For the next month, the snow fell, the wind howled, and the weather turned bitterly cold. Murdock was glad Rose and Mei Lee had made cold weather clothing during the previous winter. He continued his periodic checks of the pod area, but traveling to the encampment was very difficult and getting more so with each passing day. With Mei Lee’s help, Krysia delivered her baby, a boy with no name that Murdock knew of, just before the snow fell.
One evening, Murdock was outside filling the water skins with the hot water from their spa. The snow had stopped, and the sun had already gone down. As he walked toward the door of the cabin, it occurred to him to take in some wood. Just as he reached for some, something grabbed him from behind and dragged him backward through the air by the collar of hi
