“Hello?” he called, his eyes scanning the dim interior. He saw the kitchen, and it had large sliding glass doors that led out to the back yard.
“Hello? Anyone here? I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll go away if you tell me to.” He called once more. He walked farther into the house. He went in and looked into one of the bedrooms. There was a lump in a small twin bed and he leaned in and closed the door quietly. It must be the child, the one who’d left the bike in the yard. He went to what he thought was the master suite and looked in. Two lumps covered and he shut that door as well. He then went around the house and opened the windows. Letting in fresh air. The house was hot.
Walking back out to the car, he smiled sadly.
“They’re dead, but the house doesn’t smell too bad. I opened the windows. Let’s take some food and stuff into the house. They have a back yard too. I’ll check both of the trucks and see how much gas they have. We can transfer the supplies to them if they have plenty of gas.”
“Okay. I’m tired, maybe after we eat, I might bathe and then take a nap. Sorry I’m such a wimp.” She smiled.
“Hey, you’re a champ in my book. Christ. I’ll get your suitcase, so you can have some fresh clothes.” Flynn said, walking around to the back of the car. He pulled her suitcase out and also got one of the bags of new clothing for himself. A bath sounded good. Hopefully the house had some bottled water, so they wouldn’t have to use their supply. Both walked back into the house and went to the kitchen.
“Look, they have a pool out back.” Xandra said. Flynn came up behind her and looked. It still looked pretty good; it was just starting to get a bit of algae around the edges of the pool.
“Hey, why don’t we use the pool as a bath. You can go first and I’ll see what I can fix for us. They have a gas stove, so I can at least heat us up some soup or something.” Flynn suggested.
“Oh, that sounds like heaven. I’m going to their bathroom, see if they have towels. Thanks again Flynn, I mean that.” She smiled and then disappeared into the back of the house.
Ӝ
Xandra was trembling as she walked toward the bathroom. She was so weak, but pushed passed it. She felt slightly nauseated from the chocolate. When she got to the bathroom, she vomited. She sipped from her Pedialyte bottle and it cooled the burning from her throat. She it helped ease the nausea. She’d have to take it easy with food for a while, until her system got back to normal.
It had all happened so fast, Flynn showing up and then gone and out of the city and away from her home. She thought she was hallucinating when he’d knocked. Then, he was there. She couldn’t believe it, but she was profoundly grateful he’d come to get her. She’d been so very terrified. Now, the world looked so different, so empty and quiet. She grabbed a couple towels and went back to the kitchen. She smiled at Flynn who was taking out pots and bowel. She went to a cupboard and got a plastic cup. She went out to the pool.
Stripping down she went to the shallow end of the pool. The water was cool, but not cold. She smiled. Flynn had set out bottles of shampoo, conditioner and a bar of soap. She submerged herself and let the water support her body. She was thin, too thin and she could see her ribs and hip bones. It was frightening to see herself like this, so god awfully thin. The cloud was that fogged her brain was beginning to clear. She now realized that she’d been close to death, had Flynn not come, she knew she’d have died.
She felt the warmth of tears sliding down her face. She’d been so close to death. She cleared her throat. Her fear had damned near killed her. She’d been a fool; she should have left her apartment. There was no help for it, but she’d never be that foolish again. Flynn had given her a second chance at life. She was going to live it and survive it. She promised herself, she’d not be that weak woman that Flynn had found. She’d step out and beyond herself. She’d fight for every day. She’d live with purpose every day.
EIGHT
Brian and BJ sat at the firepit. They were eating Ramen soup. Brian had fixed a large pot of it, he’d cracked a couple of eggs into it, cooking the eggs into the noodles. The chickens were turning out to be one hell of an asset. They were now in surplus of eggs. He’d started dating and coating the eggs in a light film of mineral oil. They’d turned one of the back offices into a large pantry, storing their food stuffs there. The rest of the food was stacked around the building. He really did need to get that storage shed build. The racks he’d picked up at the hardware store helped a great deal to keep their supplies sorted and neat, at least to some extent.
He and BJ were also drinking soft drinks that had been cooling in the pillow case, at the water’s edge.
