"Termination Dust" Review

The short story "Termination Dust" follows a short life segment of a man named Ned. Ned resides in a very small Alaskan town called Boynton. Due to the small population and isolation of the town, nearly everyone in Boynton has a drinking problem. At the start of the story, we see Ned at a date auction place awaiting for the arrival of the women who will be auctioned off. When they do finally arrive, Ned immediately notices a gorgeous woman by the name of Jordy. He and Jordy enjoy a nice dinner before interrupted by, what seems, Ned's nemesis, Bud. Bud rudely decides to join Ned and Jordy before the auction begins. When the auction takes place, Ned finds it hard to win Jordy because he has very little money. He eventually loses Jordy to Bud and this completely crushes him. Determined that Bud is going to do awful things to Jordy, he sets out to Bud's cabin to try and save Jordy. When he arrives at the cabin, he sees Jordy and Bud in the bedroom seemingly enjoying themselves but Ned feels otherwise and kills Bud. Feeling confident that he saved Jordy he is ready to escape with her when a terrible snow storm traps Ned and Jordy inside the cabin. This story draws from the same mentality of Jason from the story "She Wasn't Soft". Both characters have a disillusioned idea of what is right and as a result, they only cause more harm when trying to do something "good". This story is somewhat empty as it doesn't delve into the past of Ned, Bud, or Jordy. Had the readers understood where these characters were coming from, it would have been much easier to relate and possibly like them. It just feels like the readers are dumped into the middle of every ones lives and are expected to understand how they work. The ending also leaves much to be desired as we don't know if Ned and Jordy will survive the snow storm.