"Ellen Gilchrist - Black Winter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilchrist Ellen)

painting a mural on the wall. It is a picture of us going to the movies.
Sitting in seats eating popcorn and drinking Cokes and watching a screen.
On the screen he drew the volcano from the movie we were seeing in Tulsa
that afternoon. Stockard Channing in Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, by
John Guare.
The horse doesn't do anything. He just hangs around. He has a halter on
his face and I wanted to take that off too but Tannin said to leave it on. He
is probably used to it and he has had enough changes in his life. I can't
believe we don't go and see who is alive. What are we afraid of? What is
there left to fear?
We have aspirin, hydrogen peroxide, merthiolate, antibiotic cream,
sunscreen lotion, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo. We found a canoe
shop on the river ten miles from here. We had been searching for food.
The thought of being in the cave all winter with nothing to eat scared us
so much we had taken the car to look for food. We followed the road along
the river and found the shop. There was a store with nothing touched. We
almost killed ourselves eating things. There was sugar and honey and
cookies and canned drinks and bottled water. There is enough stuff to take
care of us for months. We packed everything we could into the car. Then
we put a trailer hitch on the back of the car and loaded a canoe with the
rest of the food and supplies and pulled the canoe back to the cave. We
have a store of outboard motor oil.
We do not know where the people had gone. Why didn't they come back
for the food? We will go back later and make sure there is nothing there
that we can use.
 Also, there were some guns. We took most of them and all the
ammunition. We don't want anyone else to get hold of them.
We have a visitor. A biology teacher from Minnesota. He came on a
motorcycle. His name is Mort Ricardo. He has books with him.
тАЬWhat do you know?тАЭ we asked him.
тАЬThe east coast is gone,тАЭ he answered. тАЬAnd the south. People are living
in camps. There is nothing now, no government, no communication.
You're lucky you're way out here.тАЭ
тАЬHow did you find us?тАЭ
тАЬI'm trying to go to the equator.тАЭ
He is six feet three inches tall. He has brown hair and blue eyes. He has
with him the King James Version of the Bible, The Collected Works of
William Shakespeare, a calendar of Florentine art. Tannin wept when he
looked at it. It's the first time he's cried since this happened. He said it
was because his mother took him to Florence when he was a child. As I
said, we never talk about our families.
Mort has The Orestia by Aeschylus and a small anthology of British
Poetry of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. He took what would fit in his
saddlebags. He has dried food and lots of Bic cigarette lighters. He says it
is going to be a long winter. His family was in Atlanta when it happened.
He got on his bike and headed south. He is going to the equator with the
books. There are other things. A medical textbook, an anatomy, a book of
physics, an atlas. He thinks Europe is still there arid maybe parts of
central and south America. He is trying to figure out when it will be safe
to cross Texas. He thinks he can find gasoline for a while, then he will walk