Our beginning

Unexpected Adventures

When we walked through the door to see an amazing garden, I was so relieved that I wasn't in the dark anymore. I knelt down and started putting all of my gear away then turned to the group of children.

"Where are your parents and why were you here? This place was scary to me even though im an adult so why would you come here alone. Who knows if anyone else would have ever found you here." I shook my head and glanced around waiting for an answer.

"We heard that there were zoo animals locked in here and we wanted to see if it was true for ourselves, we'll never do anything like this again. Can you help us find our parents? " a little boy with blonde hair and green eyes asked.

"Of course we will, how could we save you and then leave you alone in this creepy place? First we need to go out front to check on everyone else though. I think I might have everything we need to be able to make some food also. I'm willing to bet you're all extremely hungry and I have a family to feed." Walking through the garden was so relaxing after being in that dark dusty building. The smell of flowers and vegetables filled the air and made a sweet smell that I had never experienced before.

As we walked down the path in the garden, I noticed patches of lavender and picked a handful to lay out in my car since it tends to help keep some creepy crawlys away. Everyone followed me to the car quietly and Brian watched them closely, I could tell he was wondering about something. I figured it had something to do with Cheyanne or Maverick, maybe even home so I let it go and decided to ask after we got food made.

When we got to the car, I didn't see any movement at first and then Luke came out of the front seat. "They're both sleeping, I set the back up like you asked and spread out that really thick comforter for them to both cuddle up and they fell straight to sleep. What did you give her, she was acting kind of loopy?"

"All I gave her was fire cider but that wouldn't effect her in any mental way. It could have been all the excitement of.... well.... everything. Plus she has an extremely deep wound on her leg and another one on her head. She's lucky we got here as fast as we did, if we hadn't I'm not sure if either of them would... well... you know..." I motioned for him to move out of my way and turned to start taking my gear off. I had forgotten my sling was on my arm but was glad I didn't have to use any arrows, no wonder Lola didn't trust me at first. As I reached under my seat to get a freezer pack out she rubbed my side and wrapped her paws around me nuzzling my stomach with her face. "I love you too Lola, are you hungry?" I said as I ran my fingers through her fur, Kena licked my hand and I dropped to the ground to put my arms around them both a cuddle them with hugs and kisses for a moment. The kids giggled and got me back to reality, I was suppose to be prepping food and getting them home so we could head home on our 21 hour journey. "I'll take that as a yes." I winked at her and then tossed both Lola and Kena a "treat" bar, as I named them. They have different types of meats, fruits and other stuff that I've cured and dehydrated so our food lasts longer and still tastes amazing. It took me a year to get this one perfect and Kena loves them, I was hoping they'd stay here with Luke to get some sleep and hold down the fort so I tossed a couple into the passenger seat. They got the clue and when they were comfortable I gave them more to munch on and started looking for my cooking stuff.

"Chev, it's already set up and I have a fire going over here. Figured you'd be hungry after all that, I fed them like you had asked. Is that what you're making?" I motioned for Brian to check on Cheyanne and he locked the car after leaning into the back and then patting Kenas head.

As I followed Luke around the car, the children followed me closely and the little girl that hadn't spoken yet was closest to me. She watched as I spread extra virgin olive oil onto my cast iron skillet and then spread a mix of steak fried rice onto the skillet, got into the cooler and broke 8 eggs over it carefully then sat it on the rack above the flames. A couple moments passed and I started mixing it around, then filled the skillet up the rest of the way and let it it sit.

My eyes met Brian's and I did a motion for him to distract the rest of the group while I got her talking. "Does your Mom cook?" I must have startled her because she jumped at my question as if she had been smacked across the face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." she glared at me and ran off to the other children. Brian glanced over at me and I shrugged, I wasn't sure what had just happened but I was even more curious now then I had been earlier.

As I checked the food the other little girl came over, "Don't mind her, she hasn't talked since our Mom disappeared. We don't know where she went and our Dad won't tell us anything." She looked more interested in the food I was cooking than the conversation so I changed the subject.

"Would you like to learn how to cook?"

"Yes!! What's your name? I remember you saying you aren't from here, are you leaving?" she trailed off sounding a bit sad.

"Everyone calls me Chevy and yes I have to go home, I have children, animals and a husband there but I can teach you some things about cooking. Maybe your family can come to the Quad Cities?"

"I would love that but my Dad probably won't be alright with it." I took her hand and guided her to the skillet, showing her how to lift the corners into the center folding and mixing the fried rice. She looked hungry and the eggs were done so I reached over and opened the soy sauce.

"Shake this on the mix 11 times..." she smiled and did as I had instructed. I left her to stir and grabbed bowls then she helped get everyone food. When we finished eating, she helped me clean everything up and get everything put away. I showed her how to spread the logs and coals out so the fire would go out properly then I asked her to show me where she lived by sketching me a map. She seemed reluctant at first but her sister glared at her as if she didn't want her near me anymore so she drew a picture of the area. I realized that I never asked what their names were and needed to be able to call them something to travel with them, even though it was only around 8 blocks. We had no idea what was between us and their families. "What should I call all of you?" she looked humored by my question.

"I'm Tess, my sister is Amelia.... don't glared at me.... if you want her to call you Amy than you can tell her yourself...." she stuck her tongue out and continued, "the tall boy with black hair and glasses is Miles, the chubby blonde boy is James and the skinny red headed boy is my brother, his name is Colin. When we get to my house, my Dad's name is Tom.