We were all situated around the campfire, the flames blazing like an inferno. Stars had started to peek out through the receding day light, now dotting the sky above us. The cabin was currently airing out the burnt fish smell. If you thought fish smelt bad before, just wait until it started on fire. Ethan had managed to put out the flames before any damage was done to the smoker, which reminded me of a tall safe without the lock on the front.
“Is it useable?” I asked timidly.
Ethan chuckled, “It’ll live to smoke another day.”
Chloe cocked out her hip. “Why would you think puttin’ trout in there on as high as it can go, would be a good idea?”
“You can smoke salmon can’t you?” I said to Ethan.
“All right, enough. Nothin’ we can do about it now ‘cept let the place air out,” Ethan interjected.
John and Ethan had gone out earlier to catch the fish; apparently there was a small lake and stream nearby that had a decent-sized fish population. Ethan said normally you wouldn’t have been able to take home so many, but there was no fish and wildlife police left to complain. We didn’t have to worry about making a run into the city for poles and gear because there was already some stashed in the cabin. We were damn lucky to have run into Ethan; he had pretty much everything we needed out here.
They had a grill set up on top of the fire pit, roasting the rest of the fish. I guess I won’t be able to get myself out of eating this.
“Looks like you’re not getting out of it this time,” Zoe grinned, knowing full well how much I disliked fish.
“Well, I tried.”
“I didn’t know fish could catch on fire like that,” Darren said.
I sighed; I was never going to hear the end of this.
“Hey, you gotta break a few eggs before you can make an omelet, right?” John winked at me, his eyes full of mirth.
“If my clothes stink, you’ll be washin’ them,” Taylor quipped.
“That’ll be the day,” I snorted. “Maybe they will be the next thing to start on fire.”
Chuckles rang out around the camp fire, all while the disgusting fish continued to sizzle.
I smiled at the random memory. I found it strange how you started to recall all the arbitrary memories when you’re growing despondent. It’s not the bad stuff, but rather the things that remind you what you’re living to fight for. We had been through so much that there was no way I was giving up now. I started to feel hopeful.
We will find them.
I started to clean up the mess I had made in the living room when I had torn through the bags looking for the peroxide. Heading back into the kitchen, I went to grab my backpack to sort out. As I rummaged through my backpack, some items fell to the floor, the pink Benadryl package among them.
There was no way Chloe was going get any sleep tonight, not with what had happened and all the pain she must be in. I rooted through the kitchen cabinets for an opaque glass, and then twisted the top off of a water bottle. Using the blunt end of a butter knife, I crushed up two of the small, pink tablets. I mixed the powder with the water, hoping she would just drink it and get some much needed sleep. I grabbed a couple of granola bars as well as some over-the-counter painkillers.
I walked quietly up the stairs, like when I used to tiptoe into the house after going out to the bar. I found Chloe lying on the boy’s bed with her back to me. She was sniffing softly.
“Chloe, I know you’re mad right now, but you need to eat and drink something,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
She ignored me, so I just remained in the doorway. Eventually she turned to me, glaring the whole time. As she sat up, she put out her hand for the items. I passed her the glass and she started to chug the contents as I opened the bars for her. With her arm out of commission, she would need some help.
Chloe passed me back the almost empty glass and tore into the first granola bar. After everything that happened, I’m surprised I wasn’t just as famished.
“Here, I brought you something for the pain.”
She eyed me warily as she chewed her second bar. I passed her two of the white pills and the glass back. She was smart enough to see that she needed the pills and took them without hesitation. She rolled away from me, back to lying on the bed.
I guess I had been dismissed. I hoped she would eventually see that what I did was for her own good. Although, that didn’t look like it would be anytime soon. Maybe if she could forgive me, I could forgive myself.
I went down the hall into the main bedroom to find something to sleep in. The husband’s large shirts would do. I grabbed a clean white one and the comforter from the bed and headed back downstairs. Even though I badly needed sleep, I would still have to be on alert. I would hear better if I was on the main floor.
I also needed to wash up somehow. You never realize how dependent you are on everyday things until they are forcefully taken from you. I didn’t think the shower would work in the house and there was no well like Ethan’s cabin. When I was cleaning up our supplies, I remembered the wipes we had scavenged from the store.
It took a whole 12-pack of wipes, but I was able to get the grime off of my skin. I placed my ruined clothes in a plastic bag and threw them in the kitchen garbage. I could smell the heavy baby powder scent clinging to me, but it beat the smell of rotten meat any day.
I lit up the lantern, and the soft glow brightened the room. I made up my bed on the couch, which currently doubled as a brace against the door. Setting out my weapons within reach, I laid down. My stomach growled, finally catching up to all the exertion from today.
I gnawed on a granola bar and some trail mix to appease the hunger. I would kill for some fresh food, but canned peaches would have to do. Luckily we had found a can opener in one of the kitchen drawers, otherwise the canned food would have been useless. I would undoubtedly have butchered the can if I tried to use my hunting knife. After I had stuffed my face, I wobbled back to the couch, dimming the light on the lantern.
Weariness was in my bones. My body was exhausted, and my mind wasn’t in the best shape either. Didn’t people say things always look better in the morning? Somehow, I doubted that would be the case tonight. But as soon as I closed my eyes, sleep took me.
I woke to the sun pouring through the off-white lace curtains. They didn’t do a very good job of blocking the light out and they were hideous to boot. I had no idea what time it was, but judging from the stiffness of my body, I had laid in this one position for hours. Everything popped and cracked as I sat up; I felt like I had aged twenty years.
I had meant to go check on Chloe before I fell asleep, so I headed upstairs first. I found her breathing deeply, still fast asleep in the boy’s Transformer sheets. Apparently he had been a fan. I went to the bathroom and examined myself in the mirror. My elbow and a good chunk of my right arm were bruised, as was my side. The elbow was also slightly swollen.
I peered at the tub and tried the faucet just to see what would happen. The pipes groaned in the walls, but water started to pour from the tap. It was rusty at first, but cleared after a few seconds. They must still have had water in the tank. I laughed out loud as I plugged the drain and let the tub fill up a bit. The water was freezing since there was no power to heat it up, but it was better than nothing. I turned the tap off, not wanting to waste one drop.
I went down the stairs as fast as my creaky limbs would allow. Snatching up the soap and shampoo, I went back up to my frosty bath. Bathing in my books was a necessity, not an option. The water was only up to my ankles, but that was all I needed. My toes and fingers were almost blue by the time I had cleaned myself off and my teeth were chattering. I toweled off, not bothered in the least. Cold was something I could deal with, especially if it meant I could wash up.
A cleaner reflection looked back at me from the mirror. This was much better. I let the water out and left the supplies there for Chloe to use later. Once back downstairs, I unfolded the maps.
After a good thirty minu
tes, I tossed the map I had been looking at to the floor in frustration. Nothing was giving hints as to what this Hargrove place was. It wasn’t a main building, it wasn’t a suburb, it wasn’t a park, and it wasn’t on there. It wasn’t even a fucking street name. How was I supposed to find it?
I felt useless without the Internet. This place might as well have been across the country for all it was worth. With an angry sigh, I returned to the maps. I scanned a local one, a red medical cross icon catching my eye. According to the map, there was a medical center just off of Main Street. This was one of those small towns where everything was either on Main Street or just off of it. Chloe would need some antibiotics to keep an infection at bay.
It looked like I was making another run into town before we left this place.
Chapter 35
My body really didn’t like the idea of moving, but I had no choice. An infection wouldn’t just wait for me to get off my ass. Memories of the hospital came flooding back to me, making me even more hesitant. What are the chances the medical center wouldn’t be picked over? Is it worth it? That was a selfish question. Of course, I had to go.
Now I had to decide if I should walk again or take a vehicle. I had found the spare key to the Taurus sitting in the drive way and could afford to damage that one. It would attract attention, but I didn’t think my body was in any shape to be running away from hordes now. And I would get there faster. The alleyway behind the house was still littered with infected, so I would have to leave out the front door. This meant taking the longer way to where I needed to go.
Vehicle it was. I just hoped the owners had left enough gas in it. I began packing for my scavenging trip. I emptied out my backpack and straightened up our supplies. There was a fair sized mound of bags and items taking up room in the living area. If I monitored the provisions, we could easily make them last two weeks. But the question was, do we stay here expecting a miracle to drop into our laps or hit the road? I had no clue where to even start looking for this Hargrove place, and the chances of running into it while driving aimlessly were pretty much nil.
Hopelessness began to haunt me once again. It seemed like it was a constant battle. Not just to keep ourselves from the infected, but to keep ourselves from giving up. It was easy to give up once hope was lost. I wasn’t used to making the hard decisions. Before all this shit happened, hard decisions never came up in my old life.
And as much as Ethan was not happy about it, John had made most of our hard decisions. John was a natural leader and the most mature of us, so it was easy to let him steer things. I mean we all had a say in matters, but he had this way about him that made you feel like he knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe I would have been better off right now if we hadn’t let John slide into that role so easily.
Not that any of that mattered now. John wasn’t here to tell me what the right path was; I had to figure that out for myself. And it made me want to pull my hair out. How John had not gone bald was a mystery.
The sound of shuffling upstairs pulled me from my thoughts. It looks like Chloe was awake. I heard the stairs creak, as she descended down them. She was rubbing at her eyes still yawning from sleep, courtesy of the allergy medication. I picked up a water bottle, twisted off the cap and passed it to her. She took it from me and sat down by all the supplies, rooting through for something to eat. Silent the whole time.
I let her get some food down before I started to talk.
“Chloe, I need to redress your arm.”
She froze mid-chew. I glanced away awkwardly, not sure of where I should even be looking.
“It will be quick, I promise.”
She didn’t say anything, instead gave a little nod and remained seated. I went to the kitchen to grab the peroxide and gauze. She eyed me warily, as I kneeled beside her. She held her arm as far away from her body as possible, as if she didn’t want me any closer. I tried to act like it didn’t affect me. I tried to handle this like an adult, but it was difficult. I wanted to plead with her that I did it for her own good and that her wound was treated because of me. I wanted to beg for her forgiveness and to stop hating me, but I didn’t.
I carefully removed the old, soiled bandage. The wound was an angry shade of red, and I could see the hardened superglue on the surface. The veins that ran from the gash where a lot more visible than before, making it look like thin tentacles slithering from the wound. That couldn’t be good. She really did need those antibiotics. I poured some peroxide on the wound, and Chloe hissed in a breath from the contact. Once I cleared off the liquid oozing from the cut, I rewrapped her arm with clean gauze.
“I’m running back into town.”
Her head whipped around to look at me.
“According to the map, there’s a medical center in town, and I need to get you some antibiotics. You’re going to stay here with the doors locked. I shouldn’t be very long since I’m going to take a car this time.”
She didn’t say anything in return; she just stared at the floor and started to pick at a snag in her pants. I could tell she wanted to say something, but she stubbornly remained silent. I passed her a couple of generic painkillers, and she swallowed them in a hurry.
I went back to my preparation. Sitting on the couch, I refilled the magazines for my gun. There weren’t very many bullets remaining in the box, and since the hardware store was a bust, I didn’t know where else to get ammo from. All I needed were regular 9mm bullets, but even that was asking a lot now. I made sure I had my hunting knife and my axe. I really wished I still had my belt with the holsters to place the gun and my knife on. But it was currently residing back where the cabin was, having left it there in all the commotion.
We could try for a run to John’s gun shop.
That thought honestly hadn’t occurred to me until then, and I felt stupid for taking that long to come to that conclusion. Maybe they all went back there, too. Although, they would have needed to commandeer another vehicle since the truck was more than likely taken by Darren, and we currently had the car. It was the only place besides the cabin that we had all been to before.
I quickly pulled out the larger scale map of Louisiana and started to look for the area outside of New Orleans where John’s shop was located. Taylor had circled it on our old map before and I knew it was just off of a main road that ran outside of the city, through a small suburb area. I scrambled around for a pen and circled roughly where Taylor had before. I had to basically carve into the laminated surface.
If I could just get myself to the outskirts by backtracking from the interstate to the suburbs, I was confident I could locate the store. There was that gas station and grocery store we had stopped at that stood out. If I found that, I could find the store. I finally had a concrete plan and it felt invigorating. My brain had finally kicked into gear. I felt like I should share my plan, since I wasn’t the only one it affected.
“Chloe, I just had an idea.”
She was already looking my way since she’d been watching me as I flew into motion, scanning the map.
“Once I go get some supplies from the medical center, I think we should try to go back to John’s gun shop.”
Chloe still refused to talk, but I could tell from her expression she thought this was a good idea too. Even if they weren’t there, we could grab some much needed ammo and guns. She nodded and continued to pop trail mix into her mouth. Her hands were filthy, reminding me that there was still some water to wash up in.
“So it turns out there is still some water in the tank here. It’ll be freezing, but you should go take a bath. I left soap and shampoo up there.”
Without a word, she stood up and headed upstairs. I heard the groaning of the pipes a few minutes later. I was glad she listened. I would have to redo her wrappings again, but at least she wouldn’t be covered in germs to feed the infection.
Once my weapons were in order, I stuffed a couple of water bottles and some quick food in my backpack, along with a flashlight we had found. I rescanned the local ma
p, trying to memorize the route. I had to take a grand total of two left turns to get to the street I needed. The medical center was off of the main street, but there were residential houses still to one side of it. It almost seemed like someone converted an old house into the center.
Again, I wondered what the chances were that the place hadn’t been picked clean. The rest of the town was still in pretty good shape, as far as buildings went anyways. The Main Street stores still had most of their windows intact and other than the major items like bullets and perishables, the stores were not completely empty.
I looked down at the keys to the house and the Taurus that were lying on the floor beside me. I was not mechanically inclined in any way, shape or form and I kept my fingers crossed that the car started without issue. I didn’t want to potentially damage John’s Mazda; we needed that one to run.
I got up and peeked out the front window, pulling the hideous curtains to the side. The street had a few roamers. One was dressed in a torn jogging suit, and for some reason the image of a zombie speed walking club popped into my head. I really was starting to question my sanity, but at this point, who wouldn’t? After everything I had witnessed, I was surprised I wasn’t rocking myself back and forth in a corner. One day maybe. Right now I had a goal to focus on which seemed to keep the lurking insanity at bay.
It took some effort, but my sore body was able to move the couch away from the front door. With my axe in hand, I closed the door behind me. I would need to take out the few infected before I left, for Chloe’s safety. My limbs creaked in harmony with the porch stairs. There was nothing I wanted more at the moment than to soak in a hot tub.
One decayed head turned to me with a hiss and started its trek toward me. Once it got close enough, I brought the axe down, and the infected’s head split open like a tree trunk. I quickly yanked the axe free from the fallen dead weight. The one in the track suit was now coming toward me, ironically a bit faster than the rest. Maybe she was in better shape as a human than the others. I swiped out my foot and the thing landed on the driveway hard. I heard the sound of a bone cracking and her right arm was now bent underneath her at an odd angle.
This Would Be Paradise (Book 1) Page 23