Into the Storm

Into the Cold

Cold... all I felt as I trudged through the snow was a suffocating cold that bit at my fingers and made my blood run still. The cold is what turned a short jaunt to find food into an uphill battle against the elements, A battle that I was surely losing. The cold is what drove me to take shelter in a small building just outside the locked supply depot. The first thing I felt when I entered the complex was warmth, well "warmth" would be a slight exaggeration, but not being bombarded with a constant sheet of snow in the middle of a raging blizzard was a step up nonetheless. The other thing I felt, well "saw" would be a better term, was the dark, the entire building was nearly pitch black except for the small streams of light coming in through the large holes in the side if the building. After balancing the chances of being mauled to death by a hideous monster in the middle of the dark versus dying of frostbite in the middle of a blizzard, I decided that I would much rather have a quick death rather than a slow one. I began feeling my way through the dark, nearly jumping out of my skin when I accidentally knocked over a can filled with nuts and screws. After a few minutes of feeling my way through the black, I bumped into... something. It certainly wasn't a wall and luckily it didn't feel like a giant monster, it was small, seemingly rectangular shaped and had several indentations and bolts screwed into the surface. "A generator " I said with a sigh of relief before trying to find a button to push or wire to pull on the machine. After another few minutes I finally found what seemed to be a crank and began to turn it counter clockwise. With a hum the machine came to life, lights throughout the structure illuminating the inside of the building and heaters placed in various corners bathing the area in a comforting warmth. I took my place near one of the heaters near the entrance, smiling in contentment as I let the heat bring feeling back to my fingers and flow back to my bloodstream. In that state of nirvana, I nearly forgot the entire reason I made this dangerous trek, I began searching the structure for any food, cans, boxes even scraps would suffice, but no, all I found were screws, bolts, and gears. I sighed, not in victory and happiness, but in defeat and hopelessness before sitting back down near the heater, turning my gaze towards the ground and watching as tears hit the metal floor. It was then that some higher power, God, Allah, whoever you may call it, heard my cries and answered in the form of a sign, a literal sign. "Food and Supply Storage" it read in rusted letters, a red arrow pointing to an equally rusted elevator. I stood, wiped the tears from my face, and stepped inside of the elevator before pressing the "lower" button on the holographic display.