World Ashen

Chapter 16 - Kenneth

I awoke with a start the next morning. The covers tangled Cayler's and my legs up, but I kissed his cheek, waking him. "Hey, it's unbelievably hot in here. Do you have any idea why? Is there a fire?"

"Kenneth, if there was a fire, there would've been smoke," Cayler said, half asleep. Sunlight filled the room like the sun was rising. I laid there, staring at the ceiling, listening to Cayler's soft breathing.

About fifteen minutes later, I slid out of bed, and a wood stove was in the room's corner. I laid my hands on Cayler's side and shook him. "Cayler! Cayler! Guess what?"

"What?" Cayler asked.

"Look," I squealed. My husband sat up and threw his arms around me a couple of seconds later.

Jace knocked on the doorway with a huge grin on his face. "Merry early Christmas."

"Really? How many days until then?" Cayler asked, a little more enthusiastic than I expected.

"Angel said five." Cayler leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. I was glad for Angel's radio since it seemed to bolster my resolve until today, way more than I thought. The two of us said thanks in unison, then we walked into the living room. Boxes and boxes of food, medicine, and clothes sat on the floor and lined the walls. It seemed like Christmas had come early. Everyone was busy sorting, mostly food and clothes. Mary-Anne, Wyatt, August, and Shiloh were all sorted medicine.

Jensen motioned me over and said, "We have something for Angel, and we want to surprise her."

"What is it?"

"A typewriter, and we have another goal. Electricity."

"You have Lindsey and Sarah to help with the lights. Good luck."

Jensen nodded and smiled, "yeah. It'll be great to have light other than partial sunlight."

August must've overheard us because she rolled over and said, "We've got some solar Christmas lights. Maybe that'll give ideas."

We said thanks and then Thomas walked over to us. "Jensen, I found clothes for your girls." He turned to Jace. "Jenna has some too."

"Thomas? Is Parker okay?" I asked, hoping the damage wasn't as bad as we thought.

Thomas sighed. "We're not sure. Parker's still staring out the window. August said to give him a couple of days."

I nodded and turned around, and the fourteen-year-old stared out of the window. His mother sat nearby, doing nothing, and Paige rocked back and forth. "I think you should be over there with your family." I sighed, helping sort medicine.

A little while later, Haley shrieked. "Look! Almonds!" Everyone was glad. Heading almonds still had their place in the world. We were also lucky the owner never opened the package. It was like the owner had bought the almonds. Then the next day, Yellowstone erupted. The rest of us who were sorting clothes and medicine took a break and started sorting food. There were plenty of canned goods and small packaged chunks of tuna. Packaged dried fruits like cranberries, apples, and apricots were there as well. More nuts were there too, walnuts, pecans, and peanuts. Now, New Haven lived like kings.

"This was all gotten last night," I asked, shocked.

Amy shrugged. "Most of it. There are some other things left in Sternenstadt, but we wanted to bring the wood stoves in."

"What other things?"

"Blankets and whatnot."

"Cool, thanks for everything," I said, and Amy just smiled.

Cayler tapped my shoulder. "Hey Kenneth, can I ask you something?"

I grinned, "You just did, but go ahead."

"Are you aware Nick died?"

"What?"

"Nick, Shiloh's boyfriend, died, Jensen told me."

"That explains why she's acting all depressed. What happened?"

Cayler shrugged. "I think someone shot him or something."

"Who would kill a deaf person?"

He shrugged once again, and Shiloh dashed out of the house and into the cold and ashy outside. I quickly got dressed and ran after her. "Shiloh! Where are you going?"

She didn't answer and kept running, eventually stopping. She was breathless. "I shot Nick by accident. I couldn't see and shot him. We were being attacked by Lux for the first time. It was a surprise at night. I thought everyone else was behind me and Nick was much farther ahead." Instead of saying anything, I hugged my cousin close and began trying to head back to New Haven. Knowing my luck, the wind began picking up and snow whipped around. Shiloh's body shook so profusely, I thought we were going to fall over. Without thinking, I took off one of my coats and put it on her, even though it swallowed her whole. A little while later, after walking around blindly, we fell onto something wooden. A few seconds later, a hand guided me to a warmer place, but I didn't dare open my sore eyes.

"Miranda, could you get these wonderful lads some soup?" an elderly man asked as he felt our faces. The girl sat me on a couch.

"Yes, Grandpa," a youthful voice said, and a little while later, someone brought a warm broth to my lips. It smelt vaguely of potatoes.

"Please state your names," the man said.

"Kenneth Reynolds." Shiloh squeezed my hand in Morse Code saying, I'm your daughter. "This young girl here is my daughter, Shiloh. Thank you for your hospitality, but I'm afraid my wife is going to worry about us. We've—"

"Nonsense! You're going to stay with us until that blizzard tries out."

Shiloh said, "We don't even know where New Haven is." The stupid blizzard caused us to be lost and stuck with strangers.