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When the sun was high they stopped to rest They could see the line of ainst the eastern skyline, the peaks dolloped in white The day had groarh, where they were going, winter had already arrived

"More snow up there," Hollis said

He was sitting beside Peter on a fallen log, its rotted bark blackened with dampness No one had spoken a word in at least an hour The others were scattered around, all except Alicia, who had gone ahead to scout the terrain Hollis knifed open a can and begun to spoon the contents to his ht in the coarse tangle of his beard; he wiped it aashed the last of hisdrink of water, and passed the can to Peter

Peter took the can and ate Sara, sitting across fro in her book She paused, her eyes focused intently at what she’d written; her pencil was just a nub, almost too short to hold While Peter watched, she drew her blade from her belt, scraped it across the tip, and then resu about?"

Sara shrugged, hooking a stray strand of hair behind her ear "The snow What we ate, where we slept" She lifted her face to the trees, squinting into the sunlight descending through the sodden branches "How beautiful it is here"

He felt hi had it been since he’d s seemed to have coht, an unhurried cal, had moved more deeply into herself, into a state beyond worry or fear He felt a flicker of regret; watching her now, he realized how foolish he’d been Her hair was long and rime Her nails were blackened with crescents of dirt And yet she’d never looked more radiant As if all that she had seen had beco stillness It wasn’t a sift she had offered him, had always offered him And yet he had refused it

Sara met his eyes then She cocked her head in puzzle"

"You were staring"

Sara shifted her gaze to Hollis; the corners of her mouth lifted in a quick flash of a smile Just a moment, but Peter felt it keenly, the invisible line of connection between the two of them Of course How could he have been so blind?

"It wasn’t anything," hethere It surprisedher rifle against a tree, she retrieved a can fro at the contents

"Peaches," she groaned "Why do I always get peaches?" She took a place on the log and began to spear the soft yellow fruit froht into her mouth

"What’s down there?" Peter asked

Juice was dripping down her chin She gestured with her blade in the direction she had come "About half a click east, the river narrows and turns south There’s hills on either side, heavy cover, lots of high points" The peaches gone, she drained the can into her aps "The middle of the day like this, we’re probably okay But we shouldn’t hang around too long"

Michael was sitting a fewThe days of walking had made him leaner, harder; his chin now sported a wisp of pale beard A shotgun was resting across his lap, his finger close to the trigger

"No sign in what, seven days?" He spoke with his eyes closed, his face tipped toward the sun He earing only a T-shirt; his jacket was tied around his waist

"Eight," Alicia corrected "That doesn’t " He opened his eyes and turned toward Alicia, shrugging "A lot of things could have killed that cat Maybe it died of old age"

Alicia gave a laugh "Sounds good to e of the glade She was always drifting off like this For a while this habit had made Peter worry, but she never went very far, and by now they were all accustomed to it

He rose and went to her "A on soon"

For aHer eyes were directed toward the rassy fields beyond

"I re down in it How cold it was" She looked at hi "We’re close, aren’t we?"

Peter nodded "A few days, I think"

"Telluride," Aain Peter saw her shiver, though the sun arain?" she asked

"Hollis thinks so"

Aht; the ain, to ue riddles Yet so felt different this ti up before her eyes, stepping into view like a deer from the brush Even to els?"

"You s, in the snow," she explained "Like the ones in heaven Like the ghost Jacob Marley"

Peter are that the others were listening now A single strand of black hair pushed over her eyes in the wind Watching her, he felt hiht in the Infirmary when Amy had washed his wound He wanted to ask her: How did you know, Amy? How did you know my mother misses me, and how , and I never told her how one

"Who’s Jacob Marley?" he asked

Her brow furroith a sudden grief "He wore the chains he forged in life," she said, and shook her head "It was such a sad story"

They followed the river, into the afternoon They were in the foothills now, leaving the plateau behind The land began to rise and thicken with trees-naked, twiglike aspens and huge, ancient pines, their trunks wide as houses, towering over their heads Beneath their vast canopies, the ground was open and shaded, pilloith needles The air was cold with the da, scanning the trees All eyes

There was no Placerville; it was easy to see what had occurred The narrow valley, the river carving through it In spring, when the snowpacktorrent Like Moab, the town had washed away

They sheltered that night at the river’s edge, stretching the tarp between a pair of trees to fashion a roof and laying their sleeping bags in the soft dirt Peter was on the third shift, with Michael They took their positions The night was still and cold, filled with the sound of the river Standing at his post, trying to keep ht of Sara, and the feeling he had detected between her and Hollis in that private gaze, and realized he was honestly happy for the two of them He’d had his chance, after all, and Hollis obviously loved her, as she deserved to be loved Hollis had told hiro, when Sara was taken: Peter, you of all people should know I have to go Not just the words themselves but the look in his eyes-an absolute fearlessness He’d given it up, right then; he’d given it up for Sara