“You’re the one who wanted to stay here,” he says to Karo. He pulls out the surplus flares and bear spray and a single tarp and tosses them peevishly at Karo’s feet. But then he looks at Maeve and starts to laugh. “What, are you two planning to run away before I get back?”

He tugs the waterproof flap back over the top of his bag, fastens it, slings the pack onto his back, and turns away. Justin and Sim are waiting by the door now too, Justin with his red scarf still jaunty around his neck but shifting his weight from foot to foot with a manic energy. Sadie, Maeve can’t help but notice, pulling up closer to Sim.

Karo catches Maeve’s eye, tension lining her face.

“Right, got it, stay inside,” Karo says now. “We’re on our honor.”

She crouches jerkily to retrieve the unused equipment, bundling it together in the tarp as best she can. Maeve wonders that no one else has noticed this change in her. Hard to ignore. But the men are busy.

From the doorway, Sim calls out: “Remember your pretty face, Maeve.” He brushes a gloved hand across his nose and cheeks. “Dan’s right—stay inside, out of the cold.”

Maeve’s brow furrows. It’s a reminder of their last hike together—but what she remembers now is the way he argued with Anna. The two of them going at it: Anna facetious and almost silly, Sim unable to drop it, taking it all too seriously.

“We’ll be back here tomorrow,” Dan says. “With the goddamn army if that’s what it takes.”

Sim flinches at the word, and even Karo pauses down on her haunches before rising slowly back to her feet. But it’s Sadie she locks eyes on when she responds.

“That’s what I’m hoping for. Good luck. All of you.”

Sadie raises a hand in salute and then they’re gone, out the door and away. An immediate, vacant silence fills the room. When Karo walks to the window, her steps ring out, echoey. Maeve follows a moment later, then checks the door to make sure it’s secure. The damn door, she thinks.

She turns back to the room, cavernous and noiseless aside from the crackle of the fire. Instead of feeling abandoned, she feels light, almost light-headed, as though there’s suddenly not enough oxygen. A slight tremor in her muscles, the feeling you get after a long, hard workout. She remembers now what Sim said to Anna out on the ice.

We’ll just let the next person freeze.

They pass the afternoon efficiently, each independent of the other, and without much discussion, as though there were no avalanche and no crisis, as though Anna were merely in another room, working away, and the others off on a day trip somewhere.