There was a faint clicking noise, I glanced around for the source before I realized it was me. The cold was numbing all the pain away, which I was sure was probably not a good thing. I tried to hold my jaw steady as I got to my feet. I used the foot hold I'd discovered earlier. And as before swung my leg up but it had stiffened up and did not go above my waist and slid noisily back down the face of the rock.

I froze.

A whisper soft thump and then something landed on the rock behind me. Something hit me squarely in the middle of my back before I could even react and pinned me to the rock. And then jaws closed around my neck. Gentle they eased back and then bit on the back of my neck. I froze expecting the crunch of my spine. But the touch was delicate and I felt only a little blood cooling on my neck.

I craned to see what had bitten me.

Apoc.

Those blue eyes held me, but it was the metal spider with the flashing red eye that dangled from his jaws that distracted me. It dripped fresh blood onto the snow. And then he was gone in a blink.

I turned back to the rock unable to process what happened. What was that spider? And why hadn't he killed me? Was he the wolf that stopped the other wolves? Was he just saving me for Dr. Shen?

That bastard. I reassured myself that I would die on my own terms tonight. I was no longer Shen's private Frankenstein.

I swung my leg again this time I got it. Slowly, agonizingly I levered my way up to the next level of rocks. This was not a flat topped rock like the last one. It was sharp and pointy and there was nowhere comfortable to rest on it. The steep edges made it difficult to find another foothold. I was afraid if I wedged my foot in I may not be able to get it back out. My ankle still throbbed painfully from before.

So I sat for a moment on this sharp pointed rock and tried again to calculate my odds. I had to go somewhere, can't stay here. The wind was picking up and that clicking was getting louder again. I tried to find a way up. I crawled onto the next rock over in the hopes that maybe I'd find a way up. I found something, a ledge, so I levered onto it and up to the next level.