Free Snow & Ash: Endless Winter by Theresa Shaver Page A

back and forth in fear. I almost jump out of my shoes when a deep male voice speaks next.
    “We’re going to leave everything back here for now and just start loading the stuff from the front up. Get a few of the men and go to the other doors to the storeroom and barricade them. Move some pallets in front of them so they can’t be opened from the main store then get back over here and we’ll topple some of the shelves from the front of the store. I don’t want anyone back here! We’re going to need the stuff back here in the future so block it off and we’ll come back in a few days for it.”
    There’s a muffled reply to these instructions then what sounds like the pounding of boots on cement as people run away. We’re all just frozen in place as we wait to hear what will happen next when Matty starts to squirm. Belle tries to hand him more crackers but he just shoves them away and squirms harder. Belle’s face is cracking in panic and even Sasha has stopped rocking and looking at us with a scared expression. I look around the crowded room for something; anything to distract him from the Matty bellowing that’s on the way and spot his Sippy cup. I grab it and snatch the kid from Belle making a beeline for the tiny bathroom. I gently close the door and slide down against it to the floor with Matty in my lap. I raise my knees up and lean his back against them before handing him his cup. His small feet push against my chest until I start rubbing his tummy. This trick always works to settle the kid down. Mom used to beg me to use it on him when she was at her wits end. It only takes a minute for his little green eyes to start fluttering closed. It’s been a crazy day and the kid has held up great but right now silence is life or death so I hold my breath and silently beg him to go to sleep.
    My breath whooshes out and Matty’s eyes pop open with a squawk when there’s a huge crash out in the main store room. It sounds like metal against metal and I feel the crash through the wall. Matty’s face is screwing up into a rage so I grab a tiny foot and blow a raspberry against it. It’s enough to get his attention. He pushes it against my face for another with a small smile pulling at his lips so I do it again and then start back up with rubbing his belly. I don’t know how long I sit there but Matty falls asleep at some point and I let the tears that have been stuck in my throat for hours just trail down my face. Any hope that the world didn’t suck as bad as Daniel had said it would is now gone and that means he was probably right about everything. My mom is gone and now I believe that Dad is dead too and that means me and Matty are orphans.

Chapter Seven-Skylar
    “Is that a cow?”
    I rub my weary eyes after a night of staying up with the baby. I’m trying to figure out how this sling works that I found in one of the bags I had brought from the nursery. It didn’t take me too long to figure out that it’s next to impossible to do anything with a baby in my arms. The problem is, the sling is way too big for my skinny ten year old body so I finally have to tie a knot in the fabric to make it small enough that the baby stays pressed against me. Thank God there was a little paper handout in the package or I would have been totally lost on how to use the thing.
    Dad had passed through the living room earlier and had left the door to the rest of the cave open so the sound was clear but it didn’t make sense. As soon as the baby was in the sling I went through the door looking for him. I had only had a quick look through the door on the first day when we got here so I was unsure of all that was back there. There were a few doors that were closed to rooms that had walls but the walls didn’t go all the way to the top of the rock ceiling. Looking up I could see lights hanging from a grid of metal beams drilled into the rock and it amazed me that Dad had created this place.
    Past the closed doors, there were the