The remainder of January\u2014all two and a half weeks\u2014and the first week of February passed with relative peace and quiet aside from a sudden blizzard that left us trapped in the tents or our rooms for two days before it was safe to venture outside.\u00a0 After the first week, Thom began to worry.\u00a0 By the second, J.T., my brother, Phelan, and Thordin had joined him.<\/p>\n
By the end of the third week, I\u2019d<\/i> begun worrying\u2014and worrying something fierce.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t like the weeks before Cariocecus attacked, since at least then we\u2019d known it was coming, there had been something to prepare for.<\/p>\n
Now, there was nothing but snow and cold and isolation.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know who else was out there beyond a group that had scryed on us, a community miles to the south that may not survive the winter, and Thom\u2019s cousin and Neve\u2019s brother out somewhere on the eastern seaboard of Canada.<\/p>\n
Cabin fever coupled with paranoia makes for a very difficult existence.<\/p>\n
I tried to stay out of everyone\u2019s way, bundling myself in multiple layers and wandering out along the warding lines, checking to make sure they stayed strong.\u00a0 More often than not, I wandered back to the warmth of camp with chilled fingers and windburn, but it kept me away from the worst of the restlessness that had set in.<\/p>\n
Of course, Phelan was the worst.\u00a0 Laid up as he was, he was the most restless of them all, and Jacqueline watched him like a hawk to make sure he didn\u2019t get into anything that could make his condition worse.\u00a0 He\u2019d come down with a nasty cold that had more to do with his pushing himself too hard than his injuries.\u00a0 That cold had left him grumpy and grumbling, almost impossible to deal with.<\/p>\n
Spring showed no sign of showing up anytime soon, which didn\u2019t surprise me, either.\u00a0 What did surprise me was that trouble had taken such a long holiday.<\/p>\n
You should be grateful,<\/i> I told myself every day.\u00a0 You should be grateful that it\u2019s quiet, that no one\u2019s come to try to kill all of us again.\u00a0 There\u2019s more than a few things out there that\u2019s keen on killing Phelan at the very least\u2014and probably all of us besides.<\/i><\/p>\n
It was halfway through the second week of February when chaos reared her fair head again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The remainder of January\u2014all two and a half weeks\u2014and the first week of February passed with relative peace and quiet aside from a sudden blizzard that left us trapped in the tents or our rooms for two days before it … Continue reading