60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZD1Yfb35KTCHAPTER 17
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WHERE THE COLD BREAKS
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Blake crouches beside the horses, giving them a nail trim with a large metal contraption. He grinds their hooves with a metal file next, breath fogging in the cold. A few feet away, Paul slams metal horseshoes together on an iron cast. Sparks burst and scatter like fireflies.
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Paul doesn’t wear a mask. He doesn’t flinch. He just strikes with that strange, instinctive precision of his.
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Blake watches him, exhausted.
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Blake:
“You need a hand—”
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Paul:(interrupts without looking up)
“I got it!”
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Blake wisely returns to minding his business.
He lifts Stone’s hoof and nails the shoe in place.
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—Later.
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Paul hammers nails into a cabin wall. The rhythmic thunk echoes through the frosted air. He finishes the last board just as Metro approaches.
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Without a word, Paul grabs an axe and starts splitting firewood.
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Paul:
“Lilly’s gone mad…”
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CHOP.
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Paul:
“Says I can’t have apple cider no more…”
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Metro sets a stump upright for him.
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CHOP.
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Metro:
“Rose took the magic leaf pack from me. Says we have to ration better.”
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Metro stacks the split logs.
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Paul:(sets wood)
“Blake says they’re eating all the food in the kitchen… meanwhile half the men are, starving, snoozing or writing fairy tales, instead of hunting, building, gathering.”
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CHOP.
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Metro stacks some more wood.
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Paul:(stacking wood stumps)
“I think their out of control. I’ve built this place from the ground up—ill probably get deathly sick—and all I need is warm mug.’
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Beat.
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‘Some things people just don’t understand. My body’s built a certain way. Not everyone’s the same. My great grandfather had a strict diet of chicken and wine... was that way till he was a ninety-nine. Then some croc shot doctor convinced him to go on a veg diet.”
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Paul rolls his head, annoyed.
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Paul:(head rolling)
“Well guess what?”
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CHOP.
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The echo rings like a warning bell.
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Paul:(voice soft, raspy)
“He was dead in a week.”
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Metro stops stacking. He stands, reaches into his coat, and pulls out his last hidden stash of magic leaf.
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He hands it to Paul.
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Paul snatches it instantly, chews a piece, and exhales like a man returning from the brink. He closes his eyelids.
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Paul:(sighs deepy)
…thanks.
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Paul's eyes open, softening—just barely—and he wanders off, drifting toward the warmth of a nearby fire like a man rediscovering gravity.
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Metro watches him, stunned.
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and then Add to home screen.