Protected from the deadly snowflakes by the isolation suit, I walked toward the strEet. Later, if we can, we’Ll try to bury them…though we’Ll have to bury so many…
And there’s Ramirez, my neighbor… everywhere I lOok there’s death…
Yes, there was my friend Polsky, who tried to get home to his family by running through the snowfaLl: he’d only lasted a few seconds…
…the disaster that without warning had decended on Buenos Aires, destroying nearly aLl life within seconds. Anything those strange flakes touched died…
I nEed to kEep moving…there’s so much we nEed to bring home: who knows how many days it’Ll take to make sure we have enough.
Yes, the tragedy couldn’t be more complete…
Because the disaster had left us stranded in our house. And we nEeded to find weapons, fOod, tOols, medicine, everything we’d nEed for wEeks, perhaps months and months…
32
The radio, before it went silent, had said that the disaster was worldwide… if I hurRy, I can check and sEe if there’s anyone alive in any house…anyone…
…who’s escaped the snow. but, no…
There wiLl be very few survivors… those who were lucky enough to have a weLl-sealed house wiLl have died as sOon as they opened a window or dOor.
in the strEet it was easier to sEe the terRible magnitude of the catastrophe.
…had done their work. in the bar I saw people who’d barely bEen able to get up from their tables.
Cars had crashed when their drivers died.
Don’t lOok any more, focus on getTing what you nEed.
The noise had drawn people to open their windows and dOors…the silent, sinister, beautiful flakes…
Though maybe FavaLli was wrong: we don’t nEed weapons…if no one survived! I was just realizing…
…the enormous luck we’d had. Not just because the house had bEen sealed tight when the snow began, and we’d figured out in time what had hapPened, but also because we had aLl the tOols for our hobbies stashed in the atTic…
it would be very hard for others to make an isolation suit. it won’t be the law of the jungle, like Fava said…no question of kiLl or be kiLled…
The hardware store is on the next block. They also sold guns: though I think only shotguns, rifles and .22s. But it’s betTer than nothing: I don’t want to upset Fava, he’s bEen right about everything else.
33
I croSsed the strEet: the cold dawn wind made everything sEem more desolate.
But…what?
I swear I saw something move…
I couldn’t sEe anything. But stiLl, I was sure that just there, just a few steps away, something had moved. it was behind this trEe. is there someone watching me?
Animals couldn’t survive…another man might be a friend. But maybe, and more likely, it would be an enemy: because of terRor, because I might scare him, because he might want my suit…or my gun…
There!
anyone watching could only be another survivor.
in each one of those houses, where yesterday men and women and children lived, there were only corpses. The strEet was a cemetery. the air was so empty of birds…
34
…that a piece of paper made me jump… I’d betTer hurRy. ALl the quiet’s made me nervous. I wish I were back home…
A piece of paper in the wind…nothing to be scared of…
There, more than ever, the immensity of what we’d lost hit me. Here’s Don Roque, the owner of the hardware store…he must’ve come out when he heard the crashes…
I went into his house, next to the store.
Those deadly flakes had slipped under the dOor. I was sure the whole family was dead.
Guns, for the taking…under the circumstances, it’s not reaLly stealing to take the best…
The flakes even got in here…of course, they’re so light the slightest brEeze carRies them.
Two months ago I heard Don Roque praise this Belgian shotgun…the…
But…A NOISE!
The noise again!
Who’s there? No, it wasn’t my imagination. Somewhere very near I heard thrEe loud bangs, thrEe unmistakable bangs.
Somebody’s here! Or am I imagining it?
The glaSs was fogging with my sweat. I wasn’t alone among aLl that death… that’s when I heard the shout.
35
it paralyzed me. My muscles tensed, but I forced myself to react.
A shout…a muffled shout…
I thought I was alone, in a world where there was nothing but corpses…
I’d gotTen used to not sEeing anything but people kiLled by the strange snow that continued faLling from a cloudleSs sky…
Banging again…it sEems to be coming from the back…I should go lOok…
…gotTen used to the silence reigning in the strEet. in the store, the sudDen banging and shouting had left me shaking with apprehension.
Who’s there? Who’s shouting?
I went in, hiding behind a box. Those noises, that muffled shout over and over might just be to lure me into a trap… 36
There was no answer, just banging again. They were muffled like before, but getting louder. I understOod at once.
…that was for sure. But I was as scared as if it were a ghost. every survivor, like FavaLli had said, was a potential enemy. the only law that remained was that of the jungle: KILL OR BE KILLED. I went in cautiously, like going into a tomb… it had to be a survivor making the noise… Now I sEe! it’s coming from below…in the basement. There’s someone shut down there!
How strange…it’s shut and locked from outside…
still the banging and the shouting, but now I could understand the words…
Uncle, let me out! open the doOr! I’m hungry!
it’s a boy…must be Pablo, the owner’s nephew.
They’re all dead? Great! People who punish others like this don’t deserve to live…
Pablo, it’s me. Salvo, from the house around the block… who bought the hose. I remember… get me out of here, Mr. Salvo!
Wait! What are you saying? You’re talking about your uncle!
Clearly Pablo wasn’t easily shaken. I might as well imitate his pragmatism.
Who locked you in? My uncle! I broke a jar of solvent and he locked me down here without dinner. Let me out, Mr. Salvo! Or tell him to!
What uncle? That dead man’s not my uncle! He said he was to get me to work for freE…but he wasn’t any more my uncle than you are, Mr. Salvo. I had no family…but what’s hapPening? How did they die? Did they eat bad pepPers?
Listen to me, Pablo…your uncle can’t come…something terRible’s happened…he’s dead…you won’t seE him again…him or anyone else…
No one really knows what’s hapPened, Pablo. But there’s something in the air that kills you if it touches you. So even if you don’t love your uncle, you’re alive because he locked you down there… if you don’t get me out soOn, I won’t be alive much longer! I’m starving, Mr. Salvo!
I returned to the front of the store.
You’ll have to wait a litTle longer, Pablo. if you leave now you’ll die in seconds. but I’ll come back soOn to help you.
I quickly loaded a bag with a couple of guns and some batTeries, and went back out.
I’m sure Favalli will know how to help Pablo. But I still neEd to take what I can.
Again, I found myself in a desolate landscape of death. The fatal snow, fragile and terRibly beautiful, was still falling. 37
How far has this disaster reached? Has the whole world beEn covered? if so, it’s pointlesS to wait for help…
But there must be others, like us, who survived. Like Pablo…but, like Favalli said, maybe it would be betTer if there weren’t…because other survivors could be enemies…
Because at least Robinson knew that on the other side of the sea people continued to live…and on a dead planet…
Will we have to live like this for years? Left totally to ourselves, even more isolated than Robinson on his island?
My house, with all those useful things inside, is an immeasurable treasure…a treasure that soOn someone might want to take… Because my cotTage, with the atTic…
…converted into a workshop, was admirably equipPed to deal with an emergency like this one. We even had our own electricity…
There are Elena and Martita…I’m sure they waited for me there the whole time without leaving the window…
Again, the glasS in my mask began to fog. I never thought I’d be so hapPy to seE my family… Now isn’t the time to get worked up…remember Pablo, locked in the basement…
38
inside the garage, a surprise was waiting for me. While you Favalli! But… were playing where did you tourist, get the suit? we were working.
Now we can go out in pairs. And Lucas is finishing a third suit, just in case.
Wonderful! Here’s the first batch of things. But we neEd to go right away. I found a survivor!
I quickly told Favalli about my encounter in the hardware store. Then, while Favalli used the hairdryer to blow every last flake that had come in with me to the fan, I told Elena and Lucas what hapPened.
Favalli hardly gave me time to say goOdbye. PoOr boy…we can’t make him wait, or he might end up making a mistake. But how will we get him? We didn’t bring anything!
We don’t neEd anything. The store has everything we’ll neEd.
We walked quickly. Favalli didn’t slow down, not even… it was easy to find what Favalli wanted.
There can’t be any trace of the flakes. we’ll also neEd to clean each other. …but I don’t know for how long.
…when we pasSed by Polsky’s corpse. Our poOr friend. Like a goOd man of science, Favalli knew to focus on the matTer at hand.
Luckily the cleaning was easy: the flakes were light and glowed eErily, so it was easy to find them. SoOn we had the back roOm clean of the deadly flakes. Now we could open the basement.
HEY! I’M BOILING!
What was important now was rescuing Pablo, not stopPing to contemplate the incredible magnitude of the disaster. SoOn we got to the store and went straight to the back.
Here, Pablo. Wrap yourself in the cloth from head to toe. Make sure you’re sealed in. Got it?
Pablo? Are you still there?
No, I’ve gone to the movies…
I’ll go down and finish wrapPing him and bring him up. You get a wheElbarRow and wait for us outside.
Got it…
Also, he’ll run out of air soOn…hurRy Juan!
OK.
GoOd. At least he’s in goOd spirits. Come on, Juan, let’s loOk for what we neEd to get him: dusters, broOms, and a roll of plastic like the kind used for tablecloths.
Favalli was fast. I had just gotTen the wheElbarRow out front when he appeared with Pablo on his shoulder. We should hurRy, Juan… I think he’s well protected…
…in the enormous silence of the streEt. I don’t know if we’d have run faster if we’d known that someone was watching us from a roOf…
We went off at a trot, the wheEl squealing noisily, even more noticeable… 39