by Diane Butler
“You better not have chased her off Lucky!” Caleb yelled. “You better not have!” Morgan turned with a sigh to face the others, “Lucky did you not hear what she said? That any of us could have inflicted those wounds on her? We need to walk softly here. I honestly believe that she has lost her memory due to the torture that Rodriques inflicted on her and if we are to help her we cannot alienate her by taunting her. She does not know us and in her mind we could be the enemy. We only saw the scar but Rodriques said something about branding her. You may never see the Roxanne that you once knew so don’t try to force her back into that role. She doesn’t know that person, that Roxanne.”
Brandon watched as Roxanne had mounted the levee and was disappearing down the other side. “Should I go after her? I would hate to lose her again after all this time. And Roxanne or not, no one should be alone.”
“She isn’t alone,” Caleb said. “She has Mutt and the coyote. Didn’t Rodriques say something about a coyote stalking them?”
A chill went up Brandon’s spine, “I hadn’t forgotten about that. Rodriques’ men were really spooked about it. In fact when I saw her in the fog with a coyote it was the first thing I thought of, that it was Roxanne’s spirit and not real.”
Roxanne had to sit on the plantation side of the levee to wait for the zombies to clear. They were walking away from her position and as long as she was quiet and did not make any sudden moves they would not notice her. It annoyed her that she could not go straight to her cabin to get her supplies and pack her pirogue. She decided that she would continue up the northern waterway that had brought her to the plantation and see what other homes were along the banks or in the marsh. They were right that this place was not safe. In just the short time that she had been here she had seen that it was a gateway for Z’s. Where they were going she did not know, but eventually they would reach the gulf.
She studied the crossbow and smiled as it felt so natural in her hands. Someone had kept it oiled and the strings were tight, ready for use. The cowhide sheath held only six bolts but they were in good condition. She put it across her back and found that she didn’t need to adjust the straps to fit her. She had used and practiced with her home-made staff for so long that she was surprised when Caleb had put a metal pole in her hands stating that it was her staff. She ran her hands along it and thought what a wonderful weapon the steel made. It had been painted black but there were two worn spots and being curious she put her hands in those two places to find that it was a perfect fit as to how she would use it.
Her animals were sitting quietly on each side of her and she reached out to put her arm around Mutt. “I understand that we traveled together,” she said softly so as not to attract the zombies on the road. “Let’s see…someone said I had traveled for two years with them and that you were with me before that. So, do you want to travel with me again?” The dog turned and licked her face and, forgetting the zombies she almost laughed out loud when there was a whisper behind her.
“Roxanne, I’m coming down to join you. We forgot to give you something.” Brandon said. The animals turned their heads to look behind her and by their reaction she knew that she was not in danger. There was no room to sit beside her so he sat behind her on the step above. He actually thought that perhaps this would be more comfortable with her as she would not need to look at him and maybe she would feel more freely to talk.
“I’m going to put something over your shoulder that belongs to you. Don’t jump.” After a moment Roxanne felt a light weight on her shoulder and reached up to take a holster in her hands. Someone had crudely carved an “R” into it and painted it red which was now cracked and faded. She ran her hands over it and saw that the leather was starting to peel around the initial.
“I do not remember this.”
“If you are moving on you will need weapons,” Brandon said. “We no longer have the gun that you used but we had a spare one that you can have. I’m going to put that on your shoulder too. It’s loaded so be careful.” He paused, “Do you know how to use a gun?”
Roxanne ran her hands over it and tested the feel of it, the balance and the trigger. “It does not feel familiar like the crossbow and staff did, but if I survived for two years out here, then I must know how to use it. I’ll put it on after the herd has left,” she saw that the last of them were moving on now. When they were out of sight she would go to her cabin and begin to load the pirogue.
“Will you go back to your friends?” Brandon asked just to keep her in conversation and to be near her again. “You said ‘others fed you’ so I assume that you have a group who has been caring for you.” She said nothing. “Roxanne, are you sure that you are ready for this? To travel alone is so dangerous and we would hate to lose you again. For Caleb and Morgan, they have lost you twice. We all lived together in an amusement park in Tennessee but it was overrun. We were separated from Morgan and Caleb for four months and then accidentally met up again in New Orleans. Then about two to three months later you were taken. It was hard on the boy. He sees you as a mentor.”
She turned and looked at him. “Mentor?” she asked before turning back to look at the stragglers behind the herd again. The few zombies were almost out of sight and they need not be so careful now. “I can be no one’s mentor. I am still learning myself. I don’t even know if my fingers will trigger a bolt in the bow.”
“May I see?” he asked gently. She paused and as she held her hand over her shoulder she did not look at him. It wasn’t her fingers that he noticed first but the scars around her wrist and the puckered skin there. They went so deep that he felt they were close to the bone and he wanted to weep for her. He held her hand and put the fingers of his right hand on the inside of her fingers and asked her to squeeze. “It feels like a pretty good grip to me,” he said but he noticed that the two middle fingers would not close tightly.
She stood up with her back to him. “I must pack my pirogue. Thank you for the holster and gun,” she started to descend the levee steps but he followed her. “Let me help you. I’ve been to where you probably landed your pirogue and it’s no easy trek through that marsh.”
Roxanne was silent as she and Brandon walked to her cabin. She felt confused as to why she was running from the very people who could give her answers, then she realized that it was because they had expectations of her to be the person she was in the past. She was filled with mixed emotions. Having traveled in the bayou for so long without another human to talk to she had begun to feel lonely. But while talking with this group she became nervous, feeling that she was a fly being studied under glass. And that guy Lucky definitely didn’t like her. He could have turned the rest of the group against her and they had voted for banishment.
She stopped on the path and turned to Brandon. “You said that I wasn’t banished, that I was taken. But the symbol cut into my face and …other scars indicate that I was marked for a reason. That I was labeled so that others could see what my past had been and would not shelter me. Strangers would not have done that. That was done by people who knew me.” She pulled her crossbow off her shoulder and glanced over Brandon’s shoulder where she could see Caleb coming along the path toward them. She looked back at Brandon and asked, “Has your group changed? Have you lost people that I once knew and friended in the group? Have you banished or killed them all, perhaps those in power that you did not want to follow? Was I the woman of one of those men and that’s why someone chose the symbol “S” to mark me?”
She took a step back, remembering all the possibilities that Shoes had brought to the surface. “You seem like good people but the ones who did this could be gone from your group now, or you split off from them and went your own way. That man ‘Lucky’ has a hatred and resentment toward me and I don’t believe he was my friend nor do I trust him or any answer he may give me. I think it best that I move on. Perhaps we can arrange to meet here from time to time as someone said that you check the plantation regularly.”
Caleb walked up to hear her last
sentence. “No Roxanne don’t go,” he pleaded. “Come with us and live on Jenny. We’ll take care of you. We can learn to fight together again.”
“Roxanne, none of what you have been thinking is what happened,” Brandon said. “None of it is true and you must give us a chance. You were taken from us and we can only tell you of the life that you had with us. What was done to you we suspect was revenge against Lucky. Those people knew Lucky when the world was still civilized and took you to barter for goods from us. What happened in their camp we don’t know but we did later come across them and know pieces of it.” He paused trying to find the right words. “We don’t know how to deal with this Roxanne, your memory loss. We didn’t want to push too much information on you at once since we don’t know how fragile you are.”
At that remark Roxanne burst out laughing. Something she hadn’t remembered doing after waking up in Shoe’s cabin. She turned and began to cross the footbridge and was startled when both Mutt and Cowboy jumped into the reeds for a duck. “That rawhide that you have tied your hair with,” Brandon said upon seeing the long hair behind her back. “You always wore a piece of rawhide across your forehead. Your hair was shorter then and you said it was to keep the sweat out of your eyes in the heat. You looked like an Indian.”
Roxanne continued walking and said over her shoulder, “We haven’t eaten breakfast. Now that the animals have caught a duck I must cook it. Then I will continue traveling the swamp to the north. Have you been north of the bank where my pirogue is moored?”
“Yes we have been north from there,” Brandon said with disappointment. “I know just the place for you where we can visit and make sure that you are alright.”
***
Roxanne had dug out a small tunnel beside her fire and used dry hardwood so as not to create smoke. The tunnel allowed a draft to keep the fire burning instead of smothering the wood which would also cause smoke. Morgan had come along with a bucket to see what had ripened in the garden and Lucky was standing watch for zombies. The two animals sat watching the fire and licking their lips. Caleb brought a few provisions from Jenny but everyone refused to eat Roxanne’s catch. “We’ve already had our breakfast,” Morgan said as he limped over. “Not much in the garden yet. A few green beans and tomatoes,” he handed her the bucket and slowly lowered himself to the ground.
“How did you hurt your leg?” she asked.
“Fell down a well and broke it. Just a damn fool, not paying attention. Had trouble with an infection for a while since I was down there with a couple of Z’s. But the people at the paper mill patched me up pretty good. Some days are better than others.”
“I have some things that may help you,” Roxanne said, “in return for your generosity. A poultice that will take the pain out of it and a drink that will fight the infection and give you some strength back. These things were used on me and I learned how to make them.” She handed Mutt and Cowboy their portion of the duck and cautioned Cowboy that it was hot.
“Why do you call her Cowboy?” Caleb asked. “It’s not a boy, and how did you come by her?”
“She’s not mine. She’s on loan to me and was not named by me. She and Mutt connected almost right away. It was as if she knew that Mutt had been with me in the past and Mutt knew that Cowboy had protected me while I was away. I could almost see them talking to one another when they met.”
Brandon and Morgan exchanged looks. “We were told by one of the men who captured you that a coyote followed them for three days.” Roxanne stopped eating and looked at Cowboy. “Was that you girl? Were you with me back then?” Cowboy paused eating only long enough to head-butt her and went about her breakfast.
“I first remember waking up to see her standing over me staring in my face and I thought that she was about to kill me or feed me to her pack. She has been by my side almost constantly since then, sometimes bringing food, helping me to identify herbs and edible greens as I learned the bayou. I would miss her terribly but she belongs to another, as much as a coyote can belong to anyone.”
“These men,” Roxanne asked “who you say took me and who you later found? What became of them? Are they still a danger to me?”
Brandon shook his head. “No Roxanne, they are no longer a threat.” He did not want to tell her that they killed them when she was sitting at the very place where they died. But Caleb could not contain the news. “I killed one as he was coming out of the barn. We killed every one of them Roxanne. No one was gonna’ take a member of our family and live to tell about it”, he bragged.
Brandon found it odd that Roxanne was gathering up the duck bones and putting them into her satchel. She paused and looked up from her task, “You mean you killed them here at this plantation?”
“They took you from here and eventually they came back here. Don’t know why,” Caleb said. “Back to the scene of the crime I guess, but we took care of them.”
Roxanne got up. “The bodies in the bedrooms? That was you? The one hanging from the bannister who was eaten by the Sousson, that was you?” Brandon nodded and saw her eyes change. She looked over to the woods that would lead to her pirogue. “I must leave this place. It has never felt right to me. I always felt as if someone or something was watching me. And the place reeks of violent death,” she said with a shiver. She looked at Brandon, “You needn’t help me. Both Mutt and Cowboy can carry a bundle of the odds and ends that I took from the barn and house.”
Brandon stood up, “No, I would like to help and escort you to your pirogue.”
CHAPTER 4
“You let her go?” Lucky shouted as they threw the lines on Jenny to cast off. “After all this time you just let her go! I knew I should have talked to her.”
“What would you have me do, Lucky?” Brandon answered. “Grabbed her and tied her up? Forced her to go with us? That coyote would have been all over me and I’m not so sure that Mutt wouldn’t have joined. She doesn’t trust us yet and we need to give her more time. I directed her to the town of Mamou so at least we know where she will be. There has been very little zombie activity there and it was the safest place I could think of.”
“Well, let’s head for there now and help her to locate a place,” Lucky said as they walked to the pilot’s bridge.
“I think we should give her a week. We’ll go back to the mill and report to the others. Give it a couple of days and then come back,” Brandon said. He turned Jenny from the pier and started back up river. He looked over his shoulder at Lucky and continued telling him of the conversation.” I didn’t tell her about your relationship with her. I think that would have spooked her even further. She feels hostility from you and I don’t think I convinced her that we were not part of some group that banished her. She has suspicions that you are somehow responsible.”
Lucky looked down at the floor. “In a way she is right. Rodriquez was seeking revenge on me and used Roxanne to do that. With her having this memory loss he has won even if temporarily but at least she’s alive.” He looked up again, “But next time…next time I’m talking to her.”
Brandon continued to look across the bow at the river. “Just be careful of what you say. Don’t push the fact that you had a relationship with her. I think that would be too much information right now. You need to earn her trust again. We all do.”
***
Roxanne was enjoying the bayou again among the bald cypress trees and all its beauty. She felt calm and relaxed for the first time in days and looked down at her two companions with a smile. A raft of water hyacinths floated by and she knew that the flower had become a hazard to the bayou by taking oxygen from the fish. She passed a few dilapidated cabins but decided that she would push on since she had a late start.
The waterway was becoming deeper now and her pole could no longer touch bottom. She could see it widening up ahead so she directed the pirogue closer to the bank to use the pole in shallow water and to also push against the bank. She could see a flicker of rooftops through the foliage and salt cedar started to line the banks.
She had to be careful not to get her pole tangled in the invasive shrub.
She rounded a bend and the two animals stood up when the Bait & Tackle Shop came into view. This is where Brandon said that they had docked Jenny and had followed the sidewalk on foot. She could see that a narrow road came to a dead-end at the dock, but she wasn’t interested in the town. She wanted to see what houses had private docks bordering the banks. She did not want to be housed off a main road through a town, however small it may be. She directed her pirogue to the right following the canal that by-passed the town looking for a home with a long driveway to separate it from the main street. Or for a home that was the last on a dead-end private street.
Up ahead she could see a border of Macartney rose bushes which were used as a living fence before barbed wire came alone. The only sounds were the chirping birds and the dip of her pole as she turned the pirogue for a better look at a dock among the reeds. Her animals sat up and showed signs of getting restless when she stopped six feet from the dock and studied the house beyond, looking for signs of movement either dead or alive. The house had a screened porch with a Dutch gable roof and a Magnolia tree on the north side. The sidewalk leading from the dock was clear of bushes but she was sure that the tall grass would be harboring snakes and was glad that the porch was screened. The windows were still intact and she could see a dirt driveway at the front of the house leading through Louisiana Oak trees to a paved road beyond that.