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She bites her lip, a sign of worry I recognize well.
“What?” I ask.
“What if they come after us?”
“They will,” I say matter-of-factly. “And we’ll be ready.”
Her eyes narrow at my comment. Fear is all over her face. I hate that I’ve done this. I would do anything to take it away.
“All we can do is put as much distance between us and them,” I tell her. “I think we’ve got a pretty good head start.”
“Our footprints?” she says.
“I guess it’s a good thing it’s snowing.”
“It’s not snowing hard enough,” she replies. “They are going to track us!”
She’s right. I pull out my pocketknife and quickly cut off a few branches.
“What are you doing?” she hisses. “We have to keep moving.”
“I’m going to tie these to the back of my boots. Hopefully, they’ll brush away our tracks.”
My hands work with practiced precision, lacing the branches to my boots with a strip of cloth torn off from the hem of my shirt. Mia watches silently, her breath coming out in short puffs of fog.
“Done,” I declare. I take a few steps and test the makeshift camouflage. It seems to work well enough. Mia’s eyes flicker down to my boots, then back up to my face.
“Smart,” she admits, although her voice is strained.
We resume our trek through the forest. The snow starts falling harder now, fat flakes swirling downward and obscuring our trail. It’s a good thing, but it also makes walking harder. And I’m struggling to keep my sense of direction.
“I’m so cold,” Mia murmurs.
“I know, baby, I know.”
I wish I could take away her discomfort.
“We’re making good time,” I tell her, hoping to give her the encouragement she needs. “They’re not following us. That means they probably don’t know we’re gone.”
“But how would they not know…” Mia’s teeth chatter between her words, “… that we’re gone?”
“I’m hoping they got distracted,” I say, although my tone is not convincing. “Maybe they’re too busy looking for us in the wrong places. Or they’re too busy waiting for Vincent.”
“I hope you’re right,” she says, pulling the blanket tighter around herself.
We keep moving, every step taking us deeper into the white oblivion. Maybe we’ll have a better chance if we can make it till dawn. Until then, all we can do is run and pray.
Every now and then, I turn to glance back at our trail. It’s there, but it’s not obvious. In the canopy of the trees, it’s dark, and moving quickly isn’t an option. It’s cold. Neither of us is dressed as well as we were the first time.
“How are you doing?” I ask Mia, who has gone very quiet.
“I’m okay.” Her voice is weak, and it’s evident she’s freezing.
I can feel my body temperature dropping as well. The adrenaline has faded a bit, and now the cold is setting in. My fingers are numb. My ears and nose hurt from the cold. It doesn’t sound like we are being pursued. Maybe they know it is impossible to find us out here.
“Noah?” Mia’s weak voice pulls me from my thoughts.
“What is it?”
