Bottom of the Food Chain (Chapter 2)

CHAPTER 2

Conflicting viewpoints and the great big road trip

“We needed a stronghold, a sanctuary. A place where people worked with, not against, each other.”

The morning came by way too fast for Katherines’ liking. She was a woman who enjoyed her sleep but, soon enough the rays of sunlight broke through the crack of the curtains as she began to stir. It took a few moments but eventually, her eyelids fluttered open before immediately narrowing in reaction to the light. Her dark brown eyes stayed trained on the curtains as she contemplated just going back to sleep. That option was both tempting and favourable but, she wanted to give a good impression of herself to Christian, especially after the incident the day before. Katherine forced herself to sit up and, as cliché as it sounds, she stretched her arms out with a big yawn just like in the movies. She turned her head to the left to see if Christian was still asleep, what if he had left in the middle of the night? He could be completely done with her and wanted no part of their little alliance anymore. Thankfully, Katherines’ mind was put to rest as she spotted Christian rummaging around his rucksack seemingly packing his sleeping bag away. A wave of relief came over her seeing that her partner hadn’t left her and was indeed still around. She needed him, she would never be able to survive on her own and she still owed her life to him regardless, he had saved her after all.

“Sleep alright?” Her tired words broke the silence of the room. Christian didn’t even look over in her direction when she spoke, Katherine heard the sound of him zipping his rucksack back up signalling he had finally stuffed his sleeping bag away.

“I slept fine, more comfortable than the woodland floor I guess.” Christian responded in the same blunt, emotionless manner that it seemed only Christian could speak with. He had stood up placing his rucksack underneath the chair next to the bed before turning to look towards Katherine, studying her properly for the first time since they met.

Katherine appeared to be in her early to mid-twenties with long dark brown hair that seemed to be naturally curly with the curls going in every direction as the hair rested just short of her bust. Katherine was black, her complexion being relatively light and despite the circumstances, her skin didn’t appear to be greasy nor was there a blemish in sight, odd. Christian knew she was shorter than him, which was not surprising as he stood at five foot eleven inches tall whilst he estimated that Katherine seemed to be around the five foot five or five foot six mark. Her dark brown eyes looked a hazel colour in the sunlight and her eyebrows still held a nice shape even though it was clear that they hadn’t been seen to by a professional beautician in quite some time. Katherine felt small under Christians’ watchful gaze and she cleared her throat.

“So, what is the plan for today?” She asked, raising a brow curiously as she awaited Christians’ response to her question. Christian took his condor moment to think about what their next steps would be.

“Well, we need to get more food and hopefully some water. If these poor living conditions don’t kill us then dehydration or starvation will.” He remarked as he reached onto the bedside table where the unmarked tin he had snagged moments before he had met Katherine the previous day resided.

“But first, we should eat.” He remarked picking up the tin and stepping forward extending it to Katherine. Katherine looked towards the tin that had been offered towards her allowing a small grin to tug at the corners of her lips.

“Making the woman cook? Why Christian, I didn’t take you for a sexist.” She remarked, her tone trying to convey her joking nature. Christian just stared back at her with the same stoic expression set amongst his facial features.

“You’re the one with the stove, I have no qualms with cooking if that’s what you are insinuating.” His response was no less than she expected but, her smile didn’t leave her face as she reached forward to take the tin.

“It was a joke, you do realise that when I have to explain my jokes to you it makes them unfunny, right?” She questioned as she pulled the covers off of herself and swung her legs off of the bed letting her feet land softly against the carpeted floor beneath her. Christian pondered over what was said but he assumed the question was rhetorical and therefore, did not require an answer. Katherine had made her way over to her rucksack and after a few moments of rummaging, she had retrieved her trusty portable stove as well as the metal mess tin she had received off a friend earlier on in this pandemic. She took her time to pour a little bit of water into the mess tin before placing the tin within the small metal container. She lit the flame of the stove and rested the mess tin on top. Now, it was the waiting game.

They sat in silence for a few brief moments as they both stared at the stove, hunger was well and truly set in for both parties. Katherine couldn’t bear to sit in the silence and spoke up out of nowhere.

“Tell me about yourself.” Her sudden request made Christian look at her, his expression conveying the confusion that he felt at her odd request that seemingly came out of nowhere. Katherine noticed his expression and she laughed, probably the first time she had laughed in quite some time.

“It wasn’t a difficult question Christian. It’s just... we don’t know each other so I was hoping I could learn more about you is all.” She explained, now Christian understood what she wanted from him but, why? Christian didn’t see how it mattered if Katherine knew anything about him but he decided he would play ball. Christian sat down on the floor across from Katherine, the portable stove separating them.

“Well, my full name is Christian Percival Mathers. I am twenty-eight years old and I was in the military before the world decided to go to shit.” The description from Christian was short but it gave Katherine a lot to work with, she could pry more into the fact he was military and... she did. Katherine was sat there like an excited child listening to a bedtime story as Christian told her about his time within the Armed Forces. He had told her all about his time in Afghanistan, how he came across his Kukri blade from a fellow soldier who was a Gurkha and even a short little anecdote about the scar on his abdomen. It took quite some convincing but, Katherine had talked Christian out of his shirt, if only for a brief period, so she could observe his scar. Another observation that she had made whilst the male had his upper body exposed to her was that Christian was in good shape, his abdominal muscles weren’t bulging but they were definitely prominent and he was clearly of an athletic build. Katherine could’ve sat there and asked Christian questions about his military career forever but, he had other ideas.

“I think I’ve said enough, it’s your turn.” Christian had shot the statement straight out of the blue and now, it was Katherine who was put on the spot. She stared back at him awkwardly for a moment as she tried to conjure up what exactly she was going to say. Her mind had run blank as she thought about the question, what could she tell him about herself? Maybe she could just follow the same format he had delivered his little introduction in and pray that he asked questions. Before long, Katherine had realised that Christian was staring at her expectantly obviously awaiting her to finally start speaking. Okay, here goes nothing.

“Okay so, my name is Katherine Miller but my friends call me Kat, like the animal. I am twenty-five and before all of this I worked as a care worker with the elderly.” She bit her lip after her sentence desperately hoping that it met his expectations. Christian would’ve questioned her more on her occupation if it wasn’t for the fact he had a much bigger question playing on his mind.

“Back to an earlier conversation now, how come you’ve never been as exposed to all of... well, all of this?” He motioned around the room but, it was clear what he meant given the context of the situation they were in. Katherine took a deep breath, there was no avoiding this difficult topic was there? She knew Christian wouldn’t back down, one of the few things she had already learnt about Christian in the short time of knowing him was that he was a stubborn individual and if he wanted answers then well, he’d get answers. She looked back up from the floor to look at Christian and nodded, as if she was reassuring herself, before speaking up.

“Ever since all of this started I’d never been alone up until the very short period before we met. I had this friend, Alex, and she had taken care of me.” She had begun her little explanation and she couldn’t help but smile to herself ever so slightly as she noticed how captivated and interested Christian was. Up until now, he had barely given her the time of day.

“She worked as a cop so, she pretty much took it upon herself to keep me safe. I stayed in the room most of the time whilst she went out to look for supplies.” Soon enough, Katherine had resorted to a rambling state as she explained more and more about her situation before meeting GI Joe, who coincidentally was sat across from her. She went on to explain how Alex was very protective over herself and a lot of the time she wouldn’t even allow her to leave the hotel grounds and she would demand that Katherine always stay behind her when travelling, this explained Katherines’ automatic response of cowering behind Christian upon a simple encounter with a straggler. The most confusing part to Christian was when Katherine stated that Alex would not allow her to even carry a weapon, did this Alex person see herself as a mother figure to Katherine?

Christian was taking in all the new information that Katherine was revealing to him and suddenly, he felt slightly guilty for lashing out so aggressively towards the female when she panicked and didn’t immediately rush in to help him. She wasn’t going to react appropriately to the situations they’d encounter right away if that was how she had been sheltered during all of this and quite frankly, it wasn’t her fault.

“I see, in that case, I’m sorry for being so harsh towards you yesterday.” The apology was simple and to the point but, it meant a lot to Katherine and she smiled brightly before shaking her head.

“No, no... really, I should’ve done something. I’m also sorry.” Her apology was more of reconfirmation of her previous apology but, Christian was just glad he seemed to understand her a lot better now. He still wasn’t entirely fond of being in a team but on the other hand, he valued the company especially when that company came with a vehicle and shelter. On the topic of shelter, Christian still had to approach the topic of continuing with his plan to get to Haven. That conversation could wait, they needed to get supplies otherwise, they’d be out of food very, very soon.

“We need to go on a scavenging run today.” Katherine didn’t even realise they were both sat in complete silence until Christian spoke up out of nowhere. Katherine would’ve answered immediately but she heard the sound of the water boiling and she looked down quickly seeing that the tin of food was indeed boiling, she had completely forgotten about the food and she assumed Christian had done so as well. She reached forward hurriedly turning off the portable stove, she let out an elongated exhale.

“Wow, that was close.” She let out before a brief giggle had escaped her lips. Christian had simply watched on as Katherine attempted to save their tin of food overcooking or worse, exploding and coating them both in whatever was concealed inside. Katherine had begun to drain the boiled water from the mess tin back into her black sports bottle, she reused her water... that was a smart play on her side and Christian made sure to keep a mental note of that attribute.

“Could you grab the containers from under the bed, please? They should be on your side.” Katherine asked as she began to work on opening the tin with the manual tin opener she had stolen from the hotel kitchen within the first week she had hunkered down in here. Christian turned to his side and got to his knees as he began to let his arm wander under the bed, he felt the plastic containers with his fingertips and managed to edge them close enough to pull them out from beneath the bed. He passed them over towards Katherine who had finally got the tin opened. She looked inside of the container and sighed, clearly she wasn’t too impressed with what she found.

“It’s soup.” Were the only words to escape her mouth as she began to pour the contents into the containers, she was making a conscious effort to keep them equal but, she couldn’t resist putting a little more in Christians’ container as he needed the energy far more than she did.

“Soup? I guess that it’s better than nothing.” Christian was disappointed, to say the least, with the fact the food he had found turned out to be a tin of soup. Soup would hardly fill them up but, they would have to make do. Katherine extended one of the containers towards Christian so they could finally begin to eat.

“This just shows we need to go get more supplies. I am certainly not going to run off of soup for the foreseeable future.” Christian looked towards Katherine, she was still eating her soup even though Christian had finished his rather quickly still being quite hungry after the long arduous journeys he had made by foot until he had arrived at that God-forsaken town. Katherine quickly swallowed her mouthful of soup before speaking up in response to Christians’ statement.

“There is a house not too far down the road, we can make it by foot.” She announced, she didn’t want to waste the fuel as she had only half a tank of fuel left and that needed to last. Christian pondered over this idea briefly in his head before nodding.

“Once you’ve finished your food meet me outside, I’m going to get a feel for our immediate surroundings.” He stood up as he passed the container over and slung his rucksack over his shoulder. Katherine watched him as he left the room after pushing the desk of drawers out of his way. Christian began to descend the various flights of stairs down towards the ground floor so he could finally get back to the outside world. The premise of a house that could potentially have food, water and maybe even clothes was attractive and promising. As he reached the ground floor he passed the reception desk once again and looked over. There was a door behind the desk and it did pique his interest, there was no harm in checking it once over surely. He began to approach the door, holding his Kukri tightly in his right hand, he raised his left hand and twisted the door handle slowly pushing the door open with his Kukri raised just above his shoulder ready to defend himself if it came down to it. Once the door had opened fully, allowing Christian full view of the room, the most horrendous stench reached Christians’ nostrils and he instinctively stepped back for a moment, wrinkling his nose at the intense, horrid odour. Christian let his eyes dart around the room and they didn’t stray far before he had found the source of the stench; a decaying corpse of what he presumed was a human lay in the corner. He approached the corpse taking slow steps and keeping his guard high. No movement, no sound and no sign of life whatsoever, it wasn’t a straggler that had caught up with this poor soul. Christian observed the surroundings, next to the corpse was an empty bottle of, what Christian could only assume was, some sort of spirit. Upon further inspection of the room, Christian had found various packets of painkillers, at a rough estimation, he would’ve guessed there was at least twenty packets discarded along the desk and the ground. As he counted the packets he noticed a small box and he immediately picked it up. ‘Lambert & Butler’? Cigarettes... he smiled to himself and pocketed the pack of cigarettes. Christian chose not to dwell on what secrets this room held about the persons’ fate and when he deemed there was nothing of value left in the room he simply left, pulling the door closed as he did so. He made a mental note to avoid letting Katherine venture into that room.

He had decided he had seen enough and he left through the front entrance. Christian surveyed his arcs briefly, not a straggler in sight. Christian reached into his pocket and produced the cigarettes, they would undoubtedly taste rancid considering the length of time they would’ve been left there but, he hadn’t had the opportunity to smoke for quite some time and he was affording himself that rare luxury now. He opened the pack up, only seven cigarettes remained... that was disappointing but, it would have to do. He retrieved one from the pack before pocketing it again, luckily he had a lighter and after a few moments of patting away at the chest pockets he had located it wasting no time in producing it. He placed the cigarette between his lips and lit the cigarette up. He took a long inhale of the smoke before pulling the cigarette away, a few moments later he exhaled as the smoke plumed from his mouth. He almost gave an audible sigh of relief but, he settled for a simple smile. He was content. During his little nicotine adventure, he heard the door open behind and he turned to see Katherine who wore a seemingly confused expression across her features.

“Um, where did you find cigarettes?” She asked, curious if anything.

“On the floor.” Christians’ answer was short and to the point, a common theme when it came to his conversational abilities. Katherine watched him as he continued to smoke away, she had never pinned him as a smoker but, it was something new she now knew about him.

“I guess that is where we find most things nowadays. Shall we get going?” She suggested with a raise of her brows towards him. Christian nodded and let the cigarette fall to the floor before stepping on it, twisting the sole of his foot over it until the smoke stopped emitting from the stick of toxicity. Katherine looked back towards him motioning with her head before stepping off to lead him towards the house she had found not too long ago, Christian followed without hesitation. During their journey, it was apparent to Katherine that Christian still didn’t seem to be the talkative chatty type at all, usually she would’ve worn someone’s defences down but, it seemed he’d take a lot more work to get him to open up to her or at least engage in small talk. She wasn’t too bothered at all by this as she knew by now that this was the way he was and she’d just have to take it in her stride. Christian remained just as vigilant as ever, surveying his arcs as they walked not wanting to risk getting caught off guard at any moment.

The journey to the aforementioned house couldn’t have taken longer than ten minutes and the route was scenic, to say the least. Once they had made it to the exterior of the house they stopped at the front gate. Christian instinctively stepped forward in front of Katherine. Katherine hated being treated like a damsel in distress but, she would’ve been lying if she said it wasn’t a comforting feeling having Christian protecting her every step of the way. Without uttering a single word, Christian very slowly pulled up the latch of the gate and pulled it open until it rested against the short concrete wall it was connected to. He kept his Kukri braced high, just above his shoulder, as they approached the front door. The front garden was bare and the once luscious green plants and foliage had long turned wilted and brown in colour due to the lack of care and maintenance. Once upon a time, this would’ve been an ideal home for an elderly couple to tend away to their garden and continue to grow old with each other. Opening the front door, Christian peered in... clear. Katherine followed closely behind as they entered, nearly bumping into Christian as he stopped.

“I’ll take upstairs, you take down here. Meet back here once you’re done.” It was a simple command, Katherine had no chance to answer before Christian took off upstairs. She shook her head, he’d always assume leadership in every scenario it seemed. Once upstairs, Christian had stepped into the very first door on the left to start his search. He appeared to have stepped into an upstairs bathroom which, was a good location to start. Toothpaste, mouthwash, soap or any other hygienic product would be especially helpful to fend off infection plus, he was out of shaving cream and was sporting an annoyingly itchy week long growth of facial hair. Firstly, he spotted a half rolled tube of toothpaste on the sink top and he snatched it up without a thought placing it into his left chest pocket. He continued to scout around for the next available item and opened up the cupboard. He rummaged through the cupboard taking a rather clean looking beige flannel, that was folded in half and pocketed immediately as well. Christian scoured the top shelf of the cupboard in his last bid to find something of value... nothing, nowt, zilch. He groaned in frustration, clearly others had been here before and took as much as they could carry of what they deemed valuable at the time.

Not allowing the lack of resources to deter him, Christian exited the bathroom and allowed himself to enter right into the next door on the left. A single bedroom; clothes were scattered across the floor from the wardrobe and drawers that were left open and the bed had clearly been left in a state not being made for a long time. Immediately, Christian began to search through the piles of clothes on the floor. He could do with a change of clothing as his current attire was both a huge target on his back as well as being filthy and deteriorating at an alarming rate. He came across a small leather jacket and immediately realised that this was a woman’s’ wardrobe. This search had gone from clothes for himself to clothes for Katherine, he took a moment to think about what Katherine was currently wearing. A, what was once pristine white, button up shirt with a pair of black jeans and some comfortable looking trainers. The jeans were probably the best attire to offer the most resistance to straggler bites but, the white button up was definitely not going to be warm enough and offered no thick layer of defence. Christian rolled the leather jacket up and placed it between his side and his left arm before continuing to search through the piles. Not without effort, Christian found a thicker coat, it was a slate grey colour with a fur lined hood and a quilted pattern. The material didn’t feel quite waterproof but the label did specify ‘shower proof’. It was better than nothing so he rolled it up and placed it with the leather jacket under his left arm tucked into his side. Picking up his Kukri, Christian exited the room and entered the final remaining room that was on the upper floor of the building.

It was a larger bedroom with a double bed that could’ve been a king or queen size if Christian cared enough to estimate. There was yet again, piles of clothes scattered everywhere and not much else. Christian took a moment to let his rucksack down onto the floor so he could stuff the clothes he had taken for Katherine into it. He left it there alongside his Kukri as he began to rummage through the piles of clothes on the floor and bed. Now, this time there was both female and male clothing, Christian was content he had found adequate clothing for Katherine so it was time for him to get a fresh set of clothing. Checking the label of a pair of dark blue regular fitted jeans, Christian was pleased to see that they were the waist size thirty two, only two inches smaller than the size he knew he was before this whole ordeal. Christian made the safe assumption he had definitely lost some weight during the many months of travelling and limited food so, he placed them by his side before continuing the hunt for an upper body garment of some sorts. It took some time but, Christian found a sort of denim shirt and upon closer inspection it was a black button up denim material shirt. That would do him well, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to keep around. He scooped up the jeans as well as the shirt before standing up straight and moving over to his rucksack and placing them inside. He picked up his rucksack alongside his Kukri and continued on his way out of the room and downstairs.

Halfway down the stairs, he noticed Katherine was stood at the bottom looking rather pleased with herself.

“Find anything?” He asked, she responded with an enthusiastic nod opening up her rucksack producing several tins of what appeared to be food.

“Plenty of tinned chilli and spam.” She announced, quite happy with herself. Alongside the tins of food, she revealed two bottles of water, five hundred millilitres in each bottle. That was a good sight in Christians’ eyes.

“Last but not least, I found this.” She reached on top of the cabinet next to her producing a sharp metallic object. It was a large meat cleaver style knife, Christian couldn’t deny that it gave him peace of mind knowing that Katherine had her own means of defence now even though that wouldn’t stop him being the protector of the duo.

“Impressive, I found some clothes, a flannel and half a tube of toothpaste.” Christian remarked with a shrug. He expected Katherine to be disappointed but, she seemed even more excited now.

“I haven’t cleaned my teeth in like four days so that is a life saver. We should start heading back to the hotel now though.” Katherine felt like the longer she was outside the lower her life expectancy became in this unprecedented pandemic. This time, it wasn’t her waiting for an answer and she took the initiative to lead him out of the house and back through the garden path on their way to the hotel. Christian didn’t argue and just followed suit, admiring the fact Katherine seemed to want to take up some of the slack and make some decisions even if they were only minor. Yet again, the journey would be a quiet one and the route as scenic as it was on the way to the house. Pleased with the results of the scavenging run, Christian was content with what they had acquired and he was sure Katherine would be happy with the two new ‘fashion’ options she now had available to herself once he had time to reveal them to her.

“Have you been alone this entire time?” Katherines’ question seemed to come out of nowhere and Christian took a brief moment to process what she had asked of him.

“No, I haven’t been alone the entire time. Only the last three months.” Christian began and soon enough, he was telling Katherine of the various groups he had been with beforehand. First of all, he revealed that he was with two of his friends from the military for a short span before they were overwhelmed. He didn’t know if they were still alive but, they were unfortunately separated during the conflict. The second group Christian had spoke about was a family he encountered upon his travels, a husband and wife with their eleven year old daughter. He didn’t go into too much detail about their fate but, Katherine could read between the lines and knew they, sadly, didn’t have the happy ending such a family deserved. Finally, Christian talked about a young male by the name of Craig he had travelled with for a prolonged period of time. Katherine knew by the way Christian spoke about Craig that it was clear that he definitely had some sort of friendship or bond with the man during the time they were together. Christian briefly mentioned how they were trying to make it to Haven.

“I came back one day and he was sat in the corner of the room. I didn’t even see the blood before I got closer... he had given up.” Christian could remember it vividly, he had come back after a scavenger run to the closest petrol station and as he entered there was an off putting and strange aura in the air. He knew something was off as he approached the living room of their little hideout. Once he had entered the living room he noticed that Craig was simply sat propped up in the corner, motionless. Upon approach, everything faded into one as the smell of pennies filled his nostrils... blood. It was overpowering and he could already see the red metallic liquid trailing from just under his chin. Craig had simply given up and lost all hope that he would make it out alive so, he had taken his own life. Craigs’ signature knife laid bloodstained between his legs.

“I’m so sorry Christian... I shouldn’t have asked that.” Katherines’ words brought Christian back to reality and he looked to her.

“No, it’s fine. You told me about Alex so it only seems fair.” He seemed even more robotic than before.

“So, you guys were trying to get to Haven?” She asked.

“Yes.” Was the only word Christian could muster up.

“Then let’s make it to Haven.” Katherines’ determined words reached Christians’ ears and he simply nodded, pushing his emotions to the back of his mind for now. He took a deep breath, seeing the hotel in sight before looking to Katherine.

“I’ll drive.”