Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (44 page)

He finally spoke up, “Sure kid. We may not all believe in the same religion but I’m sure we all ha
ve a belief in a higher power.”

Tabitha cleared her throat and softly added, “Well I for one can’t say much about the religion aspect on the whole matter but I must say one thing. I didn’t have nobody when I came into this whole damn mess but I have a whole hell of a lot now with you all here and I am grateful for that…. so it’s fine by me Charlie. You go right ahead
, little skipper.”

Beth looked over to Tabitha and then the rest. She had lost so many that she loved and right now all she really had was sitting at the picnic table with her. Nodding her head when Tabitha had spoken was all that Beth had been able to do because she; herself, did not know about religion. She had always believed in God and was brought up in a Christian home but even now her faith was being tested with e
verything that had taken place.

Charlie reached his hands out and they all followed each one taking
t
he others hand. Charlie thought for a
m
oment
then spoke, “We thank you for this food we are about to eat. We thank you for the friends who are now my family. Keep us safe and sound. Amen.” He raised his head and looked at Ald
en.

He smiled, “Amen
..
. Charlie that was good. Kinda wished you’d thrown in a request for more ammo and some intel, but I’ll live it.” He win
ked and began to cut his steak.

Ceara reached out and snagged one of the smaller steaks then scooped out two big spoons of green beans, then just a little corn. For the last few weeks she hadn’t had veggies and her mouth had been watering for them. The only thing missing was bread and butter but she was very thankful for what they were sitting in front of. She poured a little milk in her glass and sniffed it, after what Charlie had said she was a little worried about how it might taste.

Alden lifted his glass and
toasted Ceara, “Give it a try.”

Ceara took a little drink then took a longer one. “Oh Charlie this isn’t that bad! It doesn’t taste just like milk but I’m with Alden, beats water.” Her face lit up, “Alden
,
when we took Maximus down for his bath the river was cold, do you think if we made a few jars and put it in the river it would get cold?”

Alden tilted his glass looking at it, “Not a bad plan Ceara, I think we may just try that. I have to admit, it is better cold.”

Ceara was excited that she had thought of it, the smile on her face showed it as she scooped up her first fork full of green beans. The groan on pleasure that came from her made everyone look at her, she blus
hed “Sorry, this is just good.”

Tabitha giggled as she took another bit of her steak. The food was amazing and even though the milk was disgusting she drank it anyway because the company made everything a thousand times better. “Don’t apologize girl!! Food like this is the bomb and what makes it better it that we all wor
ked together to make the meal.”

Beth smiled widely and looked over at Colt then to the rest, “Not to mention the fact that the dining ware is the creme de la creme. I mean we are right deep in the middle of the muck and the mud with all of the mess going on out there and yet here we eat on fine china. It’s like we
could be
on the cover of Life Styles of the Rich and Famous, but instead of rich and famous I would have to
say the Living and Breathing.”

Tabitha about spit her milk clear across the room laughing so hard. “Well when you put it like that Beth I guess
you’re right.”

Colt smiled actually picturing the cover, “Yeah Beth that would be something to see.”

Beth while shaking her head and continued eating, “Ya and the six of us would…. along with Maximus and Tonto of course would have to be on the cover. I could see it now, “Fine arts of cuisine… how to make a meal out of damn near an
ything….”

Then Tabitha interrupted, “I GOT IT!!! You all know that cooking Chef Emeril?!!!? You know the guy who says BAM!! Well, all we need to do is get Alden over there a big
chef’s hat and his machete…..”

Alden grinned, “I ain’t wearing one of those. Looking like the Pillsbury dough boy just ain’t my style.” Finishing his plate he took it into the house and scraped the meat into a large bowl for the dogs. He then dumped rest into the plastic trash bag, carrying it back out he tied it on to the wooden ch
air, “When you’re
finished
,
scrape your scraps here and I’ll take them out and bury them. We can’t let our guard down. I’m hoping if any of those others got away
,
they ran back to their own camp which would lead the deadheads away from us.”

He walked over and poured a cup of coffee. The pot was always full anymore it seemed everyone knew it was his life staple food source and Alden always seemed more happy when he could just get a cup of coffee. Sitting back down in the wooden chair he smiled as he watched the young people finish their meal. Years in the service he had lost the ability to actually eat slow and enjoy. It was always hurry up
and eat, or hurry up and wait.

Colt was the next to finish
,
but he just pushed his plate back and leaned on the table, “I know Alden usually calls the meeting but I would like to discuss something. With the appearance of more survivors, even those kind of rednecks,
and
you guys running into some decent ones in town makes me wonder if staying here is the best plan. Part of me says yes, because we now know the surroundings and we are close enough to cities to get supplies when we need them.”

Looking around to see if everyone thought he was an idiot he plunged on, “But let’s say there is a community forming, or even maybe a safe haven that is military guarded. Well, we are here, just the six of us and we have no clue about the outside world. So my question is…. Will we continue to be content here and will we be able to stay safe?”

Ceara was still a bit pissed at Colt over Maximus, “Well I would bet you are safer with Maximus than he is with you, so you feel the need t
o leave I would say do it now.”

Colt flushed from embarrassment, “Ceara I said I was sorry and I feel horrible, but I wasn’t talking about me leaving, I was talking as a grou
p and asking what our plan is.”

Alden sat back and took a sip of coffee. This was going to be interesting he thought, the group is now beginning to act like a unit. He knew some of them were waiting for him
to speak but he held his tongue. H
e wanted to see how thi
s would play without his input.

Beth listened very closely to all of the points that Colt had made and she definitely could understand how upset Ceara was. When she had finished her plate she put her silverware on top and looked at everyone and began, “Right now
,
I think we all need to look at everything that we have in front of us. I will tell you
this; Maximus
will not be up moving around for at least a week. In the meantime
,
I think Colt has a very interesting point. From the contacts that left messages on my cell I am almost certain that east of us has been infected and the west probably
just as bad
. As for the north and south, well we are towards the south and by what you all ran into earlier shows
us something…
.
”

Beth leaned on the table looking at each one, “T
here are survivors o
ut there, along with the rogue
military
platoons like
that we ran into back in town
, you have your run of the mill thugs.; but then you have people like us that just want to live.
Now that we have no government, all that we do have is a few military out there
.
I would say that right now our odds are not
too good in finding anything
.” Beth finally looked over to Alden and started addressing him, “Alden has a ham radio and if we have some antenna or could get our hands on some antenna from somewhere then we can lock in on the Emergency Channel and see if we can find anything from there.”

Then looking back to Ceara, “However right now Ceara,” continued Beth in a very calming and concerned way, “We are not going anywhere until our patient; in there, is up and around. Maximus is part of this team here and we won’t
leave him behind. That is d
octor
’s order
,
ok
?”

Tabitha spoke right up, “Ya know
this morning
when I was in the shed I found about twenty feet of antenna
.”

Beth looked over to Alden, “So, Alden… would
you like to chime in on this?”

Alden smiled, “Naw
,
you cupcakes are doing real good here. Now, if you can get someone to get that antenna and put it up in the air I’ll be more than happy to wire it up… cause this old man ain’t climbing no damn roofs.”

Tabitha cocked her head
laughing
, “You mean to tell me that you will climb your skinny ass
,
thirty goddamn feet in a fucking tree to scope out the idiots and use me as bait but you won’t climb up twenty feet
to put up some antenna???!!!!”

Beth looked at Tabitha and interrupted, “Now Tabitha
,
he could use a break
,
if you think about it.” Beth was snickering trying to
keep from bursting out laughing.

Tabitha just gave her the silliest look and looked at Alden, “Break, my ass!!!! There is a lot more to that old man that we do not know about, and he just doesn’t want to share, that’s all I am saying.”

Ceara smiled, “Ain’t that the truth! I do have another question though, Alden has a map of the campgrounds so should we go out and check out the other cabins in the semi-close area? We know those jerks could
still
be out there and we are better off knowing
just where they are.
What if there are others close
? We really need to know
, whether good or bad
…
I think we should know who may or may not be around.” She looked around to everyone, “Honestly I don’t care about what is going on any further than our little
campgrounds, for now anyway.”

Colt got up, grabbed his plate “I would say that Ceara has a good point. We will have to be out hunting and each time we go we will have to go further and further out. In my mind
,
that means anyone else around here will have to do the same thing. I think it would be better to know who is
ok
and who needs to be avoided. What that trip to town showed is that there are still good out there too, that Clem guy…”

Alde
n interrupted him, “Sgt. Cline”

Colt nodded, “Sgt. Cline showed that there is some kind of
protection, not much but some…”

Beth looked over to Colt and Alden, “Exactly! There are different types of military out there, some good,
and some
bad from what I heard. It just so happened that Sgt. Cline and his troops were of the good variety and they told
us about their c
ommander who… well simply put
, had gone nuts” There was a
very long pregnant pause
before
she continued, “They know of more contacts out there and I think he was a little leery on sharing it with Alden, they may have been classified so you can’t really blame him
…
I guess
”

Beth stood up and carried her plate over to the doorway and looked back at everyone, “I think that everyone here has very good ideas which all need to be looked at. However, I will tell you
this;
I am behind Alden with whatever he
decides.”
Giving Alden a slight nod and a small wink Beth went into the cabi
n and began washing the dishes.

Ceara watched Beth go in and wondered why she felt like she had to dominate
conversations;
Ceara had never
known
anyone to talk
quite as much as she did.
Ceara looked to Charlie then stacked her plate with his and tossed both bones to Tonto and scraped the rest in the bag Alden had said. “I am going to go wash dishes then check on Maximus, Charlie if you want I’ll just meet you at the cabin.” Ceara walked off and toward the back of the cabin, “Night guys! Maybe we can talk more about this tomorrow. I think we all have enough to consider and mull through.”

Ceara joined Beth in the kitchen, “I’ll wash Beth, I don’t mind! I really did love having real plates tonight.”

Beth smiled, “Tell you what, you wash and I’ll dry.”

Ceara submerged her hands in the soap lukewarm water, “Cool, it will be just like when my
Mom
and I did dishes.” Ceara quickly looked at Beth, “I didn’t mean you were old!! I just mea
nt we use to share the chores!”