Chris Mastree's Arc

Chapter 2 of 10

Chris stepped through the greenhouse door. Glass crunched under their root-feet. Cold air hung inside, thick and still. Nothing grew here now. Dust coated the empty tables. But the greenhouse was whole. The glass panes were cracked but not broken. This place remembered growth. Chris touched a metal shelf with one branch. Their needles didn't fall. Hope felt strange after so long without it. Chris moved deeper into the greenhouse. Their skull turned left, then right. Seeds needed warmth. Plants needed warmth. The cold would kill anything they tried to grow here. Behind the far table, metal glinted through frost. Chris pulled aside a frozen tarp with both branches. A gas generator sat underneath, wrapped in thick ice. Rust spotted its body, but the engine looked whole. Chris brushed ice away with careful movements. This could work. This could make heat. They gripped the pull cord. It snapped off in their branch. Chris stared at the broken cord, then at the generator. Not everything would be easy. But they had found what they needed. Tomorrow they would find a way to make it run. Chris walked along the back wall. Their branch scraped against old shelves. A pile of books lay in the corner, frozen together in a solid block. Water had soaked through every page before the cold came. Chris knelt down on their root-feet. They pulled at the top book. Ice cracked. The cover read "Pine and Evergreen Care." More books sat beneath it, all about trees and growth. Chris needed to know how pine trees kept their green. How needles stayed fresh and full of life. They pried another book free. The pages were stuck together, but words showed through the ice. Chris would thaw these. They would read every page. The generator would bring warmth, and these books would bring knowledge. That was enough for today. Outside, the wind picked up. Chris found a satellite dish behind the greenhouse, half-buried in snow. Frost covered the metal surface. The dish was old and rusted, but solid. Chris turned it over with both branches. Cables hung from the back. They didn't know if it still worked. But power could come from strange places. The generator needed fuel. The books needed time to thaw. This dish might help run other things when the time came. Chris dragged it inside and set it near the generator. Three things found. Three steps forward. Their branches felt lighter as they left the greenhouse. The cold still bit at their bark, but purpose burned warmer than any fire.