Read In The End: a pre-apocalypse novel for Free Online Page A

didn’t get what Jim
was saying. Then he got it and laughed, wishing he hadn’t. He wondered if being
around Jim for too long could warp a person’s mind.
    “No, we’re not gonna eat them!
Jeez. We’re gonna bury them. But we also need to make an outdoor freezer for
the stuff that’s thawing out.
    “So we’re making a freezer out of
wood?”
    “Well, yes. Sort
of. First, we build a box. Then we pack snow around the box, and that oughta work to keep the food cold during the day. And it’ll
protect it from predators. I just wish I had some hinges. It’d make it easier
to get in and out of.”
    Jim glanced around and said, “We
have plenty of hinges.”
    “We do?”
    “Yeah. On all the doors in the motel rooms.”
    “They don’t call ‘ em motel rooms, but yeah, you’re right. We can take some
from a bathroom door. Why didn’t I think of that?”
    “ Cuz you’re old and feeble, and sometimes need to be rescued from ski lifts.”
    “Okay, youngster, I’ll hold the
boards and you can do the nailing. Being that I’m old and feeble, I’m liable to
miss the nail and smash your fingers.”
    “Isn’t it cold enough up here to
keep the food fresh without packing snow around the box?”
    “It should be, but you never know
when you’ll get a warm spell. We can’t take any chances.”
    Jim agreed and they took the supplies
they needed behind the lodge and constructed their refrigerator box near the
back of the kitchen. By the time they had finished, there was still a light
snow falling, but not enough accumulation to pack around the box they had
built. That also meant that the ground was not too frozen to dig two graves.
    They had used up too much wood on
the refrigerator box to have enough left over for making coffins, but they had
plenty of tarps and duct tape. They agreed to not tell Angela how the bodies
were buried – unless she specifically asked.
    It was dark before they finished
digging the graves so Terry grabbed a lantern from his truck that he’d brought
from the supply garage. Once they had light again, they finished digging and
then gently lowered the bodies into their separate graves.
    “Do you wanna say something?” Terry
asked Jim, not knowing that Josh and Hailey were more Angela’s friends than
his. Being that Josh and Hailey were Jewish, the only thing that came to Jim’s
mind was, “ L'chaim ” but he decided to keep his warped
humor in check out of respect for Angela.
    “We’ll save it for the service,” he
replied instead.
    Surprised for not even thinking of
what would have ordinarily been obvious, Terry said, “Oh, right. Good
idea.” 

Nine
     
    They held a funeral service the next day, then moved their
refrigerator box behind the kitchen and packed as much fresh snow around it as
they could. They only needed the snow in case the weather went above freezing,
so they weren’t too concerned about the lack of snow. They transferred the
perishable food from freezer and the walk-in cooler, going back and forth for
the better part of an hour. That evening they went on what Angela called
“raids,” but Jim insisted were “supply runs.”
    Terry made a long list that
included items Jim hadn’t thought of when he and Angela had scavenged the cabin
across the street from theirs. Jim and Angela thought some of the items were
strange, but they didn’t ask questions. He told them to keep an eye out for
certain things:
     
    Candles
    Batteries
    Salt
    Axes or hatchets
    Soap
    Toilet paper
    Unscented bleach
    Pens, pencils & paper
    Metal hangers
    Gas cans
    Matches & lighters
    Jewelry
    Guns & ammo
    First Aid supplies
     
    He advised them that the list was not
exhaustive or exclusive. They should grab anything else they thought might be
useful, but he wanted them to specifically get those items if they could.
    Angela thought they should go in
separate vehicles so they could cover twice as many houses in the same amount
of time, but Terry said it was not safe for them to be separated. He