Free The Road by Cormac McCarthy

afterimage in the disturbed air.

    In the afternoon it started to snow again. They stood watching the pale gray flakes sift down out of the sullen murk. They trudged on. A frail slush forming over the dark surface of the road. The boy kept falling behind and he stopped and waited for him. Stay with me, he said.
    You walk too fast.
    I’ll go slower.
    They went on.
    You’re not talking again.
    I’m talking.
    You want to stop?
    I always want to stop.
    We have to be more careful. I have to be more careful.
    I know.
    We’ll stop. Okay?
    Okay.
    We just have to find a place.
    Okay.
    The falling snow curtained them about. There was no way to see anything at either side of the road. He was coughing again and the boy was shivering, the two of them side by side under the sheet of plastic, pushing the grocery cart through the snow. Finally he stopped. The boy was shaking uncontrollably.
    We have to stop, he said.
    It’s really cold.
    I know.
    Where are we?
    Where are we?
    Yes.
    I dont know.
    If we were going to die would you tell me?
    I dont know. We’re not going to die.
    They left the cart overturned in a field of sedge and he took the coats and the blankets wrapped in the plastic tarp and they set out. Hold on to my coat, he said. Dont let go. They crossed through the sedge to a fence and climbed through, holding down the wire for each other with their hands. The wire was cold and it creaked in the staples. It was darkening fast. They went on. What they came to was a cedar wood, the trees dead and black but still full enough to hold the snow. Beneath each one a precious circle of dark earth and cedar duff.
    They settled under a tree and piled the blankets and coats on the ground and he wrapped the boy in one of the blankets and set to raking up the dead needles in a pile. He kicked a cleared place in the snow out where the fire wouldnt set the tree alight and he carried wood from the other trees, breaking off the limbs and shaking away the snow. When he struck the lighter to the rich tinder the fire crackled instantly and he knew that it would not last long. He looked at the boy. I’ve got to go for more wood, he said. I’ll be in the neighborhood. Okay?
    Where’s the neighborhood?
    It just means I wont be far.
    Okay.
    The snow by now was half a foot on the ground. He floundered out through the trees pulling up the fallen branches where they stuck out of the snow and by the time he had an armload and made his way back to the fire it had burned down to a nest of quaking embers. He threw the branches on the fire and set out again. Hard to stay ahead. The woods were getting dark and the firelight did not reach far. If he hurried he only grew faint. When he looked behind him the boy was trudging through snow half way to his knees gathering limbs and piling them in his arms.
    The snow fell nor did it cease to fall. He woke all night and got up and coaxed the fire to life again. He’d unfolded the tarp and propped one end of it up beneath the tree to try and reflect back the heat from the fire. He looked at the boy’s face sleeping in the orange light. The sunken cheeks streaked with black. He fought back the rage. Useless. He didnt think the boy could travel much more. Even if it stopped snowing the road would be all but impassable. The snow whispered down in the stillness and the sparks rose and dimmed and died in the eternal blackness.
    He was half asleep when he heard a crashing in the woods. Then another. He sat up. The fire was down to scatteredflames among the embers. He listened. The long dry crack of shearing limbs. Then another crash. He reached and shook the boy. Wake up, he said. We have to go.
    He rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the backs of his hands. What is it? he said. What is it, Papa?
    Come on. We have to move.
    What is it?
    It’s the trees. They’re falling down.
    The boy sat up and looked about wildly.
    It’s all right, the man said. Come on. We need to hurry.
    He scooped up the bedding and he folded it