DEADEND CHAPTER 2
“You know all of this quarantine stuff is bullshit right?”
Sarah said as she pressed her hand against the completely painted over window, feeling the coldness of it from outside. “So what if people get a little sick? That's no reason to lock us all inside our houses, like some kind of animals!” From the kitchen responded the voice of her brother, “You've been saying that for 3 weeks straight. Let off!" "Oh whatever--! What I don’t understand is why the government thought it was a good idea to lock us in! And for how long? Who knows!” She said angrily as she slammed her hand on the window. "We aren't LOCKED in Sarah, it's just we don't have any emergencies. We don't NEED to leave, Y'know?"
Sarah sighed as she walked into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and picked up a half eaten sandwich from the prior day and opened the plastic container it was in. And to her surprise it had rotted. Sarah sighed and tossed it to the side as she sat near her brother and bit into an apple that was sitting on the counter. The bitter taste made her immediately stand and rush to the garbage to spit it out. She made a face as she spoke. "They expect us to eat this shit?" "Come on Sarah! It's a government-provided apple. What do you expect, Farm grown?" Kevin retorted as Sarah once again sighed and grabbed the peanut butter from the cupboard and a knife from the drawer. She chopped up the apple into slices and smothered them with peanut butter. "Look! It's not even peanut butter!" Sarah exclaimed as she squinted at the jar in front of her. "Processed peanut product. What the hell is that?" She said angrily as she pushed the jar away, before taking a bite and chewing begrudgingly. "It tastes like shit too." She said with a frown and began to think back to the first time she had eaten anything provided by the government. It was December 2020. After the fire and the planes, there weren’t many shipments going out, so the government began to provide food for the nation. She didn't remember the taste well, but she remembered not liking it all too much. After everything had settled down, everything began to go back to normal, and she soon forgot the bitter disgusting taste of the government-issued food products.
Kevin continued slowly eating his sandwich, and scrolling through his phone, before groaning and tossing his device onto the counter. "Dammit you're right, I'm tired of this!" Kevin said as he aggressively stood up. "This sandwich sucks, the rain is screwing with my phone service, and Harry is still missing!" Sarah set down her apple gently and looked up at her brother. "I- I'm… I'm sorry about Harry. I… I'm sure he'll come up eventually…" She said looking away from her brother with tears welling up in her eyes. "The police haven't done shit! After we find his bag, they tell us there isn't much they can do, and we get thrown to the curb!" Kevin said as he looked out the window. "I honestly can't believe that’s it. We put up posters, we ask around and nobody has seen anything..." Kevin said. Sarah nodded solemnly as he spoke. "He… he meant a lot. To both of us." Sarah said, As she stood quickly, walking to her room trying to avoid tears streaming down her face.
As she entered her room she sat down on the floor, she reached under her bed and pulled out a photo album, she flipped through each page tearfully. Smiling at some and quietly laughing at others. She had often photographed her outings with her friends, whom she hadn't seen in a little over a month. As she reached the back of the album, she pulled a key from a secret fold in the paper. She stood up, tossing the album onto her bed as she walked to her closet and pulled out a wooden box. The padlock on the front clinking slightly. She smiled and walked back to her bed, before sitting the box on her lap. She unlocked the padlock looped around the face of the box. It made a pleasant 'CLICK' noise. She again smiled as she opened it. Photos, paper, and costume jewelry filled the small box. She had memories associated with every item. The young girl pulled a piece of paper from the box. On it was a note written in basic handwriting
"Hey, I didn't want to text you this, in case Kevin saw… or something, I don't know… but… We've been friends for a while, I think you're super cool, and well, how would you feel about, maybe getting some dinner, and maybe a movie? If you want. I mean I don't mind either way but I think it could be fun. Anyway, Give me a call. -HARRY."
She smiled and clutched the paper tightly in a hug, before setting it down and grabbing the next item. A paracord wristband Harry had won at a local fair. She stared at it as she remembered all the rides she had gone on with her brother's friend, Harry Adamson , who she had begun seeing on a regular basis. All the while the both of them were doing their best to hide it from her brother. she smiled as she tearfully wrapped the wristband around her wrist and smiled as she picked up the next few items. Which were more or less random odds and ends of little memories she had throughout her life, dog tags, movie tickets, stickers and patches.
Soon after, Sarah locked the box back up and left her room, wiping the tears from her eyes. She walked back into the empty living room, expecting to hear the sound of her brother playing whatever video game was popular at that time. When she saw the living room completely empty and the television screen dark, her brow scrunched slightly, the sound of coughing suddenly echoed in her ears. Her brow scrunched, even more, as she headed towards the source of the sound. It led her into the bathroom, where she found her brother hunched over the toilet, coughing loudly, small specks of red covered inside of the bowl. Sarah gasped and rushed to him, placing her hand on his back as he continued to cough. As he began to regurgitate his earlier sandwich.
Sarah winced and stepped backwards, trying to avoid the splatter, she half gagged and stepped out of the bathroom and quickly rushed to her mother's office. Her mother had told them that she would be in a very important video meeting, and unless the house was on fire, or somebody had died, they had better not interrupt. As she stepped inside she saw her mother was in fact in the video meeting. Sarah half considered letting her mother finish the call, but figured her brother coughing up blood was as good an excuse as any to interrupt.
20 minutes later
Soon Sarah's mother whom was named Mary, crouched over her son as he lay wrapped in a blanket on the sofa. Kevin shivered slightly as he rested. His mother sighed as she looked at him with a hand on his forehead. Kevin was cold to the touch. "Dammit, Kevin…" She whispered as Sarah entered the room, holding a warm towel, which she folded and set carefully on his forehead before she turned to her mother, and began to speak. "He isn't...?" "He's sleeping." Her mother replied as she stood up and rubbed her temple. "We need to let him rest… I'm sure... I'm sure everything will be okay." Her mother said in a reassuring voice. But behind her confidence hid fear. Fear for the future.
Sarah sat once again as she heard the loudspeaker from outside, commanding everybody who was in the home to keep away from all doors and windows as their groceries were set inside. As the door opened the cool outdoor wind entered their home. Sarah exited her room and saw as the tall men in hazmat suits set the bags onto their center counter in their living room. Sarah took note of the clouds outside. It wasn't easy telling the difference between clouds and the dull flat grey sky, but the smell that preceded the rain was always a good tell. She smiled at the man in the hazmat suit. The visor covering his face was tinted. The only hint of what he may sound like came from the breathing that she was able to hear, coming from inside the helmet. She watched as the men left, the rubber soles on their boots sticking slightly to their hardwood floor. As the last man began to walk out, he suddenly stopped. He looked down at Kevin, and turned around and looked at their mother.
Mrs. Williams covered her mouth and nodded slowly, Holding back tears. The man nodded back and pressed a button on his wrist mounted device. It made a loud beep noise, followed by a sound that reminded Sarah of a sonar. As the man walked out, and closed the door behind him, Sarah sighed and walked over to the table and began to rummage through the bags. "Raisins… Trail mix…Cashews… Where the hell is the good stuff?" She asked nobody in particular. She scoffed as she tore open the bag of trail mix, looking inside to see no peanuts, but in their place her least favorite type of nut… Drupe? Whatever. "Almonds." She let out a defeated groan and curled the top of the bag to reseal it and tossed it onto the table, muttering a profanity under her breath. Soon the young girl stood and headed back to her room, she lay quietly, texting her friends, about their plans after the quarantine period had ended, she sighed and rested her phone on her chest and listened to the silence of the home, she hated it.
14 Hours Later.
Sarah's eyes slowly began to open as she awoke from her nap. Just as she heard the front door slam closed. "Mom?" She called out, before standing and walking to the living room. Everything was quiet. Her brother was gone from his spot on the couch, and no noise came from her mother's office. Sarah even walked into the garage to check on her father. The house was empty. Her father's tools lay out on the floor, scattered around along with the various parts to their family vehicle. Sarah rubbed her eyes as she headed inside and looked at the clock on the wall. "2:00...? Kevin...? Mom? Dad!?" It was already the following day. She had slept through the night and through a majority of that day. She blinked slowly as she began to realize what had happened.
She rushed to the door and began to pound on it, begging to go with them. When nobody answered or opened to let her out she stuck her eye onto the peep hole, which was the only thing left uncovered by the LifeCore employees when they painted the windows. And oversight perhaps? She glanced around before spotting the white van pulling away. With her family inside. Her parents sat on each side of her brother. He was hunched over slightly. Sarah pounded weakly and sobbed quietly as she slid down the door, hugging her knees. "Don't leave me- Please don't leave me-" She said in a whisper, through tears Eventually she rubbed her eyes and looked up. She noticed a note taped to the mirror on the center of one of the walls in the living room. Her face beamed and stood as she wiped the tears from her eyes, as she took it down and began reading it over.
Hey honey, we're taking Kevin to the new doctor's office that they just built. We'll be back tomorrow, I promise. There's some food in the kitchen, but I think you already knew that ;) I already found the trail mix, unless that was some little mouse, haha. Not sure if we will have phone service in the hospital. So, (951) xxx-xxxx is the number for the office. The guys that picked us up said we'll be in room 5. If you need us just call. Love you. -Mom.
Sarah, satisfied with this, rubbed her now slightly puffy eyes and took out her cell phone, finding it completely shut off. She scoffed and held down the power button. The screen remained black as she scrunched her brow and held it slightly tighter hoping for a different result. Still to no avail, Sarah glanced up at the charger hanging from a power outlet on the wall. She exhaled, still not fully awake as she walked to the charger, and began to plug her phone into the cord. She set it down on the table next to the living room sofa and smiled at the family dog, Harley, who slept happily in her little bed by the sofa. "At least you're still here." Sarah said with a giggle before walking into the kitchen to find it in complete disarray. The food in the cupboard was all on the floor, what wasn't on the floor was thrown into the now overflowing garbage can. Sarah used her finger to cover her nose. Around the same time she noticed the excessive amount of mold on the food laying on the floor. She winced slightly before she noticed a single can of her favorite soup still sitting label out in the cupboard. She exhaled lightly through her nose and reached for the can. As she felt it's cold metallic shell, she was reminded of her childhood.
A few years after the planes fell, and once everything had returned to normal, she remembered falling in love with the taste of this canned noodle product. The gym teacher at her school constantly hounded her for eating anything in a can because of it's supposed high mercury levels. Sarah's parents told her that it was only found in canned fish. Sarah didn't care much. As a 10 year old, discovering something new you liked other than pizza, chicken nuggets, and soda was pretty exciting.
Back in the present,the quite hungry Sarah popped open the lid. The food inside was just as fresh as it ever was. She smiled lightly and dumped it's contents into a bowl, before tossing it into the microwave. The beep of the buttons was pleasant in the otherwise silent house. The echoing hum of the microwave in her ears was another noise that made her reminisce about her past.
She remembered a particularly rainy evening, the day of her and her brother's 10th birthday. Kevin had gone to Harry's house to spend the night with some of his friends, and Sarah and her friends had remained at the Williams home.
It was around 3 in the morning and by then the girls were in a giggling fit and laughing at just about anything at all. Eventually one of the girls decided to make popcorn as they watched an animated film that was used as a marketing ploy to get children to beg their parents to buy more of the plastic dolls. Which often worked. As the microwave hummed, the girls sat in silence, watching the movie tiredly. Then suddenly… PIP! One kernel popped quite loudly. One of the girls snickered lightly. POP! POP! POP! The popping got louder and more frequent as the bag began to expand inside the microwave. As the popping got louder so did the giggles as the young girls surrounded the microwave watching it spin round and round.
Once again in the present Sarah turned around and put her hands on her hips as she looked at the mess sitting on the floor. She made an annoyed face and opened a cabinet, and pulled out a handful of trash bags. She opened each one, snapping them open with air. The bags snapped open with a loud echo, she didn't like the noise. it gave her a feeling of unrest in the otherwise silent home. She tossed each piece of rotted food into the garbage with one hand, while holding her nose with the other. Three trash bags worth of food. Almost everything that had been brought the previous day had rotted away, even the supposed imperishable items, like the freeze dried banana chips. She didn't mind all too much, because frankly she didn't like much out of the lot, as it was. She figured she could call for a trash pickup and for some more food to be delivered as they had been doing since the start of the quarantine.
She stretched slightly and dragged the three bags to her front door, Before walking over to the phone on the wall and taking it off the docking base. The young girl dialed the number to the office her mother had given her. The phone gave a screeching dial sound and began to buzz on the other end. It eventually connected and the voice of a woman answered on the other end "Hello this is Kathy, Thank you for calling Lifecore! How can I help you?" "Hi, Um… I'm actually looking for my family, I believe they are in room 5?" "Oh yessss! The… Williams… Right?" Sarah nodded in response, still quite tired, before realizing the woman on the other end wouldn't be able to tell she had nodded. Now she just felt silly. "Um… yes… Can I talk to them please?" "Connecting!" The voice said as the phone began to buzz again, before another voice picked up.
"Hello?" Answered her mother. "Mom? It's me… I'm… I'm scared…" There was a few seconds of silence as both of the women held back tears, Sarah broke the silence. "Mom?" "We're here… I'm scared too… It's okay to be scared. Just know, no matter what that we lov-" CLICK.
Sarah's eyebrows furrowed. The line went completely dead. She bit her lip gently in confusion and nervousness as she pressed the button on the receiver repeatedly. "Hello? Mom?" Her voice was shaky as she set the phone back on the docking base.
Sarah's lip quivered slightly. She felt alone. Because frankly, she was completely alone. The microwave beeped loudly, scaring the poor girl half to death. She inhaled deeply and opened the microwave, pulling the steaming bowl out with caution. She smiled half-heartedly at the bowl and set it on the counter before her eyes began to adjust. Suddenly the room seemed a whole lot brighter. She squinted and glanced around the room before her eyes fixed on the painted over window. It was getting brighter and brighter. She could hardly bear the brightness as she struggled to be in the room. She turned around and noticed the brightness was coming from every window in the house.
Sarah struggled to keep her eyes open as all the lightbulbs in the home began to screech and pop, sending small shards of glass all around. Sarah screamed and fell to the floor trying to ignore the pieces of broken lightbulb sticking out of her arm. The dog now barked loudly, at the window, it was and aggressive bark that Sarah had never heard her pet make before. Sarah's breathing was becoming hitched as she began to cry. Then suddenly the bright turned to dark. The screeching stopped and all Sarah could hear was her own breathing. She stood up, trapped in darkness. She felt her way around the kitchen, trying her hardest not to step or touch any of the broken glass all around her. Eventually she found her way to a drawer in the kitchen. She pulled it open and pulled the contents from within it. Matches and candles. She lit a match and stared at it. She watched it burn slowly down toward her fingertips. Everything was still other than the flicker of the match in the pitch black room. She held the match to the wick of the candle as she inhaled deeply and gasped as she attempted to pick the larger pieces of glass from her bleeding arm.
K-K-KRACKKAKOOOM!!!
A noise like thunder came from all around her and the house began to shake and tremble. She began to panic as she heard glasses and fine china fall and shatter all around the house. While the quake couldn't have been longer than a few seconds, it felt like an eternity to Sarah, as she once again fell to the ground the match fell from her fingers and burnt out against the floor as the tremor reached its peak, sending the glass bowl of hot soup falling from the counter, right to the top of Sarah's head, knocking her out, her limp body laying against the cold tile in the kitchen. Her limbs bled as she lay there, unaware of the events that had just taken place.
"Wake up"
A considerable amount of time had passed since the earthquake. Sarah's body began to move as her eyes slowly opened. She looked around the room, attempting to regain composure. She sat up and looked at the carnage all around her. She winced as she used her knee to stand up. Her arms were covered in a mix of her own blood and the sauce from the canned pasta. Sarah had a hard time telling the two apart. She limped slowly into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. "What a mess…" She thought to herself as she reached for the sink handle and turned it on, and began to wash her hands. She sharply inhaled, and pulled her hands away from each other. Both were covered in small shards of glass. She whined and shook her hands, trying to get the glass out. She felt helpless. Her hair was full of crusty sauce, her arms and hands were bloodied and clotted. She was afraid to look at her legs, despite how She felt no pain in them. She assumed she was in shock.
She finally got a majority of the glass from her hands out of her palms. At least the pieces that caused major discomfort. She slowly washed her hands before noticing the large piece of glass sticking out of her leg. She knew an undamaged leg was too good to be true. The smell in the bathroom was disgusting to her, it had a strangely copper scent. The sauce which was beginning to spoil, and the amount of blood she was losing didn't mix well on the girl's already pale skin. she lowered herself onto the floor and stared blankly at the glass in her leg, as she thought back to a childhood memory.
She remembered when she had lived in the same house as the one she lived in just before the planes crashed. She remembered playing in the back yard a few months before the attack, they were a working family so there were some tools and lumber lying about in the yard. And Sarah had found herself alone playing 'adventurer' in the backyard in the tall grass. Their mother had been bugging their father to mow the lawn, but their father being the person he was, decided he had better things to do.
Sarah remembered playing make believe that she was hunting a creature that was half man, half lion. Of course the creature was completely fictitious, but as she found herself crawling through the deep grass it felt real. She remembered feeling every blade of grass against her skin as she crawled. She began to get tired, as she flopped onto her back. Which quite possibly could have been her worst mistake in this situation. Sarah screamed loudly as she quickly shot upwards, grabbing at the back of her left shoulder which now had a large nail and a piece of wood stuck to it. She cried loudly as her father, who had heard her initial scream from inside the home, quickly ran outside to check what had happened. He saw her spinning around as she tried to pull the nail from her already blood soaked shoulder. She cried loudly and continued screaming as her father rushed to her. He picked her up and carried her inside and quickly began to take action, cleaning and taking care of his daughter's wound, comforting her and explaining that she would make it through and reassuring her that she was going to be okay.
In the present Sarah inhaled quickly and pulled the large shard from her leg carefully. She cried out in pain as she pulled it out. She felt like she could pass out at any moment from the sight of the blood alone. But she knew she had to get the glass out, otherwise it would heal over and cause an infection. Both things she didn't want to deal with alone.
Soon the girl had gotten just about every visible piece of glass out of her skin and sat in a pool of hydrogen peroxide, water, blood and rubbing alcohol in the empty bathtub. She tried her best not to cry as she shakily stood up, and turned on the shower. She awaited it to warm to her liking and as it did so, she turned on a small radio that the family kept on the shelf in the bathroom. It hissed to life and a loud static filled room. Much louder than the water running itself. She winced and changed the channel. Finding one that she was used to was also blank with static. Channel after channel, nothing but static. This obviously confused her. As it would anybody who was used to something every day, but then only to have it suddenly disappear. But she turned off the radio and eventually stepped into the shower. The water falling to the floor was a deep red as the sauce and blood fell from her hair and hands.
She scrubbed her arms and legs lightly, and was sure to be extra careful around the areas she had been injured. She eventually found herself sitting on the floor of the tub once again, just allowing the water to run down her hair. As the water ran down she remembered when she was young and her mother would wash Sarah's hair for her. She remembered standing in her shower and raising her hand just to see the water travel down her arm and carry itself off her fingertips. She tried so hard to convince her peers and family that she had "Water powers." but could never seem to replicate the action, or any other type of water based powers anywhere except the shower.
Sarah, once again in the present, found herself smiling lightly at the memory. She swallowed and raised her head with her eyes closed, allowing the water to run down her face. Eventually she stood again, turned off the water, and stepped out. She wrapped herself in a towel and headed to her room. In the hallway was a box she had missed earlier. It was closed and had no identifying marks on it. She raised an eyebrow and dragged the box inside her room. It wasn't heavy but it had a weight to it. Once in her room, Sarah carefully got dressed and began to inspect the outside of the box that was left in the hall. Sarah opened the cardboard container and pulled out the items inside. The items belonged to Kevin. The long black coat he had 'found' at the mall, his wallet and chain along with his MP3 player. Sarah sighed and put the items back into the box and slid them to Kevin's side of the room.
Sarah, now remembering that there was quite a mess in the kitchen, stood from her bed and headed out into the kitchen where most of the mess had been. California was always known for its large earthquakes but the one that had just happened was the biggest Sarah herself had ever felt. She lightly ran her fingers through her hair and scoffed at the mess, before carefully stepping over the glass to grab a broom to begin to sweep up the mess. Cleaning up was always something Sarah had hated doing. She wasn't a particularly messy person, but she was a teenager, and if you ask any adult about being a teenager, the one thing they hated more than their parents' rules, was cleaning up after themselves. She sighed as the sound of the glass being dragged across the tile flooring was like nails in a chalkboard to the girl. She winced and swept the glass into a dust pan. She remembered when she was little how much she loved to play house with the girls at school. They had their tiny play kitchen sets that came complete with tiny plastic pots and pans. She loved those toys. She also remembered arguing with her friends at school about who got to take the first turn 'cooking' the toy food. But no matter how much arguing ensued, none of the girls ever wanted to play with the broom and dustpan.
Back in the present again Sarah dumped the broken bits of glass into the trash can. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She felt exhausted. The toll of the stress was much more than enough to tire the poor girl out.
Sarah said as she pressed her hand against the completely painted over window, feeling the coldness of it from outside. “So what if people get a little sick? That's no reason to lock us all inside our houses, like some kind of animals!” From the kitchen responded the voice of her brother, “You've been saying that for 3 weeks straight. Let off!" "Oh whatever--! What I don’t understand is why the government thought it was a good idea to lock us in! And for how long? Who knows!” She said angrily as she slammed her hand on the window. "We aren't LOCKED in Sarah, it's just we don't have any emergencies. We don't NEED to leave, Y'know?"
Sarah sighed as she walked into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and picked up a half eaten sandwich from the prior day and opened the plastic container it was in. And to her surprise it had rotted. Sarah sighed and tossed it to the side as she sat near her brother and bit into an apple that was sitting on the counter. The bitter taste made her immediately stand and rush to the garbage to spit it out. She made a face as she spoke. "They expect us to eat this shit?" "Come on Sarah! It's a government-provided apple. What do you expect, Farm grown?" Kevin retorted as Sarah once again sighed and grabbed the peanut butter from the cupboard and a knife from the drawer. She chopped up the apple into slices and smothered them with peanut butter. "Look! It's not even peanut butter!" Sarah exclaimed as she squinted at the jar in front of her. "Processed peanut product. What the hell is that?" She said angrily as she pushed the jar away, before taking a bite and chewing begrudgingly. "It tastes like shit too." She said with a frown and began to think back to the first time she had eaten anything provided by the government. It was December 2020. After the fire and the planes, there weren’t many shipments going out, so the government began to provide food for the nation. She didn't remember the taste well, but she remembered not liking it all too much. After everything had settled down, everything began to go back to normal, and she soon forgot the bitter disgusting taste of the government-issued food products.
Kevin continued slowly eating his sandwich, and scrolling through his phone, before groaning and tossing his device onto the counter. "Dammit you're right, I'm tired of this!" Kevin said as he aggressively stood up. "This sandwich sucks, the rain is screwing with my phone service, and Harry is still missing!" Sarah set down her apple gently and looked up at her brother. "I- I'm… I'm sorry about Harry. I… I'm sure he'll come up eventually…" She said looking away from her brother with tears welling up in her eyes. "The police haven't done shit! After we find his bag, they tell us there isn't much they can do, and we get thrown to the curb!" Kevin said as he looked out the window. "I honestly can't believe that’s it. We put up posters, we ask around and nobody has seen anything..." Kevin said. Sarah nodded solemnly as he spoke. "He… he meant a lot. To both of us." Sarah said, As she stood quickly, walking to her room trying to avoid tears streaming down her face.
As she entered her room she sat down on the floor, she reached under her bed and pulled out a photo album, she flipped through each page tearfully. Smiling at some and quietly laughing at others. She had often photographed her outings with her friends, whom she hadn't seen in a little over a month. As she reached the back of the album, she pulled a key from a secret fold in the paper. She stood up, tossing the album onto her bed as she walked to her closet and pulled out a wooden box. The padlock on the front clinking slightly. She smiled and walked back to her bed, before sitting the box on her lap. She unlocked the padlock looped around the face of the box. It made a pleasant 'CLICK' noise. She again smiled as she opened it. Photos, paper, and costume jewelry filled the small box. She had memories associated with every item. The young girl pulled a piece of paper from the box. On it was a note written in basic handwriting
"Hey, I didn't want to text you this, in case Kevin saw… or something, I don't know… but… We've been friends for a while, I think you're super cool, and well, how would you feel about, maybe getting some dinner, and maybe a movie? If you want. I mean I don't mind either way but I think it could be fun. Anyway, Give me a call. -HARRY."
She smiled and clutched the paper tightly in a hug, before setting it down and grabbing the next item. A paracord wristband Harry had won at a local fair. She stared at it as she remembered all the rides she had gone on with her brother's friend, Harry Adamson , who she had begun seeing on a regular basis. All the while the both of them were doing their best to hide it from her brother. she smiled as she tearfully wrapped the wristband around her wrist and smiled as she picked up the next few items. Which were more or less random odds and ends of little memories she had throughout her life, dog tags, movie tickets, stickers and patches.
Soon after, Sarah locked the box back up and left her room, wiping the tears from her eyes. She walked back into the empty living room, expecting to hear the sound of her brother playing whatever video game was popular at that time. When she saw the living room completely empty and the television screen dark, her brow scrunched slightly, the sound of coughing suddenly echoed in her ears. Her brow scrunched, even more, as she headed towards the source of the sound. It led her into the bathroom, where she found her brother hunched over the toilet, coughing loudly, small specks of red covered inside of the bowl. Sarah gasped and rushed to him, placing her hand on his back as he continued to cough. As he began to regurgitate his earlier sandwich.
Sarah winced and stepped backwards, trying to avoid the splatter, she half gagged and stepped out of the bathroom and quickly rushed to her mother's office. Her mother had told them that she would be in a very important video meeting, and unless the house was on fire, or somebody had died, they had better not interrupt. As she stepped inside she saw her mother was in fact in the video meeting. Sarah half considered letting her mother finish the call, but figured her brother coughing up blood was as good an excuse as any to interrupt.
20 minutes later
Soon Sarah's mother whom was named Mary, crouched over her son as he lay wrapped in a blanket on the sofa. Kevin shivered slightly as he rested. His mother sighed as she looked at him with a hand on his forehead. Kevin was cold to the touch. "Dammit, Kevin…" She whispered as Sarah entered the room, holding a warm towel, which she folded and set carefully on his forehead before she turned to her mother, and began to speak. "He isn't...?" "He's sleeping." Her mother replied as she stood up and rubbed her temple. "We need to let him rest… I'm sure... I'm sure everything will be okay." Her mother said in a reassuring voice. But behind her confidence hid fear. Fear for the future.
Sarah sat once again as she heard the loudspeaker from outside, commanding everybody who was in the home to keep away from all doors and windows as their groceries were set inside. As the door opened the cool outdoor wind entered their home. Sarah exited her room and saw as the tall men in hazmat suits set the bags onto their center counter in their living room. Sarah took note of the clouds outside. It wasn't easy telling the difference between clouds and the dull flat grey sky, but the smell that preceded the rain was always a good tell. She smiled at the man in the hazmat suit. The visor covering his face was tinted. The only hint of what he may sound like came from the breathing that she was able to hear, coming from inside the helmet. She watched as the men left, the rubber soles on their boots sticking slightly to their hardwood floor. As the last man began to walk out, he suddenly stopped. He looked down at Kevin, and turned around and looked at their mother.
Mrs. Williams covered her mouth and nodded slowly, Holding back tears. The man nodded back and pressed a button on his wrist mounted device. It made a loud beep noise, followed by a sound that reminded Sarah of a sonar. As the man walked out, and closed the door behind him, Sarah sighed and walked over to the table and began to rummage through the bags. "Raisins… Trail mix…Cashews… Where the hell is the good stuff?" She asked nobody in particular. She scoffed as she tore open the bag of trail mix, looking inside to see no peanuts, but in their place her least favorite type of nut… Drupe? Whatever. "Almonds." She let out a defeated groan and curled the top of the bag to reseal it and tossed it onto the table, muttering a profanity under her breath. Soon the young girl stood and headed back to her room, she lay quietly, texting her friends, about their plans after the quarantine period had ended, she sighed and rested her phone on her chest and listened to the silence of the home, she hated it.
14 Hours Later.
Sarah's eyes slowly began to open as she awoke from her nap. Just as she heard the front door slam closed. "Mom?" She called out, before standing and walking to the living room. Everything was quiet. Her brother was gone from his spot on the couch, and no noise came from her mother's office. Sarah even walked into the garage to check on her father. The house was empty. Her father's tools lay out on the floor, scattered around along with the various parts to their family vehicle. Sarah rubbed her eyes as she headed inside and looked at the clock on the wall. "2:00...? Kevin...? Mom? Dad!?" It was already the following day. She had slept through the night and through a majority of that day. She blinked slowly as she began to realize what had happened.
She rushed to the door and began to pound on it, begging to go with them. When nobody answered or opened to let her out she stuck her eye onto the peep hole, which was the only thing left uncovered by the LifeCore employees when they painted the windows. And oversight perhaps? She glanced around before spotting the white van pulling away. With her family inside. Her parents sat on each side of her brother. He was hunched over slightly. Sarah pounded weakly and sobbed quietly as she slid down the door, hugging her knees. "Don't leave me- Please don't leave me-" She said in a whisper, through tears Eventually she rubbed her eyes and looked up. She noticed a note taped to the mirror on the center of one of the walls in the living room. Her face beamed and stood as she wiped the tears from her eyes, as she took it down and began reading it over.
Hey honey, we're taking Kevin to the new doctor's office that they just built. We'll be back tomorrow, I promise. There's some food in the kitchen, but I think you already knew that ;) I already found the trail mix, unless that was some little mouse, haha. Not sure if we will have phone service in the hospital. So, (951) xxx-xxxx is the number for the office. The guys that picked us up said we'll be in room 5. If you need us just call. Love you. -Mom.
Sarah, satisfied with this, rubbed her now slightly puffy eyes and took out her cell phone, finding it completely shut off. She scoffed and held down the power button. The screen remained black as she scrunched her brow and held it slightly tighter hoping for a different result. Still to no avail, Sarah glanced up at the charger hanging from a power outlet on the wall. She exhaled, still not fully awake as she walked to the charger, and began to plug her phone into the cord. She set it down on the table next to the living room sofa and smiled at the family dog, Harley, who slept happily in her little bed by the sofa. "At least you're still here." Sarah said with a giggle before walking into the kitchen to find it in complete disarray. The food in the cupboard was all on the floor, what wasn't on the floor was thrown into the now overflowing garbage can. Sarah used her finger to cover her nose. Around the same time she noticed the excessive amount of mold on the food laying on the floor. She winced slightly before she noticed a single can of her favorite soup still sitting label out in the cupboard. She exhaled lightly through her nose and reached for the can. As she felt it's cold metallic shell, she was reminded of her childhood.
A few years after the planes fell, and once everything had returned to normal, she remembered falling in love with the taste of this canned noodle product. The gym teacher at her school constantly hounded her for eating anything in a can because of it's supposed high mercury levels. Sarah's parents told her that it was only found in canned fish. Sarah didn't care much. As a 10 year old, discovering something new you liked other than pizza, chicken nuggets, and soda was pretty exciting.
Back in the present,the quite hungry Sarah popped open the lid. The food inside was just as fresh as it ever was. She smiled lightly and dumped it's contents into a bowl, before tossing it into the microwave. The beep of the buttons was pleasant in the otherwise silent house. The echoing hum of the microwave in her ears was another noise that made her reminisce about her past.
She remembered a particularly rainy evening, the day of her and her brother's 10th birthday. Kevin had gone to Harry's house to spend the night with some of his friends, and Sarah and her friends had remained at the Williams home.
It was around 3 in the morning and by then the girls were in a giggling fit and laughing at just about anything at all. Eventually one of the girls decided to make popcorn as they watched an animated film that was used as a marketing ploy to get children to beg their parents to buy more of the plastic dolls. Which often worked. As the microwave hummed, the girls sat in silence, watching the movie tiredly. Then suddenly… PIP! One kernel popped quite loudly. One of the girls snickered lightly. POP! POP! POP! The popping got louder and more frequent as the bag began to expand inside the microwave. As the popping got louder so did the giggles as the young girls surrounded the microwave watching it spin round and round.
Once again in the present Sarah turned around and put her hands on her hips as she looked at the mess sitting on the floor. She made an annoyed face and opened a cabinet, and pulled out a handful of trash bags. She opened each one, snapping them open with air. The bags snapped open with a loud echo, she didn't like the noise. it gave her a feeling of unrest in the otherwise silent home. She tossed each piece of rotted food into the garbage with one hand, while holding her nose with the other. Three trash bags worth of food. Almost everything that had been brought the previous day had rotted away, even the supposed imperishable items, like the freeze dried banana chips. She didn't mind all too much, because frankly she didn't like much out of the lot, as it was. She figured she could call for a trash pickup and for some more food to be delivered as they had been doing since the start of the quarantine.
She stretched slightly and dragged the three bags to her front door, Before walking over to the phone on the wall and taking it off the docking base. The young girl dialed the number to the office her mother had given her. The phone gave a screeching dial sound and began to buzz on the other end. It eventually connected and the voice of a woman answered on the other end "Hello this is Kathy, Thank you for calling Lifecore! How can I help you?" "Hi, Um… I'm actually looking for my family, I believe they are in room 5?" "Oh yessss! The… Williams… Right?" Sarah nodded in response, still quite tired, before realizing the woman on the other end wouldn't be able to tell she had nodded. Now she just felt silly. "Um… yes… Can I talk to them please?" "Connecting!" The voice said as the phone began to buzz again, before another voice picked up.
"Hello?" Answered her mother. "Mom? It's me… I'm… I'm scared…" There was a few seconds of silence as both of the women held back tears, Sarah broke the silence. "Mom?" "We're here… I'm scared too… It's okay to be scared. Just know, no matter what that we lov-" CLICK.
Sarah's eyebrows furrowed. The line went completely dead. She bit her lip gently in confusion and nervousness as she pressed the button on the receiver repeatedly. "Hello? Mom?" Her voice was shaky as she set the phone back on the docking base.
Sarah's lip quivered slightly. She felt alone. Because frankly, she was completely alone. The microwave beeped loudly, scaring the poor girl half to death. She inhaled deeply and opened the microwave, pulling the steaming bowl out with caution. She smiled half-heartedly at the bowl and set it on the counter before her eyes began to adjust. Suddenly the room seemed a whole lot brighter. She squinted and glanced around the room before her eyes fixed on the painted over window. It was getting brighter and brighter. She could hardly bear the brightness as she struggled to be in the room. She turned around and noticed the brightness was coming from every window in the house.
Sarah struggled to keep her eyes open as all the lightbulbs in the home began to screech and pop, sending small shards of glass all around. Sarah screamed and fell to the floor trying to ignore the pieces of broken lightbulb sticking out of her arm. The dog now barked loudly, at the window, it was and aggressive bark that Sarah had never heard her pet make before. Sarah's breathing was becoming hitched as she began to cry. Then suddenly the bright turned to dark. The screeching stopped and all Sarah could hear was her own breathing. She stood up, trapped in darkness. She felt her way around the kitchen, trying her hardest not to step or touch any of the broken glass all around her. Eventually she found her way to a drawer in the kitchen. She pulled it open and pulled the contents from within it. Matches and candles. She lit a match and stared at it. She watched it burn slowly down toward her fingertips. Everything was still other than the flicker of the match in the pitch black room. She held the match to the wick of the candle as she inhaled deeply and gasped as she attempted to pick the larger pieces of glass from her bleeding arm.
K-K-KRACKKAKOOOM!!!
A noise like thunder came from all around her and the house began to shake and tremble. She began to panic as she heard glasses and fine china fall and shatter all around the house. While the quake couldn't have been longer than a few seconds, it felt like an eternity to Sarah, as she once again fell to the ground the match fell from her fingers and burnt out against the floor as the tremor reached its peak, sending the glass bowl of hot soup falling from the counter, right to the top of Sarah's head, knocking her out, her limp body laying against the cold tile in the kitchen. Her limbs bled as she lay there, unaware of the events that had just taken place.
"Wake up"
A considerable amount of time had passed since the earthquake. Sarah's body began to move as her eyes slowly opened. She looked around the room, attempting to regain composure. She sat up and looked at the carnage all around her. She winced as she used her knee to stand up. Her arms were covered in a mix of her own blood and the sauce from the canned pasta. Sarah had a hard time telling the two apart. She limped slowly into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. "What a mess…" She thought to herself as she reached for the sink handle and turned it on, and began to wash her hands. She sharply inhaled, and pulled her hands away from each other. Both were covered in small shards of glass. She whined and shook her hands, trying to get the glass out. She felt helpless. Her hair was full of crusty sauce, her arms and hands were bloodied and clotted. She was afraid to look at her legs, despite how She felt no pain in them. She assumed she was in shock.
She finally got a majority of the glass from her hands out of her palms. At least the pieces that caused major discomfort. She slowly washed her hands before noticing the large piece of glass sticking out of her leg. She knew an undamaged leg was too good to be true. The smell in the bathroom was disgusting to her, it had a strangely copper scent. The sauce which was beginning to spoil, and the amount of blood she was losing didn't mix well on the girl's already pale skin. she lowered herself onto the floor and stared blankly at the glass in her leg, as she thought back to a childhood memory.
She remembered when she had lived in the same house as the one she lived in just before the planes crashed. She remembered playing in the back yard a few months before the attack, they were a working family so there were some tools and lumber lying about in the yard. And Sarah had found herself alone playing 'adventurer' in the backyard in the tall grass. Their mother had been bugging their father to mow the lawn, but their father being the person he was, decided he had better things to do.
Sarah remembered playing make believe that she was hunting a creature that was half man, half lion. Of course the creature was completely fictitious, but as she found herself crawling through the deep grass it felt real. She remembered feeling every blade of grass against her skin as she crawled. She began to get tired, as she flopped onto her back. Which quite possibly could have been her worst mistake in this situation. Sarah screamed loudly as she quickly shot upwards, grabbing at the back of her left shoulder which now had a large nail and a piece of wood stuck to it. She cried loudly as her father, who had heard her initial scream from inside the home, quickly ran outside to check what had happened. He saw her spinning around as she tried to pull the nail from her already blood soaked shoulder. She cried loudly and continued screaming as her father rushed to her. He picked her up and carried her inside and quickly began to take action, cleaning and taking care of his daughter's wound, comforting her and explaining that she would make it through and reassuring her that she was going to be okay.
In the present Sarah inhaled quickly and pulled the large shard from her leg carefully. She cried out in pain as she pulled it out. She felt like she could pass out at any moment from the sight of the blood alone. But she knew she had to get the glass out, otherwise it would heal over and cause an infection. Both things she didn't want to deal with alone.
Soon the girl had gotten just about every visible piece of glass out of her skin and sat in a pool of hydrogen peroxide, water, blood and rubbing alcohol in the empty bathtub. She tried her best not to cry as she shakily stood up, and turned on the shower. She awaited it to warm to her liking and as it did so, she turned on a small radio that the family kept on the shelf in the bathroom. It hissed to life and a loud static filled room. Much louder than the water running itself. She winced and changed the channel. Finding one that she was used to was also blank with static. Channel after channel, nothing but static. This obviously confused her. As it would anybody who was used to something every day, but then only to have it suddenly disappear. But she turned off the radio and eventually stepped into the shower. The water falling to the floor was a deep red as the sauce and blood fell from her hair and hands.
She scrubbed her arms and legs lightly, and was sure to be extra careful around the areas she had been injured. She eventually found herself sitting on the floor of the tub once again, just allowing the water to run down her hair. As the water ran down she remembered when she was young and her mother would wash Sarah's hair for her. She remembered standing in her shower and raising her hand just to see the water travel down her arm and carry itself off her fingertips. She tried so hard to convince her peers and family that she had "Water powers." but could never seem to replicate the action, or any other type of water based powers anywhere except the shower.
Sarah, once again in the present, found herself smiling lightly at the memory. She swallowed and raised her head with her eyes closed, allowing the water to run down her face. Eventually she stood again, turned off the water, and stepped out. She wrapped herself in a towel and headed to her room. In the hallway was a box she had missed earlier. It was closed and had no identifying marks on it. She raised an eyebrow and dragged the box inside her room. It wasn't heavy but it had a weight to it. Once in her room, Sarah carefully got dressed and began to inspect the outside of the box that was left in the hall. Sarah opened the cardboard container and pulled out the items inside. The items belonged to Kevin. The long black coat he had 'found' at the mall, his wallet and chain along with his MP3 player. Sarah sighed and put the items back into the box and slid them to Kevin's side of the room.
Sarah, now remembering that there was quite a mess in the kitchen, stood from her bed and headed out into the kitchen where most of the mess had been. California was always known for its large earthquakes but the one that had just happened was the biggest Sarah herself had ever felt. She lightly ran her fingers through her hair and scoffed at the mess, before carefully stepping over the glass to grab a broom to begin to sweep up the mess. Cleaning up was always something Sarah had hated doing. She wasn't a particularly messy person, but she was a teenager, and if you ask any adult about being a teenager, the one thing they hated more than their parents' rules, was cleaning up after themselves. She sighed as the sound of the glass being dragged across the tile flooring was like nails in a chalkboard to the girl. She winced and swept the glass into a dust pan. She remembered when she was little how much she loved to play house with the girls at school. They had their tiny play kitchen sets that came complete with tiny plastic pots and pans. She loved those toys. She also remembered arguing with her friends at school about who got to take the first turn 'cooking' the toy food. But no matter how much arguing ensued, none of the girls ever wanted to play with the broom and dustpan.
Back in the present again Sarah dumped the broken bits of glass into the trash can. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She felt exhausted. The toll of the stress was much more than enough to tire the poor girl out.
Photo used under Creative Commons from garryknight