Between Shades of Gray 300-338

In the wake of learning of their father's death, Lina struggles to keep fighting for her life. The weather keeps getting worse and more people fall ill and are dying. One day, a little found a huge owl frozen in the snow. Lina stuffed it inside her coat while others joined around her so she wouldn't be seen by the NKVD. Lina's mother became weaker and weaker. Lina tried getting medicine for her, but failed. Then, on January 5, Lina's mother died. They immediately decided to bury her so she wouldn't be thrown in the pile of other corpses for foxes to eat. They built a coffin and many people joined in to help bury her. A couple days later, Lina went to steal wood from the NKVD. She was met by Kretzsky. After a heated conversation, he let her take some wood. More people got sick, including Jonas, whose scurvy came back. Then one day, a man came into their hut. He was a doctor who was sent there to give a report on the place. The man was there for ten days helping the healing them. On the last day he was there, he asked Lina about her father. After telling him that he died in a prison, the man told her that he has met many dead people and this could be the same story with her father. It gave Lina hope. Jonas was getting better everyday again. Then one day, when Lina went to go chop wood, she saw a sliver of gold appear between shades of gray on the horizon. The polar night was over. She had survived the winter in Siberia.