State of Decay✔️

Chapter 13: Lily's Brother

The basement was a real nightmare.

Marcus had always had a thing about basements. Especially dark, decrepit, unfinished ones, cast in dusty concrete and spiderwebs. This one had a lot of both. Well, maybe not the cracked concrete, but definitely darkness and spiderwebs. And, of course, it was summer, so the little eight-legged bastards would be in full swing. Marcus didn't have full-blown arachnophobia, but that didn't mean that he liked the things.

The basement was packed full of crap and about half the size of the church above it. Along the left and right walls were pairs of slit windows, stuck high up into the ceiling. They were covered in dust on the inside, vegetative matter on the outside, so little light came in. Maya marched into the main area of the basement, a pool of space left open amidst the maze of boxes, furniture and whatever the hell else had been crammed down here.

"Damn," Maya said.

Marcus hung back at the entryway, where the light was. "Yeah," he muttered.

"We'll need more light. And help, eventually."

"What's the plan?"

"Haul all of this crap up and out, then sort through it, see what we can use, what's gotta go. We can just throw the other stuff over the side, or pile the burnable stuff in the corner of the yard for fires in the winter, if it comes to that."

"Winter? How long do you think we'll be here?" Marcus asked.

"I don't know, Marcus. That's the point. We need to think ahead. Honestly, I want to do a tallied inventory of everything inside of these walls. How about you go grab another pair of lanterns? I saw two more in the supply case in the main room. And tell Lily that when Sam wakes up, we'd like her help," Maya replied.

"Okay...what about Alan?"

Maya shook her head. "No, he's got guard duty right now and besides, I don't want to be around that guy."

Marcus snorted. "Me neither. Be right back."

He hurried up out of the basement, glad for any excuse to be out of there. Unfortunately, he only managed to kill a few minutes by completing the tasks Maya had set for him before he was back down in the basement with a few more lanterns. He set one up high on a dresser and another on a desk, turned them both up high and then set to work.

Four hours came and went.

Marcus stopped about every half hour to check on Ed, but he slept through all of it. He and Maya, and after about an hour, Sam, hauled up at least half the crap that was stored down in the basement, spreading it out across the backyard. They found all sorts of stuff down there. An ancient washer and dryer pair, dressers, desks, filing cabinets, bits and pieces of several old bed frames, couches, chairs, and boxes, boxes, boxes.

There were boxes piled high and they were full of so much random junk. Some of it was kitchenware, others were packed with moldering old paperbacks, others were filled with what appeared to be totally unconnected stuff. Marcus wondered where the hell it had all come from. By the time it was two in the afternoon, he was starving and Maya finally gave in to his and Sam's requests for a break. They all trudged into the kitchen and grabbed whatever they could find. Marcus found a grab-bag of BBQ chips, a packet of tuna and crackers and a bottle of water.

They went into the main room, where Lily was still at the radio. She seemed preoccupied, hunched over the radio, talking into it.

"Come on, Jacob, answer me..." she whispered.

"You okay, Lily?" Marcus asked as he tore into his meal.

"Ugh, no, not really. My dad and brother still aren't answering me. I haven't heard from either of them in over a day now. They went to look for survivors, or, at least my dad did. Up on Mount Tanner. I don't know where Jacob went...hey, you didn't happen to see him, did you?" Lily asked.