicky," he said into space. Just before he turned to Kevin, he saw something further out on the snowbank. A small dark item pertruding from the whiteness of the snow. It looked like the tip of Nick's snowboard.
"Nicky..." Joe whimpered, staring at what might've been the buried body of his dead brother. He slowly went over, digging the person from the snow and laying him down on his lap. It took Joe a minute to realize one very important detail; one that would certainly perk up his and Kevin's spirits 110 percent:
Nick was still breathing, but barely.
