Putrid Wafts

Posted on Sun Mar 10th, 2024 @ 3:28am by Calista Sutton & Killian Sutton

1,047 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Bangor or Bust
Location: Unknown Area outside of Bangor
Timeline: 4 September 2010 - 07:58 p.m.

With a small whistle, the path that Killian and Calista had been blazing through the last fifteen or so minutes of darkness yielded to a small clearing stopping their progress forward. The partial cloud cover revealed a bright strip of the Milky Way. The clouds were illuminated orange from far on the horizon. The smell of ash was now more prevalent than it had been in the forest they had been walking through.

"Is that a house?" Calista whispered slightly gleefully.

"It appears to be," now they had been walking in the darkness so long, their eyes had adjusted to the brightness that there was of the night. While it would have been nicer to have more than a sliver of the moon, from their walking the last couple of days, it was something that wouldn't be on their side for some time.

"Are we going to stay here possibly?" she asked.

"We'll have to see. Worse case, it looks like there is a barn that we can sneak in on the far side," he said quietly.

Calista's stomach rumbled loudly, as Killian's had done so earlier that day. Even though she was no longer pregnant, the empty stomach was nauseating to her, and she wished that she still had some of her medication that had been lost at the High School. "Maybe they'll have orchards or something if we don't want to risk coming across them."

It wasn't like they had anything bad to deal with outside of what they had, but they were far from trusting people, especially with what happened at the Millinocket Airport. They had done what they could to get what they could before they ended up with the general population in Millinocket, but she feared that it was just not enough.

"We'll just have to see. Harvest time is soon, so it's very possible that we can find food and things," Killian stated.

Snorting lightly, Calista responded, "things, sure. How about a bed maybe? Food first though."

"Wait here, and I'll scout it out," he said.

"No, I'm going with you," she said emphatically. She wasn't about to stand here in the darkness on the edge of the woods not knowing what could be lurking behind her, and what was lurking in front of her with him there and not with her. She didn't want something to happen to him and she be on the edge of the woods, a good run away from him.

Killian took her hands. "Cal, it's safer here for you and I can go scout it out. I don't want something to get you in the darkness, there's no power here."

She stood her ground. "No, there's nothing that I can do here in the woods. I'm not good with a swivel on my head like you are. If something happens to you, you'll be in trouble; I'll be stuck here and I'm too hungry, too weak and too tired to run to try to do something about it.

He shook his head. "Stubborn woman, let's go then. Quietly, quickly follow me. We're going to be in the open, so it's harder to hide from anything that moves and that might spot us. They very well could be sitting in an upstairs window with a rifle trained on us."

Swallowing a gulp, she was starting to second guess their approach to the house. "Quietly then, and if something is off, we run for the barn. Hay is more comfortable than the hard dirt."

Instead of trudging through the darkness like they had been, she followed Killian quietly through the lowered brush of the the pasture that looked like it had been freshly cut back. She felt bad that they were going to be heading into someone's home, but they needed a place to stay and food to eat. It only took them about fifteen more minutes quietly going through the brush, quickly as it was a bit of a jaunt. She was glad that he had acquiesced in letting her go with him to the house.

There was a slight breeze that kept the night cool. It made for some eerie noises that scuttered across the night noises. Making their way closer to the house, a soft clanking could be heard. It sounded like a screen door that wasn't set correctly. They stopped and crouched next to the small porch on the house, and the screen door seemed stuck open. and wasn't seemingly closed. It wasn't bothering anyone, and that made it seem like the house was more abandoned than anything.

Killian put a finger to his lips and walked up to the house slowly. The front door was closed even though the screen door had been open. He didn't want to break the glass unless he had to and opted to try the front door: the knob actually turned.

Opening the door, it creaked in the wind, and he grimaced hoping that it wasn't going to be a sign of their doom. There were no lights on inside the house and there was a hell of a foul stench that hit him like a wall. Pivoting on his foot, he turned and went down next to where Calista was still squatting, and tried to stop heaving and keep himself quiet. The last thing they needed was noises in the quiet area.

Calista caught the putrid waft as it bellowed out through the front door. Her already upset stomach started to try to vomit when her husband came towards her trying to stifle the dry heaving.

Thankfully nothing was in her stomach, and it ended as soon as the slight breeze dissipated the smell throughout the area. "What was that?" she asked.

"Something dead. Rotten. I'm going to go with it's empty and we can check it out."

She looked at him leery. "Really?" she asked incrediously.

Killian just tilted his head. "There could be food. We can open the windows. We'll be dry. This is a farm, we might be able to find a well pump and get fresh water to bathe. There are opportunities, Cal. We haven't had something like this since we left the Inn and tried to do the right thing."

A feeling of dread and regret washed over her. "We'll see."

 

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