Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (12 page)

As the two got back to camp Alden looked to the young man. He felt sorry for him knowing that Charlie had never been under fire before and all in all he held up real well. “Charlie
,
I want you to go take a quick shower and change your clothes. I’ll take care of your other ones. We’ll have to bury them for tonight, the deadheads get wind of that odor and they’ll be all over us.”

Charlie grinned
,
turning bright red,
as he started to strip, carefully taking off his jeans. “I’m sorry Al
den
, I’ve never been through anything like that.”

Charlie left the dirty clothes in a pile as he got some clean ones and headed back to the shower. “Make it quick son I don’t know how much propane we have and we want to conserve our hot water supply.”

Charlie nodded at him as he walked off.

Alden grabbed a black trash bag and used it to scoop up Charlie’s soiled clothes, even Tonto sniffed and bolted. “Yeah boy that’s some rank shit there.”

Tonto shook his head
then
sneezed a couple of times. Alden walked off in the woods and rocks finding a spot where some smaller boulders had fallen. He piled rocks on top and then covered it all with some brush. Tonto came over and added his little bit of help by raising his leg and spraying his scent over the rocks. Alden and Tonto returned to the camp to find Charlie already out and dressed. Alden started his little Sterno stove and got the coffee going once more. Charlie sat on a log his eyes fixed on the flames from the fire. Alden poured him a
cup;
handing it to the kid he turned and poured himself one. He watched as Charlie shivered every now and then, Tonto could feel the young
man’s
fear and walked over and
lay
at his feet. Alden took a few sips and spoke, “You did good kid. Before the shit hit the fan you asked me about me. Well I guess after what we went through you, you deserve to know who
you’re
bunking with as we used to say.”

Standing up he extended his hand to Charlie who sh
ook it with a quizzical look, “
My name is Sergeant First Class Alden Godfrey, retired. Among my duties as a soldier
,
I was a drill instructor at the end, before that I spent twenty years as a Special Forces small arms and demolition expert along with a secondary in field medical training. I saw combat in South East Asia, I was in Beirut in 1979, Grenada,
Desert Storm one and two, a
long with some side jobs in South Africa.”

Charlie eyes widened, “So your like Rambo?!”

Alden took a sip then spit grounds out, “Naw
,
Rambo w
as a pussy, I’m the real deal.”

Charlie looked into the fire then back at the old man, “ you must think I’m a punk, for pissing and shitting myself?”

Alden smirked,
“No
kid
,
in fact if you hadn’t I’d been a little worried. Nobody goes through what you went through as good as you did
without
some
kind
training. You did just fine son just fine.”

Alden could see by the young
man’s
eyes he had had a long day. “I want you to get some sleep I’ll take first watch. I’m sure the soldiers that tried to kill us have friends nearby and when they don’t return or make contact at an assigned hour their friends will be back.”

Charlie looked worried, “What, what’ll we do then?”

“You let me worry about that
,
you just get some sleep. It’s ten p.m. I’ll wake you about four. Cover up
good,
there
will
be no fire tonight and it’s getting chilly already.”

Alden watched as the young man crawled up in his van and laid down pulling his sleeping bag tight around him. Alden walked over, “Take your outer clothes off and put them in the bottom of your bag, that way you’ll have warm clothes to put on in the morning.”

Alden walked away and covered the Sterno putting out the small flame.

He sat
on a log watching the stars
,
he knew what he had to do he could only hope he was still as good as he was when he was younger. Waiting till he was sure Charlie was asleep he picked up one of the M-16’s he had taken off the dead soldiers, grabbing a couple of clips he looked to Tonto, “You choice boy stay and guard or come with me.”

Tonto stood looked to the van then walked over and sat next to Alden. “Okay boy let’s go do this.”

The sun had risen and was shining warm on the windows of the van as Charlie rolled over, “Shit he said he’d wake me at four!”

Grabbing his warm clothes he dressed in his bag, opened the door and jumped out. There sat Alden over the small fire with a cast iron skillet of bacon frying, “Morning cupcake. You sleep good?”

Charlie rubbed his eyes, “ Is that safe? I mean hell
,
they’ll smell the bacon.”

Alden turned, “Who the soldiers or the deadheads?”

“What difference does it make
,
their both dangerous right?”

Alden grinned as he pulled the bacon off and placed them on a metal plate, “How do you want your eggs?”

Charlie stared at the pan, “errr over easy I guess.”

Alden pulled four eggs out and cracked them. “Do me a favor Charlie there on the stove is toast turn it over so it don’t burn.”

Charlie looked and saw a wire rack over the Sterno stove holding four pieces of bread. He turned them and picked up the coffee pot next to it pouring himself some then turning to Alden.

“So what happened with the rest of the soldiers?”

Alden flipped the eggs and took a sip of his coffee. Charlie sat on his log.

“Well I got to thinking that I would just go out and see if I could tell how many there were plus I wanted to dispose of the bodies I left out there. I found their
buddies;
it wasn’t hard they had a bonfire going about three miles south of here.
”

Alden shook his head,
“
Dumb sons of bitches
, t
hey had about a hundred deadheads heading towards them. Don’t get me wrong they had the fire power to hold them off, but they had no discipline.”

Handing Charlie his plate, “I hate soldiers with no discipline.”

Takin
g a bite of bacon he went on, “
The soldiers were facing the deadheads
,
I came in from behind. I let them shoot a few of them then I took them out. I wounded the lot of them took some of their weapons and left them for the deadheads.”

Charlie almost choked and vomited. “How …how …how.. could you?”

Alden looked at him,
“
I told you son
,
it’s kill or be killed and trust me they’d found us and killed us. I saw the helicopters searching for them this morning at dawn. I watched as they hovered and then left. I don’t think they’ll be back this way any time soon, but keep your eyes and ears peeled.”

Charlie looked up with a confused look, “What kind of guy are you?” he asked in a timid voice.

Alden reached down and poured water into the cast iron skillet and waited for it to boil.
He
looked at Charlie, “I’m the guy
who is going to keep you alive. T
he guy who saved your ass last night with cold poncho’s to keep their
infra-red
sights off your skinny ass. The guy who killed three men who would have killed you or worse raped your ass then left you for the deadheads. That’s the kind of guy I am.
I’m a
friend when needed and a man not to be fucked with.”

Alden reached down and swirled the boiling water in the skillet poured some out and wiped it with a sponge then dried it and rubbed some Crisco on it and put it in a wooden box he’d been sitting on.

Tonto suddenly jumped up growling low and started to the edge of the tree line. Alden grabbed his 45 and put two fingers to his lips to signal quiet once again. In a whisper he told Tonto to stay. Working his way to the left he moved quickly and almost like the wind. His footsteps were light upon the ground making almost no noise at all. The first thing he noticed was a slight whiff of a women’s either deodorant or perfume. The he saw the German Shepard moving through the woods. He was lucky enough to be downwind so the dog wouldn’t catch his scent.

He squatted and waited it wasn’t long till a short skinny redhead came moving through the woods. She was not being
too
quiet;
he could hear her cussing from
getting scratched by the briar
s. Alden waited a few
m
om
ents th
e
n moved around behind the two knowing he needed to stay close to keep Tonto from hurting either of them. They did not appear to be a threat and he did not see or hear anyone following the girl. Alden figured they were about twenty yards from the camp when he yelled out, “ALL RIGHT YOUNG LADY THAT’S FAR ENOUGH. CALL BACK YOUR DOG AND STOP RIGHT THERE.”

He heard Tonto bark once, “TONTO LEAVE IT ALONE.”

The girl was visibly frightened as she turned and saw Alden walking up behind her. He didn
’t even seem to touch the briar
s. Alden kept his eye on the dog that was ahead of her, it stopped growled towards Tonto’s direction the turned and ran back to the girl stopping right beside her
,
he could see the hair on it’s back up as it began to bark and growl loudly at him. “Little lady I’m only going to ask once get a hold of your dog. I’d hate to have to put a bullet in him.”

He saw her reach down and grab the dogs collar then put his 45 away and put his hands out in front of him as moved towards her. He could tell by the way she was dressed that she was not part of the group he’d killed last night. In fact she looked like a scared little school girl he thought and hell who wouldn’t be in tim
es like these. “Names Godfrey Miss,
I won’t hurt you as long as you don’t do anything stupid. Just stay put and I’ll walk you and your dog into our camp right ahead of you there.”

Alden made a wide berth around the dog to try to calm him as he could see it pulling hard on the collar and it was all t
he girl could do to hold him.
He mumbled as he walked ahead, “Follow me cupcake, you and Toto there.”

He kept walking and started talking to himself, “Fucking place is like Disney land anymore.”

As he broke through the bushes Alden snapped his fingers at Tonto and pointed back to the camp. Tonto turned and walked towards the camp but kept looking back as the girl and her dog came out of the trees. Alden got that grin on his face that Charlie
hadn’t seen before,
“Yo Cupcake
,
I got you another first son!!!! I think someone might have answered your prayers last night.”…….

More and more of those damn zombies were walking on the streets. Tabitha was forcing her foot hard down on the gas pedal wanting to get the fuck out of dodge. She had been on the road now for about two hours and getting through Fort Leonard had its
Mom
ents. Some were good while others were not so good. She made it to Leonard barely on fumes and after she got there she saw a gas station off on the right. A few zombies were off in the distance and she needed some gas. Tabitha would
have
rather hijacked another car but there wasn’t one around and she had to try something.

Pulling up beside the pump she quickly parked the car, got out and went to try to put some gas
in the car; that was
if there was any left.
Not too s
urprisingly
,
after she had pulled the nozzle off the pump and put it into the
tank,
pulled the handle she could hear and feel nothing.

The zombies had picked up their pace a little and were about 30 yards from where she stood. Turning her head she wanted to see if there were any coming up on her
from the other side
and she saw no on
e. When she focused back on the ones in front of her,
she took a head count and all together there looked like there were about nine of them. They were not all together but they
were heading in one direction, h
ers!

Not really thinking and just wanting to get back on the road she reached into the front part of her jeans, grabbed the 45
and
began shooting. It became quite clear that Tabitha knew nothing about shooting a gun and what’s more she was horrible marksman. Every time she fired
,
she jumpe
d back a few
inch
es,
after the fourth or fifth round she was right up against
the gas pumps. It took her a couple more tries until she finally got one in the head which stopped the bastard dead in his tracks. A couple of them had been hit in the legs and they were still coming at her but they were crawling instead. Getting her balance she looked over to see where if there
were any lights
on in the gas station she sarcastically said “
Here’s hoping
I can turn the pumps on and get the fuck out of here!”

The few
zombies
that were left kept right on coming at her and Tabitha finally had it. While raising her other hand up so she could have a better grip on the Colt 45 she took a deep breath. “Focus!” she ordered herself and one at a time she picked of each one of them right between the eyes.
It was much
eas
ier
to do now because whe
n they were still coming at her and
they were about fifteen feet from where she stood. That was a little to
o
close for her and she didn’t want them to get any closer. After they were blown away Tabitha put the 45 down by her side while still holding a death grip on it.

Looking around she didn’t see anything but heard noises way behind her. Quickly she bolted inside the gas station and before she knew it there was a zombie coming out of the back room. Without hesitation she pulled that 45 up and blew his head clean off his shoulders. With a smile on her face Tabitha said out loud, “Shoot first…….ask questions later!!!!”

Then she hopped over the counter and instead of going through the cash register like any other thief would do Tabitha began looking for the switches that turned on the auxiliary pumps. When she found the switches there were all kinds of them and some of them said pump 1, 2, and 3 while others said
backup
power. Tabitha didn’t give a shit as to what was what and frankly didn’t have the patience to stand there and check each one so she just flipped them all on.

When she did this everything in the place came on. The lights, refrigerators, coolers and even the music came on behind her. “Jackpot!!!”

The jerk that she had blown away must
have
been locking up before he died because he was the only one in there. Before she left the store she grabbed a basket that was located by the entrance and quickly grabbed all sorts of snaky foods and bottle of water, soda and any other shit she could get her hands on that would fill up the basket.

Once her basket was filled Tabitha bumped the door with her butt and left the building. The noises that she heard were coming in closer now as she quickly made her way back to her car. She didn’t have time to take everything out of the basket so she just put the whole thing in the passenger side. It was a good thing that she had left the nozzle in the car and the handle locked into place because it had kicked off and when she looked at the amount she owed it read $62.89. While laughing Tabitha pulled out the nozzle and put it back into the machine then suddenly she saw more of the zombies coming up around the corner that was behind her.

She showed no hesitation at all this time and when she pulled her gun back out she grabbed it with both hands and one by one she could pick each one of them off. Fortunately there were only about 8 of them that time. Pulling the trigger the damn gun went click. “Shit Shit Shit how to load
…
how to load?”

Turning the hand gun around she saw a button and the clip dropped out grabbing one off the seat she shoved it in and pulled the trigger. Again another click, “FUCK!!”

G
rabbing the top she slid it back and pulled the trigger at the same time. The gun fired scaring her. She put her hands together and shot the last 8. Tabitha reached down and grabbed the empty clip
off the ground
.

Tabitha was about ready to leave when she remembered seeing one of those huge red 5 gallon gas containers by the door where she had grabbed her shopping basket. She had no idea when she would be able to get gas again so quickly she ran back inside and grabbed a couple of the containers. Making her way back she began filling each one of them. As she was doing this she was getting really nervous because she knew more were on
their way, she could hear them.

Suddenly the gas started pouring out of the one container and got all over the ground. Quickly she took the nozzle out and put it into the other empty container. She reached into her car, found the trunk release and pulled the lever. While that one was filling Tabitha walked the filled container to the back of the car and placed it into the trunk. When she got finished with that she saw a hoard of zombies coming up behind her from around the bend. It looked like this time it was the whole entire damn town. She figured that they all must
have
heard her firing off rounds and this had stirred them.

Wasting no time now
,
Tabitha pulled the nozzle out and placed it back into the pump. The fumes of the gas were beginning to give Tabitha a splitting headache and she knew that it would go away once she got away from there. Running back to the trunk Tabitha put the last container in there and slammed the lid. Then climbed back into the car and shut the door. She looked in her rear view mirror and they were now around the bend and about 10 yards from her. Remembering that there was gasoline all over the ground she turned on the car and slowly pulled away.

Suddenly she hit the brakes and rolled down the window. After lighting her cigarette Tabitha didn’t like having a lit match smolder in the car. Therefore she thought of disposing it out the window. She knew exactly what she was doing and before the match hit the ground she punched the gas and sped off down the highway. It was only a matter of seconds and a loud blast could be heard and with that Tabitha looked back and saw the zombies walking around in the wall of flames.

With night now falling Tabitha started paying particular attention to the map and the road signs. She found that the course that she was taking was a bit out of the way from her original direction but she felt a hell of a lot safer taking county roads than those high traffic freeways. Fortunately when she got past Salem, Missouri there were all sorts of tourist signs directing her onto Mark Twain Forest. Proceeding on with extreme caution Tabitha began to feel comfortable as she got closer to the place that she would call home.

Family for her was long gone. All of the years of her life she was a loner and knew that she would be just fine. If for some chance she would find others she would be on guard but that would go without saying. Down deep inside she longed to see another human being but knew damn good and well that when finding another human being she would more than likely be judged for how she dressed and how she presented herself. Tabitha didn’t care and when the sign came into view NOW ENTERING MARK TWAIN FOREST for the first time Tabitha felt like she was home and she STILL had way over a
half
tank of gas and the two five gallons containers in the
trunk
. She was ready for anything and everything.

Creeping along the narrow and winding road Tabitha saw something up ahead and it appeared to be another car. “Oh fucking great!!!! Others must
have
had the same fucking idea I had!!” She decided to stop the car and walk the rest of the way until she could find out what was going on. Down deep inside, beneath that rough and tough skin Tabitha hoped that there would be someone else because she knew that this would be a fresh start. Either way the tough little girl was standing out protecting the little one inside. She had been hurt over and over and this time she was in control and no one would ever hurt her again.

Tabitha
crept
through the trees trying not to make a sound
, s
he noticed that the wind was blowing in her direction and she caught the smell of something. Tabitha didn’t know what it was so she proceeded with extreme caution. Then suddenly from out of
nowhere
she heard a man’s voice which was very commanding. Reacting only as she knew how Tabitha dropped to her knees and held her breath. She did not even want to make a sound. Many thoughts were running through her mind of if this was a human voice or one of them fucking zombies. But immediately she stopped rationalizing and spoke softly under her breath, “Wake the fuck up Tab, zombies don’t talk and you shouldn’t be either right now!!”

Something she caught was about a dog and a few other things. Standing up she slowly made her way in the direction where the voices were coming from.