“Me, Kenny and Riley.”
“Yeah, are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Well come out of there. No. Wait, we will come down there to you. Do you have any guns or anything?”
“No.”
“My name is Max. What is your name?”
“Seth. And Ken and Riley.”
“Okay, I got that Seth, I am going to go into your house and find the stairs to come down to you. And I will make sure none of the bad guys are in there either. There is a police officer here too, her name is Stewart, she is going to stay by the window with you while I come down, okay?”
“Sure. A real police officer?”
“Yes. I am a real police officer.” Stewart called down, then to Max, “You are going in alone? Not a great idea, you got…”
“Kids to take care of. I know, I will be more careful, plus I don't think any more zeds are around. I could go through the window.”
“No don't come through the window!” came Seth's voice.
“Why not?”
“'Cause we are locked in the basement, you have to unlock the door in the kitchen to get us out.”
“What?”
“Yeah dad locked us in so we would be safe.”
Stewart mouthed the word 'weird' to Max and shook her head, “Okay then, so my buddy is going to come in, go to the kitchen and get you out of the basement, can you see anything down there with you?”
A flashlight beam turned on and played across the room before coming to rest on Stewart's face through the broken window, “You're very pretty. Are you the police officer?”
Grinding her teeth, Stewart said, “Hey there hon, don't shine the light in my face. Yes I am Officer Jane Stewart.”
“You don't look like a police. Don't Seth.” came another voice, this one lower and more like that of an adult, but still a little off. A black ball of fur jumped into the light, which was pointed below the broken window now. A medium sized dog stood under the window and was furiously opening and closing it's mouth while looking up at Stewart, Max had moved on towards the front of the house. The dog was not making any noise, aside from a low, raspy grunting sound when it tried to bark.
“Get Riley Seth!”
“No! You get Riley, you were supposed to hold her!”
“The leash came off. You know the leash comes off!”
“You get her Kenny! You have the leash!”
As this conversation played out Stewart yelled after the disappearing Max, “Hey Max! They have a dog! Be careful of the dog!”
Max went through the front door of the house and pulled out a small 'L.E.D.' flashlight from his pocket, the beam was not very powerful, but it was enough to illuminated the bodies on the floor and show him the room was empty. He caught Stewart's words of warning as he moved in and worked his way back to the kitchen. Shining his light around he found the door that he thought led to the basement. “What the fuck?” he said to himself softly as he examined the door. It was supposed to swing open into the kitchen and there was a large wooden board attached across it above the handle. The handle had a normal looking lock on it and up from that, above the wood was a dead bolt, which was set in the door so that it could be opened from this side. Looking at the wood Max saw it was a standard two inch by four inch wide piece of wood that could be bought in any lumber yard. It was sitting in two brackets attached to the door frame, with the wood in place the door could not be opened from the other side.
“What the fuck?” he said again, who locked their kids in the basement this way? He reached forward and pulled the wooden board out of the brackets, then unlocked the door handle and the dead bolt, wondering just what sort of kids Seth and Kenny were. Easing the door open just a crack he waited to see if the dog Stewart had mentioned would come up the stairs; it did. It slammed into the door with a meaty thunk, but it was fairly small as dogs go and Max was able to hold the door against its weight with ease. Crouching down he put his knee behind the door to hold it mostly closed while he put his hand at the gap to allow the dog to sniff him.
“Hey there fella! You're okay, I am just here to help out the kids down there. Don't worry, everything is fine.”
The dog did not seem to be calming down, instead the low rasping, grunts continued to pour out of its mouth as it tried to nip at Max's hand. Behind the dog a large form came lumbering up the stairs, yelling “Riley! Riii-leeey no! Bad doggie! Bad girl. He is a police. You don't eat police!” Then a good sized hand grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck and forced a collar around it, followed by a leash.
Max stood and looked at the man on the other side. “Who are you?”
“I am Kenny Halcot. My brother is Seth Halcot. Our dog is Riley Halcot. You can open the door now I have Riley.”
“You got Riley, Kenny?” called a younger voice from down below.
“Yeah Seth. I have her good. I put the collar on another hole too, so it is tighter, but I hope not too tight, I don't want her to turn blue and die.”
“She won't Kenny. Did that guy get the door open?”
“No he is staring at me through a crack. Why is he staring at me?” turning back to Max he asked, “Why are you staring at me?”
“Sorry. Is, uh, Riley okay? Can I open the door now?”
“Sure!”
Max eased the door open slowly, the dog strained against the leash, not budging the man at all. “Okay come out.”
Kenny stepped into the kitchen, followed by a young boy half his size carrying a flashlight. The boy was wearing a backpack, khaki shorts and a black t-shirt. He was wearing knee high socks over his skinny white legs and had on some Converse tennis shoes. “Let's go!”
“What?”
“She said we were leaving and she is the police so we have to go.”
“Okay, good. Ah, I am Max.” He held out his hand to shake.
The younger boy shook it and said, “You have to shake too, it is what people do.”
“I am not a dummy. I got Riley.” then the man twisted and pulled the dog behind him with one hand and reached out with his left to grab Max's outstretched right hand and give it an awkward shake.
“No dummy you have to use your other hand!”
For a second Max thought the boy was talking to him, then realization came crashing down on him like a ton of bricks, Kenny was mentally challenged. “No it is okay, we have other things to do than shake hands in the kitchen all morning, I don't know what I was thinking anyway.”
Kenny, who was busy trying to transfer the leash to his other hand while keeping the dog away from Max looked up and said, “I am no dummy. I can shake too.”
Max waited patiently until the mute dog was held away from him and then shook Kenny's soft, sweaty hand and said, “Pleased to meet you. Do you need to get anything? Clothes or something?”
“Yeah, go get your camping bag Kenny, give me Riley, you can take the flashlight. Go fast.”
The older man grabbed the light and raced like lightning down the stairs, prompting Max to say, “Whoa!” in shock.
“He likes going down the stairs fast, he broke his leg when he was sixteen that way. Sometimes he falls, but he says he likes to go fast, because it feels like he is flying.”
“Are you brothers?”
“Yeah.”
“Seth, why are there all these locks on the door?”
The boy looked at him and didn't say anything.
