Later that night, the generator coughed. The disruption woke her with a start. She sat up, looking around the dark bedroom. In the corner the kerosene heater glowed steadily. Fully awake in an instant, she listened with keen attention to the heavy, rhythmic thrum that had become the heartbeat of […]
Dr. Stella Harrow drove too fast for the conditions, racing the snowstorm as it erased the narrow road around her. Snow hammered the windshield in heavy wet bursts, whitening the world beyond the SUV’s headlights. Spruce trunks hemmed her in on either side of the road, great dark guardians. The […]