Part 4
The ice did not collapse all at once.
First came a sharp drop beneath the front tires. Daniel hit the brakes, though braking no longer mattered. A dark line raced across the snow ahead of them, and the hood tilted toward it.
“Seat belt off,” he said.
Emma froze.
“Emma. Now.”
The front of the SUV punched through the surface. Water burst over the hood and struck the windshield with enough force to turn the world black. Daniel reached across the center console, released Emma’s belt, and shoved the field pack into her arms.
The vehicle settled nose-first.
“Back window,” he ordered.
The rear window controls did not respond. Daniel twisted in his seat, grabbed the emergency hammer from the console, and broke the corner of the glass. Water poured through the opening as he knocked away the remaining pieces.
Emma climbed between the seats. One boot slipped beneath her, and icy water filled it instantly.
“Dad!”
“I’m right behind you.”
She pushed the pack through the window, dragged herself onto the rear door, and fell onto the ice. The surface cracked beneath her elbows but held.
Daniel tried to follow.
His body stopped at the waist.
Something beneath the dashboard had trapped his right leg. He pulled once, then again. The SUV sank another few inches, forcing water higher across the front seats.
Emma crawled back.
“No,” Daniel said.
“I can help.”
“Stay flat.”
She stretched toward the broken window. Daniel caught her wrist, but instead of allowing her to pull him, he shoved the field pack farther onto the ice.
“Take that to shore.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“The ice won’t hold both of us here.”
His voice remained calm, which frightened her more than shouting would have.
Emma flattened herself and reached through the window again. Daniel’s fingers closed around hers. The water inside the SUV had risen to his chest.
“Get the rope,” she said. “There’s rope in the pack.”
“The anchor kit’s in the rear compartment. Underwater.”
“I can find something.”
“Emma.”
She stopped.
For the first time, his face showed fear. Not for himself. For her.
“Go to the rocks,” he said. “There’s a wind hollow under the east ledge. Get dry. Use everything in the pack.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“You can.”
The vehicle shifted.
A fresh crack spread toward Emma’s knees. Daniel released her hand and struck the inside of the door.
“Move!”
She crawled.
Every instinct told her to stand and run, but Daniel had taught her enough about bad ice to keep her weight low. She pushed the pack ahead of her and dragged her soaked boot behind.
When she reached thicker ice, she turned.
The rear of the SUV was still visible. Daniel’s head and shoulders rose above the water inside the broken window.
A gray wolf stood at the tree line.
It was large but thin, with one front paw lifted. Snow moved around its legs while it stared at the sinking vehicle.
Daniel saw it.
“That’s Forty-Seven,” he said.
Emma could barely hear him.
“What?”
“The wolf.”
The SUV settled lower.
Daniel looked from the animal to his daughter. “Rocks, Em. Now.”
She screamed his name as the rear window slipped beneath the surface.
For several seconds, his gloved hand remained visible through the black water. Then the vehicle tipped forward and disappeared.
Emma crawled back toward the break.
The ice folded beneath her left arm, plunging it into the lake to the shoulder. She clawed at the surface and felt the edge fracture again.
A growl came from shore.
The wolf had moved closer.
It stood twenty yards away, body rigid, ears forward.
Emma pulled herself free and lay gasping on the ice. The wolf did not approach, but its stare seemed to hold her in place until another crack sounded beneath her chest.
She turned away from the hole.
The eastern rocks were less than a hundred yards distant. Reaching them took nearly half an hour.
Her wet boot became too heavy to drag. She kicked it off, losing two pairs of socks with it, and crawled the rest of the way with one foot wrapped in the torn lining of her snow pants.
The wolf followed along the shore.
It never came closer than fifteen yards. Each time Emma looked back, it had stopped. When she moved, it moved.
At the rocks, she found the hollow Daniel had described—a narrow space beneath a slanted granite shelf where wind had carved out the snow. She pushed the field pack through the opening and crawled inside.
Her hands no longer worked properly.
Daniel had packed for emergencies with an obsessiveness that used to embarrass her. Now every object felt like an instruction from him.
Dry wool base layer. Spare socks. Emergency bivy. Chemical hand warmers. Two energy bars. A half-full thermos of tea. A headlamp. Waterproof matches. A small first-aid kit.
She stripped off her wet outer layers, fighting panic as the cold air touched her skin. The dry clothes were meant for Daniel and hung loosely on her, but they held warmth. She wrapped her bare foot in gauze, a wool hat, and the emergency bivy.
The space was too low for a fire. She placed one hand warmer against her chest and another near her groin, remembering Daniel’s instructions about warming the center of the body first.
Outside, the wolf stood at the entrance.
Emma could see the notch in its ear and the long pale scar along its side.
“Ash,” she whispered.
The name had been a joke when she was seventeen. She had written it on the back of a photograph while Daniel filled out an incident report.
The wolf blinked.
Then it turned away and lay beneath a spruce fifteen yards from the opening, facing the lake.
Night came early.
Emma drank three small mouthfuls of tea and forced herself to eat half an energy bar. She tried the emergency radio, but the battery indicator flashed once and died. Her phone was somewhere inside the submerged SUV.
The cold deepened.
She began talking to keep herself awake.
At first she spoke to Daniel. She told him she had followed his instructions. She told him she was angry. She told him she was sorry for the last year and furious that he had left her with an apology she could no longer answer.
When she ran out of things to say to her father, she spoke to the wolf.
“You don’t owe him anything,” she murmured.
The animal lifted its head.
“That’s what he always said.”
Sometime after midnight, Emma heard yipping in the trees.
Two coyotes appeared at the edge of the lake, small shadows moving quickly over the snow. They circled the place where the SUV had gone through, sniffing at Emma’s abandoned boot and wet clothing.
One turned toward the rocks.
The wolf rose.
Its injured paw shook when it touched the ground, but it stepped between the coyotes and the stone hollow. A growl rolled out of its chest. The coyotes separated, testing either side. The wolf charged…
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