First Spring (Nuclear Winter Book 2)

by Nathan Jones

  With a sigh Raul slumped back into bed and pulled his blankets over him. He was about ready to sleep some more. The way his schedule was going these days he slept way too long, but it was scattered in periods of a few hours spread over days and nights so it never felt like it was quite enough. Or maybe sleeping too much made him groggy and tired.

  He needed to get out, talk to his friends, but it was difficult to bring himself to do that even when it wasn't the middle of the night. He'd be welcome, that wasn't the problem. And he was volunteering for as many tasks as he could just to fill the hours, but his morning shift didn't start until dawn.

  This cold just plain sucked. He always got like this in winter, and the state of mind he'd been in recently definitely wasn't helping.

  With a sigh Raul closed his eyes, trying to think of something less grim. Good times, like when they'd beaten the raiders and he got to watch Turner do a macabre jig under a hail of bullets from the firing squad. Or when they'd beaten the blockheads and celebrated being able to come home.

  Here, home. Whatever he felt about himself, his friends were here and he was part of the community. Maybe he was even cared about.

  And facing the prospect of sitting in this cabin day after day while the snows fell deeper and deeper, slowly going stir crazy with nothing to keep him company but his memories.

  Raul sighed again and focused on his breathing, doing his best to empty his mind and let his exhaustion pull him down into another nap of a few hours before he had to be out in the cold. He needed a good full night, but that was probably more than he could hope for.

  It was going to be a long winter.

  Chapter One

  Adjusting

  Linda finally got her wish of moving into the extension room Trev had built for the family's cabin.

  Like most wishes it didn't come true quite like she'd hoped for, though. She was going to be sharing it with Deb until the wedding, taking Trev's cot while he traded for her bed in the main room.

  Trev wasn't sure why his mom was suddenly so insistent. Deb had been sharing that room with him for weeks with no issue, and now that they were engaged he would've thought it would bother her less, not more. Not to mention that aside from some increasingly lengthy makeout sessions they'd both been behaving, and planned to continue doing so until they said their vows.

  Come to think of it, that might be one reason right there. He and Deb were both young, in love, spending a lot of time together, and she was finally coming out of her shell when it came to intimacy. Even the best intentions could be hard to stick to under those circumstances.

  And doing things the right way wasn't the worst thing in the world. It was only a month, and it wasn't like they wouldn't be seeing each other all the time during the day anyway. They'd lose most of their privacy so the kissing and cuddling would probably have to stop, but that would just make the honeymoon that much more enjoyable.

  Trev hoped. Things were going well, but they were still treading fragile ground due to what his fiancee had suffered as a prisoner of Gold Bloc soldiers. It was hard to tell what might help or hinder the healing process, and he didn't want to risk losing the intimacy they'd gained.

  As for Linda, it wasn't all bad news for her. With Trev in the main room Deb tended to come spend time with him, especially since his sister complained loud and long if he tried to hang out in the extension room. That meant she mostly had it to herself during the day.

  Not that Linda took it well. She was furious about giving up her comfortable sleeping situation to be exiled to Trev's cot while he stunk up her bed, even though they'd also be switching bedding. And while she liked Deb and appreciated having more space and privacy, she didn't like that the extension was chillier than the main room. She also didn't like having to choose between going through the main room and disturbing everyone to reach the back porch latrine, or bundling up to go around the outside of the cabin.

  She usually chose the inner route, and didn't seem to try too hard to stay quiet either. At any complaints from those she woke up she lashed back twice as hard about her own woeful situation.

  For the first few days afterwards his sister alternated between sulking and loudly complaining during meals and other family time, and huddling under the covers on the cot listening to music on her phone for hours at a time while staring at the ceiling.

  Trev got teenage moodiness and drama and all that, but there were six people confined inside two rooms for the winter. Things were going to get unpleasant quick if she couldn't put a lid on it, and everyone was already losing patience with her. Jim especially got into more and more fights with his older sister over increasingly trivial things, and surprisingly also wasn't pleased with the arrangement.

  “How come she gets to move into the other room?” his brother whined when he heard. “Deb could use my bed, and I wouldn't mind taking the cot and sharing a room with Trev at all.”

  It wasn't an unreasonable question, but at least when their mom explained that they needed to make sure Deb was comfortable with her sleeping situation Jim reluctantly gave up his argument. “Although I don't see how sharing a room with Linda is comfortable,” he added.

  Linda threw a pillow at him, then screeched in outrage when he caught it and started rubbing it into his armpit. “Thanks, you probably just gave me pinkeye,” she yelled. “And I'm going to throw up from your nasty B.O.”

  The topic was briefly tabled while the brewing fight was broken up and the two were separated, Linda sent off to start moving into the other room while Jim was exiled outside to check on the animals.

  That wasn't the only tension in the cabin. With six people in two rooms the potential sources of conflict were endless and often trivial.

  Although one that was far more than trivial was the issue of sharing one “bathroom”, if the small lean-to just outside the back door could be called that. Personally Trev thought the problem wasn't so much the number of people as the fact that the simple seat-over-a-bucket setup would go unused for hours at a time, then there'd be a sudden rush when multiple people needed to go all at once. He didn't know if that was some weird psychological quirk, or just some strange aspect of human nature, but it set off sparks every day.

  And as usual, Linda was the steel striking the flint in most cases.

  Like a week after his sister moved in with Deb, where Trev was treated to the dubious spectacle of her dancing at the back door screaming through it for Jim to hurry up.

  “Are you serious right now?” Jim shouted back. “I told everyone I was going before I came in here!”

  “Well I was in my room and didn't hear you!” Linda yelled.

  “Maybe try not listening to music every single hour of the day, then. This is like the fifth time this week you've started pounding down the door while I'm trying to use the bathroom.”

  The young woman screeched in frustration and began pacing furiously with her knees close together, looking like a five year old. “Just hurry it up, okay?”

  Jim sounded pretty ticked himself. “Believe it or not, you yelling at me nonstop isn't exactly helping.”

  That quieted her for about 30 seconds before she rapped on the door and called, “Are you done?” Then she did the same thing 30 seconds later. Finally, after a few minutes, she pounded on the door in pure rage. “You know what, I give up! You're just taking your time on purpose to be a jerk so I'm going over to Aunt Eva's house. If I don't pee my pants halfway there and end up a frozen pee popsicle. I hope you're happy.”

  “I just spent the last five minutes trying to take a dump while you screamed at me through the door!” Jim shouted back. “So no, I'm not happy.”

  Linda screeched again and bolted for the door, hastily stomping into her boots and tugging on her coat. “You should've built another outhouse instead of your stupid room!” she shouted at Trev before disappearing on her restroom emergency.

  Abrasive as his sister was, she wasn't completely wrong that a second toilet would probably need to be a priority
sometime soon. Maybe they could expand the lean-to, or build one outside the door to his and Deb's room. Preferably one off the entrance instead of through it; he wasn't thrilled at the prospect of visitors needing to walk past the toilet to reach them.

  Trev sighed and stood. Linda probably also had the right idea about heading outside. The weather had been trending warmer over the last few days, and although it was still chilly this early in the morning he was in the mood to get outside while the getting was good.

  It might not be for a long time once things really got cold. People were predicting sub-zero temperatures, possibly even in the double digits on the worst days.

  He didn't disturb Deb, who was still asleep since she took the evening sentry shift til midnight. Even with the snow the defenders were keeping up their patrols, although they'd pulled them in closer to town and renovated the sentry stations into crude shelters where those on duty could stay reasonably warm.

  Trev and the other town leaders couldn't see many people being geared up enough to be lurking around in the cold waiting to cause trouble, but they agreed that those who could would be all the more dangerous for being unexpected.

  Anyway today would probably get above freezing again, so even with snow above knee deep they might see travelers passing through the valley on the road just north of town.

  He shrugged into a jacket and boots and headed outside. His first priority should probably be looking into building another outhouse, but he honestly wasn't feeling it at the moment. Maybe it was the days cooped up inside without sunlight, or the rocky start the morning had gotten off to . . . he'd barely even wanted to do the morning's chores a few hours ago.

  That was one silver lining to the cloud of being cooped in a small space with a bunch of people, he supposed. Actually a pretty major one, that being that the endless hard work leading up to winter, most of it backbreaking, was now too difficult to be worthwhile even on days like this. It gave them all a chance to just rest, and Trev seriously appreciated it.

  Of course that idleness would lead to boredom if he wasn't careful, and there was always the weight of knowing that just because they could no longer do a lot of that necessary work, that didn't mean it didn't still need to be done.

  Thankfully even trapped indoors he had plenty to do, such as helping Lewis reload ammunition, as well as a few other tasks that kept his hands busy while his mind was occupied with music from his phone. They'd tanned the many deer and elk hides they'd hunted, along with the few goat hides and rabbit skins from the animals they'd slaughtered, and there was plenty of useful things he could make with them. Even just cutting the lower quality material down into strips for ties or to braid presented lots of useful options.

  Textile production probably wouldn't be a thing for a while, which meant they all might be wearing buckskin or finding a way to spin and weave the wool from their sheep before long. Trev could already see that their initial attempts trying to make supple leather for clothing or blankets was going to need a ton of refinement, and even with help from Hailey there'd probably be a similar learning curve with the wool.

  Still, this winter was going to be incomparably better than last one, and a lot of that was thanks his family. Most especially a beautiful woman with light brown hair and brown-flecked dark green eyes who'd soon be part of it.

  Thinking of Deb lightened his mood a bit, and he decided he'd walk around and enjoy the warm weather a bit before getting to work.

  It looked as if other people had the same idea as him about getting out, and with the rising sun headed towards noon he saw neighbors out airing laundry and doing other chores, or just standing and enjoying the feel of sun on their skin. Children laughed and played in the snow, and Trev couldn't help but smile. It was almost like a normal winter day.

  Of course it was still early November and they faced several months more of this, most of it worse before it got better. The snow might be slowly melting, but there was enough of it and the crust over it had been thick enough that it wasn't all going to disappear before temperatures turned cold again. Which could happen any day.

  He spied Matt and Ed Larson going over the walls of their cabin, apparently doing some new work chinking cracks they'd missed since the snow layer had been covering them and keeping out the wind. He hadn't seen much of the Larson family lately so he went over to say hello.

  Both men had bags under their eyes and tussled hair, and Matt groaned like an old man as he straightened from investigating a crack between two logs. His dad wasn't even trying to bend or crouch. From what Trev had seen of the family it looked like they were having a bit of a rough time since baby Olivia's birth.

  He supposed he couldn't blame them, with 8 people confined in what basically amounted to one open room with a newborn, and only a few partitions to muffle the sound. Although he didn't have any personal experience with what that was like, aside from very dim memories of Linda as a baby, he knew most new parents didn't get much sleep. With no other option everyone else in Matt's family also got to appreciate that particular joy of parenthood.

  “You holding up?” Trev asked after exchanging greetings.

  Ed grimaced. “We look that bad, huh?”

  “Just that you could use a good night's sleep.”

  The older man sighed. “It's mostly cumulative. Just not quite enough rest on any given day.”

  Matt put a hand on his dad's shoulder. “I've got this, and Sam's up with Olivia so she should be pretty quiet. Why don't you try to sneak in a nap?”

  Ed hesitated. “I should refuse,” he admitted. “But I think I'll take you up on that. Thanks, son.”

  As the older man made his way inside Matt sighed and dropped back into a crouch to inspect the wall. “They all warn you about being a new parent. It's wonderful beyond belief, but it's also exhausting.”

  “Especially under the current conditions,” Trev pointed out.

  “Yeah,” Matt agreed. “My family's been good sports about it, but it's definitely wearing on them. Especially the boys. Everyone's ready to wait it out until Olivia settles into a more workable routine, but Sam and I have been talking about looking for another housing option.”

  Trev gave his friend a doubtful look. “How would that work?”

  It was a serious question. They'd gone into winter with townspeople packed into every available house and half a dozen houses incomplete. There wasn't really any place for the young couple to move into. With it too cold to use the town hall tent even the town functions had been relocated to the clinic, barn, and storehouse buildings.

  Matt shrugged. “We've got a few options. People in stick-and-mud dugouts who wouldn't mind upgrading, even if it means sharing space. And I'd thought about approaching Gutierrez with the same deal. He seems to be in serious need of human contact anyway, so living with my family would be good for him. His place would have just enough room for us.”

  Trev wasn't sure the retired soldier would see it that way, especially considering how much trouble he'd had building the cabin in the first place and how little help he'd gotten with any of his own troubles.

  Not to mention the other issue. There wasn't really any nice way to say it, but for all his good qualities Matt had a habit of leaning hard on his friends if his family or the town needed something, expecting help rather than waiting for it to be offered. Trev himself had been put in awkward positions because of it, and he wasn't the only one: at one point Lewis had accused Matt of getting the old saying “a friend in need is a friend indeed” completely backwards.

  If asked Gutierrez might agree to the arrangement to help his friends, all the while secretly resenting it.

  For a moment Trev debated, then decided to step in it. “Maybe when you talk to Gutierrez you can present the situation and float the idea, but wait for him to make the offer if he will.”

  Matt winced. “Ouch. Have I really been that bad?”

  “Mostly on behalf of the town.”

  “Mostly,” his friend replied with a grimace. “
I guess I'll need to be more thoughtful when it comes to personal favors.” He hesitated, glancing at Trev sidelong. “You're not, uh, I mean . . . we're cool though, right?”

  Trev nodded. “Yeah. We're all digging out of this together.”

  “I appreciate that.” Matt glanced back at the wall and sighed. “Speaking of digging . . . I should get back to this. I'd like to hear how the changes we've made to the town's defenses are going at the meeting later, though.”

  “Sure.” Trev tried not to make a face. Those meetings were important, but he wasn't sure how valuable his role in them really was. Most of the time was spent discussing the town's resources, the issues faced by those faring most poorly, and making long term plans not only for the winter but for the following spring.

  Which was all well and good, but usually Trev was just there to give a brief report on the work of the defenders, then sit around while the others discussed things he didn't have much to do with. At times he could chime in with suggestions, but mostly he hoped they wouldn't try to rope his defenders into more work.

  That was the problem with being responsible for the group of people most willing to help out: they were generally called out to help with everything that needed doing, usually with little or no compensation. The defenders were all volunteers giving a lot of their time and risking their lives, usually for just a bowl of watery soup and a pat on the head each shift. They had their own problems to worry about, and every time Trev had to go after them to do something, especially when there were hundreds of other townspeople who could be doing it instead, he felt awful.

  And then there were the Aspen Hill residents who wouldn't lift a finger to help out, but who whined about how little the town was doing for them and indirectly accused the defenders the town usually called on of being lazy. It was hard not to get pissed off about it.