Hours passed, the air's getting frightfully cold as it's growing night again, the pits alit with warm flames as people huddled near it with their loved ones, trying to warm themselves.
There's a new trend taking hold in the camp, started today surprisingly enough, started by a crafty child who complained his flat's always cold.
People using warmed oval roughed black stones in their flats and persons to keep warm during the nuclear winter.
These stones abundant around the Ruins provided they haven't been exposed to radiation, everyone got their own, and they put an identifying marker on them, a signature, something to make it unique only to them.
Placing the stones around the flames, they heat up as the flames continued burning in the pits, and with a twist of the metal clamps, they're pulled out of the roaring flames for each person.
Not burning to the touch like one thinks of stones exposed to intense heat for hours on end, instead pleasantly warmed to the touch, and stays warm for hours after.
Women sown little pockets to put these stones in the shirts of their husbands, letting them keep warm while they worked around the library.
Despite constant heating and slow cooling, the stones kept their shapes, not a crack, no brittling, making these stones a vital resource overnight, enough that Camp Prime's willing to trade them to other camps to spread goodwill and curry trades.
Warming alongside the stones, whatever food salvaged and traded for, such as the meal kits.
Tins filled with soups and stews, whatever, water boiling for the dehydrated drinks, something spicy on their tongues, a rare treat.
Standing near the warmth of the fire, Theodore held his large hands outright as he felt his hands warming up from the bitter cold.
The camp sealed every crack and cranny possible, avoiding the risks of leaking radiation from the outside, but the bitter cold finds a way to make its presence known.
Looking above, the ceiling's heavily reinforced, preventing anything from getting inside.
Through charcoal air filters and other means, the air in the camp's supple compared to the harsh air outside.
Sitting near one of the open pits with the crackling wood, plates readied to hold the food, Theodore awaited his dinner as it warmed in the pit near his and Lila's stones that he picked out of a bin.
Periodically, he checked on his and Lila's dinner, as he did, he looked for Lila, who hadn't arrived from her duties. He ended up checking on her, entering her mind with the familiar greeting, and heard a response.
"Even with you I can't sneak a nap," Lila murmured, having taken a nap after her duties as Dimitri's nurse, and only woke up because Theodore prodded her away.
Theodore further prodded her to come and join him by the fire, musing that she probably hadn't ate anything during her duties, and Lila admitted that all she wanted to do after her long shift's sleep.
"Sleep after you eat," Theodore tells her, "you can't sleep on an empty stomach."
Lila asked for five more minutes and Theodore reminded her that if Hammond finds out that she's skipping meals, it won't be pretty.
Seeing his point and jabbing him for using his brother against her, Lila relented, and made her way towards the pit Theodore sat around.
She plopped down with a sharp exhale and a yawn as she rubbed her eyes.
YOU ARE READING
The Bizarre Adventures of Doctor Who
FanfictionIt's never easy stepping into the shoes of the Doctor-more when you're his son-and so, begins the tale of Theodore Levy Smith. The son of the Doctor. Or specifically, his second son. His father's the progenitor of the title and it'd seem that the ti...
