Obadiah sprang to a crouched position onto the tiled floor. Where were they? Why'd it smell like bacon? He looked up at a white-washed ceiling. Then to his right, there was a long basin that was filled with bloodied human body parts. Obadiah cried out and leapt backward. Then, one pile of limbs moved.
Jason moaned. He lifted his head up and peered over the lip of his bathtub.. His bathtub? He jolted upward. He looked over at Obadiah, who was so besmirched with blood, the only recognizable feature was his beard. He looked over at the lump of human being next to him. His father was breathing, but barely. Jason breathed a sigh of relief to know that they were momentarily safe.
Obadiah stood slowly and heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn't too injured to live. He walked over to the basin, and reached out and helped Jason to his feet. When Jason nearly collapsed, Obadiah remembered his leg injury. "How is it? Where are we?"
Jason leaned back against the tiled wall. "We're home."
"Home?" Obadiah asked bewildered.
"The world I came from. The world I was born in. This is my home." Jason grinned despite of everything else.
Obadiah pointed at his James. "So that's your dad?"
"Yes. We need to get him to a doctor, and fast." Jason motioned to Obadiah to help him heft his father to a standing position.
Somehow, they managed to get to the bathroom door (Obadiah wanting to ask so many questions, but held his tongue for the time being.) Opening the door, the trio were about to exit, when Jason suddenly stopped. "We can't all go down there, I don't know who is home. Mom or sister might be in with friends." Obadiah saw the wisdom in that and sat down on this odd porcelain thing, that Jason introduced as a "toilet."
Jason propped his unconscious dad up against the bathroom wall, and slid quietly out of the bathroom. He peeked quietly around the corner and walked down the hall. The whole house was dead quiet and dark. Jason wandered the whole house. Nothing stirred. He walked from room to room. Everything felt different, but nothing had changed. Except for him. He felt, that after every trip to Alepp, that he was older and more mature. Responsibility weighed heavily on his shoulders. The fate of the world somehow seemed to be in the balance, as he thought about Lydia and her army she was gathering. And then another thing dropped on to his shoulders, like an anvil. He remember that his mother was probably in the hospital, after the crash. And where was, Jenny, his sister? He nearly collapsed.
Jason walked into the family room and picked up the home phone. He punched in 9-1-1. When he choked out that he needed an ambulance, ASAP, he put the phone back on the hook and dashed back down the hall, running away from his thoughts.
When Jason threw open the door to the bathroom, he told Obadiah that a doctor was on the way. Hefting James Sterling between them, they sidled through the small doorway and camped out in the living room. Jason hunted through the cabinets, and found some crackers and peanut butter that hadn't spoiled, and rifled through to find the first aid kit, Jason handed out the rations and some bottled water he had tracked down. He sat down next to his dad, who was slumped on the coach, and started administering simple first aid. Obadiah was perched across the room on the lazyboy.
Obadiah blurted out, "Why does your bathroom smell like bacon?"
Jason laughed, once against, despite everything he had been through. "My dad is a lover of bacon, So, he wanted the whole house to smell like it. My mom only allowed the bathroom."
Obadiah nodded, thoughtful. "What now? What will our next move be?"
Jason looked at Obadiah. "I have no idea."
