Cabin Fever Part 2 Chapter 4

Four

"Tell you one thing we won't run out of," Murdock said. "Oatmeal. There's a ton of it."

"Yeah, 'cause I didn't eat nearly enough of that when I was a boy." Face muttered.

The five of them were in the rec room, sitting on sofas and armchairs around a coffee table which was scattered with papers.

"What's the verdict with the food?" Hannibal asked. "Will it last?"

"Well based on my sums it's gonna be close," Face said. "If the spring is late, we may be in trouble. And there's some thing we'll have to ration anyway."

"Rod's looking tastier all the time." Murdock said earning a dirty look from Decker.

"I think we should keep the food store locked up." Face went on. "Not that I don't trust you guys," he added hastily, "but if we're going to keep track of the food we need to control exactly what's going out." He glanced around. "So no snacking, guys."

"Was you lookin' at me there?" BA demanded.

"No!" Face protested, looking alarmed. "No, not at..."

"Sure he was," Murdock said, "Because you're the Snack Monster and you know it."

"Me? I ain't the one lives on Cheetoes and Twinkies and -"

"BA, what about the fuel?" Hannibal interrupted.

BA turned back from scowling at Murdock.

"I worked out how many barrels of diesel we got and how many I think the generator will use in a day and well..." He shook his head. "Like with the food. It's gonna be close. We need to be real careful about the electricity."

"Short showers, no electric blankets," Face sighed.

"Be sure and switch the lights off every time you leave a room..." Hannibal said. He stopped and grinned. "I think I just turned into my dad."

"I saw a pressure cooker in the kitchen," Decker said. "We can use that. And the microwave and don't leave the coffee maker on all day -"

"Keep all the doors closed as much as possible, the corridors are always cold -" Murdock suggested.

"Wait, wait," Face said, scribbling on his legal pad. "Tell you what, everyone think about ways to save power and well make a big list later, okay?" He sighed. He just knew he was going to be cold from now until spring. "Decker, did you get the chores roster done?"

"Yes." Decker cleared his throat. "Daily we need two people working in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning. One person to refuel the generator. One person to deal with the garbage. One person to do the cleaning of the rest of the station. Sweeping, vacuuming, and cleaning the bathrooms."

There were a few groans and Decker scowled around at their unhappy faces.

"I don't like the idea of cleaning toilets any more than you do, but it has to be done." He scowled some more. "And I'd suggest we all try to leave the latrines in a condition we'd like to find them."

"Don't worry, Roddy, we'll aim to please." Murdock said. BA giggled. Face tossed a pencil at Murdock.

"Please don't call me 'Roddy', Captain Murdock." Decker said in an especially low rumble.

"That it?" Hannibal asked Decker.

"No." Decker turned away from Murdock's teasing grin. "There's laundry. I've put that down for two people, every three days. Also snow clearing." He tapped the Station Operations manual. "Says in there we need to clear snow from the yard every few days."

"How? With shovels?" Face sounded dismayed.

"No. With this." Decker turned to a page in the manual that showed a picture of a tracked vehicle that looked like a miniature bulldozer. He held it up for the others to see.

"Nifty!" Murdock said. "I call first go!"

"We'll all have to learn to drive it." Decker said. "There's instructions in here." He tapped the manual and then put it down. "Right, last regular chore is maintenance of all the machinery. I thought, since Sergeant Baracus is the mechanical expert he could do that and be excused the laundry and snow clearing."

BA nodded with approval at that idea right away. "Yeah," he said, "I don't wanna be folding no sheets. Any objections?" He glared around.

"Carried unanimously," Face said, quickly submitting to the voter intimidation. "Anyone got anything else?"

"I've got a dressing up box." Murdock said. He grinned at their puzzled faces. "I've put all the clothes I could find in the bedrooms into a box." He waved a hand towards a big plastic crate. The cuffs of a pair of pants hung over the edge. "I figure we go through them and see what fits everyone."

"Great." Face said. The team all had a couple of changes of clothes in their packs. Decker had none, having left his gear back at Barrow airport in his hurry to sneak aboard the team's plane.

"I knew you'd be happy with a change in wardrobe, Face. Sorry, it's not exactly Haute Couture. Come on." Murdock went over to the box and the others followed him started pulling out the clothes. Murdock was right that they were not exactly Face's usual style. Lots of denim shirts and chunky sweaters. Still, staying warm was the priority now. They hauled out the clothes and started checking sizes and sharing them out.

"Actually, I didn't bring all of the clothes I found." Murdock said. "I didn't think any of you would want to wear ladies clothes, but I can go get them if you like."

"We're not that desperate yet." Face said, holding a dark blue ribbed sweater against himself. Not bad. He tried it on, looking around for a mirror, but there wasn't one in the rec room. "Didn't I see a full length mirror on wheels in one of the bedrooms?"

"What do you want a mirror, for?" Hannibal asked. "It doesn't matter to us what you look like."

"Yeah, Face. We're not that desperate yet." Murdock grinned. Face glared at him trying to check the fit of his sweater in his reflection in the window.

Murdock finished off his own ensemble with his baseball cap. "Right, I'm going to start dinner." He gathered up the clothes he'd claimed for himself and put them on a chair in a heap, then hurried off the kitchen.

~~~~

"Need a hand, Murdock?" Face said, following Murdock into the kitchen a few minutes later.

"Thanks. Face. I've been thinking," Murdock said as he stirred a pan full of tinned stew. "I think we have to try and look at the positive aspects of this. Okay, so we're trapped here, yeah, and that's not good. But we need to make the most of it."

"I've been thinking about how we pass the time." Face agreed, mixing up some instant mashed potato. "We've got the chores to do, but what then?" He glanced at the darkness outside. "This place doesn't just have long winter evenings; it's got days when the sun doesn't even rise. We have to keep occupied or we'll go nuts." He smiled. "No offence. I spotted a chess set. Maybe we can get Hannibal and Decker using that. If they want to fight it can be with chess pieces."

"Good idea." Murdock grinned. "And there's loads of books and games and stuff in the rec room. Cards too of course, so you can bleed us all dry." He winked at Face. "But there's other stuff we can do. There's a room full of books opens off from the office."

"I saw that. It's all scientific stuff." Face said, as he collected plates and glasses from a cupboard.

"Yeah, so we can study. I could probably do with brushing up on my meteorology. In fact." He shook his head, sighed, sounding rueful. "There's no 'probably' about it. And - well, I've decided, since we've got all this time, and we're not going to rush off on a mission any time - I'm gonna write a book."

Face stared at him. "A book?"

Murdock nodded, enthusiastically. "I've always wanted to, so why not now? A novel." He waved an arm, put on a grand English voice. "A sprawling epic of grandeur and glory." He grinned and reverted to his normal voice. "And with all this time I'll be done by Christmas."

"Christmas? Murdock, that's less than a month away." Face laughed, shaking his head. "Nobody can write a novel in a month."

~~~~

Face settled into his bed. His bed, in his room. That was how he had to think of it now. It wasn't just a couple of night's accommodation, it was his space. Shame it was rather bare and Spartan, but at least it gave him some privacy, which he suspected was going to be in short supply for the next few months. It wasn't going to be the only thing in short supply and Face wondered if he could claim cold showers as his contribution to the energy saving drive.

He yawned and reached for the bedside lamp to turn it off, but then thought he'd check out the drawer of the night stand, to see if the previous occupant had left a book or anything in there, in case he couldn't sleep.

Face opened the drawer, looked into it and gasped.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," he breathed. He lifted out the treasure he had found. With one finger he lovingly traced the very familiar letters. The P, the L, the A, the Y, and the B O Y. "Hef, you come through for me once again."

He put the Playboy back in the drawer and turned off the light. Just knowing it was there made him feel warmer all over.

End Part 2

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