Chapter 11: What Did It Do To Him?
As Connie and Bob turned the corner, Dad took a break from planning and headed with Bob, Connie, and Henry to wherever they were going. My assumption was a room so Henry could get some rest.
"With everything going on, how are you doing?" Niko asked me.
He stood relatively quiet for most of the time we were in here, silently watching over Skylar to make sure she was okay. After a bit, Skylar went with Mom to learn about first-aid, planting crops, and strategically planning out things to allow for an easy future.
Niko often stood silent to observe the scenery. As I stated before, he never made a decision without knowing both sides of things. He paced around, looking near every group to find out any details possible, and always took time to consider everybody's feelings. I wasn't sure how he would help out, but I figured he would help build the fence.
"Hey, why did so many people go off with Henry? And why is he so sick? He had all that medicine, right?" I asked Niko. He shrugged, trying to hide the obvious from me.
"Not entirely sure, maybe it's not working well with him. I'm sure he'll be up and at 'em soon enough. How are you doing? With everything going on?" Niko asked me, crouching down near my level.
"Well, I guess I'm okay... Dad said our house burned down. We grew up in that house, is it really gone forever?" I returned another question to Niko, and he sighed deeply, looking toward the closed blinds by the entrance to the school.
"I'm not going to lie to you and say everything is okay, but I do know that so long as we have each other, our home is never truly gone, okay? We can build something here, and one day we'll return to the house when they find the cure for this thing," Niko explained further, getting up and heading toward the back end of the gymnasium.
"Do you know anything cool? I know how to plant seeds and Dad can build cool stuff, do you know how to do both since you're in-between us?" I asked.
Niko was often gone at work, so I barely ever got to see him. I wasn't sure what he did for a job, since every time he told me, it kind of just washed away because of how many words he put into the explanation.
"I'm a tradesman, so I do a little bit of everything. Plumbing, electrician, carpenter, mason, anything that goes on inside of the house," He said. I felt the words slip my mid yet again, but I wanted to hold on, so I tried asking a question.
We both sat down at a folding picnic table used for kids to eat lunch on, and I started to bounce my fingers off of the wood.
"An electricity man? So, you can use electricity however you want?" I asked him. He chuckled lightly, and then put his fingers on the table in front of me.
"All power in a house comes from that wooden pole in our backyard, do you remember?" He began, referencing a familiar place to me, "So, from that pole, it goes to our main breaker, which controls how it flows into the house. When I say breaker, think about a cup from a fast food place with holes poked into the lid. The liquid stays in the cup, but when you flip it, it constantly pours out, right?" He asked me, speaking slowly for me to catch up.
"Yes... but, if you pour out all of the liquid, then the cup is empty and nothing comes out... so, you get more liquid from the pole?" I asked him in a broken metaphor, combining both what he was saying with my own complex explanation. Niko nodded and clapped his hands together, reminiscent of how Dad does, and praised my intelligence.
"Yes! Very good. So, that's what I do," Niko said.
Right before he finished talking, a loud bang from the hallway erupted into the gym. It took me by surprise, and I practically jumped out of my seat.
"What the hell was that?!" Jason yelled out, looking toward the hallway.
Besides Cody and I, he was the first one to peek into the hallway. I couldn't make it past him, as Jason tried to keep me behind him to avoid seeing the mess.
"What the hell? You shot him...?" Jason asked in an airy tone. He couldn't find the solid ground to speak on, and Bob turned the corner with a scared look in his face.
"He... tried to bite my daughter..." Bob said, holding a smoking gun in his hands, with blood splatters all over his shirt.
"Alright, everybody back, come on, the kids don't need to see this, and neither do the women. Come on," Papa said, closing the door on Cody, Niko, and I, and staying on the opposite end.
"What happened?!" Jason asked. The door wasn't meant to block sound or vision, and it seemed that everybody knew that.
"He was just like the thing that bit him... he didn't stop, he cornered Connie, and Bob gave him ten warnings to back off. I'm telling you, that wasn't Henry any more... it was like he was drunk, or high, or inebriated in some way. Does anybody know if he took drugs? Did the pills make him that high?" Dad asked.
Even through the glass near the center of the door, I could tell that he was keeping a calm-head, even though what just happened set us all off permanently. Killing somebody, just like that, didn't feel right, or human.
"He wasn't inebriated. Even drunk or high, or damn near overdose, you don't go to bite a child. He was just like the thing that bit him. He didn't listen, time after time, so I threatened to kill him, and he kept going. I... I need a moment," Bob said. He was avoiding eye contact with the bottom half of the floor I couldn't see. I couldn't see past what the glass would allow me to.
Dad and Jason both took action, covering their noses and mouths with the collar to their shirts, and grunting as they picked something up.
"Connie, are you okay?" I heard Bob asked through the door. It opened back up, and Bob pushed her in, and shut the door, sitting down in the middle to prevent anybody else from going through.
"What... what happened?" Mom asked. Everybody was gathered near the same door, backing up to give Bob space, and Mary took in Connie to shelter her from any other danger.
The room was crowded, very concentrated in the deep breaths, tapping feet, and pacing steps. I pulled on my shirt over and over again to circulate air through my sweaty body, and Bob held his head in his hands, and shook it lightly.
"They're... not human... they're unresponsive... they're not human..." He muttered. He was trying to reassure himself. I couldn't find the courage to open my mouth to put my two-cents in.
"Mister Bob, don't blame yourself... if Mister Henry didn't listen and your daughter was in danger, you did the right thing, okay? Henry wouldn't have wanted to harm anybody... not in my eyes. He was a sweet man, and even after an outburst, he apologized to the kids. Maybe it was for the best," Niko found the words I couldn't say, but he attracted the attention from Henry's wife, who lost both her son and her husband in the same day... nearly in the same eight hours.
"That's easy for you to say! I loved Henry! And you killed him! You took him away from me!" She screamed. It didn't look malicious, as she was coping with all of this hardship, and she fell to the floor in front of the other girls, to which they surrounded her and took her in their arms.
I couldn't bear to watch anything unfold anymore, and went back to sit at the table with Cody. We both decided to check on Connie.
"Connie... are you okay? I know, things are tough... but we want to make sure you're doing alright," I asked her, sitting down besides Mary and her.
"Yeah... I'm okay... he didn't touch me, Dad wouldn't let him... that was scary... I did it though, Leon. I fought the scary..." Connie said. I forgot I told that to her in the library, and quickly smiled as I remembered.
"Great job. I knew you could do it," I said with a smile. I looked to Cody, nodding as we were both hidden from her view.
"That was really awesome Connie. I don't think I could've fought like that," He added on. For a brief moment, we got her to smile, and she was slowly starting to cheer up again.
"You didn't see anything, right? When Dad... stopped Henry... did you see him...?" Mary asked Connie. She shook her head, claiming that her eyes were shut for the entire counter. Mary looked so relieved by that fact alone, it was enough to make her cry.
"Thank God... thank God..." She muttered, holding Connie's head close to her own.
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