The Rise of Silent Earth: A Moment of Calm (Pt 4)

Fifteen minutes of climbing the 6 stories of stairs was rather tiring to everyone. Finally up at the apartment, Jared winching with quite a bit of pain, they are able to situate him in one of the 2 beds in the apartment. Once they get Jared set up and as comfortable as possible, Nathan goes and gets the medical supplies that he will need to use to patch up Jared. Cleaning cloths, Neosporin, gauss pads and wrap, some stitching, and even some antibiotics that Jared should take for the next few days just in case.

Once in the room Nathan asks, “Hey Emily would you mind starting some food for lunch while I tend to your father here? There should be enough food from the bag and whatever is left from the cabinets and what little is in the fridge to be enough.”

She smiles at him, “Sure can, it is the least that I could do.”

He doesn't want her to around this for some strange reason. Once she is out of the room Nathan closes the door over, turns to Jared saying, “Now I won’t lie, this is gonna hurt and I will do my best to make it as painless as possible.” With this he handed Jared a rag, “Here bite down on this.”

“Can you make sure that she doesn’t see any of this?” Jared says looking towards the door. “I don’t want her exposed to any more than I can avoid.”

Nathan moves back towards the door and quietly closes it, locks it and moves back towards the bed. He puts some gloves on and with a glance and a nod he starts cleaning the wound and prepping it for the stitches. Now that he actually has to use it, the First Aid Paramedic training that his father put him through seems like it wasn’t such a waste of time anymore. After about 5 minutes of medical attention and many wincing faces from Jared, the leg was fully stitched, covered and wrapped. “I want you to take one of these as the bottle states for the next few days just to be sure infection isn’t there,” Nathan tells him while handing him the bottle of antibiotics.

As Nathan made his move to the door Jared says, “I really want to thank you again for saving us. I don’t know if I could have ever have forgiven myself if anything had happened to Emily.”

“No need to thank me. There was something that just felt right about saving you, something that just pushed me to it,” responded Nathan as he opened the door and saw Emily in the kitchen. He couldn’t help but smile. “But get yourself some rest, you had a rough day.” With that Nathan left the room.

Even as she worked in the kitchen she held the same grace that his sister did. The long blond hair that was curly instead of straight and the hop in her step like she is just about to burst into dance made him feel as if he were back home. Once he enters the kitchen she turns to him and smiles. And there it was. The thing that he couldn’t quite tell about her earlier but that very moment he saw it. Her smile ran straight through to Nathan’s soul. She made him feel that he had a purpose again, something to strive for.

“How is he doing?” she says behind her smile as she moves a pot to the stove. “Is he going to be alright?”
“He is fine, just resting in the bed for now. I’m sure that you can go see him if you want to.” Nathan says as he sits down at the table and turns on the CB radio out of shear habit.

Turning back to the stove, “I’m sure that you took great care of him, plus I am pretty sure that he is hungry so I will finish the food first. At least this whole thing hasn’t taken cooking away from me.” She begins humming while she is cooking.

While Emily cooks Nathan just sits there cleaning his guns and occasionally glancing over at her and thinking of how much he actually missed his sister. With that he takes out his phone and begins to type out
a text telling his sister about Emily and her father and that he is no longer alone in this ordeal.

“So you aren’t really from here are you?” Emily suddenly breaks the silence. With a chuckle, “No, I am actually from Texas. How could you tell?” responds Nathan. “Well you sound different from anyone else that I know around here, and being a cheerleader for my high school made me rather popular so I know a lot of people.” She giggles at the end of it. Nathan can’t help but smile.

How can she be so happy at a time like this? She seems like she has everything she ever needs right here in this kitchen. She was just chased down by a Primitive that wanted her brain for lunch, faced death head on, and watched her father bleed out but seeing her now is like it never happened….

“… Hello, Earth to Nathan. Why are you here in Nebraska then?” she says waving a hand in his face. He had drifted away from the reality of the conversation to his thoughts. He had gotten so use to being alone for so long. “Oh… yeah… Sorry. I was here for an internship with an architecture firm while I was trying to make my professional career start.” He says shaking off his roaming thoughts. She laughs. The sound of water running at the sink. The feel of cold on his check and he jerks from being startled. She jumps back and begins apologizing, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you it is just…” she giggles. “You still have blood on your face.” Looking down he soon remembers that yes he is covered in blood. “Oh yeah almost forgot. Guess I’ll go shower real quick.”

After Nathan gets out of the shower, Jared has actually moved from the bedroom to the kitchen and there is a plate of food waiting for him at the table. “I hope you like the food.” Emily says as he sits at the table. When he grabs a fork and is about to begin eating there is the sound of throat clearing from Jared. “We usually say grace before a meal to thank God for what he provides.” Jared says as he stretches a hand across the table and Emily does the same.

He again slips out of his conscious state to his thoughts actually trying to remember the last time that he participated in a prayer. The day he left for Nebraska at the meal his family shared before he departed. He remembers that his sister’s hand had had the same smooth soft feel as Emily’s hand does. His father’s voice calm and collected as he prayed for the safety of his son and a speedy return. Then this happened.

“… Amen,” both Emily and Jared say together. While the other two begin their meal Nathan checks his phone to see if there was a response from his sister yet. He wasn’t fully disappointed that she hadn’t, coming to expect this outcome, but he was missing her still.

When they are all done eating Nathan reaches over and tunes the CB radio to scan again. “So Emily tells me that you were an aspiring architect and you were here for an internship. How has that been going?” Jared asks while Emily begins to clear the table. “I was doing really well with the company and I think I might have had the new project architect position by the end of my internship. What is it that you do Jared?” Nathan responds. “I am a policeman for the local police department. I am also a volunteer fireman and a deacon at my church.” Jared states rather proudly. “Emily and I were across town doing some shopping for her mother’s birthday when this little incident broke out. Our vehicle was wrecked and we have been trying to get back to our home but all the chaos has made the trip slow.” He hugs her from his seat as she returns to the table. “Where is it that you lived?” asks Nathan. “Our house is down in Porter Ridge but we don’t know if anything is even left.” Jared says hanging his head. “Everything will be fine dad. A lot of things have changed but we will be ok. Look we found Nathan here.” She smiles with her reassuring attitude.

These two new people in Nathan’s life have come into it with such positive attitude that he is starting to wonder if he is just imagining the entire thing. He relives the events of the past day while he lays there on the couch that night waiting for sleep to sweep across him. He gave the other bed to Emily. Maybe these two are exactly what Nathan was looking for as a means of not feeling useless in this situation.

That night he slept better than he had since this thing started.

(This posting is a corresponding story to that of WarMarshall's 'Feral Instinct'. We are trying to build a story together that has different points of view.)