Nuclear Midnight by Robert Cole

her teeth chatter uncontrollably. She huddled closer to the tree and curled up into a tight ball.
    A sudden noise made her look up. Beyond the torchlight she caught a flash of light and heard the sound of branches being forced apart. Someone was coming! And it couldn't be Alex, as his torch was here. She began to panic. Wrenching her hands from around her body she lunged at the light, knocking it over in her haste, so that the beam shone momentarily in the direction of the sound. Now stricken with terror, she plunged it into the snow, finally locating the switch to turn it off. Still the light came closer, flashing through the miniature network of bracken and thistle which concealed her. Then it paused, no more than ten metres away. She crouched silent, trapped, her heart pounding.
    ‘Tina?’ A harsh whisper drifted across on the wind.
    ‘Over here!’ she hissed back, almost crying with relief.
    The torch shone on her, blinding her for a second. The large shape of Alex trudged towards her and stopped a short distance away.
    But once Alex was in front of her, tangible and solid, her relief turned quickly to rage. ‘Get that bloody light off me,’ she fumed.
    Alex obeyed immediately, fully expecting a flood of verbal abuse.
    She rose to her feet, her whole body visibly shaking from the cold. Alex wanted to take her in his arms to beg her forgiveness, to physically squeeze away the cold and pain. But something in her stance told him she was too angry to be won over by such action. His hands hung by his sides. ‘I’m so sorry.’ He couldn't think of anything else to say.
    But when she spoke, it wasn't with raging abuse, but a cold, reasoning anger that cut into him like a knife. ‘What did you hope to achieve?’ she asked. ‘You left me here and I don't have the faintest idea where I am. You asked me to come with you and then you discarded me like a used....’  She searched hopelessly for the word. ‘I don't know what…like garbage you would throw in a bin.’
    Alex nodded his head stupidly.
    He had been imagining terrible things. She might be dead, or too frost bitten to walk, or, worse still, that she might have gone off. ‘I'm so sorry,’ he repeated miserably.
    ‘I didn't even know if you were coming back!’ she flared. ‘So far I have been dragged who knows where, shot at and then deserted!’
    She was beginning to shake so much that he could hear her teeth chattering. They stood facing each other, neither speaking nor moving. Finally, Alex took a few tentative steps towards her. When she didn't back away he gently wrapped his arms around her. She didn't resist; instead she pushed her frozen hands under his jacket.
    ‘I nearly froze to death waiting for you,’ she continued, her voice losing some of its bitter edge.
    She unzipped his jacket and buried herself deeper in his warmth. They held onto each other for a long time. Alex, too, had become very frightened at the thought of losing her, more than he had ever known. For he was alone now. There was no one he could turn to, no guide, no Jason...  He was stranded, he knew not where, with a woman he had met only a few short hours before. He squeezed her more tightly. At that moment he needed her more than he had ever needed anyone in his life.
    When her shivering finally wore off, she asked him what had happened at the hospital, but he couldn't bring himself to explain in any detail. His only reply was that his brother was dead. ‘They've killed everyone,’ he said miserably.
     
    It took them over an hour before they found a village where they could seek shelter. It was a small cluster of houses nestled along the banks of a stream. By this time both were tottering with cold and exhaustion. The snow had stopped, but the wind had increased in strength, driving against them with malevolent intent. Tina seemed to be walking in a dream, only remaining on her feet through some inborn stubbornness that refused to let her legs buckle beneath her. Alex was in