Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (17 page)

There was still continuous gunfire so Caleb knew that his group was still fighting, which gave him hope. Hitting his mark increased his confidence and he realized that his legs had steadied. He saw another shadow climb into the bus. Feeling that he had just crossed the threshold into manhood he smiled and whispered, “Come on sucker. I got you nailed.” But the man knelt down behind the seats and called out to his partner, “Nuyen, you alright? Where you hurt man?” Caleb adjusted his aim and waited until he saw the man come forward to kneel over his fallen comrade. Releasing the arrow he hit the man between his shoulder and neck. The man cried out and Caleb quickly reloaded when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Caleb gasped and quickly turned, pulling away from the grasp on his shoulder. “Relax Caleb,” Lucky said. “I want one of them alive to question. Don’t kill them all off” he smiled. Then they both ducked when they heard explosions in the parking lot circle.

Randy had been feeling useless on top of the mound while everyone was attempting to hold back the assault. This was not a situation in which his knife throwing skills would help them and his revolver was no match for the amount of power being thrown at them. Then he remembered seeing grenades in the ammo shed below. As he climbed down the ladder he looked over to the cement culvert where Caleb should have been positioned but did not see him there. He assumed that the poor kid was down on his hands and knees hiding behind the pillar in case he had to blow the tunnel. He found a box of grenades and took three knowing that his throwing skills would meet the target of anything he aimed for. All he needed was a quick glance at where the target was stationed and he could throw blind.

He climbed back up the ladder and crawled to position himself behind the others who were on their bellies. He quickly popped up and saw a truck at the entrance to his right. It was a good distance but to him it was no more than an overhead lob. While in a lying position he removed the pin and lobbed it in a high arc over his right shoulder.

“Kaboom!” They heard metal being torn apart and some of it started to rain down on them. Gene was on the other side of Roxanne and turned to look behind them when he saw Randy grinning with grenades in his hand. A few more pieces of metal fell among them, causing them to cover their heads. “You could have given us a heads-up Randy,” Gene said, “but nice one!”

They were able to crawl forward and see what was happening below them. Two bodies were on the ground, a third was crawling with his hands over his ears, one man was just climbing into the back of the first truck to use the machine gun and one man was making a run for the bus.

Morgan saw Randy make a move to use another grenade and yelled, “No, I want that truck intact with the machine gun mounted on it. Somebody get that sucker and I’ll go down to meet the other guy when he comes out of the bus.” Morgan heard three shots ring out as he climbed down the ladder, but only two of them came from his group on the mound. The other shot came from inside the bus.

Hoping that Caleb had stayed put he quickly rushed down the ladder and looked into the tunnel to see Caleb standing there with a gun in his hand. Morgan rushed to Caleb and put his hands on his shoulders, “Are you hurt son? What happened?”

“I’m fine” Caleb answered. “It’s his gun,” he stepped aside and Morgan could see two men crumbled together on the bus steps. Both had arrows in them. Morgan expelled his breath not realizing that he had been holding it. Then he saw movement on the bus and quickly shoved Caleb aside to pull out his gun. “It’s OK, Dad. It’s Lucky.”

“Morgan, help me get these bodies out of the doorway so I can pull this other one out and question him,” Lucky said.

The rest of the group came down the ladder to greeted Cami and Brandon who had stayed behind when they saw Ze’s inside the Park. “Someone cut that portion of the fence that Ed was working on,” Brandon said. “It was wide open and Ze’s were coming through. We could hear the gunfire but Lucky ran ahead while we took care of the zombies. The fence is still open and we are not safe yet. It is going to take some big time repairs and the back gate we only temporarily blocked with a truck. I think we are going to be working all night and should not let our guard down. They wanted this place so much that they let zombies in to take us out if they couldn’t.”

Sally was holding a rag to her face and looked up to see that everyone had bleeding gashes and wounds on the face, neck and shoulders from debris kicked up by the rapid fire on the hillside, and later by falling debris from the truck Randy blew up. “Right now we need to get everyone inside so I can take care of the wounds. Roxanne that shoulder needs stitches. Lucky, can’t you and Brandon handle this guy while Cami stitches me up and then I can take care of everyone?” she said.

“The hell I will. I can’t stand the sight of blood,” Cami said. “Faint every time.” Everyone turned to look at her. “Well, except if I killed them, then I’m OK with blood. Speaking of which, I better get out front and kill the dead so they don’t turn.” With that she pushed by Lucky and went through the bus.

“I have unfinished business to take care of,” Roxanne said as she also stepped over Lucky and followed Cami to the back of the bus. “You can stitch my shoulder later, Sally.” She went over to the car that Ed had driven and saw that he was still alive, laying across the car seat sniveling. Cami looked up after shooting a dead guy in the head to see Roxanne open the car door and pull Ed out, shoving him up against the back window.

“They made me do it, Roxie,” Ed whined. “Look at my face and you can tell that they beat me to get information.” Her answer was to grab his shoulders and use all her strength to bang him up against the window. “Ow, Roxie,” as his head hit the glass. She grabbed his head in both hands to pull him down and then smashed his head against the glass again. She did this again and again until his legs started to crumble but she used her body to pin him against the car, ramming her knee between his legs to hold him up while she continued to use his head to smash the glass. When the glass broke Roxanne shifted his body to pound his head against the door frame.

Cami watched and wondered where Roxanne found the strength to hold up his body while pulling his torso forward only to smash it repeatedly against the metal. Her hands were becoming slippery with blood and grey matter began to ooze down the car yet Roxanne continued after Cami put a hand on her shoulder and softly said her name. She smashed him again until Cami put her arm across Roxanne’s chest and pushed her away, “Roxanne!” This time Roxanne stepped away breathing heavily and watched as Ed’s body slowly slid to the ground, leaving residue on the side of the car. She raised her hand to wipe the sweat off her forehead but Cami grabbed her, “No don’t. Here,” she pulled a water canteen off her belt still holding onto Roxanne’s wrist. As she washed the blood and brains from Roxanne’s hands she looked up to see Lucky standing at the back door of the bus.

Lucky had shot the man in the chest and he was gurgling badly. He shook the man and asked, “How many of you are there?” The man tried to talk but only managed to cough. Lucky poured some water on the man’s face and asked again. This time the reply was “Too many.” Brandon and Lucky looked at one another, not liking that answer.

“Where is your campsite?” The man began gasping for breath, “You….are all dead……Chen Le will…….slaughter…….you.”

They worked all through the night. Gene found plywood and boarded up the windows in the bus. The bus wouldn’t start and they knew that they needed to find another way of blocking the front entrance and still allow them access in and out, but there were more important things to attend to at the moment. It took both Brandon and Lucky to hold up the fence that had been cut while Cami used chains, wire and hooks to tie it back into place. They were not confident with it and planned on using some of the carnival rides to block it later. Everyone except Sally, Caleb and Morgan, who they later discovered had dislocated his shoulder and had not said anything, did a final sweep of the entire park, finding some zombies still wandering around. They had the opportunity to see Randy at his best, taking them down with a knife throw or a hatchet.

They left the dead where they fell, including the humans they had killed. Now was not the time for gathering bodies and hauling them down the hill. There were more pressing issues “like this Chen Le” Morgan said at the meeting.

“He could have been just trying to scare us,” Sally said as she put the last of the dressing on Morgan’s shoulder. Roxanne was holding a rag against her shoulder waiting for her turn. The wound had opened wider while she was killing Ed.

Dawn was just appearing through the windows and everyone was exhausted but Lucky knew that timing was crucial. He shook his head, “I don’t think so. There were eight at the back, nine at the front, that’s someone who has accumulated a large force. He wouldn’t have come along with them. He would send people to do it for him while he stayed back with his own protection. He could have fifteen to twenty more.”

We need to move on,” Randy said. “I’ve seen groups like this in PA. They’re vicious. They will stop at nothing and there are only nine of us.”

“I’m not leaving,” Cami said.

“Neither am I,” Roxanne said. “And I’m not waiting around to see if they show up.” Everyone turned to look at her. “We need to attack them. They won’t be expecting us, even if they had scouts watching last night to report back to them. They think we will take the day to rebuild and patch our wounds. But they won’t wait so we need to get to them first.”

Everyone was quiet, stunned by the statement. No one had expected this analysis from Roxanne but rather from Lucky since he had been Secret Service. The thought must have been in all their minds but it was Gene who asked the question. “What do you say Lucky,” Gene put his arm around his wife. “Do we go after them and how do we know where they are?”

Lucky was still staring at Roxanne and needed to pull himself away from looking at her. She still had the ability to shock and amaze him and he couldn’t get the vision out of his head as to how she had just killed Ed. “I…uh…yes, she’s right. We need to take into consideration that Ed was their decoy and gave them information. He would have told them that we guard the front entrance every night and that the back gate would be left unguarded. Also, since Ed left here by the back gate I think that is where he ran into them, somewhere along that road. Roxanne, you said you abandoned your car and came through the mountainside. You said there were a few homes scattered along the way. Would you remember how to get back to that road?”

“Yes, and I’ve remember a place. A farmhouse with a rambler built next to it and a barn in the back. If they have as you say, fifteen to twenty more people that place would be suitable for them. But it took me a half day to come down the mountain and we will be going uphill on the way back carrying equipment. It would be close to dark and we would need to do a quick assessment of the place. This time the advantage would be theirs because they know the place and we don’t.”

“This is suicide for everyone,” Randy said. “We don’t have enough personnel to attack and to protect this place at the same time. The people you leave behind can’t defend themselves if fifteen people attack again tonight. And how are five to six of you going to fight a mob in an unfamiliar territory like the one you just described?”

“I’m sorry Roxanne,” Morgan said, “but I tend to agree with Randy. I think we should call our losses and go.” “So do I,” Sally said.

“Ed didn’t know everything about this place,” Cami said. “There is a trap door under the stage of the theater. I think that Morgan, Sally and Caleb should take several days’ supply and stay hunkered down in there, not venturing out in case the place is being watched. The rest of us start hiking uphill where I will finally get to use my rocket and grenade launcher. Let’s just blow their heads off.”

It was agreed that if they did not get back in two days that Morgan, Sally and Caleb would leave the Park. There would be plenty of vehicles if the park wasn’t overtaken. If it was occupied by outside forces then they would make their way to the logging road where they had mended the fence. They were not to take the service road because it could lead them into an ambush. No one knew where the service road met the highway that Roxanne was on when she ran out of gas and it was the area suspected to be where Chen Le was holding up.