Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (10 page)

Colt made his way north on Hwy 51 still not sure where he was going, the road sign said Millington 10 miles. That meant gas stations and more supplies; he really sucked at this survival stuff. He had left the house with clothes, two bottles of water, the hammer and the gun. He had needed so much more but how the hell was he supposed to know. He had already drank one of the bottles of water and wanted the other one now. He really thought he would just stop by a store but the stores in Memphis were filled with monsters. They were wandering around in the parking
lots;
Colt thought that once they became a monster they didn’t know to leave where they were. But so far
,
it looked like
many were turned in the stores.

The next sign said Millington 5 files, Colt had decided he needed to find somewhere to get gas and some food. Two more miles up the road he saw a small
store;
the sign was an old beat up wooden sign hanging off a rusted pole. A little closer he could see the name, McNeel’s Grocery. Colt slowed down enough to look around for any monsters, there was a hand painted sign on the door
‘
Closed due to end of the world, Help yourself if you are still breathing
’
Colt put the rover in parked by the gas pumps, he sat there for a few minutes waiting to see if anyone came around or out of the building. When no one did he opened the door, the gas pump said to prepay inside. “Damn it,
how
the hell do you turn these on?”

He opened the lid to his gas tank and took off the cap, then took the pump just in case they didn’t shut it off. The handle just kept clicking off, Colt left it in the tank and walked to the store. Just inside the door he hollered, “Anyone here?! HELLO!”

Other’s probably thought that would be stupid but the monsters seemed to move toward noise so if they were h
ere they would show themselves.

There was no movement so he made his way a little further in and called out again. When there was still no sound he felt a little safer. It was then that he realized his gun was still in the car, “Brilliant Colt, you are just made for this shit aren’t you?”

He would have been dead if anyone had been there. The isles were trashed; people had just torn this place apart. Colt found two cans of generic
soup
, a can of devil ham, saltine crackers,
and the
box had been stepped on but hey he was going to take what he could get. He went to the front, he busted up laughing, there sat a box of Twinkies. Twinkies would survive a zombie apocalypse or so they had said in TV shows, and he didn’t know if the monsters were zombies but here sat the Twinkies.

He grabbed the box as he went around the counter to see if he could start the pumps. Seeing a panel w
ith
all four pumps labeled
,
he figured if he just hit the button it would start them. Colt hit all four, he didn’t want anyone else to come in and not be able to get any gas.
After going back to the door he looked around before going back to the car, he thought he saw something move but wasn’t sure, he wasn’t about to hang out to see who would come to visit. Dumping the few things he got into the front passenger
seat then went to pump the gas.

Thankfully the gas started filling the tank, he glanced in the front seat and saw his water bottle in the console, “Damn it” He reached in and grabbed it then ran back in the store. The coolers hadn’t run in a while but warm water or soda was better than nothing. He found a can of Big K orange soda and a couple bottles of apple juice. Going into the bathroom he emptied his bladder and filled the bottle of water from the tap. As he headed back out of the store he saw gas cans and bottles of windshield wiper fluid. Shoving the drinks down his shirt, he grabbed two of the bottles of the washer fluid, walking outside he opened them up and poured out the contents. Colt shook them out then went back to the bathroom to wash them out the best he could, then filled both with water. Colt carried both in one hand and reached down to snag two of the gas cans on his way back out.

Once back at the car he put the water in the back seat and dug out the drinks from his shirt putting them in the front seat, then carried the gas cans around to the pump. He finished filling up the tank then filled both cans, popping the back door he loaded the cans in the back. Jumping back in the driver’s seat Colt was feeling a little better
about his chances of survival.

Colt got back on the road to go into Millington; he thought he might find a sports store or something for camping gear. He glanced at the rear view mirror and the blue On-star button was blinking, did someone try to contact him? He punched the button and heard a recorded message, the same that had been on the radio, everyone stay home and remain calm. Colt clicked the button again to turn it off. Millington had monsters roaming around but not so many that it worried him, he saw the Wal-Mart off to the right and that was full of them. He slowed down wondering if he could sneak in the auto bays but decided that the store would be just as filled as the lot. Target was the next store a couple miles up and almost but not quite as packed as Wal-Mart had been he pulled over to the shoulder wonderi
ng if he should chance it.

With a heavy sign he pulled away, he wanted something a bit safer. Soon Colt was driving through a residential
area;
he didn’t pay attention to much he just wanted out of there. He wanted back on a main road to find another town but he didn’t know if he was going the right direction, he knew then he should have looked for a map at the store while he had been there. Next stop he would remember a map, just then one of the monsters slammed into his window. He must have slowed down but he didn’t remember doing it. He looked to the monster and realized she wasn’t a monster, it was a young girl begging him to let her in, and she was dragging a little boy with her. Colt thought it must be her brother, he shook his head no, he couldn’t take them. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you!”

She was screaming and begging, “Just take my brother please, I can’t take care of him! We will die PLEASE!!”

Colt slowed to a stop but it was too late, the monsters were coming. The girl looked over her shoulder and started screaming in hysterics banging harder on the window. Colt reached for his gun but he only had five bullets left, another stupid thing he had done, he left home without grabbing the box of ammo. He didn’t want to use the gun now, he wanted to save the bullets. The monsters were there now grabbing the two that were stilling begging him to save them. He pushed down on the gas pedal wondering if he wasn’t becoming a monster too.

The town now was behind him and he was on a county road but the only thing Colt saw was the girl’s face in his window. Did this make him a killer, how would he feel if he had been the one stranded and they were driving through. He broke down then, he couldn’t live like this,
he
wanted to die. Pulling over he just sat on the shoulder of the road crying.

Colt looked in his rear view mirror, he couldn’t see the hoard he had drove away from, but there were some of them topping the hill to come for him. Putting the car back in drive he pulled away again, a couple of miles up he saw the turn for state highway 3. Colt had no clue where it went but it would have to lead to another small town and that’s what he wanted. As soon as he was on the highway he figured out that these people had tried to leave town and this was the main way they had fled.

This was a small four lane highway but getting through the wrecked and abandoned cars was proving more than the rover could do. The south bound lanes had cars but not as many as he was fighting here, veering into the culvert that separated the roads pulling back onto the black top in the southbound lanes still heading north. Driving the next twenty miles took well over three hours but once he passed Covington and a couple of other smaller towns the road was almost deserted. Swerving around a crashed car here and there was easy and he was able to h
it sixty mile an hour at times.

Colt had to pull over to pour one of the cans of gas in the car, it was getting low and he didn’t want to be in the middle of any size town and need to fill it. He went ahead and emptied his bladder and reached in the front seat for the package of crackers. Tearing it open he poured some of the crumbs in his mouth washing them down with the orange soda. Ten minutes later he was heading back down the road toward a town named Ripley, he would scan this place too for anywhere to fill up his tank again and grab a map.

As he got closer he saw that he would have to leave the highway to get into Ripley, he figured there would be another town sooner or later,
and he
was
certianly
counting on sooner. As he was scanning the land he slammed on the breaks, on the right was a sign that read Lauderdale County Sheriff Office. Colt turned the wheel into the entrance
and drove slowly into the lot.

Putting car in park at the back of the lot not wanting to draw attention, he saw a few monsters roaming around and all were wearing uniforms. Across the highway there was a factory but it looked shut down, there were a few cars but not very many and a
just a handful
of the monsters
,
but he was more worried about the ones in this parking lot. Colt reached over grabbing the gun, checked the safety and opened the door.

Climbing out he shut the door as quietly as he could, crouched down he moved around a couple of the patrol cars. The third car’s door was open, he climbed in seeing the shotgun. He grabbed the barrel and pulled but it didn’t move, “Shit”

I
t was locked in to a holder, searching around a bit to see if he could find the key but no luck. He made his way around a few more cars till he found one that the cop had offed himself with a bullet in the brain,
the
guy had been there for a long time by the look and smell of him. Colt reached in and grabbed the gun that hung in the man’s lifeless hand. Shoving it down the back of his waistband, he worked his way closer to the building. He peaked over the hood of one of the cars and saw three monsters wandering his way.

Ducking back down quickly he hoped they didn’t see him but either way they were coming his direction. Colt crawled under the car and watched the feet of the monsters go by. Waiting a few minutes he didn’t see anyone else coming so he edged out to see about getting to the building. As soon as he stood up he was grabbed, he almost screamed but was able to swallow it down. The monster seemed to be all teeth, he must have been bit several times before he turned into one. His arm had a gaping hole and Colt could see the man’s back teeth through the hole in his jaw. His femur bone was poking through his pant leg, Colt wondered how the man was even walking, even as a monster wouldn’t you need that bone to stand? The man was pulling him closer, trying to claw at him. Colt reached for the gun realizing he couldn’t fire it here, but he had no other weapon.

Shoving the man back Colt heard the bone crack even more and the man crumbled, that didn’t stop him, the man was now crawling toward him. Colt kicked the man as hard as he could in the face right in the cheek that was hollow. He felt the man’s head cave in but worse he felt like he broke his own toe in the process. He didn’t care, he kicked the man several more times just to make su
re he wouldn’t be moving again.

Colt took a deep breath and looked around, more had heard the noise and were coming. He didn’t have time to move slowly anymore, Colt ran toward the building as the pain shot through his foot. He reached the front doors yanking them open to several more monsters in there. Slamming it back closed then ran to the side of the building; the back area was fenced with more monsters there, “Great idea Colt!”

Well
,
he was here now better make it count. He scaled the fence and dropped to the other side, pulling out his gun he fired at the first one to get close. He had used the last of his rounds as he found an auto bay that was open. That led him into the lower
offices;
he shoved his gun into his waist band and pulled out the one he had taken from the cop. He searched a few offices and found the ammo room but it was locked, “God you fuckers don’t trust your own people?”

He would have to search a couple of offices better, he hated staying in one place for to
o
long. Going into a long hallway he found himself by the holding cells, “HEY!!! YOU A BREATHER????”

Colt jumped seeing a man in a cell, “Shut up! They will hear you!”

The guy was wasting away in
there;
there was no telling how long he had been in there without food. His clothes looked like they were four or five sizes
too
big. “Let me out!”

Colt just looked him, “I don’t know how”

The man smiled, “Not my problem friend
,
but it is yours, you either figure it out or I start screaming again. If you haven’t noticed I’m safe from them in here but you ain’t.”

The fear must have shown in his face because the man nodded, “I may starve to death but you will be eaten and I’ll watch
,
so you better start looking for
the button to open this cage.”