I'm a Survivor: A Carol Peleteir Story

Chapter 7

"You alright?" Andrea said, walking up to me the next day.

"I...I'm alright.." I took a deep breath, fiddling to my fingers. "He deserved it...right?"

"He..." Andrea stuttered. "He deserved a beating, but...Shane took it over board..."

No he didn't...I thought. He deserved every last minute...I shook those harsh thoughts out of my mind, not wanting God to be angry. "I'm gonna..." I stood up, wiping the dirt out of my pants. "Check on Ed..."

"Sophia?" I called to my little girl, who was playing with Carl. "You wanna check on daddy?"

She awkwardly nodded, and caught up to me.

"Ed...?" I asked, opening the tents door.

"What do you want?" He growled, his head was turned away from us. I sighed.

"Just..to check on you." I said.

"Just get outta here! And leave me be!" He turned to us. His face was red, green and purple. He looked sickening.

I nodded. "Come on Sophia." I'm glad he didn't want me to be around him.

He grabbed onto Sophia's wrist. "Why don't you give your daddy some company...?" He asked gently.

I yanked his hand off of my precious little girl. Not again. "She wants to join the rest." I pushed Sophia out of the tent, and walked after her.

I walked up to Lori, who was watching Carl play. I couldn't help but ask. "Are you alright?"

"..Yeah." She took a deep breath, and tucked her hands on her back pockets. "Just..confused.."

I smiled. "It'll be alright." I said, and patted her back.

Andrea, and Amy came back from the creek, after twenty minutes, with two big lines of fish.

"Oh! Wow!" I cheered with everyone else. "That's a lot of fish!"

"Sure hell it is!" Shane said, licking his lips. I looked at him awkwardly and leaned beside Lori.

"You wanna cook em now, Dale?" Shane said grinning.

"Yeah. Sure." Dale said and bring a few fish to the fire pit.

"I'm going to...talk..to my friend.." I told Lori. She nodded.

"I'll watch Sophia and Carl."

***

"Hey..." I said, walking to Maria, who was picking at some food.

"Hey." She said, looking down at her food.

"I'm sorry I haven't--"

"We're leaving." She blurted.

"What?"

"Me, and my husband..our children..we're leaving. First thing in the morning..." her face was full of tears. "I'm sorry--but we have to. For our kids..We need to stick to family. And we're going to our relatives..." she gave me a hug.

"Why are you leaving? What if you get hurt? What if--"

"Morales's a good shot, Carol. He'll protect us." she gave me one last hug.

I needed to change the subject--or I'd cry myself. But thankfully, she changed it.

"What happened to Ed?"

"Shane uh.." I shook my head. "Beat him.."

"Like he beats you? Or worse."

"Well," I took a big breath. "Ed hasn't been that rough on my face.." I looked at the sky, then the kids playing. "He didn't deserve it..."