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

by Allensworth, Audra

  Colt walked out of the cabin stretching looking at the morning sun, then to the fire. “Morning Alden…”

  Alden lifted his cup as a way to say morning, Colt joined him by the fire and got his own cup and filled it. “You know I would give my eyeteeth for a good old fashioned breakfast. You know, toast, bacon and eggs in a little Mom and pop restaurant being waited on by a cute little blond.”

  Alden smiled, “Yeah, strange how our fantasies change.” Colt laughed and they fell into a silence just drinking their coffee.

  Chapter 7 – Enemies Beware

  Ceara got up early to take a shower so Charlie would be able to take one when he got up. The water was just warming up from the generator but it was good enough for a quick shower. Alden had told them the generator would only be run for a few hours in the morning to conserve what remained of the gas.

  Once she was dressed and her hair brushed out she went to Charlie’s door knocking gently, “Baby…. Are you up?”

  They had the second watch the night before and she knew he was tired but they all had chores to do. Ceara knocked again and cracked the door, she could see his bed and it was empty. Shrugging her shoulders she figured he was outside with Alden, turning to go outside herself. She hadn’t gotten two steps before she was grabbed from behind, her mouth covered and blade at her throat. “Keep your mouth shut and you might not die, your boyfriend over there didn’t put up much of a fight!”

  Ceara’s eyes darted to the living room and saw Charlie crumbled on the floor, she started struggling to get away. The man hissed in her ear, “I will kill you! I killed your dog, don’t think I won’t slit your throat! Sit still!!”

  Ceara calmed and started looking around, how could she let the others know what was going on? She couldn’t tell if he was alone or if others were out in the woods waiting on him. She couldn’t risk everyone getting attacked. The guy felt her relax, “You going to keep your mouth shut?”

  Ceara nodded, he released his hand on her mouth. “Is Charlie alive?”

  The guy laughed, “Not real sure on that one. We are going out the front, you people all seem to meet out back every day so I got another hour before they even notice you are gone.”

  He started toward the door forcing Ceara to go with him. “What do you want?”

  The guy kept moving, “Morris wants your supplies, and that truck over there is full and we know it.”

  Ceara looked at Alden’s truck, “But why not just take it?”

  “The old man you guys got with you has already killed enough of us; we are trading you for it.”

  Beth had just walked out of the bathroom and noticed that Maximus was growling a very low guttural growl. Noticing that he was trying to get up and look out the window Beth looked down at him, “What is it Max? Settle down, let me take a look.”

  Just as Beth moved the curtain she saw some brut holding Ceara by knifepoint and walking towards the woods. Quickly she assessed the situation. She didn’t dare make noise because that would be very dangerous for Ceara but she had to try and get the attention of others. Quickly she heard Alden’s deep distinguished laugh coming from out back. Squatting down Beth whispered to Max, “You stay still. I will go get help but you got to be quiet.”

  Maximus’ ears went back and he whimpered softly. Still in the squatting position Beth made her way to the back door where she had heard Alden. When she got to the door she slowly rose to her feet and looked back towards Maximus. He was laying there and his whimper now turned to a growl once more. Beth looked out the window above Max and she could see the man and Ceara getting closer to the tree line.

  Wasting no time Beth turned the doorknob and opened it slowly. Alden and Colt were enjoying the morning and before Beth could alert the two of them Alden looked over to Beth. Beth placed her finger up to her mouth then whispered to Alden, “We got company and he has got Ceara out by the tree line out front and by the looks of it he is kidnapping her.”

  Alden got up quickly and mouthed the words to Colt, “Go check on Charlie,” he pointed to Charlie’s and Ceara’s cabin. Just then he heard a crash of glass breaking and Maximus barking. Maximus had recognized the man who shot him and saw Ceara in trouble. Max had backed up and leaped through the glass rolling on the ground he was up quickly and running towards them. The man spun with Ceara, his eyes wide as he saw the Maximus, “FUCK!”

  Ceara was standing still with the knife to her throat she dared not move and was scared the man was going to just kill her then try again to kill Maximus. Suddenly from their right she heard the growl. The man began to turn but it was too late. Tonto leapt and drug him to the ground with his arm pulling the knife away from Ceara’s throat. She was struggling to keep her feet and drove her heel into the man’s ankle just as Maximus arrived and tore into the man’s other arm. Alden was moving like the wind and was upon them all quickly grabbing Ceara by the waist and lifting then turning and almost tossing her out of the way, “THROAT!!” he yelled and Tonto immediately released the arm and had the man’s throat in his powerful jaws.

  Alden knelt down and gently petted Maximus, “Let it go boy, let it go,” he pulled on Maximus’s collar. Maximus was still biting and clamping down on the arm. Alden gave a forceful tug on the collar,” LET IT GO.”

  Maximus reluctantly let go as Ceara reached down and took hold of him. Then Tabitha and Beth came running from behind the cabins as Alden looked down to the guy and pulled at the man’s long black hair. He slid his combat knife out and placed it at the edge of the man’s scalp. “I’m going to ask you some questions. Your first response will either be nothing, and I kill you or you will tell me and your friends will kill you. One of those choices is unacceptable and to show you how unacceptable that is…” He stopped talking and cut four inches of hair right at the scalp. This is what I will do to you if I think you’re bullshitting me.”

  Ceara couldn’t believe what Alden was doing but the trickle of blood on her throat stopped her from worrying about the man. She turned running to her cabin with Maximus on her heels, “CHARLIE!!”

  She burst through the door just as Colt was putting a wet rag on Charlie’s head. “You’re ok!?”

  Colt had him on the couch and Charlie tried to get up but Colt held him down, “Man, you got a pretty good gash on your head, stay put!”

  Ceara knelt on the floor in front of him; Charlie reached out touching the drying blood on her throat, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happen.”

  “It don’t matter now, Alden has the guy outside. Let me see your head.” Charlie leaned down and Colt lifted the rag, Ceara cringed, “That’s bad Charlie! You may need stitches!”

  Colt shook his head, “Bad, yes but it looks worse than it is. Look…” He sat Charlie back and motioned for Ceara to come around the couch. When she was in a good spot Colt refolded the rag to a clean spot and dabbed the spot earning a groan from Charlie. “See look” He had cleaned the fresh blood off and Ceara could see it wasn’t as bad as she thought.

  Maximus was where Charlie had fallen and was sniffing around still growling. Charlie looked from Maximus to Ceara, “What happen?” She quickly told both Colt and Charlie everything.

  Beth looked over to Tabitha, “I am going to go check on Maximus and see what’s going on inside.”

  Tabitha looked over at Alden, she so wanted in on the action. “No problem Beth. You go do what you do best and I will stay right here with Alden and this piece of shit!”

  Beth immediately went inside and saw Charlie sitting up on the couch. She did not interrupt Ceara while she was telling her story. Instead Beth made her way over to the couch and knelt down in front of Charlie. “Charlie, I need you to follow my finger.”

  Putting her index finger in front of the bridge of Charlie’s nose she slowly moved it right to left then repeated it. His right eye was dilated which was to be expected because from the looks of where the wound was on his head it would make sense. “I need you to sit still and Colt will keep you company while I fix this.”
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  Ceara looked up at Beth and spoke to her nervously while Beth went over to get one of the first aid kits, “It didn’t look that bad…… is he going to be ok?? I hope Alden kills that son of a bitch!”

  Beth picked up the kit then made her way back to where she had been before when she had examined Charlie. Beth calmly spoke as she opened the kit and retrieved gauze wrapping, tape, scissors and triple antibiotic cream, “Ceara, Charlie here is going to be fine. By looking at his wound along with his one eye it’s apparent that Charlie here has a small concussion. The reason that it looks as if there is so much blood is that head wounds bleed a lot because there is several blood vessels and arteries right close to the skin.”

  Beth then put on a pair of rubber gloves and started cleaning the wound carefully. “DAMN THAT HURTS!”, Charlie yelled as he winced in pain.

  Beth blew softly across the wound to dry it from the peroxide. “Charlie, it’s alright sweetie…. I am almost finished.” In fact, she was finished, for after Beth had said those words she quickly put triple antibiotic cream on it and then wrapped his head in gauze then taped it off. “Now Charlie, I need you to listen to me carefully. I can’t give you any aspirin because that will thin your blood and we can’t have that but I can give you a couple of Tylenol which will help a little.”

  Beth stood up and went over to the kitchen sink where she got a glass of water and then made her way over to the couch. After handing the glass to Charlie to hold Beth looked in the first aid kit and found several packets of Tylenol. She ripped one of them open and said, “Here you go, hold out your hand and take these. Drink your water slowly and just relax here for a while. Maximus can keep you company if that would be ok with Ceara.”

  Beth stood up once more and carried the first aid kit over to the table then came back where she sat down beside Colt. However just as soon as she sat down she remembered hearing Ceara tell the guys about how her assailant cut her. Beth leaned forward and gently touched Ceara’s chin, “Ceara let me have a better look.”

  Ceara quickly put her head back and Beth looked forward then up with her eyes. “That needs to be cleaned and you get to have the same treatment as Charlie.”

  Beth got up once more and brought the first aid kit back with her and then began to work on Ceara’s wound. Ceara had much of the same reaction with her face when the peroxide had been applied but she didn’t yell like Charlie had done. Instead of the gauze, Beth got a pretty good sized band aid and after putting the ointment on Ceara’s wound Beth then applied the band aid. Beth placed her hands on Ceara’s knees, “Now you both have war wounds and stories to tell everyone.”

  That brought a smile to Ceara’s face and Beth looked back at Colt who was looking at Charlie with a very concerned look. Charlie looked as though he had been in a bad street fight and with all of the pain he was in managed to muster up a small smile. “Ya, I can honestly say I didn’t get the license plate number off that truck!”

  Beth stood up and sat down beside Colt and place her hand on his knee, “Colt?! Hey, he’s ok, she’s ok and Maximus is ok. Now you relax and you will be ok.”

  Colt looked to both Ceara and Charlie, then to Beth, “I know you are right, Alden and Tabitha are out there alone so I am going to head out and make sure they don’t need help.”

  Charlie tried to stand but a wave of nausea and dizziness hit him. Beth stood up, “Charlie you stretch out here, Ceara don’t let him go to sleep, if he tries to then do something to wake him up. With a possible concussion he may not wake back up.”

  Beth didn’t want to scare Ceara, but she had to know not to let Charlie go to sleep. Beth turned with Colt, “I’ll go out with you.”

  When both of them went out the door Beth looked over to see that Alden had the man in a death lock and Tabitha was standing above them with her arms crossed with a smirk on her face. Tabitha looked up and saw both of them coming over and Tabitha put her hand up, “You guys might wanna stay out of the way because Alden’s giving our boy here a haircut and I wouldn’t want anything to get on you guys.”

  Beth looked down and saw exactly what Alden was doing and after seeing what Charlie’s head wound was; Alden’s ‘haircut’ made Charlie’s injuries look like a paper cut.

  The blood poured down the man’s face Alden held his head tight and Tonto’s teeth put pressure on the throat. “Now that we have an understanding you will answer simple questions by blinking once for yes and twice for no. Got it?” The man blinked once.

  “Are there more than ten of you?” Again he blinked once.

  “More than thirty?” He blinked once.

  “Forty?” He blinked twice. The tears coming down were mixing with the blood. They could see the fear in his eyes. “Any children?” The man blinked twice.

  “Women”, he blinked once.

  “Using your hand how many women?”

  The man hesitated and Alden placed the blade against his hair once more. The man’s hand stretched out and he showed five fingers then two. Alden looked at Tonto, “Hold.”

  He got up and walked to Ceara and Charlie’s cabin. Walking in he saw Charlie sitting on the couch, “You alright son?”

  Charlie looked up weakly, “Yeah I think so. He knocked on the door real light I answered and he hit me before I knew who or what was happening. I went down and he kicked me in the head a couple of times and I went out.”

  Charlie looked at Ceara, “I am so sorry I didn’t protect you.”

  Alden spoke up, “It ain’t your fault. You were ambushed.”

  “Ceara I need to know what he said to you.” Ceara told him what happened and how the man had said his leader wanted his truck and everything in it.

  Alden gave Charlie’s shoulder a squeeze and turned to leave Ceara spoke up, “The leader’s name is Morris. At least that’s what the guy said.”

  Alden looked at her and smiled, “Take care of your man. We’ll take out the garbage.” He turned and walked out the door.

  Ceara watched as Alden walked out, then turned to Charlie trying to smile. “Charlie if you tell me you are sorry one more time you will have another knot on your head.”

  Charlie didn’t smile but looked to the floor, “It is my job, I asked you to be my girlfriend and I let you get attacked.”

  Ceara plopped down on the couch beside him, “I was attacked but so were you, don’t you go being a male chauvinist on me! I wasn’t there for you either! Hell, I didn’t even hear you hit the floor, what’s that say about your choice in girlfriends?”

  Charlie finally grinned, “Well my choices were a bit slim.” Ceara punched him in the arm, “You are so lucky I don’t know your middle name! I would so be using that right now.”

  Tonto still had the man’s neck clenched between his teeth and Tabitha wanted to get some information out of him. So Tabitha took up right where Alden left off but instead of a knife Tabitha pulled her gun out of the back of her pants and pointed it directly at the man’s temple. “Listen here you no good piece of fucking goddamn shit!! Answer MY questions the same, blink once for yes, twice for no. GOT IT?!” The man quickly blinked once.

  “Is your fucking camp close to ours?” The man blinked once then. Remembering what Alden had him do with the idiots fingers Tabitha quickly changed the position of the gun and shoved it right between his legs. “Show of fingers and my finger won’t get an itchy trigger finger… how many miles we talking?!”

  The man smacked the ground with all five of his fingers down. Tabitha looked at his hand then looked back at him, “Five miles?” The man blinked once and held his eyes shut then opened them wide. Wiggling the gun between his legs Tabitha said, “Well it doesn’t feel like you got much to lose down there fella.”

  Just then the man got all pissed and started to move and Tonto bore down on his throat and was growling loudly. Tabitha then shoved the gun right into the man’s groin and nodded her head in a west direction, “Is it towards that way?” The man blinked twice and Tabitha began to get pissed, “Alright fucktard! The di
rection that you were headed with my friend tells me that was the right fucking direction now am I right?”

  The guy looked up at her like he was trying to spit in her face and Tabitha said to Tonto, “HARDER!”

  Tonto bore down and this time he drew blood and the man blinked once sharply with his eye lids. Tabitha then stood up and walked back behind the heaping pile of pig shit. Just then Tabitha heard Alden coming and she looked over her shoulder, “Alden, the camp is five miles in that direction”, she said while pointing of towards the west.

  Colt watched as Tabitha got the info from the guy wondering just how far she would go, part of him wanted to kick the shit out of the guy for even entering their camp. He really wanted to kill the guy because this was the second time, first time the guy would have shot him if it weren’t for Maximus.

  As Alden walked up and Tabitha told him everything she had found out about, Colt looked into the woods, “I think he’s lying, he has the balls to come here twice, or he is a gopher that better do what he is told. Either way, he knows if he tells where the camp really is he is going to die.”

  Colt pointed to the first direction Tabitha had asked the man about, “He answered really quick with no on that direction, I’m betting it’s there.” He smiled just a little, “But do think she got the right distance out of him. You have to give him credit if he did lie with a gun barrel stuck in his crotch, not many of us could do that.”

  Alden walked to the truck and came back with a couple of zip ties in his hand. Grabbing the man’s hair again he pulled him to a sitting position as Tonto released his grip. Alden grabbed the man’s hands and zip tied them behind him. The man was gasping and sobbing, “I.. I’m sorry… I mean I ain’t like this. I didn’t want to do it.”

  Alden hit him so hard blood and teeth flew out as the man fell over. He pulled him back up and shoved an old rag in his mouth, “I really don’t fucking care what you were like. You tried to kidnap one of my friends and that really annoys me. Not to mention you beat up my son.”