Outbreak Scenario 33

You've been alone in a cabin since March, 2013. The outbreak started almost a year ago.

The woodstove ticks with heat. Venison hangs in the mudroom. Shelves hold forty-three cans scavenged from abandoned homes down the mountain. You've learned to survive by using traps, fishing in the lake, rationing everything, and keeping the fire going in the cold months. The area around you has 18 inches of snow.

One day, you see smoke rising from the valley, two miles downslope. Someone is burning wet pine because they're freezing to death.

Your snowshoes hang by the door. The thermometer outside reads negative fifteen and dropping. Nobody survives that without shelter.

You…