Roxanne's Story - Vol. II: Survival In The Zombie Apocalypse

by Diane Butler

  “You won’t wait alone,” Lucky finally spoke up. “We started out together on Jenny and we will end up together on Jenny, and it was Roxanne who discovered Jenny. Maybe you have something there Brandon. If Roxanne should get anywhere within the vicinity, perhaps she’ll hear our voices on Jenny and know that we are anchored outside the plantation. Voices travel on the river.”

  ***

  Roxanne leaned over the water barrel on the porch and caught her reflection in the clear water. Shoes was coming along the shoreline with Cowboy after the coyote had led her to a den of beavers when she caught sight of the girl at the barrel. Shoes stopped to watch the girl, wondering if it would jar some memory of who she was when the girl saw her face for the first time. She stayed motionless as she saw the girl reach up to touch her scar and then suddenly looked away from the barrel. Roxanne pulled her long black hair back to the nape of her neck and then leaned over to look down into the water once more. Again she reached up to touch the scar and then quickly dropped her hair and began to back away from the barrel.

  Shoes quickly advanced her step, making noise as she did so to distract the girl from what she had just seen. The girl spun around and reached out for the railing to steady her and Shoes noticed how pale she looked. Cowboy ran ahead onto the porch and sat down in front of the girl staring at her, forcing her to make eye contact. The girl felt the presence at her feet and took her eyes off Shoes to look down at the coyote. Roxanne appeared to be trying to catch her breath but finally smiled at Cowboy when Shoes came onto the porch.

  “Anything?” Shoes asked. “Do you remember anything? Your name?”

  The Girl shook her head and touched Cowboy, “No. No, I don’t remember anything.” She turned and walked into the cabin with Cowboy but Shoes wasn’t convinced that she was telling the truth.

  ***

  The Girl had been true to her word and by mid-February was walking on her own although she limped on her left foot and would not make a fast runner. She worked on the fingers of her right hand until they finally closed and could hold a knife without slipping but she needed to pry the fingers open to release the knife again. Once it was in her hand it was a permanent part of her and she said she liked it that way. Shoes saw her practice every day on how to approach an imaginary zombie while working with her disability, practicing a different stance before approaching the sapling she had chosen as a mark. Shoes shook her head as she watched knowing that a Sousson-Pannan would not stand still and wait for an attack but she had to give the girl credit for trying. Stubborn she was and Shoes wondered how the girl had lived this long if she was this reckless.

  She saw the girl kick at the tree with her good leg, grab the sapling with her good hand and stab it with the knife in her right. She had practiced this so much that the sapling finally snapped and broke off. “Girl, come here!” she called out. As Roxanne approached she said, “I think you are well enough to go with me on a run. Do you know how to paddle a canoe?”

  The girl stared at her, startled, “Yes, I believe so.”

  Shoes nodded, “We’ll take the canoe you came in rather than my pirogue. It will be a tight fit with supplies but the trade will be slow this time of year.”

  “Trade?”

  “Yes, there is an old plantation house that was flooded years ago and the swamp never left it. It’s two hours from here and is a drop off point for those who want to remain anonymous and trade for my potions. They will leave notes or drawings of what they want and I will leave notes of what I want in trade. We need to get you some clothes other than that housedress. On my last trip I left notes for jeans, sweaters, shirts, and even boots. Don’t want to get that stuff from Lou or he would get suspicious and I don’t want anyone to know of you yet. Your recovery is coming along better than I thought and if you keep it up I will get a better protector for you.” She turned to go into the house, “Bring the canoe out from under the house while I get my potions and some blankets for you. Cowboy could keep you warm but she’s not keen on being on the water and could capsize us.”

  Roxanne pulled the canoe out from under the house and loaded it with the things that Shoes was putting on the porch. She stood in the canoe while she was doing it and Shoes noticed that the girl had perfect balance on the water. Shoes got in the back of the canoe so she could guide Roxanne and told her to pay attention to her surroundings and for landmarks that she would point out.

  They had been paddling for a half hour in silence when the girl spoke up without turning around. “I told you that I don’t need nor want a protector. I’m going out on my own. I just need to learn the dangers from you, what I should look for. And what is safe, what I can eat, what I can hunt and where, the main routes in and out of the Bayou. I don’t need to learn all the small channels, just the main routes.”

  Shoes stopped paddling and laid her oar across the canoe looking at the girls back, “And why is that? I already told you that I could not teach you enough for you to live on your own. I can help you to identify a few plants that you can eat, show you where to hunt but surviving a winter on your own, not getting bitten by a poisonous snake or your leg snapped off by an alligator, all that comes with experience not to mention the moonshiners and runners of the black market. All ruthless people without any law to control them now-a-days”.

  The girl stopped rowing and put her paddle across the canoe as Shoes had but Shoes did not want them to drift so she put her oar back in the water to begin paddling again. The girl turned her head to the side but did not turn around, “I come from somewhere and it must be close by although I know nothing of the Bayou. I don’t know what happened to me and don’t care to know, I just know that I’m supposed to be someplace else and it may take a lot of exploring in the Bayou to find out. To find an exit that is familiar, a landing or a dock, anything that will lead me to answers of who I am.”

  “Did it occur to you that the very place or people who you seek are the same who mutilated you? And I don’t think they wanted you alive. I think they were punishing you for some past sins or for breaking their laws and then you were to be either cast out or killed.” Shoes did not tell the girl of her discoveries through her vision or that she had the ability to travel among spirits. Although she had seen the gang involved and knew that they were long gone, she still did not know their purpose or intent with the girl or the girl’s relationship with them. “You would not recognize these people, would not know friend or enemy and could walk back into danger again.”

  “Perhaps Cowboy will come with me,” the girl began to paddle again. “Something tries to come back when I look at Cowboy and only when I look at Cowboy. Otherwise, there is nothing. No memory at all, not a person or name or place or warmth or voice, nothing. Well…..except when I first woke up I reached for my hip as if I expected a weapon to be there. Don’t know if it was a knife or gun, but I can almost feel it there sometimes.”

  Shoes interrupted to point out a willow tree that she had marked as a guide to turn to their right and they did not pick up the discussion for the rest of the journey.

  CHAPTER 2

  The River was fast and turbulent, tossing the two boats recklessly about as they were anchored off shore at the Paper Mill. Because of the rough waters they had tied Jenny to the rubber bumpers of the tugboat and after dropping anchor everyone had boarded the tugboat to be together. Toby was on the bridge with his binoculars trying to maintain his footing as he surveyed the paper mill. “I don’t like it. The loading dock at the warehouse is wide open and Pete’s cabin cruiser isn’t anchored at the wharf outside the gates. Pete was taking a group of ten people directly to the paper mill when we first landed at the plantation but the place looks abandoned.”

  “Maybe Pete has taken his boat out for a supply run,” Lucky said.

  Toby lowered his glasses and shook his head. “Still, I don’t like it. Just doesn’t feel right. We’ve been out here for an hour and haven’t seen any movement, human or the undead. You would think that they’d set up a scout to
watch the river and would have seen us. They know our boats.”

  “There wouldn’t be living quarters in the mill itself,” Lucky answered. “While in operation a paper mill can smell like a skunk, at least to me it does. It’s a horrible smell that would still linger in the factory even after a year of shutdown. There are probably offices in another building that can’t be seen from here. Let’s dock at the wharf and go on a scouting mission of our own.”

  As Toby hoisted the anchor and started the tugboat Brandon pulled Lucky aside. “I won’t be going on this scouting mission with you. Not this time, not when you have backup. I’ve been thinking that we should not go on missions together. One of us needs to stay alive for Roxanne and if we’re both killed she’ll be all alone.”

  Lucky was shocked. “We’ve always been a team Brandon. Roxanne would want us to keep each other alive, watching each other’s back.”

  Brandon shook his head, “Not this time Lucky. Go with people of your choice but I’m staying here and if things go wrong in there then I will untie Jenny and head back. Besides, I don’t like leaving Mutt at the plantation all alone.”

  “Mutt made his choice Brandon. He refused to leave the plantation. There was nothing we could do, couldn’t get near him once he found out we were leaving.”

  “Nevertheless,” Brandon said, “I’m staying here with Jenny. I’ll give you an hour to either signal me that all is safe, or for you to come back. If I haven’t seen anything I’m hoisting anchor and I’m leaving regardless of Toby’s decision. Morgan and Caleb can come with me if they want but I assume you will want Morgan to go with you on this run.”

  Lucky was hesitant but told Toby of Brandon plans and arranged to take Smokey, Larry and Morgan with him to inspect the factory. Morgan had his hand on Caleb’s shoulder and the two of them were whispering together. Once they were docked Morgan approached Brandon and asked, “If anything should happen to me I would like for you to take Caleb with you on Jenny. He hasn’t given up on Roxanne and he feels closer to both you and Lucky than the rest of the group. Would you do that for me Brandon?”

  Brandon looked over at Caleb who had been watching them with anticipation and fear that he would be rejected without the protection of his father, but Brandon nodded and made the promise.

  They untied Jenny from the tugboat in case Toby needed to quickly get away from the dock and the tugboat was faster than Jenny. Brandon kept Jenny away from the dock but still close enough to the tugboat that he and Toby could easily communicate. Brandon and Caleb watched the four men leave the tugboat and keep low as they ran for the loading bay. It was a long run of about fifty yards and it was all in the open. Brandon nervously kept watch on the rooftops of the buildings, cradling his rifle in his arm.

  As the four men entered the derelict paper mill it was as if it had frozen in time. A gust of wind billowed through the doors causing the dust and discarded cigar papers on the floor to form a cloud. The only sound was their footsteps and debris hitting the machinery as the wind scattered it. The place looked as if it had been abandoned in a panic during lunch break. There were still personal effects like work boots, lunch boxes and safety goggles tossed on chairs and on top of the machines.

  They cautiously walked down each row of massive machinery looking behind everything for slow zombies. When they reached the end of the factory they found a set of stairs leading up to a platform with an office. Portions of the roof had leaked and caved in at this part of the factory and nature was reclaiming it as they noticed mold covering the handrails. They by-passed the office since the search was to find Pete’s group and went through a door at the end of the platform. It opened into another large room but this time the hand-railed platform continued high above the ground, weaving around several large pieces of machinery.

  Larry looked up to see huge metal beams for support, pipes and pillars ran across the roof and led down to the floor. He looked down to see that the floor was flooded. “This would be perfect. All this metal. There’s no way a zombie is getting into this place. Too bad the floor is flooded. Maybe Pete was waiting for more help.”

  “There’s mold on everything Larry. Wouldn’t be a healthy place to camp in,” Morgan answered. They stopped as their voices echoed off the machinery and caused an eerie feeling. Smokey felt the hairs on his arms start to rise, “Let’s keep moving. This walkway leads to somewhere.” As they turned the corner they saw that the stairs went down into the water and everyone stopped to stare while waiting for Lucky to give them orders.

  Lucky came to the front of the group and stared down at the stagnant water. He looked around the walls and noticed that another stairwell lead up from the water to a door about thirty feet on the other side of the room. Noticing that one of the poles on the railing was loose he tore it off and went to the bottom of the stairs to use it as a measuring device and lowered it into the water until he felt solid ground. He then raised the pole and stood beside it to see where the water level would reach on a human. “About chest high,” he said looking up at the group at the top of the stairwell. “We can wade through it and go to the other stairwell out that door,” he pointed to the other wall.

  There was a moment of silence before Morgan spoke up, “I’m not comfortable with that. We don’t know what’s in that water and could become infected. Factories have toxic waste. I don’t know what a paper mill uses but we don’t know if that’s stagnant water from rain or from the machinery and I don’t see any holes in this roof for it to be rainwater.”

  Lucky looked around and saw a large pipe crossing the room with a smaller pipe running under it. Both of the pipes crossed over to the next stairwell before going into a hole in the wall. “Okay”, Lucky said as he mounted the stairs to join them. He pointed to the pipes, “We can hold onto the larger pipe while walking on the smaller pipe and drop off on the next stairwell,” he reached up to test the strength of the pipe.

  “I don’t think that pipe will hold my weight,” Smokey said. “Besides, Pete would not have led his people through this. I think we’re in the wrong place. We need to go back out and around the factory to find those Admin buildings you were talking about. It’s obvious that this place is abandoned and that no one has been here.”

  Lucky looked at the other door and couldn’t resist. “If they haven’t been through here then they haven’t explored all their options. There could be supplies in that room or perhaps a nurse’s office for injuries on the job. It’s worth checking out. You can wait here while I cross the pipes or go back, but I need to find out what’s in that room.” He reached up to grab the large pipe and settled his feet on the smaller pipe below it. Dirt, dust and rusty pieces fell off the pipe to the water below. He bounced a few times to test the strength and heard more particles fall but was convinced that it would hold him.

  “Lucky, this is unnecessary,” Morgan said. “I wish you would not do this. You are putting yourself in jeopardy and our mission is to find the other group.” But Lucky continued along the pipes as they creaked from his weight dropping more debris in the sludge. He reached the other side of the wall and safely stepped off the pipes to the stairwell below him. His weight caused the stairwell to suddenly break free from the wall and it began to teeter. The group gasped thinking that Lucky would be thrown but he grabbed the railing and the stairwell held him without collapsing.

  “I hope that door is unlocked,” Smokey said, “Because that stairwell is not going to hold you if you need to throw your weight against the door or kick it in.” Lucky carefully leaned across the gap where the stairwell had separated from the wall and tested the door handle. He found that it was unlocked and pulled his gun out in case the room held Z’s. Throwing open the door he was disappointed that the room wasn’t in better condition and felt a fool that his team had been right. He stepped across the gap and entered to see that it was a locker room.

  “No undead in here,” he called out to his team. “There are lockers that I want to check out and see if we can use anything.” He
didn’t tell them that all the lockers were open and that he could see that the employees had quickly gathered their personal items and fled. The roof was partially gone and the floor was filled with bird droppings. Some of the locker doors had pulled free of their hinges and were tilted sideways. There was a pair of rotting boots in the center of the floor and a chair that had been torn apart by animals for nesting purposes. A wooden table against one wall had old order forms now dry rotted and a rubber stamp that had hardened with the weather.

  Lucky pulled out a pair of gloves from his back pocket, afraid to touch anything because of the thick coat of droppings on everything. There was a strong smell of ammonia as if bats had made a home here but he felt he must find something to justify his actions. He went through each locker but nothing had been protected against the weather and had corroded, rotted or was moldy. He checked each drawer of the table and found a first-aid kit in the bottom one. It was dusty but still intact and had not warped. He anxiously pried it open to find that it had the standard supplies of first aid cream, peroxide, bandages and gauze. He felt he had saved face for his reckless action and went back to the door. “It’s not much, but it’s something” he said.