“Who’s up for a nightcap?” he asked, holding up a six-pack of beer he pulled from the cupboard underneath the sink.
“Good find, Charlie!” I took out three different-sized glasses from a high cupboard in the kitchenette.
Charlie handed me two cans, pulled another one out of the plastic rings and put the remaining three in the refrigerator.
“I don’t need a glass, so you girls can take the bigger ones,” he said as he pulled the lid from his can. He sat down on one of the orange, retro-looking chairs and took a sip.
Sue joined us. I finished pouring the beer into the two glasses and looked forward to some mindless chatter to stop my thoughts from rambling on about what ‘could have,’ ‘should have,’ or ‘would be.’ I handed Sue her glass of beer.
“So … what did you guys bring as weapons?” Charlie asked. As much as I liked Charlie, I despised him that very moment for bringing up ‘the subject’ again.
Party pooper.
Sue and I sat down on the two-seater opposite Charlie. We both dropped lower than expected due to the foamy seating being extensively worn below the tatty fabric, and we spilled our beers. We both laughed.
“You girls already drunk? Must be the lukewarm-ness of the beer.”
“Oh, shut it, Charlie,” Sue said. “We haven’t had a drop yet. And you know us. It takes more than one glass of beer to get us giggly.”
“You may not want to taste this horse piss. It’s disgusting.” Charlie pulled a face while looking at his can.
“Weapons?” I said, after giving up on trying to wipe the beer off my shirt.
“Yeah, weapons,” Charlie repeated. “Things to defend ourselves with against the infected. Like the guy with the gun.” His free hand waved toward the reception building. “I’m assuming you don’t have fold-away pitchforks in your bags.”
Sue and I glanced at each other.
“I thought we were hiding here so we wouldn’t have to fight any infected,” Sue said. She appeared to like Charlie’s idea as much as I did.
Charlie leaned on the side arm of his chair. “Gotta be prepared for everything. If the infected are spreading out from Portland, they’ll certainly come here. It’s probably just a question of when.”
A scout is always prepared. Too bad it’s been a long time since I was a scout.
“What did you bring?” I asked him.
“A blowtorch.”
“That doesn’t give off UV-light. It won’t stop them.” I thought about my flashlight and how ineffective my weapon would be.
“Maybe not, but it’ll sure as hell burn them!” He chuckled and took another sip of his beer, followed by his face scrunching up again.
‘Sure as hell burn them.’ Nice word choice, Charlie.
Sue wrinkled her nose. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the beer or her following words.
“If it’s all the same to you, I don’t want to get that close to an infected, thank you very much.”
“I brought my big flashlight,” I said to her.
“I hope you aim for their teeth with it,” she said.
I haven’t thought about where to hit them at all yet!
I pretended to hit an infected with my flashlight and imagined the pieces of teeth flying. As my imagination got me carried away, I wobbled my lips weirdly, exposing my teeth, which made Charlie chuckle. He was having more fun than Sue and I were, and I wondered if his awkward happiness was caused by being on edge. Whatever it was, I didn’t think there was anything funny and took another sip of the awfully lukewarm beer.
Suddenly, I wished I owned a gun, despite the fact that I’d been dead against them my entire life. This was one of the reasons I wasn’t good at keeping in contact with my older sister Maxine and her career Navy husband. I’d always been of the opinion that if there weren’t any armed forces, there wouldn’t be any wars either. The sudden desire to hold a gun in my hands shocked me. Considering the current situation, I sat back and had an internal debate about the pros and cons of this unexpected violent wish.
Why would I want a gun?
Because I am exceptionally attached to my life and want to defend it by any means possible.
But what if I accidentally shoot myself, or Sue or Charlie?
Would I be able to shoot a person intentionally?
There were too many questions involved in handling a gun, so I forced myself to stop thinking about it for now.
Fortunately, I don’t have a gun to begin with, anyway.
I noticed nobody had said anything after Sue’s remark. We all seemed to be lost in our own thoughts. We finished our beers in silence and went to bed. None of us brought up keeping watch as we were all exhausted from the excitement of the past week. I said goodnight to Sue and turned off the bedside table light. She was asleep in no time. I followed her into dreamland shortly after. Even Charlie’s snoring couldn’t keep me awake. I must have felt safe.
Chapter 7
The next morning, I woke to sounds and smells coming from the kitchen. My first thought was that I was back at home with Mom and Dad. It felt warm and fuzzy, but as soon as I opened my eyes, I had a shock. It took me a moment to realize I was staring at myself in a huge wardrobe mirror. Never a pretty sight in the morning. Where was I, and why couldn’t I move one of my legs? Too afraid to put more effort into moving, I let my gaze wander around the room. I found Sue still asleep next to me. It was one of her long legs pinning mine down. Carefully, I got out of bed without waking her. After putting on my skinny jeans, I went into the living room. Charlie stood in front of the stove, frying bacon and eggs.
I love a man who can cook.
“When did you get those?” My voice sounded groggy.
“Hey, you’re up. You hungry?”
“Like a horse,” I said and yawned. “I thought you didn’t eat meat?” I got some cutlery out of the kitchen drawer and put them on the table.
“That’s right, I don’t, but I know you two do.”
Now that’s thoughtful.
“Thanks, smells great.”
After I finished setting the table with plates and glasses, I stood beside Charlie for a while, looking at the eggs and bacon as he moved them around in the pan.
“Do you think we should wake Sue?” I said. My stomach grumbled, and I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to muffle the sound.
“Is she still asleep?” Charlie asked.
“Ayuh.”
“Then no, let her sleep for a while longer. You never know how little sleep we’ll have in the coming nights.”
Man, you sure are the party pooper.
I rolled my eyes without Charlie noticing. I was hoping for a normal day without talk of the infected, doom, and death.
“There’s OJ over there,” he said and with his spatula pointed at paper bags on the floor.
Following his instructions, I found a carton of orange juice in one of the bags. I filled two of the glasses I’d put on the table. As I put the carton in the refrigerator, toast popped out of the toaster. I buttered it, and Charlie let the eggs slide from the pan onto the toast.
“You want Sue’s egg?” he asked.
“No thanks, too much cholesterol for me. You have it.” A yawn escaped my mouth again. I still wasn’t fully awake.
“I don’t count that stuff,” Charlie muttered as he shoved the third egg onto his plate. He put half of the bacon on my plate and put the pan back on the countertop. We sat down and had breakfast together.
“How’s the bunk bed?” I asked him just before stuffing the egg yolk into my mouth. The yellow liquid ran over my tongue, and I savored the delicious taste. At the same time, I felt rather guilty about Sue and me shoving Charlie into that small room.
“It’s okay,” he said.
Whether he was telling the truth or not, I couldn’t tell.
***
I got showered and dressed. Soon after, Sue woke, and while she had a shower, I draped a few of my black clothing items over the bed for her to pick and cho
ose. Sue didn’t see the point, though.
“Why would I want to wear your clothes?” she said after I suggested she pick any of mine.
“Look, we may need to hide in the shadows, and your outfits just won’t do,” I explained. “You might as well wear a banner with the slogan, ‘Bite me’ on it.” She glanced at me through half-lidded eyes. “Your clothes are too bright, Sue.” I hoped she understood I was talking survival here.
She took a bit of convincing, but in the end agreed to wear my over-sized black hoodie. She couldn’t fit her big butt and long legs into any of my skinny jeans, so we agreed she’d wear her own dark purple chinos.
When we got out of the bedroom together, Charlie was doing the dishes. He flashed a huge grin in our direction.
“Are you going to share with us what’s so funny?” I said.
Without a blink he replied. “Oh, it’s just that you girls took so long getting dressed that for a moment I thought you must have been killed by the infected.”
“So why didn’t you come save us?” Sue dared him, taking the bait.
“Because I knew the fashion police were in control of the situation.”
There was a micro-second of communication between Sue and me, and in unison we grabbed the couch cushions and pummeled Charlie with them. In return, Charlie splashed us with the dishwashing water. It felt wonderful to have a good laugh.
Charlie hadn’t unpacked the groceries he had bought yet, so Sue and I did this together. Charlie had bought as much long-life food as he could get his hands on; lots of canned food, energy bars, orange juice, long-life milk, and, of course, more beer.
We’d just put everything away in the cupboards when I suggested we’d have a coffee.
“Um, sorry. I forgot to buy coffee,” Charlie said as he refrained from making eye contact.
“What? no coffee?” Sue grumbled as she shot a menacing glance at Charlie and began pummeling him with a couch cushion again.
“I said I was sorry, my lady,” Charlie joked while defending himself. “You can lock me up in your dungeon if you want to punish me.”
“You are so lucky they don’t have dungeons here,” Sue said after she was sure Charlie had repented with enough sincerity and had offered to go to the camp store again to get coffee.
After Charlie returned and Sue and I had our coffees, we decided to check out the campground. It was light after all and safe to do so.
Piney Creek appeared to be a decent size campground. I counted ten cabins along the path from the reception building. Apart from these, we walked past lots of RV’s and camper trailers parked on both sides of the winding paths that crisscrossed the site. Quite a number of these mobile vacation homes had permanent-looking furniture in front of them, and I wondered why people wanted to go to the same vacation spot, year in, year out? It seemed so boring.
There was an empty field along the riverside. A few light green patches in the grass were evidence there had been tents here recently. Most of the tent field was level, with only the last third slightly sloping down to the river. A metal dinghy lay upside down on the riverbank and there were a handful of canoes tied up to a jetty. Near the back of the camp store was a playground. We played around for a while on the swings and seesaws until it became too cold to stay outdoors any longer and headed back.
We didn’t meet anybody else during our little expedition, but we knew there were lots of other people around. Like last night, you saw a curtain move now and again, heard voices or snoring. The closer we came to our cabin, the more I realized how many people were here. It wasn’t normal for the time of year. It also didn’t make me feel any safer. The place was supposed to be a hideaway, not a take-away place for the infected.
Back in our cabin, we played card games with two card packs Charlie had thoughtfully brought along. After lunch, he suggested we try to sleep as we had decided it would be a good idea to take turns to stay awake during the night. We all went to lie on our beds, and I didn’t have a problem falling asleep at all. Lunch had been plentiful, which helped me drift off as soon as I lay my head down.
In the evening we agreed to each take two-and-a-half hour shifts. I took the first shift as I was the one who’d slept the longest that afternoon and was feeling the most awake. Sue hadn’t slept at all during the afternoon and was rather tired by midnight. Charlie and I were happy for her to take the last watch. Charlie was okay with taking the second watch and having his sleep interrupted. I knew I would never be able to cope with that, so I was very relieved when he said he didn’t mind.
Keeping watch was boring. There was no TV and no radio. I did try the TV, just in case, but had no luck. I struggled to stay awake after a while. I learned you can only do so many games of solitaire before you get fed up with the odds of making it to the end. The only thing that kept me awake were the sounds coming from outside. There was an owl hooting and pigeons cooing.
I always thought pigeons slept at night.
I could hear the leaves of the trees rustling in the wind. They dappled the moonlight on the curtains, and their shadows moved as the trees swayed. It was a welcome distraction from the drab and still interior of the cabin.
At 2:30 a.m. I woke Charlie, and he took the next shift. When I got into the big bedroom, I found Sue had completely taken over the double bed in her sleep.
My, girl, you’ve got long arms and legs.
I didn’t want to wake her, so I grabbed my pajamas and decided to sleep on the top bunk. As I tiptoed into Charlie’s room, I heard him flush the toilet across the living room. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken much to wake him. After I closed the door, I got into my pajamas, climbed up the steep ladder, and slid under the blanket. At that moment I was so glad we had taken the four-person cabin. I was asleep in no time.
Chapter 8
Long after the sun was up, I was woken by Sue shouting ‘Breakfast is ready!’ in her cheery voice. I yawned, rubbed my eyes and sat up. I hit my head on the ceiling and fell back onto the bed again.
Ouch! Who dropped the ceiling?
I opened my eyes and realized I was in the top bunk. When I opened the mini curtain of the little window above the tiny headboard, I had to blink a few times against the rays of sunshine warming my face.
“Guys, breakfast is getting cold!” Sue yelled again.
“Hold your horses. I’m coming.” I climbed down the ladder of the bunk bed.
“Good morning, legs,” Charlie said from the bottom bunk bed.
I looked down and realized that the pajama shirt I was wearing only just covered my panties.
Oops.
“Good morning to you too, Smu … dge,” I stuttered as I changed the word mid-syllable.
“Hey, I’m not a little, blue … blurred mark?”
“True, but I’m not fully awake yet, so everything’s still very blurry.” I grinned, glad I found an explanation for my sudden change of word choice. I knew he didn’t like people making remarks about his short stature, so he would probably not appreciate me likening him to a small, fictional, blue character. I was embarrassed the word had come up in my mind in the first place.
I picked up the clothes I’d left on the floor when I’d gotten undressed and nearly stuck my bum in Charlie’s face as I bent over. It was a very tiny room.
I know you noticed that too, Charlie.
I hurried to the other bedroom to get dressed. Sue noticed me slipping from Charlie’s bedroom into the other. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t make a comment.
Please don’t think what I think you’re thinking.
Through the gap of the bedroom door, I saw Charlie walk into the living room, still dressed in his pajamas.
“Good morning, Charlie,” I heard Sue say.
“It certainly is a good morning, Sue,” he replied, and I could just imagine his smug face with that voice.
“Oh, and why’s that?” From Sue’s voice, I knew she was as eager as I was to hear Charlie’s answer. I paused getting my pants up not to miss it.
&
nbsp; “Because I rarely wake up with a woman on top of me,” he beamed.
The cheeky bugger!
I grabbed a pillow from the bed and hopped into the living room, holding on to my jeans as I did.
“In the top bunk, Sue. I was in the top bunk,” and I threw the pillow at Charlie, who was laughing his head off.
Sue squinted at us at first but then smiled and told us to sit down at the table as the breakfast she had cooked for us was getting cold. I hoisted up my pants properly while Charlie picked up the pillow and threw it back on the big bed before we all sat down for breakfast.
I was so glad Sue didn’t make one of her Mississippi meals. Sue’s cuisine differed greatly from what I was raised with. My mother’s cooking had been extremely bland, to keep Dad happy. Sue’s dishes included lots of things I’d never even heard of. Words like gumbo, boudin, and tasso ham were all new to me, and Sue had taken it upon herself to introduce me to each and every single one of them. I had found none suitable for breakfast and was glad she had served us scrambled eggs.
We decided to stay inside, but after a few card games, we were rather bored. None of us had thought of bringing a book or any other game.
“We could play strip poker,” Charlie suggested. He wiggled his eyebrows up and down.
“In your dreams,” Sue muttered without even looking at him.
“Yeah, go play with yourself on your bunk bed with the door shut please,” I added. Sue high-fived me.
Charlie pretended to be hurt but didn’t make too much of a fuss over it. I didn’t think he’d really expected us to say yes to the game. The next suggestion he came up with was to play ‘Truth or Dare.’ As we were really, really bored, Sue and I agreed. How bad could it be?
Charlie immediately stood up and took three cans of beer out of the refrigerator.
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