Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (13 page)

Alden watched as Charlie came out from under the canopy. His eyes
were
wide as he caught his first glimpse of Ceara. He heard Charlie’s first response as he walked casually by, “Holy shit Al
den
where the hell did she come from.”

Alden grinned, “The woods dumbass.”

Alden stopped suddenly his head turned slowly as he bent down to lay his 45 on a box. Ceara was walking up to Charlie
somewhat
smiling. He figured they were the first people she’d seen alive in days. Standing back up he slipped his knife down the back of his pants. “Charlie make your acquaintance’s and get this girl a bite to eat. I got to take a leak.”

Snapping his finger Tonto, who was staring at the woods again turned and walked over to Alden.
H
e turned and headed to the shelter house. He was glad Charlie was a young man, he was chattering away about how things had gone to shit and he had met Alden and they had some food and on and on. Alden didn’t care what the hell the two talked about as
long
as they kept talking. He reached the shelter house and opened the screen door and let it bang shut, as it did he ducked down and slipped around the side working his way back into the woods with Tonto following him.

Alden turned to his dog, “You keep that growling down boy.”

Alden made a wide arc and found the rocks that gave the park
its
name. They were flat and smooth and very large so going up them was a breeze. Reaching the top he had a view of the whole park. He saw their base camp but could not see Charlie and the new girl. The canopy blended in well with
its
surroundings. Looking back to his left he followed the road to the new girls jeep. Then
looked back farther up the road, h
e missed it at first till he moved a little to his right and the flash of mirror caught his eye. “Damn another vehicle,” he said.

Kneeling he took Tonto by the collar, holding his face to his own, “quiet search,” he said and put two fingers to his lips.

As he let go Tonto took off down the rocks toward where they found the girl. As they entered the woods Tonto slowed down to a speedy but almost deadly silent stalk. Alden was right behind him.

Alden heard the steps up ahead. He didn’t like being upwind this time, it was foolish he thought it could be a deadhead or worse a fucking scout for a patrol either way he had to keep moving and move fast
,
he couldn’t let
whoever
it was get to the camp. His survival depended on it and now he had two kids to worry about.
Thinking to himself
“Goddamn it Al
,
you re
ally screwed the pooch on this; t
aking on untrained civilians in this kind of a situation. If you was on your own you could just slip away or have set a trap back outside of camp, but with the others ther
e
it wouldn’t have been wise”

Just then the prey shifted on it’s heels. Tonto froze and so did Alden both watching the figure through the bushes. It was definitely not a deadhead he thought, as the figure seemed to be trying to look then moved to get a better line of sight on the camp. Alden knew from where they were at the most they would see would be the shelter and maybe a little of the parking lot. “Okay boy we need to move fast and silent.”

Pointing to his left he held Tonto’s collar, “Circle left bring
them
to me boy.”

He made a twirling motion with his hand and then pointed to the person in the woods. As soon as he let go Tonto was off and so was he.

Tonto worked his way around to the back of the person as Alden went the other way placing himself directly across from them. He watched till he was sure Tonto was in place than gave a loud whistle. Their prey was startled and jumped up as Tonto bolted from the woods his teeth barred. Alden heard a scream then the words,
“OH HOLY FUCK, SHIT NO, NO, NO.
”

It was a
girl’s
voice and then she started running away from Tonto and right towards where Alden had crouched behind a large log. Tonto was running but not fast enough to catch her, although he could have easily run the girl down. The young woman was running trying to get away and still stay hidden. As she reached the Log she turned to see Tonto then turned back and leaped over it placing on
e hand on the log to help her.

S
he was half way over when Alden reached up and grabbed her free arm, using her
m
om
entum he pulled her over spinning her face down into the dirt. Swinging his legs over her he straddled her back and had her arm locked up behind her. Tonto leaped gracefully over the log spun and was staring directly into her eyes. Alden leaned down to her ear whispering lowly, “now you listen and listen carefully. This friend of mine is a trained killer he will snap your head off your shoulder before you get a squeak out. He answers to me and me alone. You have intruded on my bubble and I don’t like strangers in my bubble.”

Alden pulled out a long black zip tie and in a flash he had her wrist bound and pulled the other one back and secured it too. The
n sat her up, “
Alright cup
cake very quietly,
no yelling as
there
have been deadheads sighted and I will leave your ass for them. Who
,
the fuck
,
are you and what do you want?”

Colt had made a choice to stay on back roads just to try to avoid any main highways and the cars that were crashed or broke down. Where
the
cars were
,
so were the monsters and that was something he had his fill of. He wasn’t an idiot nor delusional; he
knew he
would face them more and more
,
but he just didn’t want to till he had too. Once he had gotten safely away from Ripley, Colt had pulled over on the shoulder to look at the map. His parents lived in Chicago and out of instinct he realized that was where he was heading. He tossed the brochure in the passenger seat and opened the map. Where to go was not
an easily answered question.

The CDC was working on a cure so maybe he should head there, but CDC was always in a highly populated area and he didn’t want any big cities full of monsters. Colt considered a military base, they would have secured the base and made it safe, or so he thought. Looking over the map he found Fort Leonard Wood. Tapping the place on the map happy that he made a choice and one that he really thought was a good one. Throwing the Rover back in gear he felt a little better about things
.

The sun was setting when he reached the bridge to cross the Missouri river. “You have got to be fucking kidding me; did everyone have the same idea I did?”

Cars as far as he could see were piled up on the bridge going both east and west. Leaning his head back on the head rest wondering how he would get across the river. Colt knew there were no other bridges within a couple
hours
drive, longer
than that
with all the issues on the roads. Just then he heard two dings and look
ed
up, his gas light warning was on. “Oh this just keeps getting better.”

Both
of
the cans in the back were empty and his food was running low; worse the sun was setting. “Well Ollie this is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.”

He had to smile, Jessica had always said that when he messed something up. Colt threw the car in park and killed it, no sense wasting what was left. Grabbing the knife he got out of the car, he knew gun fire would
draw attention he didn’t want.

He made his way up to a few of the cars; the third one had a monster trying to get out of the car. He left the creature where it was, figuring if they had not found a way ou
t yet they wouldn’t now either.

Several cars stood empty
,
others were blo
ody but were also empty. Colt thought
tha
t these cars had monsters that had managed to get out
. He headed for the bridge but stopped short, if he was caught up there by monsters the only way out would be jumping and that was a long drop. Looking around a thought occurred to him, “If they had the same idea I did what if they have some gas cans hid?”

He quickly started going to cars looking in the back, “No
dumbass,
they wouldn’t keep them inside the car, it would be in trunks!”

Colt found a toolbox in one of the trucks and started breaking into trunks. Some were easy, just push of a button and there it was; but others had to be broken into.
He was right, seven of the cars held gas cans, none were full but with all combined Colt was able to fill his tank and fill one can all the way and the other halfway.

Once that was done he was back to his original problem, how to cross the river. By the time he was ready to drive again the sun had set and the moon was only half full, not a bright night. Colt decided this was not the night to cross the river, he flipped a u-turn and headed back to an area that seemed somewhat empty. Parking on the shoulder, locking the doors he climbed in
the back seat to try to sleep.

He wouldn’t have believed it but he was asleep within minutes, but was woke up screaming. The nightmares were horrible, Jessica was there trying to eat him and he had to kill her. Suddenly there were monsters banging on his windows, they must have heard the screams. “Where did you come from?!”

There were more than twenty and more coming toward him, Colt climbed into the driver’s seat screaming at them to go away. The keys were still in the ignition and with a quick turn the engine roared to life and Colt punched the gas running over several of the monsters even targeted a couple once he was going. He didn’t know why, other than if he didn’t kill them they would try to kill him. He looked in the rear view mirror and saw them get back up, he wondered if they could be killed really. He thought back to the sheriff’s office and remembered the ones that had bullets in their heads stayed down. That had to be it, he had to make sure to go for a head sho
t if they came after him again.

Looking at his watch he saw he had slept at least ten hours but he still had the issue of getting across the bridge. Colt drove close to the bridge again and wondering if he could maneuver the vehicles out of the way, there were so many though that he knew that wasn’t logical.

Driving east till he found a way to cross the highway, then headed north again looking for
an
old road, bridge or hell even boat he didn’t care
at this point
. Soon he saw a covered bridge with no vehicles around it, Colt sighed with relief til
l he saw why there were no cars…
it was a railroad bridge. “Fuck! Damn it, Can you cut me just a little slack?? What the hell did I do to deserve this? Ok
, fine…
let’s do this.”

Colt drove up to the first railroad crossing he saw and turned following the tracks rattling his vehicle to the point he thought this was a really bad idea. He was halfway across the bridge when he saw the missing beam, “Really?”

Punching the gas, he hoped that he could just fly over it. The plan kind of worked, he got over it but the jolt slammed him face first into the steering wheel. Colt felt the blood flowing down his face and could taste it, he didn’t take the time to check until he was across the bridge and back on a hard top road. Pulling off he flipped the visor down and saw his face. His nose was broken and he was pretty sure he would have black eyes. Reaching in the back he found a shirt, wiping off the blood then held i
t to his face hoping that it would
stop the bleeding.
A few hours later he was seeing signs to Mark Twain National park, Colt thought this would be a good stopping point. Off to the right he spotted a small gas station, a large sign said “OUT OF GAS, OUT OF OUR MINDS, GO AWAY”

Colt laughed but it hurt his nose
too
bad to keep laughing, “Well at least they had a sense of humor.”

Pulling in he grabbed the gun and went to the side of the building to the bathroom, it was locked. Colt knew most places did this so he thought the key would be in the store, checking the gun he made his way to the front of the store not sure if the owners had left or not. Pushing through the door he saw several rats running along the shelves, “Well I guess they either run to fast or the monsters don’t like’em”

Colt looked around the store and even checked the back room, no one was there. He went behind the counter and found the bathroom key on a nail, beside it on a shelf was a shotgun and a box of shells, “Oh Now you help, where were
you back on that damn bridge.”

The last few days Colt had been talking more and more to God, he had no one else. He grabbed the shotgun, shells and the key and headed back out the door. There he saw what he was
worried about
, monsters, he knew there had to be some. Thankfully there were only two and neither looked to agile, he slipped around the side of the building and slid in the bathroom, locking it when he got in. Turning to the sink, he turned on the water and pulling off his shirt to rinse out the blood. After getting as much blood and grime out of it he could he used it to wash is face. After he was as clean as he could get he washed the shirt again, wringing it out he tossed it over his shoulder and headed out the door. This time he didn’t even hesitate, he saw the monsters and fired hitting each right in the head. Colt had aimed right between the eyes but head shot was a head s
hot as far as he was concerned.

Heading back down the road he knew he was becoming desensitized to taking human life. Several miles up the road Colt saw a road sign that let him know that Mark Twain National Park was 15 miles away. Hoping for a cabin or maybe just an abandoned RV, that wasn’t something he expected but he could hope, it was about all he had left. The road was starting to wind and there were more and more trees, Colt lowered his window to get the fresh smells. Within ten minutes Colt was deep in the woods, passing a large lake where he saw a beautiful group of deer. Turning up a side road he wove deeper into the woods, and there in front of him sat a car blocking the road. “Just your luck Colt,
pick the road that’s blocked.”

He slowed to a stop, grabbed his gun and went to see if he could push it off the road. Luckily the keys were in it but he soon found out why. It was sitting on empty. Throwing the car into neutral Colt pushed it as far as he could off the road, then drove his own car around. A couple of miles up he saw a monster walking on the road, “Damn it, here too?” As he got closer he noticed it was a female and didn’t look like the others but he didn’t want to take chances, she could have just been turned. Colt locked the doors and slowed down as he got beside her.