Is this Rare?

Chapter 29

As Andrea leads me out of the house, I think out loud, "What town? I've never seen a town out here. And, what about this barn? What is that cra--"

Andrea harshly shushes me, grabs my wrist and drags me out the front door, then down the steps. We walk in silence until the cabin we left behind is no longer visible. Then, the silence is broken but Andrea's whispers, "Chelsea. Listen. It's not safe to ask any at all questions around my mum or about her. I'll explain more when we reach the crest of that hill." She finishes with a gesture and a flourish of her wrist.

I let out a quick giggle, which causes Andrea to smile, but this smile is sweet and pretty, not menacing and evil. Now that I think about it, I've never seen her give anyone a normal smile. Just those sly deceiving ones. Then, all of a sudden, I think, "Wow. Andrea is beautiful. When she's not threatening someone, that is."

"What? Sorry, Chelsea. I wasn't listening." She says as she turns to face me. Inside my head, I scream at myself, "Did you really just say that out loud?" Eventually, I shake my head to clear it and answer Andrea, "Nothing. Just talking to myself." I smile as I think of how well I played that off. When we reach the top of the hill, which Andrea pointed out, I collapse on the soft grass. Andrea just plops down next to me.

I open my backpack as Andrea begins, "Ok. So about three or four miles from my house is an abandoned town. There are still homes and all that but no people or bodies. Just homes and office buildings. Oh, and there's a mental asylum or whatever you would call it. The barn is just where my mum and I found Mary. Her parents owned it. They lived upstairs in the loft and had horses downstairs in the stalls. Well, they didn't know was the place where they let the horses drink, wherever it was, the water was contaminated with chemicals. The horses drank it and we're fine for a day or two. So, Mary's parents, Kaya and Dexter, drank some to. Mary was a toddler and still drinking milk so she was safe. Eventually, the horses got sick and fell over in their stalls during the night. Two days later Kaya and Dexter never woke up. And toddler Mary was left alone in the strange, dangerous world. We found her in that barn in the distance. She was asleep and nothing but skin and bones. I always wanted a sister, being an only child and all. So, my mum agreed. We carried her back to our cabin, warmed her up, fed her and gave her a new life. A new family."

I don't know how to respond to what Andrea has just informed me. Returning to my backpack, I pull out a pack of Pringles and toss them to Andrea. We eat our chips in silence. Well somewhat silence.

When we've finally finished we toss the wrappers back in my drawstring and head down the mountain and into the barn.

It's easy to find the cow. We just had to follow the scent of rotting meat and the sound of buzzing flies. When I place my eyes on the sight, I barely hold down those chips. It's laying down, on it's side in one of the larger stalls. Parts of it skin layer are pulling back, revealing the meat and muscles underneath. Maggots are nearly about to hatch. They have almost taken over the entire body of that jersey cow. I look away. How can Ann live on a farm? Even when the cows are not dead they still have a pretty big stink to them. Then, I put on a brave face, hold my nose, dive in and help Andrea cover the animals with the piles of straw, which are stacked in the loft. We eventually work out a system. I'm up in the loft tossing down handfuls of hay. While Andrea is below spreading it around. This plan works out great because, I've never been able to look at anything to gross, my stomach never agrees with it, and Andrea seems fine with doing all the dirty work.

About thirty minutes later Andrea calls up at me, "Okay, Chelsea! That's enough. It's covered."

Carefully, I climb down the rickety ladder and jump off the second to last step. I roll over my shoulder and land in a crouch.  Andrea laughs and I stand up. We both deserve to leave this disgusting smell behind us, so we exit the barn as quickly and swiftly as possible.

Once outside, I suck in all the oxygen my lungs will hold. We race back up the hill and we decide to stop once more. This time I grab the pretzels and peanut butter out. We sit with our backs together, dipping our square pretzels in creamy peanut butter. It's actually enjoyable, which is especially strange for me because peanut butter has never really been my thing.

Eventually, we make it back to Andrea's house, where her mom is waiting outside. She gives Andrea a disapproving look, grabs her baggage and heads off. Andrea's face has turned hard and hostile. She stomps off after her mother. And I follow.