When he opened them again, it was evening, and some of the sharp pain had _______ - there were may dull aches and the crash came back to him fully.

"Must be morning now . . ." He mumbled it, almost in a _______ whisper. As the thickness of sleep left him, the world came back.

He screamed until his breath was gone. Then silence, filled with _______ as he pulled in air, half crying.

With it came some warmth, small bits of it at first, and with the heat came clouds of insects--thick, swarming _______ of mosquitoes that flocked to his body.

Thoughts tried to come in with a rush, all of what had occurred and he could not take it. The whole thing turned into a confused _______ that made no sense.

Brian watched them for a time, still in the half-_______, still not thinking well.

Along the edge there were thick grasses and the water looked a little _______ and there were small things swimming in the water, small bugs.

In desperation he pulled his T-shirt up to cover his face, but that _______ the skin of his lower back, and the mosquitoes and flies attacked the new soft flesh of his back.

One other thing. Those were all the things he had, but he also had himself. "You are your most valuable _______. Don't forget that. You are the best thing you have."

He put the coins and the rest back in his pocket and the _______ in his belt. It was the only weapon he had, but it was something.

Probably come in here with _______ planes, small bushplanes with floats that could land right here on the lake and pick him up and take him home.

He reached into his pockets and took out everything he had and laid it on the grass in front of him. It was _______ enough. A quarter, three dimes, a nickel, and two pennies. A fingernail clipper. A billfold with a twenty dollar bill.

Some of the rock that had been scooped out had also been _______ by the glacial action, turned into sand, and now made a small sand beach that went down to the edge of the water in front and to the right of the overhang.

He had to do something to help himself. I have to get _______, he thought. Right now I'm all I've got. I have to do something.

Two hundred yards up there seemed to be a belt of thick, lower brush and that formed a wall he could not see through. It seemed to go on around the lake, thick and _______ green, but he could not be sure.

One of the pilots had found some kind of beans on a bush, and she had used them with her lizard meat to make a little _______ in a tin can she had found.

It struck him that he _______ to find a good place for the lean-to, and so he decided to look around first.

He screamed it, and he could not be sure if the scream awakened him or the pain in his stomach. His whole _______ was torn with great rolling jolts of pain.

He almost spit them out. It wasn't that they were bitter so much as that they _______ any sweetness, had a tart flavor that left his mouth dry feeling.

He started dragging sticks up from the lake and pulling long dead branches down from the hill, never getting out of sight of the water and the ridge. With these, he _______ and wove a wall across the opening of the front of the rock.

It was as if the birds had taken him right to the berries. The _______ branches went up about twenty feet and were heavy, drooping with clusters of bright red berries.

Then he saw the sun streaming in the open doorway of the shelter and heard the close, vicious _______ of the mosquitoes and knew. He brushed his face.

His stomach was full, but now he had some sense and he did not _______ or cram more down. Instead, he picked more and put them in his windbreaker.

He turned and looked at it, studied the crude work. The brush made a fair wall, not _______, but it cut most of the wind off. He hadn't done so badly at that.

He would have run all the way, in a _______, but after he had gone perhaps fifty yards his brain took over and slowed, and finally, he stopped.

As soon as the cold water hit his stomach he felt the hunger sharpen, as it had before, and he stood and held his abdomen until the hunger cramps _______. He had to eat. He was weak with it again, down with the hunger, and he had to eat.