were frequently higher.
Daniel’s other limited options included solar ovens for making cornbread, muffins, or bannock; weather and dust level permitting, and fondue gel, which worked just fine to heat up the scarce can of soup or portion of fresh food of similar size. Almost every house that he searched in his youth held a screw-top tin or refill bottle of the flammable gel, and he made sure to collect it all. Several ‘pop can stoves’, what his dad would call ‘penny stoves’, gave just the right amount of heat and time to cook rice or beans.
His father had taught him how to make the small burners using nothing but salvaged aluminum cans, a sharp knife and a sharp nail. He had also left behind four cases of pure methanol fuel additive. The liquid within these yellow plastic bottles burned hot and clean, especially when used as fuel inside the fabricated stoves. Unfortunately, just like everything else his supply was running short with all of the increased usage. Although, he had just recently discovered moonshine worked almost as well.
The Moore family lived just over three miles north of the Detroit barriers which put them some fifteen miles within the quarantine zone. The rampant fires that had once plagued the unprotected areas, spreading unchecked meant that New Warren had to outlaw the use of outside fires. Half-charred neighborhoods were apt to reignite, especially during the dry summers and winters. Fire was not just another concern to the city and its residents, it was one of their main concerns. Under the threat of harsh-to-severe penalties, most everyone which included Daniel obeyed. New Warren had managed to pull together fairly decent firefighting equipment and trained its volunteers well, but even with these safeties in place campfires and the burning of garbage were still strictly prohibited within city limits.
Using a fireplace to cook or heat your home was still permitted as long as the Maintenance Department came out to inspect the flue first. Daniel had gone through cords of wood heating a portion of the house during the winters, so he naturally cooked a lot by using the coals and a Dutch oven. It was amazing how much of his life was spent concerned with feeding himself and his family. It seemed that he was either cooking, cleaning, buying, storing, steeping, or eating.
It was still far better than being alone.
Chapter 2
After Daniel made the turn north off of Cannon drive he navigated the labyrinth of traversable roads within his burnt and barren subdivision. Most surface streets, especially those a mile and a half away of the Warehouse and City Hall were blocked off at various points. This was done intentionally in some cases, usually by a new water line or by residents not wanting visitors, but most of the time they had become naturally chocked by wind felled and driven trees. In this particular area few homes stood in a habitable state and only a fraction of those were occupied.
The path home required a meandering style of driving to avoid the numerous obstacles across the split and rutted roads, swerving around small sink holes and fallen trees. Some of these trees had been too large to be removed and it was far easier to drive around them on one of the formerly pristinely-manicured lawns. The smaller limbs, hacked from the tops of the trees to make a passageway large enough for a vehicle were piled up to aide in jumping curbs and as fill for the larger holes in the ruptured roadway.
Finally through the maze Daniel backed the truck in close to the garage of a white brick ranch-style home. All of the lawns had devolved back into a diverse concentration of lush grasses, wild flowers, and weeds, so he carefully wedged the truck between the knee-high meadow of his former neighbor’s yard and his wife’s formerly bright-red car. The lee-side of her two-door compact still held remnants of the original color. The rest like Daniel’s truck had been scrubbed clean by the coarse ash and rusted by exposure.
Daniel was glad to have gotten a chance to drive the truck even for only a couple of miles. A glance at the gas gauge told him that these little jaunts would soon be ending. His truck would then join the ranks of the other slowly decaying heaps already peppering the streets and driveways. He mindlessly holstered the pistol before side-stepping his way to the back of the truck. After gathering the bags from the bed and