Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins

by Allensworth, Audra

  For over another hour her mind would race while she would surprisingly follow the directions that were on her map that she would occasionally look over to take a quick glance then back up to see the highway sign or destination mile marker. However, the sun was down now and night had engulfed her car like a blanket that is pulled up over one’s eyes. Pushing the buttons on her radio Beth would occasionally here a special alert message informing listeners to stay in their homes, this is only temporary and that help will be on the way.

  Scoffing out loud, “Yeah, some help!! If they come looking for you they will probably shoot first and ask questions later, if it is up to them.”

  Beth had such a vendetta against the government for how they were running things over the past years, she figured that they don’t want to be blamed for a goddamn thing and to make sure that they will take whatever measures they need to prove that they themselves did not have any responsibility in this situation at all. Just then Beth had an epiphany. Maybe she was the only one left that could let the secret out and prove the government did have a huge part to play in this. She knew that they would be lying through their teeth trying to blame it on terrorists or some other part of a third world country and right then and there Beth was determined that if she in fact was the only one left alive that she would sing it from the fucking roof tops to show the country that the government had a big hand in this fubard situation.

  Just then off in the distance she could see lights and they were high in the sky. Wanting to know if she could hear any noise Beth pushed the window button to roll it down just a bit so she could hear anything. The noise was going away and it was the sound of helicopter blades. Perhaps that was a good sign. Beth thought that this may be just the thing that she needed to show her that she had made a wise decision to go to the forest. Maybe they already had made up a quarantined area so that civilians could take refuge until things did get under control.

  Feeling a lot more at ease Beth continued on down the highway while watching for more signs pointing out how many more miles it would be until she would get to her destination. Reaching down to retrieve her bottle of water in the drink holder Beth finished it off and a small smile came to her face. She was feeling a lot better but after another thirty minutes had past and she had not seen any more lights Beth’s worrying started up again, more so now than she was before.

  There were no lights, there we no sounds……nothing……nothing at all. When she was about ready to pull over to regroup on the long deserted highway there was another sign which read, ‘Mark Twain National Forest 20 miles’. Quickly she looked down at her gas gauge and she saw that she only had a quarter of a tank left. This was it, she would get to her destination but after that she had no idea what would be in store for her. Hopefully there were some cabins that would not be occupied and what’s more… no infected! Beth was banking on the fact that since she hadn’t seen any traffic and that since she was out of the city hopefully none of the infected had made it out this way. The next sign she saw was 5 miles until she arrived to the forest and she immediately slowed her vehicle down. Beth had enough gas to take her into the forest and felt more secure going into the unknown, locked inside her car until she could assess the situation

  Finally, when the entrance was visible, Beth rolled up her window and made her way into the forest. The roads were empty and no cars were visible. Nothing but trees and shadows moved in front of her head lights. She drove a little farther and then decided to crack her window just a little so that if there were any noises or smells out there she may be able to pick up on them. Beth heard the wind blow softly through her window but that was the only thing that she heard. As for what was out there to be smelled, there a lot different smells and none of them smelt like death and rotting corpses. Up ahead she saw a sign that said ‘Cabins’ and an arrow pointing to the right. Beth began slowing down so that she wouldn’t miss her turn. She continued on for a little while longer until her car finally gave up the ghost. The gas gauge was on empty and she started getting very nervous because now she would have to make it on foot.

  Chapter 12 - Alden:

  As the two got back to camp Alden looked to the young man. He felt sorry for him knowing that Charlie had never been under fire before and all in all he held up real well. “Charlie, I want you to go take a quick shower and change your clothes. I’ll take care of your other ones. We’ll have to bury them for tonight, the deadheads get wind of that odor and they’ll be all over us.”

  Charlie grinned, turning bright red, as he started to strip, carefully taking off his jeans. “I’m sorry Alden, I’ve never been through anything like that.”

  Charlie left the dirty clothes in a pile as he got some clean ones and headed back to the shower. “Make it quick son I don’t know how much propane we have and we want to conserve our hot water supply.”

  Charlie nodded at him as he walked off.

  Alden grabbed a black trash bag and used it to scoop up Charlie’s soiled clothes, even Tonto sniffed and bolted. “Yeah boy that’s some rank shit there.”

  Tonto shook his head then sneezed a couple of times. Alden walked off in the woods and rocks finding a spot where some smaller boulders had fallen. He piled rocks on top and then covered it all with some brush. Tonto came over and added his little bit of help by raising his leg and spraying his scent over the rocks. Alden and Tonto returned to the camp to find Charlie already out and dressed. Alden started his little Sterno stove and got the coffee going once more. Charlie sat on a log his eyes fixed on the flames from the fire. Alden poured him a cup; handing it to the kid he turned and poured himself one. He watched as Charlie shivered every now and then, Tonto could feel the young man’s fear and walked over and lay at his feet. Alden took a few sips and spoke, “You did good kid. Before the shit hit the fan you asked me about me. Well I guess after what we went through you, you deserve to know who you’re bunking with as we used to say.”

  Standing up he extended his hand to Charlie who shook it with a quizzical look, “My name is Sergeant First Class Alden Godfrey, retired. Among my duties as a soldier, I was a drill instructor at the end, before that I spent twenty years as a Special Forces small arms and demolition expert along with a secondary in field medical training. I saw combat in South East Asia, I was in Beirut in 1979, Grenada, Desert Storm one and two, along with some side jobs in South Africa.”

  Charlie eyes widened, “So your like Rambo?!”

  Alden took a sip then spit grounds out, “Naw, Rambo was a pussy, I’m the real deal.”

  Charlie looked into the fire then back at the old man, “ you must think I’m a punk, for pissing and shitting myself?”

  Alden smirked, “No kid, in fact if you hadn’t I’d been a little worried. Nobody goes through what you went through as good as you did without some kind training. You did just fine son just fine.”

  Alden could see by the young man’s eyes he had had a long day. “I want you to get some sleep I’ll take first watch. I’m sure the soldiers that tried to kill us have friends nearby and when they don’t return or make contact at an assigned hour their friends will be back.”

  Charlie looked worried, “What, what’ll we do then?”

  “You let me worry about that, you just get some sleep. It’s ten p.m. I’ll wake you about four. Cover up good, there will be no fire tonight and it’s getting chilly already.”

  Alden watched as the young man crawled up in his van and laid down pulling his sleeping bag tight around him. Alden walked over, “Take your outer clothes off and put them in the bottom of your bag, that way you’ll have warm clothes to put on in the morning.”

  Alden walked away and covered the Sterno putting out the small flame.

  He sat on a log watching the stars, he knew what he had to do he could only hope he was still as good as he was when he was younger. Waiting till he was sure Charlie was asleep he picked up one of the M-16’s he had taken off the dead soldiers, grabbing a couple of clips he looked to Tonto, “You choice boy
stay and guard or come with me.”

  Tonto stood looked to the van then walked over and sat next to Alden. “Okay boy let’s go do this.”

  The sun had risen and was shining warm on the windows of the van as Charlie rolled over, “Shit he said he’d wake me at four!”

  Grabbing his warm clothes he dressed in his bag, opened the door and jumped out. There sat Alden over the small fire with a cast iron skillet of bacon frying, “Morning cupcake. You sleep good?”

  Charlie rubbed his eyes, “ Is that safe? I mean hell, they’ll smell the bacon.”

  Alden turned, “Who the soldiers or the deadheads?”

  “What difference does it make, their both dangerous right?”

  Alden grinned as he pulled the bacon off and placed them on a metal plate, “How do you want your eggs?”

  Charlie stared at the pan, “errr over easy I guess.”

  Alden pulled four eggs out and cracked them. “Do me a favor Charlie there on the stove is toast turn it over so it don’t burn.”

  Charlie looked and saw a wire rack over the Sterno stove holding four pieces of bread. He turned them and picked up the coffee pot next to it pouring himself some then turning to Alden.

  “So what happened with the rest of the soldiers?”

  Alden flipped the eggs and took a sip of his coffee. Charlie sat on his log.

  “Well I got to thinking that I would just go out and see if I could tell how many there were plus I wanted to dispose of the bodies I left out there. I found their buddies; it wasn’t hard they had a bonfire going about three miles south of here.”

  Alden shook his head, “Dumb sons of bitches, they had about a hundred deadheads heading towards them. Don’t get me wrong they had the fire power to hold them off, but they had no discipline.”

  Handing Charlie his plate, “I hate soldiers with no discipline.”

  Taking a bite of bacon he went on, “The soldiers were facing the deadheads, I came in from behind. I let them shoot a few of them then I took them out. I wounded the lot of them took some of their weapons and left them for the deadheads.”

  Charlie almost choked and vomited. “How …how …how.. could you?”

  Alden looked at him, “I told you son, it’s kill or be killed and trust me they’d found us and killed us. I saw the helicopters searching for them this morning at dawn. I watched as they hovered and then left. I don’t think they’ll be back this way any time soon, but keep your eyes and ears peeled.”

  Charlie looked up with a confused look, “What kind of guy are you?” he asked in a timid voice.

  Alden reached down and poured water into the cast iron skillet and waited for it to boil. He looked at Charlie, “I’m the guy who is going to keep you alive. The guy who saved your ass last night with cold poncho’s to keep their infra-red sights off your skinny ass. The guy who killed three men who would have killed you or worse raped your ass then left you for the deadheads. That’s the kind of guy I am. I’m a friend when needed and a man not to be fucked with.”

  Alden reached down and swirled the boiling water in the skillet poured some out and wiped it with a sponge then dried it and rubbed some Crisco on it and put it in a wooden box he’d been sitting on.

  Tonto suddenly jumped up growling low and started to the edge of the tree line. Alden grabbed his 45 and put two fingers to his lips to signal quiet once again. In a whisper he told Tonto to stay. Working his way to the left he moved quickly and almost like the wind. His footsteps were light upon the ground making almost no noise at all. The first thing he noticed was a slight whiff of a women’s either deodorant or perfume. The he saw the German Shepard moving through the woods. He was lucky enough to be downwind so the dog wouldn’t catch his scent.

  He squatted and waited it wasn’t long till a short skinny redhead came moving through the woods. She was not being too quiet; he could hear her cussing from getting scratched by the briars. Alden waited a few moments then moved around behind the two knowing he needed to stay close to keep Tonto from hurting either of them. They did not appear to be a threat and he did not see or hear anyone following the girl. Alden figured they were about twenty yards from the camp when he yelled out, “ALL RIGHT YOUNG LADY THAT’S FAR ENOUGH. CALL BACK YOUR DOG AND STOP RIGHT THERE.”

  He heard Tonto bark once, “TONTO LEAVE IT ALONE.”

  The girl was visibly frightened as she turned and saw Alden walking up behind her. He didn’t even seem to touch the briars. Alden kept his eye on the dog that was ahead of her, it stopped growled towards Tonto’s direction the turned and ran back to the girl stopping right beside her, he could see the hair on it’s back up as it began to bark and growl loudly at him. “Little lady I’m only going to ask once get a hold of your dog. I’d hate to have to put a bullet in him.”

  He saw her reach down and grab the dogs collar then put his 45 away and put his hands out in front of him as moved towards her. He could tell by the way she was dressed that she was not part of the group he’d killed last night. In fact she looked like a scared little school girl he thought and hell who wouldn’t be in times like these. “Names Godfrey Miss, I won’t hurt you as long as you don’t do anything stupid. Just stay put and I’ll walk you and your dog into our camp right ahead of you there.”

  Alden made a wide berth around the dog to try to calm him as he could see it pulling hard on the collar and it was all the girl could do to hold him. He mumbled as he walked ahead, “Follow me cupcake, you and Toto there.”

  He kept walking and started talking to himself, “Fucking place is like Disney land anymore.”

  As he broke through the bushes Alden snapped his fingers at Tonto and pointed back to the camp. Tonto turned and walked towards the camp but kept looking back as the girl and her dog came out of the trees. Alden got that grin on his face that Charlie hadn’t seen before, “Yo Cupcake, I got you another first son!!!! I think someone might have answered your prayers last night.”…….

  Chapter 13 - Tabitha:

  More and more of those damn zombies were walking on the streets. Tabitha was forcing her foot hard down on the gas pedal wanting to get the fuck out of dodge. She had been on the road now for about two hours and getting through Fort Leonard had its Moments. Some were good while others were not so good. She made it to Leonard barely on fumes and after she got there she saw a gas station off on the right. A few zombies were off in the distance and she needed some gas. Tabitha would have rather hijacked another car but there wasn’t one around and she had to try something.

  Pulling up beside the pump she quickly parked the car, got out and went to try to put some gas in the car; that was if there was any left. Not too surprisingly, after she had pulled the nozzle off the pump and put it into the tank, pulled the handle she could hear and feel nothing.

  The zombies had picked up their pace a little and were about 30 yards from where she stood. Turning her head she wanted to see if there were any coming up on her from the other side and she saw no one. When she focused back on the ones in front of her, she took a head count and all together there looked like there were about nine of them. They were not all together but they were heading in one direction, hers!

  Not really thinking and just wanting to get back on the road she reached into the front part of her jeans, grabbed the 45 and began shooting. It became quite clear that Tabitha knew nothing about shooting a gun and what’s more she was horrible marksman. Every time she fired, she jumped back a few inches, after the fourth or fifth round she was right up against the gas pumps. It took her a couple more tries until she finally got one in the head which stopped the bastard dead in his tracks. A couple of them had been hit in the legs and they were still coming at her but they were crawling instead. Getting her balance she looked over to see where if there were any lights on in the gas station she sarcastically said “Here’s hoping I can turn the pumps on and get the fuck out of here!”

  The few zombies that were left kept right on coming at her and Tabitha finally had it. While raising her oth
er hand up so she could have a better grip on the Colt 45 she took a deep breath. “Focus!” she ordered herself and one at a time she picked of each one of them right between the eyes. It was much easier to do now because when they were still coming at her and they were about fifteen feet from where she stood. That was a little too close for her and she didn’t want them to get any closer. After they were blown away Tabitha put the 45 down by her side while still holding a death grip on it.

  Looking around she didn’t see anything but heard noises way behind her. Quickly she bolted inside the gas station and before she knew it there was a zombie coming out of the back room. Without hesitation she pulled that 45 up and blew his head clean off his shoulders. With a smile on her face Tabitha said out loud, “Shoot first…….ask questions later!!!!”

  Then she hopped over the counter and instead of going through the cash register like any other thief would do Tabitha began looking for the switches that turned on the auxiliary pumps. When she found the switches there were all kinds of them and some of them said pump 1, 2, and 3 while others said backup power. Tabitha didn’t give a shit as to what was what and frankly didn’t have the patience to stand there and check each one so she just flipped them all on.

  When she did this everything in the place came on. The lights, refrigerators, coolers and even the music came on behind her. “Jackpot!!!”

  The jerk that she had blown away must have been locking up before he died because he was the only one in there. Before she left the store she grabbed a basket that was located by the entrance and quickly grabbed all sorts of snaky foods and bottle of water, soda and any other shit she could get her hands on that would fill up the basket.

  Once her basket was filled Tabitha bumped the door with her butt and left the building. The noises that she heard were coming in closer now as she quickly made her way back to her car. She didn’t have time to take everything out of the basket so she just put the whole thing in the passenger side. It was a good thing that she had left the nozzle in the car and the handle locked into place because it had kicked off and when she looked at the amount she owed it read $62.89. While laughing Tabitha pulled out the nozzle and put it back into the machine then suddenly she saw more of the zombies coming up around the corner that was behind her.