"No," Julie replied. "But I don't think I'll ever be."
John reached out and grabbed her hand. He didn't even know if he was ready himself, but there was no point worrying about it. "Come on," he said. "We'll be fine." He led them up the stairs.
Once he got to the top, he turned around an pressed his finger to his mouth to tell them to be quiet. He wanted to hear if anything of thosethings were still out there.
He placed his ear to the door and tried to listen. He couldn't make out much of anything. Though that could have meant that they were no longer there or simply that his hearing wasn't all that it used to be.
"I think it's clear," he said, hoping he was right. He fumbled with the lock and pushed the bar aside, unlatching it. Then he grabbed hold of the door knob and took a deep breath.
One…two…three…
He turned the knob and swung the door open. He waited a moment.
Nothing happened.
"I think it's clear," he said again.
He stepped up the final step and walked into the hallway.
Itwasclear.
Scooter followed John into the hallway. He held his axe out in front of him. Julie stood at the door.
"You wait here," he said to her. "If there's a problem, tell us."
"And what if you don't hear me? What if you can't get back in time?"
"Then close the door."
Julie's mouth dropped open at that. She couldn't imagine leaving Scooter and John out to deal with the creatures.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," John said soothingly.
They left Julie at the basement door and walked into the kitchen.
John pointed out where most of the food was. "Pretty much everything in the fridge has gone bad, but there are a few things left in those cupboards. You might find some stuff in those cabinets too."
Scooter made his way around the kitchen and searched for things to take. He found a few cans of soup and another box of crackers. There was a bag of pasta, though he wasn't sure if they were going to be able to eat it without boiling water. He supposed that if it came to it, he was willing to try. He came upon a few more items that he thought would be good and cradled them all in his arms. He used to shaft of his axe to help hold it in place.
As for John, he grabbed some plates, bowls, cups and cutlery. It seemed a bit strange for him to worry about these things under the circumstances, but he didn't want the newcomers to have to eat everything out of the packages. He didn't want them to always have to use their hands, either. They were his guests. Maybe not in the old sense of the word.They were fellow survivors. But they were staying at his house and he wanted to treat them with a little bit of normalcy.
He stacked them on the table, then turned to the young man. "There's another bed upstairs," he said. "Two of them actually. In the spare rooms. We should bring them down so you have something to sleep on."
Scooter liked the sound of that. It had been a while since he had slept on a bed. "But let's do that later," he said. "We'll bring these down first." He motioned to the food in his hands.
"Of course," John said. "We can come back and get the rest of the food too."
"Sounds good."
John picked up his things and followed the young man back to the basement door.
Chapter 8
As soon as Julie saw Scooter and John, she broke into a smile. "I'm glad you're back," she said. She no longer seemed as nervous as she had been.
"I told you there was nothing to worry about," Scooter said, smiling back.
"You found a lot."
"There's a bit more left, but we thought we'd come back to get it later."
Julie's eyes faltered for a moment. Even though she was feeling a bit more comfortable, she didn't like the idea of coming back up.
"There are a couple of mattresses upstairs too that we want to get," John added.
"Mattresses?"
"To sleep on. They were my children's. Kept them upstairs for whenever they came to visit. Though I guess none of that's important…" His voice drifted off and he thought about his kids.
"Come on," Scooter said. "Let's get these downstairs and we'll come back up to get everything else."
Julie stood away from the door and motioned for Scooter and John to go down first. With their hands full, it only made sense for her to be the one to close it behind them.
Scooter got to the top step. John followed close behind. But before either of them were able to get any further, they heard a noise.
They all paused and turned toward the front door.
"Did you hear that?" Julie asked.
"Of course we heard that."
"It sounded like…"
Knock, knock, knock.
Julie jumped at the sound and grabbed hold of the basement door. "We should go downstairs," she said.
"I think we should check who's out there," Scooter argued.
"Check who's out there?" Julie shook her head rapidly back and forth. Fear had crept back into her voice. "That's not a good idea. We don't know who it is! It could be one ofthem."
"They don't knock," Scooter told her. "It isn't one of them."
"Then who could it be?"
Scooter placed his food onto the ground. "That's why I want to go see."
John put his things down beside it. The old man as curious as Scooter to see who was out there. "It has to be someone like us," he said. "Another survivor."
“I don’t know,” Julie continued.
“It’ll be fine,” Scooter said. “Stay here and guard the door.”
“Guard the door?”
Scooter wished he hadn’t used that choice of words. “Just stay here and don’t worry,” he tried again.
Julie bit her lip and didn’t say any more about it. She watched as Scooter and John walked down the hallway.
Knock, knock, knock.
When they got to the front door, Scooter turned to the old man. "You open the door," he said. "I'll stand here." He raised his axe up over his shoulder.
John grabbed hold of the front door. His fingers trembled against the lock. He didn't think that it was one ofthem, but that didn't mean that it was safe. It didn't mean that the person out there wasn't going to cause them harm.
He looked back at Scooter. "At the count of three," John whispered. Then he began to count.
One…
Two…
Three.
He unlocked the door and swung it open.
Chapter 9
Standing in front of him was a woman. She was dressed in a bright yellow shirt. A purse was pulled up over her shoulder. A pair of sunglasses held her hair back. There was a dog beside her.
She smiled as soon as she saw him. But once she noticed Scooter, she took a step back and reached into her purse. The dog began to growl.
"It's okay!" John said quickly. "No one is going to hurt you." He raised his hands to show her that she could trust him. He glanced at Scooter, hoping that the young man would put down his axe.
The woman glanced back and forth between both men. She had stopped moving away, but kept her hand in her purse.
"We're not going to hurt you," John repeated. "We had to be careful. That’s all. We didn't know who you were." He still didn't know who she was, but she didn't look like a threat.
The woman took her hand out of her purse. "I thought that you were going to kill me with that thing."
Scooter lowered his axe.
"We had to be careful," John repeated.
The woman continued to look between the old and young man, but she no longer looked worried. "I understand," she said. "May I come in?"
John grabbed her by the arm and led her inside. The dog followed. "Of course, of course! What are you doing out there anyway?"
When the door closed, she explained that she had seen the airplane. "I knew it landed somewhere behind these houses. Then I heard those...I don’t know what they are...monsters, I guess? I saw that they were in this house, so I knew that this was where the people from the pl
ane had gone. I didn't know if they had gotten you or not, but I had to come check."
"Of course, of course," John said again.
"Did you see where they went?" Scooter asked. "Thosethings?"
The woman nodded her head. "They went down the street a while ago. I haven't seen them since."
"They're not aroundhere anymore?"
"Not at the moment. But that doesn’t mean they won’t come back."
"Yes, they might," John said. "Let’s get downstairs and finish what we started. We can talk more there."
“Finish what you started?
"We were just picking up a few supplies and bringing them into the basement. It's safer down there."
"Then let's go!"
Then they began walking down the hall.
As soon as they got to Julie, Julie looked straight at the dog. It felt like a long time since she had seen one. "Does he bite?" she asked.
The woman shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. He isn't really mine. I found him. But I don't think that he's dangerous. He's never bittenme."
Julie bent down to pet the dog. She scratched behind its ear, ran her fingers over its muzzle. "What's his name?"
"Buster…and I'm Marianne."
Julie turned to smile at the woman, but continued to pet the dog. "I'm Julie. And that's Scooter and John."
Scooter reached out to shake her hand. John did as well.
"We can finish the introductions downstairs," the old man added. "Plus, you need to meet Emily and my wife."
"There are two more people down there?" Marianne asked.
Two more people?John wondered. His wife hadn't been acting much like a person lately. He didn't even know why he had even said that she would meet her. Alice wasn't going to be meeting anyone anytime soon.His poor Alice.
"Yes," Scooter answered for him. "There are two more down there. Now let's grab these things and get moving."
Scooter picked up his pile food. John grabbed some of his own. Marianne and Julie helped him with the rest.
Then they all headed into the basement.
Chapter 10
When John got to the bottom of the stairs, he nearly bumped into the back of Scooter. The young man had stopped at the bottom step. John wasn't sure why.
"What is it?" he asked.
Scooter didn't reply. Though, in the end, he didn't need to.
As soon as John asked, he saw what the young man was looking at. It was his wife. And she was sitting up.
John came close to dropping the plates in his hand. "Alice?" he asked.
"John?" she replied.
Alice was sitting in front of Emily. They were holding hands and looked like they had been talking.
John placed his plates onto the ground, then rushed over to his wife as fast as he could. He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the forehead.That wasn't enough. He grabbed her cheeks and raised her face to his own. "My darling Alice," he said, then kissed her her on the lips.
"John," his wife said, her mouth still pressed against his own. "What's happening? Who are all these people?"
"I love you so much," he said, ignoring her questions.
"John, please."
He kissed her again.
When he pulled away, he knew that he'd have to tell his wife what had happened. He could see the concern on her face and knew that she wanted to make sense out of all that had happened. She had no idea that she had been in shock for the past week. She obviously didn't remember all of the killing that had happened outside, the way people had turned into thosethings. "It's…well…" He closed his mouth.
As soon as he started speaking, a fear came over him:would she be able to handle it? He didn't want her to slip back into that trance she had been in. He didn't know if he could risk it.
"John?"
"It's not important right now," he replied. "All that matter's is that you're okay."
"Okay? What happened to me?"
He squeezed his wife's hands. "You really don't remember anything?"
"Of course not."
John thought a bit more about the risk. "What the last thing you remember?" It seemed like the safest place to start.
His wife took a moment to think about it. "I think I remember getting dinner ready."
"That's right," he said. "Youwere getting dinner ready. What about after that?"
She shook her head. "Nothing, John. I don't remember. Please tell me."
He could see her look of concern start to turn into fear. He wanted to avoid that. "All right," he said. "I'll tell you." He squeezed her hands again. "Do you remember hearing a crash outside?"
"No."
"You were getting dinner ready when we heard it. I went to the window to see what was happening. You told me I shouldn't have. That we needed to call the police."
"The police?"
"It was bad out there." He explained a bit of the destruction he had seen outside. "You were telling me that 911 wasn't working when a man broke in through the front window. He chased us downstairs. Remember?"
"No, John, I don't."
From the sound of his wife's voice, he felt another pang of worry that she was going to go back into shock, but he kept on. "I was able to lock the door and he couldn't get through. Then later that night you saw…" Again, he wasn't sure how much he should say.
"Saw who?"
He decided to go through with it. "When you saw Mr. Williams."
"Mr. Williams? Our neighbour?"
John nodded. "He came to the window over there. You almost touched him."
Alice turned to look at the window and saw the fresh blood running down the wall. She gasped. "Is that his? Is he dead?"
"Yes, he's dead." John said. "But that isn't his."
His wife gasped again. "Then whose is it?"
"One of thosethings."
"Things?"
"The people who turned."
"Oh, John." Now it was Alice's turn to squeeze her husband's hands. "I don't understand what's going on. Why can't I remember any of it?"
John didn’t know. "Maybe that's a good thing that you can't remember," he said. "None of it was very nice to see."
His wife didn't look convinced. "I just don't understand how something like that could’ve happened."
John had no idea why his wife had stopped responding to anything. Nor did he know how she snapped out of it so suddenly. Yet he wasn't about to question it. His wife was back and that was all that mattered. "Let's not worry about it right now," he said.
"But, John…"
"It'll be okay."
Alice let out a deep breath and lowered her head. She stopped speaking.
"Alice?" John asked.
His wife didn't reply.
John couldn't help but worry that his wife had slipped back into her trance. "Alice!" He let go of her hands and grabbed her shoulders. "Speak to me."
Alice looked up. There were tears in her eyes. "Why can't I remember any of it?"
"It's okay." He wrapped his arms around her. "Don't worry about it. Everything's going to be fine." He kissed the top of her head.
"Is it really?" she asked, her words muffled against his shoulder.
"Yes, it is."
Chapter 11
No one moved while Alice kept her face pressed against her husband. Scooter and Julie were surprised that the old woman had woken up. Marianne was still trying to piece everything together. Even Buster stared at the old couple, his ears dropped and mouth closed. Though they didn't have to wait very long.
Alice raised her head and looked at John. He smiled, trying to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. Then she turned to face the others. She wiped the tears from her eyes and pressed down the front of her shirt, hoping to straighten herself up.
"I'm sorry," she said. "It's just…well, it's a bit...overwhelming."
"You don't need to apologize," Julie said. "We're just happy that you're doing better."
Alice let out a short laugh. "I don't know if this is wha
t you'd calldoing better." She patted down the top of her hair. "Now where are my manners?" She stood up from the mattress. She helped her husband get up as well. "I'm Alice," she said.
The others introduced themselves.
"And how long have you been here?" she wanted to know.
"We just got here today," Julie replied. She told her a bit about the airplane.
Alice had a hard time believing it. "You flew here? Well, I never…"
Marianne introduced herself next. She decided to spend a little more time recounting her story because none of the people in the basement had heard it before. "My mother had changed into one of thosethings," she said, "and attacked me. I was so surprised that all I could do was run into the washroom and hide. When I came out again…" She paused, reliving the scene in her head. "My mother was dead."
She told them a little bit more about her journey - how she had decided to leave her home, how she had spent the night in the playhouse in the park. The only part she left out was her encounter with the pharmacist, Darren. She didn't want to tell them that she had thought of killing herself, that she had grabbed a bag full of pills to eat from the pharmacy. That those pills were still in her purse. Those were things she figured she could keep to herself.
"And when did you find Buster?" Julie asked. The young woman was back to scratching underneath the animal's muzzle. Emily had joined.
"I had wandered into a town," she explained, "and saw a man digging into someone's body."
"A man? It wasn't one of the creatures?"
Marianne shook her head. "No, this one was a man. I don't know why he was doing what he was. He kept yelling that he could explain it to be, but I didn't want to listen. I ran into a house and that's where I found Buster."
"And what happened to the man?"
"The creatures came and chased him away."
"You never saw him again?"
"No."
They continued talking for a little longer about all they had done and seen. At first, Alice was disgusted by all that she heard. But after a while she couldn't stop asking them questions.
A little later, she turned to her husband. "How long ago did this start to happen?"
"A week."
"A week? That long ago?"
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