The car crept through the familiar small town's streets. The morning sun cast a sickly pallor over the town, as if the light itself had frozen. The familiar storefronts were dark. Those that still had their windows intact were covered with frost. Frozen cars lined the streets, abandoned in a haphazard fashion. Frozen bodies were huddled against storefronts in small groups, Undoubtedly from people caught in the cold and unable to find warm shelter.

  A column of smoke broke the horizon in the direction they were headed. Will's knuckles whitened on the steering wheel, his fingers leaving imprints in the frozen leather. His heart started pounding as they turned into his subdivision. A mountain of flames greeted him, consuming his neighbor's house. Will slammed his foot on the gas pedal, urging the car closer to his home. The absence of life felt palpable, like a void that threatened to swallow them. Where were the neighbors? Their house was burning to the ground and there wasn't a soul present!

  Will stopped short of his own driveway, not wanting to get too close to the flames of the neighboring house.

  "Dad..." Abigail began, but stopped, not knowing what to say. Where was her mom? Her brother?

  Will threw the car door open and sprinted to his own front door. He tried the door latch, expecting it to be locked, but the door swung freely open. A thin haze of smoke hung in the air, carrying the acrid smell of burning wood and melting plastic. The smoke stung Will's eyes as he moved through the familiar rooms. The harsh chill was absent as he breathed the mild air.

  He rushed from room to room with frantic purpose, each space an empty stage missing its actors. Nothing. He scrambled upstairs and checked the kids bedrooms, but they were vacant. The smoke from the house fire next door was thicker up here, and the air a little warmer.

  "Dad!" Abigail called from downstairs. "Are they up there?"

  "No! They're not up here Abby. The whole house is deserted!," Will shouted downstairs. "It's empty." His heart sank as spoke the words he had been fearing out loud. Where was everyone? He glanced around the bedroom he was in, Benjamin's. The dresser drawers were disheveled, but the room was otherwise mostly undisturbed. He went back downstairs and checked the kitchen. There were open spaces in the pantry, but a lot of the food was still here. A single piece of paper was on the counter, hasty handwriting scrawled on it. Will snatched it up, hands shaking, as Abigail stood behind him and peered over his shoulder

  "Will - At middle school shelter w/neighbors. Ben & I safe. Love you so much. S."

  Tears welled in Will's eyes. He had been so consumed with getting home, assuming that Sophia and Ben would be here. He thought about the fear his son must have been going through. The unknowns that Sophia was faced with. At least they had the time to make a decision on where to go and what to do. He felt like he and Abigail had been at the mercy of the snow and ice, not able to influence their own direction. He folded the note and stuck it in his pocket.

  "We have to got the middle school," Will said, turning to Abigail. "They're there. They're safe, and they're with others," Will turned and started toward the door.

  Abigail looked around at her childhood home, now almost unfamiliar after a mere three days away. She longed to see her mother again, but fear of going back into the cold slowed her response. "Dad, let's get some food. It doesn't look like they took much," she said.

  Together, they pulled out cans of vegetables, soups, pastas, and whatever else they thought they could use. Will went to the garage. As he stepped into the dim space, the cold air sent a shiver through him. As he expected, their Honda Pilot was gone. His own car was still at the airport where he and Abigail had left it. He turned and went back into the warm house.

  Warm. Surprisingly warm. The smell of smoke was heavier than when they first entered. Will's mind raced and he was dimly aware of the distant roar of the neighbor's house being consumed by the fire.

  "Dad!" Abigail's voice was laced with fear as she called out. Will came running back to the kitchen and saw flames through the window. Too close to be to be the neighbor's house. Suddenly, a loud crash echoed through the otherwise silent house. The neighbors house must be collapsing!

  Troy's quavering voice shouted from the front entry. "Hey! Will! Abigail! Oh man! Your house is on fire! You gotta get out of here!"

  Will couldn't believe it. Finally, they made it home, and now their home was about to be destroyed. He so desperately wanted to be with his wife and son, but after that... he hadn't thought too much about it, but he had just assumed they would be back in their home.

  "Get the food," he said, defeated. Troy and Abigail scooped up as much food as they could carry. A sound of shattering glass came from across the house and was replaced with the roaring sound of fire. Will glance around the corner and saw flames pouring in through a window, shattered glass on the floor. The fire ignited the trim around the window almost immediately and climbed to the ceiling. The heat pressed against his face.

  He stood motionless for a bit. As the warmth of the fire washed over him, memories flooded Will's mind: moving in when Abigail was a baby, bringing Benjamin home from the hospital, wrestling on the floor... The fire pulsed and writhed like a living thing, reaching out with flaming tendrils that cast dancing shadows on the walls. The heat pressed against his skin in waves, and the roar of the flames drowned out even his own thundering heartbeat.

  "Dad, we have to go!" Abigail yelled from the front door. Will turned his back on his home and walked out the front door. As he was thrust into the tundra of his subdivision, any semblance of warmth he had taken from the fire was consumed by the bitter cold. His skin tightened painfully as the bitter cold swept away any lingering warmth, leaving him gasping as the frozen air invaded his lungs. His body nearly convulsed from the utter shock of the temperature change. He followed Troy and Abigail to the back of the car and loaded their food into the trunk.

  They all piled back into the running car and Will stared as the flames crept across his house.

  "Will, I'm sorry," Theresa spoke softly. "I'm sure they're ok."

  "There's a shelter at the middle school. They left a note," Will intoned, deadpan, as he watched 12 years of memories dissipate into the atmosphere. It had only been a single day. All this happened in one day. His life went from "normal", as a math teacher, helping to guide his daughter through her last semester of High School and preparing for college. His son, starting fourth grade, and his explorative personality really starting to emerge. Overnight, he was fighting for survival and to reunite his family. Their biggest worry went from which college to send Abail would attend, to actually fighting for their lives. Will sat in shock for a moment, staring at the wall of fire creeping across his home, consuming everything he owned on this earth. Hope seemed like a distant memory.

  But there is a shelter. It must have been set up quickly. How many people could it support? Was it safe? Panic started to grip Will as he started processing his new situation.

  "We can't just leave our house," Abigail said, her voice laced with grief. "What are we going to do?"

  "There's nothing we can do here," Will replied. "We have to get to your mom and brother. We'll figure out what to do after that." He threw the car in gear and started driving toward the middle school.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  As they approached the exit of the subdivision, Will slowed down. Three people, bundled in winter coats, hats, and gloves smashed the window of a front door and entered a home. He couldn't believe how quickly things fell apart. Firefighters, police, emergency response teams... where was everyone?

  He turned onto the main road, the golden reflection of the house fires leaving his rear view mirror as he sped toward the middle school. The few miles between them and the school passed relatively quickly and uneventfully. They were less than a mile away when the distant flashing of lights became apparent.

  As they approached, the emergency vehicles materialized out of the gloom like silent sentinels - dozens of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars, their emergency lights painting the frozen landscape in alternating flashes of red and blue. Will slowed the car, approaching cautiously. As they approached, the "WHOOP WHOOP" of a police siren greeted them. Several doors on the police cars opened and heavily clothed officers exited the running cruisers, took cover behind their doors, and leveled their guns on the approaching car.

  "W-What's happening?" Troy asked, eyes going wide. "Why are they pointing guns at us?!"

  "I don't know. I don't know what's going on," Will replied. He put the car in park, opened his door, and stuck his hands out the window. Instantly, he was reminded how short a time he could exist outside. He stepped out of the car and closed the door, hoping the tiny heater would quickly warm the frigid air he had just let in.

  "I'm looking for my wife!" Will called to the officers.

  "Are you armed?" an officer called back.

  "No, it's just me, my daughter, and three others. We don't have any weapons," Will responded.

  "Slowly bring your car up here," the voice came back from behind the squad car.

  Will got back in the warmth of the car, briefly held his cold fingers over the vents, and then put the car in gear. He slowly approached what was not apparently a makeshift barricade of emergency vehicles on the road leading into the middle school. A space just barely wide enough for his car opened up, and he cautiously pulled through. An officer, clad in a heavy jacket displaying the Millbrook police insignia approached his door. Will rolled down the window.

  "Who are you, and what's your business here?" the officer's hand casually resting on his holstered sidearm.

  "I'm Will. Will Adler. My wife and son are in there. I'm trying to get to them."

  The officer leaned down and looked into the car, peering at each person, individually. Troy squirmed in his seat, eyeing the officer's gun and seeing the holster unsnapped.

  "Who else is in here?" the officer asked.

  Will introduced them all, and informed the officer again that they were all unarmed when asked.

  "Pop the trunk." the officer prompted.

  "Sure," Will said, his breath fogging out of his open window.

  After inspecting the trunk, the officer came back to Will's window. "That fuel will come in handy. We have enough for now, but we don't know how long we'll be here."

  "What's going on? We don't even know what's happening. My daughter and I were on a flight that made an emergency landing in Ohio and we've managed to get back here. I'm trying to find my wife and son," Will probed.

  "We don't know much of what's going on," the officer replied. "The cold hit, but we don't know what's causing it. Power went out pretty quickly yesterday, and by evening we knew it was going to be bad for a lot of people. We were told to tell people to meet here if they needed to stay warm, so we could focus on keeping this building heated." The officer's voice dropped as he looked around. "There were so many people. And some came so quickly, they didn't have much. And more kept coming. We couldn't allow everyone in that came, and people got angry. We had to turn people away, and some people got... violent." The officer paused to take a breath exhale sharply before continuing. "It wasn't good. We didn't want to use force, but we had no choice. We couldn't safely let anyone else in, and they started... I never thought I'd have to..."

  Will looked around, for the first time seeing evidence of the conflict. There were bodies in the ditch on the side of the road, cars askew, and he even saw several bullet holes in the squad cars protecting the school.

  "My wife and son are in there. You have to let us in. Please, I'm begging you," Will's voice was firm, but pleading.

  "My son and I don't have to stay. We'll keep going. It's just these three," Theresa said, leaning forward between the two front seats. Troy glanced nervously between Will and the police officer.

  "Mom, no, I don't want to go," Brendan whimpered into his mom's lap.

  "It's ok, baby. We'll be just fine." Theresa reassured him.

  The officer's gaze danced between the school, the other squad cars, and the frozen corpses that he had dragged away in the middle of the night. "Ok, look. If it's just the three of you, I can let you in. But these folks have been through hell. We're short on supplies, had to set up quick, barely got the generators going before everyone showed up. Go find your wife, man."

  As the officer walked back to his car, blowing sharply into his clasped hands, leaving Will speechless. "T-Thank you," he stammered out as he put his window up and moved the car forward.

  He parked the car close to the entrance of the school. Through the glass he saw another uniformed officer in the building, watching the activity. He turned to Theresa. "Are you sure you want to keep going? We can try to work something out here. It's looks safe."

  "No Will, I have to go home. I may not have family in Lansing, but we have community. People that look out for us, and we look out for them. I have neighbors that are going to need help, and that are worried about us," she said, calmly. "There's only one problem. We might need help finding a car."

  "Oh, that's no problem!" Troy spoke up, enthusiastically. "You can have my car! I won't need it. Will I?" He turned toward Will, questioningly.

  "I don't think so. Sophia must have brought our car. More room, better engine - no offense.," Will responded. "Are you sure you can manage, Theresa? You have to keep it running. If it stops, you'll be in trouble."

  "It's not a problem. I've helped to siphon the gas last night, and it's done fine so far. I don't have much farther to get home," Theresa said, reassuringly.

  "But what about your leg?" Abigail asked, tenderly.

  "I'll be fine. It's just pain - I can handle it," Theresa said, downplaying the injury. "Besides, there's a doctor right across from my building... Thank god for automatic transmission though," she said with smile.

  Nothing they said could sway Theresa's opinion. Will figured she would need the gas in the trunk more than they would, so everyone got out of the car and said their goodbyes. Will inwardly cursed the bitter cold that acted like a stopwatch placed on every one of their interactions. Instead of taking their time to bid farewell, the painful air rushed their conversations, froze their tears as they fell, and pressured their hasty departure.

  Theresa and Brendan got back in the car and pulled away while Will, Abigail, and Troy turned toward the school and walked in as the officer standing guard opened the door for them.

  "Everyone is in the gymnasium. We're trying to get enough heat to warm up some of the classrooms, but we're almost overloading the generator as it is," the officer explained as he escorted them down the hallway.

  The air in the hallway was warmer than the outside, but not by much. Frost on the lockers indicated that it was still below freezing. A dull hum met their ears as the approached the double doors to the gymnasium. Expecting to be met with a sea of people, Will flung the doors open.

  The sound of the door opening echoed through the chilly air, causing a few heads to toward them. People were clustered in groups, likely families, from the looks of it. There were probably 15 or 20 of these groups, sparsely dispersed through the gymnasium. No one spoke as Will, Abigail, and Theresa stepped onto the hardwood floor.

  "Will! William!" a voice called from the far side of the room. Will turned toward the sound and locked eyes with Sophia, her long brown hair disheveled, holding Benjamin closely to her chest. Will's feet squeaked against the polished floor as he ran, his hand clutching Abigail's wrist so tightly he could feel her pulse racing beneath his fingers. The sound of their rapid footsteps echoed off the gymnasium walls, mixing with the soft sobs and whispered conversations of other survivors. When they met, he threw his arms around his wife and son, Abigail following suit, and they all fell to their knees on the gym floor. Abigail's usual composure crumbled as she sobbed into her mother's shoulder while Will pressed his lips to his wife's, the taste of their tears mixing in relief.

  "Thank you, God, thank you!" Will's words caught in his throat, a jumble of relief and disbelief. He could only hold them tighter, as if afraid they might dissolve into the frigid air.

  Around them, the crowd stared quietly, a small island of joy in the sea of fear and uncertainty. Some nearby faces softened at the sight, while others turned away, their own losses too raw to bear witness to this reunion.

  "Dad! Dad!" Benjamin cried. "You came back! Mom kept saying maybe you couldn't, but I knew you would! I knew it!"

  "I know, little man. We'll figure it out. At least we're together now. And safe," Will said, pressing his forehead to his son's. After everything they'd been through, his family was here, safe, together. For just a moment, the world's chaos faded away, and Will felt a surge of determination. Whatever came next, they would face it as a family.

  "Will," Sophia said, drawing close to him, her eyes darting around the still room, voice barely above a whisper. "Will, listen to me. There's more going on than just the cold. The people here... something's not right."