Blood Runs Cold (Stone Cold Fear Book 2) by K. M. Fawkes

Author:K. M. Fawkes [Fawkes, K. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“Shelter?” Marie’s face was pinched with fatigue and cold. “Where are we going to find shelter?”

“Look for a fallen tree. I can build a lean-to. It won’t be much, but it’ll keep us out of the snow.”

They separated, though not by much, and tromped around, looking for a likely spot while the snow continued to fall.

Then Pete found a place where a large tree had fallen and come to rest against another tree. It was almost too perfect to be true, and for a moment he felt… hope.

“Marie!” he hissed, afraid of making too much noise in the near-dark of an unknown forest.

She hustled over, but looked at the spot with less enthusiasm than he’d hoped for.

“Kind of small, isn’t it?” she asked. “We’re going to have to sit awfully close to each other.”

“The better to keep us warm, my dear,” he muttered.

Marie nodded. “So what’s next?”

“If you can clear the snow from underneath, I’ll go cut some branches.” He took off his pack and the rifle and set them next to the tree.

“So just clear it away?” she asked, removing her pack.

“If you want to build a sort of low perimeter wall, that will help, too. Think igloo. The more airtight a structure is, the warmer it will be.”

“Do you want the blanket draped over the tree?” she said.

“We’ll use that to make ourselves a cocoon inside.”

Marie began clearing away the snow, pushing it to the sides, and Pete’s eyes went to the forest around them. He needed branches, and he needed them quickly. For shelter—and for a fire, if he thought he could manage it. Things would be a whole lot warmer if they could actually have a flame.

There was a likely-looking balsam fir, dense with branches, nearby. He grabbed the axe, went to it, and got on the ground, hoping to be able to chop up from underneath, but the branches were too dense.

He grumbled and got to his feet, and found a lodgepole pine nearby. This one had more well-spaced branches, and it took him only moments to chop the bottom two off and start to make a pile. When he’d accumulated a good start, he loaded up his arms and carried his haul back to the fallen tree.

Marie had already created a two-person-sized depression under the fallen tree and was in the process of spreading the blanket over the space, with edges folded inward because it was larger than the space where they’d lie. Pete got to work, placing the evergreen branches against what would be the backside of the shelter until his supply of branches was gone.

“What next?” Marie asked.

“Build a layer of snow up over the branches,” he responded, and went to cut some more.

“Mother Nature is doing her level best to bury everything in snow,” Marie said, but got to work.

The shelter came together slowly, but they worked at it until they’d built a den of sorts, with a layer of snow several inches thick and a narrow opening at one end.

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