A Cold Winters Night

"Here you go dear" said Neal, leaning in to give me a kiss and handing me hot coffee.

"Mm, thank you" I said bundling myself up in a warm fuzzy blanket in front of the fireplace.

"What's the news for the weather?" I asked.

"I don't know yet, have you seen the batteries?" asked Neal.

"They're in the end drawer, in the kitchen" I said.

As he put the batteries into the radio we heard the news caster talk about blistering cold side wind, with a massive blizzard going through,

"They're saying there's a chance we could lose power, some of the poles are freezing over," Neal said.

"I'm going out for some wood, I'll be right back," and out the door he went letting in some snowflakes to drift and melt in the entryway.

I huddle more into the blankets as I continued listening to the radio.

"Dangerous road conditions! Warning people to stay inside!" said the man on the radio.

Twenty minutes later the front door opens and Neal walks through, followed by a big gust of wind that blew in snow. I get up from my cozy perch at the end of the couch and ran to close the door for Neal. I shriek as I step on a pile of snow tracked in by his boots, and quickly step away after closing the door.

"Cold feet?" he said, with a chuckle.

"Ha-ha, it must be getting pretty bad out there." I said, as I went up and stoked the fire a little.

"Eight inches so far, and it's coming down hard," Neil said, "it's been snowing since, what? Like, three this afternoon, it's five now."

"Wow is that it?" I asked, "It feels so much later than that," I said as I sat back down watching Neil as he added wood to the fire, his shadow stretching over the fireplace.

Knock, knock, knock!! knock, knock, knock!! Neal came around and answered the door, I walked out of the living room to see who was banging on our door in this weather. Neal started letting in some kids, there was a girl around 17-18 years old, and two big jock looking kids around the same age. One of the boys had a broken leg and a nasty gash on his head, bleeding down the face. The girl looked pretty beaten as well with blood covering the right side of her face and hair.

I welcomed the kids in and brought them to the fireplace to warm up and wrap up in blankets.
"Neil, go get the first aid kit and alcohol, I'll get the water and towels." I directed.

"Sure thing hun," he responded and ran upstairs.

I settled the kids down on the couch after covering it with a blanket, then I ran down the hall and grabbed a few towels, rags, and washcloths. Putting those down on the coffee table, I then went to the kitchen and set the kettle on the stove and got a basin ready. After that I had to go to my sewing room in the back to get some needles and thread, with those wounds, they are probably going to need stitches.

The kettle of hot water was ready, Neal came back with the first-aid kit and alcohol. First we had to cut open the jeans the boy was wearing, so I decided to start talking to the kids to distract them.

"So, what are your names?" I asked, wiping away blood, cleaning the wound with alcohol.

They looked at each other then back at me, the boy whom I was helping screamed in pain.

"I'm Mckenzie, Max is my brother," said the girl, pointing to the boy on the couch with the broken leg.

"And that is, Allen, he's my boyfriend," nodding to the other boy, he had a large, broad build for a football team.

"What were you kids doing out in this weather? Why aren't you at home?" I asked, as I'm re-aligning Max' leg, he screams.

"We were coming back from Spencer, we went to go visit with my cousins and hang out," said Mckenzie.

"We were on our way home when the car started sliding and we ended up in the ditch. Your house was the first one we came upon," she finished.

"Well sure looks like you kids crashed into somethin or rolled the car, not just ending up in the ditch," I said. Finishing up with casting Max' leg, I was moving on to his head with the massive deep cut.

"Well, the car did roll, down a hill, then we ended up in the ditch." Mckenzie explained.

"Well then, I suppose you kids are lucky to be here," moving on to Mckenzie's gash on her head.

After the kids were all stitched up and casted, I went into the back storage closet to dig through a box of old sweatpants and shirts, coming out with two extra large sizes for the boys and a small for the girl. I showed them the bathroom so they could change, Max needed help changing and getting clean so Neil and Allen helped him out. Once they were done and back by the fireplace I asked,

"Are you kids hungry? I have some chicken noodle soup I can warm up."

"Yes please," replied Mckenzie.

The boys looked up and started nodding yes, so I went to the kitchen. I came back out with a tray of 3 bowls of chicken noodle soup, some crackers along with some milk to drink. Mckenzie and Allen sat by the fire place eating, Max was still on the couch.

"Well, why don't you kids call your parents and let them know your safe? And maybe get help for Max" I said, handing the phone over to Mckenzie.

After the first unresponsive call, she tried again, this time the line was dead.

"Well, I guess no phone service now," Neil said as he walked into the kitchen, I followed.

"So the phones are dead, anything on the radio?" I asked standing between the kitchen and living room to watching the kids.

"All I'm getting is static," said Neil as he kept changing stations,

"Here, keep listening" he said to Max handing over the radio as he passed by.

He had the radio in hand and was trying to get a channel when we heard,

"Severe cold weather...freezing temps...stay inside...keep posted." The radio, went quiet and static came through again.

Walking up to the kids, they were talking among themselves, they stopped and looked at me as I approached.

Looking at Allen I asked,

"Could you help Neil with bringing in some wood?"

He shrugged, "Sure"

As the boys went out, I had Mckenzie help me carry down pillows and blankets for everyone.
I went to the kitchen and grabbed some dry foods to eat and water to drink. I also grabbed new towels and bandaging for the kids. As we set up in the living room, Neil and Allen returned with fire wood, letting in the cold snow and wind. We closed the sliding partition doors that separated the living room from the other rooms.

Max was still on the couch trying to listen to the radio for something, but it was all silent. Neil and I took turns, sitting up and watching.

It was about five in the morning when I heard some glass crack. Grabbing a flash light I went over to the partition doors,

"I have to wake Neil up for this" I thought.

I woke Neil up and showed him what I found. The partition doors were completely frozen over, it was starting to get cold in the living room, even with the fire going.

"What should we do?" I asked, a little fear creeping into my voice.

We woke up the kids,

"Alright, everyone, grab everything you can and we're gonna go down into the cellar, we can get to the bunker from there. It's going to be cold so wrap up," said Neal.

Neil and Allen helped Max get downstairs, while Mckenzie and I grabbed food, water and blankets. After we were all there, Neil asked,

"Could you make sure the door is closed hun?"

I went back up the stairs and closed the door to the cellar, as I came back down, Neil had started moving a metal shelving unit. Allen had gotten the generator going. It goes to the bunker from where we were so no one had to go outside, it was set into the main wall and connects to the fireplace and thereby the outside. We had another three full gas containers up against the wall. Neal was done moving the shelving unit, which opened into about a mile long cemented tunnel. There were light bulbs strung along the top right corner, barely bright enough to see. Neal led the way down the tunnel carrying some supplies. Allen and Mckenzie were helping Max, and I brought up the rear, carrying all the supplies that Neil wasn't . At the end there was a round metal door, the kind banks use. He unlocked the door and the kids went in, I followed with Neal close by.

The bunker was massive, enough to fit six to ten people easily. There were four bunk beds lined up in a row in the back left corner, a wall sectioned that off from the bathroom area right across the hall. We had to bring down some clothing, medication, first-aid kits, etc. with us. Old couches surrounded the middle area.

Off to the side there was a CB radio, with a list of channels pegged on the 'Notice Bulletin Board,' one of the channels is CB Channel 14, Frequency 27.125. I read over the list, till I found CB Channel 9, Frequency 27.650 for Emergencies. I flipped the radio over to the right channel and frequency, turned on the speakers and said,

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I paused then,

"Hello can anyone hear me?"

Waiting...then I heard,

"Hello? Who is this? Over."

I sat up glad to hear someone on the other end, I said,

"This is the Luther's, who am I speaking to? Over."

"This is Officer Leon with the sheriffs department. What is your status? Over."

"We are in our bunker, we have three young adults and two adults. We have two injured teenagers, what is the status of the weather? Over."

"Do you have first aid kits to treat the injured? The storm is growing in intensity, stay inside. Do not, I repeat, do not go outside. Over," said officer Leon.

"Copy that, do not go outside. How long will the weather last? Over" I asked.

"Turn your radio to frequency 162.450, power 300, handle KX190, WFO: Grand Junction. Do you copy? Over." Officer Leon replied.

"Copy. Frequency 162.450, power 300, handle KX190, WFO: Grand Junction, Over." I replied,

"Keep listening for updates, out" he said.

Neal took the radio to the kids and told them to listen for updates and any changes, he came back up to me, and wrapped his arms around me tight and said,

"We'll make it through this, it will be OK."

It has been twenty two days now since we came down to the bunker, the kids were getting antsy, staying cooped up in a bunker was not helping with anyone's mood. We went back and forth between the house and bunker for some supplies. Max's leg was not healing well. He developed an infection, if not treated within the next day or two, we will have to amputate. We were starting to run low on rations, food, water, and meds. We prayed for a change in weather fast.

Three days later, we were still in the bunker, Neil was setting up supplies for an amputation, while I got Max pain meds and got him ready for the operation. Max wasn't out, but he was definitely high on pain meds, once we started sawing, his adrenaline kicked in, and he went into shock. Once we got him stable, he would be ok. Neil continued to cauterize Max's amputee leg while he was out, however, the scorching of his leg woke him. We bandaged him up and laid him down on a bunk to rest. The next few days will be crucial in keeping him alive.

Two months had gone by, Max was healing ok, thanks to some old antibiotics I had, but he was still in allot of pain, and I am almost out of antibiotics for him. Being cooped up in a bunker unable to go outside, along with minimal contact with the outside world was getting to all of us. The stress made everyone snappy and on edge, tempers rose and fell, hunger was starting to kick in. We only had enough rations for another week at most, and that is with one meal a day for all five of us.

I had just made my cup of coffee and sat down with the radio, listening for any news. At first I didn't think we would hear anything today but then I heard a voice on the radio,

"The massive snow storm in history since the last ice age is clearing up. The sun is starting to shine, wind-chill of -90, outside temp of -57with frigid wind of 35mph. Amount of snow received in our area, over 510in which is 42.5ft of snow. Keep listening for more weather updates."

Finally, the massive storm covering the entire globe is finally breaking up and we have a few warm fronts moving in. The damage so far is extensive, with at least three million reported missing and covering the whole globe, we just don't know for sure how bad yet until we can go outside. But there was a considerable amount of snow, how were we going to get out?

Neil decided it was time to make a sweep of the house, and look to find a way out. Allen happened to volunteer in helping Neil so Mckenzie, Max and I stayed in the bunker.

"How does it look?" I asked Neil as he came back in.

"Everything is frozen over. There is a sheet of ice covering the entire house, floor, windows and all. Pipes have burst leaving a frozen lake where the water had pooled up. As for getting out, we will have to use the attic window. The snow level is really high."

"Really? The attic?" I asked, incredulously.

"Yup, it's going to be hard getting Max out," Allen said.

"Well, we don't know if it's safe to go out yet, if it's been that cold, maybe we should wait." Mckenzie said with a small amount of distress in her voice.

"Why don't we wait and listen what they have to say tomorrow. As of right now, they're still saying to stay inside." I said, looking at Neil who replied,

"That does sound best, we can't risk exposure, especially Max."

The next morning came, we were all up and listening for the radio to tell us we could go outside. The broadcast was usually around late morning to noon everyday, so we waited. Finally, we heard the static that usually came before a broadcast, everyone circled around me while we listened.

"Good afternoon America, the storm has cleared and the sun is shining. Make sure you dress warm, bundle up, and please be careful when going outside. Be safe."

We were so excited that we finally get to go outside again but, we had to be safe about it. I wrapped up Max' leg as much as I could, covering the amputee area. However, trying to help Max get out was more taxing than we thought. With the amount of pain Max was in, thanks to running out of pain meds, made it extremely hard for him to move.

"Ok, this isn't going to work. Why don't we go out in parties, maybe find some help for Max." I suggested.

Neal was thinking, then said, "Yes, I think that would be optimal, especially since the bunker is the only warm place we have access to, so I will take Allen and Mckenzie with to get help and hopefully some supplies."

"Alright, just be careful," I said, giving Neil a hug.

Neal slowly opened the attic window, trying not to break it as it creaked and cracked, we will need that closed to keep out the cold. He jumped out first, helping Mckenzie out followed by Allen. When they got outside, they saw everything was covered in white. There were no trees, cars, street signs in sight, the top of the electric and phone poles were just barely poking out. There were no birds or animals in sight either, did they survive?

"Will we be able to find anything or anyone?" Mckenzie asked.

"We have to try," Neil responded.