Page 60 of HaL

“I was planning on it.”

The cruiser crawls forward. The route Bane sent me barely qualifies as a path anymore. Snow is piled against one side of the pass almost as high as the cruiser. Rocks and broken earth jut through the white like the bones of some enormous beast. Trees that had stood here only a tic ago are now snapped and buried beneath tons of snow.

I remember this pass. I knew every turn. Every rise and narrow section where the cruiser needed to angle before climbing. I could have driven through here blind. Now I do not recognize any of it. The mountain has shifted, and everything familiar has become a threat.

We crawl onward. The temperature inside the cruiser drops despite my own body generating heat. I keep glancing at the external temperature reading.

Lower.

Lower.

The frost is coming and I can see it creeping closer every tic. So now it is not only dangerous for Dawn, but for the rest of us as well.

The sleds slip while my mind has drifted off. I correct them, then the back end fishtails before catching again, and Dawn braces herself against the side.

“Easy big guy, eyes on the road.”

“I am being easy.”

“That was your version of easy?”

Suddenly there is a flash of light through the trees. A flare!

“There.”

I push the cruiser forward. The bend comes up fast. I round it only to slam on the brakes. The cruiser fishtails sideways. Snow explodes around us, and for one terrifying moment, I think we’re going over. Then the sleds catch. I stare through the windshield.

Mammoths.

Dozens of them fill the pass. Massive bodies packed shoulder to shoulder, their dark, shaggy forms almost disappearing into the falling snow. Their breath pours from their trunks in thick clouds, as their tusks gleam beneath the pale light.

They are not moving.

They are blocking the entire path.

And behind them — Gelid.

“Frack. Depending on how spooked they are, they may not let us pass.”

The animals are strangely calm. After what happened here, that could change in a heartbeat. A single frightened mammoth could crush the cruiser. Could bring the entire herd down on top of us. I turn to her.

“You are staying here, Roja.”

“No.”

My head snaps around.

“What?”

“No.”

She points through the windshield. “You see those big, hairy-ass things? Right now, they’re calm. But the moment they decide this planet is trying to eat them again, they’re a force of their own.”

She starts unbuckling the straps.

“I’m safer with you than anywhere else.”

“You are not coming.”