The world outside was a white abyss. John threw the truck into gear, the tires spinning uselessly for a heart-stopping second before catching the frozen gravel. With Fiona in the back seat clutching the crate and Dr. Aris in the passenger seat barking directions into his phone, they roared out of the driveway. The roads weren’t just slippery; they were sheets of black ice hidden under a deceptive layer of powder.
They were halfway to the clinic when the back end of the truck stepped out. The vehicle groaned, sliding toward a steep embankment that dropped twenty feet into a frozen creek bed. “Hold on!” John screamed, wrenching the wheel against the slide. The truck swerved, the passenger-side tires hovering inches from the edge of the disaster before the treads finally bit into the salt-crust. They stabilized by a hair’s breadth, the engine roaring as John pushed them back onto the center of the road. Every muscle in his body was tight with the effort of fighting the storm, knowing that a single mistake would end not just their lives, but the three gasping souls in the back.