The Cabin

12/24/2062

It's cold. My hands can barely flick open the lighter to give my hands the slightest warmth. My calves have been numb for a few minutes, my feet... hours. But I am almost there. Shards of glass feel like they shred my hands as I struggle to grasp the heart shaped locket around my neck.

My rifle is in my hand but I can no longer fire it. I had spent my last remaining shells on a few raiders the day before.

Raiders... sick heartless human beings that took anything they wanted when the last of the bombs set off the Yellowstone Caldera, covering the world in a sooty, black, blanket of ash. With no sun, there was no heat, with no heat, the world panicked. Parents did "what's right" so their kids never had to live in this kind of world. Never got to...

"Almost there." I say quietly for nobody can hear me. Nobody is left. I'm alone in a cold dark world where no culture remains. If any did still exist, they are not a culture you would live to speak about.

As I walk through the cold dark woods, nothing but moonlight to guide my lifeless steps, I see the cabin. The one i told her about... My sister. I talked to her about it for many years. I told her how many adventures our family had inside the warm, cozy, wooden walls.

Approaching the door, I slowly push it open. Any warmth was now gone and the coziness was replaced by a hole in the now rotten wood ceiling. Many years have passed. Mom died first during the riots while we hunted for supplies. Then dad died. His lungs succumbed to pneumonia and we could neither find antibiotics, nor shelter from the cold that finally killed him.

My sister... sweet Eva...

We traveled for many years alone. Starting fires to keep warm, keeping close to prevent hypothermia. She had one request. She wanted to see the cabin.

I'm no longer a young man. My beard is greyed and my body is failing. But I promised her I would bring her to the cabin. As I look around the cabin I see memories of times lost but not forgotten. Dad and I roasting marshmallows on a fireplace that was now a pile of brick and mortar, mom and I eating warm soup at the table that was now dilapidated scraps of splintered wood. Any life that once breathed through this cabin was now gone. And it like me served only one purpose. A resting place.

As I lean against the wall I slowly slump down to the ground. Tears try to run down my face but freeze before they move an inch. I am old. My heart can not handle the pain of what I must remember but I force myself to for her.

6 months ago...

Eva smiles at me and asks me to tell her about the cabin again. I smile and say,

"It was warm, cozy, and had every facet of a home that a single place could have. There was always a warm fire, quiet music, and the laughter and smiles of our family to fill the walls with life."

"Can we go?" She asked

"Of course" I replied. This was the 3rd time today she asked me this. She remembered who I was most days, but too often I had to keep her quiet so raiders wouldn't hear her scream that I was a stranger. That night as she and I sat beside a dying fire, struggling to keep warm through the windy cold storm that blew through the drafty halls of the school we camped in, she looked me straight in the eyes and said

"I love you brother." And as she fell asleep I burst into tears, sobbing into her hair dry frozen tears.

The following morning as I tried to shake her awake, she didnt move. My heart halted in my chest as I felt the wave of dread flow from my heart to my limbs. I pulled back her hood and my chest collapsed as a wordless cry exploded from my lungs. Her face was blue. The frost accumulating on her face made her once warm glowing skin look like glass. The cries grew louder and louder as I slowly lost myself to the anguish.

Now, i sit in the cold dark cabin. And no cries leave my throat. Just frozen, crystal tears. I pull out the locket and try to open it but my fingers are numb. I panic and frantically try to get it open, whimpering and gasping as I try desperately. But nothing. Finally in a rage I slam it on the ground and cover my eyes to sob. After a minute I look back at the small heart shaped locket. The hinge is bent and the locket is slightly cracked open.

Slowly I reach for the locket and see... her. My darling sister eva. Not as an old lady, but as the young woman I remember growing up with.

"We made it Eva... we finally... made it." I struggle to breathe as the cold creeps into my lungs and I feel my heart slowing. My mind fading in and out as the cold washes over me.

I look one last time at my sister in her little heart shaped locket and I flick open my lighter one last time. As I set it on the ground next to the locket I feel a warm sleep wash over me. I close my eyes and say

"Hello, Eva. Merry Christmas..."