by Diane Butler
It was a mature tree and the girth was wide so Roxanne had no doubt that its limbs would hold them if they went one at a time, but Lance was right that none of the lower limbs were within their reach. The Z’s had followed them and extended their arms through the fence trying to reach them, growling and drooling at the same time. Roxanne turned her back on them to look behind the house. “Come on. Let’s look for a ladder to put against the trunk so we can reach the limbs.”
But Lance did not move. “I can’t stand seeing them like this” he said causing Roxanne to look back again. She could see that Lance was immobilized by the sight of the children so she took her staff in both hands and put the steel tip on one link of the fence. She waited until the girl zombie moved into position and then used all her strength to quickly thrust the staff into the eye socket. It penetrated the skull and emerged out the back of its head. It was a messy sight when Roxanne pulled the staff back again, causing the girl’s body to smash against the fence. Lance jumped back as the staff pulled some of the brains with it. Roxanne then plunged the staff between the links into the mouth of the next child zombie. The staff penetrated through its neck and as she pulled the staff back it caused the neck to break and the head to fall over on its shoulder.
Lance turned and vomited while Roxanne cleaned her staff on the grass. “Let’s look for that ladder,” she repeated and walked off with Mutt trotting along beside her. Lance was angry at himself for being so sensitive to the scene and verbally lashed out, “Ladder? Why don’t you just sprinkle some of your fairy dust and fly over the tree!” But Roxanne kept walking and disappeared behind a garage. Lance opened his duffle bag to find a bottle of water to rinse his mouth out and to get a drink. Shortly thereafter he heard a rattle and looked up to see Roxanne peek her head around the corner. “You want to help me with this please?”
“You go first,” Roxanne indicated to Lance after they put the ladder in a steady position against the tree. “If you should feel that the limb won’t hold then come back. I won’t push you to do something that you are uncomfortable with. I’ll be right behind you.” She looked down at Mutt. “Stay away from the fence Mutt. Some of the zombies could be hidden behind bushes and will reach through to grab you.” Mutt walked over to the garage and sat down in the shade but he looked disappointed that Roxanne didn’t understand his knowledge of Z’s.
Roxanne swung her staff over the fence inside the school grounds in case she was forced to leave the school by the ground floor and needed a weapon. She also needed her hands free and the sheathed knife and holstered gun were the best weapons to use for this adventure. She looked up to see that Lance was already stepping out on a limb so she put on her backpack and climbed the ladder to join him.
It was easier for her than for Lance since there was another tree limb above her head that she was able to reach and hold onto while walking the limb below. But Lance was unable to reach the limb overhead and had to crawl out on hands and knees. “I’ll stay back while you go ahead,” Roxanne said. “The limb looks like it gets thinner at the point over the trailer. You may need to drop and shimmy a few feet. Would you be able to do that?” she asked.
“What my hands can wrap around and what your hands can wrap around are two different things,” Lance said as he crawled ahead. Roxanne removed her injured hand from the overhead limb and looked at the damaged fingers. “I doubt that,” she answered. Eventually Lance straddled the limb and pulled himself forward using his hands until he was able to drop to the trailer roof. At that point the limbs had begun to bend downward toward the roof from his weight.
Roxanne walked the limb until it started to bend beneath her. “You’re heavier than me,” Lance warned. “You’re not going to make it. Even if you drop down and shimmy over the limb will continue to bend and drop you into the yard.”
Roxanne studied the trailer and the limb. “Maybe not. If it’ll hold me until I can get close enough to put out a foot on the window of the trailer I can still climb over using the limb for support.” She took a few more steps and the limb began to bend at a dangerous level. “It’s going to break!” Lance said. “I’m telling you that you better stop trying to walk it and drop down to shimmy across.” He looked down, “And you better do it fast since we are starting to draw a crowd.”
Roxanne let out a sigh and let go of the limb above her. She teetered for a moment then stepped off the branch and grabbed it with both hands. The zombies below went into a frenzy when they saw a possible meal dangling above them. Mutt came to the fence and began to bark in an attempt to draw the Z’s away. “No Mutt!” Roxanne yelled. “Quiet!” She concentrated on putting one hand over the other and on how close her legs were to the Z’s below as the limb continued to slowly bend. She didn’t think that it was going to hold her much longer so she started swinging her legs toward the trailer window. On her third attempt her foot made contact and she was able to keep her legs out of reach of the zombies.
Lance came over and reached out for her. “Shimmy over just a little further then grab my hand!” But Roxanne shook her head, “I’ll just pull you off the roof.” She looked over and saw a ventilation pipe sticking out of the roof of the trailer. “Take off your backpack,” she said. “Throw one strap over that pipe and wrap the other strap around your leg. I have both feet on the top of the window frame and I’m going to throw myself forward over the roof. Just grab me to make sure I don’t slide back off again because I don’t have anything to grab onto.” It was really just the toes of each shoe that was on the window frame and she didn’t know if they would slip once her full weight was balanced on it. On the count of three she let go of the limb. Putting all her weight on the window frame she threw her upper body across the roof and Lance immediately threw his body across hers to hold her there.
Roxanne was already out of breath and having Lance crush her to the metal did not help. “Lance, get off me! I can’t breathe!” She could feel the frame of the window starting to come away from its encasing and it was the only foothold that she had on the trailer. She was able to reach the strap on his leg and it was the first time that she felt safe on the roof. She wanted to rest and gather some strength before pulling herself up but the frame was starting to squeal as it was torn from its encasing. Luckily the roof was smooth and she was able to pull her hips and legs over the side of the trailer onto the roof.
“Guess you’re not so smart after all,” Lance said as he handed her a bottle of water. “You realize that we can’t get back over the fence from here.”
Lance looked over the side of the trailer. “We’ve attracted a crowd.” The child zombies had gathered below and were excited over the possibility of fresh food. They reached as high as they could, some were banging on the side of the trailer but they weren’t strong enough to move the structure. Their moans became louder and made Lance nervous.
Roxanne gave him his water bottle back and got up to go to the window of the school. There was a two foot gap between the trailer and school but she was able to swing her leg out and get a foothold on the windowsill. She reached over and with a bit of tugging and pulling she was able to open the window wide enough to allow them to get in. She stepped back to the trailer and gathered her backpack which she threw through the window ahead of her. “I’ll go first,” she looked back at Lance. “Do you want me to find a board or metal shelf to put across the window to the trailer so you can cross over?”
Lance glared at her, “I’m not that short! I can make it.” He watched Roxanne step on the windowsill, then lean down to grab the upper panel and pull herself into the room.
The room was dim and Roxanne quickly unsheathed her knife to be ready for the unexpected. She stepped away from the window as to not block Lance when he came over. In the far corner she could see a pile of bird and mouse caucus and knew that Max had made himself a regular visitor here. She listened but there was only silence. If people or zombies were in the building they were not on this floor for they would have heard her and Lance outside. This
room was vacant of any furniture and she wondered if the school had shut down before the virus breakout. She cautiously went to the door and looked down each end of the hallway as she heard Lance come in behind her. “I suggest that we don’t check these rooms and go directly downstairs to the cafeteria. I suspect that the second floor consists of all classrooms and the most we would find is perhaps a first-aid kit. If they had a gym we may find some baseball bats.”
She moved into the hall and went to her left toward a stairwell at the end of the hall. There was a thick layer of dust on the floor but nothing had been disturbed and they were creating the first footsteps in the dirt. The stairwell brought them to the front of the school and Roxanne could see faint shadows crossing the dirty windows which indicated that not all of the zombies had gone to the back schoolyard where she and Lance come in. She turned and whispered to Lance, “They don’t know that we’re in here so let’s try to stay quiet during our search.”
It wasn’t a large school and both the cafeteria and gym were on the main floor. When they found the cafeteria Lance went to the windows and looked out back to the trailers. “It appears that they are dispersing and wandering off again.” They filled their sacks with powdered milk, sugar packets, salt and Lance found the ketchup that he wanted. Roxanne found some garbage bags and filled half of each with canned goods of peaches, fruit cocktail and spaghetti. A storage room had toilet paper, soap, peroxide, mosquito and insect bite ointments. She just kept filling up bags.
“We can’t carry all this stuff,” Lance said. “Why do you keep filling up more bags?”
“All we need is to get it off the property and over the fence to the next property,” Roxanne answered. “We can come back for more bags each day.”
They went into a teachers lounge to find coffee and tea. Someone had left a sweater and there was a lighter in the pocket. Bottles of water and packets of Kool-Aid were found in a credenza along with a variety of sodas. She took some cooling racks that could be used over an open fire to boil a pan of water when she was back on the road again. “We already have too many bags,” Lance said wiping his brow.
“Come on,” Roxanne said. “Let’s go back to the second floor and open a window that overlooks the fence. I purposely did not fill the bags to the brink so I could throw them over the fence. There’s a line of bushes that I hope to toss the water bottles and sodas into so they won’t break. We’ll make a couple of trips and not do it all at once so the Z’s can settle down again.”
“Yes, but how are we going to get out?”
“This is an old building and I didn’t see any fire escapes on either side,” Roxanne said. “I’m sure they had plans in case of a fire and children weren’t trapped on the second floor. There must be a portable fire ladder somewhere, probably collapsible to store it away. When we are ready to go I plan on creating a distraction on the opposite side of the school and we’ll use the ladder to climb down then run to the fence and climb over. I haven’t thought of what to do as a distraction yet but let’s toss some of this stuff out the window and finish exploring.”
The zombies were attracted to the noise that the bags created as they hit the ground on the opposite side of the fence. Roxanne saw Mutt looking up at her and she signaled for him to be quiet and to stay away from the fence. She thought of Cowboy back at Lance’s house and hoped that the coyote wasn’t getting worried about her. There was a nurse’s office next to the window and that’s where they found the fire ladder along with additional medical supplies.
In the Gym they found bats and each took one as a weapon but it was the volleyballs and badminton set that gave Roxanne an idea. They made several trips to the second floor windows facing the opposite side of the building and while Roxanne threw the volleyballs out the window, Lance hit the birdies with the racquet. When they ran out of those they began with the softballs. It didn’t draw all the zombies to that side of the school, but enough that they felt they could make it down the ladder and the few yards to the fence.
Roxanne descended first and stood at the bottom of the ladder to guard Lance as he came down. It sickened Lance that her choice of weapon against the small zombies was the bat. Luckily only two child zombies came around the corner of the school while Lance descended the ladder. Another two attacked while he was climbing the fence. Lance tried to concentrate on his foothold during both climbs so he wouldn’t remember the sounds of their heads being smashed in.
Roxanne could tell that Lance was disturbed by the school incident by his silence on the way back to his house. In addition to their backpacks being full each of them were carrying a bag in each hand. It was difficult to keep the bags from rattling and they were on their guard for the next two blocks. They stored the remaining bags out of sight in the garage where they had found the ladder and would retrieve them over the next week. Mutt helped them over the next few blocks when they saw a zombie ahead and they would stop to remain quiet. Mutt would run to attract the zombie’s attention and draw it down another alley away from them. Once they passed the alley Mutt would meet up with them again. “I still need to find a Pet Shop or grocery store for dog food and some bones for you and Cowboy, Mutt. The two of you have been most helpful to me.” She smiled wondering what adventures she and Mutt had in the past that she could no longer remember.
Cowboy was much more reserved in her demeanor than Mutt would have been when she saw Roxanne. She came off the porch to the road but waited for Roxanne to come to her. Roxanne dropped her bags and knelt down to scratch Cowboy behind the ears. “Everything okay while we were gone?” The coyote sniffed her face and decided that Roxanne was not hurt then she began to sniff the bags. “Nothing for you I’m afraid although I did find some cans of sardines. I would think that you are tired of fish by now.”
They went into the house to empty the bags and divide things up. Lance still had not spoken. “Is there anything in particular that you want Lance, other than the ketchup?”
He shook his head, “No, I don’t think that we found just one of anything that would require a choice. Everything can be equally divided, including the ketchup. I don’t think that I want to go back tomorrow though. Let’s give it a day or two.”
Roxanne stood looking at him and softly asked, “Did you lose a child in the ZA, Lance?” He quickly looked up at her and shook his head. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just hate seeing what has happened in the world….and what we need to do to survive. I know that I’m not the same person and some of the human race has become monsters to survive, killing other humans because they are hungry or want what they have. I hope I never become that desperate but you would think that after all this time that I would have become used to pilfering and raiding a place.”
“Do you think that I have become a monster?”
He looked away and began storing canned goods in the cupboards. “I don’t know what you are, Roxanne. Don’t know you that well yet.” He turned and leaned against the counter. “But I can see that you are haunted, that you’ve seen things that have deeply affected you, perhaps hardened you. I haven’t asked about the scar on your cheek but that’s not from any accident. I guess we have all had bad experiences, but sometimes I wonder if my eyes have become as dark as yours.” Roxanne didn’t say anything as she was rather shocked by his analysis of her. He became nervous that he had said too much. “If you don’t mind Roxanne, I’m rather tired. I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Yes, of course,” Roxanne started to turn away. “By the way, did you see Max once we were in the school?” Lance walked her to the door. “No, now that you mention it and we were all through that place.” She opened the door and said, “Never mind” as she saw that Max was sitting on the porch bannister looking at her. “Come on gang. I have a lot to carry and will be slow.”
As she walked the road away from town she thought of what Lance had said. “Am I a monster to you Cowboy?” The coyote turned her head to glance back at Roxanne but kept walking. “Mutt, how about you?” The dog nuzzled
her hand as he walked along beside her. “I won’t ask you Max since I don’t believe you answer to anyone.”
***
Brandon had been hard put to keep Lucky at the paper mill for more than a week after the trip back from the plantation. Lucky’s excuse was that Roxanne would have been gone for eight days by the time they arrived in the town of Mamou where she was to relocate. Brandon asked Gretchen and Larry to join them this time. “It may help seeing another woman,” referring to Roxanne’s memory loss. “Perhaps she will confide in you and tell you things that she doesn’t trust to tell a man.”
Gretchen shook her head, “We weren’t close like she was to you and Lucky but if you think that it will help we’ll go with you.”
Brandon looked over to the fence where a few Z’s were gathering. “It’s Lucky I’m worried about. I think he will push her too hard, wanting answers that she can’t provide. It would be better coming from you to tell him to back off, rather than from me. I don’t want to lose her to the Bayou again and I already feel that he chased her away last time by being so blunt. It must be frightening for her, not knowing who she is and calling herself ‘Cami.’ I’d also like to meet the people who took her in and thank them but suggesting that she take me into the Bayou is not something that I’ll approach at this point. I just can’t have Lucky messing this up by his impatience.”
