Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Rags to riches

“Norman?” Anna asked, sounding a bit embarrassed.

“Huh?” Norman replied without taking his eyes off the road.

“I need to go.”

“Go, go where?” Norman responded before his brain caught on to what she meant. “Ohhh, you mean-”

“Yea,” she said quickly, cutting him off.

The timing could have been better, but maybe this was good. He wanted to get off the main road anyway. Norman noticed a sign that said there was a lake road and campground a few miles up. He wasn’t in the mood to ruff it in the woods. But from Norman’s experience, where there was a lake, there were always fancy houses somewhere along the lakefront.

“Can you hold it a few more minutes? We need to get off this road.”

“I think so.”

The way she said it wasn’t very encouraging but it would have to do. Norman pushed the accelerator to try and get there quicker.

Thinking to distract her, he asked about Toby. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s sweating and his breathing is shallow. Also, he’s still bleeding through the bandage. How long does the healing potion take? Should I give him another one?”

That didn’t make any sense. The potion should have almost immediately healed the external wounds. Norman had a bad feeling. “No, I’m sure it’s just healing the internal injuries first. I can take a look when we stop.”

She sniffled. “Oh, ok.”

The road came quickly into sight and Norman had to brake hard not to overshoot the intersection.

He heard Anna cry out as she smacked the side of the van and he winced. “Sorry!”

After that, he slowed it down. He didn’t need to add a concussion to the list of issues as he was trying to get to their destination.

With gas being so rare, most locals had given up leaving their towns to travel. Some it seems had still braved the wilderness as Norman saw lights on in a few of the smaller homes they drove past. Norman figured they must have some sort of off-grid alternative energy source. He didn’t slow down or stop to see if there were people that could help. Anyone that chose to live out here probably wasn’t looking for uninvited guests.

Besides, those houses were not what Norman was looking for. They were nice but they were the local equivalent of nice. Norman was looking for houses that screamed out-of-state-extravagant. These were the types of houses built by people with more money than sense. There was always one in a neighborhood like this and almost always a vacation home. And with the state being carved away from the rest of the United States, like a slice of turkey on Thanksgiving, there wasn’t likely to be anyone there to chase them off.

Norman knew this because it wasn’t his first time scoping out a vacation property to break into. Of course, he never broke into the richest-looking place. That was asking for trouble. The third or fourth fanciest place on a lake was usually a safer bet. Rich but not rich and connected.

Today, Norman was going for the golden goose as he rolled up in front of a black wrought iron fence. The fence was connected to a thick brick wall that rose about eight feet up and wrapped entirely around the property and down to the lakefront. Norman shook his head at the sheer arrogant opulence of the house.

Thankfully, the house was dark and there wasn’t any sign that people were squatting there. He quickly jumped out of the van and tugged at the gate. It slid aside easily. He was glad the house was without power, or that the power was turned off as the gate was one of those heavy-duty electromagnetic kinds. It was the type of thing you would find in prison cells and just screamed of excess.

Norman didn’t bother closing the gate behind them. He didn’t want to stick around, Anna could do her business, and they could get going.

“Alright,” he said as he pulled up next to what he assumed was a guest house. It was larger than both Norman’s and Toby’s old houses combined. “Get inside and do what you need to do. I’ll keep an eye on Toby.”

Anna hesitated for a moment, looking at her brother, then looking at Norman. “You’ll keep him safe right, you won’t hurt him for what he did earlier?”

It took Norman a moment to figure out what she meant, so much had happened since he had gotten into the van that he had forgotten Toby had attacked him.

“I promise you, he’ll be fine.”

“Uh… how do I get in?”

Toby glanced around the back of the van until he spotted a tire iron. He handed it to Anna. “Pretend it’s the window to your friend's house, and be quick. I don’t want to hang around and it’s going to be dark soon.”

Anna nodded solemnly as she grabbed the tire iron.

Norman watched Anna break the glass window on the door and head inside. He waited a bit before he broke into motion.

“You dumb fuck, what did you do now.” Norman wanted Toby to answer the question but he knew the man couldn’t so he went for the next best thing.

It took Norman a bit to find the discarded potion bottle that Anna had given her brother. He gave it a tentative sniff and nearly threw up at the astringent smell coming from what remained inside the bottle.

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He had hoped he was just being paranoid but there were only two ways Toby could have gotten his hands on a full batch of potions. Well, technically three but this proved Toby hadn’t stolen them from Sin.

That left, stealing the recipe from Norman, which seemed highly unlikely since Norman never listed his secret ingredient. But Norman didn’t discount it outright since Toby had taken some of the blue powder.

The other option was to have someone make a knockoff version of the potion. Considering Toby’s wounds hadn’t healed since downing the entire bottle, Norman was going with that theory.

Right now it didn’t matter why Toby had done what he had done, Norman needed to fix the situation. He reached into his shirt and pulled out the emergency potion vial that he always carried on him. Norman wished he had grabbed one of his full spares from the house before rushing over to see what had Toby so worried. But then Toby burned his house to the ground. That was another thing Norman was going to ask pointed questions about when his friend woke up.

Norman didn’t much care about the house but most of his supplies minus the tiny bits he had attached to necklaces had gone up in the flames. He could replace everything given enough time, except for the damn elf blood. He had enough prepared spells to keep him safe but Norman needed that substance to top off his tanks so to speak. And the amount he carried on himself wouldn’t last for more than a month.

Fiending for elf blood did not sound like a recipe for a healthy long-term life goal. But until Norman found an alternative, he needed the stuff.

Opening Toby’s mouth, Norman tilted his head slightly before slowly pouring the precious substance down his throat. He made sure Toby swallowed it before adding a bit more. After emptying the contents of the small vial, Norman unwrapped the makeshift bandage around Toby’s wound.

The man had lost a whole lot of blood, but he was still breathing. The wound was already closing up by the time Norman got the bandage off. Norman let out a relieved sigh after seeing that. He wasn’t sure if the bad potion would have any adverse effects when mixed with his. It seemed like it wouldn’t.

Toby was still unconscious, but considering the amount of blood the man lost, he would probably be unconscious for the rest of the night.

Norman looked out the window of the van, glancing at the sky. The sun was almost setting and Anna still wasn’t back. He quickly realized his goal of getting back on the road would have to change. They were going to have to spend the night here, he wasn’t going to risk driving on the roads at night. The lights on the van would make them visible from miles away.

Seeing as Toby seemed stable, Norman exited the van and hurried down to the front gate, and pulled it closed. He got back to the van only a minute before Anna.

“Sorry,” she apologized, “I got turned around in the house.”

“That’s fine. Your brother is doing better but I think we need to park it here for tonight. I don’t suppose you found the entrance to the garage?”

She nodded. “I did. These people have a whole underground tunnel from the guest house to the main house. That’s why I got lost.”

“Can you run back inside and pull the release on the garage door, then push it up? It shouldn’t be too heavy.”

“What for?”

“It’ll be safer if we are parked inside so nobody can see the van.”

It took a few minutes for Anna to make her way to the garage from the door she had broken in through. The house was shaped a bit like a large X. Where the guest house was on one side of the driveway and the main house was on the other side. They were joined by a five-car garage and apparently a tunnel that ran under the driveway between the guest house and the main house.

The fact that the house was without power did surprise Norman because he saw solar panels on the roof. He could try to figure out that mystery later. Right now he had to jump out of the van and help a struggling Anna push the garage door open.

As Norman pulled the van into the garage, he noticed all the rich people's toys that filled part of the garage. There were four-wheelers, dirt bikes, a UTV, jet skis, and who knew what else. It was more money than Norman made in a year, just sitting and wasting away. Norman couldn’t say that he wasn’t a bit jealous of the lifestyle these people lived. But it was a minor thing, especially now that they were all just useless hunks of metal and plastic.

Fuel was much too precious to waste on frivolous items like those.

After the garage door closed, Norman engaged the locking bars. “Toby should be good but if you wanna stay with him while I take a look around, that would probably be best. Oh, don’t give him any more of those potions. He just needs rest now.”

Norman decided not to burden the girl with the fact that the potion she had given her brother was useless.

As soon as Norman left the van, his scavenger instincts kicked in. He grabbed a few five-gallon tins of race fuel that were stacked in the far corner of the garage. Even if they didn’t need gas for the van, fuel was worth a pretty penny. That did remind Norman that he needed to figure out the power situation. Toby had a solar charger for his van but it didn’t do a lick of good being parked inside.

A fancy house like this did have a turbo charging unit, actually, it had five, one in each bay. The problem was, there was no power running to them.

It took Norman the better part of an hour to find the issue with the electricity. It appeared they weren’t the first people to realize this house was a good target. But whoever had come before only wanted what was in the utility room. All of the batteries for the house had been taken along with the control system. It was a surprise that the house hadn’t burned down. There were still exposed wires hanging from the ceiling that probably led to the solar panels on the roof.

Norman did try touching the wires together to see if they produced a spark, but they were dead. He didn’t know much about wiring but there was probably a fuse or breaker in the system that cut power to the loose wires.

Ideal for not burning down the house but less than optimal for recharging the van. He would have to run the panel outside in the morning and hope it charged enough so they could leave before it got dark again. Maybe by then, Toby would be awake and he could get some answers.

Leaving the empty utility room behind, Norman headed for the pantry. Fancy houses like this always had a pantry where they stored their food.

Opening the door to the pantry was like discovering a dragon hoard. The room was filled with boxes upon boxes of non-perishable foods. But Norman’s gaze went straight to the wall of cereal boxes.

“Fucking jackpot!”

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