It took 3 houses before Max found a garage that was both empty enough to put a car in and the garage door would open. He carefully backed in then closed the garage door. He coughed lightly at the dusty oily smell. Okay, might as well start at this house.

Thinking about going through a family's home and doing it were two very different things. He felt vaguely like an intruder in a tomb. The house was neat and had obviously been well taken care of but now it was silent, lonely. 

Max checked the house for other people. He had a firm grip on his walking stick but it was empty. Time to get to work. There wasn't much but there was an unopened can of ground coffee which made him smile.  Slowly and methodically, he worked his way through the house then packed his loot in the car. He had left the SUV hatch open. No point in playing the open close game. Too much noise.

Finished with his first house, Max looked out the available windows. Nobody. He leapt the chain link fence to the neighbors and started looking for his next way in.

He was in his 4th house when he realized it was getting close to 1 pm. He turned his phone on and waited. Nothing. Again. He turned it off. How did cell phones even work? Weren't satellites supposed to work for decades before their batteries died? Did you need electricity to the towers? The companies were always having problems with their towers and saying it caused outages. Was that the problem? Max didn't know and he felt like screaming.

It had been 21 days since Tul's call. Longer since he had spoken to his family. Were any of them okay? Were any of them alive?
Max rubbed his face. Damn, this waiting shit sucked.

He'd gone through 7 houses thoroughly and he felt wiped. He'd only run into one body. He'd frozen upon entering. It was obviously a child's room. A bright blue wall, green toy box, a Buzz Lightyear poster over the bed.  There was a small figure laid out on the bed and covered in a blanket sprinkled with Toy Story characters. Carefully laid around the child were toys- a stuffed armadillo, a selection of Match Box cars, several books and a picture. It was a little boy laughing as a woman tickled him.  With a trembling lip, Max backed out of the room and gently closed the door.

Overall, it was amazing the weirdo places people stored things. Who packs their kid's closet half full of toilet paper? People putting things in odd nooks and crannies meant each house had to be gone through with a fine tooth comb (a/n: going through something with a fine tooth comb means you have to be very meticulous and look at everything). Drawers, cupboards, closets, under beds - all of it. It took a lot longer than he thought it would.

He had found a half bottle of bourbon though.  The two fingers of Jim Beam Black Label he was planning on drinking tonight was going to hit the spot. He'd even found a full propane tank attached to a grill. It would keep his stove going a bit longer.

He snuck his way through the backyards to the house where he had stashed the car. He was carefully considering his options as he did. If he didn't count the extensive library one house had on growing roses, he hadn't found any gardening books and he needed seeds. The library was on Main Street and the nursery was on the far edge of town. Walking would take too long leaving him in town at night. Driving could draw attention.  Which was the lesser of two evils?

A grunt and the propane tank was over the last fence. Damn, that was heavy. Forget it. He was driving.

Max had driven to the library first. The road had been mostly clear which was a relief. He'd hidden the SUV in the alley behind the library and started searching for a back entrance. The locked metal door wasn't moving any time soon. That left breaking a window or trying the front door. He decided to try the door first.

He watched the street carefully for awhile. 'Better safe than sorry.' he thought. Some trash blowing in the slight breeze but nothing else. Max slid over to the steps and bolted up them. He grabbed the door handle and pulled. He was so surprised when it opened, he nearly fell back down the steps. He quickly and softly closed the door.

The library was, fittingly enough, silent as Max began his search for a book that could give him at least some basics on gardening. It struck him how prevalent the dust smell was. The scent had hung heavy in every building. Maybe it was the odor of the past. Everything had turned to dust in the last year. Why shouldn't it smell like it?

It took awhile to find the right section for gardening but it had everything. There was a book that was perfect for his knowledge level. Even a book on preserving seeds. Something that hadn't occurred to Max yet.  He stuffed them into his backpack.

After checking the street, Max closed the door, scurried down the steps and  slipped around the corner of the building. Moments later he drove away toward the nursery.

~~~~~

The eyes across the street narrowed slightly as they watched Max exit the library.  A small grin.

"Guess someone else survived too. This ought to be interesting."

~~~~~

Max had a decent amount of luck in the nursery. He'd found a display with a crazy variety of seeds. There were such things as black tomatoes? He'd taken 3 of everything. Who knew what would grow well?

Driving home was uneventful. Thank the gods because he was beat. He didn't have to unload the car until tomorrow. Okay, he did need to unload the bourbon. A quick wipe down, some leftovers from breakfast and that bourbon would make a fine end for the day.

It was exactly what Max did. Within the hour, he was sitting in the soft glow of several candles, occasionally sipping his bourbon neat while reading 'Gardening for Dummies'.

~♡~♡~♡~

Thanks for reading!
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