clutched firmly in hand. How she could even think of using a cover was beyond him. It was uncomfortably warm inside the house with all the sunlight lately. Daniel wanted to move their king sized bed down into the basement tomorrow, so they could enjoy the cooler temperatures afforded there. Rebecca would absolutely love the move. Corinne was another matter altogether.
She had not taken kindly to Rebecca’s tossing and turning in the middle of their bed last year. Rebecca had used her slight, and often fortuitous, fear of the darkness as a means to weasel her way into sharing the bed last time. There was no way to be sure which would be the bigger fight: Getting Rebecca to sleep in her own bed downstairs or telling Corinne that Rebecca was going to be bruising ribs again.
Looking back through the thin gap left in her doorway, Daniel saw Rebecca kicking and thrashing to get the bed cover untwined from her legs. He smiled briefly at her wriggling form before going back to trying to solve the riddle of how to wash bodies and clothes in this new, yet familiar, reality. He also had to think of a way to secure the door wall, which was now the only exposed glass left around the house because of the dehydrator assembly, and it needed to be done in a way that would still allow easy access to the back yard.
As gently as he could, Daniel tiredly poured himself into bed next to Corinne. His mind was spinning wildly, switching along too many tracks to fall asleep. True rest would not come for him until hours later.
Chapter 5
Monday
Jimmy Sutter wormed his way out of the rank cramped sleeping bag. He was trying carefully to not wake his younger brother Chase, who was wedged in alongside. After freeing himself, Jimmy rubbed vigorously at his upper arm and shoulder which his brother had been using as a pillow. A couple seconds of clenching his hand into a balled fist was enough to ease the tingling numbness away. Chase stirred, but remained asleep atop the day bed down in the musty basement of the house that they had broken into the night before.
Like the rest of the homes in this area, George Grant had found a door to this house had already been breached. In this case, it was a side door that led into the attached garage; the door connecting to the interior was also unlocked. George had taken Jimmy and Chase stealthily inside to continue the never-ending search for food.
George was kind of scary at times, but he wasn’t all that mean to the brothers. He would often make Jimmy and Chase carry the heavy bags full of bedding and water, or if his anger was roused slap them on the back of their heads for asking what he considered to be dumb questions. Jimmy thought it a small price to pay for being saved.
Jimmy and Chase’s mother had died eleven months ago while in the ineffectual care of the Warehouse clinic. The only thing that the doctors could tell them was that she had died of some form of cancer. It usually made little difference what type of cancer it was, the results were usually the same, a slow painful death. Shortly after their mother’s passing, the Sutter’s house, where their mother worked as a prostitute burned to the ground. Jimmy guessed that it had been started by an untended candle that Chase had taken into their mother’s room wanting to sleep in her bed. As of yet Jimmy had not asked the question and Chase had not owned up to it.
The morning after losing the house, the firefighters had left once they had ensured that the flames would not spread, Jimmy took Chase back to the Warehouse seeking refuge. The police controlling access to the housing area door explained to the brothers that was no room available inside. The Council had sealed the space claiming it was at full-capacity. The armed guards then directed the boys over to a woman, who was standing in front of a large cooking pot at the head of a serving line, where they received bowls of stew and fresh bread. The newly orphaned brothers were fed shortly before being ushered back outside the fence. Not knowing where to go next the young brothers went back to familiar ground.
While picking through the ashes of their former life Jimmy was approached by George Grant. George soon realized that