Ashen Winter

“So you’ll do it?” I said, holding out the pouch toward Kenda. “You’ll help me save Darla?”

“I can’t. I wish I could. But we need your kale seeds, so I can give you a place in Worthington, a house if you want it, any supplies you need. I’d do more if I could. But we just can’t risk any of our people.”

“What do I need with a house? Or a place in Worthington?” I hurled the pouch across the room. It thumped against the wall and fell intact to the floor. Not that I cared if it had burst and spread kale seeds everywhere. If the seeds couldn’t buy Darla’s return, then they were worthless to me.

“Are you crazy?” Rita Mae grabbed the bundle of envelopes off the floor.

“We need those seeds,” Kenda said.

“I need help going after Darla.”

“It’s impossible.”

“Then sell me a snowmobile, guns, and supplies.”

“We don’t have any working snowmobiles. And I can’t let you leave.”

“You can’t let me—?”

“What?” Rita Mae said. “We’re not letting most refugees stay, and you’re telling this young man he can’t leave?”

“He’s just a boy!” Kenda said.

“That doesn’t make it right to hold him against his will,” Rita Mae replied.

“He’ll get killed wandering around out there on his own.”

“That’s his choice to make.”

“I’m going after Darla. Unless you throw me in jail, I’m leaving now.”

“We don’t even have a jail,” Rita Mae said. “And you need supplies.”

“And you need my kale seeds. Sell me one of those pickups. And some gas.”

“We’ve only got two that work,” Kenda said. “We can’t spare one. Or any gas. We’re ru

“You won’t help me go after Darla, don’t have any snowmobiles, won’t sell me a truck—why shouldn’t I take my kale seeds and leave?”

Kenda started, “Because you’ll get killed out—”

“Because we need them,” Rita Mae interrupted. “And you need supplies. Guns, ammo, food—”

“I can’t just let him wander out—”

“You can’t stop him.” Rita Mae turned to me. “Here’s what you need: a blanket requisition for personal items.”

“I’m not giving him carte blanche to take anything!” Kenda yelled, exasperation plain in her voice.

“It’s a fair deal,” Rita Mae said. “Just what supplies he can carry—plus ten gallons of lamp oil for my library.”

Mayor Kenda shot Rita Mae a look sour enough to spoil milk.

“I’ll need guns,” I said. “A rifle and a pistol, at least.”

“A blanket requisition from the mayor will let you pick out whatever you need from the town’s stores.”

“Fine,” I said, staring down the mayor until she broke the standoff, averting her eyes.

“Fine,” Mayor Kenda said. “A blanket requisition for personal items in return for all your kale seeds.”

“And the lamp oil for the library. In return for a thousand kale seeds. Five packets.” I didn’t need the lamp oil, but I figured insisting on it would piss off Mayor Kenda. And she deserved it for threatening to keep me from leaving. It was the least I could do to repay Rita Mae for her support.

“Five packets? You offered seventeen packets not ten minutes ago.”

“Sure, for mounting a rescue,” I said. “That deal’s still on the table.”

“I can’t.” Kenda pulled at her ear.

“Then you only get five packets.” I took the bundle from Rita Mae, counted out five envelopes, and held them out to Mayor Kenda. “Take it or leave it. Darla doesn’t have time for me to waste arguing.”

Mayor Kenda took the packets. She scrawled something on a scrap of paper from her desk and signed it. When she held the paper toward me, Rita Mae grabbed it.

“My lamp oil,” Rita Mae said. She handed the paper back to Kenda.

Kenda wrote something else on the paper and thrust it at Rita Mae. “Satisfied?”

“Yep. I’ll see that he gets everything he wants.” Rita Mae ushered me out of the office. As we left, she gestured at the bloody cloth tied around my right arm. “Should check on your wound.”

“I guess. Earl said it needed stitches.”

“We’d best visit the fire station, then. Paramedic there, Floyd, has a better hand for stitching up flesh than I do.”

Floyd did prove to have a deft hand with his needle. He worked fast, too, which was a blessing—getting stitched up without anesthetic isn’t much fun. The needle itself wasn’t all that bad, but the pressure it put on the gouge in my flesh sent flashes of pain up and down my arm and even into my teeth.

While Floyd worked on my arm, I tried to distract myself by thinking about the supplies I’d need. Skis, guns, a tent, a pack—the list seemed endless. “Can you write a supply list for me?” I asked Rita Mae.

“Paper’s dear. Just tell me; we’ll remember it.”

“Okay. Ow!”

“Sorry,” Floyd said, “almost done. Maybe just two more stitches will do it.”

Rita Mae and I talked through the supply list while Floyd finished up. He got the wound closed with just four stitches—one for the entrance wound at the back of my arm and three for the exit wound at the front.

Then Rita Mae led me around the town—starting from the fire station, we went back to City Hall and then to the small downtown business district. The piece of paper signed by Mayor Kenda magically produced whatever we asked for. At our last stop, St. Paul’s School, we picked up two five-gallon gasoline cans full of lamp oil. Mrs. Nance, the principal, was none too happy about giving it up. We were taking more than half her supply. But when she complained, Rita Mae shook the paper with the mayor’s signature under her nose. By the time we finished our tour of Worthington, I was equipped better than Darla and I had been when we left Warren on Bikezilla.

I had a big, internal frame Kelty backpack; set of Saloman XADV backcountry skis; boots and poles; a Big Agnes tent; an REI down sleeping bag; a plastic tarp; a coil of nylon rope; a working butane lighter (an amazing luxury compared to a flint and steel or the fire-by-friction set); three candles; a set of aluminum pans; a small first-aid kit; a needle and thread; enough cornmeal, dried meat, and dandelion greens to last for weeks; two changes of insulated winter clothes; a Bushmaster .308 hunting rifle similar to Uncle Paul’s; a Browning Hi-Power pistol I had no idea how to use; and a box of extra ammo for each of the guns. The weight of the backpack on my hips and shoulders amazed me. A handful of minuscule seeds had turned into this? It wasn’t too different from before the volcano, when wealth could be carried on a tiny plastic card. But the best part about the supplies—the only part that mattered—maybe they’d give me the chance to reach Darla.

Chapter 31

As we trudged away from the school, I heard a burst of far-off gunfire. I dropped both cans of oil, ducked, and swiveled. All I could see was the back side of the town wall. I looked at Rita Mae; she hadn’t even flinched.

“Who’s shooting?” I asked.

“Blasted bandits taking potshots at someone,” Rita Mae replied. “Happens almost every day. They never hit anyone; they’re just reminding us they’re still out there, waiting.”

“Waiting for what?”

“Waiting for us to let down our guard, maybe. Waiting for a chance to get inside the city walls. Waiting to butcher us all, no doubt.”

“And FEMA does nothing.” I heard another shot from closer by. Looking toward the wall, I pinpointed the source of the sound—a guy I hadn’t seen before on his belly atop the wall, returning fire with a rifle.

“Worse than nothing. Jumped-up peacock that runs that camp in Maquoketa came up here and offered to protect us. All we had to do was abandon Worthington and move into his camp. Mayor Kenda said anyone who wanted to leave with him could. No one left.”

Four guys carrying rifles ran past us on their way to the wall. “Should we do anything?” I asked.

“I’m certainly not about to go climbing up the steps in that ice wall. Now if the bandits made it to the door of my library, that’d be a different matter. Then they’d have me and a 20-gauge deer slug to deal with. You do what you think best, son.”