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Snow is like water The snoas still screa very fast She kept swi away snow, pushing for space—for air If I can just get to the surface

So whacked her left hip Maybe a tree or a rock; she didn’t know A blaze of pain raced across her pelvis, and she opened her mouth to screa its way down her throat—and now she was choking, flailing, no air at all Another wha of snow in her throat popped onto her tongue and then she was spitting, scraping her hands in the white space before her ful of air and then another—

She was slowing down The drag of the snoas decreasing, no longer rushing past in a roar Getting near the botto in what air she could The rise can’t be that high Has to stop—

All at once, the snow and she stoppedthe power Stunned, she could only lie there abut a profound, dead silence It was completely dark She knew her eyes were open, but there was nothing to see At all

I’ ot toHer left arht had worked its way over her head, and was starting to hurt She needed both hands to dig her way out, and soid: Leopard’s knife or even the butt of the Glock, exceptno hard knuckle of plastic in her spine Lost the Glock;sheath, and she thought it was still there Hard to tell with all this snow, but if she could get at itShe felt her right biceps flex

But her are For a crazy, wild, terrible ht, I broke my back I’m paralyzed, that’s what it is Then she sent a silent cole in her boots After three s wouldn’t move at all, no ers of her left hand feather her cheek, but that arm wouldn’t move either

Then she knew the truth She wasn’t paralyzed Oh, she could move, but only a little because of all that snow, compressed around her body, molded to her like concrete The snow had her and wasn’t about to let go

She was buried alive

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“Shut up!” Quick as a snake, before the thought streaked fro whipped Dale a fast one across the jaw The bloas hard, a crack like the shout of a walnut bursting under pressure The punch jerked a gasp fro’s hand, a bright ball that mushroomed to a burn he felt all the way to his elbow “Shut the fk up!” he screamed

“Attaboy!” Aidan crowed as Lucian and Sa, ?”

Kincaid—his friend, a nicereally liked—held out his hands They were saturated with blood “Greg,” he said, that one eye shining and so bright it hurt to look “Stop, son You’re better than this Don’t you see what’s happening? Peter and Chris would never—”

“BUT THEY’RE! NOT! HERE!” Greg bellowed He could feel the cords knotting in his neck One renade “They’re gone, and it’s all on !”