by Diane Butler
He tossed the box across to Morgan and precariously stepped on the stairwell which swayed from his weight. He grabbed the top pipe as before and side-stepped on the bottom pipe to cross the wall to the other side. The pipes made more noise this time, bending with the strain as he quickened his pace. One piece broke away from under his foot and splashed into the water below but he regained his balance and made it to the other side. He removed the rust stained gloves and put them into his back pocket, “There’s nothing of use here. You’re right. Let’s go back out and circle the building.”
He took the lead as Morgan and Larry glanced at each other and raised their eyebrows. Both remembered that Brandon had refused to go on search missions with Lucky and they wondered if Brandon knew or had seen this recklessness in Lucky. Was Brandon becoming concerned with Lucky’s decisions and no longer felt safe or confident around him? They waited until Smokey and Lucky were out of hearing range when Morgan said, “Perhaps we should start paying more attention to what’s happening around us.”
“We’ve always done that,” Larry answered, “just not within the group. I thought it was just Mutt who had visibly showed a change, but Lucky may have been more cautious in not showing signs of confusion to the rest of us.”
They shielded their eyes against the sun as they came out of the dark factory. Lucky gave Toby a signal that everything was all right and noticed that the river had calmed somewhat since they had entered the building. They walked the width of the entrance and then turned to follow the length of the factory further back inland away from the river.
“This ground is worn as if it is traveled regularly,” Smokey observed. “I would say that Pete’s group uses this path to go back and forth to his boat.” They followed the side of the building for 100 yards before they reached the end and could see smaller buildings away from the factory. The stood their ground for a moment surveying the layout before venturing from the cover of the building. The distance was separated by paved concrete and without cover a sniper could easily pick them off but they saw no one on the rooftops of the other buildings. There were some parking spaces in front of the buildings but this was definitely not a parking lot for employees. This was for heavy equipment to go in and out of the factory.
They did not see any activity by human or zombies and they didn’t like it. “Where is everybody?” Larry asked. “If they settled here we should see people out doing chores, making supply runs, or even smell cooking. I don’t see a vehicle and that’s the first thing I would do if I landed here would be to find another escape if we lost the boat.”
“Maybe they did,” Lucky said. “Maybe Pete is out on the boat fishing for food and the others took a vehicle to go inland for a supply run. I say we make a run for the center two-story building with the windows boarded up. Someone tried to make that building safe and it would be my guess that it’s our group.” On his count of ‘go’ they began to trot across the paved area with their guns ready.
They had crossed half of the lot when the door opened and Pete came out with a member of his group who Smokey recognized from the casino. They stood outside the building talking and never noticed Lucky's team approaching. Smokey shook his head thinking that the group will never survive on their own if they weren’t more alert. “Pete! It’s Smokey,” he yelled out. Both men were startled but smiled and waved when they saw the team approaching.
After greeting one another and shaking hands Lucky asked, “Where is everyone? We’ve been all through the factory and no one noticed when we pulled up in Toby’s tugboat.”
“Everyone is inside for a meeting,” Pete answered. “The factory blocks our view of the river from here. That’s one thing we were talking about in the meeting. It left my boat unprotected and I’ve never been comfortable with docking it at night without guards. Two nights ago it disappeared. Dale and I just got back from scouting downriver looking for it. Did you by chance see it drifting anywhere?”
“No”, Smokey said. “It wasn’t downriver. Were the ropes cut or worn?”
“There weren’t any ropes left behind,” Pete said. “Either someone untied them from the pier and took the boat, or we were negligent with our knots and it drifted away.”
“Is it safe here?” Lucky asked. “Can we have the group from the Plantation start to gather their things from the tugboat to join you? The Plantation was no longer safe and we had to move on.”
“It’s been safe so far,” Pete said, “but there are problems here that make us doubt that it could be a permanent place. Why don’t ya’ll come inside with the others and we’ll give you a run down. Rest, have some water and food and we’ll discuss it.”
“Larry,” Lucky said, “Go back to the boat and let Toby know everything is all right but to keep everyone on board until we know more.”
They entered a small room with a desk and a railing in front of it. The wall behind the desk had shelving divided into squares for receiving reports, delivery notices and schedules. It looked like the type of place where a driver would check in with his delivery and get instructions on where to unload the cargo. Lucky recognized some of the people sitting around and wondered why they would gather everyone into such a cramped location.
“Come into the back where the kitchen is,” Pete said. “None of the rooms are bigger than this since it is all office space. No conference room or anything. Everybody!” Pete announced. “It appears that the folks who went to the plantation were forced out and want to relocate with us. Florence could you see what we have to feed these guys. Maybe some of those geese you cooked up yesterday.”
Florence opened the gate to the railing and let them through while Pete opened a door where they began to go down a long hallway. Lucky could see all the offices on both sides and knew that the building had once employed a large staff. Some of the offices were still in pristine condition but others had papers, books and ledgers thrown about. In others he could see that the computers had been smashed, chairs were overturned and blank spots on the walls indicated that pictures had been removed.
The kitchen looked like nothing more than a snack room for ten to twelve employees but there was a sink and small refrigerator. They were surprised when Florence took a plucked goose out of the refrigerator and began to wash it in the sink. “Some of the good news is that we found a generator and gas supply,” Pete said. “Part of the bad news is that the noise from the generator attracts the undead to the fence. We have a grill out back that we cook on but the smoke and Florence moving around back there also attracts zombies. The fence is far enough away that they are not a threat but we have noticed an increase in Z traffic lately. We would like to hunt in the woods beyond the fence but the numbers just don’t allow that. We really are trapped within the fence and that limits our food supply. We fish off the pier and I would take the boat out for supply runs. There is not one area within the fence that isn’t paved with concrete so we can’t plant seed for crops. Some of the parking lot is starting to break up but it would take a big crew and a lot of work to break up enough concrete to have a crop and all that noise would attract more Z’s. It’s a good fence, but not designed to hold a herd and we haven’t gotten close enough to see if there is a weakness or a breach in it. Now that my boat is missing we really were trapped until you showed up and we don’t know if my missing boat means that we have a threat from humans too.”
***
When spring arrived Shoes noticed that Cowboy was around more often and always showed up when she took the girl out to gather herbs. Shoes never knew where the coyote had her den and had assumed that it was not close because there would be months before she saw the animal again but Cowboy now came around at least once a week. And Cowboy would show up out of nowhere when she and the girl were in the marsh. Shoes was becoming more convinced that the girl had a natural gift with animals and had a power that not even she was aware of. She watched them closely when they were together, sometimes Cowboy going to a plant and pawing at it when she asked the girl to find a certain
herb. “Don’t cheat Cowboy”, Shoes would scold.
The girl had worked hard through the winter to obtain her strength again. Her limp was still noticeable but she no longer dragged the left foot. Her hand could hold a weapon now, but she could not release it and it had to be pried from two of her fingers. A knife or staff had become a permanent part of that hand now and the girl found comfort sleeping at night knowing that the knife would always be in her hand. But she didn’t give up working on the fingers, still trying to make them open and close on their own.
The girl had been getting restless lately and Shoes could see that something was bothering her. She had been relentless in questioning Shoes about swamp wildlife, fishing, birds and herbs. How much of it she retained was unknown to Shoes since she never asked the same question twice. The girl experimented with whittling down various types of wood into weapons and structuring different types of traps. Whether the girl intended to trap a human or an animal Shoes was not sure. Roxanne started to insist that Shoes take her further into the northern part of the bayou, a place where Shoes seldom visited since human traffic was more prominent there. “What are you looking for girl?” Shoes had asked upon her first request.
Roxanne shook her head, “I don’t know.”
“Are you remembering something?”
“No. I just feel the pull north. Can we look just this once? The days are becoming longer and warmer and clover should be coming up now. There would be more in the fields in the north and clover provides vitamins A and C.”
And so they had gone. Shoes knew that it was too early for clover but she indulged the girl and they paddled past the flooded plantation where secret requests were left for her potions. Shoes purposely started making turns into dead ends so they would need to back track. She wanted the girl to see how easily you could get lost and wander aimlessly in the swamp. She used the excuses of “I don’t come this way often” or “My eyesight is getting worse” to explain her mistakes. They rode back in silence and the girls mind had been preoccupied for weeks since then.
On this particular day Shoes had lined up several different types of herbs on the table and had asked the girl to identify each and what they could be used for. The girl touched the first plant and began to go down the line. “Sow Thistle is cooked and seasoned like boiled greens. Chickweed is eaten raw in salads. Clover is a good source of vitamins A and C and can be eaten raw or cooked. Broad Leaf Plantain is similar to grape leaves and can be served stuffed. Pursiane can be eaten raw and this last one is Wild Persimmon.”
Without making eye contact the girl took a knife and began chopping the roots and plants to throw them into a stew on the stove. “And what name do I call you by?” Shoes asked. The girl stopped but avoided eye contact which had been her habit of late and confusing to Shoes. Shoes felt that she had been losing the girls trust and didn’t know what she had done to cause the distance that was building between them. Unless…unless the girl was starting to remember and either wanted to shield Shoes or was consumed by her own memories.
The girl began to chop again but still didn’t look up. “’Girl’ is fine,” she answered. “Just continue to call me girl.”
“But what name would you like to be called?” Shoes asked. “Just pick one. A name that you’ve always admired perhaps. Seems unfittin’ and disrespectful that I address you as ‘girl’. Everyone needs a name.”
The girl shook her head, “If I admired someone, then I don’t deserve their name. Anyone I admired wouldn’t have ended up like this, lost and homeless except for the kindness of you.” She then stopped and looked up, “I’m an amateur here and I don’t know what I’m good at except for fighting zombies. Don’t know how I know that, I just do. But apparently I am not brave enough to kill humans, even those who wish to do me harm otherwise I would not have these scars on me. If I was any good at fighting humans they never would have gotten close enough to me. Perhaps that’s why I was alone. Perhaps I was turned out by another group because I was a failure to them. It’s not logical that I was traveling alone, not in a ZA. No one can survive alone in a ZA.”
Shoes looked at the girl for a long time before replying. That was the longest statement the girl had made about her thoughts of a past life. “If that’s the case then perhaps your group is looking for you. I haven’t seen how bad it is in the outside world. I’ve only seen a few Limba or Z’s as you call them, but I have heard the stories of how everyone abandoned the cities because of them.”
The girl came over and sat beside her. “They’re moving. Somehow I know that. They’re moving outward from the cities in large herds. Herds big enough to swarm you, big enough to knock down fences and knock down doors. They can smell you and they have a keen sense of hearing. You are safer with a group, hopefully a group of fighters.” She looked off into the distance, “I think I was with a good group of fighters. I can remember feeling safe, even happy but I can’t see faces or hear a voice from the past. Not even a brief glimpse of a group or how many there were. I’m torn. I’m beginning to think that you were right about not settling in the bayou and I’ve been thinking that I should go north. But what if I was banned from a group and will not be welcomed back? And you were right about something else. How do I know friend from enemy? I could walk into a trap and it would be so very, very dangerous to travel alone. So you see I’m torn on what I should do and when I should do it. The longer I wait the further away the group is. I’m confused and that’s not like me. I’ve always been able to make decisions based upon the facts and in this case I don’t know what the facts are.” She sighed and leaned her head in her hand.
“You’re sure about that? The type of person you were and the type you are now may be two different people. You can only stay true to yourself as you are now and not assume or guess at who you were in the past. You’ll know when things feel right. You’re still a mystery to yourself.”
At that moment the door was silently pushed open and Cowboy stopped in the doorway to glance at the two women. Looking at the coyote the hairs on Shoes arms stood up. There was something not human between the girl and the coyote and for the first time she felt that she could be in danger if she should ever attempt to come between the two. “I think that’s your answer right there,” Shoes nodded at the coyote. “Have you discussed this with Cowboy?”
The girl looked up and smiled at Cowboy. She dropped her hand from the table and held it out for the coyote to come over and lick it. “No, haven’t discussed it with Cowboy. Figured Cowboy hated and distrusts humans. If you want a name for me why don’t you call me Cowgirl?” she asked taking up the previous conversation.
Shoes shook her head, “No, ain’t fittin’ you. I’ll call you Artemis who is the goddess of wild animals, or Fauna who is the Lady of the Beasts.”
The girl laughed, “No, I’m neither a goddess nor a lady. Why don’t you call me Cami which means ‘that of a rare kind’? I doubt that you have found an unconscious woman in the Bayou as you did me. That would indeed be rare even in the Bayou.”
***
Morgan and Caleb were with Brandon and Lucky as they came back on one of their many trips to the plantation. Although Morgan and Caleb felt that Smokey, Larry and Gertrude were part of the family, the father and son felt closer to Lucky and Brandon and always wanted to travel with them. Terry immediately took to the new group at the paper mill but eventually began to complain about the situation there. She was one of those who still believed that life would return to normal and they just had to find the right place. The fact that they hadn’t found a town with electricity, running water, open grocery stores and a nail salon was someone else’s fault and purposely done to taunt her. The paper mill group was starting to see that side of Terry’s wrath as being inconsiderate of her needs.
Caleb was anxiously looking at the levee for a sign of Mutt. Each time they had returned Mutt would greet them but the dog still refused to leave the plantation. Brandon had cut a doggie panel into the door of Roxanne’s old cabin so he could
have shelter from both the weather and zombies. They always brought duck, squirrel or fish for Mutt but he never seemed to be starving or in need. It was always a sad process though since he would appear to be happy to see them but after he boarded Jenny and checked all the rooms his tail would stop wagging and he would leave the group to go back over the levee. “He does that each time,” Brandon said one day while watching the dog as he disappeared.
“He’s looking for Roxanne,” Morgan said. “He’s hoping that we found her and brought her back on Jenny.”
But this time Mutt didn’t appear and by the time they tied Jenny to the pier Caleb was frightened. “Where is he? Why didn’t he come to meet us?”
“Everyone stays here,” Lucky cautioned. “I’ll crawl to the top of the levee, keep my head down and survey the place. It could be housing other visitors or Z’s could be swarming the place.”
He took the rifle scope with him and crawled to the top of the levee, slipping a few times in the wet grass. The house was still intact. He did not see any zombies in sight but he could smell food cooking now that he was above the river. He saw someone standing guard with a rifle on the top portico, the same porch that they had used while living here. Another man came out to relieve him, taking the rifle from the first man as he stood guard. If they were sharing rifles then they must be low on ammo or did not have enough weapons to go around. A third man was limping as he came from the pond carrying a duck and used a machete to chop its head off. Lucky noticed that the man was wearing a gun holster but it was empty and that gave him more confidence that this group was probably using hand-to-hand combat to stay alive.