Tabitha spoke up, “That’s what you said back in Missouri. Do you think all those we ran into were from cities?”
Alden shook his head, “Some, but not all. Thing is, where we are right now, there’s shitload of little towns along with a few cities. That means they have a lot of potential recruits. I chose New Mexico because it has a low population, along with the chance that possibly the reservations have not been as infected as the rest of the country.”
Heath’s eyes widened, “Why’s that?”
Alden stood up and smiled, “Because the government, in their infinite wisdom, segregated the Indians to those wastelands to keep them away from the rest of us civilized assholes. Indians have held onto their culture and the tribes have kept the old ways alive the best they can.”
Heath and Tabitha looked at each other as they realized what Alden was saying. He saw the looks in their eyes as he stood up, “That’s right boys and girls. The white man put the Indians in a place so we all would be protected from them there savages, but what they did was provide them with a safe place away from the idiot scientists and assholes who created this fucking mess.” Tossing his last bit of coffee on the ground, “and it may have just given us a safe haven too. This is if they’ll have us?” He turned and headed to the house, “I’m heading to bed so you all be sure to put the fire out.”
Ceara and Charlie walked for a while just listening to the sounds of the forest, the crickets chirped, an owl called out off in the distance and frogs were croaking into the night to each other. Charlie took Ceara’s hand pulling her to a stop, “I wish we had a normal world where we could really date, you deserve that. I would take you out to nice places; I heard they were coming out with a great Resident Evil movie.”
Ceara’s look made him stop, “What, what did I say wrong?”
Ceara giggled, “You would take me to go see Resident Evil? Honey we are living it! We don’t need any action pack movies, Hell, we are starring in our own.”
Charlie started chuckling with her, “I guess I just don’t see it like that, but you’re right.”
Ceara kept his hand but she started walking again, “I wish this had never happened either but it does have its upsides too. Like, if it hadn’t happened, then we would never have met, and you wouldn’t have had the chance to get a father figure like Alden.”
Charlie chuckled, “Yeah, I guess you’re right on that too. I’d still be in Topeka working at the Church and doing handyman work for some of the members. I was living in my little no bedroom efficiency apartment, dreaming of meeting someone like you. This sounds weird but… well deep down I’m glad it did happen. The whole world had gone to hell long before the outbreak. We’d become a society of electronic gizmo controlled Zombies anyway. Cellphones always up to our ears, Laptops, cause we had to chat and see who was doing what. GPS to let the government know our every move. It was just a matter of time when something had to give.”
Ceara looked at him, “Wow Charlie. I never thought of it like that! I mean yeah, I had the cell and all that stuff, but I never realized or thought that it was simply a way of tracking me.”
Charlie smiled, “I guess that’s why no one ever saw me. I wasn’t on the grid.” He turned and looked to the Cabin, “I don’t think Alden was either and if he was, it was his own little secret grid.” The two laughed and started walking hand in hand back to the cabin.
Ceara thought a bit about what Charlie had said, “Do you think that is why Alden got so mad yesterday? Did Beth put us on that grid, but wouldn’t her stuff be secure?”
Charlie nodded, “Yep, I don’t know if her stuff is that secure, I really don’t know what she did for the CDC” The cabin came into view and Ceara pulled Charlie back into the woods to give him a kiss goodnight. A few minutes later they were both headed to the cabin, “Charlie, are you ok with Colt?”
Charlie bristled a little then stopped, “Yeah, I’ll be okay with him. He just needs to understand that just because he had to shoot his wife and then leave, doesn’t make him the expert.” Charlie sighed and took her hands, “Honey the man who was my father figure, I had to bash his brains in and then pushed his body into a furnace. So you see, Colt, and some of the others, weren’t the only ones who had to do things to people they loved.” Charlie saw the tears in Ceara’s eyes. He reached down and kissed her. “It’s okay I’m okay I got you and the rest of our merry band of survivors.” Ceara kissed him once more and the two went into the cabin.
When the dawn broke a single ray of sun light shot through the window and the front room started to brighten. The sounds of birds chirping as they themselves were waking, was a pleasant alarm for Beth to be waking up to. The night before Beth had decided to forgo the sofa bed and just make a bed with blankets on the floor of the front room.
Rubbing her eyes she stretched then sat up looking around the room. The others were still sleeping, Beth decided that she would be the one this time to make the coffee. She made her way to the kitchen where she found a cloth, and then she got it wet with some water and began washing her face. As soon as the cloth reached her lips she immediately remembered Colt’s kiss the night before which cause her to smile. Now the simplest things, such as a kiss, to waking up with a washcloth was something very much appreciated with everything that had sadly taken place over the past few days.
Out of the corner of her eye Beth then saw a coffee maker sitting there and instead of making it outside, she would enjoy the convenience of this inside. Perhaps this would be a nice smell for the other to awake to, which hopefully she thought would put all of the others in a good mood. Above the maker was a cabinet, where she found all of the supplies that she needed, she quickly went to work and shortly after she had poured the water into the reservoir the first drips of coffee began pouring into the pot.
Alden had risen early to see what he could get in the way of a breakfast for the group. Taking the compound bow and a quiver of arrows he and the dogs had gone hunting before the sun came up. It was Maximus who found their prey as they came around a bend of the trail. With a cliff to his right and the mountain going up to his left the three had formed a single file on the narrow path. Maximus, who was in the lead had stopped and gave a very low growl as warning.
Alden reached down and petted him, “good boy,” he said quietly. Looking to the right he didn’t see anything at first, yet Maximus was staring hard and was frozen. Then it moved. Alden watched as the bushes swayed back and forth and he could hear the grunting sound from below. Loading an arrow in the bow he took careful aim and waited. The good size razor back slowly moved out of the brush as its head was down searching for food.
The first arrow hit it just behind the head in its shoulder. The boar took a few steps then fell as Alden had already nocked a second arrow and was ready to shoot. Maximus started to move towards the animal and Alden grabbed his collar quick, “No boy. We wait.”
He held the collar and sat down watching the boar, waiting to make sure it was dead. Ten minutes later he worked his way down to where it lay. Alden took a roll of parachute cord out of a small canvas bag that was attached to his belt. Finding two good trees he soon had the boar strung up and was working on getting it dressed out. Maximus grabbed the liver as it fell to the ground and slipped over under a tree. Tonto stood watch, not going for anything that Alden had cleaned out. Finishing his task and wrapping the carcass up in an emergency blanket, he reached down and tossed the heart to Tonto who made quick work of his prize. Alden tied the blanket off then hoisted the boar on his shoulder.
As they came out of the woods Alden could smell the coffee. He laid the boar on a small wooden table behind the house along with the bow. Walking up the steps, he smiled as he went in the back door to the kitchen, “Damn that smells good. Who’s up for bacon and eggs this morning,” He said as he walked in.
Beth looked up from his small kitchen table and put her fingers to her lips. “Shhhh they’re all still asleep.”
Alden made a face at her as he poured him
self a cup and sat down. “Hell those kids are going to sleep their lives away.”
Sipping on her coffee Beth didn’t quite know how to start the conversation that she needed to have with him. Hopefully the others would be up soon so that everyone could hear her explanation as to why she did what she did. Beth knew she was holding onto the whole laptop argument, even though she was sure Alden had let it go.
Alden sat there as he always did, like a poker player just daring you to call his hand. “Alden, I owe you an apology for what I did the other day when we first got here to your home. It was wrong, and I totally understand that you want to fly low below the radar, so that we will have every chance of surviving this thing. It’s just…” Beth turned and saw the picture of President Reagan and him above the mantel. “…when I saw you with the President over there it reminded me of a rumor that I had heard while I worked at the CDC, and I wondered if it was true…”
Alden raised an eyebrow looked at her as if to say “Rumor my ass”.
Beth stopped and placed her cup on the table. “Alden, when President Reagan was in office the world was a much safer place then it is now, and I am not talking today. I am talking before all of the shit went down. President Reagan was not just an ‘actor’ but he was a damn good man that put his family first. To him the people of the United States of America were his family. Sure he had his loving wife Nancy and his children but when he took office he along with his First Lady became the Mother and Father to our great Nation. Jobs were plentiful, we didn’t have the national debt that we have now, murders were down along with other crimes. People could leave their windows open with their front door unlocked at night as they slept.”
Beth took another sip of her coffee then continued quite calmly as though she was telling a campfire story. “President Reagan had implemented several and I do me SEVERAL programs that would withstand the test of time. Believe you me Alden, he had governmental programs set up that he managed to enforce that no other president after him would be able to tear down.”
A smile came across her face when she remembered that speech he made oh so many years ago. Seeing that Alden was looking rather bored or aggravated she wanted to get right to the point, “You see Alden, when I saw that picture it reminded me of the agency that he established when he was in office.”
Alden looked over at her and after he took a drink of his coffee in a low voice he said, “Agency?”
Beth shook her head, “Yes, it was in case of a nuclear holocaust or in case of a global pandemic such as this. Well, this agency or organization was underground and it housed a huge staff of people from the CDC that would stay there no matter what. They would work, live and survive with their families. Each employee was allowed to bring their wife or husband but couldn’t have any young children. In this place, things would continue working on a daily basis. There was nothing down there that would infect that populous, so there was no chance of them getting infected with whatever this is. If by any chance, the CDC itself had a chance of coming up with a cure, then they would have sent it down there before all hell broke loose. However, when our current President got in office, his word ‘Change’ was not far from what he would do to everyone. He made so many budgets cuts and gave senior staff nice, fat severance packages and sent them packing. These hard working people were replaced with young adults that were fresh out of college and had no real world experience.” Beth sat there and looked quietly at Alden for what seemed like forever then she just blurted out, “I didn’t know if he had cut those people loose or not, but if those people were in fact down there, then maybe, just maybe, they would have some inside knowledge as to what happened.”
Alden took a sip of coffee, “You know Beth,” he paused for a minute gathering his thoughts. “It’s like this. I’m fairly sure that the way this thing spread was like a fire. You can trace it back to its source, which I and a few of my friends did, until things went to hell. A friend who worked in Houston set up computer programs for Hospital records. He used his knowledge to access the known cases, and then back tracked all the way to Atlanta. This is how we were fairly sure the government and the CDC, had pretty much fucked the nation.”
He saw Beth’s surprise in her eyes that Alden would know such people. “My friend didn’t have time to isolate the disease or the knowledge. His last message to me was, We’re out time, good luck. We were using satellite radios that were encrypted, so the possibility of anyone listening in was slight, but we all knew it was possible. There were several of us that had decided when time ran out, we would do what we could to simply save ourselves, and survive long enough until we could possibly regroup, and go forward starting over with whatever resources were available.”
Alden got up and retrieved the coffee pot, refilling his and then Beth’s. Taking sip and leaning against the counter he smiled a little, “You see Doctor, soldiers like myself and my friends… well, we just don’t go around the world killing people. We also help set up schools, show people how to build houses and develop sanitary conditions to live in. We provided medical care and knowledge, and yes we trained them how to defend themselves. We taught people how to change their own society and way of living into one that would be more beneficial to all.”
He stepped over to the table and took her hand, “So you see, that’s what make us so dangerous to those who wish to rule the world, we, not only can fight them, but train others to do the same. We taught people not need to live in oppression and fear. It’s those people who were in charge, who started this and may very well be out there, wanting to create their own socialist society and trust me it’s me and my friends who would be their number one target.”
Beth looked at Alden with a surprised expression on her face. Squeezing his hand, “I always thought soldiers like you were…. Well, like Rambo. You all just killed everything and left the chaos behind.”
Alden sat back down and grinned, “I watched all the Rambo movies… even Rambo had a heart.”
Beth giggled a little remembering some of the scenes, “I’m sorry I didn’t check with you at first. I knew a lot of good people at the CDC, I was hoping that maybe some of them were still out there working trying to find a cure. I didn’t even think about the other ramifications, like what you said.”
Alden looked right at her, “That is why I blew up. I’d really rather like to let the assholes think I’m dead. If they are out there, they have may have the capability to track your transmissions. Which means they would know that we are here at my house, right? They had my address; I could only drop off the grid so far. So from here out you check with me. I’d rather they not know anything about us. As far as a cure goes, in a couple of days I’ll set up the sat and see if I can contact anyone. Fair enough?”
Beth sat back and listened to everything that Alden was saying. For the first time, she realized that both of them, at one point, may have thought that they were at war; when in fact, they were together and on the same page. Picking up her coffee cup Beth put it up as in a gesture of making a toast, “Fair enough, Alden. As I said, I really meant no harm, but if there is any hope out there maybe some of ‘our’ people may still be alive.” Putting down her cup Beth looked over and saw some of the others waking up.
Ceara lay on the floor listening to Alden and Beth talk, she knew that was a talk long time coming and didn’t want to interrupt them, she had elbowed Charlie, but made sure he stayed quiet too. Once they were both sure the talk was over Charlie whispered, “About time, I got to piss like a racehorse.”
Ceara giggled, “Hurry up I do too!” Ceara crawled out of the sleeping bag as Charlie darted to the bathroom calling out Good morning to Alden and Beth as he went. Once Ceara had the bags rolled up and put in the corner she went to join Alden and Beth, “Morning guys, what’s for breakfast?”
Alden got up and poured Ceara coffee, “Today is our last day, so I think we better make it count. I have some bacon and ham in the sink. If I remember right, there was a couple of pancake mixes in the storero
om from the ranger station. I’ll go look for it, if you want to go milk the cows.”
Ceara took a drink as Charlie came in the kitchen, “I’m starving, what’s for breakfast?” Ceara and Beth laughed together, Ceara handed her half full cup to Charlie, “I have to go to the bathroom, and then get milk; the local supermarket is closed, so I have to go to the source.”
Charlie sipped the coffee, “I can start the other stuff if you want, I’m not helpless with cooking you know.”
Colt joined everyone in the kitchen, “What’s up?”
Ceara patted Colt on his shoulder on her way out, “They will tell you.”
Colt grabbed a coffee cup and looked that the coffee maker, “And we were making it outside Why??”
Beth smiled at him, “Got to stay in practice.”
Colt leaned down and gave her a kiss, “That old man ain’t going to forget shit, and we both know it.” He grabbed one of the chairs and spun it around straddling it, “So what’s the plan for today, we really don’t need to pack up, but I was wondering about the cows. What I mean is, pulling that trailer is going to take a lot of gas. We don’t know how often we will have the chance to fill up. I say we set them free, hell where we are going, you can’t tell me we won’t find other cows.”
Tabitha got up and went over to the sink where she washed her hands. Quite honestly, she did not want to leave. This was actually a pretty damn nice place, but she knew that where ever they ended up as long as they were together that they would be fine. Just that quickly she had changed her mind and then she wanted to get going. Grabbing a cup out of the cabinet Tabitha poured herself some coffee and went on to make another pot because all of them had damn near finished it off. “Hey Beth! I overheard you all talking. It wasn’t like I was listening in, but with the place here being so small and all. I just wanted to tell ya, that I get what you were trying to do.”
Surviving Day By Day (Book 2): Fears, Flames, and Future Page 27