A/N: Hey y'all. It's been a while. I've since graduated college, back in May. Woo, BA in Arts and Technology (2 people clapping). Thanks, Mom. I love you too.

You, however, might be more interested in the fact that this fic is not actually dead. Having mostly fallen out of the fandom, along with the fact that this is a narrative I started four years ago, as a recent high school graduate, when I was a very different person than what I've grown into since. To my surprise, people are still finding this fic, reading it despite the fact it looks abandoned, and liking it enough to fave, follow, and review anyway.

Essentially, what I'm trying to say is thank you for your faith and patience! I've kept you all waiting long enough. I can't promise quick updates, and the chapters will likely be shorter than they had been, but they will keep coming until this whole thing is eventually finished.

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Chapter XXV: Storm Chasers

I always thought storm chasers were idiots, reckless and irresponsible fools chasing after massive swirling funnels of death just for sport and a hit of adrenaline.

And yet, here I am. Our motive differed, of course, but it did little to overshadow or otherwise diminish how terribly stupid our "plan" was.

We were on the hunt, questing after the horrors that lay at the center of the storm, a goal that was perhaps even more reckless than the bone-headed shenanigans of a couple of young men in Tornado Alley. But, alas, It was our best lead for the moment. Unless Elsa were to conveniently have an epiphany on how to just magically thaw everything back into a beautiful summer through a big, spectacular, and cinematic-montage-worthy event, this deathwish of ours was likely our best chance.

For the moment, the weather was surprisingly fair. It was still cold as balls, mind you, but compared to how bad a blizzard can get, it was practically beach weather. Our transport had gone empty a couple miles back and lay abandoned in a snowy field where it would soon be assimilated by the white and sparkly aggressive viral mass that consumed everything within its icy reach.

The walk wasn't too bad. It had been a little while since our last trek, but we'd had years to get used to it out here in the frozen wastes. Elsa, however, had not. Even without the burden of deep snow, which held under her feet with the solidity of concrete, she was already short of breath and was beginning to lag behind.

I rested a gloved hand on her back and pushed lightly, guiding her onward.

She blushed. "Sorry," she mumbled.

I looked down at her, my expression soft with understanding, and rubbed a hand across her back. "It's not your fault."

"I know, but still..."

"Don't let your pride get in the way, Elsa; we're here to help."

"Fine," she relented before turning to look up at me, "but I draw the line at letting you carry me."

"I wouldn't dare," I said aloud with a chuckle, before giving a look implying the contrary.

Elsa's eyes widened, "Don't even think about it," she warned, hands coming up defensively as she glared back with an expression caught between fear and amusement. An unbidden smile crept onto her face.

"Better keep pace then," I retorted with a sly wink.

Determination set into Elsa's reddening face as she picked up her pace, fast-walking past me toward the front of our party, looking and acting all the more like her younger sister. Said younger sister greeted the older blonde with a surprised smile as the elder came to walk beside her junior. Anna then glanced over her shoulder at me with a raised brow.

I smirked back, revealing nothing. Anna, knowing she had no leverage to pry the truth from me with, relented and turned back to Elsa. "Not that I'm complaining, but what brings you up here?"

"The preservation of my dignity."

That probably wasn't the answer she had been expecting. "Wh- what does that have to do with me?"

"Let's just say that there are certain things you wouldn't do."

The wind began to pick up, and we all burrowed further into our coats and furs.

Marshall stopped abruptly, putting out a hand to hold everyone back. His eyes scanned around, struggling to peer through the storm all around them. "Did anyone hear that?"

I stiffened and looked around with the others. Peering about, I saw nothing but snow, packed on the ground and riding the whistling winds as a white flurry. In weather like this, out on the rolling plains away from the cover of dead trees, there was only one other thing that could be out here other than us. "Where is it coming from, Marshall?"

"I'm not sure. It was fleeting and over the wind."

I nodded. "Stay sharp, everyone. Eyes to the horizon."

It was quiet for a minute more and we nothing more than the same snowy plain we'd been wading across.

Marshall was the first to crack. "Perhaps it was nothing."

"Doubtful," I countered. "I trust your ears, and the frosties are the only ones that could have made that noise. There's nothing else out here." The storm was continuing to build. We had to be getting close. I shivered involuntarily and noticed the rest of our group was suffering similarly. "Let's keep moving, but carefully. Try and keep the heat flowing and the blood moving. Don't get separated."

Anna rolled her eyes as she began to trudge forward again. "This isn't our first blizzard, Kristoff."

I fell in step behind them, face drawn in sternly, too troubled to smile at her remark.

We made it only a few steps before Marshall stopped us again.

"You hear something else?" I asked.

"No," he began, his attention focused on the ground. He bent into a crouch to get a closer look. "But we've got tracks."

Anna and I drew our guns to bear, aiming off into the fog, scanning vigilantly. "How many?"

"A lot," he replied.

I risked a glance over at them myself. Elsa was now standing beside Marshall, her small frame dwarfed beside him as they looked out at what at first appeared to be just a broad swath of disturbed snow. Upon closer inspection, however, I recognized the shapes of hundreds—no, thousands—of overlapping foot and shoe prints.

"It looks like they were headed east, roughly," Marshall concluded. He straightened, looking off into the blizzard in that direction, to the left and nearly perpendicular to the one we had been traveling in. "Considering how fresh these all look, however, that might not matter. We'll probably catch up to them rather soon."

I exhaled. "Then I suppose we should probably discuss an actual plan."

"Would have loved to have done that earlier," Syd grumbled from behind me.

I thought I heard him mutter something else, but then I heard other voices, groans, and the shifting of feet through the snow. Now was not the time for pettiness. "They're here."

They began to come out of the fog just then, first one, then three, seven, and before long, just too many to count.

We really needed a plan. I had to think. "They must have circled back," I muttered aloud, working out the implications. "I don't think they've noticed us yet, but it likely won't remain that way for long. Luckily we only need one of them, if this will even work." I sighed and turned to them. "Syd, Marshall, try to draw the horde's attention. Anna, Elsa and I will approach from the rear and pick off a straggler."

Syd scoffed. "So you're the one giving orders now?"

It took nearly all of my self-control to resist throttling him. He was always looking to start something, wasn't he? All he got from me was a no-nonsense stare. "You wanted a plan. Now you've got one. Let's go."

Syd grumbled, and the rest nodded before we all took off toward our places, jogging as best as we could through the heavy and half crusted snow drifts, all except Elsa, who was—of course—unimpeded. I formed the center of our emerging formation with the Arendelle sisters flanking on either side. We found our way to a small snowbank and hid in wait behind it. The members of the horde were all somewhat close together, moving at a languid and consistent pace, shuffling along without urgency. That began to change once Syd and Marshall started yelling. The sound was followed by a gunshot and the magnesium red flash of a flare I didn't know we had.

I smiled finally at our turn of fortune. We had our distraction. "Perfect."

Though the horde didn't seem to notice the light, they did hear the sound. They began to actively approach it, the shape of the swarm elongating as the faster frosties covered more ground and the slower ones fell behind. There was one slowpoke in particular who seemed to be having quite a bit of trouble, severely limping along with a lame stump of a leg. I pointed him out to the girls.

"You see the limping one there?"

"Stumpy in the two-piece suit?"

"The one and only. He's probably our best bet."

The horde had begun to turn, presumably in response to Marshall and Syd running. I wasn't sure how fast these guys could get, but I was willing to bet they didn't get tired, being undead and all. We didn't have much time.

"Let's go!" I yelled, climbing over the snowbank and taking off at an awkward run, half-stumbling through the drifts. Anna followed and soon overtook me, seeming to simply power through all the snow with raw strength. I watched as she came up on Stumpy at a dead sprint and tackled him, slamming into him like a linebacker with a familiar yet brutal cracking of ice and taking him straight to the ground. Snow sprayed everywhere as she wrestled him into submission, trapping his hands behind his back while she sat astride him, keeping his face down in the snow with her knee.

"I got him!" she cried proudly. There was no time to gloat, however. I took a glance behind me, and it was clear our little capture operation had not gone unnoticed. Most of the horde had turned around, and those nearest were already fast on the approach.

"Elsa?" I called apprehensively. No sooner had I said that than a wall of ice sprung from the ground, the displaced surface snow being vaulted into the air along with it. I turned to see Elsa with her hands out and raised, fingers curled. She met my eyes and gave a confident smirk.

"We've got a flanker!" Anna cried. I looked over just in time to see a frosty make its way around the edge of the wall segment before being blasted into the air in pieces as a new section of the wall shot up from under it like a massive architectural uppercut.

I smiled, amused by the sight despite the running tension, and turned back to Elsa. "Nicely done."

"Thanks."

Elsa then looked down and conjured a pair of blocks around Stumpy's hands and feet, respectively, allowing Anna to finally dismount and straighten. She exhaled with relief, hands on her hips. "Wow, that actually worked."

"We're not done yet," I reminded her. "Syd and Marshall are still over there somewhere."

Her already large eyes widened further. "Shit!" Anna bent down and tossed Stumpy up over her shoulder, being careful to stay clear of his jaws as he tried to bite at her, teeth clicking loudly as he chomped. "Could we get a gag on this guy?" she asked worriedly.

An oddly cloth-looking bandana of ice formed over the lower half of his face.

"Thanks."

I tried peering off into the distance in the hope that Syd and Marshall were on their way back, but I knew it was far more likely that they were somewhere on the other side of the wall.

"Elsa-"

"If we bring it down now, the horde will reach us before they do," she pointed out, apparently already knowing where my thoughts had taken me.

She was also right. My jaw tightened. I should have come up with a rendezvous point for them ahead of time. Hell, we should have made an actual plan ahead of time. Now, in the much clearer retrospect I have while writing this, I know it wasn't entirely my fault, but at the time, I couldn't help but blame myself.

"What if we just go over them?" Anna suggested.

"That might just be crazy enough to work." I turned to Elsa, "You ever made a bridge before?"

She shrugged. "First time for everything."

"Indeed."

Elsa took a deep breath and wrung out her hands. "Stand back, both of you."

We complied and watched as Elsa swept her hands out in an underhand tossing motion, quickly bringing forth a massive and ornate bridge as she solidifying the already chilled moisture of the air into a form aligned with her will. She wasted no time, rushing up the icy steps of the initially steep incline once that section had formed and continuing to build outward in front of her, and we followed close behind her.

Elsa crested the apex of the bridge's arc and looked out at the massive, chaotic scene before her for a moment before pointing. "There!" she cried. Once we caught up to her, we followed the ray her finger traced to a pair of figures running ahead of the agitated horde. The distance between them, however, was shrinking. Fast.

"We're not going to make it to them," Anna lamented, slightly out of breath.

I looked at Elsa to find she had just turned to me as well, hair still whipping from the movement of her head. "There may be one way," I began. Based the way Elsa pursed her lips, she seemed to figure it would be a stretch. She had assumed correctly.

I could only imagine how it looked from Marshall and Syd's perspective, one moment running as fast as they could through over half a meter of snow, knowing they would soon and inevitably be overtaken by a horde of frozen, reanimated corpses, and the next suddenly getting slammed from behind and sent hurtling along at incredible speed.

Elsa had sent us all sliding along the ice, the slope from down the wall and the added effect of the icy wind she was controlling giving us plenty of momentum to escape. Once the horde was out of sight, we all tumbled to the now sloped ground, all except for Elsa, of course, who gracefully slid to a stop atop the snowdrift. "Everyone got all their limbs?"

"All except for Stumpy's leg," Anna quipped, patting the captured frosty's back.

Elsa huffed and looked behind her worriedly. I followed her gaze but saw only the slightly swirling light gray fog of snow that cut our visibility range down to meters. I got the feeling she was seeing something we did not. "Good," Elsa said, "because we're not done."

I looked at her apprehensively as she began conjuring skis and poles for everyone. "Elsa?"

"I had to collapse my wall. Suddenly," she began, preparing her own set of skis last before beginning to move forward. "There was a bit of a shockwave, and now there's more snow moving than I think we'd like...from further up the mountain."

It was then that we heard the rumbling.

Oh no...

"The skis are enchanted and should glide more easily down the snow than normal, but that won't mean anything if you all just stand there. Let's go!" Elsa commanded before pulling hard on her skiing poles and whisking herself downhill. The rest of us followed and began to quickly pick up speed. Hopefully, it would be enough.

It was time to outrun an avalanche, or die trying.