‘Gene the Hackman, best dog, him carried out the great Walk Around. Not for him the darkness, not really for him the Time of Ice that we understand today.’ Evelyn Battle is usually a Believer. She knows that in the Old Time, a long time before the Time of Ice, the Experts fought a battle with Them, great chitinous beasts that stalked the world and rended and killed. She knows that the Experts set brutal, doglike Aux like her to watch over their great sleep and to keep Them off their Yard. She understands that the tales are not simply lessons in the means of battle. Them were real. However in the frozen ruins of Berlin, Them have not been seen for many years. Today the Aux combat among themselves and state everything that was just tales. They scorn Evelyn and mock her warnings. However the snow is melting, as well as the whistling calls of Them can be heard in the tunnels from the U-Bahn once more….