The blizzard started just after dusk.

Thick snow whipped through the trees, turning the pine forest into a whiteout wall of wind and ice. Zoey stood outside the log cabin with her suitcase clutched to her chest, cursing the GPS that had sent her on this nightmare detour. Her cabin rental had promised a “solo retreat in the mountains.”

She hadn’t signed up to nearly die on the side of the road, hiking half a mile through a snowstorm.

Her fingers were numb. Her face burned from the ...