The Rabbit's Den

Unexpected

Rhys and Ester had been hiding out in the truck for going on two weeks. They hadn't seen any signs of military trucks or people going towards the City. "Are you sure it was every two weeks?" Rhys asked, he sounded annoyed, but he was really just tired. Ester nodded, "I'm positive, I think we need to go inside." His head whipped around to look at her, "What? Are you crazy?" She sighed, "I'll go in. I was kidnapped remember?" He stiffened, "Alone, hell no." She shrugged and reached for the door handle, "Then come with, something is up." As her hand touched the handle Rhys reached out and touched her arm. "Wait!" Looking at him she saw he was watching something, and he slowly lowered himself down in the seat. Ester copied him trying to see what he did. "What is it?" She whispered? He pointed, it was Cicero and he was walking strangely back through the woods. "Where is he going?" She asked still keeping her voice down. He shook his head. They stayed crouched down and quiet for a while until Rhys was certain that Cicero was gone. That was a job for another day.

As they came to the entrance of the city, they saw it was barricaded crudely with chain link and boards, but there were no guards. Rhys managed to yank the fencing and boards off so they could enter. The City was eerily quiet, there was absolutely no movement. "What happened here?" Rhys asked as he looked across the City. The hospital still lay in rubble. Ester shook her head, "I don't know." She quickly made her way over to one of the first houses she saw. Rhys was trying to look through a window as she opened the door. "What are you doing?" She asked. He rushed to her side, "I was trying to see if anyone was here. "She shook her head, "I don't think anyone is here." Ester walked into the kitchen and started looking through the pantry. There was a lot of food still. "They had just gotten a shipment in right before you guys came through the tunnel. It looks like everyone was evacuated soon after. There could be a lot of supplies here." She turned to him with excitement on her face, "Do you think you could get the truck in here?" Rhys smiled; he knew what she was thinking.

If there was anything that Rhys was a master of, it was destruction. While Ester ransacked the first house for food, clothes and blankets Rhys was moving the truck through the narrow opening he'd made. It was a tight squeeze and on one side of the opening the chain link scraped the body of the truck. He pulled up to the first house and together they began loading the supplies. "We can just move house to house." Ester said as she handed him items. "What about medical supplies?" She looked where the hospital once was, her face was twisted with disappointment. "There is a small pharmacy as you come into the business part, but it's not going to have hospital supplies. Medicine and bandages at least." Rhys nodded he was really hoping to get hospital supplies but the medicine in the pharmacy was better than nothing.

After emptying the fifth house of its contents Rhys looked strangely at Ester, "What about baby stuff? Clothes, diapers things like that." There were only a few houses that she knew had infants, and then there was her brother's house, it had a few baby items. The more she thought about it the more she realized that the baby items weren't stocked in the City, they had to be brought in by the clinic. "There's a few places we can go, there isn't much. But there is a craft store; they have needles, fabric and thread."

They had been working without a break until the sun began to sink. "We should go to Jacob's house. I can make dinner and we can pack up all the stuff we can use there. It would be nice to sleep in a real bed, even if it's just for one night." Ester suggested. Rhys nodded in agreement it did sound nice. "If we move as fast as we did today, we can have this sucker filled up rather nicely and head back tomorrow night." Ester smiled and climbed into the truck.

Sadie watched Kaleb as he unnecessarily chopped wood, he had been doing it for days. It was chilly outside, but she watched as the heavy sweat soaked through his t-shirt and fell from his face. The first day she was gone it was a surprise to everyone, aside from Kaleb. Even though he knew it was coming he hadn't expected it to be in the middle of the night without a word. Sadie noticed the immediate change in him. She wrapped a blanket around herself and walked over the soggy ground to him. "Kaleb." He turned his head as the mull came down on the wedge. "What?" She pointed to the huge piles of wood. "I think we have enough to get us through until the fall." Kaleb glanced over at the piles, he shrugged, "It's best to stay stocked up."