The Earth Is (Not) a Cold Dead Place

Chapter 4

Days passed, presumably—who could really tell? Some cycles of sleeping, eating, and wood-cutting went by to suggest so. John's biological rhythm quickly gave up, the lack of contrast between day and night gave it nothing to hold on to. He just ate whenever the hunger got too much, and slept whenever the physical labor became too exhausting.

Every now and then he took Ellie with him outside, to the woods, but most of the time he kept her indoors. He wanted to protect her from the increasingly harsh climate outside. Though he never had any outright hostile encounters with other people, John could feel the tension rise in the cold air between them day after day.

More people joined him in the woods as time went on. Eventually large groups of folks with chainsaws and trucks came and took out huge chunks of forest at a time. They sold it all downtown, and protected their goods with their sheer numbers and heavy machinery. It didn't take long before it got too crowded for John in this particular neck of the woods and he had to look for a new place.

He kept Ellie inside this time. She was once again given the task of guarding the house and their supplies. The new spot John had in mind was significantly further away, and he'd no longer have an unobstructed view of his own street like he did from his previous spot.

As he passed the store it was clear that by now people weren't queuing up nicely at the counters any more. Windows were broken, and from a quick glance the whole place looked empty. Anything useful was long gone by now, and the only sources of light were some small fires in and around the building. Supplies must have stopped coming in as well, as the roads were either blocked by all the travelers or the drivers had finally abandoned their jobs. This also meant that no one was around to keep things from getting out of hand, at least not in any official capacity. That much became clear to John when he reached what he thought would be his new chopping spot.

The road ahead was blocked by two identical-looking pickup trucks. As he approached the blockade, planning to simply walk around it, two burly men opened their doors. They placed their heavy boots in the middle of the dirt road and stared straight at him. One of them nonchalantly placed a long axe on his shoulder, while the other just stood there with a chainsaw humming in his hands.

"This is our operation, you have no business here," the man with the axe shouted when John was about ten meters away from them.

"The trees don't belong to you, or anyone for that matter. Let me through, it's not like you need all that wood for yourselves." John kept walking. Five meters now.

The other man gave his chainsaw a swing, and the machine roared. John stopped immediately.

"Sorry mate, but things change. We'd be happy to help, for the right price of course. We have enough folks around here to deal with all these trees at the same time, and we can process them however you like. Big chunks, small chunks, tiny little tinder-pieces, we've got it all. Anything your heart may desire. I'm sure you've seen one of our distribution points downtown, they can get you hooked up," the man continued calmly. His chainsaw-wielding buddy couldn't help but show a slight grin.

John got the message: he wasn't going to get to these trees either. He felt the gun in his pocket for a moment, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it. An actual fight could only have ended badly for him. If he'd brought Ellie along on his trip, she would have jumped at the two men to protect him before their brief conversation had even started. Surely she would have gotten hurt—or worse—in the process.

John wasn't that desperate, not yet. He still had a decent supply from his previous efforts at home, and he hadn't even started burning his furniture yet. He decided to cut his losses and just head back—maybe he could try his old spot again. The two men scoffed at John as they turned around and stepped back into their vehicles.