Surviving Day By Day (Book 2): Fears, Flames, and Future

by Allensworth, Audra

  Maximus was standing next to Tonto and looked at him, then Alden. Tonto just sat and watched, then got up and pushed Maximus toward Alden with his nose and sat back down. Maximus looked at Tonto, then to where Alden was walking away and ran after him slowing down as he reached his side. Alden reached down and petted him, “Good Dog, Good Max.” The two disappeared over the side of the hill.

  Chapter 12 – Pitching a Tent

  Everyone stood watching Alden walk off with Maximus; Colt turned to Heath “What’s up?”

  Heath looked over to where Alden disappeared, “You’re wasting daylight is what’s up, Alden is doing the same for Max, that I am doing for you guys. Just a bit of training, which is why he didn’t take Tonto with him, Tonto would try to do what Alden ordered.”

  Colt looked like he wanted to ask something else but ended up turning to follow the others to make a shelter. Charlie took charge, taking Alden’s words to heart Charlie didn’t speak if it wasn’t necessary, and then it was barely over a whisper. He motioned for everyone to gather around him.

  Tabitha rolled her eyes, “Altar boy, you take things too damn serious, this is just practice. We don’t really have to be quiet.”

  Ceara looked at Tabitha, “But Alden said….”

  Tabitha smirked, “Alden, shmalden… is he here to grade us? No, he is off playing in the woods. Anyway, why do we need to do this when we already know how to do it? Give me a damn objective that I will need to figure out. Until then, you boys and girls have fun kissing their asses, this girl don’t play that way.”

  Charlie took a deep breath, “Ok so do any of the rest of you want to go with her?”

  Ceara looked from the house to Charlie, “She does kinda have a point…..” Charlie’s look shut her up, “Well, I didn’t say I didn’t want to do it, just that she has a point.”

  Colt smiled, “Point or not, we are going to need to remember how to do this shit, and we have had cabins, now here we have a house. We haven’t had to make a shelter in a long time; honestly, I have yet to have to. Before I found the cabins I would just crash in my car, so to me, this is a good thing to learn.”

  Charlie nodded to Colt, “I agree, so let’s get going… any thoughts?”

  Beth looked around the land, “Heath said we can’t go in the house or our vehicles, right?”

  Charlie nodded and Beth got a small smile, “Well, he didn’t say anything about the shed did he?”

  She pointed across the yard to a large shed. Charlie lifted his head looking to where she pointed, “Yeah, but Heath said no matches and meant lighters too, so would he mean the shed too this time?”

  Colt started walking away, “Only one way to know.”

  He headed over to where Heath was sitting and just asked. Heath glanced over to the shed, “Yep, that’s up for grabs so use it if you can. I wouldn’t suggest breaking a lock if there is one, or your shelter better be Alden proof.”

  Colt laughed, “Good enough.”

  Colt rejoined the others, “Ok we can use the shed, I think that Charlie and Ceara should search it since they have been with Alden and sort of have a good idea of what a shelter should have. Beth and I will try to find a good location for it.”

  Tabitha went and joined Heath leaving them all staring at her. Tabitha, sat on the ground kicking out her legs crossing them at the ankles, “So what’s next, how to cook over an open fire?”

  Heath looked at her, “So you’re going to fail again aren’t you? One thing I have figured out about Shmalden… Is if I do what he says, when he says, I may live to see another day.”

  Tabitha sat back and thought about what Heath had said. She really didn’t give a rat’s ass about passing or failing any of his tests. Pulling her hair back and dropping it on her back Tabitha changed the way she was first looking at Heath and began speaking calmly, “Heath, I am sorry, ok? It is very apparent that I am not getting on your good side, and believe me I don’t want that. Now, as for me, I know how to do a lot of this shit. I grew up in the sticks, no one really ever wanted me around. I get your point on making a shelter and the other shit…. Don’t ya think that we could have a little fun doing it instead of being like, ‘You’re the weakest link, bye bye?’ or even hell like a challenge like they do on survivor? We are just burned out and we have bloodthirsty zombies out there wanting for us.”

  Tabitha looked at everyone and she smiled. “They may have something planned and I think I will go do this. I am sorry but damn man, can’t we try and have a little fun.”

  Heath shook his head laughing softly as Tabitha joined the others, “Damn women always got to add their two cents to tell you you’re doing it wrong.”

  Tabitha quickly jogged up behind Charlie and Ceara while they were on their way to the shed. “You guys need any help, because I do know a little about how to do what Heathy boy over there wants to do? Several nights after my parents would get into a knock down drag out fight I would go down by the rock quarries and whenever it was storming out, I had some stuff stored over in one of the makeshift rock caves to make me up a small shelter to keep me at least dry to some sort.”

  Ceara looked over to Charlie and then back to Tabitha, “Well I guess it wouldn’t hurt, I mean I sure as hell haven’t passed anything yet.”

  Tabitha went between the two and opened up the shed, “Well let’s see what we got in here. “She glanced around, “There’s whole hell of a lot of things to build a shelter.”

  Tabitha moved some boxes off of the top of this big blue thing that she thought was a tarp and when the boxes were moved she smiled, “Got it!”

  She pulled up the tarp and then looked over to Ceara and Charlie, “Now there are several things that a shelter has to be able to do. First of all it has to be able to protect you from all elements, wind, water…. You know, shit like that..”

  Tabitha picked up and replaced several things as she explained, “Well now, what we need is maybe some kind of wood, say some two by fours, or some crates, or something that we can use as walls so that not just one person but all of us can get under. Then we need some rope, twine, or something to secure the tarp around the structure so that the wind will not blow the damn thing away.”

  Charlie smiled, “I used to watch the show Survivor on TV, I saw how they made those things, damn it, what were they called?” He looked at Ceara and she smiled, “lean to.”

  “Yeah that’s it, a lean to. We take four poles, at least set two straight up and two come down each side on an angle. We can tie it off with our shoestrings if we have to.” Charlie turned and went to the woods to look for some fallen trees or big limbs.

  Colt led Beth a short ways into the wood, he looked back to Beth “Not real sure what we are looking for but with what Alden had set up in their camp before, the others will look for a tarp or blanket. So that means we need a clear area with maybe a tree or two.”

  Beth walked around surveying the area, “We can’t have trees that are too young but we don’t want really thick ones either.”

  Colt looked back to her, “Why wouldn’t we want that?”

  Beth laid her hand on one of the older trees, “We will have to tie off whatever we use, and we don’t know how much string or cords that they will be able to find.”

  Colt nodded, “Ok, that makes sense.” They continued walking for a bit looking here and there. Colt motioned for Beth to join him, “How about here? Look, there is a tree here and with this boulder we would have protection from the back without having to build it.”

  Beth looked the area over, the land was fairly flat, the sapling was a bit smaller than she would have wanted if this were real but this was practice and Colt was trying hard. The boulder was at least five feet high and another six or seven feet across. “Not bad, we just have to see what they found and see if it all works together.”

  Ceara kept looking for limbs like Tabitha and Charlie said but every time she found one, the damn thing was so rotted it fell apart in her hands. She was breaking a sweat and her hair was start
ing to annoy her, she kept feeling it tickling her cheek. She brushed it away once and not a minute later the other side started. Ceara went to brush it away but a large black hairy spider ran down her hand and then up her arm.

  “CHARLIE!!!” She began running through the woods flinging her arms around, screaming bloody murder. The spider headed up her sleeve causing her to start crying as she screamed.

  Tabitha grabbed Ceara’s arm pulling her to an abrupt halt, jerking Ceara’s shirt off and knocking the spider to the ground, stepping on it. She shoved the shirt back to Ceara, “There… dead…. See? Damn you could wake the dead with that scream, oh wait the dead are awake, so stop the damn screaming.” Tabitha walked off laughing and looked to Charlie, “I guess she is a screamer!”

  Charlie went to Ceara, “Did it bite you?” Ceara was still shaking, “I don’t think so, but it just scared the shit out of me. It was on my face.”

  Charlie looked over her arm, “Ok, I don’t see a bite so you are ok, you want to take a break?”

  Ceara shook her head no, “Tabitha is right; I have to stop acting like this, what if Wanderers had been close? Turn around; I need to put my shirt back on.”

  Charlie turned smiling, “Honey I kind of saw everything when she ripped it off you.”

  “Well you aren’t seeing anymore, so hush!” Ceara checked the shirt four or five times before putting it back on. “Ok”

  Charlie turned back just as Beth and Colt joined them, Colt looked concerned, “You guys ok?”

  Tabitha grinned while laying out the tarp to check to see if it was in good condition, “Oh yeah, Ceara has a little arachnophobia, she was showing her tiny ta ta’s off to Charlie and you just missed it!”

  Ceara looked embarrassed as hell and scowled at Tabitha, “I was wearing a bra, ya know?” Tabitha dropped the tarp and walked over to Ceara, “Ya, but you have to admit the look on Charlie’s face was a goofy one.”

  Charlie looked at the two girls and then looked over to Colt, “We’re doing ok buddy? Tabitha found a tarp, and we are trying to find some things to build up the walls to lay the tarp on top”.

  Just then, Beth walked up behind Colt, “Hey!! That tarp is a perfect canopy!!!”

  Tabitha looked back at the tarp, walked over, picked it up, “Sure is…not a hole in it at all…I was telling these guys we need to have a sturdy fortress of some type to throw this over it but we were looking for like bailing twine or rope of some sorts, but gave up and started searching for limbs to use as poles when Red had her little visitor.”

  Colt puffed out his chest, “I think I found a good location and we won’t need walls just the tarp, maybe a pole or two. We really need string though.”

  Charlie nodded to Colt, “Let’s see the area, then we can see for sure what else we need.” Colt and Beth led the way back to the boulder, “What do you guys think?”

  Charlie smiled, “Pretty damn good! We can use the boulder and that tree, so we still need two decent sized limbs and I think we are going to be stuck using our shoestrings as tie offs.”

  They all went out looking for the needed limbs, staying in pairs for safety. Ceara stayed at the site not wanting anymore hitchhikers. She used the excuse of getting the site ready. Charlie and Tabitha headed deeper into the woods on the right, Beth and Colt took the left.

  Tabitha started off walking, while keeping her head focused upon branches. She saw several that were great, only problem was that she would need a chainsaw and that was a joke. But just then something caught her eye; she noticed one huge notch on a great big cedar tree. During one of thunderstorms, lightning must have hit the branch and split it right off the tree itself. Tabitha looked down to the ground and there it lay. The main limb was much too large but there were other branches that were still attached to the fallen limb.

  Remembering the loud screaming from Ceara earlier, reminded her of what Alden’s test was and if by chance there were some zombies out there that had heard her screaming, they might have drawn unwanted attention. Tabitha did not know the area as well as the campgrounds and with Alden off doing whatever he did, she didn’t want to take any more risks. In a very low tone Tabitha whistled over to Charlie then whispered, “Hey Chucky…… over here please.”

  Charlie headed over and saw the limb, “This is perfect, well it will be once we use our new little toys on it!”

  He pulled out his new knife that Alden had given him and began cutting off some of the larger branches to get it out of the brush. Pulling it free finally they hauled it back to where Colt and Beth had chosen for a spot, getting to the boulder Charlie set the log down and sat down on the ground next to it, “Damn that’s a lot of work.”

  Ceara looked at him, “So how are we going to make this work.”

  Charlie opened his canteen and took a drink while surveying the area. “Right now our biggest problem is rope or something to that effect. We could use our shoe and boot laces, but I’d really like to see if we could come up with something better.” Tabitha looked in the direction of to the shed, “Well we searched the shed pretty good and I didn’t see any rope.”

  “Heath said we couldn’t go in right? He never said we couldn’t search or use anything outside the cabin.” Charlie’s mind was working and Ceara tried to visualize the outside of the house too.

  Ceara and Tabitha looked at him and saw he was just staring as if seeing the cabin. They turned to try and see what he was seeing. Ceara thought she knew what he was thinking, “Alden has a clothesline?”

  Charlie got up, “No, not in the mood to get my ass whipped, but he does have the extra rolled up on the porch.”

  Getting up, Charlie strolled out of the woods heading to the cabin; there on the side was a heavy cord running out to a tree. The rest was rolled up and tied lying on the porch. Charlie picked it up and unraveled it from a large hook on the cabin. He then walked out to the tree it was tied to and simply untied it.

  Walking back to the rock he smiled, “Now we have rope. We simply need Colt and Beth back with the last pole then figure out a way to run and loop our rope without cutting it.”

  Ceara looked puzzled, “Why not cut it?”

  Charlie smiled as Tabitha piped up, “Well first off it’s Alden’s rope, but more important he didn’t cut it for a reason. He must figure, use what you need, but don’t cut yourself short.”

  Charlie and Ceara stared at her. Tabitha turned and looked at them, “What?”

  Ceara laughed, “I’m just waiting for the sexual comment is all.”

  She said with a giggle. Charlie spoke right up, “I’m not being mean but I’m just surprised you figured that out.”

  Tabitha stuck her tongue out at both, “Well now, see I can still surprise you.”

  Alden had worked his way down the mountain with Max at his side. He only had to quiet him a couple of times, Max had a tendency to want to bark at the local wildlife. By the third squirrel Max started a low growl then sat and looked at it then to Alden. Alden reached over and petted him, “Good dog, but we’re going to let that little fellow go.”

  Max looked at the squirrel as Alden moved off and away from it. Max followed close behind him. Reaching the ledge that looked over the valley below, where he had first spotted the Wanderers, he sat down and pulled his binoculars out. Searching below he found the group quickly. They were on the move and headed west. Alden panned to his left and saw a small wisp of smoke coming from a mobile home about two miles from the Wanderers, but they would have to move down the mountain and back up again. Searching the area he saw the back road to the mobile home. He turned to Max, “Come on boy we need to get the others, those folks in that trailer are going to need our help.”

  Ceara stood back and looked at their handy work, Colt and Beth had found a branch that with a little work they had got it roughly the same size. They each had found several rocks to stabilize the now lean-to poles. Charlie and Colt threaded the clothesline through the eye bolts of the tarp, and then draped the corners of the tarp over the poles,
pulling the string tight making the tarp nice and taut. The poles were leaning away from the shelter so when the tarps were secured they would still be stable. Ceara, Beth and Tabitha lined the back with rocks to secure it to the ground.

  Ceara smiled at everyone,“I think we did pretty damn good on this, guys!”

  Heath walked down to where they all stood looking from underneath their shelter. He walked up and took hold of one of the poles and gave it a good shake to check the sturdiness of the structure.“You all did real goodon this one, not only a good shelter, but I watched you all work as a team, and that was what I was really looking for.”

  Tabitha walked around checking the corners once more to make sure that each corner was taught,“Yep….. weall did a mighty damn fine job….even with Red over there looking over her shoulder to make sure that no little eight legged hairy monsters were sneaking up her body.”

  Ceara turned around and spoke directly at Tabitha,“Well it was HUGE and I just hate themdamn things!”

  Charlie came up behind her and gently put his hand on her shoulder,“Well, you’re all right now honey I won’t let that teeny tiny spider bother you.”

  Tabitha turned towards Charlie,“See?? There ya go Red! Your knight in shining armor right there! It’s Mighty Chucky to the rescue!”

  Charlie shot Tabitha a look and then realized that she was trying to have fun with all of it,“Ya, I am awfully mighty and I can make a mean batch of bacon and eggs over aopen flame thanks to Alden!”

  Beth then looked over to Colt and then to the others,“Speaking of Alden…..He has been gone an awful long time. I sure hope he and I can talk about what happened.”

  Tabitha looked over to Beth,“Don’t worry about that being what is wrong with Alden. He said he was taking Maximus on a training session.”

  Beth thought for a minute and realized that Alden usually took walks sometimes to clear his mind and maybe that was what he was doing now. Nevertheless she was beginning to get a little worried about him and the look on her face showed it.