by Diane Butler
She smiled. It was perfect, one of the last houses that would be searched if a group of scavengers came through. The rose bushes would hide the fact that she had a pirogue tied up and she could easily escape the house unseen to get to her boat. She pushed the boat to the pier and the animals immediately jumped off to do their business.
***
“She’s alive?” Toby was sure that he had heard wrong. He turned and sat down to see that Smokey had a stunned look on his face. “How is that possible?” Smokey barely whispered.
“I told you she was tough!” Caleb smiled.
Toby tried to look around them as they blocked his view of the riverboat. “But where is she? Is she still on Jenny? Is she hurt? She didn’t stay at the plantation did she? Surely you explained that the place is a thorough-fare for Z’s now. It’s not like when she was there.”
Morgan sat down on one of the benches that they had set outside the factory where they could keep Jenny in sight. Toby, Smokey, Larry and Gretchen had walked out to meet them as they docked Jenny and had gathered on the benches in the shade of the building. “She’s not the same,” Morgan said with a sigh and looked up at them. “She neither remembers us or anything else. Not the plantation, not Jenny nor that we have known one another, traveled and fought together. She’s trying to piece it together but she is very suspicious of people right now.”
Everyone looked at one another in confusion, “The poor woman,” Gretchen said.
***
Roxanne opened the screen door and was surprised that it did not squeak. She saw a doorstop and placed it to hold the door open for a quick escape if necessary. She glanced at the animals but both were sniffing opposite ends of the porch and weren’t paying attention to her. She clicked her tongue at them and when they looked up she nodded at the door. They came over and stood enough distance away from the door that they could get a running jump and attack, if necessary. Roxanne knocked at the door and waited. She stepped to the window but did not see movement inside. She took her staff and knocked again while watching through the window. She tried the door handle but it was locked. Next she tried each of the windows on the porch, but both were latched. She took her knife to the door and was able to pry it open then quickly stepped back to raise her staff.
She slowly walked into an eat-in kitchen which looked out over the water. She glanced out to see that the dock was hidden by the rose bushes and that her pirogue could not be seen from the house. She walked through an arch from the kitchen into the living room which looked out to the dirt driveway and another porch, this one not screened in. To her left in the living room was a staircase and when she rounded the bottom of the stair she caught her breath. There, sitting on the top step watching her was a long-haired black cat with orange eyes.
Cowboy came to Roxanne’s side and growled up at the cat, but it only blinked its eyes and remained looking down on them. “Hello,” Roxanne said gently. “Are you alone? Is someone caring for you?” After a pause she added, “Are you infected?” As if in answer the cat rubbed his mouth against the bannister and calmly walked off ignoring any danger.
Roxanne looked down at her companions. “Be good you two. If the cat is that comfortable with this place then there aren’t any zombies in here. I don’t want you to spook it. Mutt, I want you to keep watch on the driveway while Cowboy and I go upstairs.” The stairs creaked as she ascended each step and she touched her sheath to reassure herself that the knife was there. She could see cat prints in the dust but no human footprints and felt that the place was abandoned and had not been broken into.
There were two bedrooms with their doors open at the top of the stairs. In the second one she could see how the cat was living. One of the windows had been left open about six inches and piled on the floor were the remaining carcass of birds, mice and even some snakes. On the crumpled bed was a collar so threadbare that it had broken while the cat slept but Roxanne could still read the name on it. She looked out the window and saw that a branch of the Magnolia tree butted up against the window and that the cat was sitting on it watching her. Roxanne tested the window but could not raise it further so she knelt down and said, “We’re not taking over Max, but we would like to join you. Permission granted?” Max got up and walked away to the trunk of the tree and disappeared within its foliage.
Roxanne stood up. “Well, perhaps he’ll come around. I want you to show him some respect Cowboy. After all, this was his home first and we’re just visiting.” She looked around and knew that she wouldn’t be staying in that bedroom. The window had been open for so long that the floor was starting to rot by the window, the curtains were shredded and the bedding felt damp. She went to the closet and saw clothing for an elderly lady along with the proper shoes for church. None of it could be worn in the bayou and some of it was becoming moldy.
The first bedroom was dry and after tossing the bedding it appeared that mice had not been nesting in it. She smiled to herself. Well of course. Not with Max around. She opened the closet and saw that this room was for a younger woman, one who enjoyed gardening and walking for there was a nice selection of boots and sneakers. The jeans were too small but there were some big shirts that she could throw over a tee-shirt that would fit her.
She heard a squeak and turned to see Max sitting in the doorway with a mouse in his mouth. He put the rodent on the floor and covered it with his paw to hold it there and looked up at Roxanne. “Why thank you Max. What a wonderful welcome! I think that I’m going to like it here.”
On the third day Roxanne decided to check the neighboring area and possibly the town. She wanted to see how close she was by road to the Bait & Tackle Shop. Brandon had asked her to leave notes there so they would know that she was all right and he would do the same. The house had been stocked and she could only assume that the two women had gone out and had been attacked by Z’s. There were suitcases in the closet, the house wasn’t in disarray as if they had left suddenly or in a panic and they would not have left such a supply behind. Running out for an errand, locking the doors behind you and leaving a window cracked open for Max was the more logical theory.
After bringing in her own supply from the pirogue she took the opportunity to put the holster on that Brandon gave her. She still did not remember it but it fit perfectly and felt comfortable against her hip. She tied the leather straps around her thigh and decided she could also wear it under the shifts that she wore over her jeans. She would need to pull one side of the skirt up and if she should spot other humans it may be to her advantage to drop the skirt to hide the gun. But today she did not want to be hindered by a shift so she put on a shirt with her jeans, grabbed her duffle bag and went up the dirt driveway feeling like Tom Sawyer.
Max started to strut after them with his tail high in the air as if he were going on an adventure but Roxanne admonished him. “Shouldn’t you stay and guard the house, Max?” He only glanced up at her and when he attempted to walk past her she scooped him up. “I don’t want you to get hurt in any ruckus. I think you should stay here,” she looked into his face at those orange eyes and felt a chill. She quickly put him down and realized that she had goose-bumps on her arms although the day was warm. She watched as Max walked ahead and realized that she was holding her breath. “All right,” she said to her companions and let out a breath. “Perhaps Max is right. After all, he knows this town, this place, better than any of us. He may alert us to places that we should avoid.”
They began to follow the cat up the road but Roxanne couldn’t keep her mind on her surroundings. She kept thinking of Shoes and how the woman had been convinced that Roxanne could communicate with animals. It had frightened her when she had those goose bumps over a silly cat. Was she like this before? Was she banished because her group thought her to be a witch? Or was this just some nonsense that Shoes had put into her head?
They reached the paved road and Roxanne forced herself to stand hidden from view while she studied the landscape. This place and the residence that she had taken
up had given her a false sense of security and she was afraid of becoming complacent. The area did not look like part of the road that went to the Bait Shop and she assumed that it must intersect further down to her left. The surrounding land was undeveloped without any houses and from what she had seen from the Bait & Tackle shop that road had been lined with homes. Max had turned left and was walking down the middle of the road with his tail up. When she felt it was safe Roxanne and the canine’s followed but she did not like this part of the road. If a car should come along she had only the tall grass to hide into and not enough time to check for snakes. Shoes had taught her how to make a dressing for snake bite out of Tree leaf Noisy and gave her instructions to blow smoke into the wound then put the limb in saturated earth for several hours, but she did not want to put it to the test.
After twenty more minutes she could see houses up ahead and another road intersecting. Max cut through a yard on the left toward the side of a house but Roxanne moved behind a tree on the opposite side of the road and carefully studied each house before advancing. Max must have gone under a window when she saw a zombie appear in the house and begin to bang on the glass. If Max had been doing this on a regular basis it was a wonder that the zombie hadn’t broken the glass by now. That told her that the Z’s were becoming weaker, or that particular one had been locked in for a long time.
She decided not to follow Max and to go to the intersection. There were two houses on each side of the road but she would check those on her way back if time allowed. She made another left and continued on until she began to see houses up ahead.
Roxanne knew that she should be approaching town from the back yards of the homes that aligned the street, but there was something eerie about this place. She wanted to be out in the open where she could see everything and would have warning if something approached so she walked down the middle of the street. Everything was so quiet, all the houses still in good condition except for the overgrown yards and bushes. The wooden sidewalk was in disarray and buckling in places with weeds growing in-between the planks. The windows were still intact in the houses but she started to notice a “C” painted on some of them and remembered that Morgan had said that those homes had been cleared by him.
Roxanne could see the Bait & Tackle Shop up ahead and knew that this was not the major part of town. She hadn’t seen any other stores on this street and it was poorly paved as most dead-ends are. She felt sure that there was more to this place than met the eye but those other streets could be explored later. She must be outside of the town’s limits where residents shopped for supplies and it could be the reason why this section was so quiet. The danger would be in town. Still…she stopped before entering the sidewalk portion leading to the Tackle Shop and slowly turned around in a circle surveying all that was behind her. She felt as if eyes were on her but then Max emerged from some bushes on her right. Cowboy trotted over to Max and sniffed his head and neck, then snorted as if she were displeased and came back to Roxanne.
Roxanne looked up once more at the street behind her and carefully surveyed both sides of the street. Not seeing movement she then turned and continued to the Tackle Shop. Morgan did a good job of cleaning the place out and she did not see anything useful to her until she went behind the counter. She had learned from Lou at the Trading Post that most isolated store owners in the Bayou had hidden panels built into their counter. It didn’t take her long to feel that the inside wall on the right had a false front with a small knob. With some effort she was able to remove it and used her pocket light to see inside the darkness. There were two boxes of bullets, a stash of $2000 and a velvet box which she opened to find a gorgeous diamond ring.
She stood up and as the sunlight hit the ring it captivated her. She had never seen such beauty and couldn’t resist the temptation of putting it on her finger. The money and ring were useless in a ZA but she enjoyed looking at the ring. She put it back into the velvet case and then put everything in her pack. The money could always be used to start a fire on those wet days and perhaps she would need the ring to convince intruders that she was not alone. Both Shoes and Lou had taught her that nothing was to be left behind and could be bartered with or used for another purpose.
Outside she found a loose brick and pulled the note out of her pocket to leave for Morgan, putting both of them on the counter where he could see it. Then she went to find the house where Brandon said that tomatoes were growing in the backyard.
After gathering the tomatoes she decided not to search any of the houses in town since it was a long walk back. She would stop at those first four isolated houses where she had seen the zombie at the window and that would be the half-way point of her journey. Those homes were the closest to her own residence of choice and she wanted to clear those out first and terminate the zombie inside.
The two animals trotted by her side as she walked back but often darted to the shoulder of the road to inspect the high grass. Neither seemed to be on alert for danger and Roxanne was still amazed that she never saw an isolated zombie in the woods. The plantation had been so overcome by the Z’s with constant traffic that she had thought to find similar situations elsewhere. Brandon had said that this was a safe place, but she hadn’t expected such tranquility. She relaxed and ate a tomato while walking back, enjoying the sun on her shoulders and listened to the birds. She knew that if the chirping stopped or if the birds suddenly flew out of the bushes and treetops that danger would be near.
She arrived at the intersection with the four houses and where she would make a right to go further up the road to her driveway. She opened the gate to the white picket fence of the first house on the corner and as she stepped on the porch she thought she could hear something banging around inside. She quietly stepped back off the porch and went around to the side of the house to look in a window. At first glance she thought she had seen incorrectly and turned her back against the house to look at her canines. Mutt was at her side but Cowboy was sniffing the tall grass bordering the yard. She turned again to look into the window at what appeared to be the back of a boy perhaps five feet tall washing pots and pans at the sink.
She did not hear voices or a conversation with a parent but surely a child was not traveling alone. A parent could have gone out for supplies or was sleeping upstairs. She was not fearful of either, knowing that a parent would want to protect a child but probably would not be a danger to her once they realized that she was not here to steal from or harm them. But she did not want to scare them. She decided that some of the old ways were still the best and went around front to knock on the door.
Roxanne used her staff to rap on the door three times. “Hello?” She stood back from the door in case they tried to rush her but she only heard silence. She realized that hearing another human voice was probably a shock to whoever was inside and gave them time. “I’m your neighbor from up the street. Don’t mean any harm.” She heard footsteps approach the door. “I have a dog with me but he won’t hurt you either. Perhaps we can talk on the porch.”
She stepped down off the porch when she heard the lock turn in the door and lowered her staff. She saw the curtain move as someone quickly peeked out and then hid again. “It’s all right, I won’t hurt you. I’m friendly.” The door opened and Roxanne stepped back again, “Oh!”
“And what makes you think that I won’t hurt you?” a man’s voice said. It had been a man, not a child that Roxanne had seen at the sink, a short man of thirty years or more with a small mustache and a patch of beard in the center of his chin. “And just how many zombies have you taken down, might I ask? Just because I’m short it doesn’t mean that you can talk to me like a child!” he waved his knife at her. He had the blackest eyes she had ever seen but she did not feel evil from him.
“I’m sorry,” she answered. “I only saw your back from the window.”
“Peeping Tom, hey?” he lowered the knife. “Well I’m used to that. Ladies always want to get a look at me. Fighting them off all the time I am.” They b
oth stood there looking each other up and down. “Well, you said you wanted to talk but the porch isn’t the place to do it,” he stepped back and opened the door wider. “You better come in.”
“My dog comes with me.”
The man looked down at Mutt. “Understood.” He looked around. “Doesn’t appear that you were followed by zombies,” then he noticed Cowboy in the brush. “Jesus, is that a coyote? Get in, quick.”
“She’s a friend,” Roxanne said and clicked her tongue to attract Cowboy’s attention. “She’ll sit on the porch and keep watch. She’ll let us know if danger approaches.”
The man hesitated and gave Roxanne a long look. “I’m not so sure I should let you in after all,” his hand went to the holster on his hip until Mutt growled. “Where the hell did you come from and who are you?”
“My name is Roxanne, the dog is Mutt and the coyote is Cowboy. We come from the Bayou and you are the first person that we have met.”
He looked from Mutt and back up to Roxanne. “Things getting tough in the Bayou?” he asked.