The alarm kept ringing, and the noise of soldiers banging on the metal door grew louder. But the young beggar felt no anger towards the man with thick eyebrows who had tricked him.
However, his lack of resentment didn't mean he lacked a plan to escape. In this world, victory was survival, no matter how miserable, and death, no matter how glorious, was a defeat.
He stood in the dark, his face without emotion, his cold eyes quickly looking around the room. He saw a meal on a table, with a basket of four or five different bread types.
The sounds of soldiers trying to open the door were getting stronger, but he took the biggest bread and bit into it.
The bread felt cold and tasted strong. He swallowed almost without chewing and took another bite while still looking and checking around.
There was one window in the room, but it had iron bars. Only a small animal could get through easily. There was also a bathroom with a window too high to reach, even if he stood on the toilet.
Snow came in through the high window, showing him a world that was free but out of reach.
His right hand and eyes, not holding the bread now, quickly searched every part of the bedroom and the bathroom.
He moved fast, knowing the danger of death was close. The sounds of the door being stricken violently to open meant that he didn't have much time left.
Getting captured meant death.
He knew this all too well, which was why his mind was terrifyingly calm, and his actions were frighteningly quick.
"Bang, bang!" The door wouldn't open all the way; it was stuck. The soldiers swore and kicked it, giving the boy some time.
Checking around quickly, he noticed something important.
The walls in the bedroom and bathroom looked different. The bathroom walls had many cracks, but the bedroom walls were smooth.
What did the distinct wall colors and cracks mean? His face showed nothing, but he held the bread tighter as he thought.
The soldiers' armor kept making noise while the alarm was still ringing loudly.
However, the boy didn't get distracted. He was fully concentrating on observing and considering the situation calmly.
He knocked on the wall of the bathroom.
Then, he got it.
From the different echoes when he knocked on the bedroom and bathroom walls, he inferred that the two rooms were not made with the same thickness.
The echo from the bedroom wall sounded dull and heavy, but striking the bathroom wall with the same force yielded a sharp and clear sound: the bathroom walls were evidently hollow and much thinner!
Moreover, judging by the cracks that lay on the surface of the bathroom wall, with the right tool, he could likely pry and break that wall with ease.
He looked around the bedroom and bathroom again. He needed something like a stick to open the wall, but he was just a ten-year-old kid without any tools. What could he use?
Nothing. There was nothing like a stick. The soldiers' angry words grew louder; they were getting close to the bedroom door with their swords, ready to come in immediately after breaking the door.
Although he ate some bread, he felt still so cold. He looked around, and for a second, he saw the dead shopkeeper, cold and stiff…
Cold and stiff?
An idea hit him.
"You're trapped! Come out!" the soldiers shouted outside. But inside, the boy moved fast. He put the rest of the bread in his clothes, turned the table over, and took the dirty cloth from it.
Then he ran to the bathroom, turned the water on, and wet the cloth. He took the blanket from under the dead man and spread it out. He rolled the wet cloth into a stick shape and put it on the blanket.
A soldier nodded to the others and started kicking the door. The boy heard the loud noise but move on his behavior. After he was done, he went back to the bedroom and took a brown glass bottle from a cooler.
There was a special liquid in it that made things freeze fast. He had seen how it smoked when it hit the air and made plants frozen like they'd been in the cold for days.
He wrapped his hands in the blanket to keep them warm and opened the bottle. A cold mist filled the room, making it look like a cave of ice. He couldn't wait; he started pouring the freezing liquid.
The wet cloth turned into a solid stick right away. But the soldiers outside were getting ready to break in. One kicked the door hard and, seeing it open a bit, they got ready to charge.
It looked like it was over…
The boy picked up the frozen stick as the weak door almost broke from the hard kicks. He would be caught and might be punished severely or just killed.
But he still used the ice stick on the wall, trying to pry it. He knew he was in trouble but didn't give up. As he pushed on the crack, the three snowflakes that the woman had drawn on the snowfield came from behind him, flying fast toward the door.
In the city of Senag, soldiers saw many weird things. They'd watched powerful people want to get more power but finally, they died for it, and rich people waste food instead of helping the poor.
Today, they saw something they'd always remember. They could tell this story to others who wouldn't believe it.
The beggar's struggle seemed to have been a sad story of trying to live in a harsh world.
But the door turned to solid ice suddenly as the three snowflakes touched it. The soldiers kicked at it but couldn't break it.
But they were even more shocked when the ice kept spreading. It covered the walls and floor, and the snowflakes even turned the air it reached into ice. Anything they touched froze.
These soldiers tried to run but their feet were stuck in the ice. They called for help, but it was no use. The shop became a place of ice and snow, and the broken door was now a hard wall of thick ice. No sound can get out of it.
Everything was quiet again as if the ice had stopped the alarm bells too.
The boy heard the soldiers but ignored them. He had to get out.
The wall of the bathroom was finally broken, forming a small hole where cold air and snow came in. He dropped the ice stick, bent down, and crawled through the hole, holding the precious bread.
Outside, it was still freezing, and the snow hit his face hard.
He was cold but he ran away from the shop, into the cold night, trying to survive in the freezing world one more day.