Chapter 8 - Night of the Wolves
Hypothermia was setting in. The temperature had plunged below freezing, and snow was beginning to fall in heavy white sheets, erasing their footprints but threatening to freeze them to death before dawn.
Mark wrapped his jacket around Maya, while Elena shared her sweater with Lily. They sheltered inside a hollowedout cave near a frozen creek bed. Mark checked his remaining weapons: one sidearm with four bullets left.
"We can't survive the night out here," Elena whispered, her lips turning blue. "We need shelter and transport."
"There's an old ranger station three miles west," Mark said, his jaw aching from the cold. "It has an emergency radio and a backup generator. If we can reach it, I can call in help from federal authorities outside Vance’s reach."
They moved through the blizzard, using the storm as cover. Every cracking branch sounded like a gun cocking, every howl of the wind like an approaching engine.
As they crested a ridge overlooking the ranger station, Mark spotted a dark silhouette standing near the entrance—a mercenary guarding a parked tactical ATV.
Mark looked down at his four remaining bullets. "Stay here," he whispered to Elena. "When I clear that station, bring the girls down."
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Mark crept down the snowy bank, silent as a phantom. He closed the distance behind the guard, wrapping his forearm around the man's throat in a chokehold before the guard could raise his weapon. They crashed into the snow, wrestling violently until Mark managed to strike the man’s temple with the butt of his pistol, rendering him unconscious.
Mark snatched the guard's assault rifle, keycard, and satellite radio. He signaled up the hill. Elena brought the children down, rushing into the warm interior of the ranger station as Mark locked the heavy steel doors behind them.
