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Clark stared ahead of him, sort of frozen in place.
Chloe was gripping his arm. "A cabin," she repeated. "I knew it." She moved in front of him, nearly bouncing now. "I even said there'd be a cabin."
He found himself answering her grin. "Really? Because I could have sworn you said we were going to die here and had no chance and goodbye, cruel world..."
"Oh, shut it," she said, turning. "Let's go check out our new digs."
Clark was relieved, but nearly weak with it. He found himself moving forwards as if he was weighted down. Chloe, on the other and, was doing well for a girl who had just swooned her way down a rocky hillside. She was bolting towards it, then around it as he still trudged slowly.
It was slightly raised from the ground with small steps leading to the door. A sort of platfrom jutted out, nearly like a porch, but not the pleasant kind with swings and rockers. Just railings and a sort of awning with hooks hanging from it. He eyed them nervously.
He'd only got to the door, when she bounded out from the other side. "It's not big, but it has at least four walls which makes it the equivalent of The Four Seasons in these parts. I don't think there's electricity or anything, but I saw some pipes going in, maybe from a well or cistern or something. I can't see in the windows, they're too high with this thing on legs and all. But I saw a chimney. Chimney means fireplace, which means fire, which means we don't freeze, which means... What's wrong?"
"It's locked."
"And?"
"Well, the ice shack was pretty much open, but this..."
"Like that matters." She bent, straightening with a large rock in her hands, moving up the steps.
"Chloe, don't just..."
"Clark, do you think that whoever owns this place would rather two people freeze to death than break a window?" She moved to one at the end of the small porch.
"No, but..."
"I get that you've frowned on some of my breaking and entering shenanigans for the sake of a story, but this is life or death and..."
"And if you break that window, we'll have to climb in." He gestured a small one on the side of the door. "Break this one and we can just unlock the door."
She smiled and held out the rock. "You know best."
He found himself smiling back as he took it, smashing in the pane with a sort of relish. He carefully poked his arm in, trying to avoid the jaddeg glass. He felt a latch. He felt a knob. More than that, he felt... hope. If there was a cabin, then a town couldn't be far. Because no one would build a cabin too far from civilization unless they were... "Trappers," he breathed as it swung open, the scant light falling on some skins that hung from the wall. It also explained the hooks outside and the fact that this place was in the middle of nowhere.
"Clark?" He felt her behind him.
"Sorry." He stepped to side and let her in, nearly tripping over a bear skin rug on the floor... a real one, complete with head.
"Oh, gross," Chloe said, shivering. "I guess I can't complain. It is shelter, but I don't like the idea of sleeping in a taxidermist's mountain hideaway."
"Trapper," he corrected. "It's a trapper's cabin."
"Okay." She squinted at him. "What's wrong? It's not that bad. If we can get over the rabbit bones in the last hovel, we can deal with this."
"It's not that. It's just..." He closed the door and leaned against it, looking over the dusty room, the hide stools at the table with a vise and several small cages and snares. "I was hoping this meant we were closer to a town. But these places are out in the middle of nowhere. Trappers usually hole up once a year with supplies. It just... It's not so bad. It just doesn't bring us any closer to getting home."
Her face fell as well. "Well... It's another night we can get through. At least we have that." She glanced to the right. "And a bed." A matress with a faded quilt sat in a wrought iron frame.
"Just the one," Clark pointed out.
"But there's two blankets." She moved to it and picked up another from the foot. "Smell's kind of musty, but..."
"I'm not complaining." He sagged against the door, feeling nearly warm, just being inside.
She glanced around. "Well, first we should light a... fire." She trailed off, looking around. "I saw a chimney. Where's the fireplace?"
He glanced at a blacked monstrosity in the center of the room. "It's a stove." A thick pipe disappeared into the ceiling. "A wood-burning stove, I guess." He moved to it. "I think we burn the wood in here." He opened the door with a creak. There were remnants of ashes, but no fresh wood. "I should go get some."
"There was a pile outside," Chloe said absently, staring at a doorway at the end. "But we should check the place out first." She stared at the doorway harder, grimacing slightly. "You think that's the room they use to... get the skin off the animals or something?"
Clark looked at the countertop with the hide stools, vises, and traps. "I kind of thought that's what this room was." He frowned as well, at the thought of something worse. "I'll check it out."
"I'll just... look here, then."
He pushed open the door, cringing a little.
"There's a lantern," he heard behind him as it opened with a long whine. He sighed in relief as he saw a large copper tub, a stainless steel sink and what looked like it might be a working toilet.
"It's a bathroom," he called, never so happy to see a toilet in his life. "I guess it makes sense, them having some kind of plumbing." He moved back into the main room. "The water from the well probably..."
He trailed off, realizing he didn't have an audience. Chloe was face-down on the bed, her legs dragging on the floor. He rushed to her, alarmed before she let out a soft snore.
He laughed slightly and turned her over, trying to move her fully onto the bed. "Thought you seemed too energetic for the girl that fell down the hill." He pushed her to the side, trying to pull the quilt out from under her. "I shouldn't talk. I fell down half that hill, too." She let out another snore as he pulled the quilt over her. "I'm fine, though. I can check this place out, get the wood and..." he blinked. It was getting harder to see. There was still light, but his damned eyes kept closing. "So much for that." He laid a hand on the other blanket, dragging it weakly to him. He spied the bear skin rug and moved blearily to it, dragging it closer to the bed. "Just a nap," he muttered. "Then we get... doing... something."
He dropped to the skin, barely dragging the blanket over him before he fell into oblivion.
*********************
Chloe burrowed further into the pillow, pulling the covers nearly over her head. It was freezing, which was strange considering it was summer. She opened one eye, staring into the blue patched quilt. Was it summer? If it was, then why had she gone to bed with a quilt? But she'd just graduated. It had to be sum... The morning confusion slowly ebbed away and she realized she was right. It was summer. And she had just graduated. And she had been dragged down to the caves by Lex Luthor and teleported to the Arctic, where Clark...
"Clark?"
She stretched, the bed creaking under her. Every morning was the same rude awakening. The same reminder that they were definitely not in Kansas anymore, to coin a line. Of course, this morning wasn't so bad. They weren't in a cave. And she wasn't naked with an equally naked Clark cradling her. And that was, as she tried to tell herself, a good thing.
She pulled the covers off her head and stared at the cobwebbed window on the wall. The sun was out. She couldn't tell if was morning or midday, but they must have slept clear through the night, after all their grand plans of fire and food foraging. She'd call them lazy if they hadn't spent the day half-dead with cold and hunger. Still, if they stayed on bed any longer, they would be lazy.
"Clark?" She turned over in bed. He wasn't there.
She shot up and looked around the bare room she hazily remembered Clark calling a trapper's cabin. He wasn't anywhere. "Clark!" He'd said something about getting wood and starting a fire. Had she told him there was a wood pile outside? She didn't remember. He could have been wandering around, gathering sticks, as darkness fell and fallen into a stupor in a snowdrift and...
She threw off the covers, stumbling out of bed and nearly tripping over... "Clark!" She bent to him, alarmed that she'd kicked him out of the bed until she saw the covers draped over him and the bear's head he was kind of... snuggling.
"Five more minutessss," he grumbled.
She slumped to the floor in relief, staring at him. "What are you doing on the floor?"
"Jus resting my eyesss," he mumbled.
She chuckled and sat up on her knees, grasping the other blanket and pulling it over him, since she doubted she had the strength to hoist him onto the bed. "You chivalrous dope." She tucked it around him, trying not to lean in too close, lest she be tempted to crawl under with him. And she couldn't afford that. Clark had pretty much run up a hill carrying her and she owed him one. Maybe even a million, considering how many times he'd saved her life even before this. She might chalk all that up to being superhuman. But what he'd done yesterday, pulling her through it when she lost all hope. And what he'd said...
This is us, Chloe. This is you and me. And there is no one else...There is no one else I could get through this with.
She wanted him to be right.
I meant it, Chloe. There's no one else I could see myself surviving this with. You're so much stronger than you know.
She wanted to be. She wanted to be everything he said she was. As much as she waffled back and forth on her feelings on that... messier aspect of them, one thing was clear: they were always stronger together. They survived. This would be no different.
Her hand hovered over his cheek as he nuzzled the bear's head again. She didn't touch him. She didn't want to wake him. "I'll take care of everything, Clark."
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