Chapter 1
The day the linemen arrived was a day to remember. The reason was mostly not to do with the sudden influx of bucket trucks driving down the highway, and was in fact almost entirely to do with the fact that all the frozen samples were taken away the same day, to be stored in someone else’s refrigerator, and this vexed Tom. Was his lab not good enough? Of course it was - it just happened to be about to lose power, and they’d do anything to save the samples. Even - Tom shuddered - collaboration.
Why did there have to be a hurricane, again? A major one, no less, with Tom’s apartment right in its eye. Tom was not risking that.
“We’ll be fine,” said Orion, unconvincingly. “We’ll go to a shelter, wait for it to go through, and we’ll be fine.”
Tom hated the idea of going to a shelter - of being surrounded by people day in and day out, sleeping on the floor - but he did not intend to get caught in storm surge. The university he worked for had already cancelled classes for the next day, encouraging students, faculty, and staff to get out while they still could. Tom’s students would surely be expecting sympathy. He had not yet considered whether or not to give it.
Tom pulled his snake Nagini from her nice tank and slid her into her travel bag. Her scales were glossy and smooth - it was lucky, really, that she wasn’t shedding. He didn’t like to touch her when she was, but she had to come with him. He’d never leave her. He considered the rats in the freezer. They would probably thaw out some, but they might not, and maybe if he left a lot of ice in there with them he could save them… it would be fine.
He had to be coming back soon. It wouldn’t be that bad.
Tom checked the weather. Landfall in thirty hours.
He and Orion loaded a box for Nagini, a plastic tub with holes punched in it, up with essential supplies they couldn’t fit in a rucksack - protein bars, bottled water, vodka, a flashlight, a load of books, and blankets - and headed out.
The shelter was rapidly filling with people when they got there. They checked in, conveniently forgetting to explain about Nagini - this wasn’t a pet friendly shelter and anyway, Tom knew full well that keeping Nagini was illegal and he wasn’t going to be caught out now - and nabbed a spot against the wall - thank God for small mercies - to spread out their things. They put Nagini’s box against the wall, unloaded everything, and put her inside. She’d be all right for a bit, and she’d have her heat packs here. Tom knew she was safe. Perhaps, he thought, in a brief delirious moment, if he let her out she’d bite the crying baby nearby.
Orion pulled out his laptop. His company still expected him to be working. Tom clicked his tongue and extracted a stack of student papers in need of marking from his bag. Sometimes their writing really was incomprehensible, he thought, frowning at once particularly offensive submission. He wasn’t sure what this particular boy meant to say about the lab work he’d carried out, and Tom had seen him do it. At least some of them had promise. Bellatrix Black might be a show-off, but it was justified.
Tom checked the weather. Landfall in twenty-nine hours.
Orion closed his laptop. “I can’t focus.”
“Hey!” A man across a makeshift aisle from them, who was prepared enough to bring an actual cot, was opening a cooler. “Y’all want White Claw?”
“Yeah, thanks, man,” Orion smiled.
Not really, if Tom was honest, but Tom wasn’t honest, he was getting along with people, so he took it and smiled as well. “Thank you.”
“I’m Ignatius. Wife insisted I leave. She’s up helping her sister with the kids. When she saw they closed Waffle House, she called and said ‘Iggy, if you don’t get out, I’m not coming back’ so I listened.”
This was much more information than Tom wanted about a random stranger, and his White Claw flavor was lime, and it was bad, but he drank it anyway. He had to be polite. Everyone had to be polite. There was no other choice.
“I’m Orion,” said Orion. “I live in Zone A, so…”
“And I’m Tom,” offered Tom. “We’re neighbours.”
“And we went to school together,” Orion said. “Tom’s really smart. He’s a scientist.”
“What’s that like?” asked Ignatius.
Oh, Orion. Curse him for being so friendly. “I study snakes and I teach,” said Tom. And he did not talk to random people when he had nothing to gain. Of course, there was always something to gain - he just had to figure out what it was.
Orion checked his phone. “It’s a cat 4, they’re saying, now.”
“Figures,” said Tom, who’d been expecting this development. “Warm water and all.”
“It’s weird,” said Ignatius. It’s expected, thought Tom, but didn’t say it. There was no benefit to getting into arguments with strangers. Especially not strangers he was expected to sleep next to.
“Hey, you wanna play cards? I brought cards.” Orion was already digging them out.
Tom would rather read through his students’ textbooks and think of exam questions. There would be plenty of time for that. He nodded. “Yes, let’s.”
Ignatius gathered a couple of nearby people for a game. Tom looked forlornly around at anything else he could be doing.
“I’ll beat you,” said Orion.
“It’s a game of luck,” said Tom.
“I’m more skilled at luck than you,” shrugged Orion.
Tom scoffed. Now he had to win.
In the end, the victor was a woman called Trelawney, who had a habit of always drawing a card she could immediately put down. Orion kept playing +4 wild cards at Tom, and Tom repaid the favor by playing reverse and then several rounds of +2s. This resulted in both of them losing the game by miles. The next game they played was Spoons, by request of a little girl, and which Tom won. He’d cultivated his fast reaction time in the field snatching specimens.
That night, Tom and Orion lay face to face in the arrangement of blankets they’d come up with in their spot on the floor.
“Night one,” said Orion.
“Night one,” said Tom.
Landfall was in twenty four hours.