\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHow\u2019s Thom?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I sighed and shook my head slightly at J.T.\u2019s question.\u00a0 \u201cSleeping.\u00a0 Being himself.\u00a0 That\u2019s about it.\u201d\u00a0 I chewed my lip.\u00a0 \u201cWas a cold night,\u201d I said quietly.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cProbably in for more,\u201d J.T. said, rubbing at his forehead and shoveling a mouthful of oatmeal into his mouth.\u00a0 \u201cDoesn\u2019t look like things are going to get any better anytime soon.\u00a0 Probably a lot worse, in fact.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I nodded slowly.\u00a0 \u201cEarly winter, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Snow flew, drifting down, tossed and sent swirling on the wind.\u00a0 The sound of Matt and Davon laying cinderblocks together was a counterpoint to the sound of the wind whipping through what was left of the buildings.\u00a0 We were still mostly working with debris that had come down from Mackinac, from some of the other buildings, building homes\u2014building something that would hopefully keep us safe and warm.<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLong winter, too,\u201d I murmured, swallowing down some more oatmeal. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thom grasped my hand, but his strength was all but gone.\u00a0 \u201cStay.\u201d<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cJ.T.?\u201d \u00a0First<\/a> \u2022 Previous<\/a> \u2022 Next<\/a>\u00a0\u2022 Latest<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHow\u2019s Thom?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I sighed and shook my head slightly at J.T.\u2019s question.\u00a0 \u201cSleeping.\u00a0 Being himself.\u00a0 That\u2019s about it.\u201d\u00a0 I chewed my lip.\u00a0 \u201cWas a cold night,\u201d I said quietly. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cProbably in for more,\u201d J.T. said, rubbing at … Continue reading
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How many weeks had it been?\u00a0 None of us were sure.\u00a0 The fire crackled and I stretched my hands out toward it, letting the warmth bleed into my fingers.\u00a0 It was just so cold, and so quickly.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOnly going to get worse,\u201d Greg Doyle murmured.\u00a0 \u201cMuch worse.\u00a0 Long, hard winter.\u00a0 Been watching the animals.\u201d\u00a0 He was hunkered down beneath a blanket, perched precariously on a stool near the fire, keeping an eye on the kettle so it wouldn\u2019t boil over.\u00a0 His arm had healed straight and functional, but he still complained that it ached, and the ache got worse the colder it got. If Thom had a similar complaint about his ankle, he kept it to himself, though I suspected it hurt him as much as Dr. Doyle\u2019s arm bothered him.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn\u2019s voice was quiet.\u00a0 \u201cHow many winters like this do you think we\u2019re looking at, Professor?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cMatt may know better.\u00a0 Books might know better.\u00a0 Nothing can tell us for sure.\u00a0 Could be just this one.\u00a0 Could be for a couple years down the road.\u00a0 Thank god we\u2019ve got that little greenhouse, and then the one up the road.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be a hike to get there and back through this mess, but we\u2019ll be glad of it halfway through the season.\u00a0 More than glad.\u00a0 Come spring, too.\u201d\u00a0 He rubbed his face.\u00a0 \u201cA lot of people are going to die this first winter.\u00a0 Maybe not here, but anywhere else\u2026probably a lot of dying.\u00a0 Starving.\u00a0 Freezing.\u201d\u00a0 He glanced toward Matt and Davon, stubbornly working despite the worsening snowstorm.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re luckier than most.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I nodded slowly.\u00a0 Even if it didn\u2019t seem like it sometimes, we were much, much luckier than most.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cJust gets better and better, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d\u00a0 For the first time since all of this had begun, he sounded glum.\u00a0 I had to smile at him, reached out to pat his thigh gently.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll be okay, J.T.\u00a0 Picked these teams for a reason, right?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He smiled a little and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYeah.\u00a0 Right.\u201d\u00a0 He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and hugged me briefly, letting go as figures began to trickle toward us to get their breakfast, looking about as tired as I realized I still felt.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have the luxury of sleep at this point.\u00a0 There was too much to do to ensure our survival past the next few weeks, the next few months.\u00a0 We might actually have enough food between the local grocery stores, whatever we would be able to salvage\u2014laboring under the assumption that we, in fact, were the only pocket of live people within twenty or thirty miles or so\u2014from houses and farms and the like to last us for a few months, to last us into the winter I suspected would be here within a few weeks.\u00a0 The meteorites that had come down more than likely hadn\u2019t done much good at all for the atmosphere; this was probably as close to a nuclear winter as we were going to get, now, ever.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll take it, if this is as close to that hell as we\u2019ll ever get.\u00a0 Radiation\u2026no.\u00a0 No, never want to deal with that.\u00a0 Not ever.<\/em>\u00a0 I squeezed my eyes shut and struggled to banish the memory of those old visions from years ago, of the look of my friends seeming to melt away before my eyes because of radiation poisoning.\u00a0 Maybe those had just been my imagination\u2014my brain extrapolating from the original visions I\u2019d had that day when I was a freshman.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t have been the first time, after all, and I\u2019d read more than one thing about that sort of thing happening.\u00a0 Those visions, the ones that I\u2019d had after the original take a breath and wait to die<\/em> vision\u2026those had had more of a dream-like\u2014or nightmarish\u2014property than most of what I\u2019d seen in the past, or what I\u2019d seen since.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t have surprised me if those visions were<\/em> nightmares, the ones of my friends dying.\u00a0 Had I really seen what happened yesterday years ago, only from a different point of view?\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t going to discount it as a possibility.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I swallowed past a lump in my throat, gently stroking his hair.\u00a0 \u201cForever, if you asked me.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>He can\u2019t keep denying it.\u00a0 Can\u2019t keep bottling it.\u00a0 He\u2019ll just get worse\u2026\u00a0 \u201cThom\u2026\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cNot going to fight about it again, Marin.\u00a0 Not going to fight about it.\u00a0 Just\u2026just stay with me, hold me.\u00a0 Just\u2026just stay.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to lose you, Thom!\u00a0 I swallowed and nodded, leaning in gently to kiss him gently.\u00a0 \u201cOf course, Thom,\u201d I mumbled.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He didn\u2019t say anything, just held onto me, and I stayed.\u00a0 I stayed all night, until he was so quiet that I thought he\u2019d died, only an occasional rasp of breath, a shiver, told me that I hadn\u2019t lost him yet, that he was still here, still with me.\u00a0 But for how long?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHuh?\u201d\u00a0 He looked at me, spoon hanging out of his mouth.\u00a0 He sucked the oatmeal off of it and swallowed.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong, Marin?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou believe me, right?\u00a0 You believe me when I talk about what I see?\u00a0 You believe all of us, don\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0 I felt sick.\u00a0 Did they all think we were crazy?\u00a0 What if we really were<\/em> crazy?\u00a0 What if it was just all our imaginations?
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His brow furrowed and he swallowed again.\u00a0 \u201cMarin,\u201d he said hoarsely, \u201cyou and Kellin and Drew and Rory are about all I\u2019ve got left to believe.\u00a0 In for an inch, in for a mile.\u00a0 I believe you\u2014I always have.\u201d\u00a0 He reached out and squeezed my shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s got you worked up over this?\u00a0 What\u2019d Thom say<\/em>?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not Thom.\u201d\u00a0 But it was<\/em>.\u00a0 It was<\/em> Thom.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou lie about as well as he does.\u201d\u00a0 J.T. shook his head a little.\u00a0 \u201cTo me, anyway,\u201d he amended, shifting his position slightly, stretching a little.\u00a0 \u201cHe doesn\u2019t think you\u2019re crazy, either.\u00a0 He just can\u2019t accept\u2026whatever the hell it is you both can feel.\u00a0 The shit the rest of us can\u2019t see.\u00a0 He won\u2019t accept it anymore.\u201d\u00a0 He grimaced, taking another spoonful of oatmeal, swallowing it before continuing.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s just scared, Marin.\u00a0 That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
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