I woke in a bed, confused. It was sublimely soft, made up with old cotton sheets conditioned by hundreds of washings to near-perfect comfort. A heavy bedspread lay over the top. Despite my uncertainty about how I’d gotten there, I felt warm and safe for the first time since I’d left Cedar Falls.
Darla was slumped in a chair beside the bed, napping. Her head was completely bald.
“Darla…” I said. “You awake?” The question didn’t really make sense. She was asleep-I was trying to wake her.
“Uh?”
“You in there?”
“Yeah.” She stretched her arms and yawned. “You scared me. Just folded up right there in the snow.” “I don’t remember.”
“I don’t know if it was starvation, exhaustion, or what, but you passed out. How are you feeling?”
“Okay. Hungry and thirsty. Sore. How long have I been out?”
“I dunno. Not sure how long I’ve been asleep.” Darla walked to the window and pulled the curtain aside. “It’s getting dark. Guess we’ve been asleep all afternoon.”
“What happened to your hair?”
“Bald is beautiful, huh?” Her tone of voice didn’t suggest she found it particularly beautiful.
I shrugged.
“Well, you look pretty odd without your hair, too.”
I touched my head. Sure enough, my hair had all been shaved off. “What? Why?”
“Lice. We were lousy with them, ha ha.” She didn’t sound the least bit amused. “They don’t have any pesticide shampoo, so…”
“It doesn’t look so bad. And it’ll grow back.”
“I guess.”
I put my hand out from under the covers and held hers. My hand was a shocking white-the layer of grime and ash had been scrubbed off. It was hard to believe I’d slept through being washed and having my head shaved; I must have been deeply unconscious. Darla and I sat in silence for a minute or so until I remembered what my sister had been saying before I passed out.
“My parents. Are they-”
“I’d better get your uncle to explain. He’s been… weird.” Darla dropped my hand and stood up. “I’ll be right back,” she said as she left the room.
Not sixty seconds later, my uncle came in with Darla following. He turned, looked at her, and cleared his throat. They stared at each other a moment.
“I’ll be in the kitchen,” Darla said, then left the room again.
“Who is she?” Uncle Paul asked.
“What happened to my parents?” I said.
“She said you met in Worthington? How well do you know her?”
I pushed myself up in the bed with some effort. The covers fell away from my torso. Blood rushed from my head, and I felt a bit woozy. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her. She saved my life. More than once.” I stared into my uncle’s eyes, making an effort not to blink. “I’d die for her.”
Uncle Paul looked away. “Heck of a scar on your side.”
“Darla stitched it.”
“She didn’t tell us about all that. I guess we can count on her, then.”
“You can.”
“I’m sorry. It’s… there’s all sorts of crazies out. Don’t see much of them here, but we hear stories. Folks who live out on Highway 20 have had a rough time.”
“Tell me about it… Where are Mom and Dad? Are they dead?”
“Yes. That. I tried to talk them out of it, but they were determined.”
“Out of what? And quit dodging the question. Are they dead?”
“I don’t know. They left five weeks ago. They went back to Iowa.”
My chest felt suddenly heavy. “Why? And why’d they leave Rebecca here?”
“They went to look for you.”
“They what?”
“They went into the red zone to find you, Alex. We haven’t heard any news of them since they left.”
“Crap.” I swung my legs out of the bed, realized I was naked, and pulled a corner of the covers over my lap. I’d spent the last eight weeks struggling to reach my uncle’s farm, figuring that once I got here my quest would be complete. But it wasn’t. Sure, I’d be safe here, but if I were only looking for a safe place to stay, I never would have left Mrs. Nance’s school in Worthington. “I’ve got to go back. Try to find them.” I looked around for my clothing but didn’t see it.
“No. You’re safe here-”
“But they’re not safe in Iowa. They’ve got no idea what they’re getting into.”
“They had some idea before they left. Things have been rough here, too. I traded a pair of breeding goats for a shotgun and gave it to your dad.”
“My dad? With a shotgun? No way. He’s liable to hurt himself.”
“People have changed. Your dad’s not the same man he was. Heck, you’re not the same either-I don’t see any sign of the sullen kid who used to bury his nose in a computer game or book the moment he got here.”
“Yeah, well.” I didn’t care much for being called a sullen kid. But maybe he was right. I had changed. “I should go back. I know what to expect in Iowa now. They might need help. I didn’t even leave a note at the house, and my bedroom is completely collapsed. There was a fire, too. If they get there, they might think I’m dead. I guess Darren and Joe know I was alive when I left, but they might be dead or gone by now.”
“If they can’t find you, they’ll come back here for Rebecca. If you go, how will you find them? You’ve already passed each other on the road. And this winter is only going to get worse. All the ash and sulfur dioxide in the air is going to wreck the weather for years. It’s going to get colder and harder to travel-”
“With skis I can-”
“You might need skis just to travel next summer. The volcanic winter might last a decade, nobody knows for sure.”
A decade of winter? That hit hard. How would anyone survive?
“Just wait, Alex. Maybe they’ll come back. If they haven’t shown up next summer, maybe conditions will be better so you can go look for them. Maybe by then FEMA will be in Iowa.”
“Huh. That’d hurt more than it’d help.”
“At least they clear the roads and maintain some order.”
“You haven’t done time in a FEMA camp.” My face was tense, scowling.
“No. But there’s another reason you shouldn’t take off after your folks. You’re needed here. I need your help. We could be looking at years without a reliable food source. We need to stockpile corn and wood, build more greenhouses, and figure out some way to keep feeding the goats and ducks. There’s an immense amount of work to be done.”
I nodded grudgingly. “Okay. I’ll think about it. But if Mom and Dad haven’t shown up by next spring, I’m going to go look for them. In the meantime, I’ll help-although Darla will be way more helpful than me. She was running a farm practically alone when we met.”
“Let’s not make any decisions today. It may be summer before the weather improves-if it does at all. But okay. If we can get things on a solid footing here, I’ll consider supplying you for an expedition back to Cedar Falls.”
“Where’s my clothing?”
“It was infested with lice. We hung it in a corner of the barn. I’m thinking the lice might die eventually if there’s no one for them to feed on. I’m not sure.”
“Yuck.” I felt itchy all over.
“I’ll get some of mine for you. Come down to the kitchen when you’re dressed; it’s dinnertime.”