Yue dropped a couple of rolls of duct tape off in the bathroom as the final element in their panic room. She’d have really liked not to be seriously planning on duct taping the door shut if they ended up locked up in the small space. On top of the lameness of the redneck panic room irking her she was also seriously worried about her dad. He’d been enthusiastic in getting the room built out. Some of the things he’d said had seemed off to her though. She assumed LeBron had noticed as well but Drew was likely oblivious.
Satisfied they’d done all the prep they could without making too much noise they gathered together up in the loft. They all felt a little better about the coming night now that they’d built out their fallback position. The lingering question mark was if they were forced out of the house then where would they go? The plan was to fight their way to the garage and take the Traverse if they had to make a run for it. They were still working on what their destination would be after they got on the road.
“What do you want in your pack?” Drew asked their dad. Yue and LeBron both perked up. Maybe Drew was more perceptive than they’d thought. Or, he was just trying to be helpful. Either way this response should be interesting.
“If those things get in the house. You’ll have to jump off the porch and fight your way to the garage. I won’t need a pack because I won’t be going. There’s no way I’ll make that jump with multiple holes still oozing blood out of my body. I’m not going to slow you guys down and risk us all dying.” Bart said with passion. He’d been planning on keeping that particular thought nugget a secret until they actually had to jump. He suspected he could blame his loose lips on whatever drugs Yue was slipping him.
Yue had in fact been slipping a little Valium into her dads medicine. Considering the situation that they were in she was worried about him losing himself in depression. She was worried about him doing something stupid. Something exactly like he’d just admitted he was planning on doing.
“So, if I break my leg when we go out the window should Yue and LeBron just leave me laying there while they run for the garage?” Drew asked. The subdued anger in his voice rivaling the passion of Bart’s earlier declaration. Bart said nothing. He didn’t trust himself to open his mouth.
“We’re not leaving you behind dad.” LeBron said.
“That’s right. We’re not leaving anybody behind.” Yue echoed her brothers sentiments. Bart grumbled something and shifted around on the couch so that he was no longer facing them.
The sun went down. Darkness filling the house like a heavy fog settling in thick around them. LeBron pulled the first watch. The rest of them settled down to try and rest in the humid loft. It was getting musty up there. All of them could use a shower. They’d been slathering on deodorant to avoid smelling like a dead hobo, but they could really use some air conditioning.
LeBron gazed longingly at the ceiling fans in the living room as he made his rounds. It was amazing how much they’d taken for granted before this all happened. Walking past the refrigerator he shivered at the thought of an actual glass of ice-cold soda. He could almost hear the ice cubes clinking together inside one of their tall glasses. The master bedroom had an even funkier smell than the rest of the house. It was the master bath that they were using when they had to go to the bathroom. Going to the bathroom in this case meaning the boys got to pee in the toilet tank while Yue was welcome to the actual bowl. Once they filled up the tank, they were able to flush it. If you needed to do more than tinkle there was a small box of garbage bags in the corner. It was all pretty disgusting.
Hurriedly leaving the gag room LeBron continued up the stairs on his rounds. The sounds of their neighborhood dying outside was just background noise now. The random scream as some poor bastard got caught out by the infected. The occasional sharp retort of gunfire punctuating the night. On at least one memorable occasion someone had shot off a ton of those expensive mortar fireworks like you can buy in South Carolina. The ones that come in the colorful wrapping paper and are only to be used to scare off crows from your cornfield. None of them could think of a good reason for anybody to have set off a bunch of fireworks like that. There wasn’t a cornfield for miles.
Drew had come up with what was probably the right answer. He thought the people who’d set them off must’ve been making a run for it. They were using the fireworks as a distraction while they took off the other way. Since no other reason made any sense and because it didn’t really matter anyway, they all went with that explanation. It occurred to LeBron as he paced the house that the only reason that he was still even thinking about it was because Drew had come up with the best explanation sooner than he had. He was used to Drew beating him at pretty much any sort of physical contest. He prided himself on solving puzzles and coming up with answers to riddles faster though.
LeBron walked to the window in the corner of the loft to look down. He was careful to be quiet so as not to wake up anyone. That care went out the window
