Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse

by Diane Butler

  “I’ll be alright. I’ll just get in my outboard and go across the lake,” he signed. “I’ve done that before when a large herd came through. None of them ever made it across and when I saw that the shore had cleared I came back. There’s still fishing in the lake and in the summer there’s strawberries, blueberries and I have a few vegetables planted around back. Gets lonesome though and I do wish that sometimes a stray dog or cat would come by. Haven’t seen any animals before you showed up with Mutt.”

  Just then Brandon leaned over the railing and shouted, “We found it, we found it…..oh, Land Ho!” They looked up to see Brandon pointing to the channel and they could see Joe’s shack further down.

  Joe patted Roxanne’s knee and said, “OK, well promise me that if anything goes wrong that you’ll try to get back.”

  Roxanne nodded and smiled, “Will be the first place I think of, me and Mutt.”

  Joe walked away and then turned back once more, “Oh, you didn’t really come over first because I looked like your Dad, did you?” When Roxanne shook her head he continued, “See, that’s what I don’t like about this, sending you out there first. Not right Roxanne, it’s just not right.”

  “It wasn’t their fault Joe. I’m a very stubborn woman.”

  “I would rethink about being stubborn, Roxanne,” Joe said. “Stubbornness can get you killed.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Joe had told them that they would probably be on the Lake for another two to three days depending on Jenny’s speed. He suggested that they drop anchor before entering the creek and wait for rain so the creek would be at its fullest. “It’s hurricane season and you should get some good rainfall to come up from the South.” He waved them off and it broke Roxanne’s heart to leave him behind.

  On the second day they started to see zombies again and reality came back to slap them in the face. When Roxanne spotted the first one she sighed and looked down into the water, not wanting to face it all over again. Then she turned her back on the sight and leaned against the railing, crossing her arms as a gesture of denial. Lucky also spotted the zombies and came down to join her.

  “It’s alright. They’re on the wrong side of the lake and Joe will be OK.”

  “I think we should have a back-up plan,” Roxanne said. “Brandon is so excited that he’s not thinking straight. At what point do we turn back or do we turn back? Let’s say tomorrow that we see a herd in the forest. Do we take that as an indication that the area is fully inhabited by Ze’s and turn back? Brandon feels that we are safe on Jenny, but what if we proceed forward and find that we are surrounded on both sides of the creek by Ze’s and Jenny breaks up on the rocks?”

  “I hate to tell you this Roxanne, but once we enter fast moving water Brandon won’t be able to turn around. Don’t think he can maneuver Jenny in small spaces and Jenny’s paddlewheels will be trying to paddle against the current. If the water is shallow the best we can hope for is to put her wheels up and float down. I see this as a suicide mission but it’s as good a place to die as any.”

  “Well that’s just great!” Roxanne threw her arms down, “Brandon with his head in the clouds and you on a suicide mission. Well I haven’t given up yet.”

  She went inside and forced her mind to go back to when she was traveling with Ed and how she had planned to desert him. How she had started to secretly store items in her duffle bag. These thoughts caused her to realize that she was not prepared for disaster at any unknown moment. She went into the kitchen to find a plastic trash bag, took some canned goods and dog food and went back to her bunk. She folded some extra clothes and put them in the plastic along with her empty pistol and holster. If she needed to go overboard as least those things would remain dry. She wished that she had a heavier jacket to pack for the winter months as it would be something to change into if she had to swim for it and was both wet and cold. She put the wrapped items and canned goods in her duffle bag.

  She sat on the bunk and tried to plan things out. If Jenny broke up she would try to grab the raft before it floated down stream. The material from the raft could be used to protect her against rain and help to keep her dry if she was forced to travel on foot. What else? What else? She went into the kitchen to see if anything gave her more ideas. Matches! Damn, how could she have forgotten those? She snatched them off the counter and put them into her jeans. She went into the poker room and cut the cord from one of the venetian blinds and planned us it to tie to Mutts kerchief so they weren’t separated in the water. All her plans revolved around the boat breaking up on the rocks and none would be necessary if they actually made it to Lake Pontchartrain. She could only hope that Brandon took Joe’s advice.

  She decided that she would insist on stopping at all the cottages along the way. Brandon was anxious to get to Lake Pontchartrain and they had only stopped at night to throw anchor and cook any fish that Lucky caught. She needed another axe since the one she had was so blunt. She didn’t have any hope of finding ammo since none of their searches in the last three months had resulted in replenishing their spent ammo.

  She went back on deck to find Lucky fishing off the side. “What have you been up to?” he asked.

  “Nothing, just tried to take a short nap.”

  Lucky had to look away. He had heard her rummaging in the kitchen and knew that she had just lied to him. He did not know of any time that Roxanne had lied to him or had attempted to keep a secret since she first met him at Dollywood. So, he thought to himself. It’s that Roxanne now, is it?

  After they dropped anchor that night Roxanne brought up the subject of stopping at any cottage that they saw along the way.

  “But that could be a lot of stopping,” Brandon objected.

  “Brandon, we’re not prepared,” Roxanne said. “The nights are getting cold. We need blankets; coats and I want to find another axe. We shouldn’t give up on ammo yet. At this point just one bullet for each of us could save someone’s life and we don’t know what we will be facing. Be prepared. Wasn’t that what you always said?”

  “I don’t know” Brandon said. “We could find all that stuff after we get there.”

  “OK, what about tarps, plastic to cover us, replacing the items that are old and torn that we used during the last three months?” she asked. “We should fill the raft with all those things and more; tie them down in case we need to abandon ship. We would have a supply already gathered and it will lessen our hardship if we go on foot again.”

  Lucky had tilted his chair back with his feet on the railing and was listening to all this. He wondered if that was what she had been doing in the kitchen, getting her own survival gear ready to put in the raft along with everything else that she had just mentioned. “She has a point, Brandon. We should look at this from every angle. We also need more medical supplies and searching the cabinets in the cottages could at least give us that. Peroxide, bandages, first aid creams too. Our open scratches and skin sores are healing but we shouldn’t stop with treatment and we’re out of all that. Most cottages used for summer vacations would have those along with bug spray and sun lotion.”

  The next day they saw a slightly heavier traffic of Ze’s on land which Roxanne found depressing. She turned to Lucky, “I don’t feel good about this. It took months to outrun them and now it appears that we’re just going back into the nest again,” she put her shaking hand to her temple. “Don’t they ever die? Is there nothing that will stop them?”

  Lucky took her hand which she did not pull away. “I know,” he smiled at her. “My only hope is that they have all migrated out of the city and left it abandoned. Yeah, I know. That’s a big fantasy that’s why I didn’t voice it out loud. I remember you saying to Gene that we don’t know anything about ‘these things that we call zombies.’ Remember that conversation? The only thing that we’ve learned since then is that it appears they can’t cross large bodies of water. They attempt to because they don’t have fear but they get washed away,” he chuckled. “They don’t remember how to swim so mayb
e Brandon has the right idea to stay on a boat or in Lake Pontchartrain on a ship or cruise liner.” He shrugged his shoulders, “It’s something Roxanne. It’s all we have right now to work toward, to stay alive for, that one last hope. I’m all out of ideas.”

  Roxanne pulled her hand away and looked at the zombies gathering on shore as they spotted the movement of Jenny passing by. “I hope you and Brandon are right, Lucky. I think this could be my last round in this boxing match.”

  They saw three houses all built on the same dead-end road that led to the lake. One wharf served all three homes and was not long enough for Brandon to pull up so Lucky and Roxanne decided to take the rowboat and tow the raft behind them. They had not seen any zombies that morning and were encouraged that the Ze’s were traveling in pockets. It was not their intention to take Mutt but the dog would not hear of it and after they pulled away from Jenny they heard a splash and turned to see that Mutt had jumped in. He swam over to their boat and Roxanne helped him in, admonishing him for not following orders to “stay.” He responded by shaking the water off his coat and wetting both of them down then he began nudging Roxanne’s staff.

  “OK, Mutt,” Roxanne said, “I get the hint. Come sit down in front of me and you can hold the staff while I help Lucky paddle.” Mutt turned and sat so his back was to Roxanne and he was facing Lucky. Roxanne balanced the staff to determine the middle then reached over Mutt and held it in front of him. She heard his teeth click on the metal and asked, “You got it? I’m going to let go now” but she held her hands under the staff in case it slipped to one side. She didn’t want to lose it overboard.

  Lucky turned around to see Mutt sitting as still as a Sphinx, his eyes so wide you would think they would pop out of his head, but the staff stayed level. Lucky looked up at Roxanne and smiled at the sight and she smiled back at him. When he looked back toward shore he couldn’t help but to chuckle.

  They did not tie up at the dock, not wanting to carrying things up and down the ladder so they rowed directly to shore where they pulled the boat up on land. Roxanne reached over Mutt to retrieve her staff and he ran out of the boat.

  “I expect Ze’s here Roxanne, so be careful” Lucky said. “People would have been escaping the city and suburbs to their summer homes in hopes of avoiding the chaos. Let’s take the single house on the right side of the road first, then the two on the left.” They circled the house first looking in the windows and did not see movement, but rapped on the back door hoping it would not be heard at the other two houses. It was locked and Lucky used the crank handle from the axle of the riverboat to open the door.

  They silently and quickly checked each room which appeared to be unused. “They must not have made it out of the city, or they got caught up in a grid-lock,” Lucky said. The cupboards were bare since most people buy their food and bring it with them for the holiday. Or they visit the local area for their food and only keep enough in the house to last during their time there. But the bathroom did have some medical supplies. Roxanne took a sheet that could be cut up for bandages and some garbage bags.

  They left by the front door and quickly ran across the street to the back of the next house. Roxanne spotted a shed in the back yard and said she wanted to check that first. If the owners had tools or fishing gear it would be in the shed. She looked in the window of the shed and could see a zombie on the floor. It had either heard her or smelled her because it was trying to rise, but was too weak to do so. She opened the door and quickly used her staff to kill it before he could rise. It was the first time she had used the staff since pounding it back into shape with a sharp point and was glad to see that it had become a useful weapon again.

  The discoveries in the shed were good to her although it was the fishing lures that attracted Lucky. She found a hatchet and immediately replaced the old axe hanging off her belt. A jagged blade knife for scrapping scales would be very effective to penetrate zombie skulls, a tarp to cover a boat and some hip boots. Lucky said one size would fit him and he would take the other pair to see if Brandon could use it. But most of all Roxanne was delighted to find more dog food.

  “You made out Mutt,” she said as she turned back and saw the note pinned on the door:

  Got bit. Family locked me in. Keep them safe from me.

  “We may have trouble inside Lucky.”

  Lucky came up behind her and read the note. “You think there’s family inside?” he asked.

  “Don’t know if this is his house or the one next door. There’s a car parked in the driveway next door, still has a canoe mounted on the roof. I know Brandon would object but I’d like to find the keys to the car and drive up the road to see if we can find a Mom & Pop store or, if nothing else to see if the highways are jammed with Ze’s.” She turned and looked at the zombie in the shed and remembered the dead body in the bar where she found the keys to the car in the alley. She saw that the zombie had the same habit as the man in the bar when he was alive and was wearing his car keys attached to his belt loop. She went over and cut them off with her newly found saber.

  “I’ll check the car if you want to check the windows of the house,” Roxanne said. She had been watching Mutt as they walked together and he did not shown signs that anything was amiss in the neighborhood. Lucky veered off as Roxanne unlocked the car and got in but before attempting to start the car she checked under the seat for a gun, not really expecting to find one. Then she opened the glove compartment and gasped when she found a fully loaded revolver. Her first thought was that it would feel nice to wear her holster again, but her second reaction was to hide it. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Lucky was looking in a window of the house with his back to her so she quickly put the gun in her back pack.

  She tried the ignition but there was dead silence. She didn’t have any reason to but she turned the ignition off and then tried again. This time the car turned over causing both she and Lucky to jump with surprise. Lucky came over and said, “They couldn’t have just arrived here. That zombie was too decomposed.”

  “Then someone has been keeping it in good working order.” Roxanne looked down at the gauge and saw that it still had a quarter of a tank of gas. “You didn’t see any signs of someone living inside the house?”

  At that moment they heard a “Toot-Toot” from Jenny which was Brandon’s signal that something or someone was approaching. They ran to the end of the driveway so they could see down the road toward the river and saw a small figure standing on the wharf waving at Brandon. Brandon was pointing to the person to look behind her. Once she turned around and saw Lucky and Roxanne at the houses she started walking towards them. She had a fishing rod in one hand and a tackle basket thrown over one shoulder, wearing baggie trousers and a man’s long-sleeve shirt over her T-Shirt. A hat shaded her face but they could see the grey hair escaping from around the brim.

  They started walking toward her to shorten the distance when suddenly Mutt bounced out from between them and ran to the woman. She froze, not knowing what to expect, but Mutt ran two circles around her and then stood up on his hind legs to lick her face. She started laughing and almost stumbled from the weight of Mutt’s paws on her shoulders.

  “Mutt!” Roxanne yelled. “Mutt Down!”, but she had to physically remove Mutt and hold him to contain his excitement.

  “Hi, I’m Martha,” the woman said still chuckling. “Do I know you because your dog definitely seems to know me?”

  “I’m Roxanne,” she reached out to shake the woman’s hand. “Mutt’s previous owner was an older woman. I believe he made the association when he saw you and became confused. This is Lucky and the man on the boat tooting the horn is Brandon.”

  “Well, we better get inside,” Martha said. “I know he was probably being friendly but your friend probably called in zombies with the noise.” They walked to the home with the car outside and she unlocked the front door. The stench of rotten fish immediately insulted their nostrils, causing Roxanne and Lucky to take a step back. Martha turned to loo
k at them, “Yes I know, but I only do it in this house when the danger of zombies is present. I sleep in the other house.” They walked in to see Martha take a fish out of the trout basket and set it on the window sill. Then she closed all the drapes and sat down. “If we talk in whispers they won’t hear us. The smell confuses them and they won’t pick up our scent.”

  “How long have you been here Martha?” Roxanne asked.

  “I came in last winter with my granddaughter, her husband and my great-grandson. That’s her husband out there in the shed. He got bit almost right away. Pretty much sent my granddaughter over the edge hearing him out there every day. Last month she and David, my great-grandson went out on the rowboat for fish and didn’t come back. They should have been safe as long as they stayed in the boat but maybe they went ashore for late blackberries. I’ve been afraid every day since then that I will see them as a zombie,” her voice cracked and she looked away.