Embrace The Madness: Cataclysm

11. Water (part 1)

[day 39]
He lay there, shrouded in darkness, clutching a pillow in his arms which he had looted from a bed store, along with an assortment of mattresses and quilts. It was basic but it was what he'd gotten used to, it was of course his home now.
Patrick continued to caress the pillow as if he loved it, pulling it closer to his body.
He woke up, facing the attic wall.
Though he didn't get up straight away, instead he laid there, slowly opening his eyes, sore and dry.
Eventually he did get up and put the pillow aside.
Dressed in nothing put underwear, he carefully sat up, trying not to make too much noise.
He saw his assortment of clothes on the wooden floor beneath him.
One by one, he slipped into his dark grey joggers as well as sporting a black t-shirt.
He finished by slipping on his white trainers, which were covered in mud that he'd hadn't bothered to wash.
There were voices coming from downstairs, it seemed that he was the only one still sleeping.
He got up slowly, feeling his age with his creaking back.
On the floor we're different bedspreads, two to be precise. They belonged to Oliver and Dylan, the two eldest of the three teens. The youngest, at 17, was Marco, who had a room downstairs in the main house.
To get down, he used a latch on the floor. There was no ladder for him to use, as it was kept downstairs. So he positioned himself and dropped down with as much grace as a ton of bricks.
There was silence, then the muffled conversations resumed.
He made his was through the white corridors, along the ageing, grey carpet.

He past an array of pictures, all in black and white. They showed What Patrick assumed to be a young Seamus. There was another man who featured frequently in the pictures.
They were positioned in front of a large military truck in a sandy area.
There were two at the bottom, one read "shay" and the other read "Frank".
At the bottom of the photograph, there read another quote at the bottom. It was too hard to make out, but the words he could see were "brothers in arms".

His investigation was interrupted by the smell of fresh toast and the clanging of plates.
He continued down the corridor, eventually reaching the kitchen where Hadiza, Frank and Seamus were sitting down, discussing various topics over cups of coffee.

He was greeted with smiles, even from grumpy old Frank. Hadiza handed him some toast with a glass of orange juice and he dug in.
It didn't take him long to eat, after all he wasn't eating that much as food was such a scarce supply.
After a short while, Noah entered the house, his hands covered in grime and dirt.

"Hey" he said after he slung a dirty rag over his shoulder after crudely cleaning his hands.
He went to wash his hands in the washing up bowl. Hadiza never got used to it.

"Oh, that reminds me" Seamus said, sitting up and turning to Noah, "you outta teach these people how to shoot."

Patrick's ears shot up like a dog, shoot? He thought. He had only gotten used to using melee weapons.
After a while, Noah gave his answer.

"Uhh, yea sure, I mean..." he looked over to Patrick, still chewing his toast, "but we haven't got that much in terms of ammunition."

"We ain't using our bullets" he got up and started to fumble around in a drawer next to the fridge. He produced a map as well as a red marker pen.

He unfolded the map to reveal a large chunk of green land, probably most of the West Midlands. It took a while but eventually he circled a small area on the map, which wasn't too far away.

"You know Martin, right?" He asked Noah, only getting a shrug in reply, "he was the greengrocer... no? Whatever. Anyway, he was always talking about a sports-type-club he was in, whatever it's called."