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I hope you all learn how to get cars out of snowbanks from this fic.

"What the heck!" shouted Wolf. They'd been driving to camp in the woods. It was snowy- flakes drifted down into the clearing, and some fluttered gracefully away from Wolf's hot breath.

And somehow, somehow they'd managed to get the car stuck in a snowbank in this lovely clearing.

"Well, now what?" Fox asked.

Ever-sensible Snake answered. "We camp here, find a way out of the snowbank, or walk to the campsite."

Eagle pondered the given options. "There's not much water nearby, so we can't have a fire for safety reasons. Since it's so cold, we can't camp here. And it's much too far to walk. There's at least another hour."

"So... we need to get out of the snowbank," Wolf muttered. "Everyone out, let's push. That means you too, Cub!"

Said person was sleeping in the far back of the van. It was a minivan, and the other four were sitting in the four forward-most seats. "What?" a sleepy child answered.

"Up and out!" Wolf called gleefully.

"Actually, wait- Cub can drive, he's the lightest," Snake pointed out.

"Yeah, someone's gotta push the pedal," Fox agreed. Eagle pursed his lips but nodded his agreement.

Wolf sighed and rubbed his temples. "Fine, fine. Cub, get behind the wheel."

He'd woken up by then, and he wordlessly climbed into the driver's seat and prepared to drive. The other four lined up behind the vehicle.

"On three, push!" Wolf commanded. Cub pushed the pedal lightly as Wolf counted, and they all heaved against it. It went up just a tiny bit, but then it slid down into the thick grooves which promptly grew deeper.

"Again!" The group tried once more to free the car from the snow bank. They succeeded in digging a deeper trench.

Cub stepped out of the vehicle after another try. "We're not going anywhere."

"I noticed."

"Why can't we stay here?" Cub asked, having missed Eagle's point.

The bird-named man repeated the reason. "But there's plenty of snow- we can melt it into water if we have a fire. That's basic physics," Cub stated, pointing out the obvious.

Eagle blushed, realizing his all-too-obvious mistake. "Yeah, that's right."

Wolf sighed again. "Then let's hop to it."

The fire was roaring an hour later, and they turned the car off to conserve gas. Alex noticed that the floor-mats of the car were clean as he went to grab a book.

He approached his fellow campers, holding his book in one hand and the floor-mats in the other. "You guys did try to give the wheels more traction, right?"

"No," Fox answered, wonderment in his eyes.

"Cub, you're a genius!" Eagle cried. He seized the mats and positioned them under the wheels.

Snake raised his eyebrows, as if surprised. "I didn't think of that."

"You can put bleach on the tires to make them stickier, too. Twigs and salty snow give the wheels traction, too. It's basic physics."

"Why didn't you tell us this before we started the fire?" Wolf growled.

"Hey, hey! He only thought of it now!" defended Fox.

Wolf took a deep breath and ordered everyone to positions. This time, however, he sat behind the wheel for reasons left unknown.

"Erm, I don't think we should push," Alex pointed out. "What if something slips? I don't want to get hit." They'd piled up stick and twigs on top of the floor-mat. They'd even let a little bit of air out of the tires to help them gain traction.

Wolf shouted from the driver's seat, "Suck it up, Cub! On three! One, two, three!"

They pushed. The car lurched and the debris under the wheels spat out. But it didn't work. The car sank back down into the snow, wheels spinning.

Eagle swore and Alex yelped. They'd been standing directly behind the wheels, and their legs were hit by the debris. The floor-mat hit both of their shins, but Alex fared worse. A stone had cut through his pants, and now he had a trickle of blood to show for it.

Wolf stopped pushing the gas pedal and emerged from the vehicle. "What's wrong?"

Eagle snapped, "The wheels propelled the debris into Cub's leg and mine." They were both kneeling.

"Oh." Wolf paused. "Let's get you two into the vans. Where's the first aid kit?"

"Trunk," supplied Eagle. Snake and Wolf helped him into the car, and Snake grabbed the kit.

"W-wait!" Alex stuttered when Fox didn't bother giving him a hand. He just picked him up. Like a girl.

"Oh, shut up. This is easier for both of us."

Snake had treated their bruises and, in Alex's case, cuts in the van. A few hours had passed, and they were huddled around the campfire. The sky was darkening considerably. Without the fire, Alex thought the full moon would look particularly eerie.

"So are we sleeping in the car?" Eagle broke the silence.

"We've no other choice," Wolf answered glumly. "And we can't run the heat, either, or we'll burn up all the gas."

"Right, then. No dinner?" Alex asked.

"Not unless we're starving. It's too much of a hassle."

Without replying, Alex stood from his place by the fire. He opened up the trunk and peered inside. His sleeping bag was the smallest and lightest, and thankfully at the top. He threw it over the back seat. It landed in a bundle and bounced like jelly.

Snake suggested that the others prepare for bed. One by one, they had unrolled the sleeping bags in the car seats and climbed in. It was very cramped, rather like sardines in a can.

Wolf was last. The fire went out with a hiss when Wolf buried it with snow. He'd already set up his bag, and it was a matter of getting into it. The moonlight illuminated the snow, and it glowed softly where there were no footprints.

The car door slammed shut. Alex could barely see. The moon, as bright as it was, wasn't very effective through the van's back windows.

Alex privately thought Wolf's next order was unnecessary. "Go to sleep, men." He paused, then added, "And boy."

Alex shivered. He'd not only gotten the thinnest bag, but he was also the smallest. And the car hadn't been running for a while- it was an icebox on wheels.

It was many minutes until Alex actually did fall asleep.

Dawn broke like an egg- a brief moment of dripping white before the entire thing fell out with a brilliant splash. Alex and the others woke almost at the same time.

Wolf sat up first. "Who wants to check and see if the snow melted?" No one volunteered. Eagle, who had been navigating, reluctantly clambered out of the passenger seat to check.

"I think it's even deeper now." Sure enough, the ice had frozen completely overnight under the tires. There was pretty much no chance they'd get the car running.

That left walking.

Alex sneezed and sat up. "So we're walking?"

Snake answered, "Looks like it. At least two of us." Alex sighed.

With an uneasy look, Fox climbed to the back of the vehicle. "Did you catch a cold, Cub? You sound nasal-y." Uninvited, he sat by Alex's feet.

"I'm fine."

"Really?" It was Wolf that had spoken. The others looked surprised at his sudden concern for Alex. "Well, if you're not well, then we can't all go."

"I didn't think you'd let me come anyway. I'm shorter, and I walk more slowly."

Snake had been listening to Alex's voice. "Yeah, he's probably sick."

"So..." Wolf trailed off. Now what?

They were stuck in the middle of nowhere. Their van had gotten stuck in a snowbank halfway between the campsite and society. All their attempts to free it were futile. And on top of it, Alex had a cold (and Eagle, bruises).

Feeling increasingly miserable, Alex pondered how he'd even gotten into this situation- camping with 4 adults he mutually detested. How, indeed?

Fox distracted him for a second. "Throw my bag in the back, would you?" Alex took it and hefted it over the far-back seat. Just as he threw it down, he noticed a coil of something.

"Did one of you put rope in the back?"

"Yeah," Snake answered, "because nylon's very useful. That cord is 100 feet long, and it'll take 1000 pounds."

Physics... Alex thought back to when his physics teacher expressed how powerful perpendicular motion was. Balancing forces... could their way out be so simple?

"May I try an experiment?" Alex asked.

"We're not going anywhere at the moment," Wolf answered. "At the very least, we'll wait for the air to warm up a bit." Alex took that as a yes.

Slipping his shoes on, Alex clambered out of the car and went to the back. He pulled out the cable- it wasn't light, but he managed.

Carefully, Alex tied one end of the cable around the entire car. No one cared. Wolf had closed his eyes and was resting behind the wheel. Fox and Eagle were playing a card game. Snake was watching Alex with interest.

"Cub, you ought to come back in the car," he shouted out the door. "It's at least a little warmer in here." Alex shrugged. If this worked...

He'd secured the other end to a tree about 80 feet away, and he followed the nylon to the car. "Wolf, can you try driving a little?"

Irritably, Wolf opened his eyes and glared. "Fox, would you?" The requested man nodded and switched places with Wolf.

"Fox, I want you to drive on my command. Hang on..." Alex trekked to roughly where the middle of the rope was. It was rather high off the ground, but he grabbed hold of it anyway.

"Go!" At the same moment Fox pressed the gas, Alex grabbed the middle of the rope and hung from it. To his surprise, the physics worked. The car lurched out of the snowbank and was driving once again.

Alex untied the other end from the tree and walked back to the car.

"What the heck!" Eagle shouted when Alex had wound up the rope and taken his seat in the back of the car. "How on earth were you able to pull the car that all four of us together couldn't push?"

"Just a bit of lateral thinking, I suppose."

OMAKE

"WHAT THE F***! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY YOU HAD A WORKING CELL PHONE?"

AN: And it doesn't matter who said that! Or to whom!

ADVERTISEMENT: Please read Anthony Horowitz's stories. Again, links to the six I know of are on my profile. Tell me in a review if you read them, please!

A SIDE NOTE: That car trick might actually work. I've never done it, but my Physics teacher has.

Here's a simple experiment to prove just how powerful that pull can be.
-Tie two chair legs together with a string that's maybe a yard or a meter long.
-Sit on one chair and pull the string taut.
-Pull on the rope in a motion parallel to the rope and feel how hard it is to move the other chair.
-Make the rope taut once more, and this time pull upwards. It should be easier to move.

If you went to the trouble of trying that out, please leave a review that says how it went. I'm curious to see who does it.

But do not, I repeat, do not review the story to critique it. I'm not proud of the story. But hey- I can't exactly post an Author's Note for a fic, right?

I just want people to learn that car-snow-bank trick and to read AH's amazing shorts.