Chapter Twenty Six
Benji
Getting to Shrewsbury was easy. However, finding the street where the safehouse was located took them longer than either of them cared to admit.
Once they did find it, a weight was lifted off of Benji’s shoulders.
Between the two of them, they got them out of that fucking basement and somewhere they could lay low for a few days.
He knew he had to call his sister but that would come later.
As much as he missed her and wanted to talk to her, he also really needed to just decompress.
And he was sure that Sawyer needed it too.
The safehouse was located at the end of a dead end street, quite a bit away from the other houses.
It made sense why Jackson had picked that place.
In the instructions, he also told Benji to park in the garage, which was already open when they arrived, and leave the keys in the car and someone would be there to grab the car shortly after they arrived.
Before he got out of the vehicle, Sawyer just sat in the passenger seat and took a few extra moments with Cole and Benji let him.
He could get the door unlocked for them in the meantime.
Sawyer eventually hopped out with his backpack and plastic bags from the rest stop in tow.
Benji pushed the door open and let him go in first before he locked the door behind them.
It wasn’t a fancy house, but that didn’t really matter.
The kitchen was pretty basic with a stove, fridge, microwave and an old yellow table in the middle of the room.
The living room had a rather old looking television, probably from when flat screens first came out, a couch, recliner and some books.
The whole house smelt like a cinnamon air freshener, which was way better than the musty basement.
Upstairs were the bedrooms and he imagined they were outfitted similarly.
Jackson was making due with what he could, money wise, so it made sense why everything was kind of outdated.
Benji could care less at that point. As long as they were safe with a roof over their head, he was content.
Sawyer, on the other hand, looked rather happy, which when Benji thought about it made sense. The guy probably hadn’t lived in an actual house in years, if ever. It was probably the best thing he had ever seen. “Wow,” he sighed and looked over to Benji, “Jackson has these all over the place?”
He nodded. “Yeah. He typically gets a good deal on them. The houses were repossessed or condemned, usually. But he does his best to make them liveable.”
“I can tell. Why does he do it? How did you meet him?”
“Why? No idea. Just something he’s always done.
How? My dad’s known him a long time. I think they worked together back in the day or something so he gives my dad a discount on the services.
Pretty sure Jackson charges something to keep him on standby,” he shrugged.
It might seem like a useless charge, but look at them now.
Plus, he was fairly certain Travis and Spence had called up Jackson more than a few times.
“That’s pretty cool,” Sawyer said with a nod, his gaze still drifting around before he looked back to Benji, “When is the medic going to be here?”
“Jackson said a couple hours after we got here so we have some time to look around and relax. Maybe take a shower or something.”
“That’s a great idea…” While Sawyer had changed, he still had the stench of blood to him so he could understand the notion of wanting to take a shower. “I’m gonna go check out the upstairs,” he said, beginning to walk up the stairs.
“I’m coming too,” Benji mentioned, following after him.
The upstairs was, as predicted, pretty similar to the downstairs.
There was a bathroom with a pretty decent sized shower, so that was nice.
There were two bedrooms, each with a queen bed, a dresser and a crappy TV.
Benji walked over to one of the dressers and opened it up.
Much to his surprise, there were clothes in there.
The drawer he opened looked like women’s clothes.
He pushed that closed and opened another, finding the men’s.
Jackson really had thought of everything for his people.
That was great. Benji wasn’t sure if he totally trusted a pair of underwear in there, but he supposed he didn’t have much choice.
The pair he was wearing were ripe, he was sure.
“You going to take that one?” Sawyer asked, leaning against the door frame.
“Guess so.”
“Cool, cool.” He pushed himself from the door frame and walked into his room.
Benji walked over towards the window and glanced outside.
His eyes narrowed when he saw a man approaching the house.
He didn’t go towards the front door, however.
He just immediately went into the garage.
He watched intently, wanting to make sure that wasn’t someone he should be worried about.
Luckily, they weren’t. A few moments later, the car was leaving the garage and Benji released a sigh of relief. Thanks, Cole.
Grabbing himself a change of clothes, he threw them onto his bed and walked out of his room. “Did you want to shower first?” He asked Sawyer, who was also looking in the drawer. “Pretty nice of him, right?”
“Yeah, it is,” he said and unzipped his backpack to pull out his own clothes. Why use the others when he had some of his own? “Do you mind if I do?”
“Nope, not at all. I can keep looking around while you do.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Benji was about to walk away before he paused and turned back to say, “Did you want me to take those bandages off?”
Sawyer released a huff and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess that’s not a bad idea.
They could probably use a good wash.” He pulled his t-shirt off as gingerly as he could and dropped it onto his bed which was Benji’s cue to approach.
Sawyer turned his back towards him and as softly as he could, he began to pull the tape off, slowly uncovering the burns.
Even with the wounds marring his back, he couldn’t help but appreciate what he saw.
His back looked muscled from use, not necessarily from working out.
Which, knowing what Sawyer had done for years, made sense.
Benji could always appreciate a nice back.
It was a shame that Sawyer’s was going to be scarred up but at least he could live and tell the tale about it.
How many people could actually say that?
Benji stepped back from Sawyer and folded up the bandages once finished. “You’re all set.”
“Thanks, Benji.”
“Sure.” He then exited the man’s bedroom to begin to investigate the house to keep his mind off the idea of Sawyer showering.
He didn’t need to be thinking about that.
At all. So, he just looked around at the books that were on the shelves, not that Benji was a reader.
He couldn’t remember the last book he read, honestly.
He then opened up some drawers that were built into the wall, curious about what was in there.
Nothing of real note. Just a few movies.
None of which sounded great to watch. Schindler’s List, Steel Magnolias and Marley and Me.
Why all the movies that were there designed to make you awful at the end of it, he wasn’t sure. He’d have to ask Jackson about that.
He then wandered around the kitchen for a while, opening up just about every drawer there was.
He didn’t expect to find much food there but there was a pantry with some non-perishable’s in there.
Different kinds of noodles, cans of soup, some pasta sauce, things like that.
Perhaps they could make some type of pasta later.
That would be something good to eat, right?
Once he was content looking through everything, he went back upstairs and just sat on the edge of his bed, waiting for Sawyer to get out of the shower.
He tried his very best not to look when the man walked by his room but his damn curiosity got the best of him once again.
Sawyer was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist as he padded over to his bedroom.
Benji cleared his throat and stared blankly ahead at the wall in front of him. “How was the shower?” He called out.
“Oh, man, Benji, it was nice. Great water pressure and temperature. You’re gonna love it.”
“Nice. Glad to hear that. Am I…good to take one then?”
“Absolutely. Take your time in there, man. It’s been a while since you’ve had a shower.”
Benji laughed. “You saying I smell?”
“Well, by no fault of your own, you don’t smell great.”
“Not my fault the guy who was keeping an eye on me failed to bathe me.” Benji deadpanned, clearly joking.
Sawyer guffawed and laughed. “I did what I could, I’ll have you know. I don't think you would have liked a freezing sponge bath.”
“Yeah, you know I wouldn't.” Sawyer did the best he could for him and that was something Benji would ever take for granted. Grabbing his change of clothes, he wandered towards the bathroom. Before he closed the door, he called out, “We can make some pasta for dinner. There’s noodles and sauce in the pantry.”
“Really? That’s great.”