Grab My Hand, Trust Me

Home Sweet Home

I walked back in the door of our old family home, upset that I only returned with a jar of baby food.

"Ace?" I call out, worried as I don't see him and the kids in the living room like they usually are. I walk up the stairs of our two story house and turn into the nursery. I see Ace holding Brooke, trying to gently maneuver her into her crib while looking at me nervously as if to shush me not to wake her up.

I smile at my brother's gesture and hold up my hands in surrender as I exit the nursery and turn the corner. I walk down the hall to our brothers room, looking for Oliver.

"Olive?" I whisper, creaking his door slightly to peak in. Our little seven year old brother was snuggled in his twin size bed with his foot hanging slightly off the edge out of the covers.
I walk up to him quietly, and lift his foot back onto his bed, covering it up with his soft blue throw blanket that he's had since he was a baby.

Knowing that he needed his sleep, as he was on baby duty last night, I smiled and walked out, closing the door before heading back downstairs.
I headed the the living room, letting out a distressed sigh as I waited for Ace to come downstairs to deliver the news of my scavenge.

I heard quiet thumps coming from our carpeted stairs and turned around with a sad smile.

"What'd you find, Sage?" Ace asked, plopping on the couch and looking at me expectantly.
"Not much. Just two things." I said solemnly as I flipped the plastic bag over, spilling the contents next to him.
"Well it's great that you found the baby food for Brooke, but Sage,  that's not gonna last us the week." He said with raised eyebrows.

I sighed again, turning around and heading for the windows, looking out one last time for the night before setting up our "security system." I flipped over the large two by four from the side of the window, and hooked it onto the latch at the other side, doing the same three times until it was secure. I then applied the bike lock and connected all three beams to the hook that we installed on the floor, so even if someone broke the glass and tried to lift the blocks, it wouldn't move up. I did that to all the windows and closed the curtains, trying to avoid the conversation and headed towards the door doing the same thing after locking the deadbolts.

I turned around to look at Ace who was looking at me expectantly, knowing that I didn't want to talk.

I rolled my eyes and plopped on the couch next to him, avoiding the baby food.
"Listen, all the houses within a two block radius from here have already been raided by us. We were lucky that this neighborhood didn't have many kids, but it's been a couple of months now, and we have emptied them all."

We were for sure lucky that this was considered a neighborhood for the elderly. About a year ago, the news reported that scientists predicted a deadly flare that the sun was going to expel. Although it couldn't reach the earth, the effects would cause a bacteria that was considered dormant without extreme heat, to release a gaseous poison that would kill anyone who wasn't immune. Scientists had enough time to create a vaccine, but the world's government released a statement for children to receive the vaccination first. Brooke was only two months old at the time, Olive had just turned seven, Ace was turning 17. I am 18 now, but when the vaccine was released I was still a minor, so I just barely was able to get it.

However, the scientists predicted date was incorrect, and the adults didn't get the injection in time. Almost all of the adult population has been wiped out. There are still a few adults left, like those who were naturally immune, or those who were rich enough to get around the age restriction. But the world is mostly millennials now. This means that there aren't people to run stores, or even grow crop unless their kids were taught to do it. However, if a child was passed on such skills, they did it for the sake of their own lives. It's every man for them self now, and unless you're in a gang, you don't share your ability or your stash.

Ace finally broke the silence: "so we are going to have to expand our "two block radius" rule?" He questioned.

"Yes, and I'm going to have to start tomorrow because it's getting too late tonight." I answered.

"You know I can go instead." He suggested, but I immediately shook my head no.

"You and I both know that your arm is still sprained. If you ran into someone, or god forbid a gang, you couldn't protect yourself!" I chastised.

"Ok, ok! But as soon as I'm healed, we are sharing the task again because it scares the shit out of me when you have to go out almost every day." Ace hates the fact that he can't to much other than to help around the house since he hurt himself.

He was out on a food run when he nearly encountered a gang, he tried to quickly turn the corner to avoid them, but slipped on ice and couldn't catch his fall because he was holding to much food. He didn't get caught but he came home with a bad arm.

Lucky for us, our mom used to be a doctor. When she heard of the flare from the news, she started to teach Ace everything she knew about first aid, so he knew how to wrap his arm properly.

I wasn't very good at handling sicknesses or injuries, but Ace loves it. Not only did she teach him personally, but she stole all sorts of medicine and vaccines from her hospital. Sadly, the flare vaccine was secured and she couldn't get to it, but we now have a whole stash of medical supplies that we don't touch unless absolutely necessary.

She also took some educational books on the practice of medicine so Ace could brush up on things she didn't have time to teach. In a way all of it is a reminder of mom.

For me, I'm more materialistic, so dad was able to give me all of his skills. He set up the security system in the house, and taught me how to fight. He told me that they didn't think they would get the vaccines in time and we needed to know everything we could. He was a cop, and not only did he teach me hand to hand combat, but he gave me his gun and a whole lot of bullets.

Although I was able to teach Ace and Olive to protect themselves, I didn't want them to use the gun. Olive is too young, and Ace couldn't kill someone without having a mental break down as he is a fixer not a harmer.

Olive can fix things. I'm not really sure how he picked up the skill, but I think it was from all of his books. He set up a draining system outside so it can filter rain water to drinking water. That way we never have to scavenge for that necessity. Also, if any furniture breaks, he's the first to jump to the opportunity to show us his skills. He is a great help for his age.

However, we do have the burden of Brooke. She's a beautiful baby, but she's not old enough to eat normal food. So when we scavenge, we have to keep her in mind constantly. She's also a hazard because when she cries, she lets everyone in the area know that we have a set up here. If someone has a live baby, they have a good stash, and that makes us a target for gangs.

We were good for a while because not many millennials lived in the area, so we could usually scavenge safely. But now that it has been a few months, we have to start to expand our travel path. We also can't go out in groups of two, because either Ace or I need to stay home to help Oliver with the baby.

And now that Ace is injured it's just me. We have a rule that when we scavenge, we have to be back by five in the afternoon to avoid the night and help set up the security system in the house. We can tell time because Olive taught us how to read the position of the sun.

If we aren't back in time, we are either injured or dead. That means that we have to close up the house for the night either way, and someone would keep watch throughout the night in case we made it home. Luckily that hasn't happened yet.

Even though we have a very tight set up, we are running out of food. We only have two cans of baked beans, a can of soup, and the can of baby food. Which means we have to expand from our comfort zone to survive.