The last one he read was
from a girl named Amanda. The girl was Beth’s cousin and from the text it was obvious that another part of Beth’s family was gone. He laid the phone back on the couch and wondered how many texts were on his IPhone that sat on his kitchen table. His mother, sister, best friend
,
even the people he worked with. He hadn’t thought about any of those. Losing Jessica had been his only thought but now he knew
they had all lost so much more.
Colt went into the kitchen wanting to comfort Beth but just as he got to her Alden and Tabitha walked in. Both were carrying a plastic tray with meat wrapped in paper. Setting the
trays
on the table Alden looked at the Beth and Colt. Their eyes told more than they were willing to say. He smiled and went to the cupboards searching for a skillet to cook the steaks in. Tabitha began to unwrap them as Colt and Beth stood next to each other at the kitchen sink. Colt knew the air in the room seemed gloomy and tense so he walked over to the table. “Are those okay to eat? I mean you didn
’t have them iced or anything.”
Tabitha grinned and turned to Alden, “You explain it to th
em I’m afraid I’ll mess it up.”
Alden found a cast iron skillet and took a piece of trimmed fat off one of the papers and tossed it in then began to stir with his knife. “Well cupcakes,” he said with a chuckle, “People have been preserving meat since they first discovered fire. It’s simple
…
really all you need is some marinade and salt. You marinate and salt them let it sit in a cool dry place over night then finish
it off with herbs and spices.”
The fat was sizzling as he kept moving it around in the skillet. He turned and stabbed a large steak with the knife and dropped it in the skillet. As it began to cook
,
smoke
was
rising and filling the room
,
the aroma made every one’s stomach growl with anticipation. Tabitha
looked to Beth, “So any news?”
Beth’s eyes filled with tears as Colt reached down and held
her hand giving it a squeeze. “
Nothing we didn’t already know.”
Beth pulled her hand back and walked over to the table. Alden kept cooking but the following silence was deafening in the room, only the steak sizzling. Not looking
up from his cooking he spoke, “
I know you kids all got those fancy phones and such. You can call or what is it you call it? Oh yeah, text or whatever. But anymore now
,
I think it’s best we all just leave them be. I can tell by the faces in this room that whatever news you got it wasn’t good and Lord knows we don’t need a damn Star Trek communicator to tell
us Scotty got his ass fucked.”
He flipped the steak as the three young people looked first at him then at each other. It was Tabitha who gave in first. She covered her mouth with her hands to try and hide the snicker but to no avail. Beth and Colt looked at each other and within seconds started to giggle. In a
Moment
the kitchen was filled with laughter as three could not hold back. Alden smiled as he took the first steak off put it on a plate and stabbed
the next one into the skillet.
Charlie woke up with Ceara on his shoulder.
They
had fallen asleep and the pain shot through his arm. He looked down at her with her eyes closed, swollen from crying and did not want to wake her but the numbness was getting too much to bear. He moved just a bit to try and get comfortable but no luck. The breeze was blowing gently through the front screen door and he caught a whiff of something delicious. Tapping Ceara on the nose gently, ‘Pssst hey, hey, Ceara, wake up. I think Al
den’s cooking steaks.”
Ceara moved her head a bit then looked up
at him sleepily, “Huh …. what?”
Charlie repeated himself as Ceara suddenly smelled the steaks. Sitting up
,
she ran her fingers through her hair and stretched then looked to Charlie
, smiling
“I bet I l
ook a mess?”
Charlie returned her smile, “no, you look just fine.”
Ceara stood up and stretched again, “Liar. But thank you anyway. I need a shower so do me a favor and go tell them I’ll be over soon.” Charlie nodded as he got up his arm hanging like limp noodle. “Sure I can
do that.”
He turned and Ceara walked over to him, “Charlie, is your arm okay?”
C
harlie shook it, “Yeah, yeah it’s fine I must have strained it when digging.”
Ceara smiled and kissed his cheek, “Or it fell asleep from my head laying on it.” Kissing him once more she turned and walked out of the cabin to get her things out of her Jeep. Charlie followed and turned toward the center cabin where all the laughter was coming from. As he walked into the kitchen he saw Colt, Beth, and Tabitha still chuckling. “What’d I miss? What’s so funny?”
Alden turned around, “Nothing,…. Spock hand me another plate.” Colt, Beth and Tabitha roared with laughter as Charlie stood there looking confused.
Ceara got to her jeep and pulled out her few meager possessions, her backpack was slung over her shoulder then she grabbed the bag of snacks she had found on the highway so long ago. After she had that, she opened the back door to get the cooler
out of the backseat,
which was only half full of bottles of water now
. S
he was ready to go back in and take that long awaited shower. Ceara sat everything on the kitchen counter then headed to the master bedroom, she hoped Charlie didn’t mind but she wanted the dresser with the big mirror. She slung her backpack on the bed, unzipped it then upended it to dump everything on the bed. She had a total of four sets of clothes and three of those were filthy, part of her hoped this place had a washer and dryer but she had already been all around and hadn’t seen one. Her only options were to either find a wash tub in that shed or wash the clothes in the small river.
She looked in the mirror and laughed, yeah Charlie lied when he said she looked good, her hair was tangled from her falls in the river and the flannel shirt that was three sizes
too
big for her was filthy and blood stained from trying to clean the front room. Her big brown eyes had dark circles under them and she had lost some weight, “Who needs weight watchers?” She laughed a little more and turned from the mirror grabbing her last pair of jeans and a wadded up t-shirt, rifling through the clothes a little more she found panties and socks. Rolling her eyes when she realized she had only packed two bras, and both were dirty. She grabbed the least fowl smelling one and headed for the shower, stopping by the hall closest she knew held a few towels.
Ceara turned on the water and let it run till she felt it get hot then adjusted it to her taste, she stripped and climbed in. As the water poured over her head she was in heaven, never again would she ever take hot water for granted. She looked to the soap dish and saw a bar of soap, she sighed with relief.
The family that was staying here must have been there for a couple of days, there was even shampoo and conditioner. Within ten minutes Ceara was feeling like her old self and turned the water off and climbed out. She dried off then wrapped the towel around her head, sliding into her panties and jeans she flipped her head over and dried her hair as much as she could. Ceara threw the towel over the shower rod and turned to get her t-shirt; she shook out the wad and pulled it over her head, then flipped her hair out of the shirt.
Grabbing up all her dirty clothes and headed back to the bedroom, tossing them on the bed with all the other dirty clothes. She picked up her hairbrush and turned to the mirror and seeing her t-shirt for the first time and busted up laughing. The shirt had a cross and “Jesus Saves” wrote across it, Alden would give her hell over this
,
not to mention Tabitha. She hadn’t even looked at what she packed just grabbing things and throwing them into her backpack.
Her mom
bought the shirt and honestly she had never worn it but now it made her feel a bit closer to
her mom
and
Dad
so if any of them gave her shit then that would be just fine with her. Ceara brushed through her hair and even put on a little makeup then headed out to join the others. Maximus sat on the porch waiting on her, “Hi there,
we both
smell much better
now
! Come on let’s go eat” petting his he
ad as she walked off the porch.
Charlie had found a small whisk broom and was brushing the dirt, dust and pine needles off the benches of the picnic table. He had already found a red and white plastic checkered cloth for it and had spread it out using some small rocks to hold the edges down. As Ceara walked up he smiled
, “
Well now, you look gre
at. I bet you feel better too.”
He sat down with his back to the table and placed the broom on the ground beside him. He stretched his legs out and put his hands behind his head and looked up at the sky as the sun was setting the first stars started to shine. “I wonder if anyone else is doing better than we are. I mean ….
W
ell
…
you got to wonder if there is anything left anywhere in the world that we could eve
n begin to think of as normal.”
He sighed than sat up. “The rest of the group is in the cabin cooking steaks I bet their just about done.”
He got up and walked to the edge of the woods and just stared out into them, his hands in his pockets, his thoughts still wandering. It was the first time since everything had gone wrong for him to just stop and think. Charlie thought to himself that all the plans he had made about having his own home and a good job along with a family. Now those dreams were as fleeting as the sun that was setting in front of him. Unlike the sun though which he was fairly sure would rise tomorrow his dreams were gone forever. Sighing he turned around and saw Ceara watching him. He smiled and headed for his van, “I’ll get us a couple of lanterns out. The sister
s
always said
,
no one likes to eat in the dark.”
Ceara smiled, “Yeah, I kind of like knowing what I’m eating”
Colt watched as the others finally started to stop laughing, each one would chuckle and stop, “Ok that felt good, I haven’t laughed in a while. Alden you want me to start taking the steaks out? Too bad we don’t have baked potatoes to go with these, but a good steak will damn sure hit the spot.”
Alden handed him the first plate, “Ok, you guys head out and as soon as this last one is done I’ll be out there.”
Beth and Tabitha took the plates along with their bottles of water and followed Colt out the back door. They all joined in setting the table,
and then
sat around it waiting on Alden to join them. Everyone was moving things here and there on the table trying to think of something to talk about. Colt really didn’t want to talk about how things were now so he went another direction, “So we don’t know much about each other, what did you guys do
for a living before all this?”
Wasting no time Tabitha spoke right up being the eager little beaver. “Well, I was looking for getting on with my college education on becoming a beautician but when the world went to shit
,
I thought that no one would really be wanting to get their hair styled or their eyebrows waxed.” Tabitha could not believe that she said that and it kinda showed because she
began fidgeting with her plate.
Alden was walking up as Colt asked the question. He sat and listened to Tabitha thinking beautician my ass. As he listened to her, he could see her fidgeting with her plate which led him to believe that she was truly more like a bar maid at a local biker bar. He thought what the hell why ruin her dreams.
Taking a seat he smiled, “Well if you hadn’t guessed it by now I was in the Army for 30 years. I saw a little action but not much really. I worked in
the mess hall making cupcakes.”
Charlie quickly cut a piece of meat and shoved it in his mouth remembering the way Alden had killed the deadheads and the way he took charge in the big battle, “Bullshit
… a cook?
This man is a simple killing machine and he doesn’t w
ant the rest of us to know it.”
Tabitha laughed out loud and before she could even think about what she was going to say once her mouth was open she just couldn’t stop it, “Seriously?!!! Cook!!??!!
I think you might have watched Steven Seagal
as a “COOK” in Under Siege!!! He was in the navy and let me tell ya, we all know what they say about the military
…
in any fucking form
,
and you
ain’t no damn cupcake cook!!!!”
Then she cut a piece of her steak and took a bit
e
of it. With the meat still being savored in her mouth she spoke, “Though you can cook a damn good fucking steak!!! I still say you are full of
shit on the other. Cook my ass,
I mean if you’re a cook than I was the first runner
up in the Miss America Pageant.
Alden took a small bite and grinned, “That’s my
story and I’m sticking too it.”
Beth savored the meal for it had actually been days since she had last ate anything
decent
. Even the conversation was so nice that she almost forgot about all of the horrible things that were going on in the world. Quietly she continued eating and listening to the others but when Alden had said what he did Beth dropped her fork. Everyone looked over at her and she looked right up into Alden’s eyes. She knew
the reason
his story. He had taken the oath that all who work
ed
for the government had taken. Sitting there she picked up her fork and with a monotone voice she said, “He won’t talk……yet. And if he does it will be short, sweet and right to the point, isn’t that right Alden?”
Alden just grinned and took another bite. Beth looked back down at her plate and noticed that her steak was now almost completely gone. Tabitha looked at the reaction that Alden gave and then looked over to Beth. Those two were connected and Tabitha being street smart could tell. Thinking about what had just transpired made Tabitha realize quickly about how she tried to snow everyone and thought about how those two were trying to hide their credentials. If they all were trying to be honest with one another and get to know themselves then maybe lying is not a real good thing.
Quickly Tabitha
spoke up
, “Ok, I will be the one to have to get gut level honest here, and speak up. I grew up in a damn rough home. My so called
parents
were
too
damn young to be parents in the first place. So I didn’t have the “Leave It To Beaver” home. I practically raised myself and hid in the woods a lot because no one would bother me and I would stay out of trouble. I mean, the people that claimed to be your birth givers
, that
don’t
make
them the fucking right to be parents. People always treated me like scum because my parents were scum. No one ever got to know the person that I was. We didn’t have money and no one really ever even gave me a chance to show the real person that I was. I had a few jobs at bars. I was a waitress and a pole dancer. No replicable place would have anything to do with me because my name was ruined by my family. So I di
d what I had to do to survive.”
Pushing her plate back then reaching for her water. She took a long drink and when she was finished she concluded, “Yep, the world went to shit and the majority of the snobs that were all hoity toity couldn’t handle it and yet here I am!! So yea, all the money and fame in the world don’t mean a goddamn thing right now. What does matter is street smarts and being able to stay alive. So I guess that was my major in life, how to survive. It took me my whole life to learn, that people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths and made all the money they wanted after a few years of college really didn’t have
an ounce of street smarts
. I bet those Harvard and Yale students failed miserable on this exam.”
Ceara sat listening to Tabitha but still thought about Alden, she knew Beth was right,
they
wouldn’t know any more than what Alden wanted
them
to. Tabitha had fought her whole life and she was still fighting just to be accepted for who she was
;
not who she was born too.
Ceara really thought that Tabitha’s horrible since of humor may have played into a few lost friendships.