Chapter 90: Delusions of Warmth
The subzero gale drove stinging needles of frozen rime across the ditch, but the thirty five men advancing along the perimeter no longer felt the full bite of the frost against their skin. Extreme starvation had stripped away the normal functions of their nervous systems, replacing their physical exhaustion with a strange, feverish detachment. Their bodies were actively consuming the last reserves of muscle tissue to keep their blood flowing, and the acute lack of glucose in their brains began to twist their senses into bizarre patterns of sensory distortion.
Montgomery stumbled through the knee deep powder, his boots dragging like lead weights, yet his head tilted upward into the swirling squall.
He drew a ragged breath through the frozen wool scarf wrap
