Writing Prompt: He pulled his coat close.

Morning everyone. The snow is falling and I am going to use the morning to do all the things that have to get done and then take a snow day. Me, a good book and a blanket will be spending quality time in my reading chair. But before we start the day, let’s get into the morning prompt. Timers at the ready and off we go.

I think Bruce needs to make some sort of spectacular discovery or at least make it home alive to call Jerome out. Depending on how the story goes.

Thursday, January 9^th: He pulled his coat close.

He pulled his coat close.  Every gust of wind was a long fingered thief, intent on stealing it from him.  He leaned into the wind, his fingers fairly frozen where they grasped the material.  Not for the first time he wished he had gloves.  They were however long gone. 

‘Lucky to still have the coat,’ he thought as he forced his legs to move taking him into the wind.  There was a cave a little higher up.  He could see it.  He knew from previous visits that it was a shallow one.  Not deep enough for a den or burrow.  It would be enough to get him out of the wind and provide him shelter for the night but not large enough he would have to fight some beast for possession of it. ‘I hope.’

Bruce had only been in this area during the summertime and he was finding winter turned it into an entirely different landscape. He tried not to worry over it too much as he convinced his limbs to move.  While the no longer had the gloves, he at least had a layer of thermals under his clothes and a scarf wrapped around his neck.  Now, a large section of the scarf was pulled over his face. 

‘When  I reach the cave I will figure out something to replace the buttons.’  He told himself.  They were damaged and their absence was the reason he needed to grip the coat closed instead of shoving his hands in his pockets.  In all fairness he had been alternating hands.  When one seemed too cold, he extracted one hand from his pocket to take it’s turn gripping the cloth while the other warmed up for a bit. 

He was hoping this might stave off frostbite.  ‘Maybe I can figure out a better glove situation,’ he thought.  He kept his mind occupied as he moved towards the cave trying to figure out what he still had on him that could be used as gloves. 

There wasn’t much.  He had only been carrying a small travel bag and not his rucksack when Jerome decided he no longer needed the rest of them.  They were scattered as they tried to stay alive.  Bruce remembered seeing the tree next to him explode in a shatter of splinters as the bullet aimed at him missed by mere inches.  He lost track of the others and merely ran for all he was worth.  The fact that he managed to keep his small travel bag was only due to the fact that he had the strap across his body to leave his hands free at the time of the attack. 

Bruce knew Jerome craved glory, glory he had no intention of sharing.  He just hadn’t thought it would come to this.  He thought he would claim credit for all discoveries and ‘accidentally’ leave their names off of reports.  He did not believe that he would kill.

‘But that latest discovery,’ Bruce recalled.  He knew Jerome would want credit for that.  ‘And it was substantial enough that he wouldn’t want anyone attempting to muddy his claim with their own.’

Bruce shook his head as his feet finally took him to the cave entrance.  He peered inside.  The sun was fading, but he could see all the way to the back.  He could see it was empty.  He stepped inside. He felt his body relax merely from the relief of no longer having the wind sweep over him.