It was snow. He was still too panicked to work on the how or the why, but he at least understood he was buried. He moved his face side to side and carved out a pocket to breath in.

  Better.

  This alone was enough to ease to pain of childhood trauma and he was finally able to let his mind take over. Avanche, probably due to fighting. Caused by Kael? Likely. Up is. . . well we’ll come back to that question. He moved his limbs like windshield wipers, creating space for each one at a time. I could use what I took from those crates. It won’t get me out of here, but Kael could find me quicker.

  Joshua craned his neck back as far as he could. It certainly felt like blood was rushing to his brain which meant that he was down and using anything, in any of his pockets, was probably a very bad idea.

  And he found it strange. Out of all the drills that crotchety old woman made him run, all the bizarre situations he was forced to puzzle his way out of, not once did Agassa ever touch on the possibility of getting caught in an avanche.

  This was really her fault if you thought about it at all.

  Something slipped by his ankle and Joshua yelped and kicked, but the kicking did no good as softy, fleshy touches caught him there. Hands, they’re called hands, Joshua realized as he felt himself being pulled in the direction of that foot—a direction that could have been any at this point.

  He took a deep breath as the snow grinded against his face and then felt more hands on his back side, hoisting him in some new, previously undiscovered direction, until the world reset like a sp in the face and he y sprawled on the surface, prone.

  “Come on, get up before you catch a cold.”

  Joshua did so after scooching back from the hole he came from. He sat up and saw both Bartholomew and Gianna towering over him. Even Emilie was there, clutching to her father’s leg. Bartholomew offered a hand which Joshua exhaustedly took.

  Where he stood now was a ravine. One wall was a fair bit taller than the other and judging by the distribution of snow, that’s where the avanche came from. Joshua hugged himself and rubbed, trying to warm himself up. It was a horror show, diffused screams spread evenly through the air. They all come from underneath, but you’d never be able to trace them back. Drives, mechanics, supplymen—soldiers really.

  “Oh,” Gianna said, looking between Joshua, Bartholomew, and Emilie all shivering and desperately hugging themselves for warmth. “I’ll be right back.”

  With one eyebrow crooked, Joshua watched her lower herself into her own hole and disappear back into the snow drift, only to come back within the minute with a fairly substantial piece of fabric ripped from the canvas of a truck. She dropped it between the three shiverers and it burst to life in heat and glorious warmth—which Joshua could distinguish as two separate forces right now.

  “Good job getting them out first,” Joshua nodded to Bartholomew and Emilie.

  She shrugged. “Even if they weren’t closer, they seemed the more important ones to get out first.”

  The more Joshua tried to meet her eyes the more she turned away. He could swear the compliment was embarrassing her. “Still,” Joshua pressed forward, “Good job on the burrowing. Snow isn’t the easiest material to work with Combustion. In fact, are you feeling okay?”

  She turned further away and murmured, “Just made steam, stop asking questions.”

  Weird girl.

  “How did you find me anyway?” Joshua looked through the ravine, all sense of pce to the convoy had been lost. Except for the top of the plow near the end, the other vehicles were completely buried.

  “You were,” Emilie began, and then Bartholomew nudged her with his knee. “Making very odd noises.” She finished undeterred.

  “Was not.”

  Gianna was looking so far away, she could have been trying to spot another pnet.

  “If I had to articute,” Bartholomew said, “it would be ‘nyeh’.”

  “So I was grunting.”

  “You make weird sounds all the time, dude. I don’t know what you’re being so embarrassed about.” A voice came from behind.   Joshua turned to see Kael at the fire, his hair disheveled with a dusting of white but otherwise cool and collected. “How long have you been here?”

  “Long enough to see you embarrass yourself. Thank them for saving you and just be gd you’re not them,” Kael stomped his foot, callously referencing those trapped below.

  And Joshua knew it. He knew he couldn’t save them. They weren’t even his enemies really. Mostly some stupid kids from the country side of a nation that didn’t care if they lived or died; he knew it better than anyone. But if he pulled them out of there, then they would be his enemies. They’d have no choice but to do their job and detain, if not kill him and the rest of the group.

  Not your fault. Not your fault. Things happen. They aren’t your fault. Joshua could feel his chest tightening. He needed air, more fresh air than being stuck in the mountains—somehow.

  Kael came over and gave his shoulder a good squeeze. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Joshua nodded.

  As the group cobbled together torches and prepared to hike however long they had left to the next town, or however longer Bartholomew could stay standing, Joshua heard a scratching. He looked across the pne of snow and moved towards the noise. The voices had died down, mostly, and it wasn’t so bad.

  As he got close, the snow gave way and an arm broke the pearly white surface, followed by a head. It was a soldier. As young as Joshua expected a Taerose grunt to be, as hopeless. His teeth cttered, blue formed around his lips.

  The soldier stopped gophering his way from the snow as the others ambled over, Bartholomew coming with Emilie but forcing her to stay behind him. Gianna strode from the group and moved for that head poking it’s way up for air.

  Joshua sprung at her, grabbing her arm. “No!”

  “Get off of me!” Gianna shrieked. “No touching me.”

  Joshua pulled back, cautiously watching her, not fully prepared to stand down until he felt confident she wouldn’t go in for the kill. “Let’s all calm down,” he said.

  “Josh,” his brother sighed. “There’s not a lot of options here. If Gianna wasn’t going to do it, I would have.”

  “Please don’t.” The soldier shivered out.

  “Shut it.” Kael barked. “You don’t get a vote.”

  “Great! A vote.” Joshua csped his hands together, noticing his own shaking. Just not from the cold. “Let’s all vote. He can’t hurt us!”

  “He can radio; he can shoot us; he can help the others out.” The voices came like an artillery barrage.

  Gianna said, “If we’re voting, then obviously I vote to kill him. It will take me three seconds.” She finished by raising her hand, leaving Joshua unsure whether that signified a vote of yes, or volunteering to be the one to do it.

  Bartholomew joined in, raising one hand and using the other to loop down and cover Emilie’s eyes. He looked Joshua directly in the eyes and nodded.

  “Guess, we’re raising our hands,” Kael grumbled, making half an effort to raise a hand crossed against his chest. “You have to be practical at some point J.”

  Emilie, eyes covered and all, raised a hand.

  “Really, Emilie?” Joshua asked. “Do you even know what we’re voting on.”

  “People keep trying to kill me. I want them to stop,” she said. It certainly sounded like she fully understood the context in py.

  Kael side-eyed Bartholomew as if to ask, ‘why let her be here.’

  Bartholomew picked her up, snuggled her into his chest and started walking to the front of the column. “We’re both involved, we get a say.”

  The vote was four against one then. Or three and half against one depending on how the committee decided to weigh Emilie’s vote. “This is wrong.” It was wrong, wasn’t it? “Leaving him here, giving him a chance to survive probably won’t hurt our chances. We certainly have bigger things to worry about.”

  “Probably,” Kael said, “being the operative word.”

  “Like the assassin in Einhurst, Kael?” Joshua flung a hand out pointing in one direction that statistically wasn’t Einhurst. “Talking about killing like its easy. Didn’t think I could see through the window as you left him alive? I’ve yet to see the downside to that basic act of humanity.”   Kael went silent, doubled down sulking and reset his arms over his chest. He gnced to Gianna.

  Joshua said, “Don’t bring her into this. The st thing she needs is to be told to kill people again.”

  “Hey,” Gianna said, “I’m my own person. I can—”

  “Shut up,” the boys yelled at her together, leaving Gianna to tuck her chin into her chest and stare at her feet.

  Kael inched closer, speaking under his breath, “I know we’ve put this off for years, but we’re going to need to talk about this obsessive need to protect people. It won’t bring mom back.”

  “I know,” Joshua spat through gritted teeth. “That has nothing to do with it. But,” Joshua paused knowing he was going to say something that would hurt. He held the invisible knife now and he wanted to swing it. After shielding his brother from reality for seven years, Joshua wanted to wake him up with it’s bite. “Being strong. Being strong enough to fight, strong enough to kill. You can only change so much. Mom’s gone and that’s all there is to it.” Joshua added soto, “if we’re talking about conversations overdue.”

  Anger fshed across Kael’s face, the kind Joshua had never seen directed at him. As quickly as it emerged, it vanished. “I can change things.” Kael turned and stomped towards the end of the ravine with Bartholomew and Emilie shivering there.

  Gianna gazed at a distant point in space, careful not to look him in the face then over to Kael. “What do we do with this guy?” she shouted.

  “Let him have it.” Kael shouted back.

  Gianna snapped her fingers and the cyan stricken man disappeared back into the ground with a puff of steam. She appraised the hole again and though there wasn’t the slightest clue of the mental energy that went into it, the snow crumbled and colpsed on the tunnel.

  Joshua left with Gianna, hoping that the soldier would be fine. Probably warmer down there than up here.