Moon of the Crusted Snow

Yes, apocalypse. We've had that over and over. But we always survived. We're still here. And we'll still be here, even if the power and the radios don't come back on and we never see any white people again.

Apocalypse?" "Yes, apocalypse! What a silly word. I can tell you there's no word like it in Ojibwe. Well, I never heard a word like that from my elders anyway." Evan nodded, giving the elder his full attention. "The world was ending," she went on. "Our world isn't ending. It already ended. It ended when the Zhaagnaash came into our original home down south on that bay and took it from us. That was our world. When the Zhaagnaash cut down all the trees and fished all the fish and forced us out of there, that's when our world ended. They made us come all the way up here. This is not our homeland! But we hade to adapt and luckily we already knew how to hunt and live on the land. We learned to live here!" She became more animated as she went on. Her small hands swayed as she emphasized the words she wanted to highlight. "But then they followed us up here and started taking our children away from us! Thats when our world ended again. And that wasn't the last time. We've seen what this....what's the world again?" "Apocalypse." "Yes, Apocalypse. We've had that over and over. But we always survived. Were still here. And well still be here, even if the power and the radios don't come back on and we never see any white people ever again.

People are gonna shit themselves if they see this big fuckin’ white guy out and about.

She was an old soul. He wanted her to question everything. He wanted her to grow up to be strong and intelligent. He wanted her to be a leader.

Yes, apocalypse. We’ve had that over and over. But we always survived. We’re still here. And we’ll still be here, even if the power and the radios don’t come back on and we never see any white people ever again.

Yes, apocalypse. We've had that over and over but we always survived. We're stil here and we'll still be here even if the power and radios don't come back on and we never see any white people again.

Our world isn't ending. It already ended. It ended when the zhaagnaash came into our original home down south on that bay. They cut down all the trees and fished all the fish and forced us out of there. Thats when our world ended. They made us come all the way up here. This is not our homeland!

They had grown to loathe the man in his short time in their community but they pitied him in death. No one would ever know what had driven him or what had brought him to their town. Now they felt only relief that he would be gone...

She and Evan had always planned to get married eventually, and she was going to wear her mother’s wedding dress. But holding that kind of event made no sense now, and they’d never be able to mark an anniversary anyway.

Someone’s missing.” Tyler stepped back and counted again. He took off his cap and pulled on a braid. “So what do you think?” Evan lowered his head and took a deep breath. “I think it was Scott.” “Huh? What do you mean?” “Scott took a body.” “Come on, man. That’s crazy. What for?” Evan paused. There was a heavy stillness in the big room. “To eat.

Goddamn it. People are gonna shit themselves if they see him.

Evan rolled over, away from her. The light of dawn had yet to creep in through the cracks in the curtain. Sleep was still thick in the room.