by Henson, Lynn
“How did you open it?” Bree wanted to know.
“Extra key hidden in the backyard,” he shrugged. “World’s oldest trick to prevent getting locked out of your own home.”
She smiled at that. “Good job.” She went in and Blake followed after her.
The area behind the front door was as Blake had seen it through the back, just your normal family living room. People were starting to spread around like they were attending an open house. Gao had located the kitchen and was already going through cupboards.
“Er... before we start looking around willy-nilly, can we go through each room together?” he asked of them.
They paused, looking at each other. Carrey shrugged and said, “Maybe it’s not such a bad idea. If there’s something dangerous in here we can face it together.” Kyle, Carrey, and Blake then systematically went through every room in the house while the others waited in the living room. They found a sparsely decorated guest bedroom attached to a bathroom with a standing shower equipped with fixtures popular thirty years ago. They also looked briefly through a garage that was chock full of boxes, baby toys, and other things that had outlived their usefulness but hadn’t found their way to the dump. Someone absent-mindedly flicked on a power switch when they entered the garage and the fluorescent lights that hung in the center of the garage flickered to life which verified that the solar panels were powering this house. There wasn’t any sign of panic from the previous tenants so far, Blake realized. It’s almost like whoever had lived here had gone on vacation. The second floor turned out to be much like the first. One master bedroom neatly arranged with everything in its place. One kid’s bedroom decorated with a selection of cartoon characters from recent movies. A large bathroom with his and hers sinks and large tub with spa jets. Overall, it was a nice house that must’ve been well kept by the owners. After checking in every space they headed back down.
“Well, that’s everything. Seems safe to me,” Kyle declared to the group.
“Yeah, no worries,” Gao agreed. “I am going to look in the fridge.” Doris followed after him, not wanting to miss out.
“Can I borrow your keys, Bree?” Lisa asked, “I want to get my stuff out of the car.”
“I’ll go with you,” Bree said in reply, and they walked outside with Kim following after them. Tiffany headed upstairs to look around. Kyle and Carrey looked at Blake, “Well, now what?” Carrey asked.
“I’m not sure,” Blake shrugged. “It’s weird to be able to relax in safety like this.”
“Well, if you’re bored, why don’t you come with us to check out the neighbor’s house?” Carrey proposed. “We’re going over there now.”
“Sure, let’s go check it out,” Blake shrugged.
“Let’s do it. I imagine next door will be much like this place,” Carrey replied while Kyle nodded in agreement. “No one was here. Everything was left in good order, and to top it all off, we haven’t seen another soul in this town.”
“Don’t jinx it,” Blake cautioned.
forty
The house next door didn’t have a spare key hidden in the garden like the first one. After probing all of the possible entry points, they had to go with Gao’s suggested course of action and break one of the windows. After carefully going through the bottom floor of the house, they found it to be in a similar state to the first house. There were no occupants, living or otherwise. Nothing seemed out of place and it didn’t seem like whoever had been there had left in a hurry. This house also had solar panels on the roof, meaning that the lights worked, the refrigerator was still running, and there was hot water. Fifteen minutes later, the three men had been in every room, opened every closet, every cabinet and confirmed that the house was as secure as the first. Once their search had been completed, Blake saw Carrey relax considerably. It was like he didn’t dare to let his guard down until he’d confirmed that this shelter they were setting up was actually viable.
“I call dibs on the big bedroom,” Kyle declared.
Carrey smiled and nodded. “I’m going to find something to board up that window.”
“Cool. I’ll get our shit,” Kyle replied and he went downstairs with Carrey a few steps behind him.
“Need help?” Blake asked them as he chased after them.
“No thank you,” Carrey replied. “I just want to occupy myself with a relatively mindless task.”
“I’m good Blake,” Kyle also replied. “Just do your thing.”
Blake went with Kyle to the SUV and watched him back it into the driveway as Bree had done with her GT-S. After the car was parked, Blake let Bob out then retrieved his backpack from the car and went inside to pick out a room. He decided to bunk down in the first-floor guest bedroom. It felt more comfortable because it didn’t feel as lived in as the rest of the house. The guest room was currently being used to store a couple of things that didn’t have a proper place in the house. There was a lone peacoat hanging in the closet along with about a dozen hangers which somehow were all different from one another. The peacoat suffered from a mild case of animal hair. He put his backpack into a gently used club chair that was near the window and lay on top of the lavender comforter on the bed. He closed his eyes and heard Carrey hammering around the broken window. Listening to the off and on hammering somehow put him to sleep.
Blake woke up thinking he was back in the convention center. The ceiling was unfamiliar and as he looked around, he realized everything was unfamiliar. After a brief moment of panic, he shook the dream of the convention center from his mind and more recent memories began to assert themselves. He was in the guest room of a house and he finally recognized the room, despite it being dark. He got up and found the light switch, flicking it on which brought a soft light in the middle of the ceiling to life. Damn, I didn’t realize how much I missed being able to do that. He walked out of his room and found Carrey in the living room splayed out on the couch near a lamp. He’d covered his legs with a beige blanket and was reading a book. Carrey glanced up at the movement.
“Oh hey, you’re up!” Carrey observed. “Why don’t you head next door? They’ve cooked some dinner if you’re hungry.”
“That sounds great,” Blake realized. “You’re not going?”
“I’m going to stay here since we don’t have a key for this place. Just knock when you come back, I’ll be waiting.”
“Cool,” he replied, and he opened the front door, set the knob to lock after him and walked outside.
The street was dark and lifeless except for the small amounts of light that bled from the windows of the two houses they now occupied. The other houses were dark silhouettes that sank into the background, seemingly intangible. This made him feel nervous and exposed, so he jogged the short distance to the other house and knocked at the door. He waited, looking around. He heard the door unlock and the door opened. Kim grinned at him and stood aside to let him in. He thanked her as he came inside and she secured the door. His senses were immediately assailed by the smell of breakfast. His stomach growled at his nose and Blake moved towards the kitchen.
“I hope there’s more of whatever that is,” he said to Kim.
Gao was snoring lightly in a recliner. He looked fat, dumb, and happy. The girls had assembled on the sofa and were watching a movie. All of them had opted for comfortable looking sleepwear. A passing observer might’ve guessed they were at a slumber party. He went into the kitchen and found an electric stove with some scrambled eggs in a frying pan and some bacon on a plate with a paper towel under it to absorb some of the grease. A brief search of the cupboards garnered him a plate and a fork. He dumped what was left onto his plastic dining ware and after spattering the eggs with some Tabasco sauce that was sitting lidless on the counter, went into the living room to eat. The sofa was crowded, so he plopped down on the floor, leaned back against the left side of it and ate with gusto.
“Whatcha guys watching?” he asked between mouthfuls.
A DVD box was dropped in front of him. It had two wome
n on the front of it with the words “Princess Diaries” running along the top. He watched a little bit with disinterest preferring to focus on the fatty taste of the thick bacon. He noticed the girls were watching with rapt attention. Tiffany was especially enjoying it and was leaning towards the TV, her small bowl of popcorn temporarily forgotten in her lap.
He polished off his food and felt deeply satisfied. He got up and took his plate over to the kitchen sink, gently adding it on top of the others. He started to walk back over to the living room, but paused, unwilling to pretend to be interested in the movie. He decided instead to search through the refrigerator and the cupboards to see what the next few days held in store for him. It turned out that the house was well stocked with a variety of canned vegetables and meats. There was also boxes of uncooked pasta, warehouse-sized plastic jars of pasta sauce, and even a box containing packs of instant noodles. The refrigerator wasn’t as well stocked though, containing nothing with a short shelf life inside. What was left were things like jars of pickles, half used condiments, salad dressings, cans of soda, and the long-expired sauces that take up residence in everyone’s fridge. Like that weird, expensive sauce that is impulse bought, used once, then becomes a permanent tenant. The freezer was more rewarding in that it held a variety of frozen meats, boxed dinners, and frozen pizzas. Blake drooled a little at the thought of a pizza. He closed the freezer, confirming it was shut, then walked back out to the living room where the credits were crawling up the screen and the girls were detaching themselves from the couch and stretching a little bit, looking semi-content. Tiffany was walking towards him and paused.
“Hmmm?” she asked as she offered her unfinished popcorn bag to him.
“Thanks,” he accepted, taking the remaining half bag from her. She grinned and headed off to somewhere else in the house. The other girls had followed suit, though Bree lagged behind. She was dressed in pink flannel looking pajamas covered with cute Japanese cartoon characters.
“Well, here we are,” he began.
“Yeah,” she shrugged.
“Where do we go from here?”
“Tomorrow we’re going to look at stores and see how long we can feasibly stay in this town,” she replied.
“No, I meant more long term.”
“I found my sister. Now that I have that, I just want to keep us safe until this is over.”
“So stay here, drive somewhere else, all the same to you?”
She nodded. “If this town is safe, why not stay?” She did a quick turn of her head, to get one of the bangs out of her face.
“But are we really safe? Shouldn’t we find a larger community?”
“Why risk it?” she replied. “I think it’s safer to hide.”
“But we don’t know what’s happening anywhere else. Except for Los Angeles and Las Vegas, we don’t have any idea how the rest of the world is doing. Did you try seeing if there was anything being broadcasted on TV?”
“Yes. We looked, but there was nothing.”
“That’s bad then, this might be affecting the entire country,” he pointed out, “Shouldn’t we be finding someplace where they’re trying to turn this thing around?”
She shook her head. “Just stay out of the way. What can we do? Are you a doctor?”
He shook his head, “Well, no, but they’ll figure this out and when they do, isn’t it better that we’re where it’s happening?”
“I don’t think so. If they do figure it out, they’ll get to us eventually. We’ll be here waiting. Try not to worry about it,” she tried to reassure him. “We still have to look at the town and see if we can even stay here. One day at a time, ok?”
He nodded, “Well, I better go next door so you can sleep.”
“Alright. Good night,” she said and walked him to the door. He stepped outside and heard the door close behind him and lock. He walked next door and knocked. After a few moments, Kyle opened the door to let him in.
“You going into town with us tomorrow?” Kyle said as he secured the door.
“Yeah, I want to go.”
“Alright. I’ll come get you when we go.”
Blake went to his room and read for a while. He hadn’t read the novel he’d taken with him for a while, but when he started where he’d left off, all of the plot, the characters, all of it came back to him as if he’d never put the book down in the first place. Funny how that happens. He lost himself in another world for a while and then put the book down to sleep.
forty-one
It was dark. He was being chased. He kept running and running, but there was nowhere to hide. That was what he remembered of his dream when Kyle woke him up with a few terse words cast at him from his doorway. Blake acknowledged that he was awake and Kyle left him to get ready.
Blake cleaned himself up to the best of his ability, got into his cleaner set of clothing then joined Carrey and Kyle at the front door. Carrey nodded at him in greeting and there was a knock at the door. Carrey looked out through the peephole and opened it to reveal Lisa and Kim.
“What brings you by?” Blake asked them.
“We’re house sitting while you guys go exploring,” Kim replied. “Have fun!”
Blake rolled his eyes at her as Carrey and Kyle walked outside and piled into the SUV. He looked back at the house as he pulled open the passenger door. Kim gave another quick wave from behind the partially open door before closing it.
Kyle started the vehicle and drove away from their houses. After a few minutes, they were near a concentration of businesses. They were all closed, which wasn’t surprising. Also not surprising was that they’d all been locked up tight.
“It’s like the whole town just packed up and left,” Blake observed.
Carrey grunted his agreement.
“Looks like nothing’s been touched,” Kyle said, peering through the glass window of a market. “If we got in there I bet we could stay in this town for months.”
“Let’s break in the back door. I’d rather avoid going through the front,” Carrey said.
“What difference does it make?” Kyle asked.
“When other people come here looking for food, we’ll know it when they smash through the windows,” Carrey replied thoughtfully.
“It also makes our presence here less obvious,” Blake pointed out.
“Bingo,” praised Carrey.
“Ok, ok. So how are we breaking in?” Kyle wanted to know.
“Get in the car. We’ve got another stop to make,” Carrey said as he walked to the car.
They had to drive around a while before they found what Carrey was looking for. They pulled up to the front of the Nye County Sheriff’s office and got out of the car.
It was hot, must’ve been around noon by now Blake guessed. The office looked how most government buildings appeared, but still felt off. He felt a tinge of nervousness despite standing outside in broad daylight with only the three of them around. They walked towards the office, looking around cautiously. Carrey reached the front door, pushing it open, and after a moment he walked inside holding the door open for his brother. They looked around the dim office, light coming in through windows and the glass door they’d just passed through. Nothing seemed out of place, everything ready for the sheriff to walk through that door and turn on the lights, business as usual.
“Hello?” Carrey called out.
There was no reply, and he tried again with the same result. They explored the police department, going slowly from room to room. It was boring Blake discovered. After the initial trepidation of entering a new building, the reality was that even the police department is an office as well. Workspaces contained small personal toys, photographs of family, and the numerous other things that people bring in to personalize their space. They eventually found the holding cell and realized that they’d finally located someone. The first cell had a man in it, and he was lying on his back on the floor close to the cell’s urinal. The lights were off, so they were limited to only whatever light came into the bui
lding from the outside. Carrey walked in front of the cell, “Hello? Sir?” he called out.
The figure stirred.
“Are you alright sir?” Carrey asked again, wary.
The person got to his feet and turned towards Carrey.
“Hey, bro, stand back!” Kyle warned with urgency. Carrey did as told and stood well away from the cell.
The man walked into the light and then into the bars. He reached for Carrey, clawing at him with both hands. The zombie had once been an overweight Mexican. He was dressed in gray slacks with dark stains on them. This was belted in place and his stomach poured out over the belt. His wife beater was half tucked into his slacks and had its own impressive array of yellowed stains. He was badly in need of a shave.
“No helping this guy,” Kyle observed.
“Let’s keep going,” Carrey decided.
Blake followed after them, sobered a little by their discovery. It just reaffirmed that despite their apparent isolation, even this place was not completely immune to the catastrophe. They left the holding area and the zombie shuffled after them as much as the cell allowed. He glanced back at it, and it’d managed to wedge itself into the corner, groping futilely after him.
“What are we looking for anyway?” Blake finally asked.
“Ever watch COPS?” Carrey asked as he pushed open a set of double doors leading out of the building where police vehicles were parked.
“Sure. Bad boys, whatcha want whatcha gonna do?” Blake sang poorly.
“Ugh. Ok, sometimes when they need to break down doors, how do they do it?”
“I thought they just kick the door in and yell ‘Freeze!’”, Blake demonstrated with a low kick and his index finger and thumb extended in the classic representation of a pistol.
Kyle snorted and tried the door of a squad car.
“Well, on the episode of COPS that I watched they used a one-person battering ram. It looks like a black cylinder,” Carrey said as if he were giving a lecture. “I think if we could locate that tool, that would make our lives in this town much easier.”