Roxanne's Story (Vol. II): Survival In The Zombie Apocalypse

by Diane Butler

  He got up from his seat with a sigh, starting to feel like an old man from the constant struggle to stay alive. He was weary yet still a young man but he knew that people would start dying at a younger age again without the proper medicine and technology. He only hoped to stay alive long enough to see Caleb become a young man capable of defending himself, perhaps even become a leader of a group.

  He walked around the side of the house when he felt a crackling under his feet and the earth begin to give way. He tried to keep his balance but, letting out a yell, he suddenly dropped 10’ into a well. He felt his leg snap as he hit bottom causing him to scream out. For a moment he panicked. “Damn it!” he muttered, trying to keep his voice down. He leaned his head back against the muddy wall trying to catch his breath and looked up at the sky then to the walls of the well and knew that he would not be able to climb it. It was then that he heard the moan above and quickly held his breath. He realized that he had flung his arms out before he fell and had lost his staff. He quickly felt around in his pockets, now submerged in muddy water and found that he still had his knife.

  The moans became closer and he knew that the zombie was approaching the well. “Oh please God, don’t let him fall in here,” he prayed to himself.

  ***

  It was getting close to dark as Brandy, Lucky and Caleb approached Jenny. They were relieved to get through the bayou and everyone’s heart was lifted when they saw Jenny and knew that they had made it back. But the joyfulness was short-lived. “Something’s wrong. Why aren’t the lanterns on?” Caleb asked. They quickly docked the skiff with Caleb running to check Jenny but Lucky and Brandon noticed the small pile of supplies outside the Bait & Tackle shop.

  Caleb came out of Jenny and they could see the fear on his face, “He’s not here. He would never stay out this late, not on a supply run.”

  “We stay together,” Lucky said. “We’ll know where he went if he continued to pile things outside like he did with the Tackle Shop. Don’t bring a lantern, Caleb. It’s too much light. We’ll need to use my flashlight.” Caleb mounted a bolt on the crossbow and both men drew their revolvers as they began to follow the wooden sidewalk along the creek bank. The shadows were long with the sun dipping below the horizon but they could see supplies in front of the next two houses and quickened their pace.

  When they reached the second house Brandon suggested that they get off the wooden sidewalk since nightfall was swiftly advancing and it made too much noise under their boots. They passed a third and fourth house with supplies in front and then Lucky had to turn on his flashlight. The next few houses did not have Morgan’s mark on the door. “Maybe he crossed the street to the other side,” Brandon suggested. Lucky shined the light across the street but it was not strong enough to tell if the houses had been entered.

  They were now whispering since every bush was hidden in darkness and some of the porches caused deeper shadows that hid the doors of the houses. They crossed the street and began to follow the sidewalk back toward Jenny but none of the places were marked and they found that they were stumbling over hidden debris. “Let’s go back,” Lucky suggested. “It looks like he was going house to house on the other side. Let’s pick up on the first house without a mark and search it. Caleb, your crossbow won’t be useful in this darkness. Put it away and take out your knife.” He was concerned that they had not encountered any Z’s and hoped that it wasn’t because they were feeding on Morgan elsewhere. He didn’t want Caleb to be a witness to that.

  They crossed the street and began again to pass the houses that Morgan had searched until they came to one without his mark. Lucky tested the door and found it locked, “He didn’t enter this one. The door isn’t busted in,” and he started to move away when Caleb stopped him.

  “No! He could have locked it behind him if he was seeking shelter,” Caleb said. “We check them all out. All of them!” They heard a moan and quickly turned to see a zombie coming toward them. Caleb jumped in front of the men and used Roxanne’s method of kicking the zombie in the leg and jumping back as it fell forward to smash the knife into its head.

  Brandon grabbed Caleb’s arm and pulled him back, “Don’t ever do that again. You’re letting your emotions get ahead of you and becoming reckless. We work as a team, remember?” Caleb’s answer was to kick at the door in an attempt to break in. Again Brandon grabbed his arm, “Step back and let me handle it.” He used his knife to break the lock and Lucky stood outside the door shining the light in. Nothing moved so they advanced into the room and they continued to use this method of entering each room thereafter.

  The next house was also locked and after breaking in to search without success Lucky felt that they should not go any further. “I don’t think he continued this way. Something must have caught his eye and caused him to leave the street. Let’s check the backyard of each of these two houses in case he saw something growing that he wanted to pick.”

  They went behind the house and were glad to see that it was a fenced yard thus making their search easier since they didn’t need to spread out and could stay together. The next yard behind the first locked house was not fenced and they could only assume to search as far as the woods. “But that doesn’t mean anything,” Caleb said. “He could have gone into the woods if he saw a deer or rabbit. We shouldn’t rule out the woods.”

  “We may need to wait until the morning to search the woods if we haven’t found him in town tonight,” Lucky said. “We still have Jenny to protect. If anyone steals her we are all out of luck. Tonight we’ll check out all the yards between here and Jenny. We’ll also check those houses on the other side of the street closest to Jenny in case he was going back to Jenny and spotted something across the street.

  “Lucky, shine your light over here,” Brandon was standing next to the house. “Are these tomato bushes?” Lucky walked over and Brandon could see that the bush was not bearing fruit but Lucky leaned in to examine one of the stalks. “There was fruit, but it was picked off,” Lucky said. They thought they heard a faint moan and turned to shine the light quickly in that direction but could see nothing. “Was that a zombie?”

  “I don’t know,” Brandon said as they began to walk. “It had a funny sound to it, like an echo.”

  Lucky was shining the light into the yard and almost fell into the well when Brandon shoved him aside. Lucky hit the ground hard and lost the flashlight. Caleb came up on his hands and knees to pick up the light and crawled to the opening of the well to shine it down. “It’s a zombie,” he said. “Fell into the well.” He and Lucky rose to their feet and were about to walk away when they clearly heard Caleb’s name whispered. They stopped and looked at one another and then Caleb dove to the ground again to shine the light down into the well a second time. “Dad?”

  “Caleb. Thank God. I’ve broken my leg. You’ll need to get some rope from Jenny. Hurry now. I’ve been wet and cold for a long time and beat up by zombies falling in.”

  Chapter 3

  Roxanne had been traveling with Cowboy in the bayou for weeks after several practice runs of exploring alone. It had been difficult to leave Shoes behind and venture out on her own but it was agreeable to both parties. Shoes admitted that she was getting old and had enjoyed the girl’s company. “I’ll need someone to take care of me in my old age,” she said. “I know I told you that it would be impossible for you to learn everything I know, but you would learn enough to get by. And I have no one to leave my knowledge to especially someone with the gift that you have.”

  “Gift?” Roxanne asked.

  “Your ability to communicate with animals. And you hear things before they appear in true form, before they come into focus by the human eye. With my potions and spells you could become a powerful woman in the bayou.”

  “I can be bitten by a poisonous snake or a Sousson and die the same as anyone can, Shoes. You have seen my scars so you know that I do not have special powers. I’m just a lost woman without answers,” the girl said. She looked off into the distan
ce, “I just need to do this.”

  “You’ll get lost,” Shoes insisted. “I’m prepared to not ever see you again and I can’t come looking for you. There’s too much to do for my own survival. Each spring and summer I prepare for the winter which seems to become colder each year. Just me getting old I guess,” she looked over at Cowboy. “One day the coyote will show up without you and I won’t know if it is because you are dead or that you found your way and find it more pleasant, safer than the bayou.” This was a lie for Shoes knew that she would always know when Roxanne was in trouble or if she had died. She had cut a lock of Roxanne’s hair while she slept and it would help her to stay in touch although Roxanne would never know it.

  “If I’m alive I’ll try to send a note wrapped in a scarf around Cowboys neck,” Roxanne said as she loaded the canoe. I’m sure that I will get lost several times. But if I start to get nervous about it or I’ve had enough I can always ask Cowboy for guidance. I think she knows her way around the swamp pretty good to last this long on her own.” She put a can of worms, a tarp to be used as both a shelter and to catch rain water in the canoe along with the only other piece of clothing she had. She was wearing jeans with one of Shoes granny dresses over it which came down to her knees. She still wore the moccasins that Shoes had made from the beaver pelt when she had first arrived and found them to be comfortable. They had never been able to buy a pair of boots from the trading post and she knew that the moccasins would not protect her from snake bite as a pair of workman’s boots would have. If she found an abandoned home, shack or any place that had been lived in before the ZA the first thing she was going to look for was clothes and boots.

  “Don’t look back as you pole off,” Shoes said. “It’s bad luck and I ain’t gonna stand here and watch you. Gimme’ a hug.” Roxanne didn’t looked back but it had been hard not to.

  It had been an adventure at first and Shoes had taught her well. Roxanne marked a cypress or bent a sapling when she was forced to choose between two or more waterways. She filled the tarp with rainwater and let it run into the bottles she carried. She knew the right plants to pick and was good at fishing so she was never hungry except for cravings of food no longer available in a ZA. Chocolates or a jelly donut were her biggest cravings.

  She looked at Cowboy’s back as she paddled and realized that the coyote had never given an indication that Roxanne was doing the right thing or going the wrong way. She had been sitting like that for the last week now, just looking at the countryside as they glided along, or kept looking straight ahead. Sometimes she would leave Roxanne’s side while she was building the night fire and would come back with a beaver, snake or muskrat to add to their dinner. She slept by Roxanne’s side or in the boat with her if they could not find solid ground to camp on.

  “Cowboy,” Roxanne said as she paddled. “Are you mad at me? You’re not much company these days. You’re so serious all the time.” Cowboy shifted her position but did not turn around. “Perhaps it was selfish of me to bring you along. You may have your own family, your own den and were very happy with your situation. You definitely know how to survive in the bayou but I never should have assumed that you would feel comfortable going beyond your territory.” Still Roxanne did not receive recognition from Cowboy that she was being spoken to. Roxanne stopped rowing and put the paddle in the boat. “Cowboy,” she said softly, “Turn around and look at me.”

  Carefully the coyote stood up and turned around to sit down again. “Are you afraid of the boat, afraid of falling in?” Cowboy shook her mane as if she was shaking off water which Roxanne took for a negative answer. “Do you feel that we are heading into danger?” No movement. “Are you afraid that you won’t find your way back without me?” Cowboy continued to stare at her. “Are you afraid of losing me?” Cowboy came over to lick her face. “All right I understand sweetie,” Roxanne said putting her arms around the coyote. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

  Roxanne was beginning to think that she would never see another human again and became very discouraged when they came upon a shack that she had already searched. “Oh Cowboy,” she sighed. “We were here just two days ago. Well, let’s spend the night and I will need to be more diligent in marking the trail. I’m beginning to think that Shoes was right and that I should have stayed put at her place. Or perhaps gone south down to Lou’s trading post and taken a northern trail by land.”

  Four days later Cowboy suddenly flattened her body in the canoe and began a low growl. Roxanne paddled the canoe off to the side and stopped into a curtain of Spanish moss hanging from a tree. “What is it?” she whispered. She listened but could only hear the sounds of nature. Cowboy snorted and Roxanne slowly moved up to where the coyote was and cautiously parted the moss. Up ahead she could see a fiberglass pirogue that would hold four to six people but it wasn’t tied to a private dock or a hunting blind which would indicate that people were around. It was leaning badly, did not look well cared for and could actually have drifted there. Roxanne waited and then moved back to her place, “We’re going in Cowboy. It looks abandoned.”

  As she pulled up to the pirogue she could see that it had flooded with rainwater which had become stagnant. “Whoever was using it Cowboy, did not come back. Anyone whose only mode of transportation is a pirogue would turn it over if they were going to be gone for a long time. Unless they thought that this would be a supply run and that they would be right back…” her voice trailed off as she tried to see through the brush. Catching a glimpse of what might be a path she told Cowboy to jump to the bank and then she got out to pull her canoe onto land.

  “Come on. This is the first sign of activity that we have seen although it’s not recent. Let’s see if the path gets any better and where it leads.” She wedged her knife into her stiff fingers and noticed that paddling had actually improved their ability to open and close the fingers more freely. She took up her staff in her other hand and they began the tedious task of finding solid ground as stepping stones through the marsh.

  After a short time they left the marsh and entered a wooded area, making it easier to see ahead instead of watching where they put their feet. She could tell that they were coming to either a farm, ranch or plantation but whether it was occupied was still unknown. She saw a flock of geese fly overhead and knew there must be a pond. She could also smell the river and took heart that she had finally left the deepest part of the bayou behind.

  She saw fields which were left unattended long ago but new growth was already sprouting without the help of humans. The old stalks were tall but she could see the roof of some structure ahead so she continued to stand in the forest listening for any sound of activity. She looked down at Cowboy whose ears were twitching in every direction trying to do the same thing. She crouched down and petted the coyote, “Let’s move up to the corn field and cross the rows so we can see down each one before we go any closer to the house.”

  Before she had a chance to step forward a wild dog silently stepped from one of the rows and stood there looking from Roxanne to Cowboy. Roxanne gasped and was surprised that the coyote did not growl or show her fangs. The air was tense with Roxanne holding her breath and then she realized that she was the only one whose heart was beating fast. The two animals appeared to be calm although their eyes had not left one another. The dog seemed to be respectful toward Cowboy as it slowly came closer and then sat down a few feet from them. Roxanne realized that the coyote was nudging her hand with its cold nose, pushing it out towards the dog so Roxanne held her hand out and slowly walked toward the dog, gently talking to it.

  “Good boy. No one is going to hurt you,” she crouched down in front of the dog while Cowboy stayed behind and did not move. “Do you belong to someone?” The dog leaned slightly forward to smell her hand and then sat back to let out a few soft whimpers. His eyes studied her face and Roxanne felt that he was calculating whether he should trust her or not. He seemed to be waiting for something or for a sign from her so she asked if he was hungry. “I’
m just going to take my backpack off,” she said, slowly removing it so as not to frighten him. She fished out part of a squirrel that she had cooked the night before and held the meat out to him. He sniffed it and then looked up at her. “It’s yours. You can take it. Go on.” The dog looked confused but after glancing over at Cowboy it took the meat from her hand and then began to trot away.

  Roxanne stood up and felt that there was such sadness in the dog that she hoped it would travel with her so as not to be alone. It stopped and looked back at her and then Cowboy began to follow it as a sign to Roxanne that the coyote had elected their next move toward the house. Roxanne sighed and began to walk behind them, “My fate has been decided by a coyote and a wild dog. I think Shoes has it all wrong. I don’t call to animals, they call to me.”

  As Roxanne came to the end of the cornfield she could see a half skeleton hanging from the third story balcony of a plantation house. She gasped and felt a cold chill go up her spine. Was that the dog’s owner? Had he hung himself because he could no longer live in a ZA? He had gone about it all wrong by using a rope so long that the zombies had been able to eat his lower torso and part of his arms. He also did not tie the knot correctly because the jump from the balcony did not break his neck. Instead he had been eaten alive by Z’s and then had turned as an undead and was still hanging there. She felt her stomach lurch but then the dog started to growl which distracted her.