The Third War

Chapter Eighty One: Kristy

A few days passed with nothing special happening. Jerry stayed grounded, Caspian continued getting tortured by Chloe, Phoebe remained stress, and Chip mellowed out from her pain-and-suffering mood once the paths through the snow were cleared.

By the time December twenty ninth rolled around, the snow had stopped falling leaving a wall of snow behind. I woke up at that day to the cats huddled around me on the bed.

As I got up, the sea of cats surged together filling in the gap since it felt like Elsa had been realized. My teeth chattered slightly and I could see my breath in the air. Now worried about why my room was cold, I put on my trench coat, adding a winter coat I had found in the stuffmart on top of it.

I filled the cat bowl before walking into the hallway finding it just as cold as my room. Phoebe appeared soon after I started blowing air out, totally not pretending to be a dragon. "Kristy?"

I quickly composed myself sending her a wave, "Hi."

The slight amused grin on her face told me she hadn't missed the Skywing impressions.

Luckily, Phoebe wasn't one to call me out, "I'm guessing it's freezing in your room too?"

"Me and all my cats."

She frowned, "Maybe it's just this floor?"

I rubbed my hands together, "Hope so, wanna come find out?"

"Sure," Phoebe walked out closing the door firmly behind her as I discreetly tried to catch a glimpse of the inside. We headed out to the stairs slightly shivering when Phoebe gasped letting out a puff of air, "Dustin could be freezing too."

"That won't be good," I kept my voice calm for her sake but instantly felt worried. I poked my head into the next floor once we got there, "Nope, still cold."

As I turned back to Phoebe, her stress and worry were clearly on display in the way she rubbed her hands together and furrowed her brow.

The realization struck me that if we went to check on Dustin it'd be the first time I had seen Dustin since getting his weird snowflake letter.

"The power must be out," I remarked trying to get her talking.

She nodded gesturing to small, dim lights lining the floor boards, "That's probably why the only lights on are those." 

I hadn't noticed them prior to her mentioning, but they were the only ones in the hall and stair well. "Yeah, emergency ones I guess, so we need to find Zoe, and check on Dustin."

"Alright, I," instead of finishing, Phoebe flailed backward as a loud group of people shoved past us running down the stairs at full speed.

Once they all passed, I stared at where they'd gone in confusion, "What was that all about?"

Phoebe shook her head, "No idea, but it worries me."

What doesn't?

"Once we find the Zoe and Dustin we should see if Jeremy knows what's going on."

She was right about needing to find Jerry. "Yeah, should we split up?"

"I don't think so, in case of more angry, rushing people."

Upon saying that, Phoebe jumped back again as another group went surging by.

"Yep," I agreed quickly running back up the stairs before more people came barreling down.

Once we made it up narrowly missing getting hit by people, I opened the bedroom door, "Zoe?"

No response came, but I saw a bit of an army jacket sticking out from underneath a giant zebra. I lifted it up to find a shivering Zoe curled up in a ball. "Hey there."