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

by Allensworth, Audra

  Ceara left her standing and went to Charlie, sitting beside him on the log, “Really Charlie it wasn’t anything, she was just making fun of me and it kind of got out of hand.”

  Charlie didn’t say a word and just finished eating, Ceara rubbed her hands together to get warm from the cold, “Sorry, I’ll leave you alone.”

  Charlie looked at her, “Ceara I have no idea what those two were talking about. Let’s just let them have their little fun. I’ve been the butt of many jokes and it really doesn’t bother me anymore.”

  He got up and went to his van returning with the wool blanket with the wolf’s head on it. “I know you said you were tired but there’s no reason you need to be cold too. All you got to do is ask and whatever I have, I’ll share with you.”

  He looked towards Alden then spoke softly to Ceara, “I used to listen to some old Veterans who would come to the church for the evening meal we served. They talked about some of the guys having something called a thousand yard stare. I never knew what that meant till I met him. It’s as if he is searching the world for any danger that would harm us. He knows it’s there and he knows they know were here. It’s like a game of who can see who first.”

  Alden turned as if he had heard Charlie and walked back to the fire.

  “Well kiddies, we had our evening meal and I wish we had cookies and milk but alas we don’t. So this is how the sleeping arrangements will go. We will have what is called a fire watch. That means just what it says. Cupcake two, you have first watch. You will sit and make sure the fire does not go out, but again I don’t want a roaring bonfire keep it low and warm.”

  Looking at his watch he saw it was 9 P.M. You will sit and guard our happy camp till 2300hrs”

  Pausing he looked as she stared blank at him, “That’s 11 P.M. for you. Then you wake cupcake number one, Charlie your watch will be end at o100 hrs, that’s 1 A.M. for you. I’ll take third watch and will wake cupcake three at o400 hrs.,” looking to Tabitha, “that’s 4 A.M for you. Then you get to make the morning coffee and get everyone up at about o600hrs. Are we clear on that.?”

  Everyone nodded, Charlie smiled at Ceara and whispered, “keep the blanket to stay warm, I’ll see you in a couple of hours. If you need me, I’ll be right over there.”

  Alden looked at Tabitha and motioned for her to follow him, he reached in the back of his truck and pulled out two army sleeping bags. “Here you and Charlie can use these, and Ceara can use Charlie’s when he relieves her.”

  Tabitha smirked at his choice of words and even giggled a little. Alden smiled “well your intentions were to get them into the same bed…….”

  Chapter 4 – Who are you:

  As Colt scooped out the last spoon of soup he smiled at Beth, “Damn if I didn’t know better I would think this was pretty nice.”

  He stood taking both his and Beth’s bowl heading to the door when he heard gunfire. He stopped looking out to the woods, “You hear that? It sounds like a gun fight?”

  Beth nodded but just watched the woods too. Colt set the bowls on the porch walking out into the open area; he wanted to try to see where the shots were coming from. There wasn’t just one or two shots, there were many and overlapping each other. Beth joined him searching for the location too. Colt pointed northeast, “I think they are that way.”

  He looked to Beth, “Question is, are they shooting at the monsters or each other?”

  The gun fire slowed to a stop, “Well good or bad it’s over. Do you think we need to set any traps? Honestly I have no clue how to, so I am kind of hoping the answer is no, unless you know how to do it?”

  Beth stood looking into the woods; she looked up toward the sky. “I guess we could take a walk in the woods to see what is out there but it will be getting dark soon.”

  Folding her arms around herself she thought about other people that may be out there and if she was one of them, well, she sure would want someone to come to her rescue just as Colt did when he showed up in his land rover.

  “Tell you what Colt, we do have flashlights and lanterns. If you want to, we could take a walk out and see if we can hear voices because with that gunfire there have to be survivors out there somewhere; because knowing what we know the ones that have become infected cannot fire a gun, or hold one for that matter.”

  He nodded, “But who’s to say they were fighting monsters Beth? They could have been in a camp and others tried to join them, but they didn’t want no more people. They may be short on supplies and not wanting to share.”

  He walked back to the porch grabbing the bowls, “I say we wait till morning if we do anything.”

  Beth still stood there while Colt walked back. Her mind was a million miles away. All of the people, friends and family that she had were lost all due to the laziness of men that was running this country. She wondered if there was anyone who had survived from the CDC. Part of her blame herself for not trying harder to stop the incompetence at work; however, the longer she thought about it there could not be anything that she could have done to stop the inevitable from happening.

  Beth was a lot smarter than Colt knew and she wanted to tell him her whole story but with his loss, she did not want to make matters any worse than they already were. She even knew that it wasn’t her fault and she knew who was actually responsible for this whole mess. All she could do right now after assessing their current situation was do what Colt had suggested.

  It had been a long day and she was in fact wore completely out. As a gust of wind passed by her face Beth turned and remarked, “Colt, I couldn’t agree with you more. We haven’t really had the time to rest let alone settle down for the night and it is kinda getting chilly out here now. So I say let’s hunker down for the night and maybe we can keep a little fire inside the fireplace and bolt ourselves in for the night.”

  Colt built up the fire in the fireplace, “I’m going to head out to grab some firewood, be right back.”

  Colt went out on the porch and stretched, then looked around it was all quiet. Stepping off the porch he headed to the car first to grab the flashlight out of the back-end. It was obvious he had never planned on having a flat at night because the flashlight was under the spare tire. Once he had it he hit the button and could see clear enough around him. The wood pile behind the first cabin he had searched, supplied him with all the wood they would need. He turned off the flashlight stuffing it in his back pocket, every step caused it to hit him in the back, but he had the wood and was heading back to the cabin.

  Suddenly there was an explosion; it was in the same direction the gun fire had been from. Colt ran up the steps getting inside, “DAMN BETH!!! Did you hear it? They are blowing shit up now!!”

  Beth could not help but hear the explosion, it shook the cabin and almost knocked her off her feet because it surprised the hell out of her, she had been tiding up after super.

  “Well, it can’t be the infected causing that, so there has to be more survivors out there.” Beth had no idea what she should do. One thing that would be hard as hell would be trying to get to sleep now because with that kind of commotion out there, if there were infected lurking about they would have to stand guard all night.

  Quickly she looked over at Colt and he looked as frazzled as she was inside and that was not a good thing. Beth ran over to the door and shut it softly behind Colt. “Ok, Colt, calm down. Let’s take a moment to think about this.”

  Slowly she calmed her breathing down and looked directly into Colt’s eyes as she began speaking, “With the gun fire out there a while ago and now that the explosion is over it goes to tell us that somewhere out there in the woods are survivors.”

  Gently she touched his shoulder and could feel how tense he was but having him all nervous and freaked out was not going to help their situation at all. “So let’s just say that many of the infected have been taken care of and with night falling we will more than likely see the lights from the fires if there is anything out in the woods. I say we barricade ourselves in for the nigh
t and keep watch out the window.”

  As Beth took her hand off of Colt’s shoulder she went over to the window and looked outside. Scanning the perimeter she did not see anything in her line of sight but did see some birds flying above. “Let me ask you Colt….. You ever been to a lock in? Let us just pretend this is a lock in and we can play some games and keep watch.”

  Beth wanted to just get him calmed down because she knew that if she didn’t and if he started carrying on like ‘WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE’ that Beth would start getting paranoid as hell. However, she did want to know what Colt thought so she turned slowly and saw him standing behind her, “Or if you want we can take our flashlights and go check on things out there if you like?”

  “I like the idea of a lock in, not so much into walking blind into the unknown. You stand watch for now, I don’t know if I’m right, but the monsters always seem head to any noise. So I think our neighbors just kept us safe for the night. I think for tonight anyway, we are safe.”

  He knelt down by the fireplace, dropping the logs he had brought in, tossing a couple of logs into the fire, and then poked around to get the flames to catch again. He smiled over at Beth.

  “See I am good at fires, Jessica use to love them. I swear it could be a hundred and ten degrees but she wanted a romantic fire.”

  Colt laughed looking in the fire, “I would be sweating my balls off but she was happy, so I was too.”

  He looked back to Beth as if realizing what he said, “Sorry about the crude language, just voicing memories.”

  Beth sat quietly at the window listening to Colt and when he referred to his sweaty balls all that she could do is giggle. To be quite honest, it was actually the first time she had laughed in a while and it did feel pretty good. She could tell that Colt was beginning to feel a little more comfortable and she kind of wanted to keep the humor flowing because it had been too serious for so long, she quickly replied, “Naaa, don’t have to be sorry, I mean if I was a guy and had to be sitting in sweaty ball soup, I don’t think I would be to comfortable either. Hell, I use to hate it when I was a kid growing up down by Kentucky lake and the humidity down there on a hot summer day would cause your underwear to go up in the crack of your ass and you would feel like you were digging for gold trying to get them out of there.”

  Colt smiled at her, “Yeah I kind of had times like that too, course when we were kids we didn’t mind digging for gold did we?”

  Standing up, dusting his hands off, “I think we should call it a night, if you really think we need it I can stand guard first and wake you up about midnight, I saw some blankets in the hall closet and that couch looks comfy enough. I think we should both stay in here.”

  He held up his hands, “No funny business I swear!”

  He grinned, “See I am just the boy next door.”

  Beth smiled as she went around the couch and down the hall, “Colt, I don’t think you have any perverted thoughts so don’t worry.”

  She got the blanket and lay down on the couch, covering up and snuggled down, “Hmmmm not bad, wake me when it’s my turn to watch. Oh and don’t do the fucked up gentleman thing and let me sleep all night, we are in this together. I don’t need you dead on your feet tomorrow.”

  She giggled, “No pun intended”

  Colt smiled and went to the window to let Beth sleep, this would be another long night.

  Chapter 5 – The Day After:

  Ceara sat by the fire pulling the blanket closer, watching the flames as everyone went to sleep. The flames danced around and Ceara started making pictures in them. At one point she thought about a herd of wild mustangs running through the flames, another was a concert she had went to last summer, the last was the wheat swaying in wind across from her parent’s farm. Each vision was of freedom, each one was of life and better times.

  A twig broke and Ceara jumped turning to the sound, but staring into the fire had blinded her. “Wow Ceara that was stupid!”

  She closed and opened her eyes several times to get them to adjust to the night. Finally she was able to see a bit, she knew if it was a deadhead then it would be in camp already but they could just be wandering around. She wondered if they could still smell, had they smelled the steaks from earlier? Ceara bent down to get the gun Alden had given her, she was wishing he had shown her a little more about it before leaving her alone. Tossing a small branch on the fire so it didn’t burn to low, she then went to the edge of camp holding up the gun pointing it everywhere she looked. Glancing back she almost wanted to wake Charlie but then they would all just see her as naïve, scared little girl.

  Ceara walked a little more, “Hello? Is there anyone there?”

  More twigs broke, then leaves were being shuffled, her heartbeat was beating so hard she felt it through her chest. “I have a gun!”

  Ceara realized she was doing little more than whispering, raising her voice just a bit, “Hello??”

  Whatever it was, it was getting closer, and she flipped the safety off and stood her ground. Knees shaking so bad she finally knelt down, it was no more the twenty feet away but in the dark and wooded, she still couldn’t see anything.

  Suddenly it was there! A huge thing coming right at her!! Her finger tightened on the trigger but then she saw…”MAXIMUS!!! What the fuck??”

  The dog dropped something and lowered his head. “What do you have?”

  Ceara went over kneeling down she saw a rabbit, “Ok good dog, but damn it don’t scare me like that no more ok?”

  Kissing Maximus’ head as he grabbed up the rabbit and laid down by the fire to enjoy his meal.

  Eleven finally came and she crept over to Charlie, “Hey, Hey” shaking him gently. He woke with a jump, “It’s just me, it’s your turn to watch.”

  Charlie dreamed of walking through fields of flowers with the wind gently blowing on them. He could see birds soaring above in a blue sky with puffy white clouds. In the distance he saw his old school mates they were all just milling around. As he got closer they began to wave and call to him, though their voices were muffled. Walking along, the sky began to turn grey the clouds above him thickened, yet the kids ahead kept calling him. Suddenly he realized they were all dead, their voices were only moans of his name Chaarrrrllllieeee, Chaaaarrrrllllieeee, Charlie!!!

  He woke up sweat pouring off his body as he looked into Ceara’s eyes; she was telling him it was his turn. Sitting up he looked around to make sure his dream had been just that. “Yeah….. okay…… Yeah, my turn,” he said.

  Ceara looked at him with soft eyes, “bad dreams Charlie?”

  “Yeah, they always start out fine but end up in this dark grey world full of those monsters.”

  He slipped out of the sleeping bag and picked up his crossbow. Looking at Ceara he smiled weakly, “I got another sleeping bag in my van, not as good as this one but at least it’s dry.”

  Ceara smiled, feeling the inside of the bag. It was damp from Charlie’s sweat and with night chill coming on she opted for his offer. The two walked over and Charlie took out an old sleeping bag and a couple of blankets. “Here this will keep you warm.”

  Ceara smiled at him, “Charlie you’re a true gentleman” she kissed his cheek, “Thank you.

  Charlie walked her back over to the camp and watched as she climbed in the sleeping bag then placed a blanket over her. He turned and went to sit by the fire. An hour had passed and the cold from the spring night air was getting to him. Charlie got up and walked to the edge of the woods away from the fire but not far, relieving himself in the bushes, he let out a sigh and turned to get a coat from his van. Opening the door, the dome light came on and he quickly grabbed a leather bomber jacket and a small box of animal crackers. Shutting the door he returned to the fire and began playing with it. Pushing the logs around causing sparks to fly up. He grabbed a nice log and placed it in the fire. Suddenly another log popped and sparks flew out one landed on his hand, “OUCH , SHIT SON OF A BITCH!!!”

  He bit down on the sleeve of his coat to k
eep his voice down. Looking at his watch he saw he still had about a half hour. He started another pot of coffee which was steaming within five minutes. Charlie poured a cup and almost spilled it as a hand came down on his shoulder. “Thanks son I need that.”

  Charlie jumped as he turned there stood Alden. “With the amount of noise you two kids have been making and you pissing in the woods, I might as well take over.”

  Charlie handed the cup to him, “Damn I’m sorry boss, I didn’t mean to be so loud it’s just the sparks flew and caught me off guard.”

  Alden smiled, “It’s okay kid. Go grab some sack time I got this.”

  Alden watched as Charlie put his bag next to Ceara’s. Smiling, he sat by the fire sipping the coffee. He looked up to the stars above as an owl hooted off in the distance. At his age being up in the middle of the night was not uncommon any more. He used to refer to it as “the curse”… from being in the service and having to stand watch in faraway unfriendly countries. He couldn’t really remember when the last time he had gotten a good night sleep.

  The deadhead’s had screwed everything up that he knew and loved. His plans of retiring quietly on his little mountain had gone to shit. He had wanted to be able to just sit on his porch and watch the world go by.

  Sighing deeply he watched as a star shot across the sky. He then heard Tabitha turn in her bag then watched as Ceara snuggled deeper in her bag. Charlie was buried deep in his own bag. “Damn here I am over fifty, grey haired, and single, taking care of a bunch of kids who somehow, some way managed to get their asses to the same place as me without getting bit, raped or mugged.”

  Deep down, he was very impressed with his new found friends. He knew with all the chaos it took a little luck but a whole lot of smarts to get to where they were all at.

  Hearing the bushes move behind him he never even turned but simply whispered, “Come here boy.”

  Tonto walked over and laid his head in Alden’s lap to get his ears scratched, “You know boy, we got to take care of them kids now. They’re our responsibility.”