Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (37 page)

He turned to them as they put the tarps back on the raft and rowboat. “But I haven’t seen this happening on the Mississippi, so we should be OK. I’ve seen a couple of lone zombies fall into the water, but the current takes them out to sea so they aren’t rotting in that body of water. I’m glad you decided to check out the plantation since Morgan told me how you fortified your last place. Maybe you can come up with some ideas.”

Roxanne stood up with her duffle bag and let out a sigh. “That place was overrun. Nothing can stop a herd, Toby. Nothing.” Mutt began to whine and nose at the raft, pawing at it. “What?” she asked. “Oh, your dog food. My bad.” She reached back down to rummage through the raft looking for a couple of cans to last them for another day. She heard a screech of metal as it was moved and looked up to see a crowd of Ze’s pushing against the vehicles lined up on the street. “Jesus Toby, I really don’t want to stay on the Casino tonight. What if they break through?”

“They’ll settle down as soon as we are out of sight,” Toby said. “It’s just one more night and then we’re outta’ here. That was our second fear. The crowd of Ze’s has never been this great. It was always manageable. I don’t know where they’re coming from or how they knew we were here. It’s as if they sent out a secret message across the State or something and they all started gathering in New Orleans when the city had already thinned out of zombies.”

“We were pushed by herds coming from both the east and north,” Lucky said. “Massive herds. I think this is what you are witnessing now. They have caught up with us” he looked at Roxanne and their eyes locked with the same fear.

They heard more metal scrapping the asphalt. “Quickly,” Toby said. “Let’s get inside.”

“I think you should stay with me tonight” Roxanne said as they walked alone on the upper deck to their rooms. “I’m sure Morgan is right that these are all good people but I think it best that they think we are together. Since Terry isn’t staying with me that changes things. Don’t want anyone to know that I’m alone. And, from what Toby said, we won’t be meeting some of these people again. Everyone is splitting up into groups and going their separate way.”

They were unpacking their duffle bags when there was a gentle knock on the door. Gretchen had brought them two jugs of water. “This one is for the toilet. It allows only one flush. We leave it up to the person as to whether they want to do it in the morning or evening, but they only get one flush a day. This one,” she held out her right hand, “is for washing. We’ve had good rainfall lately and accumulated a good supply. Still, each room only gets one jug a week for bathing. Most people hang their clothes over the railing when it rains to wash their laundry. But since we will be leaving tomorrow we are splurging a little.”

She handed the jugs to Roxanne. “I understand that we will be together as a group. Larry is my husband and we have elected to go with Toby to the plantation. I understand that you have also made that your destination.”

“We’re going to take a look at it”, Roxanne said as she took the jugs. “But we’re taking Jenny since she doesn’t need gas. Jenny could become very valuable when the supply of gas runs out.”

Gretchen nodded, “Well I’m sure I’ll see you tomorrow for breakfast. Good night.”

Roxanne turned and faced Lucky who was sitting on the side of the bed. “They’re flushing their waste into the Lake?”

Lucky shrugged and got off the bed to take the jugs. “Could have holding tanks or is hooked up to city sewer. I seriously doubt that the Casino would have been given a building permit without holding tanks for waste. Whether they are full or not, I don’t care. We are out of here tomorrow regardless of whether their plan is successful or not, even if we need to sneak out at night. Toby said that only Frank and Smokey have bullets and we can handle two people. We can’t save everyone.”

Lucky went into the bathroom and Roxanne sat down on the edge of the bed. “But we could,” she said. Lucky stopped and turned around to look at her. “Save everyone. We could make two trips in Jenny and that would get everyone off the Casino. There are women and children here”, she looked up at Lucky. “We have done a lot of horrible things to get here Lucky, but we don’t need to abandon these people when a little extra effort on our part could save them.”

Lucky sat the jugs down and came over to her. “There could be a riot; people could panic on who goes on the first trip and the ones left for the second trip could be convinced that we are never coming back. They could try to rush us. Someone could put a gun to Brandon’s head, or Toby’s head and demand that they pilot them out of here.”

“You and Brandon go on the first trip and Mutt and I will stay for the second trip,” she said. “That should convince them that you are coming back. It could work. We would just need to plan it out with Toby and his men.”

He kissed her on the forehead and got up, “perhaps it won’t come to that” he said. “But it’s a good backup plan. Why don’t you wash up first?”

He watched her that night to see if she slipped into another depression. This second half of the ZA was different for Roxanne than when she first left Ed and went out on her own, learning how to survive along the way. The ZA was now completing its first year and this second half had caused more people to ‘opt out’ than in the beginning. Bullets were becoming a thing of the past, you seldom saw people anymore, just zombies and the Ze’s were accumulating into bigger herds. Humans were being pushed out to the seas, lakes, oceans, herded and hunted like animals. Now the lakes were going bad, contaminated by rotting corpses and reducing the food source even further. Desperation had increased among the living who now turned on their own. Other people were no longer considered a safety net but an enemy who would steal from you and then kill you as a favor. It was worse if they stole from you and did not kill you but left you to either starve, run helpless without a weapon or be bitten and then turn. Society had been reduced to ashes and so far it did not look as if it could rebuild itself. There was no longer a vision of a future for the human race and extinction was inevitable.

The next morning Brandon left with Toby, Smokey and Frank who had loaded three barrels on Jenny along with a harpoon gun that had a rope ladder attached. They would shoot the harpoon over the railing of the barge and then use the ladder to climb over the side. Once Smokey was on the ship he would rig a pulley to lower the full barrels back down to Jenny. He would be working on that devise while the other three were hand-pumping fuel into the barrels. They calculated that they should be back by noon.

Lucky was uncomfortable with not accompanying him but Brandon was convinced that these people did not have ulterior motives. “But Brandon, they don’t need you. Toby can pilot Jenny. They could ambush you and throw you overboard.”

“Lucky, if that was the case they could have killed all of us last night,” Brandon objected. “They could have killed us when we first arrived. Look Lucky,” Brandon said putting his hand on Lucky’s shoulder, “I have respected your decisions, your orders, your demands for the last three months and you kept us alive. But I was right about Jenny, right about going down Huntington Creek and I feel right about the people I’m going with. I don’t know about the rest of them, but Toby, Smokey and Frank are good people. We need them too. We can’t keep doing this, just the three of us, isolating ourselves from everyone as some rogue gang. We almost died out there, Lucky and I’ve decided…….” He paused to get the words right. “I’ve decided that I’m not going to die alone in the damn woods somewhere as a carcass for the animals to feed on. If I go down it will be Cami’s style, to save a group of people, to save a home.” He took his hand away. “So relax and enjoy the day with Roxanne, Caleb and Morgan. Get to know them again.”

He walked away to go down the platform and join the others who were boarding Jenny. He did not look back at Lucky but as he pulled out he spotted Roxanne on the upper deck and waved to her.

When Lucky joined Roxanne she asked, “What was that all about. It looked as if the two of you were having words.”

Lucky had his hands on the rails as he watched Brandon leave and was silent for a moment. “Perhaps we have been through too much together and have been together too long. Tempers and patience wear thin when people spend too much time in each other’s company. Especially if there have been occurrences that one would like to forget.” He turned to look at her. “The easiest way to forget is to disassociate yourself with them and pull away. Maybe even change course and leave them behind.”

Roxanne gasped, “Jesus what are you saying? That Brandon would abandon us? Have you lost your mind?” Lucky shook his head, “No, I’m saying that Brandon misses not having a family. He wants to be with people again, longs for it. His choices in the future may be based on that.” With that last statement Lucky walked away leaving Roxanne confused.

Mutt rounded the corner coming toward Roxanne, followed by Caleb and Morgan. “Hi Roxanne!” Caleb called out. She smiled. She still hadn’t become used to the idea that Caleb and Morgan were still alive. It was almost too good to be true, not something that she expected in this world where expectations were squashed. She put her arm around Caleb, “What have you two been up to? I see that you have commandeered my dog.”

“I understand that you chose the Plantation,” Morgan said. “I’m so glad. That’s where we were going to try, but after you got here we would have changed to any direction that you were going in.” They heard the sound of metal being banged upon by the zombies and the smile left everyone’s face as they looked toward the street. “None too soon I might add.”

“Did they have any plans at all Morgan, as to what they would do if the Ze’s broke through?” Roxanne asked.

“If you could call it a plan,” he said. “We would run to our boats and cast off. No one has any gas but you can use poles to push away from the wharf. Course that means you are now adrift. We would try to tie up to as many boats as possible, form a circle maybe or even a line and hopefully the current would eventually push us into the canal where we would float out to the river.”

“Damn,” Roxanne said. “There’s not much hope in that.” She looked down at Caleb, “How is your hunting? Still killing rabbits?” Caleb shook his head, “No, still have the crossbow but I’m all out of arrows. Even when I killed a zombie I couldn’t run back and retrieve the arrow because there were so many other Ze’s around.”

Morgan patted the boys shoulder, “He caught us many a dinner though, didn’t you Caleb?”

“Not to worry Caleb,” Roxanne said. “I ran into a woman who had a box of them. I’ll give you half.” Could we go in?” she said. “I can’t stand the sound of so many Ze’s. The sound never leaves me, even in my sleep. We were in the mist of them for so long,” she said as they went into the Lobby and sat down. “Always surrounded by them. We ran for two days and one night before we put enough distance that they didn’t see us go into a boathouse. Lucky kept hoping that the boats he shoved into the pond at The Park would float down to us, but we never saw them. Must have become hung up on something, or just floated to the banks or on some rocks.”

At that moment Terry walked over and flopped down beside Roxanne. “I’ll be going with you after all. Didn’t work out with the Hurley’s but at least I have a better pair of shoes now” she leaned back and put her feet out for all to see. She was now sporting moccasins, “they’re not new, but it’s better than the slippers I was wearing.”

Roxanne didn’t know how she felt about Terry joining their group again but since there would be more people involved perhaps they could help toward training Terry in defending herself and how to kill. She looked up to notice that several people were watching her. A large portion of the group had already packed their personal possessions and had their suitcases or duffle bags sitting next to them. They could do nothing at this point but wait and hope that Toby’s plan was successful.

“What do you know about this plantation?” Roxanne asked, starting to feel uncomfortable with the stares. She hadn’t packed any of her gear yet, wasn’t wearing her holster nor did she have her staff with her and was starting to regret it.

“It wasn’t inhabited so we won’t find any supplies,” Morgan said. “It was donated to the Historical Society thirty years ago and has only been used for tours. The fields were worked on a seasonal basis though since it costs so much to maintain one of those monster homes and the income from the crops helped along with tour tickets, home-made jelly’s and souvenirs. Toby likes it because of the fruit trees and vegetable seeds he had Gretchen hoard for him. He saved the seeds from any vegetables that managed to ripen on its own this year. I haven’t seen the place myself.”

When it began to approach mid-day people were starting to become anxious. A few more couples had packed their gear and came into the Lobby to wait. Roxanne was starting to get nervous by the stares and asked Morgan in a low voice if it would appear to be a sign of hostility if she were to get her staff. He smiled and reached over to put his hand on hers, “It’s alright, Roxanne. Every group has their hot-heads, but nothing that we can’t handle.”

Finally a man approached them from a group who had been in deep conversation while watching Roxanne. Mutt got up from sitting next to Caleb and moved in front of Roxanne to sit down. “Mam, if I may introduce myself, names Ivan.” He nodded at Morgan then looked back to her again. “I understand that the men are planning to get back around noon, is that your understanding?”