Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (14 page)

Ceara watched as the old man walked off, she thought that the other guy called him Al
den
but she wasn’t sure. The guy he had left her with was talking a mile a minute about everything that he had went through, she was right the other guy was Al
den
and near a God to this guy. Holding up her hand to silence the guy, “I’m Ceara”

The young man blushed, “Sorry ‘bout that, names Charlie.”

Ceara held out her hand and shook his, she told him about everything she had went through leaving out some of the details, like killing her own father and stealing the jeep. Charlie went to get her something to eat, “Sorry it ain’t warm, Al
den
don’t want no fire.”

Ceara smiled taking the cold soup, “Hey food of any kind is welcome.”

Sitting on one of the logs she looked at Maximus, she had his food in the jeep. “Look, I need to feed Max
ims,
his food
,
along with my other supplies
are
in my jeep. You think it would be ok if I go get it?”

Charlie looked in the direction that Al
den
had went and looked back to her unsure. Ceara set the can of soup to the side, “Look, he may be your boss but he isn’t mine, I asked to be polite but I’m going. Come on Max
imus
!”

Maximus followed her, she liked that he was starting to listen to her, he wasn’t as good as the old man’s but she didn’t think there were many dogs that good.
Ceara found her way back to the jeep pretty easy and she grabbed a few supplies, her gun and Max
imus
’ bag of food. Charlie had walked up as she pulled out the bag, he hefted the bag on his shoulder, “Ok you got it now let’s get back ok?”

Ceara smiled, “Ok ok fair enough, honestly I don’t want to piss him off either but I got to feed my dog.”

Ceara glanced behind her jeep, “Charlie, that car wasn’t here when I pulled up, someones here”

Charlie looked a little worried, “I bet that’s where Alden really went, man’s been gone a long time to take a leak.”
They got back to the camp and Ceara found a bowl in Alden’s supplies and fed Maximus. She went back to the campfire ring and picked up her can of soup, staring into the ash of the fire as she ate. When the can was empty she looked to Charlie, “Look I need to tell you something about my dog.”

Maximus lay at her feet sleeping, “When we were leaving my apartment the deaders came after me and well, umm…. Maximus saved me when one would have got me. He damn near took the head off one of them but…”

Ceara reached down petting Maximus, “he had to of, you know, swallowed some of the blood so I don’t know if…”

Ceara looked at Charlie to see if he understood what she was saying, he was watching Maximus so she knew he understood. “I’m not killing me dog so don’t even think about asking me too.”

Charlie looked surprised at her, “I didn’t say nuthin”

Ceara got up and walked away from the fire ring, “Come on Maximus! Hey your guys been gone awhile, you might ought to go check on him.”

Ceara walked out of the camp and went into the woods with Maximus beside her.
Finding a large shade tree with a nice area a green grass she laid down, Maximus laid down beside her resting his head on his paws. She wrapped and arm around him, laying her face in her fur. “What am I going to do if you turn into one of them?”

Tears slipped out her eyes into his fur. Maximus whined and Ceara thought that he might be scared too, whipping away a tear she began wrestling and playing with him. They ran through the woods playing a version of tag for close to an hour, breathless and exhausted Ceara collapsed on the ground putting her hands behind her head. Maximus once more
lay
down beside her, “You know I don’t think you are going to tu
rn into one, want to know why?”

Maximus raised his head looking at her as if to ask
why she thought that
, “Because people turn into them after a couple of days and we are bigger than animals, so if you were going to turn
,
it would have been sooner.”

Ceara shrugged a shoulder, “Least that’s what I’m thinking. Plus we get sick quick and you don’t seem sick to me. We’ve been on the road almost ten days so I just think if you got infected I would know it by now”

She rolled over ruffling the dogs fur, “So it’s settled, no more worrying OK?”

Maximus licked her face making her giggle, suddenly he was on his feet growling looking into a group of trees.
Ceara jumped to her feet, “What? Do you hear something?”

Reaching for her knife she soon realized she had left camp with no weapon, “Shit! Come on, we have to get back.”

Maximus’ haunches were raised and he began growling, Ceara knelt down whispering, “Max you come here now, I don’t want you touching another one of those things!”

Maximus looked back at her but quickly turned back facing the woods growling louder. Ceara knew she was going to have to deal with whatever was coming, quickly looking around she broke a limb off a dead tree and snapped the
smaller
limbs that were growing off the branch about two inches before the branch hoping it would create a better weapon. Ceara swung the branch and almost got swung off her feet earning her another look from Maximus. “Guess it’s a bit
too long for me
”

Stepping on the branch to snap the first foot off of it but it broke in half, she swung the remaining in the air, “guess this will have to do. Let’s
go find what you are hearing.”

Ceara didn’t have to go far to see the group of deaders milling around with no real purpose, she grabbed Maximus’ collar, “You keep it quiet!”

She counted six but that was all she could see, she had to get back to camp and let them know how close these were. Yanking Maximus away from the deaders she began making her way back to camp with Maximus in tow.

Hearing a branch snap behind her Tabitha quickly turned her head. The wind was blowing slightly and a shiver went through her body. Scanning the area with her eyes Tabitha didn’t see anything abnormal and when she finally looked back to refocus her attention on the voices they suddenly stopped and she heard no one. Looking down at her feet Tabitha became frozen right where she stood. Thinking hard what her next move would be
,
she remembered that this was her territory and she was not out of her element. But things were just different
now
. Instead of her being the hunter she was the hunted and Tabitha had to step up her game.

After standing there for a few minutes Tabitha stepped gingerly through the woods making sure to look all around at her surroundings. Suddenly she heard a different set of voices and when she did Tabitha loosened up a little because she remembered that zombies don’t speak. Still proceeding with extreme caution she continued on for about ten more yards when all of the sudden and out of
nowhere
this guttural growl came up from behind her and without thinking Tabitha began to bolt straight ahead. It was more startling then anything and when the beast came
pouncing in her direction fast;
now Tabitha began screaming.

Quickly
, she made a zig
zag pattern through the woods trying to get the dog confused and up ahead she saw this huge dead log
lying
in the path
.
S
he thought would be damn near
impossible for her to hurdle; b
ut she realized that if she could hurdle it
,
then that damn snarling beast
might
get laid up if it tried to go over it.

Her adrenaline kicked in and she was off making her way towards the log. For a
moment
she did not feel the breath from the hound on the back of her heels and for the first time she thought that she might have a chance.

Taking one more
,
quick glance behind her Tabitha saw that she was right and when she turned back the log was closer now
, she was almost there
. Not taking time to
rethink her plan,
Tabitha began her vault and surprisingly she made it over it with little to no effort
. She soon realized
it wasn’t because of her
remarkable abilities
.

Something had reached out and grabbed her forearm pulling her over the log and then she ended face down in the dirt. Her breathing was now erratic and she quickly assessed the situation
,
she no longer heard the
hound, which was a plus
. Instead she felt someone on top of her and she was about to let out a blood curdling scream when all of the sudden she heard a low and deep voice whispering down on her. While still breathi
ng rapidly she listened to the b
rut. She realized that he was a hell of a lot more comforting then his fucking hound so she slowed her breathing down.

After he finished with his interrogation Tabitha turned her head to the side and spit the dirt and leaves out of her mouth. She was mad as hell and trying to be calm she answered but her words came out a bit defensive, “Listen here
,
Rambo…..my name is Tabitha…. Not Tab, not Tabby but TABITHA. I am from Camdenton, Missouri and I want the same as you. I don’t want to get eaten by those fucking zombies or DEADHEADS!! I just want a simple fucking chance and I don’t mean any harm.”

Remembering where she was at she calmed down and began to speak rationally now, “I saw the sign back there at the entrance about this being Mark Twain National Forrest and with that being a public park and not private I decided when I was about out of gas that I would park my car and head out in these woods to see if I could find a cabin or a shelter house that I could hunker down in. I am a survivalist first and a lady last
;
so if you mind to return the favor, tell me who you are since your package is pressed up aga
inst my ass. You can at
least extend the same courteously or I will just call you Rambo and we can leave it at that
.
”

The wind picked up just slightly as Beth walked carefully through the woods. It had been a very long time since she had hiked like this
; no to mention having
with all of her gear that she had with her. She had
most
everything that was in her car with her because if she was fortunate to find a cabin she did not want to have to go back for it.

Beth had so much time on her hands right now and while she was looking for a place to
hide
for the night thoughts of her family flowed quickly into her mind. It was one thing to have them all gone but with the knowledge of what had infected them along with the mere fact that she was the one who had to put them to rest weighed heavily on her mind.

However, her years of training in logistics at the CDC kept her in check. Perhaps there were a few survivors in other states that had taken better precautions once there was a breach at her facility. Hopefully
,
if there were a few then maybe they were already working on a cure. Certain parts of the world Beth thought might
have
got a heads up on what had taken place and maybe there was hope somewhere out there.

Beth decided to stop and take a break so that she could at least
regroup
and catch her breath when she came across a small makeshift camp that had been abandoned. The only thing that stood out was a few old logs that had long seen a hot burning ember. Setting the large pack down
,
she searched
its
contents for a bottle of water. As sh
e sat she looked up at the sky.

The clouds were like giant pillows against a sea of blue. Birds were still flying in formations which showed to her that somehow they had been spared this awful curse. As she took another sip she wondered if any other mammals were infected or was it simply the human race. As she sat she poured what was left of the bottle over her face to cool her off a bit. The water was very refreshing and she sat there in silence with her eyes closed.

Beth sat there for what seemed like an hour but honestly when the last few water droplets fell off of her chin she opened her eyes and quickly realized she had left the water bottles in the
trunk
of her car.

“Damn’t girl! You really got to get your head on here”, she said out loud as she stood up then picked up her pack.

Beth had to go back to her car and get the water because she wasn’t sure if the water in the area was safe to drink and wouldn’t know until she got further into the forest. Wasting no time Beth quickly got back to her car and along the way she paid particular attention to the sights and sounds that were going on around her. Hearing leaves rush by from the wind Beth decided to pick up her speed just a little but the pack was making it harder with each step she took.

It took about an hour to make it back to her car and when she got there she walked right up to the
trunk
. She hated the fact that she had wasted all that time in back tracking but she would make sure to make a mental note as to not do something stupid like this again. After picking up the case of water Beth decided instead of cutting through the woods that she would stick to the roads for now. Hopefully she figured that there would be signs up along the way showing her as to where the cabins, office and other sites of the forest were at.

So with full pack on her back and a case of water in her hands Beth carried on making her way down the road. The wind had picked up a little and something caught her attention if just for a
m
om
ent.

Something off in the distance was burning. She was quite sure of that because memories of when her and her family use to go camping when she was younger had been triggered.
Dad
would often make a campfire while
Mom
would be getting the batter ready for the fish that we would have caught for supper. How the hickory would linger through the air and would
invite rumblings from every
one’s stomachs for the feast that would be coming in the near future.

But just as quickly as the smell was there it then was gone. The wind was now blowing in a different direction. Beth decided to keep right on walking in the direction that the smell had been coming from but she was getting awfully tired and hoped soon that she would find somewhere to rest.

How she was beginning to miss the comforts of the
driver’s
seat, the running water of a faucet and what was even more, the simple water that had trickled down her face earlier. Her appearance after another hour of walking was that of someone who had been road hard and put away wet. Her legs were getting to feel like jello and her arms from carrying the water felt like led weights.

Beth was just about ready to sit down on the side of the road and force herself to take a break when all of the sudden coming up behind her was the sound of an automobile. She didn’t even have the chance to turn around and see who or what it was because just as soon as she stopped in her track
s a car stopped right beside he
.

Beth looked over and saw a guy sitting behind the wheel of his vehicle. His eyes were huge and he looked as nervous and scared as she was but the fact of the matter was that she wasn’t scared. No, she was exhausted and if it hadn’t been for being so tired Beth would of dropped her water and tried to jump through the passenger side window to just sit down. But that was just a fantasy. All she could do was stand there
,
waiting to see whether or not this guy was okay or not.

Suddenly her government attitude kicked in and she was not about to let this opportunity slip by her. First of all she was not helpless and secondly she was a very intelligent and crafty woman. After all she had survived especially when those idiots that worked with her were the ones that let this tragedy happen. Slowly she stepped over to the hood of the car and gently placed the case of bottled water down on top of it.

She needed a ride and if this guy was smart he knew that h2o was what he needed and she had plenty for the both of them. After she let go of the case her arms felt like rubber but she wasn’t going to let her pain show. Instead she stepped back and squatted down to allow her back pack to slip off. Once it had left her shoulders and slid down past her wrists she slowly stood back up and ran her fingers briskly threw her hair.

When she had finished she walked around to the
driver’s
side and leaned on the door. Softly she tapped the window with her fingers and waved, “Hello! I haven’t seen a fresh and alive face in days and it is sure nice to see you.”

Beth thought that perhaps by paying him a compliment he may then offer to give her a ride and that she would hopefully get to give her legs a break from walking. She continued on with a chipper tone, “You look awfully parched.”

Beth q
uickly pointing over to the case of water on the top of his hood
,
“I got a whole case of water over there. It’s not
cold but it’s not hot either; g
uaranteed it will quench your thirst.”

Slowly she made her way back over to the case and broke the plastic with her fingers. Deciding that she would open the first bottle since she did carry it all this way she slammed the water down and it was delicious. Hopefully this guy was just as thirsty as she was and he would be the gentleman and offer her a seat in his car.