Free After the Event by T.A. Williams

wood stove. The fire inside blazed bright radiating a wall of heat that reached out to cover most of the room, but if you walked outside that barrier the cold took your breath away.
    That was where Grant found himself now, outside the warmth of the wood stove, outside the old walls of the house that at least attempted to keep the howling winds at bay. He looked out across the open field and his eyes were filled with nothing but the bright white glow radiating off of the snow. Even with his eyes squinted he could barely stand to stare out in the open for more than a few seconds.
    “Kinda strange, thinking you need sunglasses when you can’t even see the sun.” Trent said as he came up behind him.
    Grant nodded his head slightly and allowed the man to slowly trudge through the snow past him. He watched the man pass and continue down towards a grove of trees where they had set a few snares. In the afternoon Grant, Jack, or Trent would bundle up and attempt to hunt. Hunting was becoming increasingly difficult, and there were days when they got by on scraps. Grant was hesitant to admit it but Trent was a godsend. The man knew how to set snares around their property and many days it was because of him that they had a meal. A squirrel wasn’t much spilt up between 7 people but it was better than nothing. Because of this Grant had allowed Trent to move in with them, much to the chagrin of Alec.
    Trent squatted down and began rummaging through some nearby brush. “Shit.”
    Grant walked up behind Trent and didn’t need to ask what was wrong. The last snare they had set was also empty. It was going to be a night without food, and it wasn’t the first time they had faced that situation.
    Trent stood up and saw the look on Grant’s face. “I can swing by Jack’s, cut a hole in the lake, and see if I can catch a couple of fish.”
    Grant had spent several hours sitting on top of the lake huddled over a small hole in the ice with no luck. He didn’t believe Trent would have much more luck then he had. He shook his head, “It will be dark in an hour or two, by the time you get there you won’t have much time to catch something.”
    “I don’t mind trying.”
    “I appreciate that.” Grant began taking inventory in his head. Yesterday one of the snares had caught a raccoon and they had torn through it pretty quickly. He could check but he was pretty sure there was nothing left but fur. He could sit out near the north tree line until dark and see if any deer happened to wander through. Grant knew he could probably sit out there for days and might not see anything but he couldn’t just go back empty handed.
    “Grant I can head back over to my place.” Grant gave Trent a questioning look. “I have a couple of old military rations over there. I’m not sure if they are any good but it should be enough for the little ones to have something in their stomach tonight.”
    Grant stood there for a moment in the biting wind looking at Trent. He knew why he still struggled to trust the man; by Trent’s own admittance he was using Ben to gather information on him, but Grant also had to admit if he had wanted to cause them harm he could have done that well before he was caught. Since then Trent had proven himself over and over again.
    “I was saving them in case of an emergency and it feels kinda like an emergency now.” Grant didn’t say anything he just shook Trent’s hand. “Speaking of which, is she feeling any better?”
    “You go grab your rations and I’ll head back to the house to find out.” He knew Trent wasn’t asking about her immediate well-being but the longer they stood out in the empty field the longer she was laying there sick with nothing in her stomach.
    Trent headed off in one direction while Grant headed towards the house. The walk back to the house seemed to take an eternity, with the cold winds stinging his face and the deep snow catching his feet every time he attempted to take a step. By the time he