The story felt really bleak as we can see the desperation of the Narnians to leave however they can before the Witch gets to them. It's interesting also see the views of the different Calormenes as they try to decide what to do about the situation, whether it's to their advantage or not. I'd always assume everyone would have fled as soon as they could but of course, there would always be people who couldn't leave Narnia for whatever reason and it'd be hard to survive and hide from the Witch as long as they could.