T Connor - Bitter Cold Apocalypse

“Marlon, you genius,” I breathed.

He gave me a glance from the corner of his eye, and I could see how pleased he was with the praise.

“Hardly. But observant. And I tend to plan ahead. I marked this area in my mind some time ago, purely because it offered so much shelter. I’m ashamed that I didn’t think of it sooner. But you know what they say…”

“Better late than never,” I finished. “At least most of the time. And in this case, it’s very well done. These will be perfect for the night. And in the morning—”

“In the morning, we put the robo-suit to the test,” Angie interrupted. “We find the river, and we get across it or down it. Because no psychotic bear man is going to keep me from my daughter. I want to go home. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”

Marlon and I searched until we found a cave that was mid-sized rather than too large, which would make it impossible to heat or protect, or too small, which would give us very little room for maneuvering if someone or something came after us. I dragged Angie into the cave and parked the sled up against one of the walls, then turned to help Marlon with collecting firewood.

Our first and most important mission was to get warm again. Marlon and I had both been very active during the day and had kept our circulation up, but Angie had been sitting still for hours. I wanted to get her warm and on her feet as quickly as possible. I didn’t think we were facing any frostbite, given how many blankets we’d had around her, but sitting still for too long was dangerous as well. She needed to be up and moving.

And like she’d said, we needed to test that exoskeleton out. If we were going to be fording a river tomorrow, I wanted to know how steady she was going to be on her feet—and how much I was going to have to watch out for her. If she could manage herself, it would make it easier for me to take care of all the other things we’d be facing. But we wouldn’t know how stable she was until we tested things.

Marlon and I walked quickly through the forest, grabbing as much wood as we could from the surface of the snow. Neither of us reached down into the snow for branches, as those would be too wet, and we both worked efficiently to test the wood we gathered to make sure it was as dry as possible.

Wet wood didn’t burn. And it smoked. A lot.

“A fire’s going to attract some animals, you know,” Angie said when we returned.

“Not as quickly as smoke would,” Marlon replied.

“And not as quickly as our dead bodies might,” I reminded her. “Which is exactly what might happen if we don’t have heat through the night. Besides, I need to get you warm enough to get you up and walking around. Or as close to walking as you can do with that robotic leg of yours.”

I gave her a grin and a kiss, softening the contradiction to her opinion as much as I could. Angie was a hunter, and doing something that might attract animals—particularly bears—went against her nature. But she’d never been in battle. She didn’t realize that sometimes you had to do the things that kept you alive, even if it meant attracting the beasts.

“If they come, we’ll deal with them,” I told her, patting the gun next to her.

“And what if the guns don’t work?” she asked.

“I don’t know about the guns you brought with you, but my guns are purely mechanical, Angie,” Marlon told her from across the cave, where he was setting up the fire. “And I don’t use electronic sights or lasers. Too much room for error—or a rogue EMP getting in the way, though I highly doubt they’d be affected.”

She gave him a wry grin. “I know that. Ours are the same, actually. We have old-fashioned scopes, nothing fancy. Just not thinking clearly, I guess.”

“And no wonder,” I told her. “We never stopped for food today. Your brain is hungry.”

Once Marlon got the fire going, I helped Angie stand and hobble over toward it, keeping her weight off her bad leg. We dropped down at a distance where we could feel the heat of the fire on our skin but weren’t in danger of any flying embers or burning, and we both took sticks from Marlon.

“Fresh rabbit,” he told us quickly. “Courtesy of my traps.”

“And of very good planning,” I said.

I watched as he skinned and gutted two of the rabbits, then skewered them, positioning them over the fire to allow the meat to start cooking.

The corners of my mouth ticked upward. “I’m starting to think this isn’t your first time.”

“Not my first time,” he agreed carefully. “And probably not my last time, either. I’m just glad it’s coming in handy, allowing me to save the MREs and other rations I brought along. If this event is as serious as I think it is, those supplies will be worth their weight in gold.”

“How much food do you have in there?” Angie asked. “Just out of curiosity, I mean. If all goes well, I’m guessing we’re planning to get to Ellis Woods tomorrow. Right?”

“If all goes well,” Marlon agreed with a nod. “But I’ve brought enough food so we won’t need to stop and hunt on our way. But regardless, we’ll need to make it there tomorrow, for a number of reasons.” Marlon gave me a knowing look.

Right. Nothing like a hard deadline. Then again, if we hit the river within three miles and managed to make good time on the other side—or even use the river somehow—I thought we’d make it. The map indicated that Ellis Woods was two miles away from the river.

That would be within our scope. We might have to walk into the night, but that would be doable as well. Anything to keep from spending another night in the forest.

We cooked our meals until the rabbit was spitting and sizzling over the fire, the juices dripping into the flames, and then sat back and prepared to enjoy the first hot food we’d had since breakfast.

“So tomorrow we reach the river around mid-day, or so,” I began, taking a bite of my meal. “Since we have the sleds, I’m guessing we can use them as a sort of raft. Not the cracked one, obviously, but the other one is whole enough to hold us all, I think. Are we thinking we just cross it? Or do we actually want to use it? Maybe raft further down the river until we get closer to town?”

“Depends on if it’s frozen or not, really,” Marlon said. “It’s early enough in the season that it might not be. If it’s still running, it makes it more dangerous, but also increases our options.”

“And if it’s frozen, it makes it easier—but also gives Randall and the others a way to track us,” I added. “Our footprints will show in the snow on the ice just as easily as they do in the snow on the shore. Is it worth going all the way to the river only to find that out?”

He gave me a shrug. “The river is on our way to town. Whether it’s useful or not… Well, that remains to be seen. Besides, wind will be picking up across the river, even if it’s iced over. No trees out there. The snow won’t be as deep as you think—and it won’t be obvious to anyone if certain parts of the ice are… shall we say, swept clean?” He lifted one eyebrow in emphasis, and I almost laughed.

“Wiping the joint of fingerprints, eh?” I asked.

A nod and a grin, and Marlon took another bite of his rabbit. I frowned, though, considering the man in front of me, and before long, he was returning the frown.

“What is it, John?” he asked. “You’ve got questions written all over your face.”

“More questions than you know,” I confirmed. “And I’m smart enough to realize that you won’t answer most of them—and that maybe you can’t answer most of them. So I’m trying to find the ones that you might be able to answer. And they sound… well, silly.”