Charlie looked to the barn, “You know I haven’t ridden very much.”
Ceara hooked his arm with hers, “Come on, please!! I promise we will go slow. Riding has always been a freedom for me, so maybe it will help with whatever is broke in me.”
Charlie allowed Ceara to lead him, “Nothing is broken in you, you’re just tired.”
Ceara started laughing, “Charlie, I love you, but that is a load of crap. I’m not any more tired than anyone else.”
Ceara was saddling the horse she had named Spirit, he was tall, sleek with a shiny black coat. She had named him Spirit for the large white spot that covered his right front flank and flowed under his belly. Spirit was ready to go anytime they wanted to take him out; he pranced in place as if to tell Ceara he was the one for the job. Ceara patted his flank and moved to Dilligas. This horse was a paint with white, brown and black spots, Ceara started saddling him for Charlie.
She looked over the seat of the saddle, “You know you really are going to have to learn how to do this one day.”
Charlie had thrown some hay down for Spirit and stood petting his neck, “I know, but for now let’s just be happy I am willing to climb on one. How come you named that one Dilligas?”
Ceara cinched the last buckle and handed the reins over the Charlie. She climbed on the back of Spirit, “Dilligas is mellow, he doesn’t care about too much of nothing, so I gave him the name a friend of mine named their fantasy football team. It means Do I Look Like I Give A Shit.” With that she spurred Spirit into a trot out of the barn.
Maximus ran beside her just as Charlie joined her on the other side, “Ceara, I think we better stay pretty close, just in case… We are the only ones here watching the house right now.”
Ceara reached down petting Spirit, “We won’t go far, I just want to forget everything for a little while.”
Alden looked to Tabitha and pointed to a side road, “Pull up over there, and let’s have a look.”
The three of them had taken less than a half hour to get to Santa Rosa. The side road took them up a hill that overlooked the town. Alden climbed out with the binoculars and scanned the horizon. His guess was right; the first truck stop was a parking lot full of semis and tankers. He watched carefully and saw no movement. Walking along the hill he looked around some more to see if there were any signs of Wanderers. Bodies lined the ground as birds swooped down and picked at the bodies.
Turning to Heath and Tabitha, “I think this is what Charlie would call a dead zone. From what I can see, everything is dead except the birds, but don’t let your guard down.”
The three got back in with Tabitha driving. Within minutes they were pulling into the truck stop. Alden pointed to a tanker first, “Let’s check that see if it’s full of gas, diesel, or just plain air.”
Tabitha pulled next to it and Alden jumped out. Turning a valve he let some gas spill out, “YES.” He turned the valve back and pointed to a Wal-Mart truck. “Drive over there.”
As Tabitha pulled up, Heath was standing guard and Alden pulled his knife to cut the yellow band on the back, but there was no need. The doors swung open to prove looters or other survivors had beaten them to it.
“Damn it.” He pointed to another one this time a Dollar General truck. He grabbed a pair of bolt cutters and cut the padlock off. Pushing the door up he saw nothing but air, “Fuck we may be out of luck.”
Heath pointed to two more Wal-Mart trucks parked side by side. Alden cut the yellow band on the first one that had a Wal-Mart cab but a Swift trailer. Before he had the door up two inches he almost threw up. The smell of rotten meat came rushing out along with the sound of maggots crawling towards the door. Slamming it shut he stepped back and wiped the tears from his eyes. Heath was trying hard not to laugh but the chuckles were too hard to stop.
Alden grabbed the rifle from his hand, “Okay cupcake you thought that was funny it’s your fucking turn.”
Heath cut the yellow band. Holding his breath and pushing up the door a few inches he was ready to slam it when he smiled, “Like a grocery store on wheels.”
He pushed the door up a few feet. Inside the first two pallets were dry and canned goods on one and Toilet paper and paper towels on the other.”
Alden scowled at Heath, “This one’s yours cowboy, let’s see how you do.”
They went around to the cab Alden was holding the rifle as Heath tried the door gently. The latch began to open and Alden stepped back. Heath pulled the door open slowly. The smell was horrid. Tabitha had pulled up to the front of the truck.
Before getting out of the truck, Tabitha began rummaging through the cab trying to find a rag or handkerchief so that she could wrap it around her face. After seeing the guys making their icky faces she was not about ready to get out and offer to help until she was prepared.
Just as she opened the glove compartment a red dew rag presented itself and she quickly put it on then grabbed one of the bowie knives that were laying on the dash.
When she got out of the truck, she quickly made her way over to the guys, “You all need some help; from the looks of it you all are looking a little green around the gills?”
Heath turned around and smiled at her pointing to the trailer, “Well darling, there is canned food and other supplies in this one, but with that smell I’d almost bet that there is not one but maybe two bodies somewhere inside the cab.”
Alden stood there, “Probably just one cupcake. The smell of one rotting corpse lying around after a few weeks all locked up would be as bad as what you are smelling here. If it was two or more we would’ve never got the damn door open without hurling.”
Heath went around to the other door and opened it. The flies were buzzing around and the smell once more caused Heath to almost throw up. Pulling his tee shirt over his nose he started to climb in. On the floor was a pair of leather gloves covered with grease and dried blood. He quickly put them on then pulled the curtain back on the sleeper.
There lying in the bed was the decomposing body the fortyish old, bald, fat driver. Heath looked out at Tabitha, “Yeah you’ll need to get up in here. This guy and exercise never met.”
Tabitha crawled in through the driver’s door and choked as she saw the body. “OH MY GOD. HE HAS NO PANTS ON!!!”
Heath laughed, “Noticed that did ya? I bet he was just waiting for some young thing like you to come by. From the looks of his privates I’d say a wanderer beat you to it.”
Tabitha reached over and hit Heath as he was laughing and trying to keep his tee shirt over his nose. ‘YOU CAN PULL FATTY MCPOOP PANTS OUT YOURSELF.”
As she tried to back up, Alden was blocking the way, “Get your ass back in there and you two quit screwing around. I want to get this truck and the tanker and get the hell out of here.”
Alden kept looking over his shoulder. This was going way too easy for him, and easy things had a way of getting hard real fast. The body rolled towards Alden’s side as Tabitha and Heath were grunting inside trying to push the large man out. Alden slung the rifle over his shoulder then grabbed the man under his arms and began pulling. He tugged and jerked, “What the hells he hung up on?” Heath called back, “Just wait a second. He’s stuck on the gear shift…. Okay give him a tug.”
Alden yanked and the man rolled out. Alden wasn’t ready for the extreme weight as he tried to back away the man fell on top of him. “GODDAMN IT!!!” Alden was pushing the fat body off him. Suddenly a part of the body broke open and the gasses poured forth. Both Tabitha and Heath backed away and in unison laughed, “Oh my God that’s rank.”
Alden got up brushing himself off. “Get up in that truck and see if it’ll start. I’d hate to have gone through all this for dead batteries.”
Heath climbed back in and rolled both windows down all the way. He turned the key and pushed a button then engine groaned a couple of times at the third try it fired to life. Alden crawled in the passenger side and went through the gears with Heath. “Leave it run and we’ll clear the tanker.” The t
hree of them moved back to the tanker.
Tabitha stood back as Heath held the rifle and Alden opened the door. No smell or flies came out. Alden climbed in and checked the back, finding no dead body a grin came on his face. He searched the cab and found the keys under the seat, turning it on the engine came to life right away.
Alden climbed out as the truck warmed up, Heath was glaring at him, “Why do you get the undead truck, I got to drive that one.”
Alden smiled, “AHHHHH Cupcake…. Rank doth have its privileges.” He turned to Tabitha. I’ll go first you follow and Heath will bring up the rear. I want to drive right through the center of town to see what else we can find. Sporting goods, clothing, anything like that.”
They mounted up and began to head home driving right through town. Tabitha honked her horn after only a couple of blocks. Alden reached over and turned on the CB radio, “What’s up?” Tabitha came back, “Hold up Alden there’s a beauty shop and Red said she wanted scissors and stuff.”
They came to a halt and climbed out leaving the trucks running. Heath took rear guard and Alden the front both waiting for Tabitha to work her way across the street to the beauty parlor.
Quickly she got out of the truck making sure she took her bowie knife with her. Not too surprising the door was unlocked as she slowly entered the salon. The place looked a little disheveled, but not as bad as some of the shops that they had been through since the beginning. As Tabitha made her way over to one of the beautician stations, she looked and saw a nice pair a scissors and a few combs. After she put them in her back pocket she saw a drawer next to where the curling irons were. Once she opened it, she saw a nice pair of shears that would be great for Alden and his military buzz cut look. Needing something to carry it all in she went behind the counter and grabbed a bag then filled it with the things she found plus a few more combs, brushes, the sheers then something over on the wall caught her eye. “SHAMPOO!!!” she smiled!
Tabitha grabbed a few big bottles and some condition as well. Looking around to make sure she had everything, Tabitha did see one more thing and thought she might as well put it in the bag. It was a nice black cape that they could put over everyone when they were getting their haircuts.
Turning to leave Tabitha ran back out of the store and looked over at the guys, “Let’s roll!”
Alden was watching the upper windows as Heath kept his eyes on the streets. As Tabitha ran out and yelled a shot rang out. The bullet struck the pavement near Heath.
“HOLY SHIT!” he cried out as he bent and ducked next to the trailer.
Tabitha stopped in the middle of the street as Alden yelled, “TABBY GET THE FUCK TO THE TRUCK!!”
Tabitha jumped when another shot rang out, this one hitting near Alden.
Alden ran forward and knelt behind a pick up and looked back towards where Heath was now hiding.
Calling out quietly, “Heath… Heath… Did you see where it came from?”
Heath pointed at a building across the street. Alden looked up and scanned the roof then saw a curtain blow in the breeze. As he quickly scanned the other windows he noticed they were all shut.
“Gotcha you son of a bitch.” Alden looked and saw Tabitha had made it to the truck. He looked to Heath.
“Get in your cab and get ready to go.” Heath looked at him like he was crazy and shook his head. Alden scowled at him. “You gotta trust me.”
Heath got up slowly and started to work his way towards the cab of the truck.
Suddenly a shot rang out followed by a several quick ones. Heath spun and watched the body of a man fall from the open window. Heath turned and saw Alden standing by the pickup scanning the roofs and the street. Several Wanderers started to come out of alleys. Both men ran to their trucks and climbed in quickly. Alden grabbed the C.B. ‘let’s get the hell outta here.”
Putting the truck in gear it lurched forward. Alden was watching the rear view mirror to make sure the other two were close behind. Wanderers had stepped into the street and Alden simply rolled over them as they sped out of town.
Back at the house,Charlie let Ceara lead the way, “So where are you taking me?”
Ceara glanced over to him, “There was a crop of trees and I know it sounds stupid but I miss the woods.”
Charlie rode up beside her, “It doesn’t sound stupid, but do you think that’s really smart? Wanders could be in there.”
Ceara shrugged, “There could be, but it really doesn’t make sense for them to stay in a small group of trees when a couple miles away there is a housing complex.”
Charlie kept his mouth shut, but he knew that once all the people in the complex were gone, bitten or dead, that the turned would head out and that could mean the woods that she was heading too.
They rode for a few more minutes and then Charlie saw something that made him feel better, the crop of trees Ceara had talked about was no more than ten or fifteen trees. She saw his smile, “What were you thinking? A whole forest?”
They tied the horses off and started walking into the trees; Charlie had his hand on his knife just to be on the safe side. Ceara got to the center of the outcropping and plopped on the ground smiling at Charlie, she leaned back on her elbows, “See, isn’t this nice?”
Charlie relaxed on the ground beside her, “Ok, you’re right, this is nice.”
Ceara reached in her back pocket pulling out a pack of cards, “Want to play?”
Charlie’s eyebrows shot up and got a smirk, “strip poker?”
Ceara smacked his arm, “Behave….. Do you know how to play poker?’”
Charlie lay back on an elbow, “Yeah, but don’t tell the nuns, Carl taught me. We use to play during the winter when we were cooped up.” He gave her a look, “So who taught you?”
Ceara started shuffling the deck, “My dad, he told me I better learn it and learn it good, because that was one of the ways boys would try to get in my pants.” She gave Charlie a sideways look.
He held up a hand, “Now just a second, you asked me, remember?”
She started giggling, “Yeah but it makes me wonder if you only played with Carl why your mind went right to strip poker?”
“I wasn’t a hermit Ceara, I did go to a party once in a while, but to be honest, how those kids acted, I preferred Carl’s company.”
Ceara began dealing, “ok, five card draw, one-eyed Jack and suicide kings are wild.”
Charlie grabbed his cards looking through them, “Damn Red, you can’t shuffle for shit!”
Ceara looked over her cards, “Red? Tabitha is the only one that calls me that. But I will allow you to call me baby, honey, sweetie or even umm Ceara.” She winked at him and laid down two cards, “How many you want, blondie?”
They played several hands before Charlie called a halt to it, “We need to get back, Alden and the others should be on their way back, plus Beth and Colt will expect us to have dinner going when they get up.”
As Charlie and Ceara neared the house, they heard the sounds of the semi’s coming down the road. The horses were skittish as the big trucks rolled in to a stop. Ceara had no trouble holding hers still. Charlie on the other hand was not as good or lucky. The horse suddenly reared up, and Charlie lost his grip sliding backwards and falling off. His horse started to bolt as Ceara rode up and grabbed the reins. Alden climbed out of the cab and walked over to Charlie, “Sorry about that son. You alright?”
Charlie brushed the dust off the bottom of his jeans, “Yeah as they say the only thing hurt is my pride.”
Ceara had taken the horses and put them in the coral then joined the others. Looking at Tabitha, “So a shopping cart wasn’t big enough?”
Tabitha smiled as she reached back in the truck and handed her the bags of hair supplies, “It was for your order.” Tabitha waved to the trucks, “These here are what the guys thought we needed.”
Heath opened the back of the trailer. There in front of them seemed like enough food and supplies to open up their own apocalypse warehouse. Charlie looke
d to Alden, “I just had a thought. We need to find those guys that helped us out the other day and share it with them I mean; do we really need pallets of toilet paper?”
Alden grinned, “Let’s see what we got, then we can decided on whether we can share some; but yeah I think you’re right. It would put us on good graces with our neighbors… if we can find them.”
Ceara ran in the house dumping the bag out on the table going through everything. “SWEET!!”
Within a few minutes both Beth and Colt came out looking sleepy, Ceara looked over to them. “Oh crap, I’m sorry, I forgot you guys were sleeping.”
Beth joined her at the table, “It’s ok honey, and we needed to get up anyway. What do you got?”
Colt picked up shampoo just as Tabitha joined them at the table, he looked over to her, “Everything go ok? How was the town?”
Tabitha waved to one of the windows, “We are set for a while on quite a few things, but we did have some trouble.”
The looks on all three of their faces made Tabitha continue, “We are all fine! No one got hurt.” She kind of laughed, “Well to put that correctly; none of us got hurt except the guy that decided we were his target practice. He didn’t have a chance to rethink that before Alden took him out.”
Ceara gave Tabitha a look, “Are you sure he was the only one?”
“Only one stupid enough to open fire on us, but no, we don’t know if he was alone or not.”
Colt held up the scissors, “Thank God, which one of you can cut hair?”
Tabitha looked over to Red, then back to Beth, “I can give trims but it would look like a Beatles’ bowl haircut if you wanted anything fancy.”
Beth giggled, “Oh man do I remember those cuts and hell no Colt!! I like your hair and if anyone’s going to have a whack at your locks, it’s going to be me.”
Tabitha busted up laughing as she stood up and walked over to where Colt was then ran her fingers through his hair “ Oh come now Fabio…… you know you love your hair!!!!” Beth swatted Tabitha on the shoulder and joined her in a good laugh.
Surviving Day By Day (Book 2): Fears, Flames, and Future Page 49