Earth: Criminal Rehab

Chapter Eleven

Patrick

It seemed that the farther we traveled, the more we discovered about Earth. Teachers on the Legacy had drilled it into our minds that everything was destroyed after the bombs hit and that it would take centuries for the radiation to wear off. Even then, it wasn't a give-in that we would ever survive on the planet again. Yet, here we were, defying the laws and gravity itself.

When we reached the impossible house, all we could do was stare. It was bigger than we thought, at least three stories tall. I imagined it to be the home of a wealthy family with pristine white tiled walls and a massive door of stained glass. I imagined little kids dressed up all nice and chasing each other around the front yard. I could almost see their proud parents rocking on the front porch. Many years later, it was nothing of the sorts.

Today, the impossible house had browned, spiky grass and entangled vines across the peeling bricked walls. The vines were crawling their way into the house through the empty window frames. What was once a beautifully designed picket fence was now sunken and in shambles. Dead leaves and debris littered the porch. There were enormous cracks and holes in the roof and walls. The house was long dead, and so was the family instead of it, but it was more than enough for us to make shelter out of.

I walked up to Pete, who viewed the house from a few paces ahead of us. He stared up at it in awe. He didn't speak a word. He didn't run towards the opportunity in front of him. He was waiting for it. I put my hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile. He smiled back and stared straight at the front door. Without a word, we all followed him inside.

The door probably hadn't been opened since the bombs. When Pete tugged on the doorknob, the whole door collapsed and fell to the side. He peered inside and nodded to let us know it was clear. I don't know what he was expecting, or who he was expecting. It was always near impossible to know what was on his mind. As long as I've known Pete, he was always a keep-to-himself kind of guy. We all kind of adopted the shyness, the uneasiness to disturb the peace and quiet in the house. Still, we pushed forward.

There was at least a little color outside, but not in. It looked as if we were walking through a world entirely in grayscale. We walked on gray carpet. Gray wallpaper was leaning off the walls where it once laid nice and flat. There was dust in every corner you looked. Moonlight shined through the cracks in the wall. There was a huge black and cracked screen in what must have been the living room. A dusty and weathered couch sat in the middle of the room. For some reason, I still found it to be welcoming. Mikey side stepped around us and sat on the couch. Eventually we started to join him. I sat on the chair of the couch and continued to look around me.

The dining room was next to the living room. There were still nice, cushioned chairs surrounding a long wooden table. It sat eight people. There weren't doors on the refrigerator or oven. The handles had been broken off the sink, which didn't show any hint or drop of water in the slightest. The cupboard doors were either hanging or broken or completely out of the question. There weren't any signs of food or even crumbs. It would have been my mother's worst nightmare: dust littered in every nook and cranny.

I lifted myself off of the couch arm and set my foot on the stairwell. It creaked under my weight, but supported me as I rose and planted the next foot. There were a number of rooms on the top floor. My curiosity got the best of me and I slowly pushed the door open. There was a metal bed frame. The mattress had disappeared. There was old, broken glass all over the floor from the windows that surrounded room. Strips of tile hung from the ceiling. A few tiles were missing. The drawers on the dresser and desk were wide open and emptied. There was a lamp, but the shade had been removed. It was just a burnt out light bulb. It was unquestionably deserted. I should've known, this family was wealthy enough to afford some kind of bunker and they must have brought all their things with them. Nothing in the room suggested any kind of personality or color in general.

I wandered around the top floor for quite a while. Pete and the others were searching in the bottom floor. I couldn't imagine they were finding much more than I was. I found myself in the bathroom. It was plain and simple, and I imagined it was that way before the bombs. There was a stained white bathtub and sink and toilet. I was pleasantly surprised to find a mirror above the sink. It was tilted on its side and had a long crack across the middle, but I could still see a reflection in it.

It took me a while to recognize my own body. I looked worse than I thought I did. It looked like I had rolled my face in the dirt for too long. There was a cut running down the side of my face. The blood stained a trail down my cheek. I tried to rub it off, but it was stuck on pretty good. On a matter of habit, I put my hand on the sink handle. Naturally, nothing came out of the sink. Yeah that's what happens when humans haven't inhabited the planet in this many years, I thought, the plumbing goes out.

But the sink bowl...

At first it was just plain confusion. I reached down into the bowl and wiped my hand across the bottom. I held my hand in front of me. Maybe I was just imagining it? That had to be it. I was just looking too hard to find some kind of evidence. However, the longer I thought about it the more my anxiety seemed to grow. The water would have dried by now...

My heart started to race and my hands shook. I opened my mouth to speak, but my mouth was so dry. I had completely forgotten how to speak. Someone was here. Someone was here recently

"P-Pete...?" I stuttered, not nearly loud enough for him to hear.

"Pete!" I called louder and backed away from the sink until my back hit the opposite wall. I looked in the mirror. I had never seen such a pale white face before. The room started spinning and I felt extremely nauseous. I shouted his name once more and felt my knees buckle under me.