Remnant Saga S1: by Nick Venom (fiction book recommendations .TXT) 📖

if something happens.” He told his sister before leaving his mother’s bedroom. He entered the long and thin hallway that connected everything on the second floor to the stairwell leading to the first floor. Towards the end of the hallway and at the top of the stairwell was a large family photo that you couldn’t miss as it stared at you while you began your descent. The family photo contained Lutz, Sila, his mother, and his father - who was killed in a hunting accident several years before. Since his death, Lutz had stepped up as the “man of the house”, but the shoes were too large to fill.

Lutz stared at the photo, his gaze lingering on his clean-shaven and handsome father, before reality set back in. He traveled down the stairs, passing several small individual photos of his family and drawings from his innocence. 

Once on the first floor, he moved towards the kitchen, the farthest room from the front door, and headed towards a cabinet near the stove, diagonally above it. He opened the cabinet and pulled out a pill bottle. He rattled the bottle, using his ears to check how many pills he had inside. “Eight?” He questioned. “Yeah, about eight more pills.” He decided to check, grabbing a napkin before expelling the pills from the bottle. 

He was correct as there were eight pills, enough for three days. However, three days wouldn’t be enough, posing a problem. Lutz scratched his head before he looked through the cabinet for more bottles, but found none. The only medicine he had in the house were the eight pills in front of him.

“3 days? That’s not enough, I need to get more. I’ll have to-” He glanced around him. “Calm down, can’t let them hear my worries.” He said before inhaling and exhaling, calming himself down. 

He scooped up the pills and threw six of them back into the bottle before screwing it shut and resting it on the second shelf in the cabinet. He left out two of the pills, taking them with him as he headed upstairs where he handed one over to his mother. His mother took the first pill somewhat gracefully, gulping it down with some water. She tried her hand at the second pill but struggled. However, with some encouragement from her children, she forced it down with more help from the water bottle.

“Make sure she doesn’t throw up or anything,” Lutz told Sila. “I’ll be right back.”

“Do you need me to help you?” Sila asked.

“No, I got it. Keep an eye on Mom.” He responded instantly. He headed downstairs, beginning the process of fortifying the house. He double-checked every entrance, finding that Sila had done a great job, before pressing forward and moving furniture in front of the door as an extra precaution.

Should I barricade the windows? There should be a hammer and some nails in the basement… or is that going overboard? Quarantine shouldn’t last long, right? Yeah, I’m sure it’ll only last for a week or two… Hopefully. Lutz gripped the crossbow that he had left on the couch before visiting his mother for the second time. He now picked it up, peering outside. There was nothing different outside. Everything was the same… eerily the same.

He turned away, headed to the backdoor. He propped a chair against the doorknob, keeping it in place. It wasn’t much in terms of making his house a fortress, but Lutz wasn’t expecting his house to be attacked. He figured that everybody was staying inside and nobody would dare to attack like bandits. 

Or so he believed.

Lutz headed to the kitchen, propping a red bucket, used to season meat in, under the faucet. He cranked the faucet on, watching as the water blasted into the bucket, quickly filling it. He filled up several other large items like the bucket, keeping them on a counter some distance away from the sink. He used plastic wrap to keep the water from being tainted.

After extending their water supply, he checked the cabinets and found a large stockpile of food that he had bought before his hunting trip. Most of it was untouched as his mother didn’t eat much and Sila was too worried to eat comfortably. 

“We should be okay for a few weeks and the water-” He looked at the several cases of water, all of which was bought before the hunting trip. “-should be enough. All we need now is…” He stared at the cabinet holding the medicine. “We need medicine. I’ll have to go to the pharmacy soon. I… I only have three days left.”

 

TBC…

Episode Three "Bigger Fish"

The day went by faster than he expected. With his weak defenses set up in case of a break-in attempt, Lutz spent most of the day checking up on his mother, watching whatever television shows that were playing, and looking outside for any new developments - which never materialized. He never felt truly comfortable, however, often checking outside for something; he didn’t know what he was looking for, but he needed to find it.

Unfortunately for him, nighttime arrived before he could find it. Lutz was forced to put everybody to sleep. Before he did, he made sure the stove and other dangerous tools were off. The gas in the stove was still present and the electricity worked as normal. Nothing was different from his normal life aside from being stuck in the house all day. Even so, he had small things that could keep him busy.

He headed upstairs and towards his mother’s bedroom where his mother and Sila waited for him. Sila had a drowsy expression, tired of watching Spanish telenovelas on television.

“You can go to bed, Sila.” He told her. She nodded her head, sort of paying attention to him, and left the room, stumbling every once in a while.

“She’s suffering because of me?” His mother asked. Lutz changed his attention from his sister to his mother.

He shook his head. “She’s just tired, nothing more, mom.” He told her.

She shook her head. “I’m burdening her too much.” 

“Mom, you aren’t.” He said, but she shook her head, staring up at him. She smiled at him stopping him in his tracks.

“You’ve grown up.” His mother remarked. Lutz nodded, smiling at her. He caressed her head like she was his child before planting a kiss on her forehead.

“Make sure to get some rest. I’ll see how you are in the morning.” He told her as he headed to the light switch, besides the door. He turned around to face her, his finger laying on the light switch. “Good night, Mom.”

“Good night, Honey.”

***

Lutz shot out of bed as soon as he felt the warmth of the sun hit him. He had a large window that was in the direct path of the rising sun that acted as his alarm clock.

He dressed in a new set of clothes, now wearing a white tee-shirt with the words, The Day The World Broke, on it. Instead of joggers, he wore a pair of colorful shorts.

Now ready, he left his room and headed directly to his mother’s room, tiptoeing towards it. Once he reached it, he pushed the door in carefully and peeked into the room. She was still asleep and didn’t look to wake up anytime soon.

He closed the door, satisfied at the sounds of his mother snoring since it proved that she was still alive. He then turned around and headed downstairs, grabbing his crossbow and pistol from the gun locker. He equipped both weapons, keeping the hunting rifle in the locker for emergency use.

“I have… 10 bolts and five mags.” He thought out loud. He kept both weapons unloaded unless he found it needed to hold a weapon that could end a person’s life in one bullet.

He brought out two magazines and three bolts, one of which was loaded into the crossbow, and left the room. He headed to the front, peering outside. There had been a large change as he saw people riding around in pickups and other trucks all over the neighborhood, some even deciding to do donuts on people’s grass.

“Idiots.” He thought out loud, turning away from them. However, a shout from one of the men attracted his attention.

“Clean this place out!” A man ordered. Lutz watched as the trucks that had been circling the neighborhood stopped and unloaded their crews. The men barged into every house they stopped in front of and began stealing from them. Many of the houses fought the bandits while many willingly gave in. Some, Lutz’s house included, were in a neutral zone as they hadn’t been attacked yet.

He then heard noises coming from the backyard. Damn, they’re attacking from the back, those bastards He thought to himself as he raced to the backdoor, peering out of the window on the door. Nobody was in his backyard, but he did hear a commotion coming from the alleyway. He glanced in the direction of the front door before the backdoor.

After some hesitation, he went to his room and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled some words on it before grabbing a piece of tape. He headed to the front door, sticking the paper to the large windows beside the front door, before turning around and dashing to the backyard. He grabbed a key hanging over the door before opening it, peering around his blindspots, then pushing towards the alleyway. A wooden fence sectioning off his family’s property from the neighbors had been erected to keep his neighbors in check and deter them from stealing, especially after a bike was taken out of the yard shortly after Lutz’s father had bought the house. 

The fence had two doors, one on the left side of his house, connected to the sidewalk by a gravel path, while the other was at the back. The back entrance was for the alleyway which was under key-and-lock. Lutz lowered the crossbow, approaching the back entrance and opening the door. He headed outside, looking both sides of the alleyway with his crossbow raised, but not aiming at anybody - holding it high enough for him to act quickly.

Some distance away from his entrance into the alleyway were the children of his neighbor, Emerald, and Teo, struggling to escape a man’s grasp. Lutz holstered the crossbow and brandished the silenced pistol, pointing it at the man.

In the deepest voice he could make, he said, “Release them or I press the trigger.” The man slinked away from Lutz, frightened.

“It’s Lutz, damn.” The man turned tail and ran off. 

Lutz nodded as an acknowledgment of the man surrendering. The man recognized Lutz as the apprentice to William Bedford, who many saw as insanely crazy. Now, they considered Lutz just as crazy and even trigger-happy as Bedford.

With the man gone, Emerald and Teo rushed to Lutz’s side. “Can you help us?” Emerald asked. “They took our parents away! Everything in our house was stolen!” She sobbed into his shoulder. Lutz reacted by holstering the pistol, glancing around for more bandits, before letting them into the yard. He hesitated to lead them into his house, but Teo answered his dilemma for him, entering the house without his permission. I’ll forgive you today, kid. He thought before locking the back entrance and leading Emerald into the house.

“Tell