Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (34 page)

“Stay in the room with Mutt,” Roxanne instructed. “Don’t make a sound, don’t whimper, don’t even sniffle, do you understand?” The woman covered her mouth with both hands and nodded her head. “If something goes wrong, Mutt will attack the guy giving you an opportunity to make a break for it. Go behind the house to the railroad tracks and go south. You’ll see a boat moored with two guys on it. They’ll take you in.”

Roxanne went to the living room and put her back against the wall dividing the kitchen from the living room and listened as the motorcycle approached and turned into the driveway. She planned to swing around the door frame from the living room as soon as she heard the back door open and pull the trigger on the crossbow, but at that moment she happened to look across the room and saw her reflection in the front door. He would see that reflection as soon as he opened the back door. She quickly sidestepped further down the living room until her reflection was gone, but the position was tricky. She would need to wait until he walked into the living room and if he was as good as the girl said he could have already detected her by then.

She heard the backdoor unlock and then open but not being able to stay in place waiting for him she started to side step toward the center of the living room so that the kitchen would slowly came into view. She could see the refrigerator, another step and she could see the window, another step and… his back came into view. At the exact moment that she pulled the trigger on the crossbow he turned and threw his knife. It was her reflexes that saved her because she raised the crossbow in front of her face after pulling the trigger and his knife knocked the weapon out of her hands. She quickly drew her gun but her arrow had found its mark and he was already crumbling to his knees, gasping for breath.

“You can come out now,” Roxanne called to the woman. Ignoring the laboring man on the floor Roxanne went around the kitchen tossing food items and other supplies on the table. “What’s your name, anyway?” she asked while her back was turned going through the cupboards. Upon not getting an answer she stopped rummaging and turned to see the woman standing in the doorway staring down at the man holding his chest with Roxanne’s arrow still embedded in him. “Hey… you!” Roxanne yelled and threw a plastic bag at her. “Start bagging some of that stuff up. I’ve been gone long enough and I should get back to the boat.”

The woman slowly walked up to the table and started bagging things. “You’re not….you’re not going to leave him like that are you?” Roxanne looked at her and then went over to the man and put her boot on his chest. Once she pulled the arrow out the man stopped struggling to breathe and lay motionless. She went into the living room to pick up her crossbow and saw the Bowie knife embedded in the handle. “Do you know how to use a knife?” she called out to the girl. “Did you have any weapons on you at all when he captured you?”

Roxanne went to the bedroom and opened the closet again. “Are these clothes yours?” She pulled a pillowcase off the bed and began stuffing clothes into it. She checked the dresser but it was empty of undergarments. She was becoming annoyed with the constant need to yell at this girl to get her attention since her questions were always met with silence. She walked back out to the kitchen to see the girl still slowly putting supplies into a bag but her eyes were riveted on the dead man. Roxanne walked over to her and said, “What’s the big deal with him? You must have seen plenty of people die by now.”

The girl jumped at Roxanne’s voice and closed the bag. Roxanne could see that she was starting to sweat and could smell the fear on her. “He’ll turn. You didn’t finish it.”

Roxanne shrugged, “I only have six bullets and I’m not wasting one on him. I have a hatchet but I’m not going to become bloody by bashing his head in. If you have everything ready we can leave now and lock him in, unless….” She turned the Bowie knife and held it out to the girl, “unless you want to do it. Just stab him under the chin to the back of his head.”

The girl backed away and put her hands behind her back, “Me? Oh, no I couldn’t. My neighbor always killed the zombies.”

Great
, Roxanne thought.
A virgin to killing
. At that moment the man started to twitch. Roxanne opened the back door, shoved the bags into the girl’s arms and had to practically drag her past the man because she was so frozen with fear.

Roxanne picked up the staff that she had left at the bushes and started walking back along the tracks. Every now and then she would turn to make sure the woman was following. She noticed the woman was wearing thin slippers and was having difficulty walking over the rocks and rails so she stopped to let the girl catch up. “Why slippers?” she asked.

“He took my shoes away from me so I couldn’t run.” She was hugging the bag of supplies to her chest and didn’t look up at Roxanne.

“What’s your name?”

“Terry.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-two”

“And you’ve never killed a zombie before?” Roxanne started walking again. “Have you lived in an attic for the past year?” She knew she was being sarcastic but it hadn’t been a good day.

“My place is fifty miles the other way.”

“If you want to go fine, but I can’t take you there. My friends are on the creek up ahead and we still have a dangerous journey ahead of us. Besides, what’s left back there?”

“Nothing, I guess. My parents went out and never came back. Little by little people started leaving and not coming back until it was just my neighbor and me. It was just a small town. I worked behind the counter of the video rental store. Never been anywhere, not even New Orleans.”

“OK, Terry you may feel that I am being blunt but if you are going to travel with us, then I need to know your capabilities and what you don’t know you will need to learn fast. There are only three of us and it is hard enough keeping ourselves alive. You can’t look to us for protection like your neighbor provided for you.”

“I can shoot. I’m a good shot.”

“That’s great, but bullets are rare. Most of the fighting now is hand to hand combat. Knives, hammers, axes, pitchforks, baseball bats, could you kill someone with one of those?”

“You mean zombies?”

“No, I mean people, humans.” Terry stopped and looked up at Roxanne for the first time. “I don’t know if I can travel with you.”

Roxanne turned around and came back, practically getting in Terry’s face. “How long were you with that guy?”

Terry looked back down at the bag in her arms, “A week.”

“Did he rape you?” Terry nodded her head. “Are you telling me that not once in that week that you didn’t think of killing him, wanted to kill him,
ached
to kill him?”

“I just wanted to run away.”

Roxanne stepped back and sighed. She took the bag of groceries from Terry and said, “Walk with me further before you decide.” She could see Mutt sniffing the bushes up ahead and called to him. “I can’t kill anything for you right now Mutt, I’m too busy.”

“When I was traveling alone I met a man who attacked me with the intention of rape and I managed to kill him” Roxanne said. “It was the first human I ever killed and regardless of why he attacked me that kill devastated me. But more recently I was attacked by a gang. I had four of them holding me down while a fifth prepared….prepared….and two more standing in line. I managed to kill two of them that I remember killing on my own, and one that Mutt held down while I killed him. My friends got the others but Mutt was the star that day helping them out too.”

Roxanne stopped and cupped Terry’s chin in her hand, forcing her to look up, “I never felt so much
pleasure
as when I ran my knife across their throat, or into their belly. Are you telling me that you don’t have it in you to feel that type of hatred, that type of anger toward someone who raped you?”

Terry stepped away, “It’s not what I’ve been taught, not how I was raised.”

“But did you
feel the anger
in you, Terry? The hate, the thought of killing him?”

“Yes!” Terry shouted and then started to cry.

Roxanne smiled and put her arm around Terry’s neck, “Come on child. There’s hope for you yet.”

CHAPTER 9

L
ucky had caught two catfish in the fast moving water and was anxious for Roxanne to return. She had been gone for a couple of hours and he was getting worried. At that moment Brandon walked up to join him at the railing and said, “She should have been back by now. Do we go look for her?”

“There’s Mutt,” Lucky said. Mutt came trotting down the hillside making sure not to slip and jumped into the rowboat. Shortly after Roxanne’s head appeared, then her shoulders as she approached from the tracks. But then a blond head appeared next to Roxanne confusing both Brandon and Lucky. “Oh shit.” Brandon said.

“Damn it. I hope she didn’t pick up any stragglers,” Lucky said as Roxanne pointed down the hill toward the row boat. The girl starting feeling her way down the hill when Lucky noticed that she was not wearing the type of shoes or clothes for survival in today’s world. The girl slipped and fell and a bag of clothes spilled out. Roxanne went down to help her and to retrieve the bag, but the descent was precarious for Roxanne since she was carrying her staff and a bag of groceries.

“What in the world do we have here?” Brandon asked. Lucky just shook his head. Roxanne picked the girl up by her arm, stuffed the clothes back in the bag and slammed it into the girl’s chest so that she would carry it. She put the girl in the center of the boat with the bags, “I’ve never been on the water before,” they heard her say. Brandon sighed heavily as they continued to watch.

Roxanne walked into the water past the girl sitting in the boat and balanced her staff in her hands before handing it to Mutt who clamped his teeth on it. “Oh cool”, the girl said. Then Roxanne pushed off shore and began to row while the girl held onto the sides of the boat.

Once the rowboat was unloaded of supplies, women and dog, Roxanne made introductions. “This is Brandon and this is Lucky. They are gentlemen and will not harm you. You need not fear them, besides you’ll be bunking with me. This is Terry. She has never killed before and has always been protected. We will need to do some training.”

“When did you last eat, Terry?” Lucky asked. “I caught some catfish and we were just waiting on Roxanne before frying them up.”

“Not since noon yesterday. He was gone all morning looking for more supplies,” Terry answered.

“He?” Lucky asked, raising his eyebrows and looking at Roxanne.

“Terry was a hostage,” Roxanne said. “I took care of it. We won’t have anyone looking for us. While you are preparing dinner I’ll get Terry settled.” She took Terry who was still clutching her bag of clothes to the kitchen and rummaged in a drawer pulling out several plastic bags.

“Come with me.” She took Terry to her room and told her that the top bunk would be hers. “Mutt also sleeps in here. You aren’t allergic to dogs are you?” Terry shook her head.

“OK, this is what I need you to do. Tomorrow we are pulling anchor and it will be a rough ride. Everything we own is wrapped in plastic to keep it dry and put into a raft. So keep out what you want to wear tomorrow and wrap the rest in these plastic bags. I wish there had been other places I could have searched to find you some shoes and jeans. You’re much smaller than I am and I doubt the men have a belt. Here,” she reached up to the top bunk and got the cord that she had planned to tie Mutt to her. She measured out a piece and cut it off, handing it to Terry. “There’s a pair of jeans in the drawer under my bunk. It’s the only other pair I have but I guess this is an emergency.”

She walked to the door and turned around aware that once again, Terry hadn’t said anything to her. “Are you OK?” Terry nodded but did not look Roxanne in the face. “Come out to dinner when you’re ready.”

When Roxanne came back to the kitchen she pulled out a chair from the table and collapsed into it with a big sigh. “We have a 50/50 chance of her becoming another KC.” The men stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her. “That guy had her for a week, raping her and God only knows what else. Sometimes she goes far, far away and you need to yell at her to get her attention. She could either come out of it like I did……like I’m doing, or she could go deeper into herself like KC. I couldn’t leave her there but she’s like a child that was hidden in a dungeon somewhere for the last year and can’t understand or cope with what’s been happening.” She looked up at them. “I don’t know if she’s even capable of killing a zombie. After all this time anyone who is still alive should be an expert at killing. I don’t know if I have it in me to start all over again and teach a novice.”

Terry appeared for dinner in a jean skirt and peasant blouse and stood in the doorway looking embarrassed by her choices. “I’m sorry Roxanne, but I just didn’t feel comfortable in your clothes. I felt like a hobo using that rope as a belt.”

Roxanne turned her back to continue setting the table, “Well, come over here and sit down to eat. We were just making plans on how to train you.”

Terry had washed her face and hands, had combed her hair and was looking the proper dinner guest. For someone who hadn’t eaten since the day before she showed control in not rushing her food. She noticed Mutt in the corner eating his dog food and remarked, “I know that your dog is important to you, but should he be eating in here with us?”

Brandon started coughing on his food and Lucky saw Roxanne stop with her fork in mid-air. “Terry,” Lucky quickly interjected, “we decided that Roxanne will teach you how to defend yourself against Ze’s. I will teach you how to defend yourself from predators.” He wanted to stay away from using the word “kill” since Roxanne had told them of the conversation she and Terry had while walking back. “We only have the one staff and it belongs to Roxanne, but if we find some other materials we’ll try to make you something to use as a weapon. We would like to get you some clothes and shoes that are more durable since we never know what situations, terrain, or weather conditions we will be in.”

“These are the type of things I’ve always worn,” Terry objected. “Except for the slippers.”

“We are not always blessed with an opportunity to spend a night inside,” Brandon added. “This boat Jenny is a pleasant change for us. Most of the time we are sleeping on the ground, under a tree or in a field somewhere.”

“Eww,” Terry whined. “I’m not the camping type of person. Even the guy who kidnapped me always found a house for us. Some of them were dirty or had busted windows and all I could think of was some spider or mouse crawling over me. Those were the worst.”

“Everyone pitches in, Terry” Lucky said. “Everyone earns a place on the team. I understand that you know how to use a gun but bullets are scarce. And I’m not sure that you know when it’s necessary to use the rifle and when not to, so we won’t be giving you a rifle soon. We can’t stop our journey to scavenge at this point, although I realize that you are handicapped by not having the right shoes to be able to run. Tomorrow we raise anchor and go the remaining route to Lake Pontchartrain.”

“New Orleans?” She was surprised. “But…, but that’s where all the Ze’s were coming from. Why would you go
into
a nest of them? Oh….oh, I
knew
I shouldn’t have come with you! I should have stayed on the tracks and walked the other way.” At this point she broke down and began to cry, covering her face with her hands.

Roxanne stood up, “You’re exhausted Terry and still in shock from your ordeal. ‘Tomorrow is another day. I’ll think about it tomorrow’ to take a quote from another southern belle. Why don’t you go back to our room and get some rest. We’ll be up at dawn tomorrow. And remember, the bottom bunk is mine.”

Terry left the room still crying from her fear of going to New Orleans. The three of them cleaned up in silence, packing the things they just used in plastic so they could add them to the raft. Finally Roxanne crossed her arms and leaned against the sink, looking at the guys. “What? I gave her a choice; come or don’t come. I didn’t drag her along against her will. I wasn’t trying to be a hero I just found her being abused in an abandoned house. What would you have done?” The question went unanswered and she was met with silence.

“She was much more open with you guys than with me. Maybe she’s more comfortable with men; maybe she’s the type who likes to win a man’s approval and will take defense lessons seriously if you are training her” Roxanne said.

“Regardless,” Brandon said pushing a chair up to the table. “No training will be done now, no stops along the way because the creek will soon go back down again. We have until tomorrow to break out of the creek and into the canals where Jenny will be in safe water level again.”

That night Roxanne and Lucky stood looking over the railing after Brandon had retired for the night. It took the three of them to haul the rowboat in and secure it to the deck. Not being sailors they did not know if they were doing the right thing, but they would have lost the rowboat if Brandon had hit the rocks on their first leg of the journey. They also knew that if Jenny cracked up and went down that both the raft and rowboat would go down with her if they could not cut them loose in time.

“Reminds me of the cabin and how we used to sit on the porch at night,” Lucky said.

Roxanne smiled, “Well if Brandon is right we could be sitting on the deck of an ocean liner or a casino looking out over the ocean at night. I can’t say that I am comfortable with the idea though. This is hurricane season and any safety we found would be short lived. But I’m all out of ideas. We can’t continue as we have for the last three months. We were close to dying. Perhaps I was all wrong in thinking that you could stay in one place long enough to grow crops since the number of Ze’s has grown to gigantic proportions.” She turned to Lucky, “Do you think…, do you think that since we saw them moving west, chasing us the whole time, that the east coast would be clear now? Maybe your idea of Charleston would still work if Jenny could get us around Florida and up the east coast.”

Roxanne’s hand was on the rail and Lucky reached out to put his hand over hers, “If Brandon’s idea doesn’t work I’d say that would be the next idea on the list. Unless we meet up with someone who has a better idea or we find a permanent place for the winter. Chen Le said that Florida was toast and I got the impression that he meant it was filled with Ze’s on the move. He said they would soon find us, and he was right about that so maybe your theory isn’t so wrong.”

They turned to look out to shore again and Roxanne shivered under her denim jacket. Lucky stepped closer and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. She lifted his hand and put it against her cheek. If Terry hadn’t been on board Lucky would have pushed the issue a little further but he felt Roxanne wasn’t ready to have a man’s hands on her yet. Now that they had talked about the past he was feeling more comfortable being around Roxanne as a potential lover again and not just as a team partner. But sometimes just standing next to Roxanne was overwhelming and he wanted nothing more than to take her, not knowing whether either of them would be alive through the next day.

“I’m going to hit the sack,” Lucky said. “Since Terry took the extra blanket do you want mine?”

Roxanne shook her head, “I’m going to stay up a little longer and pack a few more things. I’ll be alright, you go ahead.”

Roxanne made several rounds on deck, not really having any duties to perform just wanting some time alone to think. She hoped that Terry would surprise her and would adapt to using a weapon and would learn it quickly. But she feared that Terry was looking for a protector and would not stand beside that person to fight with him. She wanted someone to hide behind while they put their life out there to keep her alive. If that was Terry’s desire, then Roxanne planned on dumping her on the first people they found. But finding people was becoming rare too, other than the loner who they came across here and there.

She went back to the corridor and saw a faint light coming from her room. Terry had brought in an oil lamp and put it on the end table. Mutt was lying down on the floor and looked up but did not move when Roxanne approached. Terry was in the upper bunk but was awake and watching the door. Lucky was still awake in his bunk but Roxanne was not aware of that. He found that he couldn’t sleep anymore until he knew that Roxanne was in her room.