By some miracle, the fire has not went out. Yuri has told us to marvel at the good Grace of God for letting the warmth carry us through the night. We huddle up close to each other in fear of freezing. They tell me that we are lucky we have made it this far into the mission without an incident. How wonderful that is. However, I feel as if that will not last forever.

  I do remember a few things from this great day. We woke up to find our water supply spilt, causing concern for all of the nervous drinkers in the unit. They shook and paced as they awoke me from my deep slumber, seeking guidance. I simply showed them the snow that has gotten us all shivering for the past month. I do believe that we are the only people to have touched it in centuries. They did not understand, so I had to explain in precise detail what to do. The only one who then understood was the Japanese kid, Masao. He seems to be quite honorable in all he does, but he was much too nervous.

  I eventually sat back down around the fire. My hands had already begun to freeze with the distance I had gained from it. I put them over it, trying to thaw them out. The youngest one in our unit, Angelo, took that as an invite to come talk to me.

  "While you were sleeping, Yuri announced that we shall spend this day resting beside the fire and gathering supplies. Yuri said that tomorrow we will go to the camp to the northwest. It will take a few days or weeks of travelling. I don't think it will take a few days. The snow is so thick, we will be lucky to make it three kilometers a day," he informed me.

  I questioned him as to why he didn't wake me up when he told them this. I was concerned if the group is scared of me or just find me inconvenient. Perhaps some of them are envious that I had gotten the leadership position with Yuri so very young.

  Angelo frowned and looked down, "That's my fault. I told them not to bother you with it. Yuri agreed; you had a long week. You looked so tired."

  To be completely honest, I feel bad for the kid. He was the youngest at only fourteen. He had managed to get to the army in Italy underaged, then transferred to the special forces. Of course, none of us in this unit minded that he was underaged because most of us are in the first place. My upbringing wasn't the best in and of itself. It is honorable in a time of war to want to serve your country by any means necessary. However, he is just half of the age of the oldest guy, Roy. You can tell that he looks up to Yuri and I. I do not know why he would have any reason to look up to me, but Yuri is understandable. Yuri is a good guy. He gets his work done and does it to the best of his ability. One can really use a Yuri.

  I tried to comfort the kid, but I did not know how. I simply told him that I didn't mind and thanked him for letting me sleep. His head eventually came up and he put his hands over the fire. I do not know much about comfort, so I stood and patted him on the back. There is nothing that I can do more. As I began to walk away Angelo and toward the rest of the unit that wasn't gather materials, I told him to stay warm.

  I put on my newsboy cap and trekked through the snow to Yuri. The group of people around him included Lucas the Brazilian, William the Australian, Krishna the Indian, Albert the Canadian, and my own countryman, Louis. The four men, excluding Albert, ranted to Yuri about not being able to find enough firewood in the area and keep the fire through the night. He had to tell them to do their best, because he did not have a plausible solution. Albert addressed him next about him and four others in his group finding food. He told Yuri that he had been quite successful and they had secured food for at least three days. Yuri thanked him and Albert went on his way.

  There I stood in silence with Yuri. We watched five people try to collect firewood, five bring their game, and five others huddled around a map, furiously arguing with rifles at the ready. Today was a day of gathering materials and resting, scouting our future. Soon, Masao the Jap came to me once more.

  "We've got all of the snow with Simon, William the American, and Ammon," he told me, "but it is not melting. It is still snow."

  I pointed him in the direction of the fire and he questioned me about if the canisters could take the heat. I told him to keep them just enough away from the fire that they wouldn't burn, but heat up. He nodded a little and did as I said.

  "You are becoming great at leading the unit. Once I die, you should lead them in full," Yuri said to me. I shrugged. I'm not too sure about that. He is the leader. I could never be as good as what he has done.

  "Ay, stop talking like William the American!" Daniel shouted from behind us. We both flinched, looking at him. He laughed like a little kid and then said something in English so slurred, neither of us understood. English is neither of our first languages, after all.

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  "The strong Russian and the Napoleon of a Frenchman flinching at a Brit? Ay, you both are ridiculous. Desires, didn't we beat you a few times, Felix?" Daniel yelled, laughing.

  It was practically like magic that Angelo appeared by our side, "Didn't your large army lose to an unorganized militia? What... about one hundred and twenty years before you were born? That wasn't too long ago, Daniel, wasn't it?"

  It was quite fun to laugh at that. Clearly, they know their history. But not good enough.

  "Don't call me Napoleon in the Russian winter. It's a bad sign," I told Daniel, "It's not a good omen at all."

  November 10th, 1918 (Later in the afternoon)

  Yuri managed to revive our spirits for the journey we will start tomorrow. Everyone still dreads leaving our warm fire. We hope that we can find a village up here, but some of the men highly doubt it, including me. However, I have my own doubts. I brought them up in front of Yuri and the whole group. I told them that instead of going to the nearest encampment, which is northwest, we should go south to a warmer climate. We would walk more, however, we would not need as many materials. We would also have a better chance of finding a village.

  Angelo opened his mouth to agree, but the other Italian, Antonio, interrupted him, "But they told us to go back to that base."

  The American, Lawrence, rolled his eyes and told him that he's too uptight and follows all the rules. We eventually came to the agreement that we would head up north, but the smallest incident would call for the unit to retreat south. Almost everyone agreed with this.

  We eventually all settled in for the night. We grabbed the cloth of our tents and put them up once more. There are four tents that we brought with us from our original first night of the mission. Yuri had assigned us all groups that he thought we would work well with our first night of the mission. I got put in the group with Yuri, Lawrence, Daniel, and Angelo. We are the leaders and if there is anything wrong, they go to our tent. Lawrence is great at motivation with his words and strategy. Daniel, despite his teasing, is great at keeping the group together with his humor. Yuri could tell anyone to do anything for him and they would do it. He is also especially important because him and his Russian friend, Igor, are the only ones suited for this environment. I don't really know what I do to help other than occasionally relay what Yuri says.

  Angelo, however, keeps the unit together fully. For his young age, which we found out quickly, he is vital. All of us would rather die than see him freeze for even a minute. The younger ones out of our unit taught him everything they know and share stories, whereas the older ones treat him like a son. He tries to deny the treatment from us all, but we insist.

  On this night, he laid on the other side of the tent from us. I went over next to him and gave him my cloth blanket, even though he already had one. He looked like he was about to shiver a hole through the ground. I began to write in my diary.

  Angelo looked at me, "Why do I have this? Thank you, but you need it more than me. I already have one."

  I nodded a little and told him to keep warm.

  He sat up, "Don't you need it to sleep? What is it, negative 5 or 4 degrees here?"

  I pointed to my clothes and told him I was fine. He rolled his eyes and moved my hands so he could read my diary. I called him nosey and closed it. I told him to get some sleep as I held the pen I have been using close to me. It was beginning to get frozen and I needed to keep the ink warm. He frowned, but still didn't do what I had asked of him.

  Yuri entered the tent and immediately said, "Angelo, do what Felix says and go to sleep."

  Angelo sighed and laid down. I looked up to Yuri and found Lawrence right outside the tent with him. I mouthed to him, asking what was wrong. He quickly signalled for me to come with them. I stood, leaving my diary and went to Yuri. Yuri ordered Daniel to stay with Angelo once we found him.

  We were led to a tent that we call 'Group three'. It is made up of Albert, Simon, William the American, Ammon, and Kimi the Jap. They were the hunters of the unit. We went inside and saw that Kimi looked deathly ill. His eyes were watering heavily and he was sweating buckets.

  I immediately grabbed my canister of water and wetted a piece of cloth. I put it on his forehead gently, pressing down slightly. He was burning up horribly. I sent Lawrence to go get the thing of medicine from our supplies. He got it and I gave Kimi some.

  Kimi looked at me and muttered, "Doctor Felix Desmarais... suits you, I suppose."

  I smiled a little, trying to keep his spirits high. However, I know that I am no doctor. I am not good at anything to do with medical things, I just have the most experience out of all of the unit. I didn't even know what I was doing to Kimi then. I suppose I was just trying to help, keeping up appearances well. Just by touching him, you could tell that he was much sicker than he let on. Is sicker an English word? I'll have to ask Lawrence tomorrow. I wonder how what is happening to Kimi happened so suddenly. Perhaps there is something with the food or maybe he was sick and he didn't let anybody on to him, so we wouldn't worry.

  After a few minutes, Yuri said that we should get our rest. Yuri, Lawrence, and I went back to our tent. I walked in to find Angelo reading my diary so intently, he didn't even notice when we came in. I went to him and reached out my hand. He gave me my diary and I sat beside him, closing it.

  "Angelo, what did Felix tell you? Go to sle—" Lawrence started, but I interrupted, telling them it was fine.

  Angelo had his head down, as he always does when he feels he has disappointed someone. I sighed and told him that all he had to do was ask to read my diary if he wanted to. His eyes lit up and he asked. Once I gave him my diary, I lit a lantern that had been set to the side and read along with him. He read slow and in a whisper, as English isn't his first or most practiced language. He read some parts aloud in his native language. Once he fell asleep, I wrote this in my diary.