Colt walked to Beth seeing her red eyes “Are you ok?”
Beth nodded, “Fine Colt, you go get a shower too, we need yours and Charlie’s clothes. You have blood all over you from that pig.”
Tabitha leaned in Beth’s ear, “Taking my advice?” Beth started laughing hard and Tabitha joined her as the rest just looked at them.
Colt took a step back, “Did I miss something?”
Beth shook her head, “No honey I’m sorry, it was just something Tabitha told me a minute ago.”
Colt didn’t look convinced but he accepted it and moved toward the cabin, “Ok, I guess I take your word for it. I’m going to shower once Charlie is done, then I’ll throw our clothes into the washer so you guys won’t have to.”
Tabitha had started helping Ceara hang the last load; Ceara leaned across the line, “What was that all about?”
Tabitha smiled, “Just helping a friend through a rough minute.”
Soon they had everything done. The meat packed up, laundry drying on the line and what they would be taking with them was now packed up in the truck. The sun was setting as Heath and Alden called everyone out to a clearing, Ceara realized she hadn’t seen them all afternoon, she whispered to Charlie, “Are we in trouble again?”
Charlie got a confused look, “For what?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know but he never calls a meeting for nothing.”
Colt walked with Beth, right behind Ceara and Charlie, “He didn’t say this was a meeting, he just called us over.”
Tabitha ran up to join everyone, “What’s up?”
No one knew, but their questions were answered quickly. Alden and Heath had a pit dug and were grilling up a large part of the pig.
Alden smiled, “Figured we would cook dinner tonight the old fashioned mountain way.” No one had smelled the pig roasting because Alden and Heath kept it covered up under a large board which was covered with a plastic tarp and dirt to keep the smoke and odor down.
Beth looked over to Colt and the rest, “I will go make some of that sweet tea and get it nice and cold for the cookout.”
Once Beth retreated back to the cabin Tabitha looked over to Ceara, “You think this is a wise idea cooking outside tonight with those damn dead meat bags walking around out there? Won’t that smell attract those fucking zombies?”
Ceara got a concerned look on her face and she had no idea, but Tabitha did have a point. Ceara looked over to Alden, “Is this safe?”
Alden nodded, “Biff’s cabin was over five miles away and we burned it down so that will attract them to that direction, so we will be ok with no problem. Plus with the tarp and dirt you people didn’t even know what we were up to”
He pulled the cover back and basted the large hind quarter and grinned, “Not to mention we will be pulling out first thing in the morning and I wanted everyone to have a good meal tonight and leftovers for each vehicle.”
Heath had reached down with a large paint brush and was dipping it in a bucket of Barbeque sauce. Ceara looked at him, “What the hell is that?”
Heath smiled, “The secret ingredient,” he said as slapped another brush full across the pork.”
Alden smiled, “There’s a lot of good ole time recipes up here on this mountain.” He paused as he looked around a frown came on his face, “Or there were at one time.”
Heath pushed the bucket away and the two men grabbed the board and put it back over the pit. They spread the tarp and sealed the edges with dirt. Standing up Heath looked at Ceara and Tabitha; “it should be ready in about a half hour if you all want to get the table set.”
Quickly Tabitha looked over to Ceara, “Ceara, I am going to go get the plates and see if Beth needs any help. Hell fire, we can find some veggies or something to go along with this pork.” Before Ceara could even answer Tabitha had made it back into the cabin and headed on over beside Beth as she was stirring in the sugar for her sweet tea. “Doing alright Beth?”
Beth continued stirring and looked over to Tabitha, “Yep and to be quite honest with you I am happy that we are all back together safe and sound.”
Beth snickered and while Tabitha had the dinnerware in her hands she remarked, “What’s funny?”
Beth chuckled, “The little things, like being safe, kinda brings on a whole different meaning now huh?”
Tabitha shook her head, “Yes ma’am, sure as hell does. After all, we all the family any of us have now. Remember what Alden said??? We’re his kin.” Tabitha wanted to keep Beth smiling so she lightened up just a bit more, “Just I carry the hotness in the family.”
Beth turned abruptly and looked at her with shock. “Pardon me!” exclaimed Beth.
Tabitha began walking out the door, “Well you got the brains, and you look very classy….but hotness… that’s all me sista!”
Beth smiled from ear to ear as she finished up her tea and then walked out right behind Tabitha who was making her way over to the picnic table.
Charlie was standing by the table in a simple pair of grey gym shorts, a black tee shirt from a Heavy Metal band named, Slayer, and a simple pair of flip flops. Colt walked up to him wearing a nice polo shirt, khaki shorts and some nice walking shoes.
Charlie grinned at him, “Damn I didn’t know this was a formal dinner.”
Colt handed Charlie a glass of tea, “Oh this?” Pointing to his outfit, “This isn’t formal, it’s business casual.”
The two laughed as Alden walked by, “I’m glad to see you two boys have patched things up.” He stopped and placed his hand on each of their shoulders, “I would have really hated to take you both out behind the woodshed and make you cut your own switches.” He gave them each a squeeze and turned and walked away.
Heath had walked up behind them chewing on a piece of meat, “Boys I think honestly he’d have enjoyed that.”
The two turned and looked at Heath. Colt spoke first, “You know, rookie, I was getting to like you, but now I’m not so sure.”
Charlie stepped up next to Colt, “Yeah…. Errr.. Rookie, you know what they say, I can whoop my brother and my brother can whoop me, but when it comes to strangers, we’ll whoop you together.”
Heath and Colt looked at each other and then at Charlie. Charlie spoke right up, “Well err..ehh.. something like.”
He shook his head, “Hell, screw it, I ain’t had a brother before.” Colt and Heath both busted up laughing. Colt grabbed Charlie in a headlock playfully and rubbed the top of his head while Heath reached down and swept up Charlie’s legs. Charlie was kicking and laughing as Heath smiled at him, “Yeah well little brother you got two big brothers now.”
Three went to the ground wrestling and laughing until they saw Ceara, Beth, and Tabitha all standing there with their hands on their hips and shaking their heads. Alden had come back out of the woods, walking past the group he looked at them all and shook his head as he kept walking heading to the pit, “damn fool kids” he mumbled as he walked away.
All three young men stopped and looked at each other, and then Ceara saw the strangest look on their faces. Before she could say anything the young men were up and heading right for Alden. All three girls cried out at the same time, ‘ALDEN LOOK OUT!!!”
It was too late the boys were right on him. Alden turned sideways as fast as a snake, grabbing Colt’s arm and simply pulling him forward and tossing him to the ground, then putting his left leg out Alden caught Heaths ankle and with a move simply flipped his leg into the air sending Heath flying backwards at the same time as he grabbed Charlie under his right arm pit. Alden twisted at the hip and Charlie was airborne landing hard a few feet from Colt. It was all over in a matter of seconds. Alden reached down to a stump by his leg and picked up his coffee cup, “You boys really need to work on that. That was pathetic.” He turned and headed to the table winking at the girls as he passed them.
Ceara and Beth went to help both Charlie and Colt up. Beth was glaring at Colt, “You break that collar bone again and I will make you regret it!”
Colt rubbed his shoulder, it was hurting but he wasn’t about to say that, “It’s fine, Beth.”
Heath looked to Tabitha, she cocked an eyebrow, “What, you put yourself there.”
Heath stood up brushing off the dirt, “Damn that man is fast.”
Ceara smirked, “Did none of you watch him in ANY of the attacks? Hell, even the one at the druggies camp. That man took out more than any of us, and has never had more than a scratch.” She turned walking back to the cabin with Beth and Tabitha, all three laughing at the guys.
Colt looked to the girls then back to Heath and Charlie, “Damn, guess a little sympathy was too much to ask for.” His ego a bit bruised from not only letting an old man put him down, but the women laughing.
Heath lightly punched him in the arm, “Seriously? Colt, I don’t know if you noticed it or not but we ain’t young pups either. Charlie is the only kid standing here.”
Charlie’s chest bowed out, “I ain’t no kid!”
Colt began to laugh now too, “Well compared to us you are!” Colt got a sly look, “What do you guys say to a set up? Bet you if we plan this right, we could take that old man!”
Charlie got a surprised look, “Hell No!! You think I want a round two? I’ll bet you he was just being nice!”
Tabitha overheard Colt ask his question and after Charlie’s remark Tabitha walked over to Colt, “What do you mean by a set up??” snickered Tabitha, “Dude! You ALL just got your fucking asses handed to you by that old man. Shit, if he was serious do you think that you would have been able to get up after all of that? Let me just tell you I have seen what that ‘old man’ can do.”
Charlie looked at all of them, then glanced over to the table where Alden was sitting quietly sipping his coffee and looking at maps. “You know”, he said in low whisper, “I wonder how many men have tried to sneak up on him; only to have their next words be spoken to St Peter at the Pearly Gates. I bet those words would be, I just fucked up.”
Heath started to laugh, “I think right now discretion would be the part of valor, as they say.”
He looked at Tabitha, “Since we’re all leaving in the morning I say we wait and take our time to plan this out. I do want a little payback but not yet, it’s too soon.”
Charlie nodded, “Yeah I think your right. He’s expecting a counter attack right now. Look at him acting like he’s reading maps. He’s probably thinking how to not kill us and still teach us a lesson.”
An hour later Ceara called everyone over to eat; they all sat enjoying the roasted pig. Alden discussed the next morning and how each would ride in the same vehicles that they had driven here.
Ceara looked to each of the others and noticed a couple of things. One, they were all nervous and two, they were all ready. No one tried to make excuses about staying there. Ceara looked to the clothesline and smiled, she would miss the washing machine. “So you guys think we will get there in a couple of days?”
Colt gave a little laugh, “Ceara, we will be lucky to be there in a couple of weeks.”
Ceara looked from Colt to Alden, “Why? When I was a kid, we went all the way to L.A. in three days.”
Alden set a glass of milk down and smiled at Ceara, “This isn’t those times anymore. Then you had flowing traffic, laws, somewhat normal people, and no real fear of attack. Now we have a lot of cars blocking roads, no law, vigilantes, and a constant fear of attack. So we take it very slow, and we take it very safe.”
Ceara tore off a piece of meat and munched on it, “Ok, I guess I didn’t think about all that.”
Alden gave her a reassuring smile, “Times have changed, but on the bright side if we hit a stretch of open road we’ll hold it to about 40 mph. That way we conserve our gas, but believe it or not we will still make good time.”
Heath had finished another large piece and taken a drink of milk, “So what’s the best route Boss?”
Colt looked at Heath then back to Alden, “Yeah you never did give us a driving plan, only the destination.”
Alden had finished his plate and pushed it to the center of the table. Reaching down he picked up a simple, old, and ragged atlas. Opening it up he put his finger on a small red dot on the Arkansas map, “This here is us.” The tracing his finger down the map, “We’re going to work our way down south, west of Little Rock until we get to U.S. 70.” He continued to move his finger tracing the proposed route. “Once there, we’ll move west on it. This should keep us relatively far away from major cities and large population.” Taking a sip of coffee he leaned back, “of course things may change but that’s our plan for now.”
Ceara sipped her tea, leaned back and patted her stomach, “That food was great! I guess I’ll get started getting the clothes in unless you guys want some help cleaning up the food?”
Beth stood grabbing a few of the empty plates, “No sweetie, you fold the clothes and get them packed. Me and the boys can do the dishes.”
Colt jumped up at the same time Charlie did, “Not it!”
Charlie started laughing, “Not fair you guys, we butchered the damn thing!”
Heath stacked a couple of the glasses, “I’ll help…” Colt gave Beth a guilty look, but followed Charlie to the Rover to check the cars one last time. Ceara watched all this from the clothesline, folding each pair of jeans. “Damn, wonder how long they are going to use that excuse.”
Alden watched as Heath and Tabitha went to the cabin. He got up and followed Colt and Charlie to the vehicles. The two men had the hood up on the Rover. Charlie had the oil dipstick out and was checking the level showing Colt how to read it. Alden leaned over the other side and seemed to be just inspecting the whole motor, “Charlie, if you need any, there is a couple of cases of oil in the shed. You may want to pack them in somewhere.” Colt turned and headed to the shed, “I got it,” he called out. Minutes later Colt came back across the yard pulling an old radio flyer red wagon loaded with three cases of oil and the gallon jugs of antifreeze.
Charlie had closed the hood on the Rover and moved on to his van, “We’re good on oil,” he said to Colt as he walked up.
Alden looked at the wagon, “There’s room in my truck. I’ll take that.” He reached down and took the handle from Colt and headed for his truck. Charlie closed the hood on the van. Turning he watched Alden load the oil in his truck and then saw him load the red wagon. Colt looked at Charlie, “What the hell is that all about? What goods that little wagon going to do?”
Charlie shook his head, “I don’t know, I think it has sentimental value though.”
Alden walked back over and smiled at the two young men, “What say we go sit on my porch one last time.”
Three had sat down on the porch and soon the others had joined them. Beth came out with the coffee pot and some cups and served it up to each one of the group. The sun had dipped below the tree line and its rays were shining through the branches casting shadows on the ground. The sky was turning into an array of orange, red, and purple as sun kept going down. It faded to all red towards the end. Alden let out a sigh, “I loved this place, especially this time of the evening. The birds will soon stop chirping and the crickets will begin. It to me was peace on earth.”
Ceara was holding Charlie’s hand, Colt and Beth were arm in arm, Tabitha was actually leaning up against Heath, as they all looked to the west and realized that tomorrow when they moved out they could all be heading into a wasteland. Alden tossed down the rest of his coffee. As he stood he smiled at his new found kinfolk and pointed to the sky, “That’s a good sign, Red Sky at Night; Sailors Delight. Let’s hope so.” He turned and went into the cabin…….
Chapter 16 – Westward Bound
The next morning everyone moved about the cabin in silence. The thoughts were all the same, what was waiting for them in the next hour, day, or week? Would they all survive?
Within a couple of hours all the sleeping bags were packed and everyone had breakfast. Alden waved his hand in the air, “Head’em up people, let’s get this show on
the road.”
Everyone began making their way out to the vehicles, Heath and Colt filled up their coffee before going out the back door. Ceara was in the yard, and turned to wave to the cabin, “Bye, hope we get this way again one day!”
Maximus barked his goodbye and they both headed for the van. Charlie laughed as she got in the van, “You said goodbye to a house?”
Ceara snickered, “What? I just wanted to say goodbye to the cabin. What’s wrong with that?”
Charlie shook his head, “You are one of a kind.”
Colt walked out to the Rover, he saw Beth waiting beside it, “I’ll drive this time Beth, my shoulder is fine now. Well it’s good enough anyway.”
Beth climbed into the passenger side, “I just wanted you making that choice, but if it gets too much I’ll take over.”
Colt started up the motor, “Beth this trip is going to take a couple of weeks, I think we will all have our turns to drive.”
Alden walked back in the front door and made one more check. Locking the back door, he set a trip wire to a grenade. As he turned he saw a cabinet open. Walking over he started to close it, but stopped and pulled it open. He looked in and started to close it once more than stopped. Reaching in all the way to the back he felt a piece of paper and pulled it out. Standing in the kitchen, he opened a yellow envelope and pulled out some 8 x 10 pictures.
The first one brought a smile to his face. It was a portrait of a young man about 17 years old. Standing in front of an American flag in an old set of U.S. Army Khakis.It was Alden’s basic training photograph. The other pictures were of him over the years with different soldiers in different parts of the world. Alden pushed the pictures down inside the envelope and headed out the front door. Setting down the envelope, he re-armed his outside security system then went to his truck.
Retrieving three small walkie talkies, he walked back and handed them out to each vehicle repeating the same line,“There all tuned to channel 7. If you have a problem, let someone know immediately. Keep the chatter down Idon’t want a bunch of other people listening in.”
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