"EVERYONE's dead."

"Yes," Burke said patiently, as he'd been saying for the past two hours, and reached out a hand out to help her. "They are dead."

Gerda ignored his outstretched hand and swung for the nearest branch herself. "Not just Jack. Jack senior, the dragon—"

"Since they were the same person, I hardly think they count separately."

"Anyone who ever knew either of them…" she steadied her footing and looked at the ground, thirty feet below. "Lumi's the only one left."

"Barring the goblins and Adversary," Kramer noted placidly. He was about six yards in front of them, perched on one of the vines, wings tight against his back. Vines, strong and thick as oak trees, surrounded them above and below as they made their way out of the city. This required climbing up, down, and, when they had gotten to the edge of the city, through a thirty foot wall of vines. Gobs hadn't settled the city but several regiments had set up camp outside it, waiting for the return of their overlords. They were brutal without the threat of sorcery or higher-ups to please and had brought in new sorcerers to command the birds and do their spying. It was impossible to fly over the thorn wall without attracting attention. The only choice had been to climb through, much the same way they had entered.

The whole adventure had been a colossal waste of time, good only for picking up supplies, which now swayed dangerously in the too-heavy pack strapped loosely to her back. Her break completed, she reached for the next branch and felt the pack rush forward to jostle her center of gravity.

She teetered and heard an instant "Gerda, don't move!"

She stopped in irritation, balancing between limbs, as Burke leapt to an adjacent vine. He relieved her of the pack and offered to manually lift her to the next branch. Directly after they'd entered the wall of thorns, the angels had decided she had the decision-making capability of a three year old.

"I've asked you to stop doing that," she said with frustration, retreating to her previous position before he could help her.

"You rush something that cannot be rushed," he replied bluntly. "If everyone is dead, there is no need to move as quickly as you wish."

"I want to be out of here." Three hours was quite long enough to be more than ten feet off the ground.

"It's only thirteen feet left, if you are patient," Kramer called back. He was close enough to the edge that he could let go of the vine and hover in the inches above it.

"All the more reason for caution," Burke instructed, and offered his hand.

"I'm pretty sure I can make it."

"'Pretty sure' will not keep you from falling."

"I'll chance it." And she moved forward, around his blockade, and readied for the jump to where Kramer stood.

"This is not the time or place to risk yourself." Burke moved into her path again.

"I can do it." The gap was looking greater now though. How much had Kramer been hovering before reaching the end? They had an internal safety net, she had… she hesitated.

Reluctantly, she reached out a hand and they sailed over the long gap. The flight made her realize the deceptive length of the jump – she never would have made it and dozens of thorn-ridden vines would have torn at her on the way down, if not outright impaled her. Burke set her down on the far branch and she kept moving, cat-like, towards the exit. She didn't object to letting them carry her down after that. The nearest gob camp was a mile to the west but they patrolled often and, with nothing else to do, patrolled far. They would eat anything they came across.

She turned to head towards the path north. The Snow Queen's castle within the town had been empty, as dead an end as Jack, but she remembered an alternative. The original castle to the far north. She hadn't expected the Snow Queen to be in the capital once she saw the state of it anyway. No one awake would stay in that overgrown back-lot, much less a genius witch-season.

"You don't want to rest first?" Burke asked.

"I'm fine. We've lost a lot of time here." Now that her feet were flat on the ground though, she was feeling the blisters that had been gestating the past few days. Boots hadn't exactly been standard equipment as a nanny and while these fit, they rubbed at new places. "Why don't you two scout ahead for gob patrols? I need a moment alone."

"You shouldn't be left—"

"For personal reasons," Gerda said firmly, and Burke stopped mid-sentence. All the lights came on.

"Of course. We'll scout."

It felt a bit silly to warn them away with gobs so close (okay, a lot silly), but it had been a long time since leaving the homelands and she hadn't had a moment alone since she joined up with them. Warning them off for 'personal reasons' was the only break possible. She headed for the tree line of the nearby woods, not bothering to conceal her hobble now, and collapsed on a boulder with more than a little drama. Too dangerous to take off the boots but not too dangerous to sit and admire the sun for the first time in days, unimpeded by a network of vines.

This proved to be a mistake, as the warmth of the boulder and the cool breeze made a façade of safety. If she closed her eyes, she could pretend she was sitting on a park bench, safe in New Jersey, and she'd just completed a hike down in Mountainside.

That brought about a whole new problem.