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Her head jerked up and the carriage collectively groaned

‘What?’

‘No way!’

‘What’s happening?’

A guard was next to the door ‘This is the last stop, folks Snow on the tracks All trains are stopping Everybody out’

Carrie glanced at the sign Fourteenth Street One subway stop away frolanced down at her red suede ankle boots She could kiss these babies goodbye The ground outside was covered in thick, mucky slush She didn’t even want to think about what they’d look like by the time she reached the apartment

The crowd spilled out onto the platform and up towards the mezzanine level of the station on Fourteenth Street Carrie could hear panicked voices all around her trying to plan alternative routes home At least she knew she could walk from here, no matter how bad it was outside

The sky had darkened rapidly, with thick grey clouds hanging overhead, continuing their deluge of snow

Snow It was such a pretty thing The kind of thing you spent hours cutting out of paper as a kid, trying toon a blue piece of card and putting on the classroo from the Christmas tree

It didn’t look like this in the storybooks Thick wads of snow piled at the edges of the street, blanketing the road and stopping all traffic The whiteness gone, leaving e

There was a creaking noise behind her and across the street, followed by a flood of shouts ‘Move! Quickly!’

In slow e pile of snoly slid from a roof four storeys above the street The people beneath were hurrying past, blissfully unaware of as happening above their heads

It was like a slow- action scene fro as about to happen without being able to intervene Her breath caught in her throat A wo hand in hand A few business intently on their phones

There was a flash of navy blue The wo rapidly from the sidewalk into the ainst a glass shopas some frantic shouts alerted the businessmen

The snow fell with a thick, deafening thue ofon her face

Then, for a few seconds, there was silence Complete silence

It was broken first by the whi child—the little boy who had landed in the road Seconds later chaos erupted Onlookers dashed to the aid of the wo theuided the elderly couple fro where they had been protected froe

‘Where’s the cop?’

‘What happened to the cop?’

A policeht the flicker of the blue lights of the NYPD car parked on the street It was such a co them

So and a few choice expletives later and one of New York’s finest, along with one of the businessed from the snow

Someone jolted her fro the sludgy sidewalk There was nothing she could do here

Her own heart was pounding in her chest Fat use she would be anyway She didn’t have a single medical skill to offer, and the street ith people rushing to help She could see the cop brushing snow angrily frouely fa his wrist at a funny angle and looking frantically around, trying to account for all the people he had tried to save

A tissue appeared under her nose ‘Better give your face a wipe,’ said another wo towards her mud-splattered coat, shoes and face

Carrie turned towards the nearest shopand did a double take She looked like soed in ‘Thanks,’ shethe reen coat was a write-off The dry-clean-only label floated inside herin the world could solve this mess

She stared up at the darkening sky It was tio home Whether it felt like home or not

Daniel Cooper coughed and spluttered His New York skyline had just turned into a heavy ht and fluffy? Why did it feel as if so on top of hinore it Mind over matter Mind over matter

There was noise above hi up his nose It was strange being under here Almost surreal

He didn’t feel as if he was suffocating The snoasn’t tightly packed around his face He just couldn’t s were out of his control

The scuffling above hi arms pulled him upwards fro to see if the mother and child were safe

There On the other side of the sidewalk He could see the flash of her red coat Throwing them towards the street probably hadn’t been the wisest move in the world, but the s

treet was deep in snoith not a car in sight People were crowded around them but they were both safe, if a little shocked The woht his eye One of her hands rapped around her son, holding him close to her side, the other hand she placed on her chest She looked stunned, her gaze registering the huge ht under, the horror on her face apparent Thank you, she mouthed at him

He ss in a whoosh of relief Snoas sticking to the back of his neck, turning into water that was trickling down his spine As if he weren’t wet enough already

The elderly couple Where were they? And as his wrist still aching so badly? He spun back around The elderly couple were being escorted across the street towards a sidewalk café Thank goodness He gave a shiver He didn’t even want to think about the broken bones they could have suffered—or the head injuries

‘Buddy, your wrist, are you hurt?’ Ain front of him, concern written all over his face

Dan looked down The thing he was trying to ignore The thing he was trying to block frolanced at the pile of snow he’d been buried under There, in ales Who kne many had fallen from the roof above He was just lucky that one had hit his wrist instead of his head

Darn it His eyes met those of the concerned citizen in front of him ‘I’ll see about it later,’ he muttered ‘I’m sure it will be fine Let me make sure everyone’s okay’

The man wrinkled his brow ‘They’ve called an auy’ He nodded towards the sidewalk, where one of the business pale-faced and decidedly queasy Truth be told, he felt a little like that himself Not that he’d ever let anyone know

He tried to brush so the a them to be checked over at the clinic on Sixteenth Street’ He signalled across the street to another cop who’d appeared and was crossing quickly towards hi it will take the aet here?’