As he’d been taught, Billy slipped to the side of the horse using it to protect him. He steered the horse away from where he thought the bullet had come from and dropped his horse down into a dry creek bed. He rode hard for few minutes then stopped and dismounted. Climbing slowly up the bank he stayed low and listened. He heard only the sounds of motorcycles and trucks off in the distance and the sound was going away from him.
Lying back on the bank, he took out his knife and cut his sleeve off his shirt to try and examine the wound. It had passed clean through but had taken a good amount of flesh with it. He was bleeding bad and knew he had to try and bandage it. Slowly he fumbled with the sleeve finally getting it around the wound and placed over it. Holding one end, he put the other in his teeth and pulled it tight. He made one more knot then got back on his horse and headed for the camp.
Billy was still a couple of miles out when he was picked up by a small band of braves on guard duty. They looked at him and his wound and one of the young men growled, “The others do this to you? The ones who our Chief is meeting in peace with right now?”
Billy shook his head. His mouth was dry and parched the words he could speak were enough. “No.... they’re under attack.” He fell forward across the neck of the horse.
Two braves took charge of Billy’s horse while a third rode off toward the camp.
Alden and the Chief were already getting ready to leave as the others got there. Running Buffalo lifted Billy down and laid him on a bear skin while two of the women went to work quickly on his wound. Billy took a drink and looked at Alden, “Three maybe more in the ridge west of your place.”
Taking another drink he went on with labored breathing, “I was attacked by someone else, I was a few miles away and they shot at me from some rocks. They might be part of the other group or not but either way your people are in trouble.”
Alden looked at the Chief, “I had hoped we’d have ended this meeting on a better note, but I have to go.”
Colt had already brought the horse up and he had his rifle out. As Alden mounted up he looked at him, “Colt, this ain’t the movies, put the rifle away till you need it.”
The Chief walked up and put his hand on Alden’s leg. “These men will go with you.” He said pointing at the braves that had been on guard duty. “I will follow shortly with more. As I told you earlier there are more of us out here than you see.”
Stray Eagle had knelt down by the campfire with green brush and a blanket. Alden watched as the smoke built under the blanket and Stray Eagle released it. Colt looked at Alden, “Well, I’ll be damned, they did use smoke signals.”
Alden shook the chief’s hand then rode off followed by Colt and five other braves.
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Ceara put her puppy back in the basket and smiled at Niz, “Thank you for trying to help but right now we have to worry more about the visitors.”
Ceara turned to Beth, “I think there is a load of laundry that needs to be hung out, might even turn out to be a little bit of cover if we need it.”
Charlie winked at her, “Now who’s thinking like Alden?”
Ceara smirked, “I don’t think Alden has thought about laundry since we met.”
She turned to go out of the barn but Tabitha stopped her, “Hey, Red you may want to go out the front. Our company may wonder why you would go out that way instead of the shorter route. It may tip them off.”
Ceara turned back, “Good point, you coming with?”
Tabitha laughed, “Ummm you aren’t going at all, Charlie said you and him were laying cover, remember? I will be hanging out the laundry, Niz and Beth can head to the house.”
Ceara blushed, “Oh yeah, I forgot that. I just had an idea and ran with it.” She gave Charlie a sheepish smile, “Sorry.”
Tabitha flipped the board holding the barn door closed, “See you guys in a bit...”
Beth smiled at Niz, “After you...” she and Niz then walked out toward the house.
Ceara looked to Charlie as they stood alone in the barn, “Ok, I guess this is your show now, what’s the plan?”
Charlie moved to the loft ladder, “We go up here and do our best to keep an eye out to see if they make a move.”
Ceara followed him to the loft and both positioned themselves to have the best view. Ceara glanced over at Charlie, “Ok, so now I have a couple of questions. How do we warn the others if they are coming, and how long do you think it will take Alden to get here?”
Charlie watched the hills, “Well, if they are coming I don’t think we are worried about them hearing us so we give a warning shot to let the girls know. That will let us warn them, plus if the strangers don’t stop, then we know they aren’t any good. As far as Alden getting back... I hope he does before anything goes down.”
Chapter 4 –Knock Knock
Dogbreath and O’Griff rolled into the old ghost town where their group had set up camp. The buildings made mostly of stone were still standing, some better than others. The old Saloon had become their headquarters. The streets were dirt and still filled with tumbleweeds and relics of the old west. Their group had not taken the time to clean anything. Dogs ran loose and defecated at will both outside and in the buildings.
The group had grown to around a hundred members, mostly bikers, gang members from the inner city; city folk who had chosen to live on public assistance their whole lives. The group’s work ethic was lax to say the least. They did as little as possible for themselves, let alone to help the group. The men and women were covered with dirt and grime, taking a bath would mean having to haul old rancid water up out of the abandon wells or making a two mile trip one way to the creek to get any sort of clean water.
The groups clothing was a collection of miss fitting jeans and shirts. In a world where things were free for the taking and one could get just about get anything they wanted if they took the time and effort to look, these simply took whatever they happened to find and made the best of it.
The two men walked into the saloon, a building made of stone with a wooden roof that was badly in need of repair. The windows on the front held broken glass and dirty thin sheets for curtains to help keep the dust out. The roof had holes in it where the rays of the sun shone through casting rays here and there across the bar itself. The room held about thirty people. The men were mostly sitting at the bar which was really just a large plank of wood about three feet wide by twenty feet long and rested on old four by four foot posts, or tables which were in good shape for as old as they were. The tables were made of oak and the chairs were the old style Captain chairs. Those were basic but very sturdy. The women in the bar were moving around in tight jeans with scant tops like torn tee shirts and simple open vests.
Dog breath found the leader of the group, a man named Fat Tony who called himself Potus, short for president of the United States. The group figured since the whole infrastructure of government had disappeared they could call themselves whatever they wanted. Unlike elections to be potus, you simply had to kill the other one in open hand to hand combat using whatever clubs, knives or other weapons you chose. The only exception was no guns.
Dogbreath sat down and picked up an already opened warm beer. Tony looked at him, “Well?”
O’Griff pulled up a chair. “We found where those trailers went from the truck stop. There’s an old ranch about fifteen miles from here. Got three women hangin out there.”
Tony sat up and raised an eyebrow as a smirk came on his face, “No men?”
Dogbreath had just taken another sip and shook his head, “None that we saw. We left Poncho and Lefty there to keep an eye out. It should be a piece of cake.”
Tony suddenly smashed an empty beer bottle across Dogbreath’s head knocking him off the chair and to the ground. Blood trickle down his jaw from a cut under his ear, “YEAH, PIECE OF CAKE! AIN’T THAT WHAT DARYL AND DARYL NUMBNUTS SAID ABOUT THOSE FIVE MORMON BITCHES”
Dogbreath jumped up and grabbed fo
r his pistol then stopped as he heard the clicks of several rifles cocking. Pulling his hand back slow he glared at Tony as Tony stood and pointed to two men in the corner of the bar.
“Them two fuckers scouted out that Mormon ranch for three fucking days.” Tony then changed his voice to a whiney tone, “Aint nuthin there but women, man. Ain’t nuthin but some prayin bitches, maaan. We can take’em easy, maaan.”
The two men ducked their heads. “We sent eleven guys in there and found out the men folk were working two miles away in a field. The first shot brought them running and caught those guys with their pants down trying to rape those prayin bitches. Nine were killed and fed to the geeks. Those two over there, had their fingers cut off and then placed in some sort of stock where their dick and balls hung out. They cut them off and fed them to the geeks, right in front of them. So don’t fuckin tell me it’s a piece of cake.”
O’Griff had jumped up when Dogbreath got hit. He looked at Tony, “Look we scouted the area all around with the spyglass and the binoculars. We saw only a few trucks and shit we watched them for over two hours and saw nothing, man.”
Tony spun around but O’Griff was ready, no one had seen him pull the gun or the knife that was pointed right at Tony’s privates.
“Easy there, chief.” Tony said with a slight quiver in his voice, “No need to get jumpy. I just want to make sure we don’t walk into another trap.”
The two men locked eyes for a few moments then O’Griff stepped back and smiled, “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t want to serve me another beer.”
Tony laughed as he slowly picked up his bottle and took a drink then handed it to O’Griff. As O’Griff took a drink, Tony’s smile disappeared and his voice was soft but mean, “You ever pull a knife on me again, I’ll ass rape you with it.”
As O’Griff lowered the bottle he realized that Tony was now holding a slim dagger that he had pulled from his belt buckle right on O'Griff’s stomach.
Tony turned to the bar, “I want twenty guys this time and we go in quietly no guns blazing. If they have others, I want to have the element of surprise on our side.”
The group formed up and mounted a variety of motorcycles trucks and four wheelers. They roared out of town leaving the rest to stand and watch. A few minutes later two trucks pulled in and more members got out. One of the girls ran up and kissed the driver of one of the trucks, “Hi ya Mikey, glad you’re back.”
Mikey gave her a kiss and grabbed the cheeks of her ass, “couldn’t stay away from the candy store too long.”
One of the fingerless Daryl’s walked out, “So what’d ya find?”
A skinny young man called Slick smiled, “Nuthin, we did get a shot at one of those injuns riding a horse. Tommy got him and almost knocked him off the damn thing. Last we saw he was hanging on the side as the horse ran away down the hill.”
The other Daryl had joined the others outside over hearing Slick and looked at his friend. The first Daryl looked back at him then whispered, “You know what, fuck them, let them ride into whatever they run into.”
The two Daryl’s walked into the bar, neither saying anything about what happened with Indian boy.
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Beth was in the kitchen with Niz trying to make some lunch to keep everyone’s mind off of what was going on outside. She occasionally looked out the windows to see if anyone was lurking around. After watching her do this a few times, Niz sat down at the table and started folding a few napkins that she had found in one of the drawers. “Beth, it is a good thing to keep a cautious eye out but don’t let your fears overtake you.”
Beth brought over a couple of glasses then went back to the refrigerator to get some sweet tea for them to drink. “I know you're right Niz, but we have all been through so much that I am just getting tired of having to always keep on guard. I mean watching out for the infected is one thing but regular, normal living people who are out to kill you to get what you have... well..... that is another thing.”
Niz reached over taking her glass that Beth had poured for her, took a sip and smiled softly, “That has been how it always has been. Now with the dead walking the earth we see more vultures than we ever had before. The white man had always taken from us over centuries and will continue to as long as they walk the earth. You all have been the exception and that is why our group was watching you for as long as we did. We just never let you know it because we could see that you all were not out to take anything or harm anyone. You could say that is why you all didn’t see us because we meant you no harm. Where with these guys up in the hills out there.... They were able to be spotted quickly. We decided to take the low road of playing as though we didn’t see them but in fact we did know that they're up there. You can bet that they do in fact mean us a world of harm. Beth, that there is in our favor. So it is all how you look at it. Another thing is that there are more of us together then those few up on the hill.”
Beth sat and quietly listened to what Niz was saying. Believe it or not, all of it made sense but when she ended her statement, a red flag popped up, “But those few up there may have a bigger group. They may be just spotters sent out to check on us then go report back to the bigger group.”
Niz looked at Beth, “True Beth, but you can’t think like that. If they do have a bigger group and they probably do, every man has his flaws and weaknesses. We may not know the weaknesses of those guys, but we know what strengths we do have and many if not all of our kind do look at our strengths more. Now as for the number of people they may have, it could be thirty to fifty, that I don’t know and neither do you.”
Beth’s stomach dropped when she heard Niz say the numbers but what Niz said after made her think of things in a whole different way...
“By the looks of the few up there, they look like bikers and the majority of them just think that ‘big and bad’ is the way to win anything and everything. This is never true, Beth. That is the biggest problem of the white man. They think with mass and numbers; not in ways and means. That is the downfall of their kind and has been for several years.”
Niz could tell that her words were soothing to Beth. Placing her hand on top of Beth’s, “Beth, think with your head, listen to the things around you. When you feel that feeling inside of you that comes right before something is going to happen.... listen to it. Don’t ignore it. That feeling will take you farther in life than anything else will.”
A tear streamed down Beth’s face and she took a drink of her tea. Niz tilted her head to the side, “What is it, Beth? Please don’t hold whatever is bothering you in or it will affect your decision making when the time comes.”
“Niz, you don’t know that much about me, but before all of this, I worked for the biggest organization in the world that was supposed to protect everyone from this kind of thing and that place was the Center for Disease Control. I knew things were not right when our President of the United States got elected. Those changes he made to the budgets that he thought would be in the best interest of the world caused all of this and I saw this coming down the pike before it happened. I even was told on the day of the containment outbreak by a very close friend and colleague of mine to ‘Get out while I could and that it was too late for him.’ My closest friend and her husband I know are dead as well,” Beth held her head straight up and wiped the tears from her face, “I had to put each member of my family out of their misery while two of them were being eaten alive by my dad. I had those feelings Niz, long before and tried hard to tell people about it. My boss Aaron, saw the very same thing coming and he was only being told what to do by his superior and I don’t know if he even made it.”
Niz squeezed Beth’s hand and softly spoke, “Beth... you did absolutely nothing wrong. You don’t see that you did everything that you could do to let those who were above you know that what was going on was not right. That does not mean that you personally were involved with all of the deaths. You can’t allow yourself to think
that you are. What I am telling you is that now, RIGHT NOW, you have to listen to those feelings and only you can account for them now. You have no higher powers in office, so to speak, that can hold you back. This is an entire different world than it was and this world is how it was centuries ago. So listen to your inner feelings and never feel that you have done wrong. You will be doing wrong if you choose not to listen to those feelings and do something else.”
Beth smiled and reached over giving Niz a hug and then sat back, “I guess I just needed somebody to tell me that, or that what I was feeling was right.”
“Beth, everyone has those feelings, most people just refuse to listen to them and would rather be followers. As for the President..... those were his mistakes, and he will be judged for those by the Great Spirit when his time comes. Money has always been the root of all evil and even though he thought he was saving some, in the end, he knew down deep inside that what he was doing wasn’t right and that he will have to carry that with him, even in his afterlife.”
Ceara was laying down looking out at the hills, her eyes were starting to droop and Charlie nudged her. “Honey, you’re falling asleep on guard duty... you go walk around and I’ll keep an eye out.”
Ceara rolled over leaving her weapon lying on the wood flooring. After stretching, Ceara sat up wrapping her arms around her knees. “Maybe they are just camping and not even going to come here?”
Charlie shook his head, “I wish, but with how often they are checking on us, I don’t think you’re right. What worries me is that Billy has been gone a couple hours and I don’t think their camp is that far away, even on horseback.”
Ceara lip curled, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, where the hell is Alden? I hope Billy made it there ok.”
Charlie looked out the window watching the visitors, “Ceara.....”
Surviving Day by Day (Book 3): Still They Come Page 6
