Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (20 page)

“We don’t know if this is the right trail yet,” Cami said. “Don’t know if this comes out at the park where Ed was clearing land. Let’s keep going. It’s leading away from the power lines at this point and since we can’t see any of these lines from the park we may be on the right road.”

After a short time they started to see zombies, then they started to see strange things in the trees. A wind-chime, a child’s stuffed clown nailed to a tree, various types of shoes hung together on a rope strung between two trees, a Frisbee nailed loosely to a tree so it would turn with the wind, a Japanese parasol looped over a branch. They looked at each other as Gene slowed the truck down to a crawl. Without saying a word they both put their windows up.

A zombie banged on his window but Gene ignored it and kept driving. They passed another wind-chime, a bicycle tire tied to a wire and swaying in the slight breeze while a zombie stood watching it. A “No Trespassing” sign hung on a rope was banging against a tree; more toy dolls and stuffed animals were nailed to trees.

“Do you think the people at the house did this?” Cami whispered, “to attract the Ze’s back here and away from the house?”

“No,” Brandon shook his head. “It’s too far away from the house to be effective.”

“Do you think a hermit lives back here?” Gene asked.

Again Brandon said no. “He would have looted the food at the park a long time ago.” Another zombie banged on Gene’s window and two more began to bang on Cami’s side. “I think you should speed up Gene. The zombies are starting to thicken here.” Gene increased his speed, passing a row of umbrellas scattered in the trees, lampshades hanging by twine, colorful Christmas bulbs that were peeling and chipped from the weather. Cowbells were strung so low that the roof of the truck touched them, sending off sounds of rattles and clangs.

Suddenly Gene threw on the brakes as he saw two old tarps tied across the road. They were shredded from the weather of changing seasons but enough of them still existed to block their view. “I’m not driving through that” Gene said, “Could be a trap on the other side. In fact, since there are zombies coming up behind us, I would say we have already walked into a trap.”

“Ordinarily I would say to get out and blow these suckers away,” Cami said, “but this place creeps me out. Put it into reverse and floor it, Gene.”

She didn’t need to ask him twice. Gene put it into reverse to back over four Ze’s on the trail behind them. Their bodies snapped and tore apart splattering the truck with organs and slime. The truck bounced and jumped over them, throwing them around in the cab. Cami rolled down her window and leaned out to shoot three on her side of the road. As they backed the truck up zombies started to fill the road in front of them, following them out. When they had traveled in reverse all the way to the dried creek bed Gene was able to turn the truck around but not without fear that they would get stuck. When they finally made it back to the corn field he stopped behind the barn and wiped the sweat off his face. “What the hell was that all about Brandon? Can you figure it out?”

Brandon was deep in thought but finally shook his head, “No, it has me puzzled, but I know one thing for sure. We’re not letting this go. We either need to find a way of moving the bus out of the tunnel to continue using it as our main entrance, or we need to find a second access road for escape if the back fence is breached. We can’t leave the vehicles loaded with supplies parked outside the entrance or it could all get stolen and then we would be left with nothing to run on. Come on, let’s go back to the park.”

After the occurrence in the woods no one suggested that they stop to inspect the barn or the house. Cami was thankful that it was conveniently forgotten since she felt the whole place was cursed. She would have helped with the barn although she suspected that they would find a body hanging from the rafters. But if they wanted to search the house, it would be done without her because she did not have any intentions of setting foot across that threshold.

Once they were back on the highway Brandon asked, “Are you two still up for finishing this today? I say we go through the fence where Ed was clearing land and walk the trail back. No truck this time so they won’t hear us coming. I don’t think anyone is back there. I think whatever they were setting up has been abandoned or didn’t work for them and that they are long gone. Are you with me because I’m going to walk that trail only this time it will be from the park side?”

“You’ll need a larger group,” Cami said, not looking at him. “And you can count me out,” she turned to look at him then. “I’m sorry Brandon but there was just too much voodoo going on back there. Take Roxanne, Lucky and maybe Sally.”

“No,” Gene shook his head. “I don’t want Sally mixed up in this. Whether it’s voodoo or just some sick mind, I don’t want her walking into it. I’ll still go with you Brandon,” he said as he pulled off the highway to the park entrance, “and it’s time Randy does more to earn his keep. Roxanne, I’m not so sure of.”

Cami wrinkled her brow and looked over at him, “Why? You think she’ll be freaked out too?”

“No,” Gene shook his head. “I keep thinking of what Ed said when he showed up again. Something like, ‘This is your place’ or ‘You own this place.’ Think about it. Roxanne has been in the thick of things ever since we got here. She has never stopped fighting beside us and in fact, had to fight KC to stay alive. She and Lucky couldn’t have fought off Chen Le all alone but she was the first one to say that we needed to go after them and attack them first. She’s always leading, always raiding, always attacking and now we’re going to ask her to cover our back because we have the heebie-jeebies?”

“I don’t see Roxanne that way,” Brandon said. “I see her as a team player when needed, but also someone who has isolated herself from the human race. She’s an individual who can survive on her own and a force to be reckoned with if you invade her territory.”

Cami shook her head, “You’re both wrong. Now that she has hooked up with Lucky she realizes that she’s still human. And will start making mistakes.”

When Brandon approached the group with his idea of walking the trail he only mentioned the strange items hanging from the trees and that an accumulation of zombies forced them out. Sally thought the plan was misdirected. “That can’t be the only other way out of the place,” she said. “We have missed something. A park this big would have more than a front entrance and one service road. I say forget the logging trail and let’s advance further into areas of the park that were destroyed and we ignored.”

“I have wondered where their vegetable garden was,” Morgan said. “They boasted of cooking their own home grown vegetables, but I haven’t seen a field that would represent corn, tomatoes or cucumbers. Even if overgrown the signs of one should still be there.”

“Maybe it’s my ego,” Brandon said, “but I don’t like being beaten down and we were forced to abandon our search by something or someone unknown to us. It’s just too close to our borders for me to ignore it.”

“We don’t know if it is the right road, Brandon,” Cami said. “But we do know that zombies accumulate there. Why put ourselves in danger when it’s unnecessary?”

“Brandon is right,” Roxanne spoke up. “If we are to defend this place, make a permanent home here, we need to know what is outside all our borders. We don’t need to go into the thick of the Ze’s, but I like the idea of following the trail from this angle to at least see if there is a connection. Morgan you, Sally and Caleb stay here. Everyone else come with me, including you Randy.” Gene and Brandon passed a knowing glance after the conversation they just had in the truck about Roxanne’s performance.

“I’m not going,” Cami said. “Sorry Roxanne but I got a bad feeling about that place. I’ll fight anyone; I’ll take a stand against anyone, but my Karma tells me to stay away from that place. Besides, Morgan is not in any condition to be on his own, defending this place. I’ll stay and guard the home front.”

Roxanne hesitated, surprised by Cami’s response. “I totally believe in Karma and gut instinct, Cami” Roxanne said. “That’s what got me this far. If it doesn’t feel right to you, then I respect that.” She turned to Lucky who had not said anything during the conversation. “What about you Mr. Secret Service man? What does your gut instinct tell you?”

“Who, me?” Lucky put his hand on his chest. “I’ve been taking orders from you since you first handcuffed me to Ed and threw me into a shed. Don’t see why I should change now.” Roxanne could feel herself blushing and turned away. “Everyone get their gear and meet up at Ed’s gate,” she said trying to sound in control.

As they were packing extra ammo in their duffle bags Roxanne apologized to Lucky. “I’m sorry. I keep forgetting to think as a group. Keep forgetting that other lives are put into jeopardy by my decisions just because I did it for so long on my own. Keep forgetting that others may want to play it safe or hide. Everyone has their own way of dealing with this new life of being hunted down as food. I should have more compassion toward others, get more opinions, and ask more questions instead of telling people what they should do.”

Lucky kissed her on the neck and said, “You’re doing fine. If you want to know I was in total agreement with you. We need to know what’s on our borders or we could be building a home in the middle of a bad situation that we can’t get out of. I would have spoken up if I had disagreed. I’m not totally Mr. Roxanne yet,” he grinned as he opened the door for her.

Roxanne walked out and called for Mutt as she settled the compound crossbow behind her shoulder. She had elected to bring that one since it was good in tight spaces and Brandon had said that the woods thickened in places where it was almost impassable. Morgan waited at the gate to tie it back again after they went through. “How long will you be gone?” he asked.

Lucky looked up at the sky, “It’ll be dark in three hours. We’ll go one and a half hours out and then back again. We may not need that much time since we won’t be going uphill with heavy equipment.”

After leaving the gate behind, Gene turned to see Morgan, Caleb, Sally and Cami standing at the gate watching them walk away. He tipped his hat at Sally, but he didn’t feel good about this at all and wished that he had declined to go.

The three of them watched the group disappear into the woods. “Caleb,” Morgan said, “go over to the debris piled up against that building and bring me a chair. I’m going to sit here until they get back.” When Caleb brought the chair over Morgan directed him to put it beneath the shade of a tree where he sat down with a shotgun across his lap. Caleb said he would sit with him but Sally had other ideas.

“Caleb how would you like to go for a ride on the Ferris wheel?” she asked.

He jumped up, “Yes!”

“What are you talking about Sally?” Morgan asked. “That thing isn’t safe and will bring in Ze’s.”

“I’ll turn off the lights and the music,” she said, “but I want to stop the ride with Caleb at the top so he can scout the area. Both you and I know that we haven’t found things that should be here. Some of these shrubs would be 3’ but without regular maintenance they’ve grown 6 – 8’ high blocking what’s behind them. And some of the rides that have collapsed could be hiding access to other areas like that overhead rail that fell in on one of the craft buildings. Where did that go? I’m hoping Caleb can see something from the air that we can’t see on the ground.”

“Dad, let me go. Let me go. I can do this,” Caleb begged.

Morgan looked from one to the other and finally nodded his head. “It goes against my better judgment but if we can find another way out of here it will reduce the danger. I don’t like them going off into those woods after describing what they saw.”

As Caleb settled into the car Sally laughed and said, “Well I guess I don’t need to ask you if you’re afraid of heights. I’ll try to ease you up OK, so I don’t jerk you to a stop at the top but you might want to hold on to the frame so you won’t swing too much.” She should have practiced before putting Caleb in because it started with such a jerk that he almost fell out before leaving the ground.

“Whoa Sally!” Caleb squealed. “Take it easy!” She got the hang of it after that and let him go around a few times as she slowly adjusted the manual controls. “OK Caleb,” she called out as he passed her, “I’m going to stop it this time. Get ready.” She smiled to herself as she stopped it so smoothly that the car hardly swung at all. She stepped back so she could see him and shaded her eyes against the sun.