Tears fell from her eyes as she held her children, “Mister
,
you are an Angel sent from heaven by God’s own hand to save us from the philistines.”
Alden smiled a little,
“
Ma’am I’m more like the Maytag repairman, I simply fix shit that ain’t right.”
He turned and looked to the Preacher, “You stay there
,
I’ll get my truck and be right back. Tonto, you stay right there and guard them kids.”
In minutes he was back taking some things out of the back he walked around and found some wood to make a splint. “
Ma’am
,
in the back there you’ll find some water and some snacks help yourself.”
The kids looked at their
Mom
then to him, “
T
hank you
,
mister” they spoke quietly.
As the woman and kids were at the back and Alden was performing first aide he looked the man in the eyes. “I ain’t taking you with me. I’ll get you back down off this mountain some place safe but that’s it. I
can’t
take responsibility for you or your kids. I won’t do it.”
The man smiled weakly,
“
I understand
,
sir. If you could just get us back to our church we’ll be fine it’s only about ten miles after we hit the base.
”
Alden tied off the splint then shook the man’s hand. Helping him back to the truck he got him in the back with the supplies and made him comfortable.
“
Ma’am,
you and the kids can ride up front with me if you like
,
if not I understand.”
The woman smiled, “If it’s all the same to you I’ll ride with my husband but I want the kids up front with seat belts on you never know even in these days.”
Alden shook his head and grinned. Snapping his fingers as he came around the truck Tonto jumped into the back and sat down. The boy climbed in the back with Tonto and the girl up front
,
both put on their seat belts.
It took less than an hour to get down to the little church. Alden got the man out as the doors of the church opened. Several men with shotguns came out screaming at Alden. Tonto jumped out and squared off as Alden’s 45 appeared out nowhere.
“LISTEN UP GENTLEMEN
,
LAY YOUR GUNS DOWN OR YOU’LL ALL MEET YOUR JESUS SOONER THAN YOU WANT.”
The pastor raised his hands and his wife stepped in between them all.
“You put that damn thing down Harold
,
this man saved our lives.”
Harold dropped his gun down along with the rest of the men. Two went to the pastor and helped him to the stairs. He turned
back
to Alden, “Sir your welcome to come and pray and eat with us. It’s the least we can do.”
Alden waved his hand and snapped his fingers. Tonto took his seat and Alden climbed in. Looking out the window, “Pastor… it wouldn’t be right, you see I don’t believe in your Jesus, I have my own religion and it’s a little older than yours. You go and thank Your God and his son. I’ll lay my head down and give thanks to the moon and the stars.”
As Alden drove away he watched the people standing on the steps of the church. “Poor bastards they’ll be dead
within
a month.”
Alden drove for hours, taking all the back roads he had
found,
to get up to Leonard Wood. He’d made the trip several times before everything went to bad. As he passed through the first part of the Mark Twain National Forest the idea came to him that this would be a great place to hold up. He remembered a state park that had been in another section of the National forest and decided to head there. He could set up his base camp. Then take a run up to Leonard Wood in a couple of days. It took two more hours of driving before he arrived at Elephant rock state park.
“Tonto you stay put, this will only take a second.”
Alden got out and walked to the tool box on the back of the truck. Opening it he grabbed a large set of bolt cutters and headed for the gate. Lifting the chain he saw the lock had already been cut. Acting as if nothing was wrong he pushed the gate open and walked back to the truck. Placing the bolt cutters back in the tool box he fiddled around as his eyes slowly scanned the area. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary but he cut lock had put him on high alert. Opening the door he reached behind the seat and pulled out an HK MP5 he pulled the bolt back and chambered a round then set it in the seat. He made sure his 45 was also ready. Putting the truck in gear he pulled through the gate then got out and did the same dummy lock procedure he had found it in. Alden climbed back in, looking to Tonto, “Okay boy
,
keep your eyes and ears open I have no idea what to expect.”
Alden pushed the button and let Tonto’s window down. The dog put his head out and sniffed the air then looked back at his master. “Alright buddy let
’
s roll if you think it’s safe.” Tonto simply turned and put his head back out.
Alden drove slow watching the sides of the road and the trees for anything unusual. Everything seemed to be perfect
,
hell even the trash cans looked like they had new liners. Tonto’s low growl was the first sign. Alden slowed to a crawl as the hairs stood up on Tonto’s neck. Suddenly Tonto stood and bared his teeth. His growl was gone
,
Alden put the truck in park and looked to where Tonto was facing. He didn’t see it at first but then something caught his eye. The branches on a tree had been
cut;
Alden got out and walked a few feet up the road trying to peer through the
bushes
and undergrowth. He saw the restroom and the parking lot, everything looked normal except for the large brus
h pile, an
exceedingly large brush pile.
As he crouched dow
n he moved to his left the sun
rays caught the hub cap of the van. “Son of a bitch, boy who ever did that had a good idea of what to do
,
but not quite good
enough.
”
Alden backed away to the truck and rolled up the windows and motioned for Tonto to come out his door. Grabbing the keys he pushed the power lock button on the door and moved back to the edge of the woods.
Crouching and moving slowly he sat just off the edge of the restroom parking lot behind a large blackberry bush. Listening he heard the water running in the shower and then moved carefully across the lot. If there were any scouts Tonto would have picked up on them by now and he seemed to be interested only in what was in the restroom. Alden got to the building and tried the door carefully, it was locked.
He
looked around both sides and saw the windows were shut and figured they were locked too.
“Well boy, who ever or
whatever
is in there has only one way out and that’s through this door. We’ll just pull up a chair and wait.”
He picked up a pine bench that sat against the wall and positioned it a few feet from the door then sat down.
The two didn’t have to wait long for the shower to stop and the door to open. Tonto jumped up and moved a few feet to the side as the door opened
,
he was hidden from the view of
whoever
was coming out. Alden leveled the MP5 as the young man walked out naked to the world. A small grin came on his face as he spoke, “Well Hello cupcake.”
The man stopped as he dropped his clothes in front of his private parts
the
crossbow hit the ground as the door slammed shut behind him and Tonto growled.
The young man jumped at the size of Tonto’s teeth, “Oh Holy Mother Mary of God. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT WOLF DOING HERE.”
Alden’s voice was low and stern, “
F
irst off
,
cupcake he ain’t no wolf. He is
however;
a highly trained military dog who will chew your balls off before you can blink. Second
,
I want you to very slowly, slowly mind you, raise your arms out to you side so I can make sure
you’re
not hiding anything else dangerous.”
The young man looked to the dog
,
then to the crossbow
,
and then to the man with the machine gun. He raised his arms slowly letting the clothes fall to the ground.
Alden laughed a
little, “Well
that thing damn sure ain’t going to hurt no one. Pick up your clothes,
now
what’s your name?”
The young man picked his dirty clothes up and placed them in front of him once more, “I’m
-m-
m I’m Charlie,” he said still watching the dog.
“Okay I’m I’m Charlie, you alone?”
Charlie nodded.
“You got no one in the van or sneaking around right.”
Charlie shook his head, “no
,
no sir.”
“Alright Charlie
,
let’s
move over to your van so we can see what’s what.”
Alden retrieved the crossbow then followed Charlie over to the van, Charlie in front
,
Alden behind
,
and Tonto to Alden’s side. “Okay push the brush and let’s take a look see.”
Charlie pushed the branches back and opened the door. Alden motioned for him to step away the looked inside. The van was filled with supplies and a small mattress.
He
noticed the some of the weapons in the back. Turning back to the kid he motioned to the van, “Go on
,
get
dressed
and we’ll talk in a minute.
”
Alden waited as the young man got dressed then took him down the road to get his truck. Still wary but not
quite
as much, the kid seemed innocent enough. Tonto walked beside Alden he too seemed less interested in the kid now. Getting to the truck
,
Alden unlocked it and let Tonto jump in the back then motioned for the kid to get in. They drove back to the lot in silence. Alden pulled up behind the van and the two got out. Alden let his gun down, “Names Alden, my Dog here is Tonto.”
Charlie snickered sort like the “Lone Ranger huh.”
Alden chuckled, “Close
,
except they had morals, we don’t. You see we will kill anything that fucks with us.”
Charlie’s eyes went down as if he shamed himself. “It’s alright kid, you seem like a good enough sort, and in times like these one needs to lighten up the reins a little. Here help me out and I’ll show you how to properly camouflage your van. Deadheads can’t tell the difference but there might be some humans that are err not so nice as me.”
Alden pulled some netting out of an ammo box and handed Charlie one end of it pointing to his van, you start by stretching across the top. I’ll get mine.”
It took about a half hour and the net was strung over both vehicles and down to the ground. The Alden showed the boy how to mix and match his trees and brush to make it more natural. After another hour it was done
,
it
made for a nice cover.
Alden pulled out a Coleman stove and
within
another thirty minutes coffee was served and big pot of stew was simmering. “
Let’s
sit eat and then talk and you can tell me who
you are and how you got here….”
Ceara was suddenly looking at her dad, but it wasn’t how she had wanted. Her mother was totally devoured and she now knew that is was her father who had done it. She was already on her knees so she flipped over kicking the man she adored away from her. He kept coming and Ceara was forced to move further in the bedroom, the smell was overpowering. Her mother’s decomposing body and her father’s body was filthy. He was covered in dirt and what she thought was piss and shit. Ceara made it to the master bathroom slamming the door, soon
her dad
was pounding on it. She pulled open drawers shoving things around to find something to use, she shoved the top drawer closed and yanked the second one open hard enough to pull it off its rails and the drawer hit the floor scattering the contents on the floor. She didn’t see anything to use there either. She dropped to her knees jerking open the cabinet under the sink, there she saw it!
Her d
ad
must have worked on the pipes recently, there was a screwdriver laying across a package of Depends. She had a split second to wonder which of her parents had started needing those, they weren’t that old. Ceara stood with her back to the sink as she clutched the screwdriver to her chest. She knew that he wouldn’t leave so she had to choose to open the door or wait for him to break the door in. Ceara reached for the door knob, “I’m sorry Daddy”
She swung open the door
,
jumping back to the shower bringing up the screwdriver ready to attack.
Her dad
walked in, actually reaching for the image in the mirror first,
and then
he saw his daughter.
Ceara tears were blurring her vision,
her dad
grabbed her and as he went to bite her
,
she forced the screwdriver through his eye burying it in his brain. She cried harder as she twisted the screwdriver till he dropped to the floor and stopped moving, “I love you Daddy, please forgive me!”
She climbed out of the shower stepping over her father and left the bathroom, and bedroom shutting the door as she left.
Ceara walked through the house opening windows
,
then went to the front porch; she watched all the surrounding land for any movement. She didn’t see anything so she stepped off the porch and walked around the house to scan the rest of the land. Ceara stepped into the backyard and saw Maximus laying in the back of the yard. He raised his head looking at her then laid his head back down. Ceara walked toward him, “
What are you doing over there?”
When she got closer Maximus raised his head and but th
is time whined. “What’s wrong?”
That was answered when she saw the carcass of an animal not two feet from Maximus, “Oh shit
,
I forgot about Princess!”
Her parents golden lab was almost
too
decomposed to know but there was still a bit of blond fur. She didn’t want to think of her parents eating the dog so she would just believe the dog starved to death, not much better but
it
still helped her cope.
She went to the shed and just as she reached for the door she realized she was still holding the screwdriver
,
she brought it up just in case something was in there. Ceara pulled the door open but nothing and no one jumped out. She pulled out a shovel and went back out. Two hours later Princess was buried but she found out she would not be able to dig holes big enough for her parents. She pulled out the gas cans out of the shed and a pair of
gardening
shears, not the best weapon but it was better than the screwdriver.
Ceara went back to the house pushing a wheel barrel and wrapped
her dad
in a blanket. It took all her energy to pull him through the house. Maximus growled as she pulled him out the door, “Hush, he ain’t getting back up.”
Her dad
weighed a good 200lbs so she moved the wheel barrel to the side of the porch and rolled
her dad
into it. As soon as she saw him hit she knew it was ti
pping over, “Well Mother Fucker…
sorry Dad.
”
She jumped off the porch, setting the wheel barrel right
.
Ceara spent the next thirty or forty-five minutes trying to get him back in it. Finally giving up she just began dragging him toward the shed. It was awhile before she got him back there, she went back to take care of her mother.
This was harder; she was able to pick her up in pieces. Her mother had been chewed up and rotted so much that her hair was falling out. Ceara tried to pick up her torso and head to at least keep that in tack. As soon as she lifted it he mother’s head fell off and rolled to the floor. Ceara dropped her mother and ran to the bathroom violently throwing up. The next time she went to the room she simply pulled the covers off the bed and wrapped her mother up, gently picking up her head and adding to the package. This time the walk to the shed was easy, the blanked weighed more than her mother did.
Ceara walked into the kitchen, sat at the table wondering what to do next. She could just stay here but food would run out, and the power wouldn’t last forever. She went back out calling Maximus. He came running, “You need to get inside, I don’t want you out here at night.”
They went back in the house and the lights flickered, “Ok, I guess we get to go out one more time, we need to check the generator.”
She had heard it running when she had buried the dog so now she had to go fill it up with the gas she had taken out of the shed. Ceara had no clue how much gas the cans held but one was still full and the other was about half full. She carried the one over to the generator, took the cap off and started to pour in the gas but stopped. She had no clue if this was like a car and needed turned off before you filled it, or what if this wasn’t the right gas or if she did turn it off and filled it up could she restart it? “Screw it, I’ll let it run out and then we can use candles o
r
something, we need the gas for the car
anyway
.”
Maximus barked and Ceara wasn’t sure if it was in agreement or not. They put the gas back by the shed and went back
inside;
the next twenty minutes were spent looking for candles. Ceara went to her dad’s office looking for matches, candles or a flashlight and found a mag-lite flashlight, “SWEET!”
It even had good batteries in it. A little more searching she hit the jackpot; there in his bottom drawer was a gun. Ceara knew nothing about guns but hell it was a gun, she looked at it trying to see if it was loaded. “Hmmm… how do you know if it has bullets?”
She wasn’t stupid enough to look down the barrel but she had to figure it out. She did find the safety so as long as that was on she thought she could mess with it to figure it out. The search got her the flashlight, gun, a box of bullets that said 9MM Luger, she assumed that was the brand, and a few packs of matches.
Her dad
had been a closet smoker so he
had matches stashed everywhere.
Ceara went and fell on the couch after setting everything on the coffee table; the
TV
was still playing snow. She grabbed the remote and flipped through looking for anything, which was when the power went off for good. She tossed the remote onto the end of the couch by her feet then pulled one of the couch pillows under her head, she was hungry but that would wait, righ
t now she just wanted to sleep.
The morning was chilled and Ceara had forgotten to close the windows, she sat up stretching and closed the living room windows. She made her way to the guest bathroom and relived herself and climbed in the shower, she figured this would be the last of the hot water but didn’t care. She stayed in there till the water ran cold then climbed out and went to her old room looking for clean clothes. She found several of the outfits she had left there from visits, and then she headed for the kitchen where Maximus was pacing. “You’re hungry too huh?”
He wagged his tail and ran around to the pantry door barking. Ceara went to the pantry to find Princess’ food, “Well at least we know you will eat.”
Looking around in the cabinets she found a large bowl and filled it with dog food. She set it down and started looking around for what she could eat. She found bacon and eggs in the fridge, the bacon smelled funny but the eggs were still in date so she fried a couple up on the gas stove, thankful her parents had never upgraded it to electric. She found bread but it was moldy, there were cans of veggies and some fruit cocktail.
Her mom
was a firm believer in stocking up of can foods. There were a few
home
canned foods too but they were all in glass jars, Ceara didn’t want take that stuff with her. That was when she figured out she had decided to leave, she didn’t know when she ha
d decided it but it felt right.
Ceara found
an
empty Poland spring water bottle and filled it with tap
water;
she took the half full one off the base and finished filling it too. Making her way around the house she found her dad’s hunting backpack that was better than what she had
,
so she took it. She packed her clothes, some food, a few candles, and the gun. She hadn’t been able to figure out
if it was loaded or not
yet
,
so no use carrying it on her if she couldn’t use it. She went out to the car and filled
the tank
with the half-filled can of gas from the shed. Putting the other can in the trunk; Ceara loaded the water into the back of the car. Walking back in the house Maximus was l
aying in the sun, “I guess we
need to take your food too huh?”
She grabbed the bag of dog food and headed back to the car. When she came back in she went down the hall toward the master bedroom looking at the pictures on the wall and the ones on the floor, she found the last family portrait they had taken
. Ceara shook out the broken glass
and pulled
the picture free of it’s
frame. They all looked so happy, that was taken a couple years ago but it would serve to remind her of the family she had and
not what they had turned into.
Ceara walked to the door, “Come on boy, I know I ain’t the best at this shit but I think I got us enough to live for a little while.
”
As she walked down the porch she grabbed the shears, she couldn’t use the gun yet but she damn sure could use these. Maximus jumped in the car as soon as she opened the door, she climbed in setting the shears in the back seat. They pulled away from the house not sure where they were headed.
The roads were both good and bad, at times even the back roads were blocked by stranded or wrecked cars. Ceara had to pull off the road several times just to get past them. She was coming up to a major road block at AR-77 North and Interstate 55. The highway patrol had the ramps onto 55 blocked also the bridge over it to continue on 77. Several cars were piled up in front of the patrol cars, Ceara could see several cars that had tried to get around the road block. She slowed to a stop looking around for any deaders
,
but she couldn’t see any.
Ceara put the car in park and looked at Maximus, “Ok, we are going to get out and look around. I know I told you this before but NO BARKING! Last time you didn’t listen, this time I swear I’ll leave you if you get them coming after us.”
Maximus wasn’t listening, he needed out to relieve himself. She opened the door and slid out, Maximus jumped out running to the first car marking it. He ran around doing the same thing on several cars, and then ran back to Ceara. She patted him on the head and began looking into the cars as she walked past them. There would be no way for her to
move
all the cars, she wondered if she would have to turn around.
Ceara got to the patrol cars without seeing any deaders and Maximus seemed to be ok so she thought things were somewhat safe. She started going through the cars and found a couple guns and a bit of water, in one car she had found a cooler. Ceara had jumped in the back seat pulling it to her and flipped open the lid to find it full of water and molded ham, bologna and cheese. Spotting grocery bags on the floor board, she pulled them up onto the seat and found several bags of canned food and chips, th
e last bag was full beef jerky.
Whatever she decided
, move forward or turn around;
those would be going with her, but she had to make that decision first. Crawling back out of the car she looked around for Maximus
,
he was nowhere to be seen. She went back to the patrol cars, looking across the bridge to see a road block on the far side too. Ceara went across and found a Ford four runner with keys in it, but
her dad
had always said never trust a Ford so she kept looking. Off on the edge she saw what she wanted and ran toward the Jeep Wrangler hoping to find keys but what she found was a man with a gunshot right between his eyes but no gun.
Ceara wondered where the gun was and if the man had really shot himself, it didn’t look like it was point blank range. She looked around thinking that if the person that fired the shot was still around then she would have been shot already. She focused back on the man in the jeep and saw the ignition empty, she did a heavy sigh, she didn’t know how to hot wire a car so the jeep was out. She looked around for supplies in the jeep and found little more to use, Ceara turned to leave but something caught her eye. She looked back to the floorboard and saw the
keys;
they were by the dead man’s foot. Ceara thought he was trying to get them out of the ignition to
get away from whoever shot him.