“Can I help you?” The male voice called out.
“I’m sorry,” Malcolm said weakly and turned around.
A man stood there. He wore a tee shirt and jeans, was sweaty and had a glaze of dirt on him as if he had been outside working. His hair was thick and wavy. He was older than Malcolm, maybe pushing fifty. He held a bat, almost as if he was prepared to use it as a weapon against the intruder.
“I didn’t mean to intrude,” Malcolm said. “I used to live here and…”
“Oh my God,” he dropped the bat and ran to Malcolm. “Dad.”
THIRTY – Answers
Jason didn’t need the time he claimed he did. In fact as soon as the battery showed enough charge, they left and headed to Cleveland.
They talked about returning to his home. It was a good option to settle. It was already prepared for a non-electrical world and it did have the well water.
Cleveland was closed. Just the same as nearly every city they passed. Borders set up, barricades keeping people out and in. While it wasn’t fenced in, Cleveland resembled Nashville. A city submerged in a new forest. The big difference was there weren’t any cars. No sea of traffic at the city’s exit ramps.
To Nora, it looked abandoned.
One thing was for sure, they couldn’t drive through. Nora took them, as close as she could to her home, and after hiding the buggy, they walked.
It was hard to find a point of direction, a recognizable landmark to follow. The moisture and humidity from the lake caused everything to be covered in moss.
After making it to her neighborhood, Nora was able to gauge where to go. Some of the small buildings and shops had crumbled. Some had trees that had taken over and grown straight through them.
She found it hard to breathe. Even though Nora convinced herself that she wouldn’t find her family, it still crushed her when she arrived at her home.
It, like the others, looked like an old shed abandoned in the woods. The roof had partially collapsed, the windows broken.
Her shoulders dropped and she looked at Jason. “Told you they wouldn’t be home.”
“We need to go inside,” he said. “We need to see.”
“They aren’t there.”
“Maybe there’s a clue. Nora, we have to. You have to.”
She wanted to say, ‘No, I have seen enough.’ But she didn’t. She took a few steps toward the house and stopped. “Can you go in first? I don’t want to see remains.”
“Absolutely.” Jason grabbed his flashlight. Even though it was day, the wooded area was dim as he walked to the house.
He couldn’t get the door open and he climbed through the first floor window. After a few moments, he emerged from the side. “Come around back. It’s fine.”
Nora thought there was no way it was fine. What possibly could remain at the house?
Apprehensively and with some fear, she went inside. As soon as she stepped through the side door, she knew, her husband hadn’t sold the home; in fact, the house was empty not long after she had presumably died.
The furniture was the same. Every piece was moss covered. The light green substance grew on the walls and every surface. Going upstairs wasn’t an option, it just wasn’t safe with the roof collapsing.
When she walked into the living room, a mouse scurried across the floor and ran into the couch which was full of holes.
“If I knew you were coming, I would have cleaned up,” she joked halfheartedly.
Jason gave her a closed mouth smile. “Where did you keep things? Pictures? Papers? Anything that could possibly tell us what happened to your family.”
“In the kitchen, the junk drawer. Upstairs in my room. The pictures…” She looked around. “The pictures are gone.”
“Are you sure?” Jason asked.
“Yeah. The girls’ school pictures and our family picture on the wall. Gone.” Nora turned left to right. “Maybe he sold the house. Maybe he just left the furniture and sold it.”
“You check here, I’ll go in the kitchen.”
Nora nodded. After Jason walked out, she examined the living room. It was surreal. Two weeks ago, in her mind, she was complaining that no one ever vacuumed and now the carpet was a pool of slime. The television was the same, the drapes the same. The two books she never finished reading were on the shelf.
“Nora,” Jason called from the kitchen. “Come here.”
She walked across her small first floor and into the kitchen. Jason held an envelope in one hand. It was moldy. In another, he held up paper, two sheets stapled together. “Rick was your husband’s name. Who was Catalina?”
Breathy, Nora answered and rushed to him. “My youngest. Why?”
He handed her the papers. “I found this on the table under the centerpiece. There are no contents in there other than this. Read it.”
Nora did. “Dear Mr. Lane. We are pleased to inform you that you and your daughter tested positive for the immunity factor to MES5. Enclosed please find a copy of your application and your admittance papers for Salvation. Please bring the certificate of approval along with proper identification on the date the facility opens.”
“Salvation? That must be the place you theorized about. You said it. You said they put everyone together. Nora, this means your family is alive. We need to find this Salvation. Is there a location?”
“Yeah, it’s right…” Nora flipped the page. She closed her eyes.
“What is it?”
“Lilly died. The application has her and I both as deceased.”
“Any dates.”
“Lilly died six months after I went into stasis. Wait this can’t be right.” She flipped back and forth.
“What is it?”
“The facility open date.” Nora looked at him. “It’s fifteen years after we went into stasis. Jesus, Jason how long were we out?”
Rusty had a full head of hair and a beard to match, and not a strand of it wasn’t gray. He more than likely was pushing seventy, but it was hard to tell. He could have aged badly, after all, it was a harsh world. He didn’t look like a man who was starving either. A healthy built man with a few extra pounds. In fact, John worried that he was slated to be Rusty’s next meal. How was he not starving in a post apocalyptic world?
“You looked pretty pathetic on the side of the road,” Rusty said, helping John sit up in bed. “Like road kill. I thought you were dead until the woman called out for help. Both of you were in bad shape. My son and I loaded you in the cart and brought you back here. She woke up before you. At least you ain’t stupid. That bleeding head, you could have been rendered stupid. Then again, you were in Wrecker Land.”
Meredith asked. “Wrecker?”
“That’s what we call them. Wreckers. The ones that claimed the land. Well, what was left of it in these parts. They only come out at night. Most of them are products of post war. Their parents tried to stay. Not right in the head and can’t see too well. Sun bothers their eyes. Catch them in the day, you can run right around them. Boy they did a number on you.” Rusty whistled. “Course, you’re not too right in the head being in that area at night.”
“How come they don’t come after you?” Meredith asked.
“I live too far for them to walk, plus my dogs will tear them up.”
“What were you doing there?” John asked. “I mean, when you found us.”
“It was daylight. I was duck hunting. Since DC took a nuclear nosedive, the swamp lifted and the ducks are plenty.”
“DC?” John asked. “Nuclear nose dive. When?”
“During the war. What? You been living under a rock?”
“More like in a refrigerator,” John said. “Pretend I don’t know anything. What would you tell me?”
“Well, you ain’t from Salvation or you’d know. Plus, you wouldn’t leave there.”