They hugged for a moment just to be sure of each other. Behind them, snow continued to break off in sections along the rim. But with the cornice removed, they could finally peer over the edge of the plateau all the way down to the bottom.

In the shadow of the valley floor, white water roiled over rock and boulder. Buckled pines beaten down by the spray lined the bank opposite the cliff. There, dashed across the shallows, the black horse lay bloodied and broken. But the stranger was nowhere to be seen.

“Where do you suppose he is?” Peter asked.

“Dead in the water, carried downriver with any luck.”

But Cooper didn’t sound convinced. Peter scoured the forest for any signs of movement in the shadows. What if the stranger was still out there? Perhaps he was down there looking up at them right now.

“Who do you think he is?”

“Dunno, Pete.”

“And why would he be this far out looking for Returnees?”

Snowball whinnied, so Cooper scrambled back off the cliff to inspect his legs for injury. Snowball did as he was told, raising each leg in turn when Cooper patted it. But nothing was broken and Snowball didn’t seem to be in any pain. Peter held back, watching the two of them together. Snowball just needed to feel the weight of Cooper’s arms around him. Peter sighed. Perhaps Snowball would find the same comfort in him one day. Then they would be a family.

Cooper leaned into Snowball’s neck, nuzzling his mane for a hug. But he whinnied again as if to draw their attention to something and Peter looked back across the plains.

A band of grey separated land and sky. It travelled silently across the frozen waste like a storm scoping out the land before deciding where to strike next. But this dark mass wasn’t made up of rolling cloud and thunderbolts. It was flesh and limbs and jaws and death.

Peter staggered to his feet. “Cooper.”

“I see them.”

“There’s too many of them for you to shield me.”

“Reckon I can manage. It worked on the lake, dinnit?”

“Yes. But there’s far more of them this time.”

“Nah.”

“Cooper, I’m telling you.”

Cooper scooped his Stetson up off the ground, toying with the brim. “Then we better get off here before we’re cornered.”

But he’d missed the point. The rim of the plateau stretched out for a mile or so on either side of them. Snowball might’ve had a fighting chance of outrunning the Dead if they’d left a few minutes ago, but as the earth began to rumble beneath their feet now, the blundering herd closed in on either side like ranch hands rounding on cattle.

Peter looked back over the cliff edge. “We don’t have time to run.”

“Then what?”

“The Dead will drive themselves over the cliff. But we need to hide down there.”