When Aaron woke up, we looked through the rest of the house together. We decided to stay close to each other, who knew if or when one of the things would appear around here. If there was more than the three we had seen, I didn't want any of us to be alone if one of them showed up.

Our search of the house gave us a decent amount of things that we could make use of, a few packs of batteries, more canned food, clothes and blankets. We couldn't use anything that was in their fridge, everything in it was either spoiled or rotten.

There was quite a few nonsensical things around the house, which would have surprised me if the house and the owners hadn't been so old. I found a birthday card lying around that read "Happy 75th Birthday Dad! Love Sarah." which confirmed my suspicions that the owners were an old couple that had their house from the time before. No way anyone nowadays would be able to afford something like this.

We passed the rest of the day shuffling around the house for anything that we could use, or just something to keep yesterday off of our minds. Aaron found a yo-yo, something I hadn't seen in forever. I tried showing him how to play with it, but to say I was a little rusty was an understatement. Jared took a box of knickknacks and started to shuffle through them.

With nothing else to do, I stared at what must have been the most recent photograph of the old couple. The man was rather heavyset, wearing coveralls with a grey shirt underneath. His head was almost entirely devoid of hair, with only a few patches left and he wore large round glasses. His posture and expression seemed to give off the impression that he was always serious and hardworking. His wife wore a simple dress, and her hair was covered over by a bonnet. She seemed to be tired, like the past years had put a vast amount of weight on her shoulders.

I turned to the photo of the young girl. She had light blonde hair that almost bordered on being white, and bright blue eyes. She appeared to be in her teens, but there was no telling how long ago the photo was taken. It could have been from a long time ago or a few weeks ago. I assumed that she had been the Sarah from the birthday card. Was she still that age, living here before the storm? Did she already grow up and move away? Did she live here, taking care of her parents, or maybe they were her grandparents? I had absolutely no way of knowing, I could only guess. But that begged the question. Where had the couple gone? The most logical and simple conclusion was that they had run away when the storm hit, but for some reason my mind wouldn't let it rest at that. I had a sinking feeling that something had happened to them, recently. That perhaps something else had done something to them.

Was it one of those abominations? Was there one lurking around here right now, waiting for the right moment to slaughter us all at once? Maybe I was overthinking things, but I suddenly felt like I didn't want to be here anymore.

"So, are we going to go explore the gas station today?" Jared suddenly asked, almost causing me to jump in surprise.

"Yeah, sure," to be perfectly honest, I didn't feel up to going there at the time. Not with the feeling of paranoia swelling up inside of me, but if we didn't do it now, who knows what we would miss out on?

All three of us got up, removed the barricade from the door, and then ran through the torrential rain to the gas station.

Almost reluctantly, I opened the door.

It was absolute chaos inside, all of the aisles were knocked over with all of their contents scattered everywhere. A few of the ceiling tiles had fallen down as well, and even a few of the metal support beams. In the centre of the building, there was a hole torn right through the ceiling. This, along with the fact that most of the windows had been shattered, allowed the unyielding rain to come crawling in.

I gazed around the room, uneasiness starting to creep inside me. Just how much of this mess was caused by the storm? How much of it was caused by... something else? I took a gulp, and then turned towards Jared, "Alright, let's look around." He nodded, and took a step forward. From his expression, I could tell that he was in the same state of mind as me.

No use standing around, I told myself. You're going to have to get used to this feeling of uncertainty and paranoia, because from now on it's not going to go away.

After our hunt around the store, we came together with what undamaged or unexpired goods we could find.

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In total, we found: a box of cereal bars, a bag of candy, three packs of twelve bottles of water and four individual ones, a box full of canned food, a shovel, a flashlight and a single box of matches. Everything else was either smashed beyond use or rotting and mouldy.

"Well, this isn't as much food as I was hoping for, but it will last us a while at least," Jared said after staring at what we had gathered.

"Yeah, with this and the stuff in the house, we have enough for at least a month," I replied. My voice, just like my thoughts, felt like it was somewhere else.

"But what about when we run out of food?" Aaron asked.

Jared and I stared at him for a second. We really hadn't given much thought to it, because we didn't want to think about it. As much as I dread the solution, it was the only option available to us in this storm.

"Well, once we're low on food... We're going to have to leave this house," I paused for a moment, "Then, we're going to have to go back out into the storm, and hope we can find another safe place to stay."

That's right, this house, this place where we could feel at ease, was only a temporary solution. In no time at all, we would have to head back out into that nightmare. Who could tell what would happen in a month? Maybe there wouldn't be anymore safe places by then. What if this place wasn't as safe as we had thought it to be? What if any of my suspicions had truth to them? What if we were forced to leave much sooner than we had originally planned?

"Dad," Aaron spoke, "If that's what we have to do... then I'm not worried. Because you're with me. I'm sure we'll be alright."

I smiled and opened my mouth to reply to him, but a crashing sound from underneath us rudely tore away my chance to respond.

Jared was on his feet in an instant. He grabbed the shovel and held it ready as a weapon, then stared at me and Aaron, holding one of his fingers up to his lips. I looked around for something that I could use as a weapon too, but the best I could find was a piece of fallen wood. I took up my makeshift weapon, and then motioned for Aaron to stand next to me.

The crashing sound echoed through the air again, causing my body to shake along with the sound. Jared's eyes darted around the room; I didn't know what he was looking for until I saw his eyes lock onto something near the cashier's counter. There was a trapdoor. The sound must have been coming from in there.

Damn it.

I didn't want to go down there. I absolutely did not want to go down there. But Jared was already moving towards it, and I knew that we couldn't just leave it unexplored. We couldn't just leave whatever was down there alone. Because I knew that if it was something more than just an animal, it would come for us if we didn't come for it first.Jared opened the trap door, and peered down. I turned to Aaron, I didn't want to bring him with me, but I couldn't leave him here alone. I couldn't let Jared go down there alone either, so I couldn't stay with Aaron.

We all had to go down there. I expected Aaron to protest, but surprisingly he nodded his head. He really had meant what he said earlier, he trusted me to protect him. Well then, I guess I'll have to live up to my son's expectations, no matter how much my body shivers in fear.

Jared motioned for me to come over, and then he took a step into the open trapdoor, his foot connecting with a ladder. Another crash rang out, but this time I didn't let it startle me. I let Aaron go down before me, so that he'd be between me and Jared and then I followed right after.

As I stepped down the ladder, I brought out the flashlight and turned it on. "It was a good thing we found this flashlight," I thought as my feet connected with the damp dirt floor, "I can't imagine having to maneuver through here without it."

The place where we had entered was dug into the dirt, with wooden support beams on the sides and a wooden door at the end, about ten feet away. Broken wood littered the muddy ground and a few boxes that were completely smashed were lying around here and there. There was a crowbar lying on the ground, which I chose as my weapon over the piece of wood.Another crash rang out; this time it was easy to definitely pinpoint the source. It was coming from behind the door. I handed Aaron the flashlight as Jared and I both readied our makeshift weapons.

Another sound came from behind the door, it sounded almost like someone yelling out something. I couldn't make out what they were saying. Jared turned towards me, and nodded. I nodded in return.

We charged towards the door, quickly swung it open and peered inside. It appeared to be what looked like a wine cellar, but there were no bottles lined along the walls. Only the richest people could afford such things, after all. Perhaps it had once been lined with many different drinks before, but undoubtedly nothing had sat there for a very long. A few barrels sat around the room, one of which had been completely torn apart. A table rested in the center, and on that rested a lamp, illuminating the room. And last but not least... two people stood in the doorway, a man and a woman, who seemed oddly familiar.

I instantly recognized them as the couple from the picture.

The man's eyes were wild, rapidly darting between me and Jared. The woman's eyes were completely vacant; I would have thought she was dead if she wasn't breathing so fast that she was hyperventilating. Both of their bodies were covered in cuts and blood, the man had a particularly large gash on his right leg.I was about to say something. Maybe sorry for startling them, maybe sorry for barging into their house, maybe asking them if they were alright, if they needed help...But my eyes drifted towards the man's hands.

In them, he held a shotgun, pointed directly at Jared's chest.