In the winter of 1872, Captain William Trace and his men were ordered to investigate a series of unexplained attacks on local citizens in the remote villages of the wild and untamed Washington Territory. What Captain Trace found was pure nightmare fuel, and what had started as a simple reconnaissance mission had become something far, far more.

For Captain Trace, the winter of 1872 was about survival, not just of the body, but of the mind. For who could look at monsters such as these and not come away changed?

This short story references characters, locations and organizations from the novel The Dying of the Light: End, also by Jason Kristopher.