Frostbite & bruises

An unexpectedly strong, icy wind knocked him backwards and he disappeared into the three-metre deep snow. Large, thick, icy lumps of snow slid under the brim of his hoodie, along the collar and into his jacket.

“GOD DAMN IT!!! FUCK! FUCK!!! FUCK!!!” Cursing aloud, Nox tried to turn around.

But it was difficult. The snow was deep and there was nothing to hold on to. When he finally managed to get on his hands and knees, the punishing wind made it difficult to stand up, and it was only after the fifth attempt that he managed to do so and stay standing.

Exhausted and badly irritated by the struggle, Nox began to make his way back to his home. Hunched over and using his bow for support, he ploughed his way through the deep snow. At one point, after what seemed like endless white torture, Nox looked up. Lifting the brim of his fur-lined hat to see if he was still on the right track, he saw the grey outline of the old factory through the thick, chasing snow, and heaved a deep sigh of relief. Home sweet home!

Once inside, he locked the large sliding door and staggered, cold and stiff, into their small, heated shelter, collapsing with a thud on the small wooden bench near the entrance.

“Well...? Did you find anything in the traps?” His brother’s dark voice came from somewhere in their living quarters.

Without looking up or answering, Nox began to remove his isolation clothes. As he hung the coat on the hook to dry, he shook his head regretfully. The isolation jacket had definitely seen its best days. There were holes everywhere, the seams were coming loose and although Nox had done his best to patch it up with bits of old cloth, the coat offered little protection.

Nox looked down at his wet sweater. It too had seen better days, he thought to himself.

After hanging up his wet insulating trousers to dry and setting aside his soaked boots, Nox changed into dry clothes and stepped into the warm living quarters.

“Is it too much trouble to answer?” Nox looked at his brother who was repairing a wooden chair leg at the dining table.

As he walked to the fireplace to warm up his frozen limbs, his gaze slid to his brother who had been busy at the dining table.

Despite being blind, Shane was an incredibly handy bastard, Nox thought to himself as he saw the almost finished leg in the man’s hands.

“Yeah... it is…”

With an angry gesture, Shane threw the wooden chair leg onto the table with a loud slap.

“You really are a piece of shit, Aidan! You know that!” Nox snickered. Shane always called him by his real name when he had pissed him off.

Although Nox knew full well that Shane couldn’t see him, he slowly turned to look at him. “If I had something in the traps, don’t you think I would have brought it in first to give it to you, my dear blind little housewife...” He replied mockingly.

With a dark, unearthly growl, Shane jumped up, knocking over his chair. Although he had been blinded in an accident while working as a police officer six years earlier, he was certainly not dependent on his brother, and with deadly precision he threw his razor-sharp chisel at Nox, who managed to dodge the sharp tool just in time.

“DON’T FUCKING MOCK ME, ASSHOLE!”

With his large hands clenched into fists, Nox moved towards his brother, coming to a halt in front of him. His face was now so close to Shane’s that their noses almost touched, and suddenly he felt a small trickle of blood run down his right cheek. Shane clearly had a perfect sense of direction, the chisel had just grazed the side of his cheekbone.

“Pull a stunt like that again, Shane, and I’m going to bash your head in!” The tree-high man growled.

Suddenly a sound reached their ears, coming from the main entrance, and both men froze.

“What the fuck?” Nox whispered.

At the same moment, Ace, their German shepherd, who had been watching the argument from a distance, began to growl. The hairs on his back stood on end. Ace was not the only dog the two men had, they also had a small pack of five sled dogs, but these five were used to living outside. Nox had built an entrance on the other side of the building so that the dogs could go inside when a blizzard hit. This way the dogs could go in and out whenever they felt like it.

But at the moment, Ace was the only dog whose attention had been caught by a strange noise. With his eyes fixed on the door, his head down and his legs stiff, the big dog walked slowly towards the living room door. There it stopped and began to sniff at the underside, a low growl rising from its throat.

Quickly, Nox looked around to see where his weapon was. Even though he no longer used it for hunting, as bullets were scarce, he would not hesitate to use it on uninvited guests, and he suspected that this might be the case now.

To his relief, the rifle was still neatly hanging on the hook by the door, where he had left it last time after cleaning and re-oiling it.

With a few long strides, he stood by the door, took the rifle from the hook and pushed the dog aside with his knee. “Stay here, lice ball!”

Behind him, he heard Shane grab something from one of the cupboards and turned his head slightly to look at his brother out of the corner of his eye.

To his surprise, Shane was twirling a large hammer around in his hands, and there was a devilish grin on the corner of his mouth. Nox chuckled inwardly. Apparently, Shane was in the mood for a brawl too....

“I’ll go along the outside wall, you take the way around the back of the stairs? Ohh and stay in the shade and out of sight, then we can surprise any visitors nicely.”

As stealthily as possible, the brothers crept towards the main entrance. The howling of the storm was almost deafening, but the sound of the main door slamming with a loud bang was impossible to miss, and then there was silence.

Suddenly he heard soft whispers from several people and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Nox could not hear what was being said, but he could make out the voice of at least one male and several female voices.

Carefully, he placed his weapon on his shoulder and stepped out of the shadows.

“What are you doing here?” He watched as a jolt of fear went through the small group of people standing in front of the large steel door. Startled, the small group turned around and he saw six pairs of eyes staring at him fearfully.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! We mean you no harm! We didn’t know this place was inhabited. We were just looking for a place to hide, nothing more! Please don’t shoot!”

To his surprise, he saw a small figure breaking away from the group and placed itself in front of the others. As if its small size could protect the others, Nox thought scornfully.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw his brother emerge from the shadows and walk towards him. Annoyed, he shook his head. Why didn’t that idiot stay in the shadows?

He turned his attention back to the small group of people. “Pack your stuff and get the hell out of here! We’re not a hotel, find somewhere else to stay!”

Shane had moved closer and bent his face towards him. “The group is mostly women and children, Aiden... I only heard one male voice and it’s an older voice too... It’s storming, you can’t just send them away.” Though his brother’s voice was no more than a whisper, Nox could hear him clearly above the roar of the storm, but he was not prepared to play the Good Samaritan.

“GET THE FUCK OUT!!!” And he pointed the barrel of the gun at the group.

“NOX!” But his brother did not listen and instead kept his gun pointed at the group.

The small figure who had stood protectively in front of the group walked cautiously towards them, palms raised to show that he or she was unarmed. The click of a rifle being cocked made the figure pause for a moment before continuing on its way. Halfway through, the person slowly reached for the brim of the fur-trimmed hat and pushed it back, revealing the pale face of a woman.