Embrace The Madness: Cataclysm

12. Water (part 2)

[day 39]
The day was as good as over, the sky had been painted with an orange tint and the sun had nearly disappeared behind the hills.
Hadiza was peeking through the curtains of the living room, a horrid feeling developing within her.

"I'm sure they'll be fine" Frank reassured her. He was sitting in an armchair next to her.

She had a book in one hand, a small, obscure novel by a nameless author, couldn't have been more than 200 pages.

"What are you reading?" Frank asked, trying to change the topic.

Hadiza looked down at the book. She wasn't really paying a great deal of attention to it.

"Oh... just a little story about a group of kids picking berries in the woods and finding a great big red dragon" she even made little hand gestures to heighten the grandeur.

"Sounds... riveting" Frank smirked. Hadiza smiled with him and they each shared a laugh.
"I remember when I was a kid..." Frank began his tale while scratching his long grey stubble, "I always wanted to find dragons, monsters, aliens... all sorts of weird things."

"Looks like your wish came true" Hadiza replied, an uneasy smile forming on her face, both playing along with Frank as well as coming to terms with reality.

They sat there for a while, both sat in comfortable armchairs, occasionally sipping cups of coffee.
Frank looked back at his old friend Seamus, who sat away from them in his own chair. He was snoring quietly, but not silently, a hand resting on his shotgun over his lap.

"You got family?" Hadiza asked, trying to maintain conversation.

"We'll sure, everyone does right?" Frank replied, followed by a long pause, "but me... nah, not really, I mean I had people, before I mean."

At this point, he was getting flustered, though it was not towards Hadiza by any means. He let out short sniffs while holding back tears.

"Oh.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"No it's... it's not you, really" he paused to calm himself and as the tears subsided, he continued "well what about you, bet you've got some stories to tell."

Hadiza smiled as she recalled her past. Frank saw a light glow in her eyes before she started to speak.

"We'll, I grew up in Haiti with my sister and our father..."

Time past and Frank was now leaned in closer, intrigued as to what she would say next.

"I remember one time," Hadiza smiled, "we were at a hotel and were just checking out, then the manager stops us claiming we stole stuff..." she paused to take a sip of coffee, "then my nephew goes off one one, shouting and throwing fists left and right... I mean in their defense, we did take a few towels."

They shared a hearty laugh, but quickly quietened when Seamus let out a groan. They looked at each other again and laughed again, this time quieter.

"What was-" Frank was cut off by the distant sound of an engine, to which he sprung into action, waking Seamus, who also got up out of his chair.

"Is that them?" Seamus blurted, leaning back into a stretch.

Frank moved to the front door and walked through to the front porch, followed by Seamus and Hadiza.
They watched the green rig pull up outside on the thick grass. It didn't take them long to hop off and approach the house.

"Had fun?" Seamus asked, though he soon realised that something bad happened when he saw their faces.

"We had... a run in with someone" Noah said, he took large breaths as he started to scratch his arms.