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"Alex?"

She couldn't answer at first, all of her focus rooted on the strange object below Dread crawled up her spine, as cold as the wind battering the windscreen

"Alex, are you still there?"

"I'm, uhyeah, I'm here"

"What's going on?"

"I' at Pop's place just ahead, but soht down there"

"What do you mean?"

"I can't say exactly" Alex peered out theof the cockpit as she brought the plane closer, preparing to land "There's so Oh, my GodI think it's a person"

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know," Alex mur, she had no doubt that she was looking at a hu underneath a fresh cover of snow A dead hu there unnoticed for anything longer than a few hours in this punishing cold

But how could that be? It was alh daybreak wouldn't come until close to noon this far north, Pop would have been awake for hours by now The other folks in the settlement--his sister and her family--would have had to be blind to miss the fact that one of them was not only unaccounted for but sprawled in a frozen heap right outside their doors

"Talk toher cop voice, the one that demanded to be obeyed

"Tellon"

As she descended to begin her landing, Alex noticed another worriso between Pop To woods The snow around the body was blood-soaked, dark stains seeping up through the blanket of fresh white in horrific intensity

"Oh, Jesus," she hissed under her breath "This is bad, Jenna So awful has happened here There's more than one person out there They've beenhurt somehow"