Colt just watched as Beth shot the man, the woman had balls. Turning and firing again at some of the others, he thought they had to of dropped at least ten of them but there were still at least that many left. He could only hope the ones they heard the night before would come but he wasn’t so sure he believed it.
Chapter 7 - Saviors:
Ceara lifted one of the fish and looked at Alden wrinkling her nose, “I ain’t got no idea how to clean fish.”
Charlie laughed, “I’ll clean, if you cook.”
Ceara smiled dropping the fish, “DEAL”
She went to the fire to get the pan ready as Charlie started gutting the first fish. Alden watched as the kids worked together as a team. Charlie was doing a good job of cleaning the fish and filleting the larger ones; Tabitha had the canned milk and corn meal and was breading the fish then handing them to Ceara who was frying it all up in the skillet.
Alden kept one eye on the tree line knowing the wind was blowing to the southwest so he paid the most attention to that. The bad thing about frying fish has always been the smell. He grinned, thinking of the old adage about fish and guests after three days.
Getting up he got the good plates out and the real silverware he had kept. Ceara gave him a quizzical look. Smiling, “The odor of the fish will attract both deadheads and animals so we must take care tonight. Dishes will be done and I will throw the bones and guts and leftovers down into the stream so it takes it away from our camp.”
The group was soon sitting down and eating Alden watched as they devoured the fish. No one was talking, which did not surprise him. He knew that between last night and this morning, it was probably the first real home cooked meals any of them had had in a long time.
Soon they were done and he smiled as they all sat back. The small talk of how good it was started the conversations off. Alden got up and brought the coffee pot to the table and poured each one a cup. As he put the pot back down he watched as Tonto suddenly got up and walked slowly to the woods looking southeast Maximus had followed Tonto but he was growling lowly.
Alden walked back to the table as the kids were laughing and joking about Charlie holding a fish head and singing some old fish-head song from a music video from the eighties. He picked up his coffee and gave Tabitha a grin as he took a drink. His eyes were still watching the dogs. Tonto’s ears perked up and the hair rose down his back but still made no sound. Maximus on the other hand was growing louder. Alden reached down to his side and released the strap that held his large knife.
Ceara saw Maximus and Tonto, and then looked to Alden. The man was watching the trees where the dogs were. Maximus barked, “Maximus SHHH”
Ceara went to her dog, “What is it boy? Are they coming again?” She looked to Alden, “What’s going on?”
Alden gave a slight head shake and put a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet. Ceara went back to the table looking at both Tabitha and Charlie, “Do you think it’s more dead heads? He ain’t yelling at us so I don’t think that’s it.”
Neither Charlie nor Tabitha said a word, Tabitha was watching the trees and Charlie was watching Alden. Ceara didn’t know what to do but the gun shot that rang out made her jump. Charlie’s head turned quick towards the woods. “Holy shit Boss. What the fuck was that?”
Alden never looked at him he simply said, “a forty five would be my guess.”
Charlie looked to the girls who were now up and looking the same direction. “What, wha- what’ll we do.”
He looked at them and never saw Alden, who had turned and bolted to the van. The next thing Charlie knew Alden had some sort of short barreled machine gun and had thrown on some sort of combat web vest.
The speed he used to get dressed made Charlie speak, “There ain’t no way that man’s as old as he looks.”
Charlie then ran to the van and grabbed the shot gun he had used earlier, along with a box of shells. He opened it and began to try and cram them into his pockets. Looking up to Alden, “I think I need to get me some of those baggy army pants I can’t carry shit in these.”
Alden grinned, “We’ll see what we can do about that later.”
Tabitha stacked the plates up quickly on the picnic table and then made her way over towards where Ceara was. “Ceara we will get all of this cleaned up later…while the guys are getting locked and loaded how about you and I use hand to hand combat.”
Giving Ceara a pat on the back trying let her know that she was enthused about what was about to transpire but she just couldn’t show it any better than that. Tabitha’s attention then became diverted after Alden opened the van and she saw something resembling a crow bar or something of that nature.
Nodding her head Tabitha made her way over to the van and grabbed the crow bar and a tire iron that she saw wedged underneath the driver’s seat. Turning around she looked carefully at both weapons then threw the crow bar at Ceara. “Here….catch! The one thing that I have learned about these choices is that we don’t have to reload AND they don’t make a hell of a racket!”
Ceara caught the crowbar and just looked at Tabitha, what the hell was she nuts? The girl was actually smiling. Ceara didn’t trust the enthusiasm Tabitha had, “Yeah umm but this means I have to let them get close, not so sure I’m okay with that.”
She walked over to the van and laid the bar down looking at Alden, barely speaking above a whisper, “Do you think I would survive fighting with this?”
“Sweetheart I’m surprised you’ve made this far, but no you being up close and personal with a deadhead if not a wise idea.”
Alden reached in and took out a short barrel combat shot gun with a 20 round drum. He attached the drum to the rifle. Looking to Ceara, “You pull this little lever back, which will chamber your first round now you simply need to pull the trigger each time to fire it. You have 20 rounds…. Don’t waste them.”
He turned to the group, “Okay here’s how we play this, Tonto will take point, I’ll be behind him.” He pointed at Ceara, “Cupcake two you’re behind me and Charlie you and leather britches there bring up the rear.”
He turned snapped his fingers and Tonto took off towards the sound of the shots with Maximus right behind barking and growling and Alden moving quickly behind them.
Tabitha rolled her eyes at the “leather britches” comment and smiled, “No guts…no glory and well as for your little comment there Grandpa, I make these ‘britches’ look good!”
Looking over at Charlie; Tabitha saw that he was loaded for bear. “Charlie, you keep an eye out, if you can’t pick off the closest ones, go for the ones farther out, I’ll get the ones that are within arm’s reach. I will just way lay the mother fuckers, so you don’t run out of ammo cause with Red up there I am kinda worried. She grabbed that gun a little too eager for my liking and she may not be stingy with her bullets. I’ve taken a few out up close and personal if you catch my drift and their melons pop like pimples if they’ve been dead a while.”
Tabitha was nervous but she wasn’t about to show cause she really did care about the others of the group. Charlie looked at her with suspicion. He really wasn’t as enthused about this as Tabitha was. “Look, if we find what I think we’re gonna find out there you just watch whose head you’re way laying with that thing.”
The two took off behind Ceara and Alden.
The path was covered with fallen branches and weeds, Ceara watched where Alden went and glanced back from time to time to make sure Charlie and Tabitha were still in sight. Turning back to watch Alden again she walked right through a spider web with the resident spider in the web.
Ceara dropped the gun screaming jumping waving her hands trying to get the spider off. “GET IT DAMN IT!!”
Maximus came running and barking sure that something was attacking his new owner. Alden spun around and watched for a moment as Ceara was doing some sort of tribal war dance.
Reaching he grabbed her shirt and pulled her to him placing his hand over her mouth. “You will shut the fuck up or I will h
og tie you to that fucking tree with that silly spider web.”
Maximus growled at Alden and he returned the growl, “I don’t need any of your shit either.”
Maximus stopped, cocked his head and looked at Alden. “We need to go and go now I won’t have Tonto running headlong into whatever is up there without me behind him. Remember the rule; that dog means more to me than any of you people. Now suck it up and let’s move.”
He let go of Ceara and bent down picking up her weapon and shoving into her chest. Looking her in the eyes one last time, “You stay focused this is not only your ass on the line but my dogs too!!”
He turned and bolted to catch up with Tonto almost at a full run as he heard more shots being fired.
Seeing Alden scold Ceara after her little tribal spider dance caused Tabitha to giggle a little, but then she remembered too; that she didn’t like spiders either. When Alden continued on Tabitha jogged up to Ceara and whispered in her ear, “Don’t let it get to ya, he just is this way when he hasn’t had his first cup of coffee and it may be that time of the month for him is all.”
Tabitha hoped that would help Ceara not feel so embarrassed. Charlie snickered as Ceara hit the web, “Girls”, he said shaking his head.
Tabitha hung back with Charlie once more bringing up the rear. Paying particular attention to where she walked Tabitha didn’t want to walk into a pot hole or trip over a log because that would just draw more unwanted attention. Just then she heard the gun fire getting louder and she almost immediately brought her head straight up and looked in the direction that the noise was coming from. Taking a few steps back and looking toward the right Tabitha could make out shadows and commotion from up ahead, “Hey Alden!! 1 o’clock, looks like we got company!”
Ceara looked to where Tabitha said and she could see several deadheads about hundred feet ahead, she was pretty sure that Alden had already seen them. Maximus and Tonto were both right with Alden and she was about ten feet behind them. Tabitha and Charlie were another ten from her. Alden waved her up and Ceara got up to him, he pointed out a tree, but then she saw what he was pointing at, there were two people there shooting. All Ceara thought was, “Great now we have to worry about being bit or shot.”
Charlie picked up the pace to catch up with Alden. The man may be old, crusty and hard but Charlie was sure that if any of them had any hope of getting through this, it all laid on that old man’s shoulders.
Catching up with the rest he dropped down to one knee and peered with through the brush. He saw a girl shoot one of the deadheads right through his jaw. “Damn that chick’s got balls.”
His eyes scanned the area around the two people, “Boss there’s a lot of them I count twenty but its hard cause the fuckers keep moving.”
Alden was crouched and had Tonto by the neck with Maximus at his side. Watching the whole thing unfold he cussed under his breath, “Fuck Fuck Fuck! They got them boxed in! The only thing is the deadheads don’t know it.”
Standing up he looked around to where he saw the least amount of deadheads, and then looked to the group. “Alright listen up. This is what we have, we can sneak out of here and leave them or we can try and save their asses what you want to do?”
The three young people all looked at each other; then at Alden and in unison spoke, “LIKE WE HAVE A CHOICE?”
Alden grinned “That’s what I thought… okay follow me. We’re going to flank the deadheads over this way and get them to turn to us. As they do, those folks over there will be able to escape. Ceara, your job is to go get them to come towards you. Fire three shots in the air. With that thing, I’m sure you’ll get their attention. Charlie, you and Tabitha follow me and the dogs. Tabitha your last, as soon as you can, I want you to turn and help Ceara. Charlie you stay with me and when I say peel, you cut and run back to the girls and get those people back to camp.”
The kids looked at him and Charlie spoke up, “What about you, boss?”
Alden grinned, “you don’t worry about me. Me and Tonto have been in this type of shit before.”
He looked to Ceara, “and you don’t worry, your dog’s smart, he’ll stick with us. Now is everybody ready?”
They all nodded. “The let’s kick off this Rodeo.”
He turned and pulled his 45 and fired three shot and three deadheads dropped. Ceara ran as soon as Alden fired the shots, jumping over logs and finding a large tree that she could somewhat hide behind. She stole a quick look and saw the people were trying to see where the new shots came from but at the same time still fending off the attackers.
Several of the dead heads were heading toward Alden; Maximus was helping draw the attention by barking. Whispering Ceara leaned a head on the tree, “Maximus please be ok after this.”
She spun around the tree and saw that the people had a good path; she fired the gun three shots and waved for them to come her way.
Colt heard the three shots and looked to Beth praying he wasn’t imagining the noise, “I think we may have allowed them to find us!”
Turning he fired at another monster as Beth took out a couple on her own. Several minutes later a three shot gun blast made them both look in Ceara’s direction, “Come on Beth!!”
He took off shooting as he ran toward the girl by the tree.
After hearing those three shots the adrenaline that was running through her veins caused Tabitha to think of nothing else but getting this quest done and getting the fuck back to camp. Stopping right in her spot, Tabitha saw the two people heading toward Ceara just like Alden had said they would. But out of the corner of her eye of to the right Tabitha noticed a couple of zombies going right at them.
Quickly Tabitha peeled off and came up from behind the one that was in the back and with one swipe of her tire iron she swung it right down the center of his head. She thought that was fairly easy but she noticed that retracting the iron was a bit difficult. Without thinking and while still having a death grip on the iron Tabitha raised her foot and used the zombie’s body as a wall she pushed off. Once the iron came out she then dashed over to the other one and swung at his head like it was a fastball. “Batter Up!!!” she yelled while she watched the body of the zombie hit the ground then made her way up behind the lady that was running beside the man.
Charlie watched as Ceara did her part first and got the new comers to move toward her. Firing two shots quickly he looked again and saw Tabitha turn and head to help Ceara, “damn” he said, “Fucking Alden has got this shit down.”
Turning he fired two more shots and took out three deadheads as two of them were so close they looked like one. Their heads had almost been side by side so the blast got half of each face. He watched Alden who was moving and shooting. He had the bulk of the dead heads were moving towards him now despite all of the other shots that had been fired. He watched as Alden fired then reloaded his clip as fast as lighting. Charlie could not believe how smooth his actions were. Charlie started to hold back making himself less and less visible to the deadheads till he was sure he could back track safely to the group and help the girls get back to camp.
Turning, he moved as quickly and low as he could back up the trail. It took only a couple of minutes and he could hear Tabitha and Ceara ahead talking to the new people. Charlie slowed and stood up he wanted to make damn sure Tabitha knew it was him before he came crashing through the trees. It was the new girl who saw him first, she screamed and he yelled just as Ceara turned and almost fired at him. “CUPCAKES DON’T SHOOT, ITS ME!!!!”
Ceara turned and leveled the gun at the deadhead the new girl had screamed over until she saw Charlie holding up his hand. “Damn Charlie I damn near shot you! Did you guys get’em all? Are we clear to head back to camp?”
Charlie nodded looking over his shoulder, “Pretty sure, Alden will bring up the rear like he does.”
They started walking back to the camp, Ceara turned to the two new people. The man seemed to be clean cut, well as much as he could be, his hair was dark brown with a little wave to it, med
ium built and not as tall as Charlie. He was covered in blood it was even in his hair. The girl had light brown hair and a very small build but she walked with a sort of self-confidence.
“Ok, so I guess you guys are cupcake four and five but my name is Ceara, this here is Charlie and the girl up there is Tabitha.”
Colt looked to each and pulled Beth closer to him, “I’m not trying to sound ungrateful for your help but… but this day in time I don’t just trust people just because they are willing to kill people.”
He looked around at all the carnage they left behind, “Seems to me you people are more than good at it.”
He walked Beth a few steps away from the group, “Look Beth, I ain’t so sure these are the kind we want to be around but I’m going to leave the choice up to you.”
Beth looked over his shoulder at the group, “Colt look, we are better in numbers and seems like they have some good numbers and weapons. I think we go and we can leave if we see anything we really just don’t like or trust.”
Colt nodded, he slid his hand into Beth’s as they rejoined the others. “Ok we are going with you, I’m Colt and this is Beth. Oh and thanks for the help, we were in a lot of trouble back there.”
Charlie stuck his hand out to Colt and shook it, “We ain’t as good as you think it’s just that we have a real good teacher. You’ll meet him soon enough he’s… he’s…”
Charlie looked to Ceara and Tabitha then continued. “Well he’s different.” he said with a smile; c’mon let’s get back to our camp we’ll all be a little safer there.”
Charlie took the lead and began to move cautiously back up the trail. Ceara looked at Tabitha, holding her gun up and waving it, “I’ll take the rear since I got the gun,”
Tabitha grinned, “Just don’t’ shoot Alden you know how he gets when we make a mistake.” Tabitha moved next to the new kids, “C’mon cupcakes.”
Alden moved quickly trying to keep Maximus in view, the last thing he wanted to do was to lose Ceara’s dog. They reached a clearing and Alden bolted across, turned and knelt when he reached the tree line and pulled Tonto next to him. Maximus did as he expected and joined him on his other side.
Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins Page 22