Will stared out his window at the handgun clutched tightly in the woman's hands. He slowly put his hands up as he said "Look, I understand you're desperate, but taking our clothes isn't an option. We'd freeze in minutes. There has to be another way."

  "Not my concern! Get out now!" she screamed, hands trembling.

  Or shaking? Will wasn't sure. But she wasn't dressed for the cold.

  "Why do you need *all* of our clothes? Who else is with you?" Will asked, his voice carrying through the gap at the top of the window.

  The woman regripped her fingers on the gun as she glanced back at the highlights illuminating them all. She paused as a shiver ran through her. It was obvious to Will that the bitter cold was starting to affect her.

  "My... my husband," she said, her voice lowering. "He was caught out in the cold. He's unconscious. I have to get him warm." Another glance back at the headlights, then her gun snapped back up. "Get out of the car now!"

  "I'm a veterinarian," Theresa spoke from the back. "Let me look at him."

  "No way," Will said, turning toward the backseat. "She's got a gun on us. You go out and there's no telling what she's going to do."

  "If you can save my husband, there's nothing to worry about," the lady said. "See?" She held the gun up in one hand, the other raised in the air. Will noticed that she didn't holster the weapon. Will slowly got out of the car as Abigail let Theresa out. Together, they approached the headlights pointed at them, as the woman directed them to the passenger side. As they stepped past the front bumper, Will could see it was a large white SUV. The engine was purring effortlessly.

  The woman wrenched open the passenger door, releasing a blast of stale, warm air, and the interior light popped on. It revealed a large man, seat belted in, his head slumped down on his chest. Will couldn't help but notice his skin was ghost white.

  "D-Do what you need to," the lady said to Theresa. "Get him to wake up."

  Theresa limped toward the open door. "How long has he been like this?" she asked as she pressed her fingers to his neck.

  "Not long. Maybe twenty minutes. We stopped for gas. He was outside for a while and then collapsed. I got him back in the car. He was awake when we got back on the road, but a little while ago he fell unconscious. We... we've been driving for a bit and then I saw the fire from the road and pulled off. I just need to get him warm again."

  The seconds passed as Theresa held her fingers to the man's neck, focusing intently. The silence pressed in around them, broken up by the faint sound of ice cracking in the distance, and... something else? A soft mechanical catch, from back in the direction of their idling car. Will couldn't identify it.

  Theresa looked at Will as she pulled her fingers away. "There's no pulse. The cold must have been too much. Severe hypothermia can cause circulatory collapse or heart attack..."

  "No!" the woman yelled, bringing the gun back up, with obvious effort in the cold. "You're wrong! Warm him up! Give him your sweatshirts!" she screamed, wincing with pain. The color had long since left her exposed fingers and face.

  "He's gone," Will said soothingly, taking a step toward her. "I'm sorry, but if you take our clothes, then we all die."

  "He's just unconscious! He'll wake up! He just needs to warm up!" she pointed the gun at Will's face. "I'll kill you. I'll..." her voice caught in her throat, her trembling arms were shaking violently. She winced, either with the pain of the cold or the pain of the emotion of being confronted with her husband's death.

  Will stood, frozen, hands raised, not knowing what to do. Theresa, still in the doorway of the SUV looked back and forth between them, paralyzed with fear. The unnamed woman, continuing to hold her gun extended at Will squeezed her eyes shut.

  CRACK!

  The gun jerked as the muzzle flashed. Will crumpled to the ground as Theresa launched herself at the woman. She drove her shoulder into the woman, arms wrapping around her waist. They hit the ground sliding away from Will’s body on the slick frost.

  Troy, from out of the darkness, leapt toward the women, his arms swinging down wildly from over his head. With a stomach-turning “CRUNCH,” he brought the prybar down on the woman’s extended forearm. She howled in pain, releasing the gun.

  “My arm!” she screamed as she held it to her chest, an impossible bend leaving no doubt that it was completely broken. Troy took the opportunity to snatch up the gun.

  “You... you shot him! You killed Will!” he yelled, turning his rage on her. The gun's cold metal bit into Troy's palm, its weight unfamiliar and terrifying. It quivered in his grasp, adrenaline preventing him from holding it steady. The woman backed away from him, extending her functional hand toward the boy’s menacing face.

  “No, please,” she pleaded. “I-I need to get him warm. He has to get warm.” Her voice was whimpering as tears welled in her eyes and freezing trails as they rolled down her pale cheek. “He just needs to warm up and then he’ll be ok.” Her breathing was heavy, labored, and her whole body was shaking uncontrollably.

  “No. He won’t. I'm sorry, but he's gone,” Theresa said, her voice calm and soft.

  “Wait!” a voice called from the darkness. Troy whirled in disbelief at the sound of Will’s voice.

  “What?! What happened?!” he yelled at Will, seeing Will's figure approaching him, cautiously, arm outstretched.

  “She missed me. She was shaking so bad. I just... dropped to the ground. I thought I was dead, and my legs just buckled. But I’m ok.” Will explained. He glanced down at the woman, who was shaking and convulsing. “She’s freezing,” he said, rubbing his own arms. “We have to get her in the car. Help me.”

  As Troy and Will reached down to pick up the woman, she moaned quietly, and her body went limp. For the intense pain she must be in, Will thought this was too subtle of a reaction. The bloodstain on her blouse grew slowly as she clutched her bleeding, mangled arm against it. Troy and Will carried her to her car as her head fell back and lolled back and forth, completely unconscious.

  They laid her down on the bench of the SUV, behind the front seats and the body of her husband. She did not indicate that she was registering anything going on around her, and her breathing was shallow and raspy.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  "I don't think she's going to make it," Theresa said, assessing the situation. "She's way too cold, and in this state her body can't handle the trauma of her arm. It's shutting down."

  "There has to be something we can do." Will looked at her. He couldn't accept the fact that she was dying in front of him, just as she couldn't accept her husband dying in front of her. A shiver ran through him. They had all been out here too long as it was.

  "Maybe if we bring her back up to temperature, but she's not responsive now. She's not reacting to the pain of her broken arm, she's not speaking, and her breathing is failing. And we can't stay here for long," Theresa said gravely, looking back to their own car.

  Will just needed a minute to think, to process what was going on. But the cold surrounded him and pressed in from all sides. He couldn't leave this lady for dead, knowing she still had life in her. But his daughter was back in the car, and the longer they stayed in their own vehicle increased the risk for their entire group. The cold was piercing. His hands were going numb, his face painful. The penetrating air was forcing his decision.

  "Get back in our car. We'll give her the best shot we can., but we have to keep ourselves safe as well," Will said as he got into the driver's seat of the SUV. As Troy and Theresa went back to their own car, Will repositioned the SUV, allowing their car room to back out. The brief warmth of the car enveloped him like a cocoon, thawing his frozen limbs. His hand hovered over the vent, blasting hot air and his fingertips burned as sensation slowly returned, a painful reminder of how close he'd come to freezing. This SUV was significantly nicer than their car, and the man was already dead. If he truly valued his daughter's survival above all else, he could leave these two on the side of the road and take the SUV. It was the best option for their group.

  Will looked behind him at the woman lying on the bench seat. He didn't see any movement from her. Every instinct screamed at him to leave them outside, ensure his family's survival. But a small voice inside him whispered that this may very well be the last chance he could have to show kindness to someone in this harsh world, even if it was futile. Will savored the warmth for one more moment before he took a deep breath and threw the door open. The biting cold immediately nipped at his face as he sprinted to his own car and climbed into the driver's seat.

  "Dad, Dad! I thought... I thought I'd lost you! Are you ok?" Abigail cried, wrapping her arms around her father from the backseat.

  "I'm ok. It was... everything just went so wrong. I'm fine, but there wasn't anything we could do. I left it running. The heat's on. I don't know what else to do," he said grimly, staring blankly at the steering wheel in front of him.

  "Will, you didn't have a choice. She was threatening all of us. She wouldn't listen." Theresa said, pulling Brendan closer. "We have to keep moving. I need to get Brendan home. You need to get to your wife and son."

  Will hesitated for a moment. How could he leave someone to just die like that? Over these past 24 hours, he'd found himself doing and thinking things he didn't know he was capable of. But he didn't know what Sophia and Benjamin were facing. Hopefully, they were safe somewhere, but if not...

  Will slammed the gear shift into reverse and swung the car around. The headlights of the SUV faded in his rearview mirror as he got back on the highway and headed north. He couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting back to the exit they were leaving. The white SUV, engine running. A man he didn't know, lying dead in the passenger seat. Behind him, the man's wife, lying on the cold seat, each breath a frigid battle for air to keep herself alive for one more moment with her husband. He drove the thoughts from his head and replaced them with his wife and son, getting closer with each mile he put behind between them and the doomed SUV.

  The silence pressed in around Will. Every choice he made had dire consequences. There were no good options. And there was no time to stop and think. Every moment he delayed meant more uncertainty around Sophia and Benjamin. The car seemed to float over the icy asphalt, each turn a delicate balance between speed and control. The ditches were full of vehicles that overestimated their ability to navigate the icy roads.

  "You handled that situation back there like a pro, Theresa. I guess working with animals gives you some steady nerves, huh?" Will asked Theresa, no longer allowing his thoughts to wander on their own.

  "Mmmhmm. 16 years of animal care," Theresa answered. "Occasionally life and death, but usually just rashes and vaccinations. What about you? What do you do?"

  "Middle school teacher. Math," Will responded, wryly. "Although lately I've been considering teaching arctic survival."

  Theresa's head snapped to face him. Seeing his mischievous grin, she let out a surprised bark of laughter, the sound alien in the frozen wasteland around them.

  "We're all going to be experts in 'arctic survival' when this is all over," Abigail said. "Assuming there is an end to this." The somber mood replaced the momentary lightheartedness.

  "What about you, girl? Are you in school?" Theresa posed her question to Abigail.

  "Senior. We were down visiting the University of Central Florida, headed home when all this happened."

  "Oh yes! The Florida heat! Take me away from this ice, please!" Theresa said, a smile returning to her lips. "We were on a Disney trip. The first vacation I've had in years. Took my boy down to see the Magic Kingdom and enjoy the sun. Weren't prepared for the climate change we've been through, though."

  "Just the two of you?" Abigail asked.

  "Yes. Brendan's dad... he's not in the picture," Theresa said, rubbing her son's shoulder.

  "Dad left when I was a baby," Brendan said, the first words he'd spoken all night. In spite of the depressing topics, everyone felt better with conversation filling the air. It seemed like, for a time, their words pushed back on the life-threatening cold. Their souls warmed slightly as they talked, contrasting the ice-encased cold metal of the bridge they were crossing over.

  "It feels like we've just been moving from one emergency to the next," Will mused. "I haven't even asked, where are you going, Theresa? I've been so focused on getting back to my family, we've just been headed north."

  "North is good for us. I live outside Lansing. We're not in a rush, I just want to get back to our apartment so we can connect with our neighbors and figure out what to do next. You've been pushing so fast that I figured I can just stick with you until we get closer and we'll figure it out from there," Theresa explained.

  "We're not headed as far west as Lansing. We live in Millbrook. But I'm happy to take you that far. I don't know what Troy's plans are," Will glanced questioningly at the young man in the passenger seat.

  "I don't know," Troy paused, his voice becoming sullen. "My whole life was in that house. I really haven't thought much about what to do when you all get home."

  "You're welcome to come along with us. Right, dad?" Abigail looked at Will as she gently placed her hand on Troy's shoulder.

  "Sure. Of course," Will nodded. "You're welcome to stay with us as long as you like. At least until we can figure things out." He wasn't sure what duration that invitation extended for. The only thing that mattered right now was getting back to Sophia and Benjamin. Any thoughts of plans beyond that were foggy, muddled, and unpredictable. He wouldn’t waste any time thinking about that. His one, singular focus was on getting home.

  The car rumbled along the highway, passing cars pulled over on the side road and abandoned in ditches. There was a stark difference between the life inside their car and the death outside it. They felt almost insulated from the death. As they talked, they grew closer, and they felt stronger, pushing against the intrusiveness of the deadly situation they were in.

  Hours passed as they drove through the night, quiet reflection interspersed with casual conversation. As dawn broke, the sun's pale rays struggled to penetrate the frigid air, casting an otherworldly glow across the landscape. Millions of ice crystals glittered like diamond dust, transforming the once-familiar terrain into an alien, shimmering expanse. The beauty of the scene stood in stark contrast to the deadly cold that had created it. At one point, they had to stop and siphon gas from abandoned cars. They took the opportunity to raid several vehicles, top off their car, and fill their four spare tanks in the trunk. The awakening sun did shockingly little to provide any warmth as they took turns in the icy outdoor world.

  Will was shocked at how little evidence of life he saw while driving. He counted less than ten other cars, all headed in the opposite direction, during the drive. While they were pulled over siphoning gas, they were passed by a pickup truck headed the same direction, but it never slowed down. He wasn't sure whether or not the truck even noticed them amidst the abandoned vehicles. He couldn't fit the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind. Where was everyone? What happened to everybody? As the car rolled along, his thoughts were interrupted by a green reflective sign, almost illegible, encased in frost: "Millbrook - Next Exit."