Children scream.
“Move!” Lucas shouts over the roar. “Find cover!”
Ice pellets sting against my face like shrapnel. The temperature nosedives so fast my lungs burn when I inhale.
Perfect.
Because apparently getting hunted through the mountains wasn’t enough punishment for one night.
The mothers hunch over the children, trying to shield them from the wind. Blankets whip violently through the air.
“We can’t stay exposed!” Hannah yells.
I scan the ridge once.
There.
A narrow split in the rock about fifty yards ahead.
Not good.
But survivable.
“Move!” I point toward it. “Go!”
Everyone stumbles forward together.
Boots slide over loose stone. Wind tears at clothing hard enough to throw balance off. One of the smaller kids starts crying when the cold hits his face.
Olivia scoops him up without breaking stride.
By the time we reach the rock shelter, everybody’s breathing hard.
The space barely counts as cover.
Jagged stone walls curve inward just enough to block the worst of the wind, but it’s cramped and uneven and cold as hell.
Still better than freezing to death outside.
Lucas ducks in behind us, snow and dust clinging to his jacket. “This works. We stay here until it passes.”
Nobody argues.
The kids are shaking too hard to complain.
Hell, most of the adults are too.
Olivia drops immediately into motion.
“Put the smaller ones in the middle,” she says, already rearranging blankets. “Body heat will help.”
One mother pulls two children against her chest while Hannah wraps another little girl in spare layers.
Olivia kneels beside them, rubbing warmth back into tiny frozen hands.
I shrug off my outer jacket and toss it toward her.
She catches it automatically, then looks up. “What are you doing?”
