The Final Winter

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A baseball bat and a handful of kitchen knives – that was the best they could do. Harry hadn’t expected guns or a flamethrower, but still hoped for something a little more intimidating than kid’s toys and cutlery. Still, what they had was better than nothing.

“Right,” said Harry, handing the baseball bat to Kath and arming himself and Lucas with a chef’s knife each. “The plan is to get across to the supermarket quickly and quietly, sticking together at all times. Once we get there it’s over to you, Kath, because you know where everything is.”

Kath nodded and took over. “Our main priority is, of course, the coal, so we will gather that first. There’s some on the shop floor, but it would be prudent to ignore that and get the main supply from the warehouse. However, once inside, no one touches anything without my say so.”

“Would you mind if we breathe the air,” said Lucas.

Kath planted her hands on her hips. “If you’re not going to obey my rules then we can just forget the whole thing.”

“Fine,” said Lucas. “Although, we could just tie you up like our young friend, Damien, and take the keys for ourselves.”

Kath stared at Lucas and seemed worried.

Lucas chuckled. “Just pulling your leg.”

Harry slid off his stool and straightened himself up. “Okay, Nigel, you keep an eye on everything here and we’ll be back as soon as we can. Jerry, you make sure that Damien stays tied up nice and tight.”

“No,” said Jerry. He was holding the fire poker down by his thigh and shaking his head. “I’m coming with you.”

Before Harry had time to object, he found that Jess had beaten him to it. “Are you insane?” she asked her friend.

Jerry was still shaking his head. “No, I’m not. Just tired of being useless. That’s all I ever was when Ben was around and I’ll be damned if I’m going to carry on being like it now he’s gone.”

“That’s very noble,” said Harry, “and we all understand you wanting to honour your friend, Jerry – but there’s no need to take the risk. We’ve got it covered.”

“Dude, I don’t really know you and you sure as hell don’t know me, but one thing you’ll learn real soon is that all of the shit me and Jess told you about is real. None of you have seen the dude in the hood up close, but I have.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “What’s your point?”

“My point is that I am more qualified than you to go out there and face the crazy, so what right do you have to tell me anything?”

Harry shrugged and started to wonder if he actually had the energy for this. “We don’t have time to argue,” he said wearily, “so I guess you’ll be coming along too.”

Harry watched Jess put a hand on Jerry’s shoulder and turn him to face her. He couldn’t hear their conversation so he decided to take the remaining time to check up on Steph. She stood behind the bar, relighting any candles that had gone out.

“You okay?” he asked her. “You’ve been through a lot tonight.”

She smiled at him, her features so delicate and faded that she almost seemed like a shivering ghost in the candlelight. “No more than normal,” she said. “This place was never exactly Disneyland to start with.”

Harry took her hand and felt a jolt run through his skin when he felt her squeeze back. The room was freezing, but her palm throbbed out heat. He smiled at her. “You don’t have to pretend, you know?”

Steph’s eyes welled up as though a tap had been turned loose somewhere inside of her. “You mean I should just be honest and say that I think we’re all going to die tonight?”

Her words hit Harry like a haymaker to the kidneys. Just when he’d started to find some strength and positivity inside of himself, Steph had lost hers. It was tragic because he knew that his strength had, in part, come from being around her positivity. He’d taken advantage of Steph’s emotional strength and now the poor girl was drained. He squeezed her hand tighter. “No one is going to hurt you, Steph. I promise. I agree that some weird business has been going down tonight, but things only seem bad because we’re all afraid.”

Steph laughed and wiped at her nose and face. The skin of her wrist glistened as she pulled it away. “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself, huh?”

Harry smiled. “Something like that.”

“You just get back here in one piece, okay! Then I’ll stop crying.”

“Okay, deal!”

Steph let go of Harry’s hand and pushed him away. “Well, get going then.”

Harry turned around. The others were waiting; Jerry, Kath, and Lucas forming an orderly queue by the door. Lucas still seemed reluctant to go outside and Harry wished he had more time to find out why. But time was something none of them had while temperature continued to drop. Crisp layers of frost had started to form on the wooden surfaces of the tables and a pile of snow had formed at the foot of the exit door. The weather was coming in to get them.

Harry moved to the front of the queue and placed a hand against the lock, ready to unbolt it and push open the door. For one quick moment, Harry lost the nerve he needed to continue, but he took a breath, swallowed, and managed to continue. “Let’s go,” he said, pushing open the door and stepping out into the snow.

Outside, the landscape was featureless and blank like an unused canvass. Harry looked about himself but could see nothing but whiteness, so pure that its gleaming intensity made his eyeballs ache. But despite the blankness, there was movement everywhere; shifting, dancing specks of snow fluttering in the air; each flake individual but also part of the same never-ending whole. Harry thought about rushing back inside the pub, regretting the whole idea, but when he looked over his shoulder he could no longer see it.

Lost already!

Lucas, Jerry, and Kath were following closely behind, linking arms to form a human chain. All of them seemed worried by what they were seeing; they we’re looking for Harry to lead them.

But lead them where exactly? These people’s safety is in my hands and I don’t even know what to expect.

“You alright there, Harry Boy?”

Harry turned to Lucas. “I’m just… thinking.”

“Well, perhaps you’d like to do your wonderings some place a bit warmer. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s a tad cold out here this evening.”

Harry nodded and got moving, the others shadowing him tightly. The snow enveloped each of them past their knees, which led to them almost wading rather than walking. It wouldn’t be long before the snow was deep enough to swallow them all whole. The effort of every step left them panting. They moved in silence, too laboured to speak.

Several minutes passed.

The snow went on forever.

Then: “Do you have any idea of where we’re going?” Kath shouted from the back of their human chain, struggling to be heard over the howling wind. “We should have been there by now.”

She’s right. Harry had been thinking the same thing just before Kath voiced it out loud. He’d gotten them lost in conditions cold enough to freeze a penguin solid.

“We’re lost aren’t we?” said Kath, accurately reading in on the meaning of Harry’s silence. It had been more an accusation than a question.

Instead of Harry answering, Jerry did so for him. “Yes, we’re lost,” he said, “but Harry’s not to blame.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean I’m not to blame?”

“I mean that the snow made us lost.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Kath. “You sound just like that silly girl back at the pub.”

“Come now,” said Lucas, stopping and halting everybody in the line. “Let’s hear the boy out.”

Jerry prepared to give his explanation and the others gathered around close, all of them shivering except for Lucas who was coping slightly better. “It’s not normal snow,” Jerry explained. “It’s a magic snow.”

Despite the brevity of the situation, everyone started laughing.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” said Jerry, deadly serious despite their mockery, “but I’m telling you that this snow is unnatural. It’s a force being wielded by a force even greater.”

Harry decided to humour him. “Wielded by whom?”

“Who you think? The guy in the hood. The snow is just his tool to trap us or get us lost and confused. Then he comes to take us like he did Ben.”

“Okay,” said Harry, trying his best to remain open-minded. “But, if you believe that, what the hell are you doing out here?”

Jerry smashed a fist against his open palm. “Because me and the guy in the hood have unfinished business. If he turns up, I’ll be the one to face him while the rest of you make a run for it.”

“Why would you want to do that?” Harry asked, seriously considering that Jerry may have lost his mind. He was a teenaged boy, not Rambo.

But Jerry seemed more than sane as he continued. “I need to take some responsibility instead of letting other people do it for me. If this is the end of the world then the least I can do is make it hard for the bastard that started it. I’m going to give him the ass-kicking of his life.”

“Erm… fellas?” The group turned to face Lucas, who was looking unsettled. “That bastard in question,” Lucas pointed over Harry’s shoulder, “is right over there.”

Harry spun around to see a shape in the distance. The dark silhouette of a man taller than a man had right to be. It was coming towards them, slowly and methodically, as if it had all of eternity to get there. In the last year there had been numerous nights where Harry had drifted out of a nightmare and woken up with a stinking hangover, but this was the very first time he had ever felt as though he were drifting in to a nightmare.

And the nightmare was getting closer.