Chapter Four

The sun was still high in the sky, but sunlight couldn't enter the house with the windows being covered in a thick layer of dust.

She entered what looked like the main living room. There was a couch towards the right side of the living room, with a tv sitting on a stand in front of the sofa.

There were still game consoles lying in the TV stand's cubby hole, with several stacked games together.

How strange, why wouldn't they bring their consoles with them.

Unless, maybe they were terrified of something and left in a big hurry, but what were they so afraid of that they couldn't even grab everything?

To the left of the living room was an arched opening, leading further into the house.

She made her way across the living room towards the arched opening, the entire living room was carpeted, and every step she took left dust clouds forming under her feet.

The archway led to a hallway, halfway down the hall to the left was another wide arch opening, right before that though was a door, and at the very end of the hall were two more entries on opposite sides of the aisle.

She walked over to the door that was before the opening and opened the door.

It turned out to be a laundry room. It wasn't very big, only large enough to fit a shelf between a washer and dryer.

The shelf was empty with dust covering it. Sarah opened the washer, hoping she would find some clothes, but it was empty.

She opened the dryer next to discover that it, too, was empty.

She squeezed the lid of the dryer in frustration, making a loud grinding noise as her fingers ripped through the metal like it was made of cardboard.

She sighed and took a deep breath calming herself.

It's okay; I'm sure they left some clothes in the closet if they were in a big hurry, so calm down.

Sarah let out her breath and breathed in again. She did this a few times before calming herself down.

She let go of the dryer lid and walked out of the laundry room, heading towards the opening in the hallway.

As she was about to enter through the opening, something flew past her head. Something moving in a house that had been completely still and deathly quiet to this point scared her so bad she crouched down low, ducking her head in fear.

Her heart hammered against her chest, going a million miles a minute.

She heard a distinct screeching noise and realized the creature that flew above her head was just a bat.

Even after knowing it was just a bat, she could still hear her heartbeat thumping in her ears. "It was just a bat...it was just a bat...it was just a stupid bat!" she kept telling herself in a whisper.

She crouched down low, walking as quietly as she could the rest of the way towards the arched opening, not wanting to be caught off guard again.

She peered past the opening, staying low and hugging the wall.

She noticed the opening led to the kitchen, directly in the center of the room.

She could see that the left side of the kitchen was safe.

She brought her head around the corner, peeking towards the other side.

She sighed in relief when she couldn't spot anything there.

Maybe I am being a little ridiculous; it was only a bat, after all.

She walked into the kitchen, her feet stepping on the cool, albeit dirty tile floor.

She decided not to sneak anymore, now that she knew there was no danger to be found.

Towards her right could only be the dining area, there was a table and chairs tucked nicely into the table.

The table had a nice tablecloth covering it or would have been nice if it weren't for the dust and what looked like rat droppings on it.

There were cobwebs on the far right wall towards the ceiling on both sides.

The wall opposite of the one with a hallway had a decent-sized arch window, with two potted plants on both corners, situated directly in the center of the table, presumably for sunlight.

The potted plants were, of course, brown and withered, looking to of been dead for a very long time.

There was also a cupboard on the far right wall that held dishes that looked to be decorative dishes only.

Directly in front of her was another arched window, only slightly more significant than the other one and beside it towards the left side were cabinets running the length of the wall with a stove sandwiched between them.

Right up above the stove hung a microwave that was sandwiched by a row of cupboards. Some of the cupboard doors were slanted, dangling off of the top brackets that were supposed to be holding them up.

The far left wall was pretty much the same, except there was a refrigerator there, instead of a stove.

On the opposite wall of the stove where the hallway was, had a dishwasher and a sink sandwiched between cabinets.

Sarah dug through the cupboards that were above the stove first.

She didn't find anything until her third cupboard, which had four cans of food.

She wasn't sure what was in them as they weren't labeled, but at this point, she would eat about anything.

She set the cans on the counter, continuing her search.

She didn't find much of note in any of the top cabinets, aside from pots, pans, and the occasional boxed food that had holes in the sides as mice dug into them to get to their contents, but they were all empty.

She opened the last cabinet that was up top, not expecting much from it.

As she opened it, pots and pans came crashing down on top of her.

One particular pan, which happened to be a cast-iron skillet, fell directly on her toes, which were bare from lack of shoes.

She was just about to scream out in pain until she realized something, there was no pain.

She looked at her toes quizzically; they didn't even have so much as a scratch on them, nor a bruise for that matter.

She felt the pan hit her toes, but all she felt was a slight pressure there, nothing more. Phew, that's a relief.

Sarah was just glad she didn't break a toe or two; it would be one thing if it happened before, what she could only presume was the apocalypse, and she could get medical treatment.

Now, however, something like a broken toe could seriously endanger her survival out here.

After searching through all the lower cabinets, she managed to find two more canned goods and four water bottles.

She drank a bottle of water as soon as she found them, drinking the whole thing in one go.

The water felt heavenly going down her dry, parched throat, and she sighed in relief when the water bottle emptied.

She set her newfound items on the counter with the rest, bringing her tally to 3 bottles of water and six cans of food.

There was just one last place to search in the kitchen, and that was the refrigerator.

Sarah gulped aloud when she placed her hand on the door handle to the fridge.

She took in a deep breath and held it.

Sarah opened the door; what was inside was about what she would have imagined. It was a forest of mold that came in a myriad of colors. There was black, blue, pink, and green mold covering almost every inch of the fridge.

She was about to close the fridge, but her eyes caught something on the bottom shelf.

She brushed away the mold to reveal a few more water bottles without hesitating.

She scooped up the bottles of water out of the fridge and brought them to the counter, adding another 4 to her haul.

Well, that does it for the kitchen. I guess I should search the rest of the house. Her stomach let out a growl as if in protest to her thoughts.

"Fine, you win," she said to her stomach. Instead of going out of her way to search for a can opener, she dug her fingernails into the can and tore the top off.

What greeted her eyes was a murky brown liquid with flakes of green and black mold inside.

She dumped the contents into the sink, not willing to eat it.

She opened the next can only to get the same result; this time, she dropped the can in the sink.

She opened another can, this time; however it was a black sludge that greeted her eyes, she sighed as she dropped the can in the sink for the third time.

She opened the rest of the cans to the same result.

She wasn't an expert when it came to canned goods, but weren't they supposed to last for several years?

Just how long was I dead for anyway?

Sarah exited the kitchen/dining room, heading down the hall.

She took the door on the right, which led down another shorter hallway, with a door on the left.

She walked down the hall and opened the door. On the other side was an empty garage.

There were shelves along the garage walls with boxes on them, and there was a table towards the side of the garage sitting on a red carpet.

The garage looked big enough to fit two cars inside comfortably.

She was just about to turn around and leave when a thought occurred to her, why was there a table sitting on a carpet inside the garage? That just seemed weird to her.

She dragged the table off the carpet and lifted it. Underneath was a cellar door that led into darkness.

"Jackpot," she muttered.

There was a flight of wooden stairs going down into the darkness.

She would have liked to say she walked down the stairs without fear, but that was far from the truth.

Each step that creaked sent shivers down her spine, making her want to do nothing more than to turn around and leave.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she was going further down.

Instead of seeing clearly, everything was a shade of grey instead.

She was walking down, what looked to be a tunnel heading down at a 45-degree angle, the ceiling barely above her head the whole way. She looked back towards the entrance, which looked to be hardly a speck in the distance now, and wondered how far down this tunnel went.

After a while she could see the end of the tunnel, when she got there, she noticed that it went into a relatively decent sized room.

She could see her breath and knew she was probably pretty far down, but surprisingly she couldn't feel the cold on her skin even though she was naked from top to bottom.

There was a tub in the center of the room and a bed towards one side.

On the other side had shelves full of canned goods that looked to be in far better condition than the ones she found in the house.

Beside the shelves with the canned goods sat another shelf with a dozen 5-gallon water jugs sitting on it, sealed and full of water.

Next to the bed, Sarah noticed what looked like a wardrobe and immediately went towards it next.

She opened it up to reveal many different dresses on hangers.

She pulled one out at random, not caring all that much about fashion. She just really wanted to put on some clothes.

There was a mirror on the other side of the wardrobe.

She took the dress and put it in front of herself, looking at her reflection through the mirror.

The dress looked to be a little bit too long for her, but she could quickly rectify that with a pair of scissors.

The dress was a white sundress with flowers decorating it.

She removed the dress from her view, finally getting a good look at her new body.

She winced when she saw the layers of dirt, grime, and dry sweat coating her body.

She tossed the sundress onto the bed, not wanting to put it on just to get it dirty.

Sarah decided she would take a bath before putting on the dress.

She stoppered the bath and brought over two of the 5-gallon jugs of water.

She found a few soap bars on one of the shelves and brought them over to the bathtub. She also found some bath rags to use to scrub her skin clean.

She uncapped both the water jugs, then sat in the tub, crossing her legs. She picked up the first one and dumped it onto her head, emptying the whole thing as the water washed down her body like a fountain.

She grabbed the soap and started scrubbing her entire body, and she used the rag to wipe off the soap, using the water that was still in the bath to rinse.

Soon enough, the water in the bath tub was utterly black.

She unstopped the tub letting the water drain. She waited until the tub was drained before continuing to scrub her body with more soap.

She grabbed the last jug of water and started dumping the contents onto her body with one hand and the other she used to wipe the soap off with the rag.

When she got done, she hopped out of the bathtub and approached the mirror again.

She gasped in surprise when she got a good look at her face.

She touched her face in surprise, not quite believing what she saw; her face was far younger than it should have been.

When Sarah got this new body, she thought it would have been the replica of her maid she bought, but instead, she was far more beautiful and younger.

Instead of the black eyes that came with the maid, they were a sky blue color that seemed to glow faintly with power.

Her stomach growled again, and she almost forgot to check the canned food down here. The cans down here still had labels on them, unlike the ones she found up top.

Sarah ripped open a can of chili, as she had done with the ones she found upstairs.

This time, however, the contents of the can of chili looked edible.

She dipped two fingers into the can and brought it to her mouth, and it tasted heavenly. It was the best thing she had ever tasted, although she was so hungry, anything would have tasted like the best cuisine she'd ever had at this point.

Instead of looking for utensils for the food, she brought the can to her mouth and wolfed it down like it was a soda.

Sarah's stomach wasn't satisfied with just one can, so she decided a few more couldn't hurt.

She opened another can, then another, then another, and before she knew it, she had eaten almost all the cans of food on the shelf.

It was like her stomach took control of her body and wouldn't let up until it was satisfied. There were only four cans left out of the few dozen cans that were stacked neatly on the shelf, and her stomach still felt like it could keep going if she let it.

Sarah let out a deep yawn, feeling exhausted from the day's events.

She figured it was getting late outside anyways and decided she would make her way into the city in the morning, after some much-needed sleep.

She plopped down on the bed, not even removing the dress, and fell asleep almost immediately after her head hit the pillow.