Ceara smiled, “You know I am going to catch not only the first one but I will catch more than you!”
Charlie smirked, “Want to put y
our money where your mouth is?”
Ceara was getting cocky, “What’cha got in mind?”
Before Charlie could respond Tabitha spoke up, “If I win you guys clean my cabin for a week, ALL of it even Alden’s room.”
Both looked to her and smiled, Ceara agreed for both of them, “But if either of
us win you have to clean ours!”
Tabitha looked at both as they walked, “Odds have always been stacked against me, you’re on.”
Charlie poked Ceara goosing her in the side, “So Red, what’s our bet?”
Ceara glared at him, “I let Tabitha get away
with calling me Red, not you.”
Tabitha smiled but said nothing. Charlie couldn’t tell if Ceara was kidding or not. Times like this he hated not having a little more experience with women. “Gee, okay I’m sorry I didn’t mean anything bad. I just thought….”
He stopped talking and kept walking, his mind racing about what to say next. He had always hoped that he would have time to talk to someone about girls and dating but now this, he had no one he could really trust except Alden and he didn’t want Alden to think he was some sort of big baby.
Tabitha saw the creek up ahead and started looking right to left. Nothing looked good over on the right because there were a lot of trees and just pla
i
n logs, but on the left there was a good size open patch of land where each one of them could have a nice little place to sit and have plenty of room to cast out. Walking over to Charlie, Tabitha had her eye on the big black rod with an open reel which was perfect for how she loved to cast. “I will take this on
e Charlie.”
After she carefully took it out of his grip Tabitha stepped over to where he was holding onto the coffee can. Immediately she reached in and pulled a long, fat and extremely juicy worm out. “Yaaaa this fatty will bring me the winner. Wont
’
cha b
oy?!?”
she asked after she had it between her fingers and walked over to pop a squat.
Once she put the worm on the hook she wasted no time and with one quick snap of her wrist she cast her line and then let it sink to the bottom. Looking around Tabitha found a branch and with the pole still in her hand she walked over just a few steps and retrieved the branch. Carefully she made it into a make shift fork and shoved it into the ground with the two little branches sticking up. Tabitha then did what she had always done whenever she went fishing when she was younger. She tightened up her line then placed the pole right between the forks. That way if she got a bite the tip rod would bend or jump and she would then grab it and snap it so that the hook would be set. After she was all done Tabitha began helping Ceara first. “Now Charlie, are you watching how I do this? I will show Ceara and keep my eye on my pole all at the same time. It’s not
too
windy but there is a nice current. There will be channel cat on the bottom and those will make a damn good meal. However if we don’t have much luck in about an hour or so we can do some fly fishing and maybe we w
ill catch some bass or trout.”
C
eara watched as Tabitha put the worm on the hook and this caused her to wrinkle her nose. “Tabitha that is the one thing ab
out fishing that just gets me.”
“
What’s that Red? asked Tabitha.
“When I went fishing with my
Dad
he would always put the worms on for me because I just couldn’t do it. I just worried about if it would hurt them and I just didn’t want to hurt another living thing.”
Tabitha chuckled after she shoved the worm onto the hook then said, “Well, look at it this way, one; worms do not have mouths so you would never be able to hear them if it did hurt and two; well,” she chuckled, “Worms in some parts of the world are a delicacy and are full of protein. You can rip them in half if they ar
e too big and they keep moving.”
Quickly she wiped the slime off of her fingers onto her jeans and handed her back h
er pole. “You’re ready to go!”
T
abitha walked over to Charlie and he was taking this all in. He took the weight off and replaced it a tiny clip on weight squeezing it shut with his teeth. Looking up he saw Tabitha watching him. He took a whole worm and threaded it gently from one end to the other alon
g the hook leaving a long tail.
Tabitha spoke up, “You really did grow up sheltered didn’t you?”
Charlie scowled at first then backed off a little, he knew she didn’t know anything other than he grew up in the city. Smiling, “Yeah I did grow up in a city.”
He turned and casted out across the water snapping the line just before it hit a tree in the water and began to slowly reel it in. “But I had cable so I w
atched a lot of fishing shows.”
Retrieving the worm he did the same thing again landing the worm in almost the exact same spot. On the fourth try he had just began reeling when he saw the fish hit the line and break water. “Oh shit!” he started reeling fast as the bass broke water again. Charlie had it almost to the shore when it broke a third time and the hook came out. “AWWW DAMN IT
!!”
Ceara laughed, “Just think, you almost won the bet in the first five minutes.”
She emphasized the word almost; then
turned back to her and Tabitha’s lines, neither was moving. She plopped down on the bank and kept watching the lines, suddenly she jumped up, “Guys we forgot guns!
What if wanderers come out?”
Tabitha pulled her gun out of the back of her pants showing it to Ceara, “
No worries Red
, they won’t get us.”
Charlie pulled out his hunting knife, “Ceara, don’t want to be mean or nothing but you are the
only
one that always forgets her gun.”
Ceara
gave him a scathing look than
looked down, “I don’t mean too, I just forget. Should I go get
my gun
?”
Tabitha slid her gun back into the back of her jeans, “You go ahead, I’ll watch your pole and Charlie will keep me honest if you catch anything.”
Ceara gave Charlie a quick kiss, “Be right back! Watch my pole.”
Charlie quickly added as she started off, “Hurry, I don’t like the thought of you in the woods alone!”
Ceara ran off, looking all around hoping she didn’
t have anything to worry about.
Within a few minutes she broke through the trees surprising Colt, “What’s wrong, the wanders coming? Where is Tabitha and Charlie!?”
Ceara forgot she was mad at him, “No, I forgot a damn weapon and Alden will kill me if he finds out!”
Colt sighed with relief, “
Your rifle was propped up
over by the shed.”
“Thanks!” She snatched it up and ran back for the woods, knowing Charlie was worried. She made it back just as Tabitha snagged up her pole jerking on it. Ceara slid to a stop, “Is that my pole? Did I win?”
Tabitha laughed, “You wish, this is mine!” Just as Tabitha started pulling it in Charlie snagged another fish. He jerked back a little harder this time setting the hook deep. The bass broke water violently trying to get away but Charlie had him and he knew it. His smile was broad as he whooped. Getting the fish close to shore he spoke, “Not this time you son of a bitch
!”
He waded into the stream holding the tip of the pole up he reached down and grabbed the line throwing the fish and pole onto the shore. Coming out of the water yelling, “I GOT HIM, I GOT HIM!!!” He turned to see both Ceara and Tabitha laughing at him. “Screw you I got a Bass!”
Ceara went to help him since her pole wasn’t moving and Tabitha was busy pulling her own fish in. Charlie grinned at her, “I got this, kind of proud of it. It’s twice the size of Tabitha’s, too bad
we didn’t say that biggest fish, but I still won the bet!
”
A
bout an hour after they pulled out the first couple of fish they had several ready to take back to camp. They had begun to pack up when the first wanderer appeared, Ceara grabbed Charlie’s shirt and pointed at the woman coming toward them. She had shoulder length hair on half her head, the other half of her head had the scalp peeled back exposing a lot of her skull. Her eye hung from the socket still attached through th
e skin that hung from her head.
Ceara looked away as Charlie
motioned for Ceara to stay put and worked around behind the woman as she approached Ceara and Tabitha. She was starting to reach out for them when Charlie sank the knife in the base of her skull.
Ceara turned back when she
heard water splashing. Ceara turned back in time to see Charlie pulling the
knife
out of the now
dead wanderer
.
Tabitha and Ceara turned just in time to see another one coming. Charlie was still with the other
one;
Ceara grabbed one of the fish and flung it at the wanderer. Tabitha looked at her, “Really? What exactly was that going to do?”
Tabitha ran over to it and cut its throat
but that didn’t stop it, it still tried to turn to get Tabitha.
“Shit!” Tabitha yelled as she drove the knife into the wanderers eye socket making the eyeball pop
.
Tabitha let it go and the man dropped no longer moving.
Ceara looked around nervous, “You think that was it? Should we get back to warn everyone?”
Charlie climbed back out of the creek picking up the fish, “I say we head back
.” he handed the fish to Ceara
, “Tabitha you take point. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Tabitha giggled, “Yeah, Charlie I bet you w
ill.” Then she winked at Ceara.
The group made the short trip to the cabins. As they came into the area they saw Beth and Colt sitting by the campfire. As Ceara set the fish on the table she heard Beth’s back door open. Out came Tonto and Alden with Max wrapped in a blanket in Alden’s arm
s. “OH NO NO NO!” she screamed.
Alden looked at her and smiled, “Relax honey he’s just fine. I thought he might enjoy some from fresh air and
I
didn’t want him to tear his stitches.” Alden laid Max down on the ground. Max whimpered a bit but then licked Alden’s hand. His tail began to thum
p as Ceara knelt down with him.
She softly stroked his fur, “Hi boy, how you doing?” Ceara crawled over to the bag of jerky still lying on the ground and pulled out a couple of pieces, tearing the package open with her teeth. “Beth, will he be okay eating a couple of these?”
Beth was sitting relaxed by the fire and looked over to Ceara, “I think he is doing good enough to try some food.” Ceara held out a large piece and Maximus made short work of it and looked at her for more. That made Ceara laugh as she pu
lled a couple more out for him.
Charlie sat by the fire with the others, “Guys we may have an issue, there were a couple wanderers down by the creek.” Everyone sat up straight, “Don’t worry we took care of them but there could be more. We got back here so we could make
sure you guys had a heads up.”
Alden walked over to the table and looked at the fish. “Damn that’s a nice bass. I’d sure hate to let it go to waste
but I ain’t
eating it raw.”
Charlie’s eyes went wide, “RAW!”
“Yeah
…
do you want the smell of cooking fish floating through the air?”
They all looked at one another, Beth spoke up first. “You really
think that would be an issue?”
Alden frowned
and countered her statement
, “You really want to take that chance.” He looked at her and then began to smile. “I have an idea.”
He walked to where Charlie had dug up the worms and picked up the shovel. “Why don’t we try to just bake them? Someone see if you can find a pan.”
He looked at Tabitha,
“I
n our kitchen under the sink there’s a roll of aluminum foil. We can clean them and then place them in the pan, cover it with the foil then build a fire in this hole. Using rocks to collect the heat
w
e can make a g
round
c
over and give it a shot.”
Everyone was up and moving then
;
Charlie and Colt headed to the table to begin to clean the fish as Tabitha and Beth went to their cabins to see what they could find. Tabitha returned first with the foil. Handing it to Charlie she looked at Alden, “
How’d you know that was there?”
Alden was digging the hole a little deeper and looked up. “Well I tend to check things out a little more than most do. Did you notice the bottle of dawn dish soap too?”
Tabitha looked surprised, “no” she said meekly.
“That’s what I thought.”
Beth came back with a bluish broiler pan, “Will this work?”
Charlie smiled,
“
Yeah that will be fine.
”
Alden soon had another fire going in the hole and was laying rocks down next to it.