Charlie watched then asked, “Hey, can I have a bit of that?”
Alden grinned, “Sure kid.”
Charlie held out his cup as Alden poured just a little in. Charlie took a sip while the old man put the flask away. His eyes squinted and his lips puckered as the burning liquid flowed down his throat along with the hot coffee. When it hit bottom it was all Charlie could do to keep it from hitting reverse and coming back up. Alden burst out laughing from watching the young man’s reaction. “Well I guess this is a day of firsts for you.”
Charlie looked and started to speak but found that the liquid and burned his vocal cords out, this simple act caused Alden to almost fall over laughing, “Yes Sir’ree, your first time getting almost shot by the army, your first time busted coming out of a public shower bare ass to the world and now your first taste of Southern Comfort.”
Charlie’s face turned red as his feelings were hurt then he too started laughing. He didn’t know why but just the way the old guy had said it he knew it had to look funny. Charlie started laughing right along with Alden. As the Moment died down, Charlie looked to the old man. “So Sir, what’s your story?”
Before he could answer the large red dog jumped up and looked to the north. Alden moved like a flash pouring the coffee on the fire and turning off the Coleman lantern. Grabbing Charlie by the arm he pulled him out of their make-shift camp and pushed him towards the woods while he was grabbing a black nylon bag. As they reached the edge Alden pulled out two army poncho’s and rubbed them into the cool grass. Whispering to Charlie, “You put this on and stay low under those bushes.”
“Why? What’s going on is it the biters?” Charlie asked
“No, no something worse just wait for it boy, it school time. Pay attention to everything that’s going on around you. The smell of the air the sound of the air,”
Charlie interrupted, “What the hell do you mean the sound of the air?” Just then he heard it somewhere there was a soft thumping sounding that seemed to be getting louder.
Helicopters appeared out of nowhere only the little lights under them were visible at first but then whole outline of a six of them. Charlie looked to the old man who was crouched down under the next bush. His voice low and quiet, “Stay put, don’t move at all and stay under that poncho. They won’t be able to see you…”
Charlie watched as Alden’s head turned away from the direction of the helicopters, looking back behind him. “Can you smell them Charlie?”
All Charlie could smell was his own piss running down his leg. He’d heard about people being so scared they did that but always thought it was just a rumor. Charlie tried to look where Alden was pointing. At first he saw nothing then he saw the bodies moving in the moonlight, through the shadows. It was then that he smelled the rotting flesh. “Biters”, he whispered.
Alden looked at him a bit confused then nodded. Putting his fingers to his lips he then pointed to the helicopters. They formed up in a U shape and were flying just over the tree tops. Charlie could only watch and take direction from the old man, How could he trust someone he had just met with his life but it seemed like the right thing to do at this Moment.
Charlie watched as the helicopters sat directly over them. He had learned quickly from the old man. “Listen to the air???”
The sound of the whooping blades then a sudden whirring sound, then guns and rockets fired. The explosions were deafening, the ground was shaking from rockets and bullets hitting the biters directly in front of them, only Alden screaming over the roar made him stay where he was at. “YOU KEEP YOUR FUCKING ASS RIGHT THERE OR I SWEAR TO YOUR GOD I’LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING BALLS OFF”.
The firing went on for what seemed like forever. Then it suddenly stopped and spotlights came on from the helicopters as they circled the killing field which was less than fifty yards in front of Charlie and Alden. Again Alden made a motion telling Charlie to not move. The helicopters formed up and the lights went out as the turned and headed back from where they came.
Charlie started to get up and was knocked down by Alden he put his hand over Charlie’s mouth then pointed off to the east. It took a moment but he caught the glimpse of movement, it wasn’t the stagger that biters did, but was more precise. It was humans, Charlie watched as Alden pulled his poncho around him and moved silently away. Charlie was crouched down and could hear the footsteps getting closer. He lifted the poncho just an inch and saw a man with strange goggles looking away from him. The man turned and looked right at Charlie then raised his rifle to shoot. A sudden bang followed by a bright flash blinded Charlie as the gun fired and the round landed right next to his leg which then caused Charlie to lose all control of his bowels. The next thing he heard was the soldiers body hit the ground and what sounded like three more men running right to him.
He was blinded by the flash and had lost all his night vision he could only make out shadows but what he saw terrified him. This nice old man he had eaten with and laughed with took out all three of the soldiers in a matter of seconds. He watched as he sliced the first the ones throat with one swipe of his knife. The second took the same knife directly into his throat. The third turned to run but only got a couple of steps when the old man grabbed him and snapped his neck around. Then it was quiet, not even the sound of crickets chirping.
Alden gathered up the weapons, goggles and the rest of the gear then walked up to Charlie as he was still crouched and shaking horribly, he reached down and pulled the poncho of him. Charlie gasped, “What the hell was that? Why did he try to kill me? Have they all gone fucking nuts?”
Alden grabbed Charlie by the arm. “They got their orders son and we got ours. It’s kill or be killed and there are no more ROE’S.”
Charlie shook his leg to get the shit off his ass. “What the hell are ROE’S,” he asked as looked down and kept shaking his leg.
Alden chuckled, some hippiefied bullshit they came up with after Vietnam, it’s rules of engagement.”
Charlie shook his leg again and Alden laughed as he walked him back to camp.” Charlie smiled as the old man had said nothing of the smell but he knew what Charlie had done. “You know Sir… err Al, your right it has been a day of firsts, that was also the first time I ever was shot at and pissed and shit myself….. too bad there ain’t some hot redhead waiting for me back at the camp so I could get my first blow job and piece of ass to complete my day of firsts.”
Chapter 9 - Colt:
Colt made his way north on Hwy 51 still not sure where he was going, the road sign said Millington 10 miles. That meant gas stations and more supplies; he really sucked at this survival stuff. He had left the house with clothes, two bottles of water, the hammer and the gun. He had needed so much more but how the hell was he supposed to know. He had already drank one of the bottles of water and wanted the other one now. He really thought he would just stop by a store but the stores in Memphis were filled with monsters. They were wandering around in the parking lots; Colt thought that once they became a monster they didn’t know to leave where they were. But so far, it looked like many were turned in the stores.
The next sign said Millington 5 files, Colt had decided he needed to find somewhere to get gas and some food. Two more miles up the road he saw a small store; the sign was an old beat up wooden sign hanging off a rusted pole. A little closer he could see the name, McNeel’s Grocery. Colt slowed down enough to look around for any monsters, there was a hand painted sign on the door ‘Closed due to end of the world, Help yourself if you are still breathing’ Colt put the rover in parked by the gas pumps, he sat there for a few minutes waiting to see if anyone came around or out of the building. When no one did he opened the door, the gas pump said to prepay inside. “Damn it, how the hell do you turn these on?”
He opened the lid to his gas tank and took off the cap, then took the pump just in case they didn’t shut it off. The handle just kept clicking off, Colt left it in the tank and walked to the store. Just inside the door he hollered, “Anyone here?! HELLO!”
There was no movement so he made his way a little further in and called out again. When there was still no sound he felt a little safer. It was then that he realized his gun was still in the car, “Brilliant Colt, you are just made for this shit aren’t you?”
He would have been dead if anyone had been there. The isles were trashed; people had just torn this place apart. Colt found two cans of generic soup, a can of devil ham, saltine crackers, and the box had been stepped on but hey he was going to take what he could get. He went to the front, he busted up laughing, there sat a box of Twinkies. Twinkies would survive a zombie apocalypse or so they had said in TV shows, and he didn’t know if the monsters were zombies but here sat the Twinkies.
He grabbed the box as he went around the counter to see if he could start the pumps. Seeing a panel with all four pumps labeled, he figured if he just hit the button it would start them. Colt hit all four, he didn’t want anyone else to come in and not be able to get any gas.
After going back to the door he looked around before going back to the car, he thought he saw something move but wasn’t sure, he wasn’t about to hang out to see who would come to visit. Dumping the few things he got into the front passenger seat then went to pump the gas.
Thankfully the gas started filling the tank, he glanced in the front seat and saw his water bottle in the console, “Damn it” He reached in and grabbed it then ran back in the store. The coolers hadn’t run in a while but warm water or soda was better than nothing. He found a can of Big K orange soda and a couple bottles of apple juice. Going into the bathroom he emptied his bladder and filled the bottle of water from the tap. As he headed back out of the store he saw gas cans and bottles of windshield wiper fluid. Shoving the drinks down his shirt, he grabbed two of the bottles of the washer fluid, walking outside he opened them up and poured out the contents. Colt shook them out then went back to the bathroom to wash them out the best he could, then filled both with water. Colt carried both in one hand and reached down to snag two of the gas cans on his way back out.
Once back at the car he put the water in the back seat and dug out the drinks from his shirt putting them in the front seat, then carried the gas cans around to the pump. He finished filling up the tank then filled both cans, popping the back door he loaded the cans in the back. Jumping back in the driver’s seat Colt was feeling a little better about his chances of survival.
Colt got back on the road to go into Millington; he thought he might find a sports store or something for camping gear. He glanced at the rear view mirror and the blue On-star button was blinking, did someone try to contact him? He punched the button and heard a recorded message, the same that had been on the radio, everyone stay home and remain calm. Colt clicked the button again to turn it off. Millington had monsters roaming around but not so many that it worried him, he saw the Wal-Mart off to the right and that was full of them. He slowed down wondering if he could sneak in the auto bays but decided that the store would be just as filled as the lot. Target was the next store a couple miles up and almost but not quite as packed as Wal-Mart had been he pulled over to the shoulder wondering if he should chance it.
With a heavy sign he pulled away, he wanted something a bit safer. Soon Colt was driving through a residential area; he didn’t pay attention to much he just wanted out of there. He wanted back on a main road to find another town but he didn’t know if he was going the right direction, he knew then he should have looked for a map at the store while he had been there. Next stop he would remember a map, just then one of the monsters slammed into his window. He must have slowed down but he didn’t remember doing it. He looked to the monster and realized she wasn’t a monster, it was a young girl begging him to let her in, and she was dragging a little boy with her. Colt thought it must be her brother, he shook his head no, he couldn’t take them. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you!”
She was screaming and begging, “Just take my brother please, I can’t take care of him! We will die PLEASE!!”
Colt slowed to a stop but it was too late, the monsters were coming. The girl looked over her shoulder and started screaming in hysterics banging harder on the window. Colt reached for his gun but he only had five bullets left, another stupid thing he had done, he left home without grabbing the box of ammo. He didn’t want to use the gun now, he wanted to save the bullets. The monsters were there now grabbing the two that were stilling begging him to save them. He pushed down on the gas pedal wondering if he wasn’t becoming a monster too.
The town now was behind him and he was on a county road but the only thing Colt saw was the girl’s face in his window. Did this make him a killer, how would he feel if he had been the one stranded and they were driving through. He broke down then, he couldn’t live like this, he wanted to die. Pulling over he just sat on the shoulder of the road crying.
Colt looked in his rear view mirror, he couldn’t see the hoard he had drove away from, but there were some of them topping the hill to come for him. Putting the car back in drive he pulled away again, a couple of miles up he saw the turn for state highway 3. Colt had no clue where it went but it would have to lead to another small town and that’s what he wanted. As soon as he was on the highway he figured out that these people had tried to leave town and this was the main way they had fled.
This was a small four lane highway but getting through the wrecked and abandoned cars was proving more than the rover could do. The south bound lanes had cars but not as many as he was fighting here, veering into the culvert that separated the roads pulling back onto the black top in the southbound lanes still heading north. Driving the next twenty miles took well over three hours but once he passed Covington and a couple of other smaller towns the road was almost deserted. Swerving around a crashed car here and there was easy and he was able to hit sixty mile an hour at times.
Colt had to pull over to pour one of the cans of gas in the car, it was getting low and he didn’t want to be in the middle of any size town and need to fill it. He went ahead and emptied his bladder and reached in the front seat for the package of crackers. Tearing it open he poured some of the crumbs in his mouth washing them down with the orange soda. Ten minutes later he was heading back down the road toward a town named Ripley, he would scan this place too for anywhere to fill up his tank again and grab a map.
As he got closer he saw that he would have to leave the highway to get into Ripley, he figured there would be another town sooner or later, and he was certianly counting on sooner. As he was scanning the land he slammed on the breaks, on the right was a sign that read Lauderdale County Sheriff Office. Colt turned the wheel into the entrance and drove slowly into the lot.
Putting car in park at the back of the lot not wanting to draw attention, he saw a few monsters roaming around and all were wearing uniforms. Across the highway there was a factory but it looked shut down, there were a few cars but not very many and a just a handful of the monsters, but he was more worried about the ones in this parking lot. Colt reached over grabbing the gun, checked the safety and opened the door.
Climbing out he shut the door as quietly as he could, crouched down he moved around a couple of the patrol cars. The third car’s door was open, he climbed in seeing the shotgun. He grabbed the barrel and pulled but it didn’t move, “Shit”
It was locked in to a holder, searching around a bit to see if he could find the key but no luck. He made his way around a few more cars till he found one that the cop had offed himself with a bullet in the brain, the guy had been there for a long time by the look and smell of him. Colt reached in and grabbed the gun that hung in the man’s lifeless hand. Shoving it down the back of his waistband, he worked his way closer to the building. He peaked over the hood of one of the cars and saw three monsters wandering his way.
Ducking back down quickly he hoped they didn’t see him but either way they were
coming his direction. Colt crawled under the car and watched the feet of the monsters go by. Waiting a few minutes he didn’t see anyone else coming so he edged out to see about getting to the building. As soon as he stood up he was grabbed, he almost screamed but was able to swallow it down. The monster seemed to be all teeth, he must have been bit several times before he turned into one. His arm had a gaping hole and Colt could see the man’s back teeth through the hole in his jaw. His femur bone was poking through his pant leg, Colt wondered how the man was even walking, even as a monster wouldn’t you need that bone to stand? The man was pulling him closer, trying to claw at him. Colt reached for the gun realizing he couldn’t fire it here, but he had no other weapon.
Shoving the man back Colt heard the bone crack even more and the man crumbled, that didn’t stop him, the man was now crawling toward him. Colt kicked the man as hard as he could in the face right in the cheek that was hollow. He felt the man’s head cave in but worse he felt like he broke his own toe in the process. He didn’t care, he kicked the man several more times just to make sure he wouldn’t be moving again.
Colt took a deep breath and looked around, more had heard the noise and were coming. He didn’t have time to move slowly anymore, Colt ran toward the building as the pain shot through his foot. He reached the front doors yanking them open to several more monsters in there. Slamming it back closed then ran to the side of the building; the back area was fenced with more monsters there, “Great idea Colt!”
Well, he was here now better make it count. He scaled the fence and dropped to the other side, pulling out his gun he fired at the first one to get close. He had used the last of his rounds as he found an auto bay that was open. That led him into the lower offices; he shoved his gun into his waist band and pulled out the one he had taken from the cop. He searched a few offices and found the ammo room but it was locked, “God you fuckers don’t trust your own people?”
Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins Page 9