Carl & I

Chapter Twenty Seven Home

Our car slowly approached a decent farm house that was miles out in the country. The land was fenced in by wood and seemed to be untouched. Carl worried that someone already had claimed this and that we would be making the wrong choice by entering, but the baby is going to come soon and we can't pass this up. It is too risky.

Quietly both of closed the car doors and grabbed our weapons. We walked up the porch stairs slowly and lightly knocked on the door. Nothing.

Carl entered the house first and I followed. I stayed with Carl while he cleared the entire house because I'm too weak to clear rooms on my own. The house was empty but the kitchen was stocked. I glanced at the table to see a note held down by a gun.

"Marlene,
Your father and I have gone to look for you in Nevada. If you come home and we aren't here, that's where we are. We will stay in Nevada for 3 months and if you do not return we will come home. The news says the disease is spreading quickly but the military are doing their best to put those things down. This gun is fully loaded and there is extra fuel in the barn. It should be enough to get you to Nevada and back on the interstate. There is extra ammo in the barn as well. Please be safe.
Love,
Mom and Dad."

Looking at the gun I can tell that girl never made it home and neither did her parents. The gun was covered in layers of dust and webs as well as the rest of the house.

"No ones been here for awhile." I pointed at the gun. Carl grabbed the gun and blew the dust from it. "Fully loaded. Not a single shot fired." I could see a small smile appear because of the fact that no one lived here but then I saw the darkness come back. Those parents where trying to reach their child. They could be in Nevada, but they won't be back soon.

"Should we board the windows?" I ended the silence with a relevant question.

"Yeah, we need to stay cautious."

I grabbed wood and began to nail them over the windows. The house is beautiful and I don't know how we got this lucky.

The sun was beginning to set and we settled down into a bed upstairs. Carl has been acting weird, I know he's worried about our baby but I think its something else. I turned on my side and placed my arm across his stomach and my head on his chest. His heartbeat was slow and steady it calms me as I remember he's alive with me.

After a minute he slowly began to run his fingers through my hair. "Y/n, I'm sorry I've been acting weird. I'm just worried about the baby. I miss Judith and I miss dad. I miss them all."

I know he misses them, I miss my family too, more than anything. I wish my mom could be by my side while I have this baby but she won't be.

"I know you miss them Carl. I miss them too." I held him tighter and tried to reassure him that it's going to be okay.

"I'm so happy I have you and I don't know what I'll do if I lose you too." his voice was scratchy as he fought back the tears.

Tears from my eyes fell onto his shirt and I don't ever want to let go of him. "You won't lose me. I promise." I felt his lips press onto the top of my head and he held me tightly.

We woke just a little before the sun began to come up and were relieved to find that no one or nothing had tried to enter the house. I found a room that would be perfect for our child. It's next to ours and there is an entrance through our room. Carl unscrewed the door and we took it downstairs for extra wood.

I began cleaning things from the room, keeping things that would be useful and tossing others for a fire or to just get rid of. Once the room was completely empty I dusted the walls and swept the floor with a broom. The color was not particularly my favorite and I wanted to paint it a different color.

"Carl, do you think we could paint the room for the baby?"

"What color, we don't know if it's a girl or boy and it needs to be ready before it gets here." He's telling the truth, I hadn't thought about the fact that I didn't know if the baby was male or female.

"Yellow. It's neutral for boys and girls."

He grinned at me and nodded.

"We can run into one of the nearby towns and look."'I suggested.

"Yeah, let's do that."

Once we arrived in a small town we found a hardware store and cleared the building. It was empty so I found myself in the paint isle alone while Carl looked for other appliances. I'm not sure if the paint is still in good shape but it's worth a shot. I squatted down and grabbed 6 yellow paint cans and walked to Carl.

"Look I found the.." suddenly I heard voices, and the doors opened. My heart dropped and Carl grabbed me.

(**Sorry my chapters have been short and sucky and I haven't posted much. I have softball everyday and it's so irritating with all my homework. But there is only 2 weeks left.**)