Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins (23 page)

“I will answer any questions that you may have
.
I know there
must be
many but allow me to apologize
again,
because I was only doing what I have been trained to do and with what you said earlier I await you
r questions.”

Colt stood there just staring at her, “Well so much for what I thought it was….”

He had so many emotions running through him he didn’t trust himself to talk. Grabbing the axe he started chopping wood again. After four or five logs were split he set it back down and started pacing, “YOU? You did this, you and all your fucked up people! THEN you lie to me and I tell you all about Jessica!”

Colt threw
his hands in the air, “YOU
KILLED JESSICA!! How the fuck did
you think I will feel??”

Taking a deep breath he looked right at Beth, “I will not stay with the woman that had anything to do with the CDC, I will help you only till we find the others we heard last night then Beth you are on your own.”

He started back to the cabin, “Pack a bag, we are going
to look for them.”

Closing her eyes
, “Well that went as expected!’ shaking her head while standing up Beth quickly turned and followed Colt.

Seeing and hearing his reaction made Beth grow angry especially when he included her as being involved with this. Standing her ground she allowed Colt to finish and then she barged
in the cabin
right
behind Colt,
in with a very stern tone, “Ok, Colt! Let me address one thing at a time! I, ME, did NOT do any of this Colt. Do you know how many CDC’s there are AND I feel hopeless too.”

Pacing the small cabin Beth continued her rant, “Do you remember that I said that I killed my own family??? Do you??! That I sat there and watched my
Dad
turn on his wife? My
Mom
??? Then I had to put all three of them down?!?! Colt
,
that isn’t even right grouping me with the whole CDC. Facts are facts and I am getting them just as you are.”

Stopping dead in her tracks Beth took another breath and began calming down. “Ok Colt… let me continue then you can say all you want. I started off with an apology for I knew what your reaction would be. Secondly, how
is this for being classified……”

With no hesitation,
Beth
wanted to get
gut level honest
with Colt.
I
f she would have said this in any other circumstan
ces she might have been executed. H
ell
,
she didn’t
k
no
w
what the rules were
now or even if any rules still existed. Before the outbreak if
someone were to leak information such as what she was about to
, would at the very least cost them their career.
T
he way
Beth
looked at it
,
her government had failed her and she had nothing left to lose.

“The idiot that we
,
the people
,
put into that office in Washington D.C. made so many irrational budget cuts that caused government facilities to make cut backs
. These cut backs cost the jobs of
a lot of the old timers who worked at the CDC.
Those cuts were w
orldwide
,
Colt!!! Not just in Kentucky but globally. Many of the newbies that acquired their jobs got them from either blowing their bosses or being born from them
, kept their jobs.”

Beth threw her hands up frustrated with the whole situation, “Most
of them
were barely qualified to
have work
ed
at a local McDonald’s cleaning toilets. So these morons had no idea what kind of diseases or chemical viruses could do to the world’s population. Many of these people found it more interesting playing video games than actually taking the time to learn what could actually happen from their actions.
”

Beth knew she was rambling but she needed to get this out so Colt would understand.
“
Our facility was one of the old ones and we lost many of our old timers. Hell, Colt….if I would of been employed there t
hree years earlier,
they would of cut my throat like they cut everyone else. But that is neither here nor there!! God
damn it,
Colt!!! I fucking lost people too….. and after reading the text that I got from our local nerd boy Steven the big boys abo
ve fucked us royal!!!”

Colt leaned on the couch with one hand, “You done? Well as far as you losing your family, yeah I do remember! What I remember is you put them down, is that
what they teach you at the CDC? Well ain’t that
NICE
, they teach you to detach and kill
! I stood by Jessica till there was no hope but I guess you already knew that
, didn’t you? S
o what the fuck
,
just kill everyone right?”

Colt stormed off to
grab a bag, “I guess I really didn’t have to tell you if I get bit to shoot me, hell we already know you will! What was the damn text Beth?? What was so much that you dropped your phone?”

The phone made him realize something “Does your phone work?? Have you been talking to people this whole time? Never mind
, I don’t even care,
it doesn’t matter, just get your stuff together.”

He stopped packing and looked at Beth, “Look, I guess I can’t blame you specifically and I don’t have any clue where the outbreak started but I thought it was on the east coast. All I know is that the CDC is supposed to protect us, NOT destroy us and to me it seems they did just that.”

Throwing the backpack over his shoulder, “We still need to find the others, just give me some
time;
I will try to process everything you said. But
we still have to move forward.”

Quickly Beth stepped in front of Colt, “Just a minute!!”

She wanted to leave too but did not want to move forward yet.

“From where we are now Colt we have shelter and I damn sure don’t want to finish this conversation out there!!! So allow me to leave with you on a final note and you can process the hell out of whatever it is you have to process…. I will give you that.

First
of all,
Colt, Jessica was restrained and you
said yourself that she allowed you to restrain
her hoping for a cure. She was only one!!
Y
es
,
if
Dad
would
have
been only one and by himself
,
I would have done the same thing. However
,
the way that he reacted when he became reanimated told me how to react, kill or be killed and what good would I be to the rest of tho
se whom I may be able to help??

“
Secondly, Colt
…
”
S
he kept saying his name because he was alive and he was a person. Her agency always taught everyone to treat everything like a subject. With the CDC now being gone to her
,
everything was now changed. “Before our Pres
ident made his dramatic changes…
”

S
coffing after saying that word, “Well that is what we all got
,
Change!!! Government changed their spending and
di
d many budget cuts. Great change
, huh
!!
They tried to hide their spending at the cost of many
people’s lives!!!
”

Beth took a deep breath, “
Finally, Colt…. the text that you inquired about was from my closest friend in the world Kelly. She was like a sister to me and we had grown up together. Hell
,
her son and I shared the same birthday!!! We both worked at the CDC and she along with her husband
Brad
got bit.
That was her last text Colt,
THEY BOTH GOT BIT AND WERE LOCKED IN THEIR FUCKING CAR!!!”

With tears pouring out of her eyes she opened the door and walked outside.

Colt released a heavy sign as Beth left him standing, she just didn’t get it and he knew it. Turning he walked through the kitchen grabbing a water jug, and then went out the back door to grab the axe.

He walked around the front of the cabin to join Beth; she was at the tree line waiting. He could tell by her look she thought he wasn’t going to be coming. He swung the axe over his shoulder as he walked passed her
.

“Stay close, don’t make too much noise and just tug my shirt if you see anything.”

Beth fell into step with him, “Really, no noise? I was planning on just screaming here we are!”

The sarcasm wasn’t lost on Colt, he smirked at the comment, “Yeah
,
I know you know
,
but I figured we would try to get off the other topic.”
The underbrush was thick and few steps Colt almost tripped, each time pointing the spot out to Bet
h to make sure she didn’t fall.

They headed northeast trying to follow the location the both knew the gunshots had come from. Colt was concerned after the first hour when the trees got so thick he couldn’t see the sun, what if they couldn’t find their way back to their own cabins. He was about to turn around to tell Beth he wanted to head back, he wanted to find clothes or something to mark their trail.

Just as he turned he felt her tug on his shirt, hard! Glancing at her, Beth pointed to the North West; there was a pack of at least fifteen of the monsters. They had already spotted Colt and Beth and working their way to th
em, “Oh fuck Beth, we’re dead!”

Before Beth even had a chance to think about what to do
,
she quickly reached behind her and pulled out her Beretta and started running right alongside of Colt
. She knew that the truck was too
far
away and
with the infected hot on their backs
,
it really seemed like there was no chance.

“Colt, f
ollow behind me in a zigzag pattern!”

Beth didn’t want to look back because she was certain if she did then either one of two things would happen. First
,
she might run into something and that would not be good or second
,
it would take a few seconds to re-focus again and those seconds she couldn’t afford to waste.

Going back to the cabins was out of the question and all she could think of was trying to locate where those shots were coming from that they had heard. Breathless now
,
but still running as fast as she could she asked, “Colt, remember where those shots were from? If we can hopefully find others maybe they can help!!!”

Just then she looked back and noticed that they were a little ways from them now but still she didn’t want to stop because that would only give the
infected more of an advantage.

Colt had to wonder on the statement, calling out
,
not worrying about who or what heard him, “Well
,
we were headed in that direction when you just took off
,
damn it! We have to cut back this way!”

He yanked her back to what he thought was northwest. He didn’t know when he did it but he now had his gun in his hand and the axe in the other. He considered dropping the axe but it might come in handy.

Colt ran and could hear Beth right behind him, “Let’s see if we can lose them, do you remember if there was a stream or anything? We might be able to swim, maybe they can’t!”

He stopped putting a hand on a tree, trying to catch his breath. “Beth, I can’t go much more, shit I should have started jogging when Jessica told me.”

He looked up to Beth hoping for a little smile, “OH FUCK DROP!!”

He raised his gun and fired as soon as Beth dropped. More of the monsters were coming. “SHIT!! Ok I think running is out now, but I ain’t going down easy! Ok Let’s go; we shoot, we move… Read
y??”

Beth actually liked that idea with a nod of her head she looked straight ahead, “Colt, damn good idea you got there and as for taking up jogging well I think we are way beyond the jogging point now.”

Chuckling softly hoping that remark would make Colt feel a little encouragement
,
Beth quickly got an idea then continued, “Except when we start shooting we do it full throttle out because if whomever IS still out there and if they DO hear our fire then maybe they will come running, like calling out the Cavalry so to speak.”

The safety was off and right after she too
k the lead she began firing taking
the first one out dead on; right between the eyes. The second one she hit somewhere below the chest and he just kept right on coming. Looking over to see how Colt was doing Beth saw that he was bound and determined to follow her lead
,
except he looked extremely pissed off.