by Diane Butler
“It sounded to me that Roxanne has made up her mind not to go with him,” Brandon said. “When did you want to make this run up the canal?”
Toby scanned the sky, “It’s early morning yet. We can do it today. From what I hear about you experience in that Park and how quickly it was overcome, it sounds as if the best laid plans can go astray and you didn’t have enough time to prepare, so why don’t we do this now. See if you can find Lucky and if he is agreeable you can train him and tag along behind us. The four of us can go, leaving Larry, Morgan and Roxanne to protect the group. From what I can see, Terry is useless, Caleb does his best as a young boy and Gretchen uses the nearest household item to keep a zombie at bay until someone can kill it. Nice lady, but I know that I can count on Larry.”
Lucky was reluctant when Brandon approached him. “We found a zombie on the property,” he said “and I’m not comfortable with leaving right now.”
“Go with him,” Roxanne said. “I can handle it. Besides, that zombie looked as if he could have worked here and has been wandering around in the vicinity. I’ll get Caleb to walk the grounds with me. If you don’t want to go, then I will because one of us needs to learn how to pilot Jenny.” She smiled, “For some reason Jenny has become special to me and I would hate to leave her behind because neither of us were trained. She’s a good vessel to have since she doesn’t need gas, even if we can’t leave the river with her. If push comes to shove we can keep moving up and down the river to avoid Ze’s.” She turned and looked out over the horizon, “They’ve got to die off sometime” she whispered then turned back to them. “Won’t they?”
Roxanne waved them off as she stood on the upper deck of the mansion. Mutt had decided to go with Brandon and Lucky, a decision that puzzled her since he had always been by her side. Perhaps Mutt had decided that she needed less protection than they since it had been Roxanne who managed to feed them during their three months of running.
She was two hours into her shift when she began to notice a flashing glint in the woods across the road. The front of the house had a lawn with a white fence that bordered a 2-lane highway. On the other side of the road was an overgrown field of farmland until it met up with the forest. It was too far away to see into the forest but she could not remember seeing something in that area that would flash when the sunlight hit it before. She paced the deck trying to get a better look but it was useless. She tried to convince herself that it was some piece of farm equipment or tool that the sun had picked up and she had never noticed it before or that she had never been in the same position on the portico to see it, but the unknown was driving her crazy.
She looked down on the grounds but could not see anyone. “Where the hell is everyone?” she thought. It was against the rules that anyone should venture out alone until they learned more of the property beyond the estate, but Roxanne’s curiosity got the better of her and she decided to check it out. She knew that Morgan and Caleb would be along in an hour to relieve her and was beginning to think that these stake-outs were a waste of time since they had only seen two zombies in the week that they had been there.
She picked up her newly painted staff and descended the three levels to the grounds and then walked over to her cabin to retrieve her crossbow. She would be careful not to approach the open field where she could be seen by anyone in the woods. Since the flashing had not moved she did not feel that it was a human watching the house but more of a stationary piece of equipment. Perhaps it was part of an irrigation system that they could use to draw water but she would use caution and approach from an angle in which she could stay well hidden.
There was tension between Lucky and Brandon during their journey to the barge and both of them could feel it between them. Lucky seemed to think that he had learned how to pilot Jenny by watching Brandon during the trip down Huntington Creek and Brandon wondered if Lucky had agreed to pilot because he wanted Roxanne to be dependent on him. They did not discuss the meeting of that morning and the fact that Roxanne had said that she would follow the rest of the group to the paper mill but Brandon could see that Lucky appeared to be both distracted and irritable.
Retrieving the remaining fuel from the Barge also did not go well. The sun was blazing hot for so late in the season and they had to be cautious not to touch the steel hull. A few Ze’s gathered on the levee and fell into the water, sliding down to Jenny’s hull. Brandon wasn’t afraid that the Ze’s would board Jenny, but he was afraid that they would get caught in her paddlewheel and keep her from moving again. There was also great disappointment after their hard work and profusely sweating that the barge only produced a half barrel of fuel.
When Brandon told Lucky that he should start Jenny and to navigate her away from the barge in order to avoid the Ze’s in the water, Lucky took the wheel but often lost his temper and yelled profanities whenever he made a mistake. Once they were in the River and had turned toward the plantation Brandon finally spoke up. “What’s going on with you today Lucky? I’ve never seen you this stressed out about anything, nor have you ever not been willing to learn new ways of survival.” Lucky poured water over his burning face and wiped his eyes but did not say anything. “Is it Roxanne?” Brandon asked.
Lucky appeared to be struggling with himself and finally looked over to Brandon, “Remember when we got back from destroying Chen Le and Roxanne and I walked away from the rest of you to go to her cabin?” Brandon nodded remembering that Lucky had given them the finger as he walked away from the group. Lucky turned back to watch the river, “She told me that night that it was only in her cabin that we were Roxanne and Lucky. That outside the cabin we were a team and that I should never get the two confused or I would start to make mistakes.” He looked back at Brandon, “Do you know that she can actually do that, Brandon? That she can divide herself like that, become two different women.”
Brandon had a lot to say about that but he kept quiet knowing that Lucky needed to get this out of his system. “I watch her get dressed in the morning and with each piece of equipment or weapon she arms herself with, I see the change come over her. By the end, she even uses a different tone of voice with me. What pisses me off is that she is right. I’ve been trained to disassociate myself with emotions in order to make a good decision, yet I can’t do it around her. Oh, yeah I give her orders like anyone else on the team, give her assignments and know she can handle it…..” he paused and looked down. “Except…” he whispered…. “except that once when everything went so bad.”
He straightened and looked ahead, “She’s right and she makes a better leader than I am. To try to prove to her that I saw her as part of the team, I went in the opposite direction and gave her the hardest assignments. I let my emotions get the better of me and made mistakes, became confused as to whether she was lover or team member. She was able to divide it. Me? I just made a mess of things between us. She’s right about going to the Paper Mill. She took the facts, analyzed it and came up with the logical answer that if a lone person opposed a plan that was agreeable to the majority of the group, then it was time to walk away from them. I admire her for that as a leader but it breaks my heart that the lover would be so quickly abandoned.” He turned and looked at Brandon, “You see why I’m not fit to lead? The woman has messed my head up, big time.”
They had an hour of daylight left when the levee came into view outside the mansion. Lucky and Brandon could see the group gathered at the top, waiting for them. They looked at one another in confusion since the barrels were never unloaded from the boats. “Something’s wrong,” Lucky said and became very nervous when he did not see Roxanne with the group. “Take over Brandon. I’m jumping over to the dock before you have a chance to tie this thing up.” He went out to the deck where Mutt was already waiting to jump over, anxious to get back on land again. Morgan came down the steps on the levee to grab the line as Lucky threw them out for him to catch. “What’s wrong?”
Morgan looked up as he was pulling in the line and Lucky could tell that he wa
s worried. “Roxanne’s missing.” Lucky’s heart went to his throat as both he and Mutt jumped to the dock at the same time. “Best we can tell, shortly after you left. She wasn’t on the portico when we went to relieve her but we didn’t get worried until Larry came to relieve us and he hadn’t seen Roxanne since she went on duty. We’ve searched the grounds without success and our last hope was that Mutt could pick up her scent.”
Morgan finished tying off Jenny and Brandon jumped over. “You heard?” Lucky asked.
“Yes, I think Mutt is a good solution but I’m confident she must be on the grounds somewhere” Brandon said. “There’s too much outside the estate that we haven’t explored or become familiar with and Roxanne knows the rules of not going outside the perimeter alone.”
Lucky shook his head as they climbed the steps to the top of the levee, “Remember the collapsed ride at the Park that she climbed over and disappeared on the other side? When something intrigues her, she can’t shake it off and like a cat she can’t contain her curiosity.” They reached the top of the levee and Lucky said, “Mutt, find Roxanne” motioning for Mutt to run ahead.
Mutt took the steps carefully and then began to trot toward the cabin, but he did not appear to be in a state of anxiety over Roxanne not being with the group. Everyone followed except for Toby and Smokey who were still tying up the tugboat. At the cabin Lucky checked inside and said that the crossbow was gone. She had left that behind before her shift on the portico and had taken her gun, staff, knife and pick-axe. “Well at least we know she was here after her shift,” Lucky said. He looked down at Mutt, “Mutt, where did Roxanne go from here? Mutt, find Roxanne.”
Mutt put his nose to the ground and followed the cabins, crossing Morgan’s porch and the grounds to the white picket fence. He went under the fence and then crossed the road. “Damn it,” Lucky said. “She left the grounds. Gretchen you, Terry, Morgan and Caleb stay here and when Smokey catches up send him our way. Larry you come with Brandon and me.” Both Lucky and Brandon were carrying their staff and had their holsters on, but what ammo they had in their guns was the end of their supply. Larry carried his rifle with an axe on his belt loop but was also limited on ammo.
They followed Mutt to the road and into the dry sugarcane on the other side that had never been harvested, Mutt still not appearing to be nervous. They were almost through the field of sugarcane and were about to enter an open area before reaching the forest when Mutt stopped in his tracks still sniffing the ground. Lucky motioned everyone to stop while he watched Mutt make several different detours and come back to the same spot again. Mutt took a few steps then raised his head to look down another row and softly growled. Everyone flattened to the ground, Lucky motioning Larry to circle around to that row. Then Mutt put his head back to the ground and proceeded on his original course toward the forest.
Brandon and Lucky got up to follow and glanced down the suspicious row to see Larry studying the ground. Once they broke through the sugarcane and entered the open area, Mutt became agitated. Lucky saw the disturbed ground and although the sun was lowering he went into a cold sweat. “There was a shake up here,” Lucky said to Brandon. Larry caught up to them and knelt down. “Someone was in that other row. I saw boot prints and knee prints. Looks like they came up behind her.” They didn’t need Mutt for this area because Lucky could see that someone had been fighting, and then dragged toward the forest. They heard noises behind them and turned to see Smokey break through the sugarcane with his rifle.
As they went into the forest they needed Mutt to guide them again and Lucky could tell that Roxanne was no longer being dragged away but he couldn’t find her footsteps either. As they continued the ground began to turn wet and soggy and he was able to pick up footsteps again. “Three men,” Lucky said. “One much heavier than the others, probably carrying Roxanne.”
The terrain became worse as they proceeded and several times they became stuck in the marsh. “Stay in their tracks,” Smokey said. “Step exactly where they stepped. These guys know what they’re doing. They’re not stragglers looking for a safe place. The swamp is their backyard.” They finally reached a stronger area of hard ground bordering a waterway and that’s where Mutt stopped. He became frantic, running up and down the bank, trying to pick up the scent again and when he couldn’t he began to whine pitifully. “They had a skiff,” Smokey said. “No telling which way they went since all these waterways twist and turn and some even circle back on themselves. It’s almost dark. We could get lost in here ourselves and we need to see our way back across that marsh. Lucky I’m sorry, but for tonight the trail ends here.”
Mutt sat down and started to howl, something they had never seen him do before.
It seemed that no matter what plan of action Lucky suggested, that Toby shot it down with logic. It was well past dark when they returned to the house and filled everyone in on what they had found. Mutt went directly to the windows overlooking the front lawn and sat there watching.
“We can get the rubber raft from Jenny and use it to search the waterways” Lucky said. They were all sitting at the dining room table with candlelight. Larry was holding Gretchen’s hand at the table but Morgan was still standing with his arm across Caleb’s shoulder. Caleb had taken it hard since he had not had a chance to bond with Roxanne again and they had only found each other such a short time ago.
“I wouldn’t suggest that Lucky,” Toby said. ‘There’s too much hidden underwater in those swamps and something could easily puncture the raft. Besides, Smokey’s size would take up the room of two people and you need room for you, Brandon and Mutt plus you need room to bring Roxanne back. Smokey’s size would lower the raft considerably.” Smokey tried not to look surprised at the suggestion that he go with them instead of Toby but felt that Toby must have a reason and would tell him later. It put him in a bind though and after that he did not know if he should make any suggestions. It appeared that the Captain had other motives.
“I assumed that you would go with us Toby,” Lucky said, “since you know this area.”
“No one knows the swamp Lucky,” Toby shook his head. “Unless you’ve lived in it and from what Smokey saw, these people are not strangers to the swamp. None of these buildings had a skiff or rowboat stored in it which means that the previous owners never went into the swamp.”
“Okay, we take the rowboat off Jenny and carry it through the woods to the swamp,” Lucky suggested. “That eliminates any problem of puncturing a hole and the rowboat will easily carry Smokey since we used it to load supplies in. Smokey, Mutt and myself will go.”
“I would like to go to,” Brandon spoke up. “Don’t like the idea of just you two going and I can’t just sit here and not look for Roxanne. You and I can sit on one seat and row together while Smokey is in the last seat, Mutt on the floor between us.”
Toby shook his head, “And where would you put Roxanne?”
“What are you saying Toby?” Lucky asked becoming agitated. “Are you saying that we shouldn’t look for her?”
“You said the banks were hard dirt at that point,” Toby reminded him. “I think you should take a day and search along the banks but neither I nor Smokey know the swamps and none of you will come back if you get lost in there.”
Lucky stood up, “I’m sorry Toby, but Brandon and I operate by a different set of rules. We don’t leave a member behind. We don’t leave anyone on the battlefield and the three of us have been together for a long time. Roxanne kept us alive with her crossbow and she found Jenny. Roxanne has a sixth sense of danger, of a presence near when no one else can feel it, she is paramount to our survival and if you and Smokey do not want to help then Brandon and I are going to carry the rowboat to the swamp in the morning and go out alone.”
“Lucky,” Toby said softly. “Roxanne was captured even with that sixth sense of hers because these people are experts at camouflage. They can camouflage their smell, they can melt into the foliage in fact they can become the foliage. They can hunt and stalk
their prey for days without food or water. You never see them, you never hear them and you never smell them until they have a knife at your throat.”
The conversation was interrupted when Mutt suddenly stood up putting his paws against the glass and began to whine. Lucky rushed over to the window but the moonlight was not strong to see further than the front lawn. “Anything?” Brandon asked. Lucky turned and grabbed his staff, “No, but I trust Mutt and if he sees something I think we should go down.” Everyone except Terry grabbed their choice of weapon and rushed outside with Mutt running ahead across the lawn.
Lucky saw a zombie emerge from the sugar cane to cross the road and approach the house. Mutt didn’t bother running under the picket fence as he usually did. Instead he took a flying leap at the top of the fence and with the slightest touch he used the fence to leap again and fly into the zombie. He went down with the zombie and while growling viciously Mutt tore into the zombie’s neck.