Chapter 04

The jacket didn’t take long to fix. The problem was a single loose wire for the control buttons. Freyja had it repaired within thirty minutes of popping the plastic casing open. She double checked the Armory for any signs of hidden cameras, found none, then changed into one of the sets of used clothing she had bought. Once she was geared up, including the respirator mask and safety goggles, she grabbed a couple heavy duty trash bags and marched to the back door of the house. The porch was made of cracked concrete, so she wasn’t scared of falling through it like at the front door. One of the keys Gunner had given her worked and she was quickly inside.

The light switch didn’t work, of course.

Freyja used a flashlight to navigate her way into the kitchen area. Even through her mask she could smell the overpowering odor of cat piss, mold, rot, and death. The fridge was nearly empty, so it wasn’t the source of the worst smells. No, she found that as soon as she left the kitchen and made her way into the living room area through a short and cluttered hallway.

“Shit,” Freyja hissed.

A little pathway lead from the hall to the front door, just big enough for a person to shimmy through. What took up most of the space was boxes, random junk, and gods knew what else. It smelled like an open sewer line. She was sure she saw at least one dead rat.

Freyja examined the rest of the house. The bath tub looked like it hadn’t been used in years, the toilet was caked in literal shit, and the sticky remnants of tar from cigarette smoke covered everything under a thick layer of dust. The master bedroom had a number of vines growing through a window into the ceiling, with still more boxes and trash taking up most of the room. She could barely find the bed. The bedrooms she and her brother once used were much the same, save for the fact that there was a faded poster of a rainbow unicorn, covered in mold, on the wall farthest from the door in her old room. If there was a bed in there she couldn’t find it for the various boxes of, again, she wasn’t sure at this point. She did find another dead rat, though.

Did Odin kill those or did they die from living in this shit hole? She wondered.

Freyja didn’t know where to start.

Not only was it disgusting but it was also depressing to see the Old Man had thought so little of herself and Gunner as to use their rooms like a garbage dump.

She backtracked out of the house into the yard, jumping when a voice spoke behind her.

“You went inside?”

She turned to find Gunner on the path to the Armory.

“Oh my gods, Gee. It’s so bad,” she said through her mask.

“Uninhabitable,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said.

“City wants to condemn it, by the way,” he said.

She turned off her flashlight and clipped it onto a belt loop as she walked over to him.

“Think they’ll just bulldoze it as is?” She asked, hope in her voice.

“They said we have to clear it out first. Make sure there’s nothing hazardous and all,” he said.

“Can we legally do this?” Freyja asked.

Gunner was a lawyer. He’d know if this was legal.

He nodded. “Yeah, we can.”

“Did he die?”

“No, not yet. But the doctors aren’t hopeful about it. Did some brain scans and he’s...it’s not good.”

“Brain cancer?”

“No, but make sure you keep that mask and the gloves on when you’re cleaning. They said he’s got a bad case of toxoplasmosis, that’s complicated from untreated diabetes and a few other conditions that knocked his immune system down.”

“I’m not diabetic,” she replied.

“Neither am I. Thankfully, that skipped us. Anyway, how’s the bathroom look?”

“Disaster zone. Bio-hazard level bad. Glad I bought a camp toilet, but I don’t know what I’m gonna do to take a shower after dealing with this shit every day.”

“Sign up for a gym?”

“Great idea. Yeah. I’ll do that. Gods, this sucks. Toxoplasmosis, that’s the one from cats, right? Brain worm?”

“Yeah, brain amoeba. Normally, it doesn’t hurt humans much but...he got the short straw, I guess.”

“Good. That shit deserves the shortest straw.”

He nodded silently.

“I’d give you a hug but I’ve just walked through the shit hole,” Freyja said.

“You’re not that dirty,” Gunner said with his arms open.

She gave him a hug and he gently pat her head. After a few moments Odin showed back up and rubbed against her boot as he let out a little chirp, that once again belied his huge size.

“That the cat?” Gunner asked as he broke the hug and backed up.

“Yeah. Seems like a nice cat. Just...really fucking dirty and covered in fleas and shit. I’m gonna try to put some flea drops on him tonight. Got some food and water. No clue what the Old Man was feeding him up ‘till now, so he’s probably gonna get the shits.”

“I’ll let you handle that. Just wanted to give you an update and check on you,” Gunner said. “Sorry to have to ask you to do this.”

Freyja gently tapped his shoulder with a closed fist. She had to reach up to do it. She was like a little pixie compared to her big bear of a brother.

“It’s okay. I got this. You handle all the legal stuff and I’ll get this garbage heap cleaned out. You want me to keep any of it or just pitch it all in the dumpster?”

“If it looks important, or dangerous, don’t put it in the dumpster. I’ll get you some plastic containers or something for things. Were there booby traps inside?”

“Not that I saw. I think he’d actually been sleeping in there,” she said. “Place has some pretty nasty mold going on. Aside from the cat piss that would fuck you up, Gee. Sorry if hugging me makes you sick tonight.”

“I’ll take my meds. Call me if you need anything, okay? I think I saw a twenty four hour gym near here. Check to see if they have showers. Love you, Freyja.”

“Love you too, Gee.”

She waved at him as he walked up the drive way. Then, she went back inside with her trash bags, filled the first one with as much random garbage as she could from the top portions of the living room pile, including the first dead rat she had seen. She then hauled the bag outside, around the house, and into the dumpster. Freyja took a small break to drink water and double check that her cooling jacket was working. Then, she went back inside to load get another load. When she had taken it to the dumpster she decided to call it a day and look up the gym. The membership was only ten dollars to start out and they did have showers. She double checked that she had locked up the house and Armory, gathered her things, covered the seat of her car in trash bags, and left to join the gym.