For Experimental Purposes Only

Chapter 10 (Vee)

I nodded. I don't know if I believed it, but it felt good for the time being.

We got to the part of the city where the streets and building turned into uphill pebble roads and trees that lasted forever. I take that back when the car pulled up there were almost no trees standing.

"The car won't make it to the house," David said.

"Is there still a house?"

David didn't answer.

Without saying anything we decided to walk to the house. We climbed over trees and flooded parts of the road area. I followed the road best that I could but it was hard. Hard to move ahead. Hard to think about what was up ahead.

I saw I piece of wood that definitely didn't come from a tree. I knew that we didn't have a house anymore. Just seeing how the storm affected the well-built buildings in the city our scrawny little wooden house didn't stand a chance.

My dress got caught on twigs and my nice bun was falling out, but I didn't care. Every now and then David would look at me. Asking with his eyes if I was okay. I would pretend that I didn't see him. I didn't want him to be disappointed if my eyes said "no".

After nearly a mile of walking, we came to the house. I expected what I saw and it still came as a shock to me.

Nothing.

Just nothing. Like a house of playing cards that were knocked over by the slighted touch. There was just nothing there.

I didn't have any more tears to cry. So I just stared numbly at the place that I was just beginning to call home.

The rain had stopped and everything felt like a ghost town. Like the ruins of the house had been there a hundred years instead of two hours.

David and I were both silent for a second. Then David had the obvious idea of calling for Jason and Isa.

He screamed their names and looked around the rubbish. I joined in.

He stopped at one point and started digging through the pieces of wood and dirt. I held my breath expecting him to find the bodies of my experimental siblings. Instead, he revealed the bomb shelter thing.

Of course. If there wasn't a basement the bomb shelter would be the ideal place to hide from a tornado.

David shouted Jason's name again.

I heard something. It was Isa. I almost started crying again because it just felt so good to hear her voice.

David heard it too.

"Isa!" He shouted.

"Papa! Papa, I'm down here!"

I didn't hear Jason. And my head scrolled through all the worse possible ideas.

David opened the bomb shelter thing and let me go down the latter first.

I was immediately tackled by Isa.

"Vee. I thought that the tornado ate you."

The shelter was made of mostly concrete. There were a bench and a shelf in the back with a ton of canned food from the fifty's. There was one hanging light like the one in the attic.

David had followed me down and ran straight to Jason. I was so busy hugging Isa I didn't even notice. Jason was holding a bloody cloth to his head. His eyes didn't focus and he looked really confused.

"Jason, what happened? Are you okay?

Isa let go of me and went over to David.

"Jason hit his head. He's really bad at talking and walking. And he curses every time I turn on the light." Isa said.

She turned on the light. Jason blinked a lot and cursed. I had a really weird feeling like Isa had been doing this a lot while we were gone. David rolled his eyes.

"Okay, so Jason needs to go to the hospital. Is everyone else okay?" David asked.

Isa and I nodded.

"How are we going to get to the hospital if we walked here?" I asked.

"You walked here?" Jason said slurring his words. David sushed him.

"And wasn't the hospital destroyed in the storm?" I added.

David just looked forward. He looked like he was thinking.

"We can call someone." He said.

"Like 911 or..."

"Ooh, I wanna call 911. We've been practicing in school!" Isa shouted.

Jason winced at the noise level.

"Maybe they'll send the helicopter thing," Isa said a little quieter.

David looked apprehensive for a while. "Okay, okay fine whatever. Let's just make sure everyone's safe."

"Thanks, Dad."

Everything stopped. Because Jason said those words. Isa was the only one who had ever referred to David as a parental figure. We all thought of him that way, but she's the only one who had said anything.

"Jason," David said, "Jason you're... you're confused."

"No, he's not." I piped. "You're our dad. This is our family. This is where we belong." I said slowly without a hint of sarcasticness in my voice.

David looked like he was going to cry. Maybe he was. Isa ran over and hugged him. I joined them too. So did Jason.

I didn't care why I was here. It was home.