by Diane Butler
That angered Roxanne, “I’m not having a breakdown. I’m perfectly capable of searching a house.” She looked at Lucky, “Hurry up with that bandage. Cami is right. The gate is open.”
They hadn’t expected to find a steel door in the basement; a steel door with not only a security padlock, but a steel bar across it with an additional padlock on each end of the bar. “I don’t think that’s the wine cellar,” Cami said. “Those bastards have more weapons behind that door. The security lock would have been deactivated when the electric went out that’s why they had a backup plan with the steel bar and padlocks.”
“I’ll get the bolt cutter” Roxanne said and started back up the steps.
Lucky shook his head, “Don’t think that’s going to work. Those are some big time padlocks and would take a flamethrower to open them. One lock uses a combination and the other uses a key meaning both of them would need to be together to open the door. They didn’t trust one another. Come on, let’s search the bodies upstairs.”
As Lucky rummaged through the pockets of one body, Cami search through the pockets of the other. Roxanne stepped back into the open doorway and said that she needed to get some air. Lucky told her to be careful and pulled out the man’s wallet. Roxanne suggested that she should watch the gate for zombies and left. But the first thing Roxanne did was walk around the corner of the house to vomit. The first wave of shaking had hit her in the house where they left KC, but this was the second wave and it was more intense. She did not want them to see her like this. She still had the bottle of water that Lucky had given her. She used it to rinse out her mouth, took a drink and then poured the rest on her face and neck.
“Ah-Ha, I found the combination in his wallet,” Lucky said to Cami.
“This sucker doesn’t have a wallet,” Cami said, “and nothing in his pockets. Wonder where he hid it. Don’t want to search this whole house again.”
“Look for a chain around his neck,” Lucky offered remembering how Roxanne had hidden the key to the back gate in the same manner. Cami pulled a chain out from under his clothes and both of them exchanged smiles when they saw that it held a key. They both rushed to the basement, Lucky stopping in the doorway but did not see Roxanne in the yard or by the truck. He yelled out her name and she peeked from around the corner of the house. “We found the combination and key” he said.
“Then I’ll definitely need to stay out here on look-out if both of you are going to the basement,” she answered.
After unlocking and removing the steel beam Lucky was ready to put his body against the door jamb thinking that it would take all his strength to open such a thick steel door. But it was amazing how smooth and quietly it opened, not requiring much strength at all when suddenly a light came on in the chamber. He and Cami jumped back and drew their guns not expecting a third person to be around. But there wasn’t any sound, any shadow of movement within, any sound of a shell being thrown into a chamber and no sound of locked and loaded.
“Must be on a timer,” Lucky said.
“But how?” I don’t hear a generator,” Cami asked.
Lucky shook his head, “Don’t know but these guys were prepared and they must have set something up”.
He eased around the door so he could see the corners of the room and if anyone was hidden there, his movement giving Cami a better view of the center of the room. “Jackpot” he heard her say behind him. Their arms fell to their sides and their mouths fell open. Before them was every weapon imaginable. Submachine guns, grenades, AA-2 Combat Shotguns, semi-automatic 12 gauges, Glocks, Liberators, Lugers, 16-gauge shotguns, the list just went on and on. “We may need to make two trips with the trailer,” Cami whispered unable to speak out loud before such magnificence.
Roxanne realized she was standing at the door to the garage and out of curiosity she peered into the door window. What she saw there made her smile. She went back to the truck to get the tire iron when Lucky came out carrying an armload of guns. She raised an eyebrow and said, “Ammo?” Cami came out carrying more guns and answered, “Tons and tons. We need your help Roxanne.”
“We need to leave room in the trailer for one more item,” Roxanne said.
“What’s more important than guns and ammo?” Cami asked.
“Nothing, but I’m not leaving without this. Come with me,” Roxanne said. They followed her to the side of the house where she attempted to use the tire iron to open the door but Lucky noticed that her hands were still shaking so he took it from her and pried the door open. They walked in and Roxanne pointed, “There. I want that.”
They stood in silence. “You’re joking, Roxanne” Lucky said.
“It’s a Razor Dirt Bike that I want for Caleb. It isn’t electric,” Roxanne said. “We will put it on the trailer first and pack the guns and ammo around it. He’s teaching me the crossbow. I owe him.” Cami objected and began to look for another trailer in the garage that they could put the dirt bike on. But none of the cars in the garage had any gas so even if they had found a trailer they couldn’t tow it. They threw KC’s mannequin out of the trailer but after loading the dirt bike on they were only able to load half the ammo because the wheels started to flatten down. Cami put as many of the guns as she could in the back seat with her so she could admire them. They put the bar and padlocks back on the vault door with Cami keeping the key and Lucky keeping the combination. They would come back with Brandon or Gene at some later time for the rest.
They were half way back to the park when Lucky realized that a word had not been spoken by anyone. He looked over at Roxanne who had her head back and her hands resting on her legs. He was glad to see that her hands were no longer shaking but he was worried about her. He took a chance and reached out to put his hand over hers, expecting her to shove him away. Instead she closed her hand to take his in hers and held it. He noticed how cold her hand was and wondered if her sugar-level had dropped.
“How much did you two see?” Roxanne lifted her head and looked at both of them.
After a long pause Cami said, “There was a zombie down in the basement of that house, did you know that Roxanne? I think KC was going to kill you and then throw your body down the stairs so the zombie could feed on you. Then give us the story that you fell. No reason why we should question it, but there’s no mistaking the sound of contact with a metal staff. We could hear it next door and knew someone was in trouble. It stopped at one time which threw us off, but picked back up again.”
“Yes,” Roxanne put her head back again and closed her eyes. “I had her pinned at one time but her eyes cleared and I thought her senses were back. My mistake.”
“That arm is going to need about ten stitches,” Lucky said. “We should all learn how to stitch up a wound from Sally,” he hoped to change the subject.
“But what are we going to tell them?” Roxanne asked, looking at them again. “I don’t want them to be afraid of me; don’t want Caleb to think that I am dangerous.”
“KC didn’t make it. That’s all we need to say,” Cami suggested. “Most people know by now that when you say someone didn’t make it, that a zombie got them. It’s not a lie. KC didn’t make it. No lie at all.”
They were pulling up to the bus at the front gate when Roxanne said, “I wish we had found some chocolate.”
Morgan was standing on the tunnel when he heard the laughter in the truck and assumed that everything went OK. He went down the ladder to move the bus back and waved at them when he got in the driver’s seat. The trailer was covered in a tarp and was standing so high that he couldn’t begin to imagine what they had brought back. Mutt started barking and chasing the truck when he spotted Roxanne so she asked Lucky to let her out and to go ahead to the compound without her.
Roxanne walked away from the truck and fell to her knees in front of Mutt who covered her with licks and head butts, barking as if to say, “Don’t you ever leave me again!” She tried to wrap her arms around him but he wiggled too much, his tail wagging so hard it threw him off balan
ce. Roxanne was glad that Mutt was licking her face so Morgan could not see the tears as he approached. He stopped before the scene of their reunion and said, “Two bandages. I take it things did not go well?”
Roxanne shook her head. “No, we lost KC.”
“Lost her?”
“She didn’t make it” Roxanne said as she got off her knees and wiped her face with her sleeve.
“I have something for Caleb. Come on. I want to see his face when he sees it.”
As they walked together Morgan asked, “How bad is the arm? Looks like you’re still bleeding.”
“I’ll need to see Sally for stitches and I should probably learn how to do that. How was everything here?”
Gene opened the steel doors that they had constructed for their inner compound at their living quarters and Roxanne could see that they were unloading the back of the truck but hadn’t taken the tarp off the trailer yet. By the look on everyone’s face she could tell that they had heard the news about KC but then Ed broke the silence by saying, “What in the hell do you have on the trailer? The tires look like they wouldn’t have lasted much longer from the weight.”
Roxanne smiled and walked up to the trailer, “Caleb if you will do me the honor of untying that end of the tarp, I’ll untie this end and we can flip it back.” Everyone stood around in anticipation and gave mixed reactions when they pulled the tarp back to reveal the Razor dirt bike. Caleb gasped, Sally was confused, Ed said, “What the hell?” and Gene started laughing.
“Is it mine, is it mine?” Caleb asked.
“Yes, it’s yours but I will need to get stitched up first and won’t be available for a couple of days, so maybe someone else can teach you how to drive it.” Roxanne turned to Sally, “Could you get your first aid kit Sally and I’ll meet you in the lounge. Oh, and bring a can of peaches with you. I think my sugar level is hitting rock bottom.”
“Damn! Maybe I should have asked you to bring a bottle of rum” Roxanne said as Sally started putting in the stitches.
“And I have nothing for the pain,” Sally said. “Maybe the next run could be to a hospital for syringes, pain killers and anti-biotic. All I have is aspirin. Here,” she handed Roxanne a cold pack. “You just snap this package and it will act as a cold pack. If it gets really bad during the night you can use that.”
Sally finished dressing the wound and said that she would get Lucky to help Roxanne back to her cabin. It had not been a pleasant procedure since Roxanne needed ten stitches and was now in a cold sweat and shaking like a leaf. “One question Roxanne. Are we in danger here?” Sally asked.
Roxanne shook her head, “No, why do you ask?”
“Because this is a knife wound and no zombie did that. What happened out there, Roxanne?”
“Our only danger is from Ze’s,” Roxanne ignored the question. “There are plenty swarming out there, gathering. We couldn’t get into Gatlinburg because of them.”
At that moment Lucky walked in and said, “I understand that I am needed here.”
Roxanne developed a fever and experienced cold chills during the night. “I don’t understand it,” Sally said as she and Lucky stood on the cabin porch the next day. “The wound is not infected. I checked for scratches and the ones she has are from working around the park, all healed and healthy. I even checked for ticks. You didn’t drink anything other than your bottled water, did you?”
Lucky shook his head, “No, only what we brought with us. We didn’t eat anything that we found either. The pickings were pretty slim on that. We have more here at the Park than we found elsewhere because the two dead guys who had hunkered down had cleaned out the neighboring towns. We will need to go in a different direction next time. Gatlinburg is definitely out.”
Sally sighed, “There is so little we know about this zombie disease that I worry when anyone gets sick, especially with a fever. How do we know that the knife wound didn’t transfer something to her if it had previously been used to kill a zombie?” She shook her head, “still the wound looks good so I won’t start imagining things. I’ll go open up a can of soup; you just make sure she doesn’t throw the cold compress off.”
Mutt had not left the cabin except to do his doggie business and then return to sit on the floor by Roxanne’s bed. He would only take water and Lucky hadn’t been able to get him to eat. He made a mental note to stop at a Pet Store if they saw one on their next run and get some doggie bones.
Roxanne was sitting up holding the wet compress to her forehead, “What were you two talking about out there?”
“Sally has a point,” Lucky said as he sat down on the bed. “We were so desperate for guns and ammo that no one thought of a drug store for simple medical necessities. I know when I was on the road alone I only went into a drug store looking for food and water. The First Aid Station here only has the basics: iodine, gauze, and aspirin. She brought it to my attention that we have been neglectful,” he smiled.
“You’re not making a run just for me are you? It’s just a simple cold. The worst was during the night. I’ll be fine.” Mutt jumped on the bed and lay down beside her, glad to hear her voice again.
“I suggested that she make a list but she insists on going next time we make a run. No reason why she shouldn’t. She knows how to survive.” Lucky paused then said, “She brought up the subject of the knife wound a couple of times. I think she’s fishing for answers. I don’t like being evasive except when my life depends on it and then I can talk my way out of most tense situations. But this is deceiving our friends, people we count on and who count on us.”
Roxanne looked away, her mind not wanting to go there. She secretly knew that the fever and chills were a reaction to what had happened with KC. It had happened to her the first time she had killed a human, it just hadn’t lasted as long. She was puzzled since she had convinced herself after that first reaction that it would get easier if she was forced to kill again. Perhaps she wasn’t hardened enough yet, she told herself. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that she had been living a simple life. God, how she hated this life that she was living now.
She looked back at him, “I don’t want you to do something that you are uncomfortable with. Work it out with Cami; better yet, just tell Cami that you are going to tell the group how KC died. I just don’t care to talk about it and I don’t know how I will explain it to Caleb. He’s a kid. He’ll have questions. Maybe Morgan can explain it to him sufficiently. Now, if you don’t mind I think I’ll lie back down again.”
After Sally arrived with the soup Lucky went looking for Cami and found her pacing on top of the tunnel with her newly found submachine gun. He climbed the ladder and saw that she had added the grenade launcher and a small box of grenades at her feet. He looked up from the box and said, “What the hell do you plan on using these for?” Cami smiled back, “Never can tell.”
“Well, just don’t take out the bus too if you use them.” He told her of his plans to inform the group of what had happened to KC.
Cami shook her head and said, “I don’t think they can handle it. You saw how Roxanne plunged that knife into KC’s midriff and then yanked it up into her breastbone piercing her heart. Jesus, seen a lot of things in my life, but that was vicious. Didn’t know Roxanne had it in her, not like that anyway. Got a new perspective on Roxanne. I’ll partner with her any day.”
Lucky turned away and looked out over the mountain side. “Scared you too, didn’t it?” Cami continued. “I wouldn’t worry about it Lucky. We all do what is necessary to survive. I was just surprised by…her methods.”
Lucky turned back to face Cami and put his hands in his pockets, “Don’t you believe her? That KC attacked first?”
“Well of course I do,” Cami shrugged her shoulders. “There was enough damage in that room to see that Roxanne was trying to hold her off and defend herself. Otherwise Roxanne would have taken KC out long before that, now that we’ve seen what she can do. And Roxanne didn’t have motive. KC did. KC wanted you and in her crazy mind t
hat meant getting rid of Roxanne. Are you going to tell them that too? Be a little embarrassing won’t it?”
“I’ll just tell them that KC had been acting strange the whole trip, which is the truth. That we don’t know what happened in that house and Roxanne doesn’t care to talk about it. But we are 100% sure that Roxanne was defending herself until forced to kill KC. I’ll ask Morgan to exclude Caleb from the meeting. You can add anything you like but I hope you’ll be behind me on this and join in if I get stuck.”
“Don’t think you should do that, exclude Caleb from the meeting,” Cami said. “He will have questions and its best we answer them than Morgan trying to fill in for us. Maybe give Morgan a heads-up first and let him decide, but I know that Roxanne isn’t up to answering questions by an inquisitive teenager.”
Lucky nodded in agreement and descended the ladder. Cami shook her head and turned away, Damn fools trying to be a family in a ZA, she thought. No such thing as a family anymore. The quicker you realize that the better off you are.