Withstanding The Odds (Survival Series Book 2) by Kip Nelson

Author:Kip Nelson [Nelson, Kip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The cold breath of winter swirled outside. It was the first day in at least a week that it had stopped raining. There were moments when it seemed the downpour never was going to end, just one dreary, dark day after another. Black clouds still loomed overhead, threatening more bad weather. It seemed an eternity until spring.

Darren sat hunched over at the mouth of his cave, rubbing his hands together over the small fire. Dark circles were etched underneath his eyes, a thick scraggly beard now sat upon his chin, and the stale odor of stagnant life lingered all around him. He was the only one awake, as he usually was at this hour. The kids shouldn’t have to worry, but he did. He was the only adult they had.

The ground outside was muddy. None of them had been able to leave the cave for days, and all were getting cabin fever. Darren tried keeping the kids calm, but even he wasn’t immune. It took great effort not to snap at them. Darren had spent a lot of time thinking about the physical challenges of this world, but the psychological challenges were almost more threatening. Often his mind felt as though it was going to snap. He’d already been taken to the brink once before, and this time he was scared he would careen over.

But that would leave the kids defenseless. Brent, Michelle, Betsy, and Tara all depended on him. Their lives were in his hands, and if he failed…he didn’t bear thinking about.

So, he tried not to think about it. He tried not to think about the dwindling food resources, about the fact that all of them were getting on each others’ nerves, about how Brent and Betsy were getting closer, about how they hadn’t been able to bathe, and the cave now smelled like a refugee camp. He tried not to think about Death’s thin fingers slowly crushing him. He wondered if he actually was dying already, if this world was eroding his spirit, slowly chipping at his soul like the tide against the shore, an inexorable decline.

There seemed to be no hope left. Especially not when he looked outside and saw the grim rain pouring down, chattering against the fallen leaves, thundering against the outside of the cave.

As he sat in front of the fire, the one bright spot for miles since the Moon was covered by the thick clouds, he remembered winters gone by; how he always liked to sit inside with a blanket and a book or a movie, breathing in the warm scent of a hot chocolate while the rain pummeled the house like the wolf who couldn’t get in to eat the three little pigs. He used to feel smug, that humanity had come up with such a simple solution to something so threatening. Just some brick and mortar was all it took to protect themselves from the onslaught of nature, but nature had come back with a vengeance.

Those days were from

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