Project Purple

54 - The Goatwench

A frowning moon crossed above the rim of the valley, and there was a thick layer of snow capping the roof of the hut called Fort Henri, making it look like a humble church steeple for God. Yet within were miserable creatures with little time to live.

"Shouldn't've used the bullets for huntin'," Buford mumbled, self-scorning in a restless sleep next to Henri by the stove.

Henri sighed under the stinking furs they all shared. His final bullet, a few days back, had brought down an owl, and no one complained when they had made a soup of it. Yeah, a couple of bullets would've been handy when the wolves attacked-maybe-And maybe Heidi would've survived if they'd been able to take down a couple of the wolves.

But what difference did it really make? Things were far beyond ruminations now.

Tiffany's place between them was empty. What was she doing outside for so long? Henri was worried about her; for almost two days, Tiffany hadn't spoken a word, and just muddled about, near-lifeless, like some shuffling comatose.

Then a thought hit her, and Henri leapt for the hatch-door of the hut.

She saw Tiffany in the cemetery, digging in the snowy ground with the shovel.

"No!" Henri screamed, wrestling Tiffany onto the shaved-ice-like snow.

"It's sustenance!" Tiffany fired back, as Henri bested her, climbing on top and straddling her.

"The bodies have rotted."

"No, they're frozen!" Tiffany pleaded.

Henri pinned her arms and gave her a fierce look, "We don't consume our own."

Near possessed, Tiffany jerked and flopped, hoping to buck Henri off of her, "The meat will thaw out!"

Tiffany's glasses had fallen off during the tussle, and Henri grabbed them and placed them back on, watching Tiffany's eyes bug out behind the lenses. She softened her grip, and her expression mellowed, "Listen, the cold and the wind and the snow, and the winter-it's ours. Know what I mean? It's making us stronger, making us better..."

"Yeah, right. At least make sense." But she relaxed, and traces of the old Tiffany-always keen for dialog-resurfaced.

Henri's thoughts weren't muddled anymore. It was as if her body had adjusted, and now her thoughts seemed both clear and profound, and she would share...

"The words, our words... they freeze in the air before reaching the ear, then thaw out in spring."

"What are you talking about?" Her old self had returned, now probing Henri for rationality.

"Words freeze in the air..."

"You said that... And come springtime, what nutritional sources will we be able to extract?"

Henri nodded, "That's the question."

Tiffany squinted in incredulousness, "The gentler sex."

"We are."

Tiffany chuckled, and Henri joined in. The laughter grew, releasing and expurgating, and Henri rolled off of her.

Tiffany explored her mouth with a finger. "My teeth are so loose, I'd never be able to eat Alison, anyway."

***

A dawn hunt. The coldest time, forty below zero. And there was nothing like it.

It gave her life. Henri liked what she had come through to get there. She could feel the tingling new skin on her back, and she carried the marks of her old world back into her real one, and she would never go back.