Ashen Winter

by Mike Mullin

  I moved around to his front and cocked my leg behind me. Which was sort of silly—no martial artist would telegraph their moves like that—but I figured it might scare him. “If you don’t get up, I’m going to kick you again.”

  He moaned and struggled to his feet.

  I retrieved my gloves, safetied the pistol, and put my pack back on. “Come on,” I said. I led him out of the meat locker into the main part of the shed and shut the door behind us, sliding the broken ratchet back into place. Closing the door on that grisly morgue brought a sigh of relief to my lips. I hoped I’d never have to open it again.

  Threatening him with further violations to his family jewels, I forced Brick to hide with me behind the dilapidated minivan. Then I made him sit down so I could tie his ankles together.

  “I’m going to take my T-shirt out of your mouth.” I lifted my foot, letting it hover over his groin. “You know what happens if you yell, right?”

  He nodded. His gaze was affixed on my foot. I knelt beside him and untied the T-shirt. He’d drooled all over it. I tossed it aside—no way was I going to put that thing back in my pack.

  “Listen up,” I said. “Darla . . . the girl you caught—is she in there?” I gestured toward the meat locker.

  “Girl?”

  “Yeah, a little shorter than me, long dark hair, cute?”

  Brick shook his head.

  “She was shot. She fell on one of your trucks.”

  “Sky Girl?”

  “Sky Girl?” I repeated, confused.

  “She fell out of the sky. Whumped on the roof of the cage. Made Brick jump.”

  “Cage?”

  “The truck.”

  “Yes, that’s right. Sky Girl.” I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to ask the next question. But I had to know. “Is she alive?”

  “I dunno.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t know? Was she alive when you found her? Did you kill her?” I balled my fists and lifted my elbow, thinking about smashing his nose.

  “She wasn’t hurt too bad. Ace said she was a hardbelly. Hot enough to trade.”

  “Trade? Where is she?”

  “Ace took her. To trade for bullets.”

  “Took her where? When?”

  “To Danny. Yesterday.”

  “Who’s Danny? Where did he take her?” I had to stifle the urge to yell.

  “He’s the Big Willy. At Grandma’s.”

  “You’re not making sense.”

  “Danny’s boss of all the Peckerwoods in Iowa. At the big house in Anamosa—Grandma’s. Ace went to see him yesterday.”

  “And he traded Darla to Danny? At Anamosa?”

  “That’s what I just told you. He ain’t back yet.” Brick had an expression on his face like he thought I was stupid for even asking. “You gonna eat me?”

  “How far is it to Anamosa from here?”

  “’Bout an hour in the cage. Maybe two on a sled.”

  “Sled?”

  “Yeah, sled . . . snowmobile, you know.”

  I thought about the row of snowmobiles parked at the far side of the shed. They’d be perfect for traveling: I could stay off the roads and go cross-country, which would probably be a lot safer. An hour by truck might be forty or fifty miles, two or three days on foot—maybe longer. Darla might not have that long. I had to steal a snowmobile. The only problem was how would I find Anamosa? I vaguely remembered it was somewhere southeast of Cedar Falls.

  I stepped around the minivan to the closest snowmobile. I’d never driven one before or even ridden on one. The steering seemed obvious—it had handlebars like a bicycle’s. I found the ignition, but its key was nowhere in sight.

  I went back to the corner where I’d left Brick. “Where are the keys to the snowmobiles?”

  “Anybody’s got their own sled, they keep the key. Posers ain’t allowed to touch the sleds or the keys.”

  “Where’s your key?”

  “I just told you, posers ain’t allowed to touch the keys.”

  “What’s a poser?”

  “Guy who ain’t got a sled.”

  “Like you.”

  He glared. “Yeah.”

  Great. How was I going to get a key? I started searching Brick’s pockets.

  “What you doing?” he asked.

  “Looking for a key.”

  “I already told you, I ain’t got a sled.”

  “Whatever.”

  “You going to let me go?”

  “Not right now.”

  “Let me go!” Brick was yelling now. I grabbed my T-shirt from the ground and gagged him again.

  I searched his pockets, finding a billfold with a bunch of worn photos of guys on motorcycles, a handful of heads for socket wrenches, and a rock with eyes and a mouth painted on it.

  I kept searching, starting with the minivan. It was hard to see—the fire had almost burnt out. I went back to the front of the shed and peeked out the door—everything outside was dark and still. There was a small pile of wood near the fire, so I threw two logs on. As it flared back to life, I saw a bundle of crude torches beside Brick’s filthy sleeping bag.

  I lit a torch and resumed my search. Besides the keys, I needed a map—or some way to figure out how to get from Cascade, where I was, to Anamosa, where they’d sent Darla.

  A quick pass through the maintenance shed didn’t reveal anything useful, so I settled in for a serious search. I probably spent a half hour just on the minivan. I searched the glove compartment, under the hood, under the seats, in the compartment where the spare tire used to be, inside all the cup holders—everywhere I could think of. I found three water-stained salt packets, a fossilized French fry, and an old maintenance log.

  I moved on, searching each of the five snowmobiles, the pickup truck, and the tool bench. My torch burned down, and I had to swap it for a new one. It seemed like I’d been searching for hours.

  The only place I hadn’t looked was the meat locker. It didn’t seem a likely place to hide anything. And I would have preferred a hatchet wound in my side to spending more time in that horrific abattoir. But I had little choice. I turned toward it, torch in hand.

  A woman’s gravelly voice boomed from outside the shed. “Brick, you lazy sonofabitch! Why ain’t you built up the fire for breakfast?”

  I dropped my torch, stamped out its flames, and threw myself to the ground. A heavy woman wrapped in a huge, shapeless gray coat stepped into the shed. She kicked Brick’s sleeping bag and harrumphed. Then she turned and started feeding the fire.

  While her attention was on the fire, I belly-crawled behind the minivan. Brick was making a low trumpeting sound, trying to shout around his gag. I put my elbow on his throat and leaned down until he got the message.

  Another woman trudged through the shed’s doors. “What, Brick ain’t built the fire up?”

  “He ain’t even here, lazy sonofabitch.”

  “Well, where’d he get to?”

  “The hell should I know? Guy’s so dumb he probably went out to piss and forgot where his own pecker was.”

  Brick moaned around the gag. I jabbed my elbow against his throat again, and he shut up even before I had to press down.

  The first woman said, “Fetch some belly meat, would ya?”

  “Mmm, bacon.” The second woman left the fire, heading toward the door of the meat locker. I pulled my head behind the minivan.

  I heard a clatter as the door to the meat locker opened. There was a long silence. I crouched behind the minivan on my hands and knees, ready to spring up to run or fight.

  The door clattered again as the woman shut it and jammed the ratchet back in place. I let out the breath I’d been holding and relaxed—the fire was a lot farther from my hiding place than the door to the meat locker.

  As the women cooked, more people started to straggle into the shed. They all stayed near the fire, which made sense—it was freezing in my hiding place at the far corner of the shed. But how was I going to get out of here? The only exit was throu
gh the big sliding doors—right where the fire was. I peeked out. There were now ten guys and five women clustered around the fire.

  I was trapped.

  Chapter 37

  I thought through my options. That didn’t take long—I could sit, wait, and hope not to be discovered, or try to make a break for it, in which case I’d almost certainly be caught and killed. I could get caught immediately or later. I sat tight, choosing later, although waiting made my stomach clench with fear. What was happening to Darla?

  The meat sizzled over the fire. It smelled like bacon—if I hadn’t known what it was, the smell might have made me hungry. As it was, I wondered if I’d ever be able to eat meat again.

  I tried to listen in on their conversation as they ate, but with all of them talking at once, it was hard to make out what they were saying. Someone mentioned Brick’s absence. The cook repeated her joke—that he’d wandered off to pee and forgotten where his thing was—and everyone laughed and dropped the subject. I also gathered that Ace, the boss of this group, was gone but expected back today.

  After breakfast, four of the guys mounted two of the snowmobiles and roared out of the shed. That still left six guys and five women. The guys dragged a rickety table and some folding chairs near the fire and sat around playing cards.

  The women put a huge steel tub on a metal rack at one side of the fire. Then they all trooped in and out of the shed, carrying bucket loads of snow to fill the tub. The men didn’t help at all—just kept playing cards. That seemed awfully sexist to me, but I guessed they weren’t the enlightened kind of cannibals.

  After a while, I figured out what the tub was for: washing clothes. The women put another tub over the fire next to the first one and filled it with snow, as well. One of them dumped some Tide—where they’d found laundry soap was beyond me—and a load of clothing in the first tub and started scrubbing. The second tub was the rinse water. They were scrubbing the clothing with a serrated wooden stick, wringing it out by hand, and hanging it on a line strung near the fire to dry. It reminded me of how back at Uncle Paul’s farm, we’d found an old-time washboard someone had been using as a percussion instrument before the volcano. And we wrung out our clothes with a machine Darla built—you pushed down on a lever, and it used a series of gears to amplify the force—clothes came out of that wringer almost dry.

  My hand was in my pocket—I realized I’d been running my fingers over the chain I’d given Darla. I looked around again, desperate for a way out. There were no windows, but high on each gable a big metal fan was set into the wall. Maybe I could pry the cover off one of the fans and slide through the unmoving blades. But to do that, I’d have to climb up into the network of metal trusses that supported the roof. I might be able to get up there by standing on the roof of the minivan and jumping, but I’d be completely exposed.

  I checked on Brick. He looked asleep—or maybe dead. But when I put my hand against his nose, I could feel him breathing. I’d kept him awake most of the night—hopefully he’d sleep quietly for a while.

  The card game got boisterous. The women were yelling back and forth to each other, too, so I couldn’t make out what any of them were saying in the general hubbub. But at least the din would cover any noise Brick or I made.

  The women had just started their fourth tub of laundry when one of the men facing the shed’s door shouted, “Ace’s back.” They laid down their cards and jumped up to heave on the sliding metal doors, opening them wider. A blast of frigid air blew in, shuffling up some of the cards and eliciting howls of protest from the men.

  The cloth-topped truck started backing into the shed alongside the fire. The women rushed to move their clotheslines.

  When the truck was fully inside, two men hopped out of the cab. The guys instantly crowded around the driver, clasping his forearm and bumping his shoulder in greeting. When the clamor of hellos died down, I heard one of them say, “Yo, Ace, what’d Danny give you for them skanks?”

  “You won’t believe me unless I show you.” Ace strutted to the back of the truck, untied the canvas flap, and pulled it away with a theatrical flourish. “Reinforcements!”

  Burly guys in heavy camo jackets and balaclavas started pouring out of the back of the truck—twelve of them in all.

  “We’re going to own Worthington now!” Ace shouted. Raucous cheers echoed through the shed in response. It was getting crowded. If one of them moved a few more feet in my direction, I’d be spotted for sure. I ducked into the deeper darkness behind the minivan.

  Would twelve more men be enough to overwhelm Worthington’s icy walls? I wasn’t sure. But I needed to warn them. I wasn’t too happy with Mayor Kenda, but I owed Rita Mae big time. A warning was the least I could do to repay them. But I had to find Darla—fast. And reach my parents at the refugee camp in Maquoketa. It all seemed so overwhelming; I swallowed hard, gritting my teeth. First things first: Focus on getting out of this shed alive.

  I thought about what one of the gang members had said. They’d traded “skanks” to Danny for reinforcements. Hearing them refer to Darla as a skank was infuriating, but it also brought hope. I’d rather hear them calling her a skank than a carcass.

  A clunk of wood striking wood interrupted my thoughts. It was followed by a steady stream of sliding noises, more clunks, and the hard exhalations of men at work. When those noises ended, there was a squeal—nails ripping free of wood. Someone yelled, “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” and I risked a glance around the minivan’s bumper.

  A huge pile of crude wooden crates had sprouted by the back of the truck. The lid had been pried off the top crate, and Ace stood beside it, his arms upraised as if in victory. One hand held a crowbar, the other an assault rifle.

  “No peckin’ way Danny gave you all those for a little vee jay,” someone said.

  “Course not,” Ace replied. “They’re short on supplies at Grandma’s. I’m headed back now to take them our meat and some truck parts.”

  “What the—”

  “Just shut up right there. We’ll be in Worthington by this time tomorrow. Dining at the all-you-can-eat long pork buffet. So load it up!”

  Most of the group turned toward the meat locker door on my side of the shed. I ducked behind the minivan again and checked to make sure Brick and I were out of sight.

  The ratchet clanked as someone pulled it free of the door. I realized this could be the perfect opportunity to escape and slithered around the minivan on my belly. The gang members’ feet were silhouetted by the fire as they tromped back and forth from the meat locker to the truck.

  There was an open area between the minivan and the closest snowmobile—ten feet or so. I waited, ready to rush across the gap. All my muscles were tensed; my breath came in short, fast gasps. Everyone seemed to be focused on their work. I hurled myself across the gap.

  A voice boomed, “Hey, there’s someone back there!”

  “Uhh,” I groaned softly. I’d almost made it.

  Chapter 38

  The shed was suddenly silent. I heard footsteps coming closer. “Who’s there?” a voice barked, so close it felt like he was on top of me. I scuttled around the snowmobile, keeping it between me and the voice.

  Someone else said, “It’s just Brick.”

  “That you, Brick?” the voice said. I prayed Brick was still asleep.

  “Dumbass is probably planning to jump out and scare us.” The same voice continued, yelling now. “It don’t work like that, Brick. It’s not scary when you hide and jump out—only when we all do it to you.”

  Everything paused for a second, as if they were expecting a response. I held my breath and scrunched as tightly into the darkness as I could.

  “Back to work,” Ace yelled. “I want to make Anamosa, deliver this meat to Danny, and get back while there’s still daylight.”

  “But Brick oughta be helping—”

  “You can deal with him after I’m on the road. Now finish loading, or I’ll be bringing Danny more carcasses than I promise
d.” I heard a door slam—Ace getting into the truck, maybe.

  I heard footsteps moving away from my hiding place, and the general racket resumed. I slowly let out the breath I’d been holding. My hands were trembling; I closed my eyes briefly and tried to relax my muscles.

  I was still at least twenty feet from the back of the truck and even farther from the shed’s doors—plus the open area between me and the truck was close to the fire and well-illuminated. I’d never make it across without being seen. I needed some kind of distraction.

  I wormed toward one of the workbenches against the shed wall, being careful to keep the snowmobile between me and the Peckerwoods. I reached up with one arm and blindly groped around the surface of the workbench. I felt something cylindrical and grabbed it.

  It was a heavy flathead screwdriver. That would work. I crawled back to my hiding place alongside the snowmobile. Ready as I’ll ever be, I thought.

  I reached over the snowmobile and hurled the screwdriver at the opposite wall of the shed. It clanged against the metal wall so loudly that the sound reverberated through the building. I peeked over the top of the snowmobile. Everyone was looking in the direction of the noise, and about half of them were moving that way. Now or never. I thrust myself upright and ran behind them, moving fast but running on my toes, trying to keep my boots from making too much noise.

  I reached the back end of the truck and ran alongside it, so it was between me and the gang investigating the noise at the other side of the shed. The cab of the truck was sitting just inside the open doors of the maintenance shed. A beautiful rectangle of light beckoned: freedom. I ran for it, sprinting alongside the truck.

  Just then, a leather-jacketed arm pushed the cab door open, blocking my escape.

  Chapter 39

  I skidded to a stop. I was less than ten feet from the door. When the driver got out, I’d be dead meat. A boot appeared. I dropped to my belly and tried to worm under the truck, alongside the double set of rear wheels. My backpack caught on something. Another boot joined the first under the cab door. I scrabbled against the concrete floor, forcing myself forward. Something ripped as I popped under the truck’s dark, oily underbelly.