“The lower level,” said Boone. “The whole west side of this place is the old garage. It’s the only part of this building still unburied.”
“A garage?” asked Shane.
“Workshop too.”
That caught my attention. I was ready to jump all over the workshop thing when Shane interrupted me.
“But you just came in through there,” he said, pointing to the snow-covered opening. “From outside.”
‘Yeah, I was stomping around through the storm for a while. Trying to find a path or a road or something.”
Shane shot Jeremy a dirty look, but Boone was already shaking his head.
“If you’re thinking about going out there, don’t,” said the stranger. “It’s a total whiteout.”
“Ah, but you can go out there,” said Shane, crossing his arms. “Right?”
“Yes. And I’m telling you I shouldn’t have.”
“But you did.”
“Fine,” Boone finally shrugged. I could see his patience was already wearing thin. “You wanna go out there? Then go.”
“Maybe I will.”
“Maybe you’ll die.”
“Alright, alright,” I said, breaking them up. “Let’s not act like children.” I turned toward Shane. “You wanted to get the fire started first, right?”
He nodded without taking his eyes from Boone. “Yup.”
I turned to Boone. “And you’re saying we need to clear the chimney first?”
“If you like breathing, you’d better. Otherwise this whole place is going to fill with soot and smoke.”
“Shane and I came in through a hole in the roof,” I said. “Maybe we could go up there and clear it from the top?”
“It’ll be covered in snow,” said Boone. “Totally invisible. You could dig blindly around for hours and still not find it. And that’s if you had a shovel.”
Jeremy was staring forlornly back at our huge pile of makeshift firewood. “So then what do we do?”
“We clear it from the inside,” Boone said simply. “From the bottom up.”
“Bottom up?”
“Someone climbs up the chimney from in here,” Boone shrugged. “Knocks all the snow down until they can see sky.”
Shane laughed. “That chimney could be four times as wide and you still wouldn’t fit.” He jerked a thumb at himself and Jeremy. “Neither would we.”
“You’re right about that,” said Boone. “But there’s one person here who can…”
Eighteen
MORGAN
All eyes turned on me, including those of the newcomer. The instant attention turned my pale skin two shades more red.
“Me? You want me to climb up there?”