The Shuddering

someone up here for skiing. The resort had been packed.
    Unless the residents out here had all been attacked just as they had been.
    Unless all those people were dead.
    Jane’s teeth chattered as she pulled into herself for warmth. They had kept warm by walking, but now that they had nowhere to go, the chill bit through the layers of their clothing. And the fact that the sun had shifted in the sky hadn’t helped. The trees on either side of the highway cast a cold shadow over the tarmac. This part of the road had always been treacherous after a snowstorm. It caught sun early in the morning but spent the rest of the day in the shade. Ryan had watched cars fishtail on this stretch of highway a half dozen times, actually witnessing an accident a few years back when a little hatchback had caught some black ice and veered off the road.
    “I don’t think anyone is coming,” Jane said through chattering teeth.
    “Someone will come,” he told her, despite not being sure himself.
    “What if they don’t?”
    “They will,” he insisted. “They have to.”
    “Why do they have to?” Jane asked weakly, looking up at him from where she sat.
    He stared at her for a long moment, not sure how to answer. And then he shook his head and tried for a brave smile. “Because we’re here,” he assured her. “Because we’ve made it this far.”
    Jane couldn’t see him anymore, but she knew he was close. Ryan had wanted to keep walking, but she was exhausted. Her legs felt like they were on fire. The cold had cut through her boots; she couldn’t feel her toes. Ryan had relented, pacing up and down that stretch of highway, waiting for a car to come. Jane remained where she was, holding on to Oona.
    She was starting to doubt the reality of that highway entirely, wondering whether it was just a figment of their imagination. Itseemed altogether possible that after a day of walking and a night in the snow, after losing April and Lauren and finally Sawyer, they’d both lost their minds, and now they were standing in the middle of a snow-covered field, waiting for a car to come when there was no road at all. She leaned forward enough to press her gloved hand to the frozen asphalt, making sure it was actually there. When she was satisfied she wasn’t dreaming, she sighed and leaned back against the embankment, trying to imagine herself somewhere else.
    If they got out of here, she was pulling all of her savings out of her account and going to the Maldives. She’d buy herself a tiny bikini—the kind that made everyone do a double take—and rent a little hut out over clear turquoise water so transparent that she could watch tropical fish of all colors of the rainbow lazily drift beneath her feet. She’d get Ryan to go with her, convince him to forget the Alps and move to the tropics. He’d give up snowboarding and take up surfing instead, and neither one of them would see snow ever again.
    Just then Oona raised her head, her ears perking. Jane glanced toward the road, listening for the rumble of an engine. She didn’t hear anything, but Oona was insistent. She tried to pull away from Jane’s grasp, but Jane refused to let go of her collar.
    “Stop,” she said, tugging the dog backward as she got to her feet. Her heart thudded in her chest when she saw Ryan bolt into view.
    “Get the torches,” he yelled at her. As soon as his demand set in, Jane’s body went numb. It couldn’t be. This was supposed to be over. She stood frozen in place as Ryan bounded toward her, skidding to a stop with a look of disbelief. She couldn’t decide whether he was surprised by what was happening, or flabbergasted by her lack of movement. Jane yelped when Oona gave her arm another jerk. The husky took off, but rather than heading forthe open road, she ran for the pines just shy of where they had come from instead.
    Jane’s throat went dry. Frustrated tears sprang to her eyes. She looked to Ryan, but he was in another world; his expression had blanched, as though coming to a final, irrefutable conclusion. With the sun shining brightly overhead, they had felt safe. Those things had only come out in the gray of the storm and under the cover of night. Jane and Ryan had never actually discussed it, but she was sure they both assumed those creatures couldn’t come out into the sun—like vampires, trapped in the shadows forever. It had been an assumption made against all logic, without a shred of solid evidence; it had been something to cling