Every hour they spent walking through the snow only seemed to make it feel colder, ice melting in their boots and soaking their gear down to their skin.

The task force was miles out from the designated exfil point. Their mission set far out in the wintery taiga had been a brutal one. Yet a winter storm pushed the task force far off their target and even further from evacuation.

"Captain the snow is getting worse." Gaz's voice was hoarse from the ski mask he kept over his face to keep him from freezing; it did little to stop the ice that formed on his long, dark eyelashes.

"We need to keep moving!" Price urged his men. He knew that there was nothing this far out besides wild animals or feral hybrids, but he had to keep his men moving; otherwise, they wouldn't get back up in this cold.

The cold that they would eventually succumb to.

“Johnny! Johnny!” Ghost's voice was hardly audible over the storm; still, the lieutenant shouted for Soap, who had fallen once the unstable snow under his feet collapsed.

They struggled to get soap out of the snow, but the storm was too strong. The last of their strength was depleted.

Maybe it was mercy that an Arctic hybrid found them before they froze to death.

In a den warm and dark, safe from the blizzard, the task force was dragged one by one into the hollow space.

The first to wake up was Gaz, his ears adjusting quickly to the groans of Ghost and Price beside him. His eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness of the hollow, but they still caught the movement of fur shifting in the darkness near a pair of shoes, Soap's shoes.

"Hey! W-what the hell!" Gaz sluggishly jerked forward, still weakened and stiff from being in the snow for so long. Yet his adrenaline pushed him forward when he realized that in front of him was Soap's body and the form of a hybrid stalking forward.

A feral hybrid covered in thick, downy fur all over their human limbs. They paid Gaz no mind as they curled up around Soap's body like a blanket. Soap's ragged breathing evened out once he felt the warmth. Soap had been affected by the snow the worst.

Gaz couldn't wait for Price and Ghost to wake up to check on Soap. With no way of knowing what kind of hybrid he was dealing with, he had to go slow.

"Easy, easy now. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to check on him." Gaz hoped the hybrid could understand him as he inched closer.