Nuclear Winter (Book 1): First Winter

by Nathan Jones

  “It is what it is,” his dad said in a low, disappointed voice. He was obviously suffering enough that he didn't try to excuse Lewis's decision, which made him feel even guiltier.

  “I'm sorry,” he said.

  No one responded. Lucas started to go to his wife to offer comfort, then remembered he needed to be quarantined. Instead he went to their bed and started gathering a few things to move. “Give me a hand, son.”

  “I wish I could help,” Terry said, looking helpless and frustrated himself. “Your son was kind enough to provide medicine in several urgent cases, and now that you need it I can't offer you any in return. We were hoping to get some from the military, or at least some cough medicine or painkillers. Mr. Orban didn't have any of that to trade either.”

  Eva pulled herself together enough to be gracious. “We can't fault you for not providing what you don't have.”

  “Sure you can.” Terry shrugged uncomfortably. “And I'm sorry, Lucas. I'll have Chauncey ask around after the storm clears, assuming travel is possible, but for now it looks as if you'll have to suffer through this the hard way. Keep getting what rest you can, and drink plenty of clean water and eat as much as you're able to. If you've had the cough for a week you'll probably be contagious for another two weeks, but after that you can stop worrying about quarantine unless, God forbid, someone else in the family catches it.”

  “Has anyone else in town reported symptoms?” Lucas asked, pausing in gathering up his pillows.

  Terry hesitated. “Maybe.” He turned to look at Matt, who'd been quietly standing near the door the entire time.

  Matt took a deep breath. He looked exhausted. “I'll ask around about it, and also see about spreading the word and implementing quarantine. The last thing the town needs right now is a whooping cough epidemic.”

  Lewis felt a stab of pain for his dad as Lucas hung his head. “I'm sorry.”

  “No apologies,” their friend said sternly. “Get well.”

  The two men left soon after that, leaving the family to deal with the terrible news. Lewis felt worse and worse for failing his dad, and then stacked on extra guilt about the fact that he was focusing on how awful he felt instead of sympathizing with his dad's suffering like he should be. He would've traded places with him in a heartbeat if he could.

  It looked as if his dad had his own guilt weighing on him. “I must've caught this when I was with Grimes sorting out the mess with Rogers,” he said heavily. “As if we didn't have enough trouble from the man.”

  Lewis sucked in a breath and pushed aside everything else to focus on what they needed to do. “You'll get through this, Dad.” He motioned to Jane. “Come on, let's move our stuff so he can get settled in and get back to resting.”

  They'd have to leave the reloading equipment in there, since it took up too much space to go anywhere else, but at the moment he didn't care since reloading was the last thing on his mind.

  The 100 day cough. More than three months of this, and it was just getting started and was already this bad. And it had struck just as winter started with a vicious snowstorm. And it might spread to more of his family or their friends.

  He refused to think of that possibility, or of the worst case scenarios of his dad's sickness. They'd get through this. They had to.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Helpless

  The storm lasted for two days straight, with sporadic flurries continuing the morning of the third. But in spite of that less than ideal weather the town still came alive as people tromped outdoors.

  There was just too much to do, things they hadn't been able to take care of during the storm that needed to be done as soon as possible. And there were also activities they'd been waiting for consistent below freezing temperatures to do.

  Trev was bundled up and headed to the barn for one such activity, because unpleasant as it might be there was an important first task to be done after the first real snow.

  Now that they could be fairly confident that temperatures would remain below freezing for the foreseeable future, and if temperatures did bump then they had a handy supply of snow they could pack into the storage space to keep it cold until temperatures dropped again, it was time for butchering.

  In lieu of smoking, drying, or salting meat, freezing was the time honored means of keeping it edible for long periods of time. It was also one of the easiest. As for doing all the slaughtering at once, not only did it make the job simpler to do it all at the same time, but the sooner they did it once the cold weather allowed, the better. Each day they delayed meant fodder the animals to be slaughtered would need to eat, and with such a long winter ahead and the trouble they'd had harvesting fodder, it was definitely going to be a problem.

  They needed to conserve what they had as much as possible.

  The town had already carefully assessed all the livestock to decide which ones to convert to meat. Along with available fodder, they needed to balance everyone's food needs through the winter against keeping as many useful animals as possible to grow the herd for the future. The wethers were obvious first picks, as were the older ewes and does. But since that wasn't enough to meet the town's needs or accommodate their store of meadow hay, they then had to assess the remaining animals to see which were the least healthy and well bred.

  Hailey would be there to help with that, going off her experience with livestock to determine the best ones to keep. And for the work itself Matt, Rick, Scott, and Robert would also be helping out, although none of them were jumping for joy at the prospect.

  Butchering was one of those unpleasant jobs none of them had been looking forward to. Trev had plenty of experience after hunting so much game, but that didn't make it an enjoyable experience no matter how often he did it. It was a necessary task, one to be done well and gotten over with quickly.

  Not only did they have to gut, drain, and skin the carcasses quickly, they then had to quarter them and further separate the sections into cuts ready for use. All before the meat froze, since trying to finish butchering on frozen meat was a nightmare Trev had endured once last winter, on an elk they'd brought down in December. He and his cousin had also learned that thawing a bigger chunk of meat to slice out the cuts they needed for a meal not only took forever and was massively inconvenient, but also quickly spoiled the meat they didn't end up using.

  So the plan was to do the entire process from start to finish as quickly as they could, from humanely killing each animal to wrapping the completed cuts, to be stored in the secure ice shed adjacent to the town storehouse. It was useful to have so many people because they were racing the clock against freezing, not just the meat but their own bodies in the cold, so each person would perform one aspect of the task in assembly line fashion. With any luck they could get it done in a couple hours.

  Trev's task would be the gutting, since aside from the draining and the actual slaughtering, which Matt and Robert would be doing, the others were at least a better at the tasks which required more precision: Rick would be doing the skinning, Scott the quartering, and Hailey dressing and wrapping the final cuts.

  He didn't mind his role, since the grisly task would take his mind off his uncle and the specter of whooping cough hanging over the town.

  Matt had come by to alert them that Terry had diagnosed Lucas with Pertussis, and they all needed to watch each other for any signs they'd caught the contagious disease. He also had Trev get together the defenders who most likely hadn't come in contact with anyone who'd come in contact with Lucas. They braved the storm going house to house, alerting people to the danger and advising them to do their best to avoid contact with neighbors until the quarantine period had passed.

  Trev had spent an unpleasant few hours handling that, well aware that he himself might be carrying the bacteria and being out in the cold might give it a chance to take root. The one good thing he could say about the job was that it had kept his mind off worrying about his uncle. It seemed impossible that Lucas was in any real danger, since he took care of h
imself and Trev had never seen him sick, but it was still a nasty illness and he worried for him.

  He was also worried about his aunt, Mary, Lewis, and Jane. After sending out his defenders he'd gone to visit the Halsson cabin to express his concern and support. Aunt Eva looked nearly as exhausted as her husband, as did Lewis, and his aunt's and Mary's eyes had been red from recent tears. Lewis and Jane had moved into the main room to let Lucas have their bed, and Trev had spoken to his uncle through the doorway.

  Lucas had been stoic and optimistic, but obviously in no shape to receive visitors. Trev had expressed his family's best wishes, promised to bring around more of his mom's soup for them, and trudged back home through the storm, where Deb was still gone and the rest of the family was watching each other for signs of coughing or other symptoms.

  All in all Trev was happy to have something to do this morning, even this.

  Oddly enough Linda had chosen to come with him, to an activity that would have very few spectators. When he and Lewis had discussed the butchering yesterday, mostly to inform his cousin that Robert had agreed to take over for him so he could worry about caring for his dad, Mary had put on a brave face about the necessity of slaughtering the animals. The young woman was clearly distressed at the thought, and this morning Sam had been similarly saddened by the necessity.

  As for Linda, she'd also grown fond of the shelter group animals that were going to be slaughtered today, and had actually burst into tears when Trev mentioned it. And yet for some reason here she was, pale but obviously intending to come with him.

  Trev had a feeling that had something to do with the handsome carpenter who'd be helping out with the work. It was cute in a way, if unrealistic considering her age, but since he knew his sister Trev had a feeling she would regret trying to use this particular event as an opportunity to flirt.

  His suspicions were confirmed when they arrived at the barn to find the others already there and busy making preparations, and Linda immediately made a beeline for where Robert and Hailey were setting out and sharpening tools. She wasted no time drawing the carpenter into conversation.

  Robert was obviously wise to her motives, considering the amused look he shot Trev's way as Linda talked a mile a minute, idly playing with a lock of her soft brown hair as she asked him to describe the butchering process.

  Trev shrugged at the man's unspoken question about whether he should actually do so, giving tacit permission to humor the girl. A little reality would be good for her.

  So the carpenter launched into a very, very detailed explanation of how they'd kill, gut, hang, skin, and quarter the excess sheep and goats. In less than a minute Linda was looking green, and as he moved on to describe the possibility of removing the head for taxidermy as a trophy she finally exploded.

  “Stop!” she nearly screeched. “This is awful, why would you tell me it?”

  Robert raised one eyebrow. “You asked me. I thought you were mature enough to hear it.”

  The young woman scowled. “It's got nothing to do with being mature! You don't tell a girl those sorts of things, it's rude.”

  At that Hailey cleared her throat pointedly. She wasn't just hearing about the process, she was going to be helping. And she'd probably started helping with butchering her own family's animals when she was younger than Linda. Trev's sister went a bit pink at the woman's unspoken rebuke, but stubbornly held her glare on the carpenter.

  “Not to be rude, but I think it has everything to do with being mature,” Robert replied, not unkindly. “If you want to be treated like a kid, I'll treat you like one.” That was obviously the last thing Linda wanted to hear considering her flirtation attempts, and she didn't have a response to it. She fumed silently for a moment until Robert turned back to his work, speaking over his shoulder. “Excuse me.”

  “Excuse you is right!” Linda shouted at his back as he walked away. Then she gave an angry screech and stomped away from the barnyard.

  Once she was out of earshot Robert looked Trev's way. “Hope I didn't overstep myself there.”

  Trev shrugged, eyes still on his sister's retreating back. “Probably better than letting her watch, if she couldn't even bear to hear about it.”

  As her brother Trev felt bad for her, but he also couldn't deny that he'd gotten just a little bit of satisfaction out of the exchange. He loved his sister, but he wasn't blind to her difficulty adjusting to a completely changed world. She was young, and she'd always been a little spoiled. That hadn't prepared her well for a life of scarcity without easy and delicious meals, physical and emotional comforts, and endless entertainment options. She balked at the hard work required of her, stewed at her boredom because she had so little to do, and constantly pestered others who were working to entertain her.

  Trev hadn't realized his sister's attitude and behavior had gotten noticed to the point where even newcomers were aware of it, and willing to call it out. And from her seething resentment as she stalked into their cabin and slammed the door behind her, he was afraid this wasn't going to be a wake up call for her.

  As he turned back he realized with a start that Deb was standing nearby, watching the exchange. He hadn't seen her since she bolted from his room, so he was a bit nervous about how things were between them. But to his relief she smiled and waved, obviously here for him. He came over to stand next to her.

  “I'm sorry about your uncle,” she said immediately. “How's he doing this morning?”

  Trev shook his head. “About the same, and probably will be for a long time. Whooping cough can last months if left untreated, and we have no way to treat him.” He gave her a concerned look. “How about you and everyone in Jane's group? Are you all doing okay?”

  His girlfriend nodded. “No sign of it in our cabin. Matt came by to warn us of the danger, and advise us about quarantine procedures. But I figured since I've already been around your family so much without getting sick there's not much use staying away now.” She fell silent, looking a bit embarrassed. That was skirting close to the topic of what had happened the night before last, and how she'd fled into the storm.

  Trev quickly changed the subject, gesturing in the direction his sister had retreated. “So . . . that was awkward.”

  “I don't completely blame her,” Deb replied, avoiding looking at the hooks Robert was setting up to hang the carcasses to drain. “Although if she has trouble with it she shouldn't have come around to watch.”

  Trev grinned and gestured at the carpenter as he finished that task and returned to helping Hailey with the tools. “I don't think it was the butchering she came to watch.”

  “Watching the butcher's not much different,” Deb replied, also smiling. Then she sobered and took a deep breath. “Speaking of awkward . . .”

  He bit back a sigh. He supposed they'd put off clearing the air about what had happened for long enough. “Yeah, we should probably talk about that.”

  She turned to look at him with her vivid brown-flecked green eyes. “I felt pretty silly after running off.”

  “No reason to,” Trev assured her. “I really couldn't have picked a worse time or way to pop the question.”

  That made Deb smile faintly. “No, you really couldn't have. But yesterday was still pretty lonely and miserable, and I spent the entire time wishing I was with you.”

  That felt good to hear. “Same here.” He carefully took her hand. “No reason we can't give it another try.”

  “Exactly.” She took a nervous breath. “By which I mean if you have something you want to ask me, I'll handle it a bit better this time.”

  That was a very strong hint Trev could expect a “yes”, and mingled elation and panic swept through him. Deb was making this easy on him, which he appreciated. But at the same time . . . “Let's wait a bit.”

  He saw disappointment flash across his girlfriend's face, then she nodded a bit glumly and withdrew her hand. “Yeah you're right. We agreed to take it slow.”

  “Well that's not exactly the reason,” Trev admi
tted. It wasn't really romantic to spoil the surprise, but he didn't want her thinking he was rejecting her or getting cold feet. “It has more to do with that “terrible time and way to pop the question” part of it.” He gestured wryly towards the outdoor slaughtering floor the others were preparing. “Not to mention place.”

  “Ah.” Her eyes crinkled in a genuine smile. “In that case take your time.”

  He planned to. Because in spite of what he'd said, taking it slow was also part of the reason. He enjoyed snuggling, and would definitely like to try kissing some more, but there was no hurry. Doing things right was his priority.

  Of course there was such a thing as taking it too slow, especially since Deb was giving him the go-ahead to take the next big step. Still, he'd try to strike a balance.

  Until then he had a less than pleasant job to do, and procrastinating wouldn't get it done any faster. “I should get to work. You're welcome to stick around if you want.”

  Deb made a face. “Thanks, but I think Linda had the right idea.” She delicately leaned up to peck him on the lips. “I'll see you at home.”

  At home. He liked that she was starting to think of his room that way, although it also slammed him with the reality that their relationship was getting serious quick. Which was great, but it was also a first for him and more than a little intimidating. He was treading new territory here, and like it or not that territory might have more than its share of landmines.

  Which made him all the more determined to tread carefully.

  This was going to be a messy job, so Trev and the others converted plastic sheets into aprons and taped plastic bags over their gloves. Once they were ready they worked quickly, prepping the handful of animals and each handling their task.

  The job didn't exactly go like clockwork since some tasks took longer than others, and they especially had bottlenecks with the skinning and quartering. The cold also complicated everything, and they had to be extra careful to avoid fumbling knives held in chilled, slippery plastic covered and gloved fingers. Nobody wanted to accidentally cut themselves.