Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (21 page)

Ceara sat by the fire pulling the blanket closer, watching the flames as everyone went to sleep. The flames danced around and Ceara started making pictures in them. At one point she thought about a herd of wild mustangs running through the flames, another was a concert she had went to last summer, the last was the wheat swaying in wind across from her parent’s farm. Each vision was of freedom, each on
e was of life and better times.

A twig broke and Ceara jumped turning to the sound, but staring into the fire had blinded he
r. “Wow Ceara that was stupid!”

S
he closed and opened her eyes several times to get them to adjust to the night. Finally she was able to see a bit, she knew if it was a deadhead then it would be in camp already but they
could
just be wandering around. She wondered if they could still smell, had they smelled the steaks from earlier
?
Ceara bent down to get the gun Alden had given her, she was wishing he had shown her a little more about it before leaving her alone. Tossing a small branch on the fire so it didn’t burn to low, she then went to the edge of camp holding up the gun pointing it everywhere she looked. Glancing back she almost wanted to wake Charlie but then they would all just see her as
naïve, scared little girl
.

Ceara walked a little more, “Hello? Is there anyone there?”

More twigs broke, then leaves were being shuffled, her heartbeat was beating so hard she felt it through her chest. “I have a gun!”

Ceara realized she was doing little more than whispering, raising her voice just a bit, “Hello??”

Whatever it was, it was getting closer, and she flipped the safety off and stood her ground. Knees shaking so bad she finally knelt down, it was no more the twenty feet away but in the dark and wood
ed
,
she still
couldn’t see anything
.

Suddenly it was there! A huge thing coming right at her!! Her finger tightened on the trigger but then she saw…”MAXIMUS!!! What the fuck??”

The dog dropped something and lowered his head. “What do you have?”

Ceara went over kneeling down she saw a rabbit, “Ok good dog
,
but damn it don’t scare me like that no more ok?”

Kissing Maximus’ head as he grabbed up the rabbit and laid down by the fire to enjoy his meal.
Eleven finally came and she crept over to Charlie, “Hey, Hey” shaking him gently. He woke with a jump, “It’s jus
t me, it’s your turn to watch.”

Charlie dreamed of walking through fields of flowers with the wind gently blowing on them. He could see birds soaring above in a blue sky with puffy white clouds. In the distance he saw his old school mates they were all just milling around. As he got closer they began to wave and call to him, though their voices were muffled. Walking along
,
the sky began to turn grey the clouds above him thickened,
y
et the kids ahead kept calling him. Suddenly he realized they were all dead, their voices
were
only moans of his name Chaarrrrllllieeee, Chaaaarrrrllllieeee, Charlie
!!!

He woke up sweat pouring off his body as he looked into Ceara’s eyes; she was telling him it was his turn. Sitting up he looked around to make sure his dream had been just that. “Yeah….. okay…… Yeah, my turn,”
h
e said.

Ceara looked at him with soft eyes, “bad dreams Charlie?”

“Yeah, they always start out fine but end up in this dark grey world full of those monsters.”

He slipped out of the sleeping bag and picked up his crossbow. Looking at Ceara he smiled weakly,
“
I got another sleeping bag in my van
,
not as good as this one but at least it’s dry.
”

Ceara smiled, feeling the inside of the bag. It was damp from
Charlie’s
sweat and with night chill coming on she opted for his offer. The two walked over and Charlie took out an old sleeping bag and a couple of blankets. “Here this will keep you warm.”

Ceara smiled at him,
“
Ch
arlie you’re a true gentleman” s
h
e kissed his cheek, “Thank you.

Charlie walked her back over to the camp and watched as she climbed in the sleeping bag then placed a blanket over her. He turned and went to sit by the fire. An hour had passed and the cold from the
spring
night air was getting to him. Charlie got up and walked to the edge of the woods away from the fire but not far, relieving himself in the bushes, he let out a sigh and turned to get a coat from his van. Opening the door, the dome light came on and he quickly grabbed a leather bomber jacket and a small box of animal crackers. Shutting the door he returned to the fire and began playing with it. Pushing the logs around causing sparks to fly up. He grabbed a nice log and placed it in the fire. Suddenly another log popped and sparks flew out one landed on his hand,
“OUCH , SHIT SON OF A BITCH!!!”

He bit down on the sleeve of his coat to keep his voice down. Looking at his watch he saw he still had about a half hour. He started another pot of coffee which was steaming within five minutes. Charlie poured a cup and almost spilled it as a hand came down on his shoulder. “Thanks son I need that.”

Charlie jumped as he turned the
re
stood Alden. “With the amount of noise you two kids have been making and you pissing in the woods, I might as well take over.”

Charlie handed the cup to him, “Damn I’m sorry boss, I didn’t mean to be so loud
it’s
just the sparks flew and caught me off guard.”

Alden smiled, “It’s okay kid. Go grab some sack time I got this.”

Alden watched as Charlie put his bag next to Ceara’s. Smiling, he sat by the fire sipping the coffee. He looked up to the stars above as an owl hooted off in the distance. At his age being up in the middle of the night was not uncommon any more. He used to refer to it as “the curse”… from being in the service and having to stand watch in faraway unfriendly countries. He couldn’t really remember when the last time he had gotten a good night sleep.

The d
eadhead’s had screwed everything up
that
he knew and loved. His plans of retiring quietly on his little mountain had gone to shit. He had wanted to be able to just sit on his porch and watch the world go by.

Sighing deeply he watched as a star shot across the sky. He then heard Tabitha turn in her bag then watched as Ceara snuggled deeper in her bag. Charlie was buried deep in his
own
bag. “Damn here I am over fifty, grey haired, and single, taking care of a bunch of kids who somehow
,
some way managed to get their asses to the same place as me without getting bit, raped or mugged.”

Deep down
,
he was very impressed with his new found friends. He knew with all the chaos it took a little luck but a whole lot of smarts to get to where they were all at.
Hearing the bushes move behind him he never even turned but simply whispered, “Come here boy.”

Tonto walked over and
laid
his head in Alden’s lap to get his ears scratched, “You know boy
,
we got to
take care of them kids now. They’re
our responsibility.”

Tonto licked his hand. Then turned around three times and laid down next to his master. Alden sat and watched Tonto sleep
,
reaching down and petting him often. Maximus was next. He walked over,
as he got near Tonto’s head po
ped up and a low growl came forth. “Now.. now boy, he’s a friend too.”

Petting Maximus he scratched his ears. “Now you go lay down next to cupcake two. She brung ya and you need to take care of her.”

Maximus did as he said and laid next to Ceara between her and Charlie. Alde
n shook his head, “smart dog”….

He kept the fire going and as the sun started to come up he added a couple of more logs to it. He wanted it nice and hot when the kids awoke. Getting up he walked over and took the coffee pot, pouring the last into his cup and then making a fresh pot. Looking at his watch he figured it was time to wake the hell cat up.

He moved to where Tabitha was sleeping, reached down and slowly began wiggling her toes, softly calling her. “Psst hey cupcake, cupcake three.”

He watched as she poked her head out of the bag but only just past her nose. Her eyes were full of the night sand. “You’re up sweetie, rise and shine. I’m going fishing.”

Tabitha looked at Alden like a stranger for a
m
oment
with her eyes now very wide and with her left eyebrow cocked upward she smirked when she remembered hearing him say the word, “Sweetie”. It sure had been a hell of a long time since she had heard that word and it wasn’t ever being used towards her. She always was the one using it and not
as
casually as the way that he had. More along the lines of “You better get your facts right there sweetie” and that was always with a hint of sarcasm.

This was entirely different…Alden sounded a tad endearing which caused Tabitha to sit straight up and brush the hair out of her eyes. But before she could make a witty comment to Alden she noticed that Alden was walking away from her. Looking around she noticed that the others appeared to be sound asleep and remembering that it was now her turn to take watch she did not want t
o holler out and wake everyone.

Quietly getting out of her bag Tabitha cautiously made her way towards the
bathrooms. She needed to go pretty bad
.

This was the one time of the day that always made her feel alive more than ever. Being alone was one thing
she loved. W
henever she used to hide out in the woods when she was a kid she always thought of everything that was out in the wilderness was actually more alive than all those people that use to bother the shit out of her. Tabitha communed well with nature but she would
have
never allowed anyone around her to know this because it would ruin her bad ass reputation.

When she had tidied up Tabitha made sure that she had the camp always in her sights but she walked the outlying perimeter. Not many branches had been broken and the leaves on the ground appeared to be quite weathered which told her that there had not been
too
many hikers out and about before everything had gone to hell.

Quietly Tabitha tip toed making sure to not make hardly any noise that would stir the others. “The others
.
..” Tabitha thought to herself. Somehow the people that she had been always running from were now the ones that were trying to survive just as she was.
As far as
Tabitha
was concerned;
she along with the other three were the only ones alive and for that matter they could be the only living, breathing humans left on the face of the earth. Tabitha thought of them not needing her, that was one thing, but then again she had to think that maybe she
needed them more than she knew.

Before realizing it Tabitha had made it back over to the fire and took her seat down on top of her sleeping bag. She sat there watching the low burning embers dance as the breeze blew by.
She saw
the pot of coffee made
,
Tabitha reach into her back pants pocket to grab her pack of smokes. Noticing she only had about eight left Tabitha knew she would have to either quit or make a store run.

Chuckling to herself she quietly said, “I will just go ahead an
d use my five finger discount.”

Tabitha picked up a small twig off the ground and lit her cigarette from some of the embers. Tabitha took that first cool drag. While holding it in her eyes traveled over to the two little innocent love birds. Seriously
,
Tabitha did not mean them
any
harm. She honestly did like the virgin qualities of Charlie and the hard headiness
of Ceara. Even old man snaggle-
puss had grown on her when he mounted her while trying to rescue her ass.

Although
Tabitha did not want to have a relationship with anyone
,
but just knowing that she could now be a real person without trying to always avoid people
,
caused her to begin looking at the three others like a family of some sorts. “Funny how things work”, she thought to herself.

Throughout her life she n
ever wanting to fit in with
all the
others
;
well now she had to fit in to survive and if she had to do it, she was bound and determined to have a whole hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Tabitha sat there finishing her smoke and taking all of the noises in as the sun
had begun
to rise
,
making the base of the tree line glitter and glisten. Off in the distance she could hear the simple singing of the birds which was quite amazing with all of the death that
they all had been subjected to.