Rosabelle opened the empty kitchen cupboard, a ritual she performed for Clara despite their weeks-long shortage. Clara, frail and confined to bed unless carried, stared out at the icy morning and said she had dreamed of their mother suffering. Rosabelle dismissed the dream and noted the dwindling firewood, trying to mask her fear. She reflected on Ark Island’s harsh, evergreen landscape and the strange resurgence of birds since the fall of The Reestablishment a little over a decade earlier.

Preparing to leave, Rosabelle donned her father’s old military coat, the insignias long cut off, and promised to rebuild the fire on her return. Clara mentioned that Sebastian had come by to deliver mail; she handed Rosabelle a folded newspaper and an unmarked envelope. Rosabelle, tense at the mention of Sebastian, pocketed both without opening them and privately imagined killing him. Clara said Sebastian noted Rosabelle had missed last week’s meeting, which Rosabelle attributed to Clara’s illness, and Clara added that Sebastian still wanted to marry Rosabelle.

Confronted with the idea of marriage, Rosabelle turned away, focusing on their sparse kitchen and a wall plaque reading “Our society REESTABLISHED / Our future REDEFINED,” a reminder of lingering ideology. She recalled traumatic memories from a decade earlier: returning at age ten to find a black bear ravaging their last food while their mother had been dead for three days; she did not remember killing the bear or burying their mother, only the blood and the difficult cleanup. She remembered their mother’s final words—“close your eyes, Rosa”—spoken before their mother died by suicide after news that their father would avoid execution by trading secrets and rotting in prison for war crimes; Rosabelle now believed their mother feared being forced to pay for his treason.

Rosabelle wrapped Clara in the hated bear pelt, recognizing the severity of Clara’s chills and coughing. Clara argued that marrying Sebastian would lift the sanctions against them and ease their hunger. Rosabelle studied Clara—thirteen, optimistic, physically similar to Rosabelle with ghost-pale features—and contrasted Clara’s softness with her own hardened self.

Clara insisted Sebastian loved Rosabelle and described how he spoke of her, but Rosabelle cut her off by leaving abruptly without saying goodbye. She armed herself with an automatic rifle, pulled on a balaclava, and stepped out into the snow. Immediately, Sebastian confronted her in front of the cottage and greeted her with a sardonic, “Still dead inside?”