Ashen Winter (Ashfall)

fire.” Darla started jogging in place again as if the conversation were over.
    I stayed still. “I don’t want to get us—get you—killed, Darla.”
    “We’re only in this situation because you insisted on going after that wheat.”
    Much as I hated to admit it, she was right. “I know. . . . I’m sorry.”
    Darla shrugged. “It’s okay. We’re tougher to kill than you give us credit for. We’ve got money—kale seeds and wheat kernels—we’ve got a knife, a hatchet, and some clothes. We’ll get to Worthington, buy supplies, and then go break your mom and dad out of the FEMA camp in Maquoketa. We’ll be okay.”
    Half an hour ago Darla had nearly frozen to death, and now she was trying to talk me into continuing our trek. She was certifiably grade-A, prime-cut crazy. “I love you.”
    “Love you, too. Now get your ass jogging so you don’t freeze.”
    “I’ve got to figure out something to do with these clothes.” I picked up Darla’s coveralls, thinking I’d wring the water out of them, but they were frozen solid. They crackled, and ice flaked off the legs.
    I beat the coveralls on a nearby tree trunk to loosen them up and knock off more ice. I thought for a moment about how best to carry them. I could stuff the coveralls into my coat, but they’d melt and get my chest wet. We needed to keep the coveralls and dry them out, but I couldn’t afford to get hypothermic.
    Finally I loosened my belt and tucked the coveralls through the back, so they dangled along the back of my legs. I repeated the process with Darla’s pants and long johns, beating them against a tree and tucking them into my belt.
    Darla was still jogging in place, but now she had a silly grin on her face.
    “What?” I said.
    “You should see yourself—you look ridiculous.”
    For a second I was annoyed, but then I realized that, yeah, I probably did. “What, you don’t appreciate my superpowers? I’m Clothesline Man! Faster than a tumbling dryer, stronger than the scorching sun, saving the day by flying across the snow to dry all your clothes.” I rotated my hips, making the clothing swing around me in an arc.
    Darla was laughing now. The joke seemed pretty lame to me, but probably anything would have been funny after the past few hours.
    “I can even dry these!” I picked her pink panties up out of the snow.
    Her mouth curled at one side. “Usually you have the opposite effect.”
    I thought about that for a moment and then felt my face heat despite the frigid temperature.
    “Actually, forget about those. I’ll just go commando for a while.”
    “Okay.” I pushed the panties into the snowbank to hide them, although I couldn’t have said why I bothered. Then I resumed jogging; I needed to warm up.
    Despite our jogging, we both started shivering again as night fell and the temperature dropped. It got so dark I could barely see the piles of snow around our foxhole.
    “How are we going to figure out which way to go?” I asked.
    “Shh. Listen.”
    I stood still, suppressing my shivering for a moment. I heard the susurration of rushing water very faintly in the distance.
    “Which way is it coming from?” Darla whispered.
    I pointed.
    “Yeah, that’s about what I thought, too. We can use the noise to figure out what direction we’re going.”
    “Lead on.”
    Darla pushed her way out of the foxhole into the deep snow. I followed, watching the snow, trying to place my feet in her footsteps. After a few minutes of that, I looked up and felt a surge of panic when I couldn’t see her.
    Our chances were bad enough together. If we got separated, I didn’t see how we’d survive. Well, Darla might, she knew how to make a fire. I fought down my fear—all I had to do was follow her trail.
    I ran for twenty or twenty-five feet, high-stepping through the snow. I almost bowled into Darla’s back. She was trudging along, oblivious to my panic.
    Another half hour or so brought us to a break in the trees. A steep slope led down to the frozen river. I heard the roller dam faintly to my right. I could see a little farther here without the trees overhead, but the other side of the river was completely shrouded in darkness.
    Darla got down to the river by sitting down and sliding on her butt. I waited a moment for her to move out of the way, then slid to join her.
    Walking across the Mississippi felt like exploring an alien planet. The darkness hid everything but the tiny circles of ice on which we planted our feet. Our