Snowed In

MORGAN

“This thing?”

Shane’s expression was exactly as I expected — a mirror image of Jeremy’s. Only his came with a little less laughter and a little more thoughtful rubbing of his trim, sexy beard.

“This thing is a dinosaur!” he told me. “There’s no way it coul

d—”

I stopped him by spinning the hand crank, faster and faster until the whole lobby was filled with a loud whining whir. On the face of the radio, the light behind some of the dials blinked a few times and began to glow.

“Whoa.”

I smiled and kept cranking for a little while longer, to juice it up. “It’s got power,” I said. “That’s the important part. But either the microphone is broken, or there’s something wrong with the transmitter.”

They were staring back at me, hands on their hips. “And how do you know this?”

“I grew up with stuff like this,” I shrugged.

“That’s weird,” Shane said with a smirk.

“Is it? You know how to dig a snow shelter, with venting and everything.” I flipped a switch, and the radio’s speaker vibrated with static. “Just like your shelter, this thing might actually save our lives.”

Shane scratched the back of his neck, making a face that acknowledged I might have a point. Jeremy just winked at me.

“Alright,” he said. “What do you need from us?”

“Tools,” I said. “Screwdrivers, pliers, anything you can find.”

They scrambled, and for the next hour or so I fiddled with the radio. Shane dragged an old end table over for me to use as a workbench. Jeremy came back with a wrench he’d found in the ‘clutter of crap’ that constituted the front desk’s back office. It was old and rusted, but at least it was adjustable.

“I also need wire,” I said. “Any kind of wire.”

“Like this?” Shane asked, pointing to the nearest light switch.

“If we can get it out and strip it down, yes.”

I watched in half admiration, half-awe as the two of them set to work demolishing the nearest wall. They tore it apart by swinging pieces of firewood, shattering through lathe and plaster until they were pulling out long lengths of wire.

“This enough?” asked Shane, holding up what had to be a six or eight foot length.

“Yeah,” I laughed. “That’ll more than do it.”

I took the wire from him and began stripping it. It didn’t take long before the smile disappeared from my face.

“Shit.”

“What?”

“This is aluminum,” I said. “I need copper.”

“Aluminum won’t work?”

I shrugged. Actually I wasn’t sure. “Maybe.”

“We’ll look for copper then,” said Jeremy.

“If you can find the main panel—”