Tabitha then released her hand from Beth’s and patted her knee, “Screw the ‘I think’ shit…. I know we will become good friends. Hell
,
I never
have had one, but I would venture to
guess that if I had to make a friend I would make one with you! Shoot even the old man back there is beginning to grow on me. Then of course there is the two little love birds.” Tabitha giggled, winked at Beth and continued talking in an
upbeat
tone, “From what I can gather Charlie is a virgin and little red riding hood Ceara, well
,
let me just tell you; her and I went mushroom hunting and to make a long story short
;
I commented on how a mushroom resembles a man’s ….. um…ya know?!!!”
Beth blinked as though she was brought out of a tran
ce
and looked over at Tabitha with her mouth damn near her lap.
Tabitha giggled and continued,
“When we got back to camp I made some reference to it to Charlie and that boy had absolutely no clue whatso
ever what I was talking about.”
Beth with her voice now becoming normal but it still was cracking as she fought back the tears, interrupted, “So when I brought her a blanket to cover herself up and she took off…..”
Tabitha piped right up, “That cold water showed her headlights and I bet that Charlie was fucking glad that water was cold or his stick shift would have been in full throttle!!!!!”
Beth began to snicker and with both of the girls laughing she actually started to feel a tad bit better. After a few seconds both ladies looked straight ahead into the woods and there was once again si
lence between the both of them.
Colt stood by the grave watching as Charlie and Alden talked, he felt almost as if he was intruding on a personal
m
om
ent. Charlie reached for the shovel but Colt took it from him, “I got this Charlie.”
Charlie was about to protest and Colt shook his head, “Look, let me help where I can, you’ve been through a lot today kid.”
Colt didn’t think he was a lot older than Charlie but right now the guy looked lost and alone. Colt glanced over to Alden, “I can handle this if you want to go too. You may want to let the girls know that there is wood already chopped and in that second cabin there is a wood burning stove. I know how you hate anyone being able to see the fire, and in the stove they wouldn’t, but I don’t think the smoke would be too much of a problem either.”
Alden looked at Charlie and placed his hand on his shoulder giving it a fatherly squeeze. “You go take care of your quarters troop, Colt and I will put the finishing touch on this. Go on now Git!!”
Charlie turned and started to walk away then turned back, “Thanks guys, I really mean that. Thank you.”
He turned
and
both
Colt and Alden watched him as he walked away
,
up the back steps into his cabin. Alden started to shovel the dirt and fill in the grave. He spoke as he worked, “I’m not sure the smoke would be much more of a calling
any more
than that generator. Sound travels farther then scent, and in these woods, in these hills the echoes would make it hard to pin point
even with a well-trained ear.”
Colt looked up at him, “I just didn’t want to cause a problem especially after…. this.” pointing to the grave.
Alden shook his head, “This wasn’t your doing.”
Colt shoveled a couple of shovelfuls of the dirt, then shoved the end of the shovel head in the dirt, “Well that’s where you are wrong, I’m the one that had to kill her. She was coming at me and
s
ir I’m not normally
scared of
kids but this kid was really no kid anymore.” Colt began shoveling again, wanting to change the subject, “Anyway, while me and Beth were here I found that axe you saw me with. We didn’t know how long we would be here so I started chopping up the pile that wa
s by that house.”
Stopping for a minute and wiping his brow with his sleeve.
“
I guess what I am saying is we got enough wood for a few days.”
Alden tossed a shovel full of dirt into the grave and smiled at Colt, “No problem Colt, I still know how to get woo
d.”
Colt almost laughed then thought it may be a bit inappropriate, “Yeah you may remember but it’s been a while for me, so get
ting wood for me is just that.”
Charlie walked up th
e steps and into the back door, h
eading to the kitchen sink he tur
ned on both faucets
. Feeling the warm water hit his hands was a blessing. He picked up an old bar of soap and began to wash. He finished and rinsed his hands off then splashed water onto his face
. He mumbled under his breath, “
Thank God
,
for that old man out there.”
Looking around he didn’t see a towel so he wiped his hands on his jean as he walked into the front room and saw Ceara sitting on floor by the couch. He could see she had been working to get the stains up. He walked over and sat down beside her and put his arm around her. Ceara
looked up at him,
her eyes red from crying. Charlie brushed her tears away then kissed her forehead, “It’s alright now wer
e alone and we can let it out.”
Ceara’s head fell into his shoulder and Charlie held her tight. He watched as the sun had moved around
and
was now in the tops of the trees to west beginning
its
afternoon decent. He wanted to tell Ceara that they didn’t have much day light left but then simply decided that the time had come t
o not worry about time anymore.
A couple of hours had passed when Colt and Alden came around to the front of the cabins, Beth was inside her cabin and Tabitha was standing watch on the porch. Alden
nodded to her, “Everything ok?”
Tabitha smiled, “Right as rain.”
Colt went to his cabin, calling over to Tabitha and Alden, “I’m going to get the fire going in the kitchen then grab a shower before the sun goes down. Not sure how you guys are set with supplies but I’ll get the stove ready.”
Tabitha laughed, “Alden here butchered a cow or deer, so we
still have a few steaks left.”
Colt shook his head, that didn’t surprise him in the least. He walked into the cabin just as Beth was coming out of the bathroom freshly showered. Colt stopped dead in his tracks as she towel dried her hair, she looked over at him, “What did I do now?!”
Colt quickly said, “Nothing… I’m getting the fire going then I think Alden wants us to all eat at t
hat big picnic table out back.”
He went out the back door to grab some wood, chuckling remembering Alden’s comment. Soon he had the fire going and saw Beth checking her p
hone, “Any news?”
Beth had only about half of a charge now on her phone and she saw that there were some texts but honestly did not want to get into reading them
too
much right now until she had a full charge. She knew that she could check them while it was plugged in but with just getting settled she kinda wanted to wait. Beth was extremely nervous about finding out any news from anyone with what Colt had said to her earlier.
Calmly she put the phone down on the end table, “It is only at half charge right now and I often like to have a full charge on my cell
so
if I have to use the internet or any other devices that it won’t die quick leaving me where I will have to charge it all over again.”
Making her way over to the cabinets Beth began to look for plates, glasses and anything that could be used for dinner. The first cabinet had a few glasses and she took them all down then placed them into the sink where she began washing them. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Kelly, Brad and their kids. All the people whom she had known to her where gone, even her family that she had to put down herself. She had become so lost in thought that a glass slipped out of her hand when she rinsed it out and went to lay it on the counter to dry. When the glass hit the floor it shattered into what seemed to be
a million pieces. “DAMN IT!!!”
she yelled then went over to where she saw a broom and a dust pan.
Carefully she swept up the glass and disposed of it in the trash. Beth noticed that she was shaking and was not thinking clearly. She had to check that damn phone or she would end up being a worse basket case than she already was. Putting the broom back where she got it Beth went right back over to the end table picked up the phone, walked over to the couch and sat down. The first text that popped up was from another friend of hers that worked with her but in a different department. Jennifer Welton had only been there about ten years and she worked in the Public Health Surveillance Program Office (PHSPO) and her job was to develop new ideas, methods, tools, information sources, analysis, and dissemination. However the main part of her job was to contribute to emergency preparedness and response programs. The text that Beth saw was very short, sweet and right to the point, “Beth, from near as we can figure out that this whole mess was sent
in motion
from
Philly
and the orders w
ere carried out by Jarrad Walker
.
We got a shipment from Philly, it was already speading there, we were supposed to figure out containment, but it was released here too.
It d
oesn’t
look good Beth. TTYL…. I hope”
Rolling her eyes and shaking her head all at the same time she knew exactly what Jennifer meant and filled that away for future reference. The next text however caused Beth to tear up. It was from Kelly, “We have locked ourselves in our car and are driving as far as we can. We have been bit and we are already feeling the spread.”
The very last text was the hardest one of all. It was from her cousin Amanda. “Beth, I tried to call Uncle and Auntie and got no answer.
Mom
called me at work and said that
Dad
got attacked. He’s laying down now and we are trying to get the hospital to send an ambulance but all we get is busy signal.
Dad
said he got bit by somebody who was
crazy! Whatever that means?
Where are you? I need your help! Call me as soon as you can cuz.”
Beth checked when that was dated and it was dated three days ago. Beth held back the tears as best as she could, she put the phone down on the couch beside her. She knew how fast as the infection spread because she had witnessed it with her own eyes with her Dad. Also being that there were no more text messages from Amanda, Beth sad
ly knew what had soon followed.
Colt stood in the kitchen watching Beth, she seem to forget he was even there. When she started checking the phone he went out back, Alden stood out there at the picnic table, “Hey Sir, the stove will be ready in about fifteen or twenty minutes if yo
u want to bring in the steaks.”
Alden nodded, “Ok, but knock the
shit off with the sir already.”
Co
lt laughed, “Sorry about that.”
He turned going back in the cabin going right into the front room. As he rounded the couch he saw her phone
lying
on the couch still on the text she had open, but Beth just looked out the window, still not seeing him. He had seen this before but just once and it had been his own mother when she got told his
Dad
had been killed in the line of duty. The look was that of total denial or defeat, He sat down on the couch beside her, “Beth?? What happ
en? Beth, damn it, talk to me!”
Still getting nothing Colt reach up gently taking her chin and turned her face to his, “Beth, don’t leave me damn it, I need you.” He sat there looking into her eyes trying to get her to come bac
k. “Beth please, say something!
The words were there as plain as day in her mind. She knew what she wanted to say and even how to say it
,
but just couldn’t bring herself to talk. The reason to her was fear as to how Colt would treat her. What Colt had said earlier still
rang
in her ears and sometimes the best thing to say is to say nothing at all.
However, something needed to be said and Colt did have a right to know because
,
how it looked to her in black and white was that the only people left alive in the world, right here, right now was the people that were with her.
Reaching over
,
she picked up her cell and handed it to Colt. “Here Colt. Read it for yourself. I feel so bad for everything that has happened
.
J
ust remember
,
you lost the love of your life and I get that was hard for you to do
, but don’t ever think you are alone it that.
I had to do the same thing with my parents and Mary. But this… this shows everything and there wasn’t one damn thing I could
have
done!”
Getting up Beth went back into the kitchen to run water over her face. Colt held the phone as she went to the kitchen then pushed the button to show the text, he read through the one from Kelly. He remembered Beth tellin
g him that was her best friend. Next was from
a girl named Jennifer, it was obvious that the infection had not started in the facility Beth worked at; they mishandled it too but Beth wasn’t even there.