Last time and friendship shouldn't stand out more than fire in that sentence, but it takes Kira a few seconds of the cold seeping into his bones before he can make the obvious choice. "Given my options," of which he's really been given two, "what choice do I have?"

He doesn't make any move back into or taking up Mark's hands, forcing himself toward the path marked by footprints in the light snow and mud. "I'll just have to trust that a bunch of cannibals in the woods would come up with a better ruse."

That said, he doesn't do more than draw level with the man, keeping him at least peripherally in his sights.