Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (40 page)

Working quickly
,
Beth started down the aisle looking for the exact things that she knew that they would need. Quickly she grabbed a couple bottles of Azithromycin which would treat a number of possible infections that could come along. Then of course
,
she went for the Penicillin which she grabbed about four bottles of that. Stopping for a
m
oment
Beth then thought about some of the things that they may have to eat
,
like berries and other wild game things that may cause some digestive problems and immediately found a couple bottles of Metronidazole
.
I
f anything got inside the body that did not need to be there
,
this stuff would definitely get rid of it. Beth grabbed the two biggest bottles of that and Ceara kinda gave her a weird look. Beth remarked with a chuckle, “This medicine here will knock anything wrong in your tummy, right out of you!! Only drawback is it all comes out the south end, if you get my meaning!! Another bad side effect is that it tastes like your sucking on
nickels,
but it will knock any ickies ou
t of ya that is for damn sure!”

Ceara smiled
, “Can’t say I am looking forward to needing to take any of that.” Ceara
held the bag while Beth chucked more and more stuff into it. After filling the bag with more antibiotics for just about everything she finished by getting a few tubes of really good Bactroban Cream. “This stuff right here Ceara…..well, you heard of Neosporin right?” Ceara shook her head and Beth continued while holding up a tube of the Batroban, “make
s
Neosporin look like petroleum jelly!!” With the bag weighed down heavily now Beth turned and headed out of the roo
m with Ceara right by her side.

Just as they got out of the back room Ceara remembered soap, “You go ahead, I’m going to look around a bit more.”

Ceara walked up and down the aisles picking up razors, shaving cream, deodorant, and even found a small box of Tide. “Well
Mom
would be happy to know I finally have to do my own laundry.”

Most of the store was empty but she was pretty sure they had found enough to hold them over for a little while. Ceara still hadn’t found good soap
,
but they could make due with the Dial she had found at the farm. It was better than nothing in her mind. Making her way back to the front she saw the aisle marked outdoors, she turned down it and found charcoal scattered everywhere.

All the bags were gone except the tattered remains of two bags that Ceara figured several people fought over. Stepping around all the briquettes on the floor she looked for lighter fluid or matches, remembering about the gummy bears and how they had been kicked under a display she knelt down and searched under the shelves. These went all the way to the floor so she had no luck, “Damn it, well we made it
this long without that stuff.”

She got back to her feet and dusted off her knees, grabbing her backpack she headed to the front of the store. Alden, Beth and the soldier were all talking and she set her back
pack on the register to listen.

Alden looked up at
Jeff,
the
n
noticed that Ceara and Beth had joined them. He looked at them and they had tears in their eyes. He knew the story had brought back their own painful memories.
Alden was about to speak when Randy came running in, “SARGE WE GOT COMPANY AND IT AIN’T THE AVON LADY!”

As Randy turned and started back out the door
,
he fired a round and hit a middle aged deadhead in a flower dress, “Well maybe she was the Avon lady but the rest ain’t.”

The squad had taken up defensive positions and were locked and loaded. The soldiers had massed around their vehicles and were ready for a fight and flee tactic. Jeff turned and looked at Alden, “Sergeant you take your lady friends and get out of here
,
we’ll cover you.” Alden turned to the girls, ‘MOUNT UP WE’RE GONE!”

Ceara and Beth didn’t giggle this time
,
the
y
moved quickly throwing their plunder into the back of the truck and climbed in. Beth, in the middle and Ceara at the door, Alden moved to the driver’s side and started to climb in, “Sergeant I have a ten meter ham radio but not sure of an antenna yet If I get it working I’ll be on frequency 158.68”

Sergeant Cline waved as he ran to his Humvee shooting two deadheads that had crawled out of an alley. Alden started the truck and put it in gear he pulled out and turned down the alley the deadheads had come out of. Ceara screamed, “ALDEN THIS PLACE IS COVERED WITH DEADHEADS!”

Alden grinned as he pushed down on the gas and began running them over as he drove faster, “yeah I know” he said with a laugh.”

Beth looked at Ceara, “you know he seems to be enjoying this way too much,” as another deadheads body was crunched under the tire of the truck and they all bounced inside the cab. Coming out on the main highway Alden let out loud, “WHAAAAAAA HOOOOOO,” as they tore off back to their home. The sounds of machine gun fire coming from behind them.

Colt watched as the
others
pulled away, as the dust settled Colt wondered if he would ever see any of them again. Charlie’s hand landed on Colt’s shoulder, “They’ll be back, we’ll give them a few hours then we’ll go after them if we have too.”

Colt looked down the road, “Yeah, ok… I just don’t know that separating was the smartest plan.”

Charlie laughed, “Well I don’t know about that, Alden always seems to know the best plan of attack and this was his, I trust his judgment.”

Charlie turned to walk back in the cabin then stopped in the yard, “How about we keep ourselves busy, I can go hunting and you get some wood cut and maybe Tabitha can look for that antenna thing Alden wanted.” Colt nodded and turned to follow Charlie to the cabins, Charlie stopped by his cabin to grab his
rifle
and Colt headed to the back.

The axe
lay
against the first
cabin;
he grabbed it as he walked by heading to the stump that he had used when he and Beth were here alone. Picking up the first log getting ready to split it, he heard Tabitha, “Hey, what’cha doing?”

Colt smiled as he let the axe fall, splitting the log, “Doing
a puzzle, what are you doing?”

Tabitha smirked, “Primping for the Ms. America contest, how am I doing?” She twitched her hips and smiled.

Colt laughed, “Not bad.” He leaned over grabbing another log and Tabitha headed off to the shed calling over her shoulder, “Well I have to find that antenna th
at Alden wanted, wish me luck.”

Colt kept cutting hoping it would distract him from thinking about what could be happening to Beth. She was with Alden and that made him feel better but far from good. His mind wandered to Beth being mad at him and he had to smile, every woman was different. If he had said something Jessica didn’t like she would have just put her little hand on her hip, glare at him and simply say, “Really, you going to stick with that lin
e or would you like a do over?”

Not Beth, Beth let it bug her for over twenty four hours before she let him in on what he had done. Soon Charlie was walking out with his
rifle and waved to Colt.

There were not
too
many items
lying
around the shed like Tabitha thought there might be. When growing up often on her walks she would notice people’s odds and ends lying on the outside of garages such as tools, ladders and other work tools. Then she remembers that this was a park and that was when she opened the doors.

The smell was kind of musty but nothing that airing it out wouldn’t get rid of. Before she entered
,
Tabitha opened the doors up as wide as they would go
,
this would serve two purposes. One, air it out and two made the inside more visible because Tabitha did not know if there would be an
y light switches on the inside.

Fortunately the sun was shining which brightened up the interior of the shed. Slowly
,
Tabitha made her way in and saw a couple of ladders, an old fashion
ed tool box, a couple of basketballs, volleyball and a volley
ball net. She thought that maybe it would be cool to set that up when everyone got back and perhaps they could all have some fun together.

After a little while more
searching Tabitha had reached the back of the shed, located at the back in the left corner Tabitha found some antenna that was lying on the floor. Bending over Tabitha noticed that it was in five sections and she figured that after they would be put together it would average twenty feet tall. “I’m just gonna leave these right here and show Alden when he gets home cause I sure as hell don’t want to lose any pieces,” she spoke to herself.

Making her way along the back wall to the other corner Tabitha found at least four rods and reels along with a huge tackle box. “BINGO!” she said happily. The one thing that she knew was fish
ing
and this was right up her ally. Quickly she grabbed the poles in one hand and picked up the tackle box in the other then made her way outside.

Tabitha noticed that Colt was still chopping wood and she asked, “You like to fish?!” Colt looked over at her and
his eyes got as big as saucers, “Nice find!” He yelled over.

Charlie had decided to try and get some meat for dinner
,
rabbits or squirrels
,
though he preferred rabbit. Moving through the woods as quiet as he could he noticed the two dogs were trailing him. He hadn’t traveled more than a mile when he spotted an open field. Sitting down behind a log right at the tree line he watched and waited for anything to move. The dogs sat next to him and seemed to be looking for him. “You two got better eyes than me, just don’t blow it and g
o barking your fool heads off.”

He said with a chuckle. It
was
Max who stood up first. Straight as an arrow he pointed out towards the field. Charlie raised his head a little more and saw
what had caught the dogs sight.
It was a good sized Doe. Charlie couldn’t believe his eyes, the deer was only about 50 yards away and had come walking out of the tree line. It had stopped and seemed to be looking around but not at Charlie or even in his direction. He took careful aim and
began to pull
the trigger on the
rifle
.

A loud gun shot rang out and Charlie dropped to the ground. Tonto had gone to a prone position but Maximus started to growl still standing. Charlie reached up and pulled on his collar, “Get down here Max now!”

Max sat, then lay down but was still growling. Tonto’s head was up slightly but he made no noise at all. There across the clearing came four men wearing black leather vests and jean. They had automatic weapons and shotguns and were whooping and hollering about the kill. Their hair was long and dirty, some had beards other were just scruffy from not shaving. The wind was blowing towards Charlie and he could smell the funk off their bodies. The men were cussing up a storm as they got to the deer.

Charlie looked at Tonto who had backed up a little. “This ain’t good is it?” Tonto backed up a little more and looked to Charlie as if to say “We need to go.”

Charlie was about to move back
just as Maximus barked, Charlie yanked on the collar not trusting himself to speak,
when he heard a man’s voice. “Hold up boys, we ain’t the only ones after this fucking deer.”

He
looked over in Charlie’s direction
. They all turned and started to scan the woods. One guy stepped over the deer and seemed to be looking to C
harlie’s left, ‘HEY! YEAH YOU!!
COME
ON
OUT WE’LL SHARE THE KILL!”

Another one started to laugh and Charlie heard him to, “Right after we cut your balls or your tits off depending on how ugly you are.”

The first man turned and smacked him, “Shut the fuck up he’ll hear you!”

“You know what?? Fuck you Dog breath! And fuck him too!!”

The second man fired three shots into the woods and Maximus jumped up and growled. The men turned and looked right at the dog. Charlie laid flat and started to crawl backwards when the next shots rang out. Charlie moved quickly calling to Max in a whisper, “Down boy down we got to go.”

The next shot landed right at Max’s feet and that was too much
,
Charlie had to do something.
H
e aimed and fired hitting the man who was shooting right in throat. The
bullet pierced it
all the way through
.
His eyes went wide as he dropped his rifle and grabbed his neck. His attempt was futile. The
bullet
had severed his wind pipe and blood poured out through his fingers as he gasped. The other men dropped down behind the deer and started to shoot wildly. Charlie turned and crawled on his belly as Max took off for the camp. Tonto was leading the way and suddenly he was up and running. Charlie followed the dogs lead and got up to run too. The men behind Charlie were screaming, “THE MOTHER FUCKERS SHOT HIM!!! YOU BETTER RUN YOU LITTLE FAGGOT WERE GOING TO GUT YOU AND FUCK YOU IN THE ASS WITH YOUR OWN DAMN
RIFLE!!!!!”

The gun shots continued as the men fired wildly into the woods. Charlie fled running as fast
as he could back to the cabins.

Colt had a good pile of wood building when he heard the shots, the dogs burst through the trees with Charlie close behind, “GET INSIDE NOW!!!”

Tabitha dropped the rods and ran for her cabin, Colt closely followed with Charlie right behind him. Tabitha had her shotgun cocked and looked out the window, “Where are they coming from?”

Charlie was breathing
heavy, “Same…place…I….came…out,
but I can’t be sure, but their armed.” Colt was watching out the back door, “Armed, the monsters are carrying weapons now?”

Charlie shook his head, “Not the deaders, they’re human.”

Colt smiled, reaching for the door,
“
More survivors??
Maybe we can reason with them!”

Charlie slammed the door just as Colt opened it, “Did you not hear the gun shots
?
That wasn’t me shooting out there!”

Tabitha glared at Colt, “
God Damn it,
Not everyone is nice Colt, and you better learn that NOW!”

Colt hung his head, “I guess I just want to believe it’s us against the monsters.”

Charlie ran to the front room to
reload his
rifle and was back within seconds, he made
it back to the window
just as a shot rang out. Colt and Tabitha both quickly moved from their windows and looked at each other. Tabitha reached to the window sliding it open, leaning in a crouched position she looked to Charlie, “How many?”

Charlie moved to the opposite side of the window, “Was four, but they are down to three.”

Tabitha smiled, “Like those odds.”

Charlie looked out the window just as the men came into the
clearing;
the middle aged man with a beard led the way, “COME ON OUT BOY, WE GOT ENOUGH AMMO TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T COME OUT ALIVE, and YOU BETTER TAKE THIS CHANCE!”

One of the others laughed, “Yeah plus we got more people we can go get!”

Tabitha leaned to the window but not allowing them a clear shot at her, “YOU PUSSIES BETTER THINK TWICE, MOVE ON AND THERE WON’T BE NO NEED FOR THIS! WE HAVE BURIED ENOUGH, DON’T THINK I WANT TO TAKE THE TIME TO BURY YOU TOO!”

Colt watched the men, as soon as Tabitha spoke grins played on all their faces; he knew just what was going through their minds.

One of the men grabbed his crotch, looking to his friend, “Pretty boy has a toy we might have to play with it, iffin it looks decent enough.”

The others laughed, “They all look the same from the back.”

All three laughed
,
Tabitha leaned back to the window, “YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE ME, YOU COME ON AND TRY TO GET ME!!”

A shot came through the window shattering the glass and hitting one of the cabinets. Colt looked back to Charlie and Tabitha, “Guys, they aren’t going anywhere. I don’t think we are going to have a choice in this one.”

Tabitha got a cynical look, “Still want to send out the welcoming party?”

Colt sneered, “Funny…”

Charlie interrupted them, “They are sending one around front
, Colt you go cover the front.”

Colt nodded and began low crawling away from the back. Charlie moved to the door where Colt had been and glanced out and got a large grin, “Ok I think I may know what Alden would do and Tonto does too!”

Tabitha looked at where Charlie pointed; Tonto was positioned by the shed just out of sight of the men. He was close to the man in charge and Charlie had a clean shot at the other. Looking to Tabitha, “Wonder where Max is?”

Tabitha shrugged, “Hopefully around front somewhere.”

Charlie’s hands were shaking, when he fired at the men in the woods he didn’t really aim for the guys throat. He wanted to do a William Tell and kind of make them back off but he missed big time he thought. “I fucked up Tabitha I should have never shot that guy.”

Tabitha looked at him with surprise, “Are fucking kidding me??! They shot at you what the hell were you supposed to do
,
you moron????!!!”

Charlie kept peeking out to watch the two men and Tonto who had not moved an inch he almost looked like a statue laying in the grass. Charlie moved to the door way between the kitchen and the front room calling quietly to Colt, “Do you
see anything? Can you see Max?”

Colt jumped when Charlie spoke, “The one guy went through Ceara’s jeep, now he is looking in my rover, your van is next and I don’t think we want him
making it to it, do we?”

Charlie shook his head, “No, I would prefer they didn’t make it there.”

Colt looked back out the window, “Hey there’s Maximus…. ummmm Charlie I don’t think that dog is going to give us a choice about acting.”