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"Things have been different since we visited the glacier.

"I hesitate to say bad, because they aren't bad. The loss of Alpenglow is rough, but to be honest, I feel more guilty than anything. I should mourn another melted glacier. Instead, I'm even more excited for the study.

"Just as Feyrer promised, the meltwater makeup is fascinating. There's a massive array of minerals here: calcium, magnesium, and potassium, zinc and copper from the deposits, and many more I've yet to identify. The microbial community of the sample is more diverse than one from a lower lake. There's a bacteria block party beneath the microscope right now. I won't know more until I resample at the end of our trip and submit for DNA sequencing, then compare the findings to that of Feyrer's original study. But I think we've found more than what he did all those years ago. I only wish he were with us to confirm it.

"The entire team's feeding off the energy. Isaac has spent most of his time at the cirque, sketching it for hours. But I'm wondering if we're too distracted by it. It's like we're using the glacier to forget about the body... especially Cam.

"If the woman we found really looked like Naomi Vo, at least now I know why she's been acting so strange. But I've brought up the body to Cam twice since the glacier, and she's changed the subject both times. We can't just pretend it never happened.

"I'm concerned we aren't doing enough... and that I made the wrong decision by not turning around for help back at Wolf Ridge. I've been trying the radio the past couple of nights, manually scanning for repeaters. Nothing. Not even the oldies station I picked up the first time. Though maybe that's for the better.

"Even Emmett is trying to get me off the radio and to come to bed early. I don't know what it's going to take for him to realize he no longer has power over me. Probably a freaking miracle."