by Diane Butler
Roxanne stayed in the apartment for three days taking care of the old lady until she died, promising at the end to take Mutt with her. She had not been able to help the woman whose son had provided for her until one day he did not come back from a supply run. The woman had been too weak for the water and few supplies that Roxanne had to be of any affect. Roxanne and Mutt had bonded in those few days by scavenging together and bringing food to the woman but she had given up on life in this nightmare world and gently passed away one night. Mutt grieved and whimpered as he watched Roxanne wrap the woman in several sheets and leave her on the bed. “I’m sorry Mutt, but it’s too dangerous to bury her. I’m only one person and new at this myself.”
Now they were on the road together and she was glad to have the company since it didn’t feel as strange talking to a dog as when she was talking to herself or the car Jenny. It wasn’t as if she had a schedule to keep but she felt sure that Dollywood would be the ideal place to go although Ed had wanted to stay in Chicago. Without a way to heat the apartment or build a fire in the apartment they had gone to various relatives, but that never lasted long once they saw that Ed could not contribute to their survival.
She could see why the old lady had named him Mutt since he had a patched coat of many colors but his strangest characteristic was his webbed feet. The dog had proven to be an asset to her, drawing off Ze’s while she was scavenging for supplies. She thought perhaps he had some Shepherd in him since she had seen him herd and drive the Ze’s in a different direction. But he couldn’t help with finding gas and it looked as if they would need to abandon the car soon. These mountain roads were hard on gas and although there had been some houses on this road none had a car parked out front. She reached over and scratched Mutt’s ears and said, “Well, let’s just go until Jenny gives out on us. Looks like we’ll be on foot soon.”
Roxanne stood on the mountainside looking down at Dollywood after abandoning the car. She had left the road and cut through the forest for better protection from any Ze’s. Mutt was confused as to why they had stopped and was getting impatient beside her. The place was huge and practically swallowed up after being unattended for so long. She hadn’t expected so much acreage and that a portion of it would not be visible to her. It looked as if it had been built in sections with each hidden within its own mountain space separated by train tracks, or tunnels, or waterways. What movement she saw was not human or zombie, just disrepair. It was overgrown and some of the bigger rides had collapsed. Her hopes were dashed. It did not look inviting at all; it looked ominous, haunted and gave her a slight chill. There were echoing sounds that she contributed to the slamming of a screen door, the squeak of something rusty, and a tree limb banging against a window. This would be very, very difficult to stay here alone. She could go insane in this place. It appeared as if the mountain was trying to take its land back and erase any memory that an amusement park had once existed here.
She decided to go down and walk the fence line to get a better look at things. Perhaps it wouldn’t seem so spooky to see it up close and identify some of the sounds. She also wanted to check the fence to see if it was still secure or if it had been breached. If she still didn’t feel comfortable with the place she would go back up into the mountain to spend the night and continue checking the next day.
Roxanne had spent the week scavenging and then cutting bamboo into sharp stakes to put through the fence at the front of the Park. If zombies should gather at the front she hoped that they would impale themselves on the stakes. Behind the fence was a steep hillside hiding the activity inside the park and creating a tunnel for people to walk through. On this day Roxanne sat in the driver’s seat of a tour bus and wondered if she released the brake if the bus would roll downhill to the tunnel. She would use it to block the entrance to the park, swerving so the front was against one wall of the tunnel and the rear of the bus against the other wall. She would go through the bus to get in and out of the park if necessary. So far she didn’t see any need to leave the park since there was water, stored goods and medical supplies. She could use the other buildings and its furniture for firewood during the winter. She had seen rabbits raiding the overgrown and unattended gardens and deer had come up to the fence line. She did not know how to catch or kill either of these animals but would learn by her mistakes. No longer disturbed by humans the wildlife had started to come back including ducks and geese settling into the various ponds.
She had not seen any zombies since arriving, but Ze’s had a habit of showing up everywhere eventually. She was tired of looking over her shoulder while on the road with Ed, tired of quietly moving in and out of buildings, opening or searching in a haphazard way in order to avoid detection by Ze’s. She had not explored the entire Park but the section she was in was safe and provided security for the first time since the madness began.
She opened the door of the bus and said, “Get out of the bus Mutt. I don’t want you getting hurt when we hit the wall.” He looked at her and whined. “Go on now. I’m not leaving you.” Mutt stepped out and looked back. “Go on now”, she waved her hand. “Further, further”. When he was safely away she released the brake……..nothing. She stood and jumped up and down but the bus didn’t budge. She stepped down on the last step of the bus to jump up and down but still nothing. Finally she went to the front of the bus and climbed on the bumper and while holding onto the grill she jumped up and down but almost killed herself when the bumper broke off. She fell to the concrete and Mutt came running up to lick her face. Roxanne laughed and said, “Well Mutt I may have great ideas but I never know how to execute them.”
She brushed herself off and inspected her torn hands from hitting the concrete. “Let’s go to the wishing fountain to get washed off and think on it some more.” She moved the bumper away from the front of the bus and they walked off to the fountain in the middle of the small parking lot where Mutt had been sitting. Roxanne liked sitting here because the pennies on the bottom gave her some sense of happiness and hope. She opened a bag of stale M&M’s and shared a can of sardines with Mutt. It was turning cool here at night and the sun felt good on her face. Then she realized that the silence was disturbed by the crunching of tires on concrete. She grabbed her gun and cursed herself for letting someone creep up on her. Mutt was busy with his sardines and hadn’t warned her, damn him! She spun around to see that the only danger was the bus slowly starting to roll downhill. She quickly holstered her gun and ran for the driver’s seat so she could steer the bus into the right position.
Roxanne sat in the Mechanics Office reading a car repair manual. She knew she could not become complacent in her security and should plan a backdoor exit if necessary. She had found the keys to a chain-link fence at the far end of the park that appeared to access a road used for service contractors. The road was overgrown now, but usable as long as she could avoid the saplings growing up between the broken asphalt.
“Batteries can last 5 – 12 years depending upon the variables” the manual said. “Variables?” she questioned. “What about in a ZA, you jerk”. There were two cars in the mechanic’s bay but neither would start. Her plans were to stock one car with supplies, bedding, extra gas, and clothing and park it at the back gate for a quick exit. She would put the keys to the fence on a string around her neck and find something to camouflage the car. She knew she should leave the car in the shop for protection against the weather, but the bay door was too difficult for her to open. She had managed to get it up but had struggled with it and knew it wasn’t something that she could easily do again.
She changed all the fluids in one car, not taking any chances that the oil was old and hard, that the antifreeze and steering fluids were topped off, even added windshield washer. She finally retrieved a boxed battery from the shelf and studied how the old battery was placed in the engine, then changed it with the new one. She was just getting into the seat to see if the car would start when Mutt came trotting into the garage with a rabbit in his mouth. She really wanted to
start this car, but Mutt’s pride came first. She got out and knelt down to pet him, praising him for his catch and saw the joy of “I did good, huh?” in his face. “Yes sweetie, you did good. Now let’s go cook this thing up.”
Roxanne was always on alert that more people would have the same idea of going to an amusement park and that her isolation could be disturbed any day. Therefore she heard the car attempting to make the upgrade to the park long before it came into sight. She could tell from the sound that the car was on its last legs by the knocking, rattling and grinding as the driver attempted to shift gears.
She ran to the bus and got down on her hands and knees to remove one of the barriers she had placed there in an attempt to deter Ze’s from crawling under the bus. After crawling on her belly she removed a small peephole in an outside barrier and watched the parking lot until the car limped into view. “Shit!” she couldn’t believe it. Ed, with a male companion. A thousand thoughts went through her mind in seconds. “I can’t do this again. I should have killed him long ago. But what about the other man? Is he an innocent passenger or another asshole? Damn!” She heard the other man caution Ed as they got out of the car and approached. She wasn’t worried about them coming through the bus because she had locked the back door and only unlocked it when she left the interior of the park.
“Ed, I think this place is already claimed” the traveler said as he stood there with his hands on his hips. “This bus was positioned to block the tunnel and did you notice all the stakes and spikes protruding through the fence? Let’s take our time on this and walk the fence line to see if there is any activity inside.” They went to their right which would take them up the mountainside where they would have the same view of the park that Roxanne had when she first arrived at the park. She knew the view would be good there and that it would be hard to stay undercover without being noticed. No, she was not going to play this cat and mouse game. On this she needed to get out there and get it over with.
She crawled back to where Mutt was waiting for her with anticipation in his eyes. She had him get under the bus so he wouldn’t be seen, told him to stay and pulled the barrier back with just enough room for him to get out if necessary. She picked up a ladder that she had placed for this possibility and leaned it against the hill that covered the tunnel. The hill extended out along the fence line and she would be able to run across it undetected. She knew that they could scale the fence but the hillside was wet with morning dew and any attempt by them to climb it would be a slow process. The ladder helped her to reach the top quickly, and then she ran along the top until she was directly above them and the sun would be in their face. She cocked the rifle and yelled, “Hold it right there!”
Both Ed and the other man started to raise their hands to shield their eyes from the sun but Roxanne ordered them to keep their hands down. “I have a rifle trained on you and will blow both of you away before you even get a bead on me so don’t move.”
“Roxie?” Ed asked. “Roxanne is that you? I thought you were dead. How’d you get here?”
“I’m with a group,” she lied. “They sent me out because I recognized you. We’re not taking in any more people, least of all a worthless piece of shit like you. Now beat it! Get out!”
Ed started to whine, “The car is shot Roxie. You can’t send us out on foot. We’ll never make it. You know what it’s like out there. You know that I’m good with cars Roxanne. I can be helpful. I can keep things running but I’m just no good out here. You gotta’ talk to them Roxie. They gotta’ let us in.”
Roxanne hesitated. Ed had a point there, he was good with machinery. He could get the Water Wheel going again to keep the pond water circulating and fresh. He was good with wood and could devise fishing poles, could make more stakes to fortify the fence, could build more barriers. He was useful as long as he was protected and not out in the ZA world.
She turned her gun on the other guy. “What’s your name and what skills do you have?”
“Name’s Lucky”, he said. “I’m good at tracking and hunting animals and I’m good with a gun.” Roxanne was startled by the softness in his voice which surprised her. She hadn’t heard that certain “calmness” in a person’s voice since the ZA started. People now spoke in tones of fear; panic, screaming, yelling and even whispers had the tone of urgency in it. Ed had been whining and she had been yelling yet here was this man, this Lucky who had not let their drama suck him into the circle. She changed the tone in her own voice and said, “Well Lucky, if you can answer three questions to our satisfaction I’ll talk to the council about letting you in.”
Roxanne sat on a rock pile watching Lucky and Ed work on the Water Wheel that had clogged pipes to the filtration system. They had been here for three days and she didn’t know how much longer she could keep up with her lies. She wasn’t worried about Ed although he would be mad once he found out that there wasn’t a “group” working in another section of the park. Ed was happy to have a bunk, food, shelter, protection and was actually taking pride in his work. She had seen him smile a few times as he stood back with his hands on his skinny hips and surveyed his accomplishment at the end of the day.
But Lucky? She hadn’t fooled Lucky from day one and wondered why he hadn’t said something by now. It was his answer to her second question that kept her tense and suspicious of him. Her first question had been how many zombies had he killed because she didn’t want another Ed who would not do battle against the biters. Then she had asked how many humans he had killed and his reply had been “five.” That had startled and frightened her. She herself had to kill one human to save herself while traveling with Mutt. Lawlessness had become the norm in the ZA and most women were not safe from predators with evil intent. She asked why, and he answered that it was because they were trying to kill him. Still, she was not comfortable with that answer.
From the moment she had handcuffed them to one another and let them out of their bunk, his eyes never stopped taking in the place. He said he was a good tracker but she suspected that he had been a cop, detective or a bounty hunter. Maybe military, because he saw all the indications that the place was deserted.
“Boss, may I approach for water?” Lucky called out taunting her. She had to hide her face so he didn’t see her smile.
“Take it slow so Mutt doesn’t tear into you.” She watched him as he approached the water bucket which was 8’ away from her. He kept his eyes on Mutt as Roxanne kept her eyes on Lucky. His face was glistening with sweat and a few brown hairs had escaped from his ponytail so she didn’t think that he was faking the need for water. Mutt stood up and began to growl. She calmed the dog but didn’t tell him to sit, wanting Mutt to be ready if Lucky should make a movement toward her.
Lucky used the ladle to get a drink then took his eyes off the dog and put them on her. “When do you plan on telling us that the place is empty, Roxanne?” he asked in that soft voice. “Or do you want me to tell Ed for you after you’ve locked us up tonight? He’ll be plenty mad that a woman made a fool out of him but he’ll have all night to get over it.”
“And you Lucky?” she asked. “Would you feel like a fool?”
He took another drink of water and shook his head, “Nah. I figure you had to be careful. I know you can take care of yourself because I saw in your eyes that you were ready to take Ed’s head off right then and there. You just didn’t plan it out well, that’s all. No one can go it alone anymore Roxanne.”
Roxanne smiled, “Oh, I’m not the complete fool Lucky.”
Lucky and Roxanne sat on the porch of her cabin, both tired after another productive day. It had grown dark and the only sounds were the crickets. Ed had decided he was going to bunk in the garage and was moving a cot from the First Aid Lounge into the facility. He felt safer within the bay’s steel doors especially since the building only had one window. Lucky had convinced Roxanne that they did not have the manpower to fortify the whole park and that they needed to centralize. “Start with a smaller space and build your wal
l. Localize everything you need within it and if our group grows then you can expand by building another wall outside the central wall, and so forth.”
They saw a flashlight approaching from the pathway and Mutt started to growl. Ed came into view carrying a gas can and said that he had seen several sheds throughout the park which he thought contained generators. “You know, in case they lost electricity and people were stuck on the rides. They’d have generators near to get the people down. I’m not an electrician but I thought I would check out a few and see if they still run.” Lucky and Roxanne looked at each other. Ed was going out alone at night?
“That’s mighty big of you Ed,” Lucky said. “If you want to fiddle with it go right ahead.” After Ed left Roxanne told Mutt to keep an eye on him. Mutt’s head snapped around to look at her as if Roxanne was crazy. “You don’t need to like him Mutt, just make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble. Stay your distance.” Mutt got up, hesitated, and then slowly walked off as if he were going to see the Vet.