Page 142 of The Heart of Winter

Silence fell between us again, and I hated that silence, the kind that meant both Winter and I were thinking about our situation.

"Winter, I feel like we’re being too carefree about all this. I’m scared the heat is clouding my judgment," I whispered, my voice a bit shaky.

Winter swallowed hard. "Believe me, I know what you mean. For now, I’m still keeping the worry at bay, but it’s coming. If no one shows up…" He trailed off.

A short pause. He furrowed his brow.

"I—I should go. Walk around the island, check the sky for drones, maybe touch up the ‘H’. It got a little covered overnight."

I nodded, even though I could already feel another wave of heat building inside me. But I didn’t want to stop him. This was important, these first days were critical.

"But eat something before you go," I urged him. "We should open a new can, you'll need your strength."

He nodded cautiously, his eyes immediately gliding toward the cans.

Not long after, Winter left the cave, and I stayed alone. I felt my body curling up in want, so I slipped into the water, sitting there as the heat pulsed through me. Every so often, I let my fingers drift down, stroking myself just enough to bring on those small, rippling orgasms, to take the edge off. Over and over, I kept telling myself this was important, Winter needed to look for drones.

WINTER

I wandered across this goddamn island, through this goddamn meadow, feeling something tighten in my throat.

Two and a half cans of peanuts and a small bag of pretzels. That’s all we had left. And the hunger was already starting to take hold. Sure, peanuts were high in calories, but those tiny bars, those little cookies, those handfuls of nuts weren’t nearly enough to fill us. I weighed 200 pounds. I needed 3,000 calories a day.

Pushing through my pessimistic mood, I forced myself to think, what else on this island could be a food source?

Narrowing my eyes, I scanned the surroundings. The slope was covered in grass, there were also a few small groves of stunted trees. I knew grass wasn’t going to be much help, it had too few nutrients, plus it contained silica, which could damage the throat. The roots wouldn’t be much better. Maybe there was a tiny bit of starch, at best.

I walked up to one of the scraggly groves. I wasn’t sure what kind of coniferous trees they were, but I’d heard that the inner bark of some trees like pine, birch, or willow, could be ground into flour and cooked. But these trunks were thin, covered in moss. I examined the lichen growing on the rocks, too. I’d heard that some of them could be edible if boiled, maybe providing a small amount of starch or sugars.

But there was so damn little of it! The lichen formed only a thin layer on the rocks, and when I tried scraping some off, I nearly broke a fingernail. As for the tree bark, I would need a knife for that. Not good.

Frustrated, I made my way back to the beach and searched it carefully, overturning rocks, especially in the tide zone. But there wasn’t much. I found one mussel clinging to a rock, but when I pried it open, it was empty.

Staring out at the rolling ocean, I clenched my jaw. Were there fish out there? Maybe. But how the hell was I supposed to catch them? The only thing I had that could work as a fishing line was the wire from my headphones. And for bait? A peanut? I let out a dry, bitter laugh.

I started pacing and overturning stones across the grassy slope that led down from the volcano. Under a few, I found some tiny bugs, but they were too small to be useful and scurried away the moment I disturbed them.

For a while, I wandered around the abandoned airplane seats, lightly dusted with snow from last night. I also made sure to fix the ‘H’, just in case.

Then I stood there for a long time, staring at the sky.

Then at the ocean.

Nothing. Of course. No ships, not even a distant one on the horizon.

Eventually, I realized it was time to head back to the cave. My mood had darkened, and something else was gnawing at me, a kind of restless, uneasy energy. Maybe I could even call it… arousal?

It was unexpected.

Sex should have been the last thing on my mind in this situation. But I found so much pleasure in what was happening between Sariel and me, even though the fear for our future was always lurking at the back of my mind.

I’d been gone from the cave for a while. When I closed my eyes, I could remember his hot body close to mine, and I realized I craved it again, despite all the unsettling observations I’d made on the empty beach. So I turned around and went straight back.

When I stepped inside, I saw Sariel curled up on the makeshift mattress, his palm wrapped around his cock.

He looked up at me, his eyes hazy, flushed cheeks burning with feverish red.

"Please…" he whispered.

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