Page 23 (1/2)

“I need so Dal around the barrel of her torso, hoping to warm her up

“Well, I don’t have anything,” he said

She gritted her teeth “In the blue bag, get a sweater or so,” she said

“Get it yourself,” he replied “I’an to gather twigs froht of ice or feeding deer

“We don’t need a fire, idiot!” she shouted after hiet Sencha warm!”

Peter ignored her, his pockets full of twigs as heup the snow, searching for branches There was a downedup out of the snow like liquorice — they were black fro Peter pulled off a few of the underside branches that were still dry and walked back He crouched down in the snow “You alwaysin front of a classroohter from his inside pocket and made a hollow in the snoeen the sled and where Hannah was bent over Sencha “That’s the first thing You always make a fire”

Hannah gave up and went to the sled The darkness was dropping rapidly now, and when she lifted the heavy tarp that was lashed over everything in the basket, she could barely distinguish between the blue bag of clothes and the black bag that held the food, the tent, and her sleeping bag She opened the blue bag and grabbed the first thing that looked big enough — a wool sweater her father’s sister had knitted her — and untied some more rope She returned to theit with the rope

Hannah stood and surveyed her surroundings She knew that the best place to pitch a tent was close to a rock to keep off the wind, but the closest rocks she had seen on the way there were now lost in the darkness and could not easily be reached

She realized now that nal a plane, how to light a fire without matches — were not helpful for their situation They’re su howwould have been if it had been suht was It was pretty funny, for sure, to wish you had been chased by a gun-wielding wootten stuck out in the forest in the summer instead of in the winter

Su around freely without thinking twice about it The ground was a friend, the sun was a friend She thought with sudden intensity about how long the sun was out during the su it for little bits of ti took five ti to do as it did in the su on to the sled and she was starving

She looked one way down the trail, then the other They had coently downhill and were at the bottom of what looked like a shallow depression Up the trail, the land rose just as gently and disappeared into night and trees

She decided to set up

the tent right there on the edge of the trail, close enough that if a snowmobile did happen to come by, it would see them, but not so close that it would run them over She shoved the faint hope of rescue aside

Before setting up the tent, though, she had to feed the dogs She grabbed a container of food It was slightly thawed froh mostly still frozen This time, she didn’t try to war There were no corabbed, then settled down to ripping and tearing the pieces of food

After she’d ey and Rudy, the twodid happen, she knew Nook would sort it out — she hauled out the tent