Surviving the Plague 3

Suddenly, the front door was thrown open, making Andy jump straight out of his chair and clamber to the ground in all his shaking glory. He had gasped so hard that his lungs hurt and he whipped his head around to look whatever had so rudely busted in. A guy? Screwing his face up into a scowl, Andy narrowed his eyebrows and scooted to the side of the room.

“Ah! My son!” The reverend stood and held his arms out wide, greeting his ‘son’ – Andy didn’t know if that was the religious ‘son’ or a biological ‘son’ – with happiness. Andy clutched at his chest, wondering if he should go get his inhaler…

Jay heard the front door open and wanted to see what the commotion was. She jumped her naked butt out of the shower, but tripped. She dragged the curtain and the rod down with her. She yelped when her side hit the toilet. “Owww!” She lay on the ground, naked, holding her side. Gritting her teeth from swearing. She used to go to church and got chewed out for cussing. She felt her bare side, making sure she didn’t break anything. Jay shivered and tried to sit up.

The tall dirty blonde that was previously greeting his father heard the loud noise coming from the bathroom. He flicked his eyes down to Andy and he paused, quirking a skeptical eyebrow at the intruder. "We have guests, father...?" He asked the Reverend, not taking his hard, dark eyes off of Andy. Feeling them bore into him, Andy sat up and pulled himself into a crouch instead, feeling his torso ache. He couldn't get in a full breath.

He scrambled into the kitchen again where the girls were just now taking the bread out of the oven. "Dinner is- oh." Whichever girl it was stopped as Andy grabbed for his backpack, unzipping it and grabbing his inhaler. Thanks to that moron in there that scared the shit out of him, he'd have to waste another breath. He pressed the button down and took in a shaky breath. After that, he held his head and shoved the inhaler angrily back into the bag.

The Reverend definitely noticed that. "Is something wrong here?" He asked, appearing - for the second time - mysteriously behind Andy.

"N-no, no, everything is fine, I'm sorry." Andy gasped slightly, climbing to his feet. The Reverend didn't seem to take that for an answer.
"Dinner!" The Reverend’s son cried joyously, distracting him quickly as he entered the kitchen. The two girls greeted their brother and everyone sort of forgot about Andy's little moment. He sighed. He glanced towards the entrance to the other room, wondering if Jay was okay.

The Reverend was watching Andy, but smiled and ushered them to the kitchen table. He placed his hand on one chair, a head chair. “Your sister can sit here. You can sit to the left of her.” Reverend walked to the other side as the daughters placed the food. He sat down, and Andy was going to mention something about Jay not being related to him, but he couldn’t focus on words when he could hardly breathe at all. The Reverend looked toward his daughters. “If you could, ladies, go check on our guest.”

They nodded and walked off to the bathroom. Without even a knock on the door, they walked in. “WHAT THE-” Jay shouted, but they grabbed her and stood her up. Jay covered herself. The door was left wide open. The girls dried her off and picked clothes out of her pack. Then, the brunette (Bailey? Lisa?) grabbed Jay’s wet clothes and they both simply walked away. Jay struggled to put her bra on, having to move her arms backwards. She pulled her grey shirt over her head and put a pair of leggings on. She smiled. She thought she had to look good because those girls were pretty and Jay had to get Andy’s eye. Jay walked out holding her left side, grunting. As she came into the room, everyone was already waiting. She smiled slightly as she shivered. “I should have grabbed my sweatshirt.” She sat down, rubbing her arms.

Andy, who had been afraid to look up, glanced at Jay from the other side of the table. “I would give you mine, but it’s still soaked…” He said, or he would’ve said, but he felt compelled to stay quiet. The Reverend was keeping an eye on him now, and it made him feel out of place. Even more out of place than usual, that is. He pursed his lips and cleared his throat as the Reverend’s son happily dished out the plates and the food.

There was an equal serving of everything on everyone’s plates. Andy’s green eyes flicked up to the other young man as he returned to his seat and scooted forward. “So, what are the names of our guests, father?” He asked.

The Reverend blinked in sudden realization and he seemed surprised at himself for a moment before a smile was on his face once again. He turned his gaze toward Jay and then toward Andy, almost apologetically, or at least feigning to be. “Actually, I hadn’t even asked.” He laughed at this, a weird but hearty laugh.

Andy didn’t want to speak, but he felt half of the eyes were on him and the other half was on Jay. He fidgeted quietly with his fork and wiped the prongs of the old-looking silverware onto his shirt, trying to be discrete. “Um, my name is Andy…” He mumbled, just barely glancing at the Reverend.

“Andy?” The Reverend’s son almost sneered, in the most honest sort of way that a Reverend’s son could’ve done. “What sort of name is that?”

Biting his cheek, Andy sat up slightly in his chair and cleared his throat. He felt the scoff of the strange man sting him like a bee. “Uh… Anderson, i-it’s short for Anderson.” He reported, pressing his lips together in a firm line as he forced himself to at least glance at everyone’s general direction. It was so hard to do and he felt his hands shaking.

Jay smiled however, placing her gaze on Andy. “I didn’t even know that one, that’s neat.” Jay looked around and caught the eye of the son. She glared straight back at him. “I’m Jay, it’s not short for anything special.” She shrugged slightly before she looked down. Suddenly, she thought of her mother, or rather a woman that she thought might resemble her. Maybe my mother’s name was Jay or something… No, that was dumb. Who would name their daughter after themselves?

The gray-eyed girl looked up at the Reverend. Something about him in this light made him look older, a bit more natural instead of always smiling. He looked sort of creepy. Thunder shook the church and Jay jumped again. A shudder ran down her spine. “What about all of you?” She asked hastily. She wanted to think of something different

The girls were the first to reply. The blonde, who wasn’t particularly paying attention to Jay but instead to Andy, put on a big smile. “I’m Lisa.” She said, and she twirled her limp, dirty blonde hair around her fingers. “And that’s Bailey. I’m the oldest.” She sounded oh-so proud. Bailey giggled and leaned in awkwardly close to Andy. Andy felt like maybe it would’ve been better if Andy sat next to the Reverend’s son.

“My name is David. I was named after a book in the holy Bible.” The blonde boy across from Andy stated, taking a large bite of his bread. Realizing that they weren’t waiting to pray, both Andy and Jay blinked in almost-unison.

Andy reached his hand forward and picked up the bread, nibbled slightly on it and also ate some rice. The fork in his hand seemed dirty though, and he was quite hesitant to even place his lips on it. He was hungry, of course he was, but for some reason he couldn’t really eat. What did go down, though, was warm and felt pleasant in his stomach. Andy sighed, a little louder than he thought. He felt David’s eyes on him again, making him tense up.

Feeling awkward, Jay picked up her bread and held it in her lap, eating little bits at a time. She noticed the tension in the room and she growled to herself. She felt bad. She wasn’t getting any attention, like normal. It reminded her of the old days, being ignored by her father. Thinking of him made her jaw clench. Then, all of a sudden, a foot touched hers. Shocked, she looked around curiously at the faces.

It was Andy. He was watching her, though not as intensely as the others were. His mossy green eyes gave her a quick smile, the certain two second smile like his lips always showed. It was just a little sign to assure her. This was only going to be one night, and then they'd be fine. It didn't have to stay like this for any more than one night. He was determined to try to focus on the cooked food and enjoy the resources they were offering.

"How's the food, Jay? Andy?" The Reverend asked them, startling Andy out of his gaze. He was surprised to see that most of the food on the family’s plate was almost gone.

Hastily eating the rest of his bread, he looked up at the Reverend as he swallowed it down. "Oh, uh, it's good.” He nodded his head and he glanced to Jay, picking up pile of rice on his fork. “I'd like to thank you all very much.. For letting us stay." His voice was still quiet, but he felt sort of proud that he said so much in the first place.

Jay smiled wide. “The food is wonderful. I love rice so much.” Her face flushed and she looked down at her plate. Her rice was gone. She didn’t know if she felt comfortable asking for more, so she tore off pieces of her bread roll with her fingers and ate them quietly.
Everyone finished the food, though Andy still had some rice left on his plate. The sisters picked the dishes up to wash them without asking if Andy or Jay were finished. Andy was sort of disappointed, since he was considering giving his leftover rice to Jay...

The Reverend stood up, distracting him from his thoughts. “I will show you to your room.” He smiled that same, wide smile at the two guests. His long hands gestured for them both to follow him, and Jay stood up as well as Andy. The Reverend walked them to a bolted door and unlocked it, several times. The large deadbolts clanked loudly, and actually looked sort of scary to Andy, at least. “The bedrooms are downstairs. We try to keep them secure as possible.” The Reverend explained as he guided them forward and walked down the stairs, a creaking noise following every step.

Andy wondered why they cared so much about the bedrooms by not the kitchen. Anyone could burst into the kitchen and take all of their supplies, take everything that they lived off of… He ignored that thought and continued behind Jay and Reverend. It got cold fast as they descended, which was normal in any basement, Andy thought.

Jay realized something suddenly, stopping in her tracks, making Andy stop as well. “I forgot my backpack.” She went to turn around and found Andy. Well, he had his backpack shrugged onto his shoulder. She wondered idly if he had thought to grab hers, but it didn’t seem like it. She shrugged it off as him being polite enough not to touch her things.

Andy blinked. “Oh, um… Sorry- here, I’ll- uh…” Flustered, he turned sideways and pressed himself against the railing of the stairs and up on the wall so that she could get through, not wanting to be in her way or anything… His cheeks flushed by pure instinct.
She scooted by him and up the stairs once again. As she jogged around the corner and into the kitchen, she ran straight into David.

Gasping, she pull back away from him and clenched her jaw. She peered up at him, steely eyes glaring. "Excuse me." Jay hurried to grab her bag out of the bathroom, throwing the strap over her shoulder. She picked up a handkerchief which had fallen out of it, stuffing it back inside. She hurried back to the stairs once again, noticing that David had already gone down there as well. Jay caught up to Andy and the Reverend, but saw no sign of David.

The Reverend seemed to be waiting for her to come back. He smiled at her as she fell into place beside Andy. "You two will share a room.” He said and he turned toward a wide door. “We use it for a sort of storage, and there are a few beds in there.” The Reverend smiled at Jay as she approached and continued on. “My family and I will be in this room." He gestured toward the door that David must’ve slipped away into.

There was another door on the other wall that caught Jay’s attention. She quirked an eyebrow, pointing toward it. "Is that another bathroom?" Jay asked curiously, her eyes lingering on the strange door. It seemed different from the other doors, in a way that she couldn’t quite describe, but in a way that she sensed...

The Reverend blinked and looked at the other door. "Oh, no, that's just a closet." He replied and he smiled at her, brushing the thought away almost immediately.