Cold

by Jeremy Gleick

    Hot.
    It's so hot.
    He sat up in the heavy sleeping bag, sweat matting its furred inside, and looked around the

dark green corrugated walls of the lodge.  The other thirty or so members of the tribe and family

lay in the hot red glow which filled the single room, a few awake, some waking, but most still

asleep.  The Catch only needed some of them each time, so the others could rest longer and

collect more warmth before going out for their next Catch.  They always gathered heat: the more

you heated your body before going into the black outside, the longer you could keep warm,

surely.  His father was already awake, preparing what was left of their last Catch.  Noise filled

the lodge as some rose, preparing lures and spears and putting away their sleeping bags.  By the

time he was up and had put away his bag the fish was sizzling on top of the metal surface of the

Center, the block that had sat in the lodge as far back as anybody remembered, providing light

and life-giving heat, holding off the continual darkness and ice which made up everything

outside of the artificial walls.
    His younger brother was beginning to wake up and climb out of his bag. "Kayll, you're

coming with us today, right?" the younger boy asked over the everpresent hum of the Center as

he gathered up his own bag with a yawn.
    "Of course, or I wouldn't be awake," Kayll replied.  He shook himself in the thick warm air to

wake up, and then slowly approached the Center so its heat flowed around him, nearly tangible

in the red light put off by the hottest pieces of the metal mass.  He held himself as close to the

glowing patches as he could stand, feeling the heat pressing into his chest and spreading out to

his limbs.  As his father began to take the fish off the Center, Kayll turned and stumbled over an

occupied sleeping bag.  "Hey Eyen, Uncle is still asleep," he whispered to his brother.
    "Again?  I suppose we should wake him up."
Kayll grinned at his brother and moved to the foot of the bag.  Eyen joined him with a snicker,

and they grabbed the end and lifted, dropping the older man upside down onto the floor of the

lodge.
    "Guh, wha!" he stammered as he fell out in a heap and quickly lept to his feet.  "You two!" he

muttered angrily, but the boys were laughing openly as the Catch's hunters rounded together for

breakfast.  The two of them helped him up from the ground as he brushed himself off with a

scowl, but he was unable to keep a straight face with the brothers still laughing on either side of

him, breaking into quiet chuckles himself and shaking his head.  They ate quickly and then took

three of the lanterns that they always carried when they left the lodge for the dark outside.  The

older hunters filled the lanterns with oil and lit them as everybody finished preparing to leave the

lodge.  Kayll deftly attached the head of his spear to the shaft with a few smooth movements,

before turning and helping his less experienced brother.  Eyen's shoulders slumped slightly as he

accepted his brother's assistance.
Kayll patted him on the shoulder.  "Don't worry, you'll get there.  Just keep practicing between

Catches."
    The hunters put on several heavy coats and layers, but Kayll and his father moved to one side

of the lodge as they slipped theirs on, and bent down over a bag.  The eyes of the woman who

lay inside slowly opened as they approached. 
    "Hey mom.  Are you feeling better?" Kayll asked.
    "A little, but I don't think I can manage the Catch tomorrow."
    "It's alright.  You just keep resting and staying warm," Kayll’s father said, and the two moved

to join the rest of the group gathering around one of the two doors to the lodge.
    "Ready?" Uncle asked.  The hunters nodded and he paused for a moment to brace himself

before shoving the door open and pressing through into the roaring wind and tearing cold. The

rest of the hunters rushed through the doorway as fast as they could so that it could be closed

quickly behind them, keeping as much warmth inside the lodge as possible.
    The darkness enveloped everything outside, lit only by the thin points of yellowish light

emanating from the lanterns.   They walked in line, keeping together in the heavy winds so as not

to get separated.  "Careful for weak patches!" came a shout from the front, barely audible in the

cold wind.  Kayll and Eyen nodded to each other, rolling their eyes.  They'd been out here

before. They pressed forward in the snow and ice toward the fishing spot.
    It wasn't too far from the lodge to their destination.  They spread out in a line over the ice in

pairs, staying in sight of one another.  The hunters, spread out over sheet of ice, bent down and

smashed small holes in the surface, crouching and waiting for the flicker of a fish in the water.

Kayll blinked the wind out of his eyes. The cold was beginning to bite, even through all of the

layers.  Kayll and Eyen gathered up the fish they had caught and put them into a small sling and

joined their father as the party turned home cheerily with their food.  "We did pretty well today,"

Kayll said to his brother, hoisting their catch over his shoulder.  "For how long we stayed out

here in the cold, at least, and that was a big one you got there at the end. Made a pretty big

splash," he said, patting the wet spot on his arm.
    "Heh, thank-" Eyen was cut off by a loud crack.
"What was that?" Kayll turned to the empty patch of space on his left where Eyen should have

been.  It only took him a second to realize what had happened.  He immediately dropped to his

knees and plunged an arm through the newly broken hole in the ice and into the freezing

water.  "The ice broke!  Eyen's fallen in!" he shouted as loud as he could over the wind.  The

other hunters turned and stopped as the most experienced rushed back to help.  "Eyen!  Grab

on!" Kayll felt the water completely soaking his sleeve and engulfing his arm, turning his bones

to ice with a thousand piercing jabs of cold. 
    After an eternity several seconds long, Kayll felt a pull on his shoulder.  He couldn't feel his

arm anymore, but knew that Eyen had found his way to the surface.  With his father's help they

dragged his drenched body out of the water and onto the ice.  He lay there for a moment,

shivering violently as his eyes tried to come back into focus.
    "We have to get back to the lodge now, before he freezes," Uncle said, lifting the boy as the

hunters hurried through the now fading winds toward the lodge, lanterns flickering.  As the storm

around them died down, the black sky with its thousands of points of light spread out in the

darkness around the running line.
Kayll ran alongside his brother and uncle through the snow and ice.  "Come on brother.  Stay

with us.  We'll be out of the wind soon."  But the boy's eyes slipped close as they hurried along,

barely alive, his shallow breathing the only sign that he hadn’t already frozen.

They reached the heavy door of the lodge and pushed it open, hurrying inside quickly and

bringing Eyen to the Center. But the space was enveloped in silence, a strange and empty lack of

sound. The warmth of the lodge seemed somehow lessened, the air much cooler than it should

have been, as if someone had left the door open. Those inside were huddled together, looking up

at the returning hunters, worry in their eyes at the strange silence. Uncle laid Eyen down in front

of the Center. “What’s going on?” he asked everyone, before turning to look at the two doors to

make sure they hadn’t been opened.
“It’s cold. Why is it cold?” Kayll and Eyen’s mother shivered in her bag, delirious.
“It’s alright. Everything will be fine tomorrow. Go back to sleep,” Father reassured her.
She smiled, blurry-eyed. “Of course. You’ll make it better.” Others in the lodge muttered

nervously as her eyes slowly closed, her breath shallow and uneven.
The hunters gathered around the Center, its normally searing red glow dim. Despite their

many layers of warm clothing, the heat from the Center was not a boiling wave, but simply a thin

warmth to match its thin glow. Kayll looked down at his brother, shivering on the floor. He

dropped to his knees next to Eyen and grabbed his soaked jacket, pulling it off his shoulders and

then continuing to remove the drenched clothes from the boy’s body, assisted by Uncle. He

stepped back and grabbed his own jacket, its sleeve completely soaked through, and pulled it off

his still wholly numb arm. The coat slipped clumsily through his pale shaking fingers as he put

it down.

“Dad, what’s wrong? Why isn’t it hot?” Kayll asked. His father put down his lantern as he

looked at the Center, reaching out hesitantly to touch its smooth surface.

Uncle was trying to hold himself steady, but broke into shivers in the middle of the pitch dark

lodge, lit now only by the small yellow flames of the lanterns. He sat against the silent Center,

rubbing his hands together. “Ugh, I ca-can’t feel my…my…” he trailed off with a shiver, cold

making his voice unsteady. Kayll looked at his own shaking hands, seeing the blue in the fingers

which he knew was his body beginning to freeze. Eyen was already completely pale and

shivering, his hands and feet empty and cold. Uncle slipped against the side of the Center and

fell silently to the floor, his eyes unfocusing and closing.

“Uncle? Uncle are you okay?” Eyen asked, no longer able to see clearly from the cold.

“It’s okay Eyen…he’s just fallen asleep,” Kayll whispered. He rose out of his sleeping bag

and turned, half stumbling, toward the Center. He shook as a chill passed through his chest,

spreading into his limbs. He couldn’t see the walls anymore in the slim light of the lanterns. In

the emptiness it was as if there was no lodge, as if they were outside. But with no stars in the

sky. Just an endless darkness. He walked slowly toward the Center as the cold encircled his

shivering form, moving toward the lantern sitting on top of the metal mass, its flame quivering in

the cold thin air.

“Are you still awake Kayll?” Eyen asked, his slurred speech cutting through the all-

encompassing silence. His teeth chattered as he pulled his bag closer around him. “I’m tired.

It’s cold. I’m going to sleep, Kayll.” He stopped shivering as he lay back in his bag.

Kayll reached the Center, placing his hands on its chilling surface, wishing its smooth dark

shape would burn him, sear the cold out of him forever. But the continual darkness and ice

which had now begun to fill the artificial walls of the lodge seemed to shroud the Center more

than anywhere else. The silhouette of his father stood over it as well. It sat, just a still, silent,

and empty block of metal. All of the warmth was gone, eaten by the shadows and the winds of

the black outside. Some of the tribe huddled together to try to keep warm longer, but the cold

seeped into everything now. In the darkness and pale glimmer of the failing lanterns, the thirty

or so members of the tribe and family lay in the single room, a few still shivering, some too cold

even for that, but most fallen still and silent. Kayll lay slowly onto the icy floor, tears freezing

on his cheeks, looking around at the motionless forms which filled the lodge.

It’s so cold.

Cold.