Trapped

The group reconvenes to stare at the snow. After a while, Elijah tells a funny story about one of their classmates, and the group “ended the day laughing” (153).

Later, the group settles down to sleep. Weems and Jason pray again. Krista joins them, which initially surprises Weems. Weems finds he falls asleep easier and sleeps better after praying. He wakes up once during the night to “a deep rumbling sound” (156). He doesn’t hear it again, thinks he imagined it, and falls back to sleep.

The next morning, Weems wakes up to someone sneezing. It’s much colder now, and he goes to the fire room, where he builds the blaze back up. Elijah comes in a bit later. Weems confronts him about saying they were all going to die, and Elijah says he didn’t mean it literally. It’s just that the group is in trouble because “No one knows we’re here” (161). This terrifies Weems, but he can’t argue the truth.

After identifying Julie as the sneezer, Weems goes with Jason to the shop, where he starts working on a pair of snowshoes. When he rejoins the others upstairs, he hears the rumbling noise from the other night again. This time, everyone hears it, and Elijah identifies it as snow "Pressing down on the roof” (166).