Nathan Jones - First Winter

Before the Gulf burned a truck would deliver some or all of its shipment, the delivery almost always paid in advance electronically, and then it would continue on to its next stop or return to pick up another shipment for the next delivery.

But when Ned packed up to drive off, after hours of festival-like browsing, haggling, and exchanging goods, his truck was just as full as it had been starting out. If not more.

“Money definitely makes merchanting easier,” the trader said as he finalized the few major trades the town had made and watched his payment in goods being loaded up. “It’s a lot easier to sell high, pocket the profit, buy low and fill your truck with another load of cheap goods to sell high elsewhere, then rinse, repeat and watch your wallet get thicker and thicker.”

Matt could see that. It was a wonder the man was making any sort of profit at all with exchanged goods. Although he had picked up precious metals and jewelry from some townspeople in trade, as well as other valuable commodities that were smaller, lighter, and easier to store. “Does the business work like this?” he asked.

Ned grinned. “As a merchant it’s my duty after every deal to whine that I’ve literally been robbed and my family will starve in the streets. But to be honest I do okay. Enough to justify the time and fuel, and then some.”

“Seems a bit precarious. One highway robbery and all your hard work goes to pieces.”

The trader shrugged. “Welcome to life. That’s why I stick to the roads the military has confirmed are safe and under their protection, and only visit properly vetted locations with a good reputation. And in the event I do run into trouble Paul has his shotgun, and I’ve got a surprise stowed with all the other junk in the cab.” He paused, as if waiting for Matt to ask what, then continued anyway. “By which I mean my trusty SMAW.”

Matt blinked. “I don’t know what that is.”

“Rocket launcher,” the man clarified. “Most threats tend to vanish when you point something like that at them.” He grinned. “They’d definitely vanish if I fired a rocket off, vanish in an explosion that is, although I haven’t had to waste one actually blowing anything up yet.”

Hard to argue with that. Matt extended his hand. “Well hopefully you never have to. But if your route brings you back this way you’re always welcome, and we’ll try to make it worth your while.”

“Can’t ask for more than that.” Ned returned the handshake, then the two of them got back to overseeing loading the trade goods and packing everything up for him to drive on.

Matt’s offer was sincere. The trader’s prices had been steep and he’d haggled ferociously, so the town’s new acquisitions were costly. But they were also things Aspen Hill really needed, which they couldn’t have gotten any other way. Matt was satisfied with how things had gone. He just hoped Lewis and the others who’d wanted their own chance at the offered goods weren’t too miffed that he’d claimed them for the town.

Either way winter was looking a bit less bleak now.

The temperature continued to plummet over the next week.

They started seeing frost in the windows some mornings, which meant snows could come any day. Snows weren’t unheard of for mid-October, especially at their slightly higher elevation, although they were very rare. But not this year, everyone expected, and with this cold most agreed that once they came they’d probably stick around for the rest of the winter.

Which could last for seven months, or even longer. Nuclear winter was hard to predict, especially on the scale they were looking at after the Retaliation, but the one thing they could all be sure of was that it was going to be brutal. The cold people scrambled to prepare for now would only get worse, and sub-zero temperatures were pretty much a given.

Among the other preparations Trev made was winterizing his beehives. He wasn’t sure how the little guys would manage a winter like this, or even if they could. It seemed like they’d been doing their own scrambling to gather honey to prepare, and his mom and Lewis both agreed they’d produced more than usual.

There was a brief argument about harvesting the honey now and letting the hive die, since they weren’t sure they could keep it alive through the winter anyway. But since their food situation wasn’t desperate and keeping the hive long-term was still a goal, they agreed to do their best to help it through til spring. Besides, they all liked bees, and none of them enjoyed the thought of killing off the little critters even if it was pragmatic. Especially Jim and Linda.

The cold seemed to have shaken everyone up. Matt’s community projects like building shelters were put on hold as everyone concentrated on their own situation. Trev spent most of the next week dividing his time between helping Lewis gather fodder for the shelter group’s animals as well as his own promised kid doe, hunting and gathering and preserving all the food they could, and chopping firewood and gathering deadfall.

Everyone who could helped out, even the young kids like Terry and April’s boys and the children from Jane’s group. They gathered up armfuls of cut meadow grass, picked up sticks, searched for edible plants, and were handy to run errands and deliver messages.

Mary’s birthday was October 10 th, a week after Ned’s visit. The family had planned a subdued party for her, recognizing that turning 18 was an important milestone even with the world the way it was. But to prevent the party from being too big a distraction from their work, the night before her birthday Lucas called everyone together in the Halsson cabin for a serious discussion about what the winter would mean and what they could do.

They’d talked about it almost nonstop for the last few months, of course, but it didn’t hurt to lay the situation out clearly.

Trev sat with Linda and Jim on Mary’s cot, while his cousin shared her parents’ bed with her mom, Trev’s mom, and Deb. The others were scattered around the room or seated on the floor, with Lucas occupying a comfortable chair near the stove.

His uncle’s cough had steadily worsened over the last week, going from occasional explosive bursts to sustained episodes that lasted a few seconds. Trev was a bit worried, and he knew everyone else was too, but Lucas had insisted that a cough was nothing to worry about unless he started seeing other symptoms. He was getting plenty of rest, at least, although Aunt Eva and Lewis had to constantly battle him on the issue when there was so much to do.

“I’ve got insights to offer, as I’m sure we all do,” Lucas began once everyone was settled. “But since we’ve got two people here who’ve actually lived through a pretty brutal winter I’ll turn things over to my son and nephew.”

Lewis nodded and stood. Trev had agreed his cousin should lead the discussion, and he’d chime in where necessary. Lewis opened his mouth to begin, then paused to wait patiently while Lucas coughed a few times in quick succession.

“Don’t mind me,” his uncle said when he was done, taking a sip of water. “Blasted cough’s turning into a real nuisance. Go ahead, son.”

“All right,” Lewis said quietly. He was obviously pushing down his worry to stay on topic. “We all know we’re facing a hard winter, but not an impossible one. Trev and I spent last winter up in the hideout, and given the difference in elevation and snowfall I’m guessing what we face down in this valley will be about as severe. We came through it all right, and there’s no reason the family can’t now. We can give you an idea of what to expect, and teach you some of the lessons we’ve learned.”