“Doesn’t really inspire trust now does it?” said Sarah.
“My thoughts exactly, let’s keep an eye on her ok? I don’t want to wind up with a knife in my back or anything.”
“I doubt you’ll have to worry about that,” said Michael.
“Why’s that?”
“Well, with all those stories they’re telling,” he nodded to the group. “She’d have to be crazy to come after you. Did you really kill Sam?”
“Yeah,” I said sadly.
“Damn. I liked him, he was a good guy.”
“Yeah, he was. It wasn’t one of my prouder moments.”
“Tough thing to do but I want you to know. If that ever happens to me, I want you to do the same. I’m not coming back as one of them.”
“Deal,” I said grimly.
“Hey Michael,” called Liz.
“Sup?”
“Now’s your chance to tell a story about James,” she said beaming at him.
“Oh yeah,” he said rubbing his hands together.
I gave him a stony look, “Nothing too bad.”
“Ah, man. Fine, just a little one” he said grinning “Gather ‘round youngins as I tell you the story of how our fearless leader was once scared of Chucky from the movie Child’s Play and how our sister took advantage of said fear.”
“The doll?” asked Christina.
“The very same. Now James was probably five or so…”
Michael told the story of how when I was five I watched the movie Child’s Play, which is about a murderous doll named Chucky, and how my little sister, who was three at the time, learned of my fear and would always say things like “Hey James. Look out for Bad Chucky.” She said Bad Chucky because she needed to distinguish between the murdering doll and the character from Rugrats. She teased me for a while until I finally decided not to be scared anymore and it stopped working. It was a long time ago, but my family used to give me tons of crap for it. By the end of the story, everyone was laughing at my sister’s treatment of me. I laughed with them, and we continued sharing stories.
It grew darker and colder, and instead of going inside we moved closer to the fire which we kept hot with fresh logs. As it got colder couples began getting closer, Sarah was not sitting on my lap and covered by a blanket. The others were likewise grouped together, leaving those not in relationships, Liz, Michael, and Jasmine, to sit alone. I noticed something as conversation died down, Jasmine was paying an awful lot of attention to Michael. She was touching him, maintaining eye contact, laughing at things that weren’t funny enough to laugh at and smiling all the time. She was flirting with him. I noticed something else besides the flirting, I noticed that Liz didn’t seem to like it at all. I smiled and whispered in Sarah’s ear, “See that.”
“What?” she asked quietly.
“See how Jasmine’s flirting with Michael.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Now take a look at Liz.”
She frowned before smiling, “Looks like we’ve got a little triangle going.”
“Let’s hope not.”
“I don’t think we have to worry. I get the feeling that Michael’s pretty smart. More than his older brother at least,” she grinned.
I shook my head slightly, “Sometimes guys don’t think with the right head,” I smiled, “Especially when there’s a pretty girl involved.”
“So I’ve been told. And wait just a second. You think she’s pretty?” she said arching an eyebrow.
Uh-oh, I thought, Alert, alert. Full reverse. “Uh…no,” I said cautiously. Smooth Ryan, I thought.
“Yes, you do.”
“Ok, fine. Yes, she’s attractive alright, but she’s not beautiful. She’s not you.”
She smiled, “It’s ok. You can look at the pretty girl, just don’t touch.”
“Hey, I wasn’t looking, and I certainly won’t be doing any touching.”
“Damn right,” she said kissing me quickly.
“You think you might be ready to head inside?” I asked her as a few of the others began going inside.
“In a bit, I’m comfortable.”
I chuckled, “I guess I make a pretty good chair then.”
“Oh yeah,” she smiled, “You’re finally doing something right.”
I laughed softly again, “Well good. Glad I can be useful.”
“Me too.”
I was about to ask her to shift a little bit so I could be a little more comfortable but I didn’t have the chance. I was cut off by the soft jingling of Christmas bells coming from the backyard. “What’s that?” asked Jasmine.
“Up now,” I said to Sarah, and she jumped out of my lap. I stood and drew my pistol in one smooth motion, moving to head towards the noise. “Sarah, get a rifle and get on the roof.”
“But…”
“Now.” She nodded and ran inside. “If you’re armed come with me, if you’re not then get inside and get a fucking gun. Someone get Michelle inside.” The little girl was sleeping in a chair but was quickly scooped up as everyone jumped to follow my orders.
“What is that?” Jasmine asked again.
“Something’s at the fence,” said Michael pulling his own gun.
“But you said we were safe here,” she said, beginning to get nervous.
“We are, now get inside,” I said as I led my small group out of the firelight and into the dark.
“I don’t…”
“Damn it. Inside. Now,” I said darkly. My tone was enough to stifle any objections, and she moved to do as I said. We passed Sarah as she was climbing the ladder to the roof and all I could think of was, What now? We moved slowly, scanning the darkness for any threats as we moved towards the backyard. I silently cursed my lax security and allowing everyone to get too comfortable.
When we finally reached where the noise had come from we saw a slightly swaying section of fence and something else, something that made me mutter a quiet, “Well fuck me.”
Chapter 20
“What is it,” asked Matt who was one of the few who had been armed around the fire.
I didn’t know right away, but as I gazed into the darkness and allowed my night vision to develop, I saw that it was an animal, a pretty big one too. It wasn’t until I heard the low rumble of a growl that told me it was a dog. “Pretty sure that’s a dog,” I said sarcastically.
Michael raised his gun and aimed it at the dark. I put my arm up and pushed the gun down. “Don’t,” I shook my head.
“What? Why not?”
“Why would you need to kill it? Go back and tell the others that it’s ok and make sure Sarah doesn’t shoot the damn dog or me. Matt, grab me some jerky or something from the pantry. Quick guys.”
After backing away slowly so as not to scare off the dog, they took off, and I stood very still. The dog didn’t move, it just stared at me and growled every time I made a move to get closer. My eyes adjusted a little better, and I was able to make out details. The first was that its coat was entirely black, not a single identifying mark. It was larger than a Retriever but not as large as a Great Dane. The snout was pretty short compared to most dogs, but with a growl like that he didn’t need a big mouth, I could feel it in my chest. Matt and Michael returned, bringing Sarah with them. “What’d you tell the others?”
“That everything’s fine, and they don’t need their guns but that they should stay inside,” said Michael.
“Good. Matt, you grab what I asked?”
“Yeah,” he said and passed me a bag of jerky.
I reached into the bag and gently tossed a large piece over the fence near the dog. “You’re feeding it?” asked Sarah.
“Yeah, why not?”
“Because what if it’s sick or rabid?”
“It’s not,” I said confidently, “and I’m pretty sure this is what was in the woods with me.” The dog didn’t go for the food right away. Instead, it kept its gaze steadily leveled on me. I was sure it was conscious of the others, but I didn’t see its head move to acknowledge
them. After a few minutes of not moving the dog eased towards the piece of meat on the ground. Still, with eyes on me, it scarfed down the food, and I threw it another piece. It ate the entire bag before I attempted to take a step closer and it bolted away. “Well that was anticlimactic,” I said sarcastically.
“Well, what did you expect? It’s a wild dog,” said Sarah.
“No, it’s not,” I disagreed.
“Well, it’s certainly not domestic anymore.”
“I think it is. A wild dog wouldn’t have stalked and watched me in the woods. He would have either avoided me or attacked me. If it were wild, it would have probably ran at the first sign of people tonight. No, it’s still domesticated.”
“Whatever. Stupid dog,” she said as she turned to walk away.
I ignored her comment, “Ok guys, let’s head back. Tomorrow I want to make a change to the fence.”
“What?”
“I want a small opening made so the dog can get in.”
“You want to put a fucking doggie door in our perimeter fence?” Michael asked in disbelief.
“Yeah sure. Why not?”
“Uh, I don’t know maybe because it’ll be a hole in our fence and it’s a bad idea.”
“So put a flap on it or something.”
“Whatever,” he said grinning, “You’re an idiot.”
“What, I like dogs,” I said sheepishly.
“Idiot,” mumbled Thomas.
“What? Fuck you guys,” I said to their retreating forms. Back inside I reassured everyone that was still up that everything was ok and that it was just a dog at the fence. Since it was late, I decided to turn in and found my bed already occupied. “You still awake beautiful?” I asked as I climbed under the covers.
“Yeah,” she said rolling over to look at me.
“What was getting upset earlier?”
“What? About the dog?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not upset, just frustrated.”
“Why?”
“Well, when I heard the bells I assumed the worst. I hate the feeling of my adrenaline spiking. We were having such a nice time, just relaxing, and then we were up and rushing to fight off some mysterious threat. I hate always having to worry. We can never just relax, just live normally.”
I smiled sadly at her, “This is normal now. I know that sounds bad, but it’s the truth. Tonight made me realize that we’ve been too relaxed. We’ve let our guard down. I don’t know if there are any more Walkers out there but if they are they would have had too much of an opportunity to get close.”
“So what do you want to do?” she asked.
“I think we should do a lot of things, but the first thing is to start posting guards at night again.”
“No one is going to like that.”
“Yeah well, they’ll live.”
“True. Why are you so interested in the dog?”
“I’m just curious about how it followed me. That shows intelligence, and maybe I miss my dogs a little bit.”
“Just don’t do anything dumb.”
“Dumb like put a doggie door in the fence?” I grinned.
“You aren’t.”
“Yep, planning on doing it tomorrow.”
“No, you can’t be that dumb.”
“Don’t worry, I just want to try and get the dog. I’ll fix it when we upgrade the fence a little.”
“It’s still dumb.”
“Oh come on, it’ll be great to have a dog. It could come in handy.”
“It’s a dog, how handy could it be?”
“Well if it’s as smart as I think it is then it’ll be very useful.”
“I guess we’ll see,” she said before rolling over.
“Yeah I guess we will,” I said putting an arm around her. “Night Sarah.”
“Goodnight James.”
We didn’t see the dog again for another two days. Luckily when it did appear it was during the day and I was able to get a better look at it while it chowed down on a few cans of chicken. The first thing was that I confirmed that it was male and that he had a dark red collar around his large neck but I couldn’t read his tag. Like I said earlier his coat was all black and somehow still glossy. He had a short snout, a wide skull, cropped tail and was built pretty thick. I didn’t know what he was right away, but I knew I recognized him from somewhere. “I know that dog from somewhere,” I told the small group of observers as we fed the dog.
“Like from a neighbor or something?” asked Carrie
“No. Like from a TV show or something.”
“What, like the Discovery Channel?”
Then it clicked, “No not Discovery, History.”
“What?” asked Liz.
“The History Channel,” I said as the facts came flooding back. “That,” I said pointing at the dog, “is a Cane, Corso.”
“A what?” asked Matt.
“A Cane Corso. They’re from Italy, or at least they were. They’re supposed to be very smart and incredibly tough.”
“Well to survive this,” Michael said waving his arm around, “he’d have to be.”
“They’re descendants from some breed that was used by the Romans in war. Then they were used for hunting large animals like boars, or maybe it was bears. They’re supposed to be really loyal and great guard dogs. I’m surprised that it left its home, they’re supposed to be defensive of their property.”
“Do you think it’s a good idea to have it around the house?” asked Sarah.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Well if it’s so loyal then won’t it be loyal to its previous owners, even if they’re dead or undead or whatever?”
“He seems fine,” I said taking a step forward and stopping as he growled. He wasn’t inside the fence, but I still stopped. I could see why they were used as dogs of war and guard dogs, I wouldn’t want to encounter that thing at night, let alone on a battlefield. Sarah crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at me. “Ok, so he might need to warm up to us a little. Just give him a chance,” I smiled.
She looked skeptical but didn’t argue. For the next several day's things around the house progressed normally and a routine developed with the dog. Each morning it would be waiting outside the fence line for me to feed it. I was still forced to keep my distance, even with the fence separating us. I left food just inside the doggie door, but it never ate when I was around. It had to come inside the fence sometimes because each morning the food would be gone. The dog had to be sneakier than I thought because even when those on night watch weren’t aware when he came through the fence. I even spent one night splitting my attention between the driveway, our only real opening to the property, and the food at the fence. I never saw the little bastard, but he got the food every time. The dog wasn’t the only one setting up a routine, Jasmine was starting to fit in. She was helping around the house, baking bread with Liz and, after some encouragement, started using a gun. She wasn’t armed around the house, and I was still suspicious of her, but concerns for her were pushed to the background as we continued projects and started new ones.
Sarah would be taking a small group to the lumber yard to grab some wood for the numerous projects we had, including the cold storage, fence, and plans for several shelving units for books and supplies. She, Carrie, Jason, and Hannah would be going with two of the trucks. They’d get lumber as well as any useful tools from the attached hardware store. While they were off shopping, we’d be digging further into the hill to try and finish up the storage.
The day of the supply run came, and I was up with the group to say goodbye. “Stay safe,” I said while I hugged Sarah.
“You know me. I always look for trouble,” she winked.
“Tell me about it. I think you picked that up from me,” I smiled. She climbed into the driver’s seat, and I went to talk to Jason. “Hey, keep an eye out for her.”
“What? Are you kidding me? She should be keeping an eye out for me,” he scoffed. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah m
an, of course, I’ll watch out for her.”
“Thanks.”
“Anytime,” he said climbing into the other truck.
I waved goodbye as they backed out and headed down the driveway. Once they were gone I headed back inside to wake the others, we had a hole to dig. I opened the door to where the others were sleeping and called out, “Up, everyone up. We got work to do.” They moaned and groaned, but they dutifully rose to suffer alongside me. We all ate a quick breakfast and then went out start digging. What we found was a little depressing. A large portion of the back of the storage had collapsed again, and we all groaned when we made that little discovery, and I was glad we were getting some lumber for support. “Ok guys,” I said wiping my face, “let’s get started.” We dug for hours, our muscles crying out in protest as we loaded wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of moist clay. By lunchtime, we were able to remove most of the fallen clay and widen a significant section of the developing room. The girls had an early lunch for us along with a few bottles of water. As I sat and ate my sandwich, I watched with a frown on my face as Jasmine laid heavily into Michael. She was eating with him, laughing and even rubbing his shoulders when he complained about them hurting. I almost choked on my food when I saw the look on Liz’s face. If looks could kill Jasmine would be dead a thousand times over. She had something that could have almost rivaled Sarah. I sipped water to stop from inhaling my food and walked back outside to finish eating. After lunch, I was talking to Michael before getting back to work. “Watch yourself, boy.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Jasmine.”
“What about her?”
“Just be careful.”
“Hey, I’m not doing anything,” he said defensively.
“No, but she is.”
“So we’re flirting a bit. That’s not a bad thing.”
“Look, when you live with the person you're flirting with it could get bad, for all of us. And make sure you’re aware of how your actions affect others.”
“What do you mean?”
I laughed, “Oh I remember when I was as dense as you. Shit, I probably still am. Look, just watch what you say and who you say it around. Some may not be very excited to have you cozy up to Jasmine. And remember, I don’t exactly trust her yet and you shouldn’t either.”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 24