Bill heard the hesitation on his car as he turned the key. It had been 10 below the previous night, mild by the standards of most days, but enough to effect the battery. Come on, come on, he thought, it always did this. Sometimes, worse then others. A few times he had simply walked to work, because the engine wouldn't start, and he didn't have the money to fix it. Or to get a new car, for that matter. Not that it would do him much good, because anything new he bought would encounter the same problems. Sure they had newer models, ones that had been designed to handle several month's of temperture's of forty below or lower, but they were far out of his range. They were for the people with money, who could afford woodstove's and the many cords of wood, underground greenhouses where they could grow their own food, without having to endure the atrocious mark up at the store if they went to buy it there. Sure there was junk food, and Bill had indulged in that on occasion buy even that had gone up, the cost and danger of shipping it that far, the icy roads, the storms, the chunks of ice that would fall from the sky sometimes if mother nature was feeling particularly nasty.

We must have done something, obviously we did something. Bill thought, the engine hesitated again and then finally started. Thank god, he said to himself. He took a sip of the bottle he had in the center console of his car, it burned slowly. He needed it for the drive to work, he drove a plow truck, although this time of year was usually the slow season, it was the one of the few jobs still around, still hiring. Bill pulled out of the driveway, feeling the wheels go slightly as he got onto the road. It had only snowed a foot the night before, mild by comparison to how it would be after the brutal season kicked in. They were still in the mild season right now, with the storms more far less frequent, the chunks of ice from the sky, more rare. Bill took another swig from his bottle of whiskey as his drove down the lonely icy road. The sky was clear and the full moon shone down upon the snow, the entire landscape white. There are times when it is beautiful, when the stark white of the snow is all you see and the moon above, the clear sky, the stars. He tried to appreciate that, for what it was worth, to not let it get to him. He had seen too many examples of that. Those who had tried to make sense of all of it, who had turned to religion and asked why God had done this to them. Who had cursed the cold, the dark, all of it. They hadn't lasted long, nor had many others.

Bill looked at the horizon as he pulled into work. The sky was slightly lighter as he came in. The sun would likely come up for at least a couple hours. Maybe 4. If he was lucky there was a chance he could catch a little bit of it on his first break. You've got to appreciate the little things, the glimpse of light before work, the moon and stars over the snow covered landscape. Others took things the other way, lost themselves in a frenzy of drugs and alcohol, food, sex, deprivation. Bill had tried to moderate himself in those ways, and had succeeded for the most part. Still, alcohol and drug use wasn't looked upon the same way as it was before the cold, for the most part people understood. They got the mood that most people had and let it be, as long as things got done. He got out of his truck, it felt like it was 10 degrees, warm, he laughed to himself. He could remember dating a woman, who thought that 60 degrees was freezing, it had always amused him. I wonder what happened to her? He thought to himself as he walked to the office. Probably dead, he thought grimly. He couldn't remember the last time it was 60 degrees, or even close to it. He wondered sometimes if this was his real life, or if he hadn't died a long time ago and woke up in this place, this hell. Still he had to look on the bright side, it was only July.