We explored the facility for a while, mostly to look for things to keep us warm. Yusuf had the smarts to bring Figueiredo’s gun with him into this universe, which he kept tucked into his waistband since it was pretty clear this place was deserted. I just needed a little time to focus, I said, and I could try the Envisioner again and get us out of here in no time. The whole building wasn’t much bigger than the Theater in the Compound back home, with just a few glass hallways, a kitchenette littered with empty potato chip bags and microwaveable meal packets, and the wide room with the open bay door and the Envisioner.

No staff, either. One by one, we opened doors to little cubby rooms to find the unmistakable shapes of bodies under blankets. They’d either frozen to death or starved. Or maybe both.

We found some matches in a first aid kit in the kitchenette and made a small fire of stray paper by the open bay door. Gray wisps curled up to the sky. A gift to you, oh ancestors. Still, almost too cold to even move. Yusuf shivered and blew air over his hands. The vision in my right eye was fading into a shrinking spotlight. Soon enough I’d have a killer migraine.

I waited long enough to be polite and then went back to the staff bedrooms. I tried not to look down when I pulled two blankets off bodies on the beds. Still, I couldn’t get the Envisioner to open up under my now-numb hands. I draped a blanket around Yusuf’s hunched shoulders by the fire and he had the sense not to ask where I’d gotten it from. The light outside was flat gray and darkening, telling of the coming night and the deeper cold it would bring.

Shadows from the fire played over his face, with the flames reflecting in his eyes. Some ancient instinct wanted to tell me that we’d be safe if we just stayed by the fire, away from whatever animals wanted to stalk us in the dark.

But we both knew what needed to happen. No other choice. We had to walk.

*   *   *

I couldn’t take clothes off a corpse. I just couldn’t. The thought of breaking the legs of a body frozen in the fetal position just to get some pants off made me want to bury myself in the snow and surrender to the cold. I found a roll of duct tape in the kitchenette first-aid kit and made pants by taping another blanket around my shorts and bare legs.

More blankets around us, with pillowcases around our faces—trapping our breath—and then out into the expanse of white.