Frostbite & bruises
7.

The next morning, Morgan was up early again. To her surprise, the fire in the fireplace was already burning high and the icy chill had disappeared from the living room. However, there was no sign of the two brothers and curiously she made her way to the men’s bedroom.

“Shane? Nox?” She knocked softly on the door.

But when there was no answer after the second time, she pushed the door open carefully.

No one...

Even when she opened the door to the factory hall, there was no sign of the two men. The whole of the factory was shrouded in silence.

Doubtfully, Morgan looked around. She could not imagine that the men had simply disappeared, but past events had taught her something. Raiders liked to play games with innocent people, and these were not games without deadly consequences.

Nox might be a big, scary man, but ultimately he was just a man ....

A few hours earlier...

“And...?”

Nox shook his head. “Nothing special. Missy had just escaped from her enclosure again and was feasting on the chicken feed.”

Shane cursed softly. “Bloody beast... I’m telling you, if that bitch escapes again, I’ll kill her myself! She’ll eat anything she can get her teeth into! When we killed the goats, I thought we’d be rid of this hassle, but now it seems that this rooting bitch has taken over their habits!”

The big man looked at his grumbling brother with a grin. He knew that Shane hated the pig. Ever since she had sunk her teeth into his shin, he had wanted to get rid of her. Nox understood exactly why. Missy was a smart animal, he had to be careful with her too. She had made several unsuccessful attempts to bite him too, only he could tell from her body language when she was up to something, but being blind, his brother couldn’t.

To avoid giving Missy any more chances to bite Shane, they had moved the greenhouses to another location, which in retrospect had worked out much better than expected. The small hutch was unexpectedly warm, and the mirrors they used to let in the sunlight were much easier to fix. All in all, Missy’s attack had been a stroke of luck.

Even if they hadn’t been able to grow much due to the lack of seeds, it had allowed the two of them and the animals to live a pretty decent life, combined of course with what Nox would replace in his traps.

But now that the strangers had arrived, the little stock they had built up would soon be gone, and Nox’s grin disappeared at the thought.

“I’ll go outside and check the traps... You take care of the plants, ok?”

After putting on his gear and harnessing the dogs to the sled, Nox left in the early morning.

The weather station had not disappointed him with its forecast. Although it was still quite dark, the sky was clear and the wind was calm, all in all it would be a beautiful sunny day, Nox thought to himself.

After checking the traps and being six rabbits richer, he set off for the old town buried deep under the snow. A few months ago he had discovered the entrance to an old underground car park. He had been exploring it regularly, whenever the weather allowed. But he’d never dared go too far. If anything happened to him, Shane would be in a lot of trouble. His brother might be handy and good with a knife, but he would be no match for a gang of robbers, even with the dogs nearby.

But now, with the small group of people around... maybe he could venture a little deeper into the garage this time and see if anything useful was still there.

Arriving at the entrance, which was again hidden by the snow of the past few days, Nox tied the sledge to a tree, released the dogs and cleared the snow from the entrance. Cautiously, holding his searchlight in front of him, he crept through the opening into the darkness.

The garage smelled musty, which was remarkable since the whole world was frozen under a thick layer of snow and ice. Musty meant damp, and damp meant heat....

After scurrying around a bit, a noise further down the garage made him stop. With his head tilted and his ears pricked, Nox tried to make out the source of the sound and what it might have been, but there was nothing more to be heard.

After a quick glance at his watch, he made his way back to the entrance, relieved to see that both the sled and his dogs were still where he had left them.

The sun was already high in the sky and he was curious to see if the small group had done anything of their own.

To his surprise, he returned to replace the old man and the young boy busy hauling wood for the fireplace. The wind of the past few days had cleared a number of tall trees of snow, and the old man and the boy had made good use of it. A small smile involuntarily appeared on the man’s face. Maybe it was not such a bad idea to let the small group in after all...

When the old man saw him, he gave Nox a dark look, which made Nox’s smile turn into a grin. Oh, he and the old man were no friends and probably never would be.

“Hey, sir! Have you caught anything yet?” With a wide smile, the young boy looked at him. His face was flushed with cold and there was a droplet already frozen on his nose, but the boy’s eyes twinkled with joy as he walked towards Nox.

After the tall man got off the sledge, he rummaged through one of the bags he’d attached to the front of the sledge.

“Take this boy and give this to Shane or your mother,” he said. And handed the rabbits to Viggo.

When the boy saw Nox’s catch, he started screaming with joy and ran into the factory with the rabbits high above his head.

Nox could not suppress a grin, so contagious was Viggo’s enthusiasm.

“At least you’re a handy bastard, I’ll give you that...” Steve’s voice made Nox turn and his grin faded.

“What?” but Steve just looked at him and said nothing.

Just as Nox was about to sneer at the old man, he heard someone come out and turned around.

“Mum asked if you wanted to come in, she has dinner ready.” The youngest girl stood with Shane’s thick coat around her shoulders and looked at the two thugs with a frown.

“I think she’d like it if you two wouldn't fight and she's not the only one...” With the arrogance that only an adolescent girl can display, she turned and walked in with her head held high.

“You heard her old man, you need to behave...” With his mouth agape, Steve looked after the younger man as the man walked back to the sled to untie the dogs.

“Bastard...” He grumbled softly, but a small grin had appeared around his mouth.