The five-second rule was for people who had never eaten out of other people's trash. And the sudden cold snap brought out a number of weird memories--conscious and not so much--that Curnen didn't particularly want and wasn't entirely aware of. She remembered Kash and the gift he had given her. Her body remembered hunger at the bottom of winter.

She darted past Ned on all fours, snatching up the fallen funnel cake with her teeth before settling down on the ground with it a few feet away. She squatted, dog--or coyote--like in the snow, still barefoot even in the cold. She didn't much feel the chill, though. Not anymore. The cake was damp, but that didn't bother her.