Sanctuary

Chapter 11

Eben only now noticed that the girl stopped screaming. She had stopped once the growls outside stopped. She was now crying. With a last effort, Eben removed the shelf and cleared a path towards her. He let himself on the knees, stretched his arms out and almost whispered in a desperate try to comfort her:

"Come child, you are safe now. We will protect you" Eben tried to put a smile on his face, but he doubted the result himself. It must have looked more like a grin than an encouraging smile. The thought of what happened outside still haunted him. He focused again. The girl needed to be taken away from here, somewhere safe. She needed them. Whatever happened outside must remain unseen by the child. He will have to find out later.

"Ready when you are" Tim spoke into the basement. "The air is clean so far."

"Give us a moment, we'll come out shortly" he replied to Tim, turning his face towards the girl again; "Right?" .She did not move, but her crying had at least stopped. "I am Eben. I am a friend. I will not harm you. Who are you?"

"Jas... Jasmin" she whispered.

"And how long have you been here alone Jasmin?"

"2 days... I think..."

"Alone? My god. Have you eaten something? Did you have any water?"

She pointed towards an empty bottle on the floor. One bottle for two days? Without food, scared to death. She needed comforting, water and food. As soon as possible. They could not leave her behind, that was certain. Eben did not bring his thought to an end when Tim entered the basement. They exchanged a glance and everything was clear. Eben was worried about what happened outside. And they needed to get the girl out of the basement and into safety. But they also needed to scavenge the place first. And there were some questions and answers about what happened outside. So Tim said:

"We cleared the mess outside, Jan ran for the car. He should be here soon. I'll take care of her; we'll be waiting in the car. Jan and yourself should look out for anything useful inside. But take care. So far it is quiet, but we cannot be certain it remains that way". Eben nodded. The car engine's roar could be heard closing in.

"This cute girl is Jasmin. And she is thirsty and hungry. You think you can find something for her in the car? I'll be joining you soon. Jasmin, this is my good friend Tim. He will take good care of you until I am back, all right? Just wait for me in the car."

Jasmin did not answer, but she looked up to Tim. Tim took a few steps towards her and reached a hand out, smiling. She took his hand, trembling. They turned and started walking towards the exit, but Jasmin stopped. She turned around looking for Eben.

"It is all right Jasmin. Go with Tim and wait in the car. My other friend and I have something to do, but I'll see you soon." Eben smiled and waved. Jasmin turned again and continued the walk outside. Jan was already there, the car parked in front of the entrance. Jan exited and wanted to say something, but Tim pointed towards the basement. Jan only greeted Jasmin and went to talk to Eben. Tim opened a door, helped Jasmin enter the car and went for the trunk. There was no food, but there was water for her. So he took the bottle, closed the trunk and seated himself on the driver's seat until Jan would come, giving the bottle to the thirsty child.

Inside the basement, Eben told Jan about what Tim and he had decided. But before scavenging for supplies, Eben wanted to see the corpses, so Jan accompanied him outside the basement and around the corner. Both where lying there, face down. Eben raised an eyebrow, asking Jan if it was safe to turn them over. Jan nodded it was. So Eben bent and first rolled the woman over. She looked like all others he saw at the airfield and the hospital. But the grimace on her face was more dreadful. Her expression must have frozen while she was struck down during the attack. She really wanted to go for his friends, Eben had no doubts. Eben examined her head more closely, especially the impact point of the blow. Her head was deformed, but there was no trace of fresh blood. All blood stains were old and covered face and neck, but not the impact point. Strange, because her skull was cracked open. Eben turned towards the man, flipped him over and inspected him. His face was disfigured by the blow, he had the same hateful grimace but there also were no signs of fresh blood whatsoever.

"Looks like they did not die because of your blows. WTF? Had they already been dead? But how can this be? How and why would they move? The more I see, I am more and more inclined to believe Emilia's story..."

"Not only that there is no fresh blood. They also did not feel pain. Tim smashed her two times against the floor and the wall. She attacked again without hesitation. I hit him on the backside of his knees. He should not have been able to stand for a while, but seconds later he attacked again. Not even a powerful hit to his chest paused his next attack. So yeah, they seemed pretty dead to me even before the hit to their heads. I am wondering why the hit on their heads stopped them. And yes, I also start to believe that bits of what Emilia told us is the truth. About them being dead, at least. The whole magic and time-travel... that is another story." Jan muttered.

Eben stood up and pointed towards the house entry. Both man approached it, weapons held high in their right hand. Jan opened the door while stepping aside, Eben entered his eyes scrutinizing the first chamber. It was empty. And it was silent. He continued carefully stepping towards were he believed the kitchen was. Jan followed. On the way to the kitchen, Eben noticed a family photograph on a small table near the couch. He approached it, took a look and sighed. Jan did not understand at first, so he closed in. Seeing the photo, he understood. The two dead people outside were Jasmin's parents... They could not imagine what the poor girl went through in the last two days.

"The sooner we leave her, the better for her. And for all of us. I'll take the kitchen, you take the still room and maybe we get lucky. We could for sure need some luck smiling upon us" Eben said going towards the kitchen, Jan following closely.

The fridge was not working. He opened the door to it without any hopes. Whatever food was there was uninviting with the refrigerator not powered on for a few days, despite the somewhat cold temperature inside the house. Then he opened the small deep-freezer. There was some meat in there. It had started to defreeze, but was still ice cold. They could not preserve it, but it should still be good for cooking today, so he took it. Next he went for the closets. Not much that was really helpful: jars filled with condiments, oil, vinegar, salt and sugar, tea. He took the tea. This would not help them however. They needed to eat sooner or later. As he closed the last closet, he heard Jan scream "Jackpot!"

Eben entered the still room and saw Jan stashing cans of vegetable, jars of honey and marmalade, cans of pork meat and some cans of beans. Eben looked around and found some potatoes, carrots, onions and prickles. Not much, but enough to make something as side dish for today's meat. After both of them finished, they got outside, put it all in the trunk and entered the car. Jan started the engine and turned the car, leaving the farmhouse behind and heading for the trailer park. Eben sat on his right. Tim was with Jasmin in the back. Jasmin had fallen asleep. She was exhausted, dehydrated and surely hungry. But for now she was content falling asleep, feeling safe after what must have felt like an eternity.