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

by Allensworth, Audra

  Tonto was sitting in the front seat waiting for him as he climbed in. Reaching over he petted him and smiled,“Here we go again boy. I doubt we’ll be back anytime soon.” Alden set his walkie on in a truck caddy then honked his horn once. As they started off down the dirt road he continued watching his mirrors to make sure the rest were following. Turning onto the main blacktop he sped up a little as the rest followed. Slowing as they passed Biff’s burned down house, he saw only a few Wanderers. Tonto let out a low growl as Alden petted him,“Leave’emalone boy. We’ll be long gone soon enough.” Alden turned his head forward and sped up a little more leaving the grisly scene behind him.

  Beth looked at the window as they began pulling out. As the images in the rearview mirror got further away the churning in her stomach began. Hopefully as they got closer to where they would end up, the pain would stop. The only thing that would bother her was if the roads were going to be packed with a lot of vacated vehicles, like she had seen earlier. If there were too many then they would have to be moved, but then again, there would be some that would probably have gas in them. They could siphon that out and put it in their vehicles.

  There were a few things that were coming into the front of her mind that did give her hope, but the thought of hordes of the infected, moving in on them from all directions, kept coming up from time to time. Turning around in her seat, glancing out the back window, she just wanted to check to see if she could see Alden’s home one more time, even though she knew it wasn’t in view any longer. Seeing only the woodland, she turned around and looked at Colt who was focused on the caravan. Instead of striking up a conversation, Beth continued looking out the window just wondering what would be around the next corner.

  Ceara propped her feet on the dash tilting her feet left and right, wiggling her toes, wondering if she would ever get another mani-pedi. Her feet were becoming atrocious.

  Charlie glanced over as she started looking at her hands, “God you aren’t going to get girly on me are you?”

  Ceara glared at him, “No, I just miss the little things in life sometimes.”

  Charlie ran his fingers through his hair, “Yeah, like haircuts?”

  Ceara bounced up in the seat, “YES… look at my split ends!”

  Charlie laughed, “Honey no one, and I mean no one, is paying attention to that!”

  Ceara grinned, “Well I am, this life bites the big one!”

  Charlie snorted his coffee, “CEARA!”

  She gave a coy smile, “What?”

  Charlie tried another drink then looked out the windshield, “Do you know what that means?”

  Ceara blushed and looked at Heath and Tabitha’s jeep, “Well ummm, Tabitha and me had a couple of talks before and well, yeah I know what that means.” She watched as the van slowed, “What’s going on?”

  Charlie leaned to the window, “I think Alden is just clearing off the road.” Ceara scooted closer to Charlie, “Yeah well, last time we slowed down we were attacked!”

  Charlie put an arm around her shoulder, “Honey, this is going to be a long trip and we are going to have to slow down and stop several times. You have to understand that, we will be ok as long as we stay on guard or as Mad Eye Moody said in Harry Potter, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!”

  Ceara jumped, “WHAT THE HELL!?!”

  Charlie started laughing, “He was a guy in the book. He always yelled that, so I thought I would.”

  Ceara punched him in the arm, “THAT was not funny!!”

  Heath had hit the brake and leaned out trying to see what was happening up front. Tabitha looked at him, “So what is it?”

  Heath looked back, “I think it was a Prius but not sure. When it hit that first cliff, it kinda disintegrated into a ripped aluminum can.”

  Tabitha giggled, “Well at least it wasn’t a Yugo.”

  Heath laughed as he put the jeep in gear, and they moved forward once again. He looked in the side mirror and saw Charlie wiping something from his lip and wondered if he had stopped too quick. Looking to the side, he saw the car that Alden had pushed out of the way. It was laying on its roof about two hundred feet down the cliff. The body was literally shredded from the rocks and two bodies were hanging out of what was left of the front window.

  Looking back out the windshield, he saw the tops of the Ozark Mountains and remembered his job back in the Rockies. Those were the days he thought, riding a horse down the trails and keeping hikers safe. Tabitha spoke softly, “A penny for your thoughts?”

  Heath smiled, “Oh it’s nothing really just memories of days gone by.”

  He took a drink of water and spent the next hour telling Tabitha about his life as a park ranger in the Rockies. The beauty of the mountains in the spring time, and even the winter was spectacular. He told her how the snow would cover the aspen trees and alongside of a rolling spring.

  Tabitha looked out her window and sighed, “Damn, Heath you had a great job. I always wanted to live like that.”

  He turned and looked at her, “Really?” He said sarcastically. Tabitha started to giggle when she thought about how they had all lived over the past month.

  The small caravan had traveled about three hours before reaching U.S. 270; just west of Hot Springs, Arkansas. They hadn’t really run into any Wanderers except back at Interstate 40. As they neared 270, Alden pulled up and watched as hundreds were simply walking back and forth across the bridge. He watched as they seemed to be looking for food and he wasn’t about to put the group on the menu.

  Taking out one of his local maps, he had found a small county road that would take them under the highway and had no access points. A major plus was there would be a fence between them and the Wanderers. As they back tracked and found the road, it was a simple matter of getting the vehicles through before the Wanderers came down. Alden had driven his truck through first then stopped a few yards away. Climbing out quickly with his M-16, he laid on the roof of the truck, as the rest past. Charlie and Ceara were last and he could see them both watching the rear view mirrors, instead of the road afraid that they would get attacked. Alden had to fire two shots and yelled, “GODDAMNIT CHARLIE, WATCH THE FUCKING ROAD AND THE TREES! I’LL WATCH THE FUCKING WANDERERS.!!!”

  He saw Charlie swerve at the last minute just narrowly missing a large oak. He climbed back in and left the deaders trying to climb the fence. They arrived at a little town called Pencil Bluff. Once more they were confronted with a barricade only this time it was unguarded. A large sign painted with red letters read;

  ZOMBIES

  RAPISTS

  LOOTERS AND THIEVES

  WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT

  Alden pulled up and got out waiting for the rest to join him.

  Charlie pulled off to the shoulder, Ceara jumped out walking around the front of the van, “Honey we really didn’t need to pull over, not like there is a lot of traffic these days.”

  Charlie shrugged, “Old habits I guess.”

  They had all gathered around the sign, Colt carried over a cooler with water and set it down. He reached in handing everyone a bottle of cold water, “Enjoy it while we can still have it cold, the ice is melting fast. He twisted his cap off and took a long drink then looked to the sign, “Ok, a couple of questions come to mind here. Does this mean there are survivors here? Are we going to have a fire fight just because they are all scared of anything that moves? And the most important question, do they think the damn things can read or even care?”

  Ceara started looking toward the town, “If there are any survivors, they are hiding. That is a little town so you would think that they would want help if they saw cars driving up.” Charlie looked to the sign, “Makes you wonder just what they did deal with though…. If we were to post a sign it wouldn’t include all that. What the hell is up with the damn looters and thieves comment though? Everyone is taking what they need; no one is worrying about the damn money anymore.”

  Heath took a swallow and looked past the sign. He could see no movement at all, “I don’t know
about all of you, but this is a small hick town, and it’s been my experience that small hick towns come with a shitload of small hick hounds. I don’t hear or see a single dog.”

  Alden looked down at Tonto, who was sitting at the gate just looking, “You’re right Heath even Tonto doesn’t smell anything or he’d be up on all fours.”

  Charlie looked all around where they stood, “Well I don’t see anywhere else to go. It’s either forward or back, and I for one, damn sure don’t want to go back. So how do we proceed?” Alden looked at the group, “There’s one more thing I don’t think anyone has thought of.”

  Ceara looked at him then back at the town, “No one’s home?”

  Alden smiled, “exactly. Either that or they’re dead, dead. If they were Wanderers, I think they’d have come out by now, they had to hear the vehicles when we pulled up.” They all stood looking at the town for a few minutes mulling over the options when finally Beth spoke up, “I say we go for it. Charlie already said he didn’t want to go back, and frankly neither do I.” She turned to Alden, “this is your forte, I say it’s your call, but we need to get moving. We’ve been sitting too long for my liking.”

  Alden walked to the back of his truck and opened the back hatch and lowered the gate. The others followed and watched as Alden pulled out the black bag and put on a Kevlar vest. He pulled a different M-16 this one equipped with a M-79 grenade launcher. “This is how we play it. Heath you will drive my truck while I walk in front, Tabitha follows in the jeep, Beth drives the Rover with Colt riding shotgun.”

  With that he handed a shotgun to Colt, “This is called an AA-12 combat shotgun, you place this drum in the base just like an M-16, but take it easy you only have 20 shells and this sucker can fire five shots per second.”

  Colts eyes got wide, “Hell I’ll be out in four seconds.”

  Alden winked, “exactly my point, so be careful.” He handed Colt the first drum and Colt locked in place. Then Alden handed him a second drum, “Just in case, but don’t fire unless I say so, if there’s shooting to be done let me do it first. I don’t want them shooting up the whole damn caravan.” Colt nodded.

  Alden looked to Charlie and Ceara, “You two got rear guard.” He handed a vest to Charlie and a M-60 Machine gun. “You know how this works, I want you behind the van with the doors open just enough so we can get to safety. You can protect us from anyone coming up from behind.”

  Ceara frowned a little, “I guess that means I’m driving.”

  Charlie had slipped the vest on and was fumbling with the Velcro straps, “Honey you’ll do fine.”

  Ceara smiled weakly as she reached over and pulled a strap tight, “You just watch my ass okay.”

  Charlie chuckled, “whatever you say.” Ceara gave the strap another good tug as Charlie yelped out in pain.

  Heath went to the truck, Beth and Colt went to the Rover. Tabitha climbed back in the jeep, she wasn’t one to sit idly by, she reach in the back of the jeep to the back seat pulling out her gun. “If he thinks I am just going to drive through there and trust them, he has another thing coming. She checked the gun and made sure one was in the chamber. Just as she did the cars started moving, so she threw the Jeep in gear and followed.

  Ceara’s heart was beating out of her chest; did they really know for sure all the Wanderers were slow? What if they had been lucky up until then? She looked everywhere at once. Thinking back to Biff’s house something flashed in her memory. After she and Alden had taken down a wanderer, she noticed that the next one to that passed seem to look at the one on the ground, as if thinking about what had happen to the other one. Ceara thought that maybe she was just scared and imagining what had happen, but that didn’t stop her from watching even closer.

  She scanned overgrown ditches on the side of the road thinking just about anything could be hidden in there. They were driving very slow as Alden walked out ahead of them. The houses were mostly intact, a few stood with their doors open and just a few cars were crashed here and there. It was almost if they had tried to clear the road before what ever happen to cause the town to be deserted.

  Ceara was looking in the front door of one of the homes when she rear ended Tabitha. She slammed on her brakes, causing Charlie to walk into the back of the van. At the same time Tabitha came over the radio as Charlie yelled out, “What the hell are you doing!”

  Ceara leaned out the window calling back to Charlie, “Sorry, I was looking around!” She grabbed the radio, “Sorry Tabitha, I was distracted, won’t happen again.”

  Tabitha was quick to come back, “You’re lucky we are going so slow!”

  “I know, I know… I said I was sorry.” The radio went silent and she wondered how mad Tabitha was. They managed to get through the town in about twenty minutes when Alden stopped the caravan. Ceara didn’t understand, they weren’t quite through the town yet? What was he doing?

  Alden waved them all out and waited for all of them to join him. “How many of you know who Jim Jones is?” Beth, Colt and Heath all nodded but Ceara, Charlie and Tabitha all shrugged looking lost.

  Alden leaned on the truck, “Jim Jones back in seventy-seven or seventy-eight was a self-proclaimed reverend. He had developed a very large following and at some point he moved his congregation to Jonestown, Guyana. Reports of people being held against their will came out and a Congressman, and some others went down there to investigate it. Long story short, the Congressman and his group were shot at the airfield when they were getting ready to leave. Shortly afterward the whole congregation drank poisoned Kool-Aid”

  Tabitha stepped forward, “Alden, don’t get me wrong, we appreciate the history lesson but is this really the time for it?”

  Alden looked to the Baptist church, “Look at the sign in the churchyard….” Everyone looked over to it, ‘We will go to our maker on our terms, we will not become your servants’

  Alden shook his head, “I’m going in, and Heath can go with me. I want to make sure it is what I am thinking, but I don’t want the rest of you seeing it in case I am right about this.”

  Alden walked through the gate of small white picket fence that surrounded the Church. Heath was next to him scanning the windows for any sign of life, “In the war…. You were part of the clean force, weren’t you?”

  Alden nodded as he moved slowly towards the steps, “Yeah and it was a grisly sight and the smell was always horrific. We were always there within hours, but with the heat and humidity the bodies were already bloated and infested with flies.”

  The two made it up to the steps and Alden reached for the door knob. “You be ready kid, there may be Wanderers on the other side.” He started to turn the knob as Heath stepped back and raised his rifle. Alden shook the knob gently. “Damn it it’s locked.”

  Heath looked at him, “Fine, then let’s just get the hell out of here. They’re in God’s house, it’s His mess now.”

  Alden shook his head, “Can’t, I don’t want to run the risk of having them break a window and get loose on some poor bastard that comes after us. The rest of the group was waiting and watching, talking among themselves about what was happening. Suddenly Alden stepped back kicked the door in, breaking the lock and splintering it as it swung open. Alden and Heath both ducked as an enormous swarm of flies poured out the opening. Heath turned and threw up as the smell hit him. Alden pulled up his shirt over his nose almost out of reflex. Reaching down he put his hand on Heaths shoulder, “C’mon we need to check this out and we’re gone.”

  Heath stood up and wiped his mouth then his forehead, “Okay boss let’s do this.” The two disappeared through the door. In front of them were the rotting corpses of some three hundred men, women, and children. Heath stopped at the first pew, his feet wouldn’t move any further. Alden walked slowly down the aisle looking at the bodies.

  Beth stood there beside Colt and the others with her hand over her nose. The smell that came rushing out of the church was like a tidal wave that hit her square in the face. She knew what Alden wa
s referring to with the ‘Jim Jones’ story. However, the scientist inside of her took over and she needed to examine some of these subjects to rule out a few things. Making her way back over to the Land Rover Beth opened the door and started looking for something. Colt immediately started to follow her. “You alright, Beth?”

  Beth shook her head and continued rummaging. Putting his hand on the small of her back, “What are you looking for?”

  Beth backed out of the truck and turned around, “You got a towel, rag or maybe even a handkerchief in here somewhere?” Colt immediately leaned in and opened the glove compartment. He found a couple of bandana’s and handed her one. Beth unfolded it and then tied it around her face and started walking over to the church.

  Colt looked at her confused, “What in the world are you doing?” Beth didn’t answer and entered the church. Before she knew it, she was standing right in the middle of the church and all around her sitting in the pews were people of all ages. When he reached the center he looked at the altar where he saw what was left of the Minister and another gentleman.

  Some were dressed nicely while others were dressed in regular everyday clothes. She wanted to see just exactly how they died and it became quite clear when she noticed their heads. Standing there Beth shook her head in sadness and when she saw two little girls laying on each side of a dead corpse which was probably their father that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The one little girl was facing into her Dad’s side as though she was told “Don’t look” while the other little girl laid face first on her Dad’s lap. A single tear fell on the floor of the church as Beth wiped her eye.

  Alden turned back, walked forcefully passed Beth, toward Heath and the door. “They’re all dead from head shots. The last two up there, pointing to the altar, supervised it. Then I guess the man shot the minister.”

  As they walked out Heath looked at Alden, “How do you know the guy shot the preacher?” Alden stopped a few feet out in the yard and turned back taking out a smoke he lit it. “Simple, suicide is against God’s law. The rest were shot out of mercy.”