The Lake Diary

Chapter 12

It was silent in the small cabin.

I risked the light. With shaking hands I managed to get a little diving flashlight out of my pack. Shortly after the collapse I'd stumbled into a store that carried sporting goods. There were a couple lights for scuba diving. Those little lights were the best ones I'd ever scavenged, they lasted far longer than any of the regular lights. They had been designed for use in corrosive environments, sea water, so they held up a lot longer.

I hooded the lense with my hand and kept the beam low so it wouldn't it wouldn't be visible out the windows.

It was a single, square room. No zombies. There wasn't a lock on the cabin door but the latch was solid, it would stump any creatures trying to get in and the thumps would alert us to their presence. Hopefullly. It would do, it wasn't like we had any other options.

We looked around, it was an old fishing/hunting cabin, probably an old boys club back in the day. The furnishings and cupboards were all dark wood, not expensive but nice, solid, and practical. Scavengers had been through it, the cupboards were all open and empty but less useful nick knacks were still scattered around the single room. There was an old, plaid couch, a couple mismatched chairs, an old tube TV with rabbit ears, and random items around the shelves and window sills.

Most importantly, there was a stone fireplace.

Shivering, we huddled around the stone as though wishful thinking would be enough to generate flame. The iron wood holder next to the stones was empty and there were ashes in the fire place. We weren't the only ones that had found shelter in the cabin.

No wood but we needed fire.

We searched the room and found a small book case. Ordinarily burning books would be an anethema to me but circumstances weren't normal. We ripped up a few copies, I consciously avoided looking at the titles and piled the pages up. It took several minutes for my numb hands to click and hold the lighter long enough to catch the dry paper. Within a few minutes the flames were big enough to catch whole books. Peter and I crowded the fireplace, a stack of books at our side.

Our freezing bodies soaked up the tiny amount of heat as the fire grew.

We couldn't let the fire get too bright, there weren't any shades on the windows, but we needed the heat. Chairs and our bodies were placed to block as much of the light as possible.

Ever so slowly the cabin warmed up, our shivers faded. We stripped out of our outer layers and propped them up the chairs near the fire to dry. Our weapons we kept close at hand.

So many thoughts rushed through my tired brain but the exhaustion caught up with both of us. We soon fell asleep on the wood floor near the fireplace.