"Is there anything else we can send out to you?" Pietr asks as he puts down the notes on his latest patient. He already passed along boxes of nutrition drinks and bars. Billy isn't bad off since he has regular access to food but he can stand to put some height and weight on him.

"Nothing you'd have here. I gotta stock up on candles or flashlights and batteries for after dark thanks to the streetlights being out. With Headquarters having its own power source you don't have stocks of the former."

"And the flashlights are all in emergency supplies or toolboxes." Pietr sighs. "How is your recycling coming along?"

"The restaurants and other businesses I pick up from won't be open until next week and closing early thanks to the street lights being out. I made a trip out to the person I sell to, he was happy to see me since so many of his usual people . . .vanished during the invasion. Big manufacturers are running low on raw materials, in turn they're leaning on recycling drop off centers. If they don't have the materials, they can't pass it along. And if the big manufacturers don't have the raw materials, they can't make what we need."

Pietr shakes his head. "They might have looked like they were doing nothing, but they did a lot of damage."

Marvel sighs and nods.

Billy gets in the line of people picking up supplies being delivered by National Guard trucks. Several boxes go in the back of his truck and he drives off, the truck being put away after he takes everything inside. Among the supplies are candles and matches along with flashlights and batteries since he'd said his home was without power along with food and other essential supplies and he sighs as he puts everything away.

Billy walks into the school, the woman behind the desk smiling.

"Oh good. With the alien invasion we qualified for some extra grants. After you get your graded work and take your tests, come back here."

Billy briefly wonders what the grants are but his usual teacher comes up to him and takes him off. They enter a classroom and he accepts the envelope he'd dropped off, looking over his schoolwork and accepting the tests, settling in to work. After he accepts the envelope of his next assignments he heads back to the front of the building.

He's led into a room and fills a backpack with food, a second one with school supplies, and a third one with clothing. "I'd like to see a grant that would allow us to offer computers and internet access but there's just not enough money."

Billy slumps down at his desk in the tunnel, at least all the food had been ready to eat or was something that didn't need to be refrigerated. . .or microwaved. His school supplies are in the desk while his new clothes are in the boxes. This meant he was able to weed out some of his more worn clothes that can be used to start fires now. Even with just using it for hard work like planting a garden or cutting trees with the Amish it needed replacing.

"Jay, Pietr, what are you doing here?" He asks, opening the door he'd checked when he heard knocking.

"Bringing you some supplies to help you out this winter." Pietr says as they walk down the stairs. They each have several cloth bags on their arms and start unloading them.

"Billy, you need some new clothes." Jay says as he looks through the boxes of clothing. "Some of this is just worn out."

"That's going to be put in the stove this fall." Billy says, looking over his shoulder from where he's filling bags on the other platform, seeing which boxes Jay is opening. "Being gone most of the day I have to worry about the stove going out before I get home. I've learned to bank it well but. . ." Billy shakes his head. "A strip or two of cloth twisted together can be used to start a fire with kindling. With having to buy more candles I scrape up some of the melted wax to start fires with too." He fills the last bag with flattened cans and lowers the bags to the cart.

Pietr and Jay shake their heads. A boy his age shouldn't have to worry about having to start a fire to stay warm.

"How are you on candles?"

"I've been buying them by the case when I can. Tealights are next to useless, they don't put out enough light and go out too soon. Bigger candles with multiple wicks throw out more light but they're also more expensive."

"Hurricane glass?"

"Yes, I have a couple I use with the candles. Along with the lamps."

"Billy, how do you handle being paid by the station?"

Billy chuckles. "Mr. Morris puts my pay on one of those prepaid cards. Since it is all electronic there's no actual paper checks to cash or a monthly fee and when I'm old enough I can open an associated bank account. It also helps establish my credit."

"What's the latest on police and fire stations?" Mr. Morris asks a couple days later.

"They had to move all the police to the least damaged building and patrols are either cut in half or gone entirely." One of the other reporters says. "A quarter to nearly half of all their vehicles were totaled by the aliens. A couple of the other stations might have to be torn down, they're still trying to see which would be cheaper since there's still a shortage of building supplies."

"There is one fire station still open in the area and they are a crew from California that was supposed to have gone home last week out here on a month exchange to see how different stations handled different climates, in our case snow. The only reason they got the job is their entire crew had just got promotions and their whole shift was being replaced at their station." Billy says. Mr. Morris looks at him. "I read the news release when they first came out. The mayor is frantically trying to find off duty firefighters to take over one of the undamaged stations at least one day a week to give them a break. Thank whoever you will that things are quiet because like I said they're the only crew available right now. A good half of the other stations. . . including the new one they built to replace that one were severely damaged and like Mark said, it would be cheaper to tear them down than fix them."

"Hospitals are hurting, there's very limited ambulance service thanks to so many of them being destroyed by the aliens." Another reporter says. "You only call 911 if it's a true emergency and you can't get to the hospital on your own."

"Did any of the hospitals have to shut down?"

"Thank god no, but the list of damages means a crew might work in one area of one hospital, finish that work, go to a different hospital, work on something there. . ." the reporter waves a hand in a and so on and so on gesture as everybody nods. "Instead of working one place, getting everything done, and going to another one. There is a long list for most home work. Unless it is something major that needs to be done."

"Gas, water, electric, sewer. . ."

"Yep. My dad's a retired plumber and my brother is an electrician, they are both working ten to twelve hour days trying to get stuff done."

Billy walks into the second hand store, checking the sizes on jeans and other meant to be used and abused clothing. Unless it's something nice that he'll wear on camera he buys most of his clothing at second hand stores. They try to weed out the more worn out stuff. That generally just leaves him socks, underwear, and shoes that he has to buy new. Warmer clothes are beginning to appear on the racks and he grabs a coat that looks like it will keep him warm. Pulling it on over his clothes he nods in satisfaction.

A bag is at the door of the tunnel when he returns home and he opens it carefully, finding a note from Courtney.

/Ma Hunkel has been knitting for a while to have a stockpiles on hand for headquarters. Enclosed is three scarves, four hats, three pair of gloves, and several pair of socks. All are woolease, all you have to do is throw them in a washing machine and hang them up to dry./

Billy looks at the piles of wood on the other platform, everybody says this is going to be a bad winter. He'd been working weekends as part of the woodcutting crews and in addition to the wood he had a nice bundle of cash in his lockbox. He's stopped to an army surplus store and picked up more wool blankets and amazingly enough boxes of candles. Billy starts taking his schoolwork to the station, working on it during lull times. His boss nods in satisfaction and lets him work. "Billy, any damage where you live?"

"Yeah, the aliens broke all the street lights for blocks around. The businesses in the area are suing the city council to force them to replace them before they reopen. Meanwhile the city council. . ."

"Is saying no you reopen first, then we'll replace them. Not thinking. . .hey, if there's no damn lights there's no fucking way for people to drive to that area at night." A reporter snorts.

"Exactly. They don't want to have to pay out the money without the businesses reopening but without the streetlights. . ."

"The businesses aren't going to be reopening."

"Exactly."

Billy sighs as the sun sets, leaving the area so dark without the street lights. Taking the candle by the door he lights it with a lighter, he's brought a few packages of cheap lighters at the dollar store, and goes downstairs. The tunnel is dark and the candle doesn't put out much light until the hurricane lamp is put over it. It's enough to eat and clean up. It's early, but he'll have to put up the walls soon, this way the light from the candles or lamps aren't trying to light up too big an area.

The next weekend the walls go up along with the stove being brought over and set up. He'll open the ventilation window in a couple weeks when he has to keep a fire going. It's already turning cooler at night and he'll have to start using the kerosene heaters to warm the room up for a hour or so before bed. The containers for kerosene go into the back of the truck and he fills them that weekend when he gets gas.

The first time he walks out of the building to see snow he shakes his head. Thankfully he was able to get a good pair of winter boots that are a little bit big but with a second pair of socks he can wear them. Better too big than too small, he can wear them longer.

"Does anybody think this is because of the aliens?" One of the reporters asks when he walks into the newsroom. Putting his cap, scarf, and coat on the coat rack by his desk he sits down.

"Not directly no, the Justice League believes this is a by-product of whatever their ships were doing in the atmosphere that caused them to break up." One of the meteorologists says. "It's going to snow early, snow often, and be wet, heavy shit."

The first day he starts a fire, he uses a wrapper from a local fast food restaurant that he'd picked out of the garbage for that very use. The fire is going well when he goes around the walls and uses a long pole to crack open the ventilation window, hurrying back in the room and adding green wood to the fire to keep it going.

Billy settles in a seat with his food at the WHIZ cafeteria Thanksgiving. Anybody who doesn't have family is covering shifts for people who do so the room is about half-full. Mr. Morris walks in with the crew from the fire station and everybody stands up and claps, the men ducking their heads. "Fill your trays and there's plenty more gentlemen. No need for you to eat at the station when we have plenty of room. I know those of you with families are missing them and I would like you to have been home with them."

The first snowstorm he jumps in his truck with the snow blower and shovels and goes around a local neighborhood, clearing driveways and paths for older people who can't do it themselves. The extra money is put in the lockbox when he gets home. He'd grabbed his laundry bag with him and the clean, dry clothes. . .he can't hang them up to dry in the winter since if they didn't freeze the smoke from the stove would settle on the wet clothes are put in the boxes. Stoking up the fire he checks the ashes, dumping them in the pail by the stove for that and adds another log to the fire and stirring the stew on the stove. Tasting it he wrinkles his nose and adds some salt and other spices, nodding in satisfaction and sitting at the table.

"Billy, thank you for volunteering to cover the desk Christmas." Mr. Morris says as he hands Billy an envelope. "A little Christmas bonus beyond what we already gave you. And please, enjoy the time off until after the first."

Billy shivers in the tunnel until the kerosene heater and fire he'd started warm up the room. Stirring the soup that had been on the stove he makes a face and adds some salt and other spices, thankfully the fire hadn't been out too long so it was still warm. He looks around the room and sighs. Damn it, he's lived there for years. . .why does it seem so empty now. Wiping out his bowl he puts it in the box with the rest of the dishes and turns his attention to finishing the assignment in his double set of classwork he'd been given last week to last him until after the first of the year. The next morning he opens the envelope Mr. Morris had given him and smiles, putting the money in his lockbox. After filling the containers with water he digs out an old pot and puts hardware, baking soda, and water in it, working on removing old paint while he's not working on his schoolwork.

The crew shivers in the engine bay as they check everything over after returning from WHIZ for Christmas dinner. It seems to be a little indulgent to be taking holiday meals at a local television station but everybody in the area is taking care of them instead of the other way around. They're lucky in that they haven't had to deal with very many calls and more than once have found locals already on the scene helping out.