by Diane Butler
The restaurant was still locked and had not been raided, providing needed supplies for the group. Lance was able to lasso and hogtie three pigs that they put into one of the bunk rooms. “That room will never smell the same,” Brandon said, “no matter how much we wash it down. I’m turning Jenny at this point and going back to the paper mill. We can explore further south at a later time,” he put Jenny into motion. “We made a good haul.”
“Let’s swing by Mamou first and check on Roxanne,” Lucky said.
“I wouldn’t suggest that,” a voice said. They turned to see Lance standing in the doorway of the pilothouse. “Why?” Lucky asked. “Did she say something? Something about us?”
Lance shook his head, “Never said anything about ya’ll. From my understanding you want to keep in touch with Roxanne but if she feels trapped you’ll make an enemy of her. If you keep this up she will feel hunted or that you’re tracking her like an animal. She will either turn on you or run.”
“How do you know this?” Brandon asked. “Did she turn on you?”
Lance looked away and paused not knowing how much he should say. How much was true and how much was a figment of his imagination on that chilling night. “I found where she lived. She never invited me I just found it by accident. She never said a word about me showing up unexpected or unannounced or about finding her lair but she got her point across.” He looked back at them, “You seem to think that Roxanne needs you. She doesn’t. She has nature at her disposal and knows how to utilize it to her advantage.” At that he turned and walked away, leaving Lucky and Brandon baffled by his meaning.
Roxanne strapped on her gun. The animals could tell that she had a purpose in mind since she did not bother to make breakfast and they were anxious. She stared out the back windows to check the river, not expecting to see any skiff or boat on it, but she always checked for new arrivals. If Lance found his way here, then others could come and not all would be on foot. She took up her crossbow and went to the front door before looking down to notice the canines at her feet. She smiled, “Today we are going for dog food. Today is your day.”
She took the road that Lance had showed her to the outskirts of town. She had found a town flyer in the house with several advertisements, some marking the location of stores within town. This made it easier than random searching as long as the street signs were still up and she had no reason to think that they were not. She would not be going near the school and hoped that she would meet only isolated zombies and not a herd. Upon arriving in town she often stopped and listened, feeling exposed on the streets. If an alley was available she would cut through feeling more protected within its walls. She could not remember searching any towns or how to go about it but she was suspicious of the silence and lack of Z’s. The ones she did see were easily avoided, most not seeing her or the canines at all. She was glad that she had worn her moccasins and was nothing more than a shadow passing by without any sound.
There weren’t any noises such as a door banging from its hinges or a sign that squeaked from the wind and it was eerie. Roxanne was used to the sounds of the bayou and none of that was here. She felt very out of place on the main street and vulnerable among buildings lined up on a street where she could not duck for cover. She started to test some of the doors without intentions of going in but for a fast exit off the street if need be but all of them were locked. Except for dirt blowing on the street and overgrown weeds coming up through the sidewalks the town was as tidy as a movie set. There were only a few cars and those were parked correctly except for a truck that had been pulled up on the sidewalk against an open door of one of the stores.
Then she heard voices. She backed up against a door and reached behind her to find it locked. Mutt ran forward and hid behind a parked car on her side of the street, looking back at her. She crouched over and followed him, both she and Cowboy taking Mutts lead. If they had been in the Bayou, Mutt would have let them lead and followed behind.
She expected someone to come out of the store with the open door but instead a man and a girl of about fourteen came out of the store next to it. “What did I tell you, bitch?” the man grabbed a satchel from the girl. “None of that stuff is any good to me. You never get the right stuff. You’re useless.” The girl’s hair was tangled and dirty; the clothes she wore were torn and also dirty. It looked as if she were wearing two different types of tennis shoes and a pair of jeans that were too big for her. The man was tall and thin but other than wrinkled clothes and needing a shave he did not look weather beaten like the girl.
Roxanne could feel some memory trying to surface but shook it away so she could concentrate on what was happening across the street. She had to take a moment to sit down and put her back against the car to wipe her brow and took the opportunity to load a bolt into her crossbow. She heard the man say, “Now go to the next store and this time you better find something that I can use.”
Roxanne turned to see the man get another satchel out of the back of the truck and hand it to the girl. They both went to the next store and the man used a jack to pry the door open, “Get in” he said waving the girl ahead but she objected. “Why do I always go in first? You have the weapon. Last time that zombie grabbed me before you came in. I can’t always find a place to hide until you come in or find something to hit them with.” The man slapped the girl across the face and she stumbled across the sidewalk to fall into the street.
Roxanne stood up and took aim with the crossbow. The man reached down to grab the girl’s arm and pulled her up into a sitting position to slap her again. The girl cried out and yelled “No!” when he lifted his foot to kick her. Roxanne let go of the bolt, the arrow finding its mark through one ear of the man’s head and sticking out the other. His knees buckled and the girl quickly rolled over to avoid him falling on her. She looked at him in shock and began to crawl away from him. Then she began looking around the street knowing that someone else was there. She saw a woman on the other side of a car and relaxed somewhat although her breathing was still fast. The woman came out followed by two dogs and approached her but she couldn’t move.
She watched as the woman reached down and withdrew her bolt from the man’s head, wiping it on her jeans and putting it back into her satchel. The girl was relieved that she did not reload her crossbow again. “You killed him!”
“Was he any loss to you?” the woman asked.
The girl thought about it for a moment then shook her head, “No, I guess not.”
“I didn’t think so,” the woman said. Then she put her hand out, “I’m Roxanne.”
The girl put her hand in the woman’s who pulled her up from the ground. “I’m Mary,” she said as she looked down at the animals sniffing at the man then she looked over to the truck. “Do you know how to drive?” she asked.
Roxanne looked at the truck and smiled, “Why yes. I believe that I do know how to drive.”
Roxanne searched in the man’s pockets to find the keys and ordered the animals in the back of the truck then she turned back to the girl who was staring down at the body. “You’re not going to leave him here, are you?” Mary asked.
“It doesn’t matter where we put him, his spirit will remain here but I know of a place to dispose of the body if you’ll help me get him into the back of the truck. It would be a shame to mess up such a tidy street and to smell up the town.” They managed to get the body into the back and Roxanne ordered the canines to lie down. “I don’t want you thrown out if I need to slam on the brakes. I’ll put a mattress in for future runs so you won’t get hurt bouncing around.” But then she looked down at the gas gauge. “This won’t get us far.” She looked up and was lost in thought for a moment. “I know of a Marina that has a gas pump but I’ll need the right equipment.” She looked over to the girl and smiled, “but that’s another day. Today I have an errand to run and we need to find you some clothes.”
They only drove five blocks before reaching the pet shop and encountered three zombies in the street which Rox
anne immediately ran over with the truck. After parking she told Mary to stay in the truck and that she would go in alone then she had a second thought. “Do you know how to drive?” The girl shook her head. “I’ll teach you. It’s something you need to know if you’re going to survive without me.” She could tell that the remark had frightened Mary. “Don’t worry. I’m not leaving you,” she said as she took the jack from the truck.
Roxanne tested the door first, not surprised that it was locked then tapped on it and waited with her two canines at her feet. When it appeared that the store was empty she pried the door open and loaded her crossbow. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness after coming out of the sunlight but Cowboy had exceptional night vision and trotted in ahead of her. There were only a few cans of dog food left but plenty of dry food. Roxanne couldn’t figure this town out. Locked doors and stores still half stocked. Her trips to Lou’s Trading Shack in the bayou had led her to believe that there were few places that hadn’t been ransacked and he sold supplies at outrageous prices stating that the black market was drying up. It appeared that everyone left this town before supplies ran low, but where had they gone? An evacuation site maybe?
Mutt wasn’t much help and kept raiding the bone bin, running back and forth to the truck to put another bone in the back. She saw a sign at the back of the store that said ‘Pharmacist’ and checked the shelves for animal antibiotics which Lou sold and said that they could be used on humans. She intended to sell these to Lou for a hefty price to pay Shoes back for saving her life and depleting her supplies to keep her alive.
She loaded the truck and saw two zombies coming up the street behind them but they were far enough away for her to take time to check the map for a department store. But then she saw a boutique across the street. It may not have the durable clothes that were needed but Roxanne was concerned about gas and wanted to dispose of the body. She pointed the store out to Mary, “I’ll need you to come in with me since I don’t know your size. I’ll take care of the two Z’s but this isn’t a leisure shopping spree. Just get what you need and get out.”
Mary looked across Roxanne’s shoulder at the store, “but that’s a fancy place.”
“Then they should have fancy jeans and boots. But no jewelry, no bling. The sun shines on it and gives away your position.”
They got out of the truck and Roxanne popped the lock on the door of the boutique without taking the time to tap. She kept her eye on the two zombies approaching while she took her gun out of the holster and handed it to Mary. “Do you know how to use this? I don’t have time to search for Z’s in the store and need to take care of these two.”
Mary gasped, surprised that a stranger would hand her a gun. Roxanne heard the gasp and quickly turned to glance at her, then looked back at the zombies. “I need to load my crossbow. If you know how to use it I suggest that you take it now.” Mary quickly grabbed the gun and checked the cylinder to see that it was fully loaded. She smiled and went into the store not noticing that Roxanne gave a silent nod to Mutt who followed Mary.
Roxanne’s first shot missed the zombie on her left as he stumbled up the road. She was still struggling to learn how to reload faster with her deformed fingers and was annoyed with herself. Her second shot brought the zombie down but she didn’t have time to reload. She walked over to the truck and took her staff from the back to meet the second zombie as he advanced toward her. From the moment that Brandon had put the staff in her hands it had felt like a part of her. She twirled it with her good hand and then firmly grasped it with both and rammed it into his throat, knocking him backward and pinning him to the ground. She took out her knife to finish the job but afterward she had difficulty removing the staff having buried it so deep into the cracked asphalt. She looked up to see that Mary had come to the doorway with an armful of clothes and had been watching her trying to remove the staff. Mary threw the clothes into the back of the truck and came over to put her hands on the staff, “Perhaps if we both tried.”
***
At first Mary objected to throwing the man’s body down the well stating that it would contaminate the water but then she heard the moans below. It gave her a chilling thought that the woman called Roxanne had been killing people and dumping their bodies here. She didn’t know how crazy this woman was but she was thankful not to be under the ‘protection’ of Jim Bob anymore. But then, everyone was a little crazy now-a-days including herself and she had wished several times that someone would just kill her and get it over with.
“Don’t worry,” Roxanne answered to Mary’s fears of contaminating the water. “The zombies fell in a long time ago and my well is not only upstream but it isn’t on the town’s water supply. If the town should come alive again, then they will need to find a solution but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. Let’s get back to my place. We haven’t eaten yet,” she said as they walked back to the truck. “How about you? Have you eaten today?”
Mary shook her head, “We? Are you with a group?”
“I meant my animals and I. We haven’t eaten. When you travel with animals as long as I have they become your people, friends, companions, guardians. They would die for me and I would die for them. We protect each other.”
Mary looked out the back window of the truck as Roxanne drove. “What breed is that one? I can’t place it but it looks familiar.”
“That’s a coyote. She’s wild so don’t touch her. She’ll let you know when she’s accepted you. You don’t need to fear her. Her name is Cowboy,” Roxanne laughed. “Long story I don’t care to go into right now.” They were silent on the drive back until Roxanne parked the truck in the front driveway and turned off the motor. She held out her hand, “May I have my gun back, please? You won’t need it here.” Mary didn’t hesitate but had difficulty getting it out of her pocket which was in shreds.
Instead of taking her inside Roxanne took Mary around to the side of the house where there was a well with two buckets. “I’ll show you the bathroom. We’ll both take in a bucket of water but while I’m making dinner you can fill the tub up some more. I’m sorry we don’t have time to heat it, but at least I have soap and shampoo. I’ll bring in the clothes while dinner is cooking and you can select something.”
Mary could have stayed in the bath for another hour, regardless of it being cold water but she could smell the food cooking downstairs. Fish and, she sniffed the air, fried potatoes with onions? Could it be? She rushed to get dressed using the scissors that Roxanne had left to cut the tags off the new clothes and ran barefoot downstairs. She stared at the table as Roxanne put two plates down. “Potatoes?” Mary asked in awe.
Roxanne smiled, “Yup, imagine my surprise when I dug them up. Saw a row in someone’s backyard that looked like it had never been tilled and took a chance that something was still there and eatable. The town folk apparently liked to have their own vegetable gardens and I thank them for it. Plus,” she reached up to the cabinet, “a jar of applesauce and a cold Pepsi. I have been keeping a few of the drinks in the well to keep them cold. Sit down,” she waved to a chair.
Both Cowboy and Mutt had been fed and Mutt was in the living room chewing on one of the bones that he had retrieved from the store. He looked like a normal pet lying there, happy with his household and daily activities. They both heard a ‘thump’ upstairs and Mary jumped, dropping her fork in the plate. “It’s just Max,” Roxanne said. “He smells the fish and will be coming in for his portion. This is his house so I try to be respectful.” She got up and went to the sink to retrieve a dish in which she had deboned a fish and put it down on the floor. Mary wondered how it was a show of respect to put someone’s dish on the floor when a long-haired black cat slowly walked in with its tail held high and sauntered over to the plate.
Mary looked up at Roxanne. “Before I go to bed tonight are there any more animals that I should know about? A boa constrictor, a lion, a hawk that will tap on my window at night?”
Roxanne laughed and realiz
ed that it was something that she hadn’t done in a very long time. She liked this girl’s sense of humor but Mary hadn’t earned her trust yet and she would not sleep without posting an animal outside each bedroom door. “No, nothing like that. This is all of them, although a trained hawk sounds like a good idea,” she smiled.
Weeks later Brandon piloted Jenny to Mamou once again. They weren’t able to get more information out of Lance during that time and finally gave up. Whatever had happened between him and Roxanne he was keeping it to himself either out of respect or fear and they didn’t know which. Lance did not come with them on this trip and was settling in well at the paper mill. He was happy to be with other people and in what he felt was a society again. They had put him in charge of penning, feeding and raising the pigs and he was thankful to be accepted into the group. But he associated more with the other members and slowly withdrew from the friendship of Lucky and Brandon.
Lucky was piloting the riverboat while Brandon used the binoculars whenever he saw a cottage on the shoreline. “You’re still convinced that she’s on this side of the town?” Lucky asked. Brandon nodded, “Too much of a co-incidence that Mutt came out to meet us last time, and alone. Mutt would never leave her side unless she told him to.”
