"Thank you," Blue said as Eivind helped him to the ground, finally giving him a brief moment of rest. Blue was breathing hard and his breaths were shallow due to his damaged ribs. Even after depositing Blue, Eivind remained close, but he paced back and forth in that anxious way of his. The wolves were nervous and Blue could understand why. Who knew how long it would take Lofgren to discover what Eivind had done and chase them down, demanding blood? As the two discussed where to go, Blue sat with his hands behind him in the grass, holding up his weight and doing his best to keep his wound from getting agitated. Perhaps they weren't meant to make it, he thought solemnly. Maybe their efforts were all in vain and despite everything they were all going to die right here, in the grass, with no one but the wolves ever knowing what had happened to them.<br/><br/>Blue sighed, lazily turning his head in the direction Eivind pointed. Going through the river was a good idea, at least when it came to washing the blood off of Eivind's body. Blue wasn't sure of wading through would be beneficial to him and his wound, but if they didn't have any other option it wouldn't be in his best interest to argue. He thought about how unfortunate Alden's timing was; if the wolf had come later, after Sieger and Synnove had sent for the cars, Eivind's decision to kill him wouldn't have put them in such dire straits. They still would have been running, sure, but at least they would have wheels and an engine driving them forward and not be encumbered by Blue's slow, fragile body.<br/><br/>Eivind looked down at him with a frown, a look Blue imagined he was going to be seeing often as he wasn't sure if Eivind even knew how to smile. Blue shook his head and shrugged best he could while still holding his body erect. "I don't know. Not far. I'm trying but every single step feels like someone is stabbing me in the side with a butcher knife. I don't know how much longer I can keep at this pace without coming apart."<br/><br/>His gray eyes tore themselves away from Eivind's serious glare and once again looked down toward where Eivind had pointed. The river . . .<br/><br/>"Wait, you said we're moving parallel to the river? Right now?" Blue looked up at the sky, following the slight tilt of the sun. Eivind's shadow stretched minimally along the grass, mostly keeping close to his body, but enough that Blue could guess that was probably around one or two o'clock in the afternoon. His eyes drew a line that reached across the ground, pointing the way. If Eivind was correct and the river was north, that meant they were currently moving east toward the campsites. Toward his campsite.<br/><br/>"I . . . I think I have an idea," Blue mumbled, wanting to lift a hand to rub at his temple but he knew doing so would cause him to topple backward onto the grass. "It might not even be there anymore, not if someone found it," he said, another low murmur as he considered the chances of them actually being successful. They were incredibly, dangerously low, but still better than continuing on foot.<br/><br/>"When I came here, I drove. I hid my car along a back road up toward the campsites, deep within a pocket of trees so that the rangers wouldn't find it and make me pay to house my car, as I thought I'd only be here for a few hours. Stupid, I know," he added on, his eyes darting back and forth between Eivind and Alaric. "I was paranoid that I'd lose my keys walking through the preserve, especially as I was crawling around the barriers, so I buried them by this huge wooden bear statue that sits near the edges of the site, marking the area you're not supposed to go past. It's probably, what, seven feet tall? Kind of tacky, honestly, but it was the safest place I could think of.<br/><br/>"My keys they . . . they have a keychain on them, a small glass storm cloud with my name etched on one side." The keychain had been a gift from Blue's grandmother before she died, a small little trinket she had found amusing due to her grandson's unusual name.<i>Blue Stormcloud</i>. From anyone else, Blue might have thought the gift an uninspired gag, but his grandmother had always poked and prodded at him with the best of intentions and the sweetest smile, and a snarky sense of humor that wasn't too different from Blue's own.<br/><br/>"I know it's a fucking longshot, but maybe no one found my car, and my keys are probably still there. One of you guys can go ahead and look for it. The car is a black hatchback, about half a mile back from the campsite, down a narrow road that heads southwest. If you follow it and look for a tree with a broken trunk, you should be able to find it. You can tap the button on key fob to set off the car alarm too, and as long as you're close enough you should be able to follow the sound. By the river there's a dirt road that I've seen the rangers drive on. Whoever goes can make it down there with the car. I can make it to the river, at least."<br/><br/>Blue stopped his short ramble and licked his lips, allowing his eyes to settle once again on Eivind. Maybe his idea was idiotic and nothing would come of it, but it was the best he could think of, and it was more than what either of the wolves had come up with.