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

by Allensworth, Audra

As Ceara walked out, Colt looked to Beth, “You know I didn’t mean to get Maximus shot don’t you?”

  “Colt, she’s very young and you know as well as I do, that things now have changed. We know what it is like to lose people. Well, Maximus to Ceara would be the equivalent to her baby or something along those lines. I know that you didn’t mean it and somewhere down the road Ceara will more than likely know it too. Right now though, all you can do is be kind and give her some space. Woman are like that.”

  That statement was not far from the truth, cause Colt had really pissed Beth off before but after some time she eventually got over it and she knew that giving Ceara some time she too would. “In fact I bet she starts changing when Maximus starts getting better one day at a time. You see, time is all anyone of us has anymore and living day by day is just what it is, nothing more and certainly nothing less.”

  Colt took a drink of his coffee and wondered how long before he pissed Tabitha off too, he didn’t seem to be having much luck with the women of this group. “I know you’re right, but she seems to really think that I just waited to shoot the guy till I gave him time to shoot Maximus. Do you know how stupid that sounds? What really happened was… plain and simple I hesitated because I was shooting a living breathing man, not one of those monsters.”

  Colt grabbed his coffee cup wondering how to change the subject without being obvious, “So what was Ceara talking about, why does she want your clothes?”

  Just then there was a hammering from outside, Colt went to the door and saw Charlie stringing a clothes line. “You need any help?”

  Charlie waved, “Not just yet but I may in a little bit. Alden is with Tabitha putting up that antenna.”

  Colt waved back to him and turned back to Beth, “Is Ceara doing laundry?”

  “Yep!” Beth quickly got up and headed off to her room. She had several dirty cloths and did not want to waste the chance to get them washed. Quickly she grabbed them from out of her duffel bag and the pair of pants that she had laid over the bottom of the bed. After having a tight grasp on them she hurried out of her room, past Colt and when she got to the back door she looked back smiling, “Hey, I am not wasting the opportunity to get me some clean cloths cause if I don’t well, these funky things might just grow a set of legs and run, not walk, away on their own!”

  Turning Beth went outside while saying, “Scrub a dub dub here I come!!”

  Colt laughed but then realized that he would need to wash his own clothes soon too. With Ceara the way she was Colt thought it better to do just like Beth said and give her some space. He would do his own laundry tomorrow.

  “WHAT THE HELL!!! WHERE IS MY GODDAMN COFFEE??”

  Colt jumped “Shit!”

  Alden was back; he set his cup down and grabbed the pot heading out the door. Just as he got to the fire Alden glared at him, “Boy, let’s get this rule set real fast… NO ONE and I do mean no one fucks with my coffee. Don’t clean the pot, don’t drink the last cup without fixing more and you damn sure don’t fucking walk off with the pot! Unless you are delivering it to me!”

  Alden grabbed the pot from Colt. “This here is what is called lifers juice. It flows through my veins and if you fuck with a man’s lifers juice you may just lose your life! Do you got me?”

  Colt looked at him, “Kind of hard to not get you on that one, I didn’t plan on it being gone as long as it was, Beth, Ceara, and I were talking. Next time I will make sure I bring it right back.”

  Alden took a drink and seemed to relax, “Well if you ain’t got anything better to do than talk, I can use some help with the antenna.”

  “Sure, what can I do to help?”

  Alden walked back to his cabin with Colt, “As I said earlier, I’m a little too old to be climbing up and down off of roofs. So I need you to get up there and fasten the pole to the side using these clamps, with this hammer and these nails.”

  Handing him a large hammer and some nails he watched as Colt walked over the side of the cabin. Turning to Alden, “And just how am I supposed to get up there?”

  Tabitha looked over the edge at him as Alden answered, “Well dumb-ass, I could give you a boot and just kick your ass up there.”

  Tabitha broke in laughing, “Or you can go around back and use the ladder we found.”

  Alden looked up at Tabitha and raised his coffee cup in a toast, “Yeah I guess there is that option too.” He gave her a wink as he saw Colt head around back.

  As Colt came over the roof to where Tabitha was he looked down at Alden, looking to Tabitha he asked, “Do you know how bad I want to just piss on him right now?”

  She looked at him with a frown, “Bad idea. He may not want to climb up here but you do that and I expect that old man down there would either, A, Throw a rock and knock you off this roof, or B, you’ll be living up here for the duration.”

  Colt looked at her and the two began to laugh. The voice from below broke up the chuckles, “You know I would like to try that radio out sometime before I retire.”

  Colt laid down on the roof and wrapped the clamp around pipe. Fastening it took only a couple of minutes. Alden began to hand up more poles as Colt and Tabitha put them together. Colt knew when he was handed the third piece not to ask Alden how to do it; he simply walked to the back of the cabin and pulled the step ladder up on the roof. Working as a team the antenna was up in no time. Tabitha listened as Alden explained how to connect the wire to the last pole.

  As Colt put it on he saw that the tip was almost level with the tree tops. Colt turned and looked off into the distance. He could see a lot from up this high. He was admiring the beauty of the land when it caught his eye. There on the other side of the creek he could see one of the dead just wandering around lost. It walked one way then turned walked to the edge of the creek and turned away. He looked down to Tabitha who was watching him, “It’s one of them… A monster, he’s just like wandering around.”

  Alden was watching the two of them, “What’s the holdup? Is the view that nice from up there? What do you see girls in bikinis somewhere?”

  Colt called back and pointed in the direction he was looking, “No it’s one of them, just wandering.”

  Alden turned and looked, “Wanderer huh? Okay, you guys come down, I’ll be right back.” He gave a whistle and Tonto came from out of nowhere running up and sitting next to him. His ears were perked up and his chest was spread wide. Tonto’s marking were beautiful when he sat like that Tabitha thought. Alden walked into his cabin and came back with a large bowie knife. “C’mon boy, let’s go hunting.”

  Tonto followed Alden was they took off towards the creek. Colt stayed on the ladder watching Alden move through the woods. Looking down to Tabitha, “I swear if I didn’t know better I’d say that man is dead. He moves like a Ghost, he barley touches the bushes as he goes by them.”

  He watched till he saw Alden reach the creek. The wanderer was still just walking around till it saw Alden and came towards him. Tabitha called up, “What’s happening? What’s he doing?”

  Colt glanced down to her and then found Alden again, “He’s about to… never mind, he just stabbed the wanderer right between the eyes. Man, that guy is good.”

  Colt climbed down as Tabitha steadied the ladder. She smiled at him, “And you wanted to piss on him?”

  Colt smiled, “Hey, we all get silly thoughts sometimes.” By the time Alden returned they had both got down off the roof and Colt had put the ladder back by the shed.

  Alden walked up “Let’s see if we can get this thing working.”

  Charlie had the tub ready and showed Ceara how to scrub the clothes on the washboard and set them off to the side. “Just set them off to the side and once you are done washing we can take them down to the river to rinse them out.”

  Ceara dumped a little Tide and hydrogen peroxide in the tub and started washing the clothes. The shirts were easy and came cleaner than she would have believed; each one got wrung out and thrown into the second bucket. She soon realized th
at she should have done the jeans first, after the first pair her arms were killing her trying to get the blood out. Ceara finally decided she got them as clean as she could and tossed them in the bucket too. Beth’s clothes were next, “Jeans first Ceara!”

  As she got them dumped in the now cold water she saw Alden heading to the woods, she looked to Charlie “What’s up? I thought he told us not to go anywhere alone?”

  Charlie pointed to Alden, “He isn’t, Tonto is with him.”

  Ceara smirked, “Why do I think he wouldn’t buy that story from me if I said I had Maximus was with me?”

  Charlie grinned and started with the clothesline again, “Not quite the same thing and you know it. Tonto is a trained military dog, you don’t even know if Maximus is housebroken.” Ceara stuck her tongue out at Charlie and he laughed.

  About thirty minutes later Ceara was done with the clothes and asked Charlie to carry the tub down to the river so she could rinse all of them out. Charlie lifted the tub, “Damn this is heavy!”

  “Well goof, it IS a bunch of wet clothes!” As they made their way down to the river Alden and Tonto came out of the woods, Ceara looked at bloody knife, “Do we have trouble?”

  Alden shook his head, “Not now, I had to take out a wanderer down by the river. Colt spotted him from the roof.”

  Ceara cocked her head to the side, “Wanderer?”

  “Yeah, Colt said he looked like he was just wandering, seemed to fit.”

  Charlie strained holding the tub, “I don’t care what we call them, can we get this down by the bank so I can put it down?”

  Alden looked at both of them, “Where is your weapon?” Ceara smiled and pulled a gun out from the back of her pants. “Right here!”

  Alden smiled and handed her the bowie knife, “Use that, we don’t need the noise bringing company.”

  Ceara looked at it then back to Alden, “I don’t think I can use this.”

  “I wasn’t giving it for you to use, give it to Charlie once you get down there. I assumed he was carrying enough.”

  Ceara blushed, “Oh ok!” Alden patted Charlie on the shoulder, “You two don’t stay down there too long and keep your eyes open, that wanderer may not have been the only one. Tonto checked the area but that doesn’t mean they won’t appear.” Charlie agreed and led Ceara down to the river.

  Charlie set the tub down by the bank and let out a sigh of relief. His arms were aching from the weight of the wet clothes. Taking a pair of jeans out he laid them out over a shallow spot where the water was flowing somewhat fast over rocks. “The suds flowed out quickly and he turned the jeans over. “This going to work great, so honey you want rinse or wring?”

  Ceara smiled at him, “your already wet honey…. I’ll wring besides your arms are tired from carrying the bucket down and you still have to carry it back up.”

  Charlie looked at her puzzled and tossed the jeans to her. Taking another pair he bent down and began to rinse them. “Err Ceara can I ask you a question?”

  Ceara looked to him as she twisted the jeans, “Sure, what’s up?”

  Laying the next pair in the grass he stood and looked at her, “Earlier today you kissed me, on the cheek, and …. uh I was just wondering why? Please don’t think I’m stupid or anything but…. Well I’ve haven’t been around a whole lot of girls.”

  Ceara got a concerned and worried look, but tried to hide it. Tossing the jeans to the side she reached for the second pair. She was trying to figure out if he was mad or just didn’t like it. “Well ummm, after you kissed me when I was leaving for town with Alden, I just kind of thought it was ok. Should I stop? I didn’t mean to make you mad.”

  Charlie blushed as she finished, “uh.. no no, I just….” He set the next pair down and walked out of the stream and up to her. Looking at his feet he could feel his face turning beet red and his heart racing. Taking her hand he remembered something Mr. Davidson told him, “Stand tall and ask a question. Never be afraid of the answer.”

  Charlie gently lifted her chin up and looked her in the eyes, “I want you…. Well wait a minute.” He tried to find the words but every time he started the words got jumbled up in his mind taking a deep breath, “Would it be okay if I called you my girlfriend.” He let out a breath and waited for the answer.

  Ceara giggled, but quickly stopped when she saw his face, “Charlie I’m not laughing at you, I promise, I just think everyone here already knows we like each other. I mean for God’s sakes Alden brought us Trojans!” She smiled at him, “I would be very happy to be called your girlfriend.”

  It was Charlie’s turn; he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on her lips, then went back to rinsing the clothes. He finished the jeans and the rest went quicker. He tried to hide his embarrassment when he reached the women’s undergarments. He squeezed them quickly. He tossed them gently on the grass except for the last one. Holding a thong he walked out of the creek, “Okay another silly question, How in the hell do these work? I mean there ain’t nothing here.”

  Ceara jerked them away, “CHARLIE!!” She was beet red… “They just work, ok? Besides I heard men love to see women in them. It’s amazing what we women do to impress men.”

  She was trying to change the subject because they were her panties and her dad asked her the very same question just last year. She had gotten just as embarrassed then too. “Are we all done? How are we going to hang them on that clothes line?”

  Charlie smiled he knew he had touched a nerve. Placing the clothes in the tub he picked it up and with a grunt started towards the cabins. Ceara looked at him, “You know Charlie that tub has two handles.”

  He stopped and looked at her. Ceara set the bowie knife on top of the tub and took hold of one of the handles while Charlie grabbed the other. They started walking and Ceara turned and smiled, “My God this thing is heavy I should’ve kept mouth shut.”

  Ceara smiled as she watched all the clothes waving in the breeze. She knew it would take them overnight to dry but this time tomorrow she would have nice clean clothes. Glancing around she noticed how much this was really becoming home.

  Alden walked out of the back cabin, looked at Ceara watching the clothes and smiled, “It’s a beautiful day to be alive ain’t it.” he turned towards the side where the antenna stood and wrapped a piece of wire onto the pole then attached the other end to a small copper rod and pushed it into the ground. As he came back he walked over to Ceara, “I was thinking this morning on watch, we need to have a plan for rendezvous in case we get over run. I know we haven’t had a big attack since the parking lot scene but that don’t mean it won’t happen again.”

  Charlie walked out with a glass of water in his hand wearing a black tee shirt and a pair of shorts with sandals. “So what’s up Boss?”

  Alden looked at him and scowled, “What troop, do you think we’re all on vacation here anymore? How you going to do your duties wearing your open toed Lebanese tennis shoes.”

  Charlie looked down quickly at his feet as Ceara saw Alden wink at her and began to giggle. Charlie looked up and Alden’s face was stern again.

  He looked at Ceara then back to Alden, “Okay, Really? I just hauled a hundred pounds of wet clothes, some of them yours I might add down to the creek and back, and you want to bitch about me doing more?”

  Alden glared at him, “Yeah I do, your next task is to get those two lawn chairs and set them up under the tree over yonder.” He pointed at a willow near the shed. “Then get this young woman a glass of water and serve it to her and sit down and keep her company till these clothes are dry.” He turned in a snappy military manner, winked once more at Ceara and marched away.

  Ceara giggled looking to Charlie, “Yes honey, water would be very nice, and I’ll grab the chairs if you want to meet me over there. Hey Alden!”

  Alden turned to look at her, “Your idea of a rendezvous point is really good but don’t you think we should all talk about it as a group? I don’t really have any idea where we would pick.”

  Cha
rlie walked back out with two glasses of water and looked Ceara, “Woman those chairs aren’t moving themselves.”

  She snickered, looking at Alden, “Let a man claim you as his girlfriend and he just gets demanding.”

  Alden smiled, “I didn’t hear you complaining.”

  Ceara went over and kissed Charlie, “Nope, no complaints here.” She grabbed the two chairs and took them to the tree and sat waiting on Charlie to join her.

  Charlie had overheard Alden and grabbed the map of the park on his way out. He handed the glass of water to Ceara and sat down next to her. “I heard what Alden said so I thought we could look at this map I got of the park.”

  Taking a sip he then unfolded it and laid it out on the grass in front of them. Ceara leaned over and looked at the map; she could see three other campsites within five to ten miles. “I think the other campsites should be out, we will never know if they are occupied by the time we might need them.”

  Beth was getting dressed after taking a quick shower. For the first time she was actually starting to relax a bit. However, she was so regimented that she needed to start a new routine. Instead of getting food ready to eat or going to work Beth had to change things up a bit. At the foot of her bed she laid her Beretta down and went over to her bags that carried her ammo.

  Each day for now she would make sure that her gear would be prepared the night before, including the cleaning and reloading of her clips. She wondered while she sat on the bed if things would ever get back to normal but fortunately she was pretty happy at the people that she had met.

  Suddenly there was a sound emanating from the front of her cabin and Beth realized that she needed to check on Maximus. Quickly she stood and tucked her Beretta in the back of her pants then went out to see that Maximus was awake.

  Surprisingly he had begun licking his wound which was a very good sign. While watching this, Beth made her way over to the kitchen sink and grabbed a clean bowl that had been washed, filling it with cool water. After turning off the tap Beth turned around and Maximus’s head raised straight up and his tail began hitting the floor. Putting the bowl of water in front of Maximus, Beth squatted down and began scratching his behind his ears.