Remnie's last story.

The Beast (orgins)

Alex laid in bed with Remnie listening to the storm system pass through. He had dosed in and out as he let his mind wonder. He remembered the first time he had met Remnie, she was working at a camp site in Northern Georgia and had checked his camper in and showed him where his hook ups were. She seemed so out of place reading her science fiction books at her post. He thought she was so strange, this tiny 5'3 woman with long wavy dark auburn hair and green eyes that seemed to always be planning something, working and living in the middle of nowhere. Her post was littered with books: art, religion, mythology, science fiction and even a splash of science and history texts stacked everywhere. He figured her for a nerd trying to get an easy paycheck and chose to ignore her. He was working construction in the near by town and found it was cheaper to live in his camper then to live out of hotel rooms. He used an old pick up truck to get back and forth to the job sites that his boss let him borrow and more often than not was able to avoid everybody, including Remnie.

One morning Remnie was practicing with her throwing knives using an old knot hole in her favorite oak as a target and over heard Alex cussing at the the truck, "Damn piece of old junk, just start already!" The truck answered in repeated clicks as Remnie walked up. "Your starter is shot," She said listening to the clicks. "Best bet is to just buy a starter and pop it in there. You could probably tap it with a wrench a couple times and get it running, but that gets old quick." He looked shocked, "How do you even know that? What are you a secret mechanic?" She laughed and he couldn't help but love the sound,"Nope, my brother, however, is a mechanic. He taught me a little. I use to sneak to the shop he worked at after school and hang out there." He nodded and said, "Well that explains that I guess, excuse me, but I gotta find a way to work now and the camper isn't really the best option to get to this site." She played with her hands and said "Frank is here today to watch the post, I could take you." "Really? That would be great! Let me grab my stuff!"Alex grabbed his bag and tool box and started walking towards a newer pick up truck, Remnie stopped him and said "I said I would take you, that's Frank's truck, I'm over here." She pointed to a car covered with a tarp in the corner of the parking lot. They met at the car and she pulled the tarp off an old powder blue 92 Volvo 240. The paint job looked great, but it didn't change the fact that the car was old. Very. About 30 years roughly. Alex laughed and taunted "You gotta be kidding me, that's a dinosaur. You really drive this thing?" "Well, yea, and stop picking on Blue Betty The Beast, she'll hear you. Get in if your going come on."

Alex laid in bed dosing in and out as the storm seemed to circle back. Remnie was sleeping deeply in his arms, and he was grateful for that. He was grateful that old piece of s**t truck died on him that day or he'd of never of given this crazy, intelligent, strong girl a second glance. He looked around at her bedroom, her four post bed was huge and comfortable, she had dried wild flowers hanging on strings circling her bed. On the wall hung her machete and throwing knives amongst random prints of art. She was so odd and wonderful he couldn't help but fall for her and laying here with her, even in these circumstances was amazing. Alex finally drifted into a deep sleep breathing in the scent of lavender shampoo in her hair.

Hunter and Jonas stocked the fire up and sipped whiskey. Jonas sighed heavily and said, "Where would we even go if we left?" Hunter shrugged and said, "She'll have a plan, she always has a plan." "When was she planning? When she was cracking right in front of? I think you expect to much from that girl." Hunter looked annoyed and said "Look I pick up the pieces and put her back together, she makes the plans. She's got somthing big working in her head and it's stressing her messed up brain out, but a calm will come and she just fits everything together."

It was five in the morning. Remnie had been sleeping for about seven hours now and began to stir in Alex's arms. She was dreaming about a man she had been trying to forget for years. He was suppose to be a safe haven for her. A role model, but night after night she'd lay in bed and hope he would be to tired, to drunk, to anything to bother her. She started to whimper in her sleep and Alex woke up and rubbed her arm, "Shhhh baby you're safe. You're not back there with him wake up." She jumped up and stared into the dark for a few minutes and said "I need coffee, the bathroom and a map."

Remnie wrapped a quilt around her and went to the bathroom, she went to flush and realized the water tank had finally run out. she filled the toilet tank with some water from the tub and headed to her dining room.

Remnie pulled some maps and a note book out. She began circling zones in the national parks with trails that led into the mountains.She began heating up water for coffee and went back to her map she added numbers to the zones and then made notes in her book, she was highlighting natural springs, cave systems and fishing locations where the water sourced from underground and was less likely to be polluted. Alex went to grab mugs and made two cups of coffee while Remnie continued to make notes. She broke down safe paths in nearly a 200 mile radius. "You're f*****g genius, you know that right?" "Yea, cept we are gonna be traveling in the winter towards the mountains during the end of the world, but the further we get from cities the less pollution and man made dangers there will be." She rubbed her temples and circled another zone, Hunter came up behind her and looked at what she had so far. "Rem, is it still there?" "Yea, Frank goes up there a few times a month and keeps it up." She said wearly. "What's there?" Alex said with curiosity peaked. "Our parents old cabin, Dad added to it every summer, until they died. It has a spring running under it that keeps it cooler in the summer. Frank started keeping bees out there, and put in a small green house with solar panels last year. It has running water, like old school hand pump system, wood stove for heat is hooked into a vent system mom and dad installed and it does have a radio and generator. That is our hail Mary move. It's long house style, the living areas are very open with 4 bedrooms added and one bath room with a tub hooked up to a tiny water heater the generator supplies, there's an out house there too. We gotta get gas for the genni. As much as we can get together and we gotta get seeds for the green house.We can't stay here much longer, we got maybe two days of water left." Jonas stared at Remnie for a momment and shook his head, "So this is the plan? That's outside Helen, GA. It's the Blue Ridge isn't it?" "It's more end game of the plan. We got one vehicle. The Beast. We got to pack that trunk down and the back floor board with supplies. We'll have to line the floor board up with can goods 2 and 3 stacked high. Everything I have, Everything you have and everything we can get our hands on. The trunk needs to have the bare minimum in clothes and be full of camp gear, fishing gear and hunting gear. Leave the seats free so we got room and of course the maps are coming with us". "Alright, I'm in, and do you have pots and pans and other basics there?" He asked a bit in awe. "Yea. We do, but bring the cast iron stuff. It's priceless." Remnie rubbed at her temples again, and yawned "I'm laying back down, that sleeping pill is strong and I feel groggy, got allot more stuff to process in my head too." She looked at Alex and said more timidly, "Lay with me a little longer please?" He nodded and followed her back to bed.