Chapter 24: Bloody reunion.

A SCREAM RENT THE AIR.

Travis stilled. He didn't even have to hold up his hand, everyone froze.

The sound reverberated on the rocks, through the trees. It was almost impossible to tell where it came from, but he knew.

That was Bliss.

She was alive.

For now.

"That way," Mason said.

"Wait, we don't know-"

"I do." Mason jabbed his finger to the south and east. Toward Cascade Lake. "I grew up tracking in the mountains. That way."

Another scream, this time shorter, spurred them on.

Mason took point, loping easily over the snow, kicking up a spray of white powder in his wake. Travis and Ethan flanked the kid to either side, keeping six to ten feet apart. The terrain was tricky, and the snow disguised roots and rocks that tried to trip them up.

Adrenaline pushed Travis onward. His hands were near frozen, so he gripped his gun and the handle of his knife tighter.

"Oh my God," Bliss yelled.

A man shouted incoherent words.

Mason veered to their left, slowing his pace.