Reset

Jason began his journey towards his house. At first he moved slowly, then as he rounded the bend of a cul-de-sac, he began a quicker jot. He sprinted straight up the jungle of a yard, to the front door. Nora caught up to him. She looked around. She assumed it was his home. The grass was very high. The windows were dark with dirt, the drapes were drawn. The front door was cracked from the weather and vines and weeds grew all around the archway.

Jason reached for the handle and turned it, it was locked. All it took was one good shove with his shoulder, and the door blasted open, cracking in several pieces. He turned around and looked at her over his shoulder with a smile. “I feel like the Hulk.” And then he went inside.

Nora was hesitant but she followed him in. The door led into a foyer and she stood there looking around. A wide staircase was in the center and extended upward to an open upper interior landing of the huge home.

“Melissa!” Jason yelled as he charged up the steps. “Melissa!”

If he were to find them, he had to do it on his own. Nora checked out the foyer. Boxes lined the hallway. Some marked as water, some marked as food. From where she stood she could hear Jason moving around upstairs and she could see the kitchen ahead of her. She walked in the direction of the kitchen, everything was so dusty. Just as she made it to the kitchen archway, she paused. There was a small table in the hall and on it was a picture of a beautiful woman with long hair, holding a little girl that looked to be about three. The little girl had to be Daisy. That’s what Jason said her name was.

As soon as Nora stepped into the kitchen she saw the medication on the counter, the empty pill bottles, the dishes.

The well preserved home was remarkably tidy, sans the dust and dirt that gathered through the years. But the kitchen was a mess. Totally disabled. Cabinets open. There was food in the cabinets, indicating it wasn’t looters. It reminded Nora of the time that her and Rick in the girls were sick with the stomach flu. How they just wandered around the house not caring if it messed up. Pepto-Bismol on the counter in the kitchen and it reminded Nora of that time.

Someone in the home was sick. She turned back around to head towards the living room. Jason came down the stairs.

“There are no bodies upstairs,” Jason said with a gasp of relief. “Thank God.”

Nora remained silent.

Jason walked into the living room and Nora followed. The furniture in there was covered with plastic, on the mantle were photographs and Jason want to the mantle. He stood before them with a puzzled look on his face.

“What is it?” Nora asked. She stepped closer to him

Jason ran his fingers over the photographs, clearing the dust from the frames to expose the faces. “Who is this man?”

As if Nora would possibly know, she took the photograph and looked at the man and a little girl. “Do you know the little girl?”

“No. I mean it could be Daisy, a little older.” Jason said. “But who is the man? Maybe she sold the house.”

Nora grabbed another dust cover photograph and cleared the film. It was a photograph of Jason. She handed it to him. “You’re in the right house.”

Jason took a third photo from the mantle, and cleared the dust. Nora didn’t need to hear the gasp when she saw the expression on his face. She peered over his shoulder to see the photograph. Jason wasn’t in it. It was a woman, Melissa, a toddler girl and the same man. They posed like a happy family with Easter baskets.

“This is good. This is very good.” He smiled at Nora. “She remarried.”

“Okay.” Nora was confused.

“No think about it. She remarried. This is Daisy. She’s about one year old. The virus was released three months after we were put in stasis. Which means she outlived the virus. They had an Easter. Which was the same time we were supposed to get out of stasis. Things were bright here in this neighborhood. Or at least in this area.”

Nora moistened her lips. Her mouth was dry. Jason had a point. The little girl had grown. If it indeed was Daisy, and Jason should know his own daughter, then they did beat the first wave of the virus. But where were they?

Yet, another question popped into Nora’s mind, if things were all that fine in Kentucky at least, why did they hit the reset button? Someone hadn’t told them the whole truth.

“They covered the furniture. They beat the virus. They went somewhere.” Jason said. “We just need to…”

His words trailed as his eyes widened. Nora drew a curious look. “Jason?”

“Oh my God.” He said airily and brushed by her, seemingly in shock. “Oh my God.”

Nora didn’t get to ask. She spun around to see him race from the living room through the dining room, and to the double French doors. He shoved on them until they opened and he raced outside to the yard.