Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (38 page)

Alden went out into the yard and grabbed a small rock, waving the girls away from the house then threw the rock through the window. Within ten seconds a deadhead was climbing out of the window, Ceara raised her gun but Alden pushed her hand down, “Not yet.”

The man was very decomposed, the flannel shirt that was covered in filth, his shoulder was ripped open with his collar bone exposed. He fell through the window and then was getting to his feet when the gunshot rang out and the man dropped. Ceara looked confused at Alden, he hadn’t shot… she looked to Beth and she stood there with her gun still pointed at the man. Another deadhead was coming through the window and again Ceara took aim and again Alden pushed her arm down, she glared at him, “What the hell?”

Alden waited till Beth shot the woman that was now coming at them. He then looked at Ceara, “You have to let them get THROUGH the window or you are going to block their way out, we won’t have a way of knowing if there are more.”

Ceara hadn’t even thought of that, she waited a good minute then looked to Beth, “You think
it’s
safe?”

Beth was about to answer when something crashed to the floor in the house, “Well, I would have to
say we have at least one more.”

All three stood there looking at the window waiting, watching. Just as Alden picked up another rock a small hand grabbed the window sill and a small boy pulled himself through the window. Both girls gasped and Alden angrily cussed, “Son of a BITCH!”

The boy was no more than eight or nine, he was a healthy little boy before…. but now he was covered in bites. It looked as if he was wearing a big pair of coveralls because the one strap was torn down and was dragging behind him as he came closer. The girth of his body must
have
been more than that of the average eight year old. His skin had gaping holes from the bites and between the wounds some of the fatty tissues hung down as well. The hair on the youngster was fire engine red
,
but quite honestly could have been made redder by the amount of blood that he had shed or that had gotten on him from nearby people that was around
him at the time of his attack.

Beth noticed as soon as the child opened his mouth that he still had human fleshed wedged between his teeth and the only noise that he was emanating were high piercing shrills as his arms were trying to grab back at Alden. Beth wasted no time with this one because what she was witnessing was good enough for her to know that this child had suffered enough. Without hesitation Beth pulled her Beretta up and at point blank range she pointed the gun right at the child’s head and yelled to Alden, “ALDEN, CEARA LOOK THE OTHER WAY!!!”

Ceara reacted just as Alden did,
both in unison looked in the opposite direction. While holding her breath Beth pulled the trigger and within a few seconds after she fired the fatal shot the boy’s lifeless body fell to the ground.
All three stood there looking at the three people now lying before them, each with a bullet through their heads. The blood was covering the ground as Alden watched the window for signs of any more deadheads. After a few minutes he threw another rock breaking something in the house. With no more movement they all headed up the porch
,
side stepping the dead bodies.
Alden walked to the front door and peered through the window and the lace curtains. Not seeing anything unusual or moving he stepped back and swiftly kicked the door right by the door knob.

The wood shattered and the door swung open slamming into a coat rack
,
that in turn fell over. The smell was almost overwhelming as the air rushed out past their faces. Alden watched as Ceara turned and gagged almost throwing up. With her hand on her knees he patted her back, “You alright Kid?”

Ceara nodded. “Pull your shirt up over your nose, that’ll help a little.”

As he turned to go in he heard Beth behind him, “H
old up Alden…. Here use these.”

Turning back towards her she had walked back from the truck carrying the bags. She reached in one and handed Ceara and Alden each a rag to tie around their faces. As Alden began to put it on he stopped, “What the hell is that smell?”

Beth smiled, “It’s Free-breeze. I found it in our cabin and sprayed these rags with it before we left for just such an occasion.”

Alden smiled at her, “I’d have never thought that.” Tying it tight he turned and stepped through the door. Flipping the light switch the lights
came on. “Okay? That’s weird.”

Beth looked at Ceara then to Alden. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

Alden was looking around the house making sure nothing was lurking in there. “Well so far every place I’ve been to the power was out. So why here? I’d heard a generator if it was running.” He shook his head, “Okay let’s stay together.”

Three moved through the front room. The furniture was old with a floral pattern. The curtains that hung by the windows were a cream colored but were splattered with blood. They moved into the dining room. A large oak table with eight chairs around it sat in the middle. To the left was matching oak hutch with some nice china. The three were surprised that it was all intact nothing had been broken. Ceara walked over and opened one of the doors and took out a plate that had a light blue floral pattern with blue birds in the center. Ceara looked to the others, “
Mom
always wanted some of these. They used to offer them in magazines I looked at but I could never afford them for her.”

Alden walked over and looked at the one she held then reached in and grabbed five more. “Here you go.”

He turned and headed toward the kitchen as Beth and Ceara stood and looked at each other. Ceara rolled her eyes, “Don’t need them now, need food more!” She smiled at Beth, “You think they had any clothes that would fit us?”

Beth shrugged, “Don’t know till you look, but be careful!”

Ceara headed off to the bedroom but stopped at the bathroom, In the linen closet was packages of toothpaste, toilet paper and new bottles of shampoo and conditioner, “Sweet!” She ran back through the house, “Need a bag! I found some stuff in the bathroom we will need.” She smiled and headed back to the bathroom dropping the th
ings in one of the pillowcases.

Under the sink was four bars of Dial
from
an eight pack package, “I hate this shit” but they had to take what was there. If they had a chance she could get better at Wal-Mart but they didn’t know what it would be like there. Ceara headed to the bedroom next and tossed t-shirts, socks and a couple of pair of jeans she thought might fit one of the guys. The woman of the house was not petite so none of her clothes would work for them. Looking around the bedroom she was reminded of her
parent’s
room, she wondered if an
yone had ransacked their house.

Ceara thought that they may be a lot like her parents and went to the closet and started pulling out the boxes off the top shelf, then she found it. Flipping the lid off a shoebox and in it laid a gun with a box of ammo with it. Ceara shoved the gun in her waist and dropped the bullets in the pillow case. She headed back to the kitchen with
Beth, “You find anything good?”

By the time that Ceara asked that question Beth had already filled up one bag of canned goods and was working on another. “Over in that bag over there
,
I put in at least three quart jars of green beans, four jars of stewed tomatoes and in this one I have found a couple of pint jars of homemade jams and jellies. By the looks of them I would say most are apple butter and grape jellies.” When Beth finally finished tying off the second bag and noticed a few cans of spam along with a couple cans of peaches. Quickly she grabbed the last bag she had available to her and put them in there.

Alden pulled a pillow case of his own out of a green bag he had on his shoulder. Opening a cupboard he started to pull out boxes. The first two were large boxes of powdered milk, next came two more boxes of instant pancake mix. “I don’t know about you girls but I love this stuff,” he said holding up one of the boxes of pancake mix. His search continued, he felt he’d hit a home run with the cupboard. Two bottles of Country Kitchen syrup was next. Alden thought to himself that these people had made it to the store to try and stock up when things started going south. He grabbed the canister that contained flour and another that held sugar. then picked up the extra bag of each one that was behind the canisters. Alden made sure to tie the case off.

Finally after all of the cabinets had been cleaned out Beth saw the plates sitting there that Alden had laid down for Ceara and walked over to them. “Ceara, I think that we got everything we need and I think we need to get out of here while the getting is good.”

Ceara had her pillow cases full and she picked up the two sacks of canned goods then quickly went out of the kitchen. Beth looked down at the china and thought that it would be a wonderful feeling of home for everyone to at least have some nice dinner wear instead of having to make do with whatever they could find to eat off of. Gently
,
she placed the half of sack on top of the china
plates. She made sure to grab eight plates just in case one or two got broke. She
made her way out to Alden’s truck. Beth noticed that Ceara was putting everything in the back and Beth acted as fast as she could so that Ceara wouldn’t see the china. Opening the door of the cab Beth put the sack on the floor board and she carefully put the china underneath the seats then put the sack of can goods in front of it to try to conceal them. Once she was finished Beth emerged from inside and said, “Ceara, I think we are done here.”

Alden
moved over to the back door. He opened it and a smile came across his face. “BINGO!” He shouted. There behind the door was a pantry room that led to the back porch. He turned and smiled as he saw the girls going out towards the truck.

Picking up his pillow case he walked out as they were finishing up stowing their loot. He placed the pillow case in the back, “Mount Up,” he said again and both girls started to giggle. As he got in he had a puzzled look then he proceeded to tell them about the pantry, “I’m going to pull up around to the rear of the house and back up. There’re cases and cases of store bought canned goods back there, enough to hold us over for a while.”

Alden drove around and backed the truck up. The three got out and formed a fire line with Alden at the back carrying the cases and handing them to Beth who handed it to Ceara who pushed them all the way into the bed of the truck. Alden handed Beth a wooded crate with mason jars in it. The jars had what looked like water in each one. As Beth turned to hand it to Ceara the root cellar door started banging again hard causing Ceara to jump and almost drop the crate as she screamed. Alden spun around, “DAMN IT CEARA TURN THE SIREN OFF! AND FOR GOD’S SAKE DON’T DROP THAT BOX.”

Ceara turned to him, “I’m sorry they just scared me,” she said with a whimper. She got a good grasp of the crate looking down, “Damn what so important about home canned water we got water.”

Alden came out carrying the last case of Old Milwaukee beer. As he reached the bed and placed it in the back he shut the gate and smiled, “That case with the water as you called it, well that wasn’t water. It was homemade hooch, moonshine and right now it’s worth its weight in gold.” He turned towards the driver’s door, “Mount Up” and once more the giggling started. As he started the truck he looked at them. “I don’t know about you two, you’re like two little teenagers snickering about some little girl thing around their dad.”

Beth looked at Ceara and then at Alden, “No it’s n
othing it’s just a girl thing.”

Alden smiled, “We’re heading to town to see if we can locate a drug store. That’s where you’ll come in Beth. You know what we need or might need.”

The truck rolled down the dirt drive and turned onto the blacktop highway as the girls smiled at each other and snickered a little. Ceara mumbled quietly shaking her head a little, “mount up”
and the both started to laugh.

The three of them drove for only about twenty minutes. Alden slowed the truck as they came to the outskirts of a small town, the name on the sign read Alton Pop. 668. He stopped the truck on the outskirts and once more got out and scanned the area with his binoculars. There was no sign of movement. He got back in the truck, “I don’t see anything but that don’t me there ain’t anything. Keep your eyes open.”

He drove slowly, the street was lined with dead bodies mostly all eaten. A couple of dogs ran across the street but didn’t bark. The buildings were all deserted. Seeing a big RX sign he pulled up in front of it. The name on the window read Myers Pharmacy. Alden got out as did Ceara and Beth. The front door had been broken down. Alden reached behind the seat again this time he pulled out an AK -47 assault ri
fle and made sure it was ready.

Beth looked at him, “You expecting trouble?”

“Always,” Alden replied. “Leave the truck doors opened I got the keys but I don’t want to have any troubles if we need to get away quick.”

The three moved cautiously into the store
,
Ceara moved close to Beth and whispered, “I’ll go look for stuff like alcohol, peroxide, Tylenol, and over the counter things, you raid the pharmacy. Y
ou know more about that stuff.”

Beth nodded and headed slowly down one of the isles tossing things in her bag as she went. Ceara got Alden’s attention and pointed to the isle she was going to go down and he nodded. She tosses a few bottles in her backpack, and then looked around a little bit and found gauze and band-aids. A little further down she saw wrist and ankle braces along with ace bandages, she shoved several in the backpack. The next isle had vitamins and with the food supply unknown she thought they may need them so she tossed them in the bag too.