Chapter 13: The Fallout

The storm lasted for three days and Chris made the decision that they would wait another day before venturing outside. The doctor pointed out that the air was still very cold and while the wind had died down the clouds had cleared off, making it just as cold as if the wind had been blowing. Finally Kirk Carson, the youngest of the powdermen volunteered to go out and try to clear the door camera off, because it was covered with snow, then look around.

They couldn’t leave the door open because of the cold, but Kirk carried a small sledgehammer that they would be able to hear. He was dressed in long johns, both top and bottom, two pair of jeans, a heavy wool shirt, a sheepskin vest, a heavy coat and liner and another vary large coat. He wore a pair of wool mittens, a large set of gloves and then heavy leather gloves. For his head he had a scarf around his throat, a balaclava and a heavy fur hat. He carried a thermometer in one of his pockets that read down to minus 40 Fahrenheit.

For all of the preparation, the trip outside was over in ten minutes. They open the door and Kirk stumbled inside and promptly asked to be wrapped in blankets.

“Jesus God, Chris! I’m sorry, Bishop, but hell isn’t on fire — it’s outside and really cold.”

“Did you read the temp?” Amy asked.

Kirk laughed bitterly. “I got the snow off the camera. I don’t know if you have looked, but getting around is going to be a bit ... Ah, really hard. There are a few places where you can see bare rock. Evidently the wind was coming from the west as there are drifts burying most of the mobiles. The main house is buried under a drift that’s thirty or forty feet tall. It is going to be a job and a half to shovel the snow so we can move around. The snow is six or eight feet deep on the flat, and like I said there are drifts thirty, forty, fifty feet deep. And we don’t have the equipment to go outside until it is much warmer. I was shivering after a minute, and before I banged on the door I lost sensation in my feet, hands and my face.”

The doctor was called and she found that Kirk was suffering from the early stages of frostbite.

Keith, Dwayne and the bishop, along with Chris and his wives met briefly. Amy spoke first. “I talked to my friend near Gilbert. He says he is burning wood much faster than planned, but at least he has power. He says the temperature there is minus forty-five. He is hosting a couple of neighbors and they are making do. He says it will take two weeks to warm up to freezing; he doesn’t see it getting any warmer for the foreseeable future, and another storm like the last one will finish him.

“I talked to the mayor and he says much the same thing. Most of Pine Valley is in the high school gym. There is barely enough room for everyone to lie down, so they are sleeping in shifts. The rump members of the stake are teaching everyone pushcart songs.”

There was a concerted chuckle from everyone; everyone pressed as close as possible to hear what the leaders were saying. Every on the mountain had already become familiar with the pushcart songs.

Amy held her laptop up. “This connects me to the outside. The First Marine Division is deploying in San Diego, the First Army is going to Fort Huachucha, the Rainbow Division is going to Fort Bliss in El Paso and the First Armored Division is going to McAllen, Texas. The interim president has said the next incursion from Mexico will result in our sending the soldiers south. That we would expel everyone in those areas into what remains of Mexico and settle Americans in northern Mexico. He laughs and says this will be a deathblow to the American South.

“Oh, yes. And anyone with a Hispanic surname will be deported if they are arrested and convicted, regardless of their citizenship status.

“Pine Valley heads the list of towns authorized not to be evacuated from the Southwest. I think that’s more my father than me.”

“We have to stay put, then, at least until it gets warmer,” Chris said.

Bishop Flake excused himself for a minute and came back with a large strapping fellow who looked wary. “Brother Chris, this is Herb Pozner. He worked for a time at a cold storage company where they kept their warehouse at minus twenty Fahrenheit. He grew up in upstate Idaho, where it frequently got as cold as this.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Gutterman. When we were called to the mine it was for bandits, I didn’t know about the storm. I have a storage shed on my mobile’s patio that has three cold suits in it, but I didn’t know we needed them. With them you can work a couple hours at a time in the cold before you have to warm up. I think we should make getting them a priority. What we can do is something like hot bunking. Somebody wears a suit for a while comes in and takes it off and gives it to someone else to use. At forty below a man can stay pretty comfortable for about an hour at a time.” He signed heavily. “He’ll burn maybe three, four thousand calories an hour, and probably will need a full day to recover. He’ll look like shit after.” He bobbed his head at the women present. “If you’ll pardon my French.”