10
Scout stumbled back into the fissure, nearly falling down the crude staircase but catching herself with her unmittened hand. The jutting rock was sharp, and she could see the blood welling up from under her palm, but the cold was so intense she couldn’t feel it.
Yet.
Shadow collided with the back of her leg but quickly righted himself and charged on ahead, Gert close at his heels. Scout squeezed her bleeding, half-frozen hand tight and ran after.
At the bottom of the fissure, she chanced a look back. Clementine—or the Clementine doppelgänger or whoever they were—wasn’t pursuing.
Scout didn’t find that comforting.
The rising sun was warming the snow now, melting the top layer into a thick slush that clung to Scout’s boots and slowed her steps. The dogs were having an even harder ti
