Chapter 96: 96
We headed back to the compound while we saw Oscar and his group carefully unloading the panels.
“That’s a lot.” Kaley said.
“For a couple of houses, sure. But for this whole place, we need a lot more. However, most of the houses is still unoccupied and the few solar generators could power up a few basic utilities like lights or charging a few devices. This is all for the future.” Oscar said.
“Okay, it’s almost noon, I’ll take the head to my old house.” I said.
“Kid, take Kaley with you okay?” Oscar said.
“Sure, want to come with me?” I said to Kaley.
“Your old house huh? Sure, is there someone there I need to be wary of?” she said sarcastically.
“Yeah, Jude is there. He’s alone though, he has been taking care of the house ever since we moved here.” I said nonchalantly.
“Wait, what?! There is really someone there?! I thought that place was just empty when we were clearing last time!” she exclaimed.
“Oh yeah, we never told anyone. I just can’t let go of the house before so I kept it and asked someone to live there for free as long as they kept it clean. It’s fully stocked too.” I explained.
“Wait, so what you’re trying to say is that your old house has someone living in it? But why was he left there and not invited to come here?” Kaley asked.
“Hah! Better check inside the house first before you say anything.” Oscar said.
“What?” Kaley said confused.
“Let’s just say that the time Oscar and I was living there, we also made some modifications on it.” I added.
I went up to my room and I picked up the mason jar that contained the sentries’ head. It was covered by 3 layers of dark fabric to prevent it from seeing anything. Allan closed the gate for us and we made our way towards my old house.
It’s a 3-story house covered by large gate that leads to our garage that extends upwards up to the terrace in the second floor so no one could climb over it like last time. It has a small staircase on the side of the gate that leads to the receiving area. I opened the small gate first and we walked up the stairs and I stopped at the door.
A few moments pass and Kaley’s confusion is showing more clearly on her face.
“Aren’t you gonna knock?” she said.
“Just wait. I had CCTVs here installed as well, he’ll see us eventually.” I said as I pointed at a camera on the corner.
*click*
The door’s lock clicking open was heard and a smell of ramen permeated our noses.
“Hey.” the man said while he opens the door.
The man could be said to be a very simple guy but he’s very monotonous. Even his facial expression is the same. His speech just has a certain tone that makes you question if he has any emotion.
“Hey~ Jude~” I said with a small tune.
“Please stop, you always sing that song when you meet me. Come in. Oh? You’re with someone, come in as well.” Jude said with no emotion.
“Excuse the intrusion.” I said nonchalantly.
“This is your house man, stop saying things.” He said quietly.
Kaley was just growing more and more confused from our interaction.
“Would you like some?” Jude reached out his bowl of noodles.
“Nah, but thank you. I’m just here to store something.” I replied.
“Oh, ok. I’ll just eat here. How about you?” He said.
“Umm, ah- I’m fine thank you.” Kaley nervously said.
“We’ll head up now, is that beef with green onions and garlic?” I replied.
“Good nose.” he said nonchalantly as he slurps the soup.
When we reached the second floor, I opened the door to enter it and when it closed, Kaley started to talk.
“Sky! Who was that?! He feels so… chill.” She said.
“Oh, he’s Jude. I remember telling you his name.” I said.
“No! Not that! Of course, I know his name! How did you two meet?!” she asked.
“Oh, he’s a rescue.” I said.
“Wait, w-what? Like a puppy or something?” she grew more confused as the conversation continues.
“We met at a coffee shop. Stop saying I’m a rescue, wait… I am. I haven’t thanked you properly yet, thanks.” Jude said from behind.
The door is already open without any noise and it was closed without any noise as well.
“O-oh…” Kaley was startled when Jude suddenly popped up.
“The keys, here. I locked it, I forgot.” He handed me the keys to the rooms and he went back down.
“Hold on, I really need to hear this story. A coffee shop?!” she exclaimed.
“Hah! It is just a very boring story. The coffee shop I was at was full but I just saw him buy a coffee as well but there were no more seats. I waved at him to sit down in the chair in front me and we just sat there for half a day without speaking. He’s actually talking a lot more now I might say.” I said as I find the keys to one of the two rooms.
“And?” she said.
“And what?” I asked.
“The story! Why did it suddenly get weird here?!” she exclaimed.
“Oh, hahaha! That’s the end of it. You know my kind treasures peace and solitude. That half a day just sitting alone not speaking just made us friends. Everytime I go to that coffee shop, he’ll show up sometimes and he would sit with me.” I said.
“Even if there were free seats?” she asked.
“Yeah, it removes the awkward moment to ask someone if their other seat is taken. We’ll just come and leave without a word.” I said.
“B-but how did you two get to know each other then? And he was just at this house all this time? I saw Jay knocking in this place before when we thought this was not your house but no one answered. Is he really a human?” she asked.
“Oh, I found out when I glanced at his laptop that he was looking for a place to move at. I talked to him and he agreed in the condition that he would keep this place always squeaky clean. I’ve left this house for a few months after we moved to the compound. If he doesn’t know who’s in front of the door, he won’t open it. He saw me with you now so he did. Hey, that’s rude. Forgot me from before?” I explained.
“Oh, right. But wait, you gave this house just like that?!” she was flabbergasted.
“Yeah, this place looks awesome right?” I said.
“You really have weird friends…” she said with a smile.
“Hah! We’ll talk later, let’s just leave this thing here.” I said as I opened one of the safes in the room and placed the mason jar inside a corner.
“I doubt this could do anything as long as it sees darkness. Putting this here just makes the compound relax a bit.” I said to myself.
I waved goodbye at Jude and he did the same. I heard the door locking and we went back to the compound. Oscar saw us coming back and he approached Kaley.
“So, how was it?!” he was pretty excited.
“It’s… really different. It’s very calm there… to say the least.” Kaley said.
“Right?! When I went with Sky there the first time I was really off-putted by that guy! He’s like the old version of Sky… but weirder!” he exclaimed.
“That is maybe why they hit it off… is he safe there though?” she replied.
“Yes, pretty much. I’ve left an AR-15 chambered in .22 LR there as well with several hundred rounds. He gets excited when he touches a gun and he’s a good shot as well.” I said.
“Really? He has this very robot-like expression the whole time though…” she said.
“Bah! If you call smiling normally excited!” Oscar said while he cackles.
“Anyway, enough about Jude. He’s pretty secure there. What’s for lunch?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s…” he told me that it was meatloaf.
We ate together again and we discussed the next plan for the afternoon.
“Okay, we need to go back to the store where we found several sacks of feed. We need to take the ones for cows. Oscar, are you done with the panels or is there more inside?” I said.
“We only took the ones in display and the few boxes behind it that also contains the panels. I took a few inverters to set up the panels later. We also found a few electrical tools that I placed in a toolbox. We also took several boxes of lightbulbs and lamps.” He replied.
“We took a bit of time clearing the place since there is a bit of them there and we weren’t able to go to their storage area since the closed truck is almost full. I figured that there would be more there but we can’t find the manifest that has the codes where they are in their storage area. All the boxes there are similar and it would take too long if we checked each one.” Jay added.
We we’re talking for a while then we heard our radio buzzing.
*bzzt*
“Sky, do you know an old man named Matthew? She’s with an old lady named Marisha, they said they were pointed at this direction by a note with coordinates on it. Sky?”
*bzzt*