by Diane Butler
Morgan was shocked. “That would be a breach of agreement and show bad faith to Roxanne, Lucky. She would never trust us again. Besides, it’s too dangerous for just three people. In fact I don’t like the idea with five people as I assume one of the five will be Mary and she’s so young to be in the middle of a herd of Z’s. I know I’m not bringing Caleb along tomorrow. He would struggle to take Jenny back to the Mill without us, but I would rather he attempted that than to come with us. Let’s hope it won’t come to that.”
“He could stay in the bookstore as look-out,” Lucky said.
“And do what?” Morgan asked. “Waste bolts against a herd of Z’s against the fence?” he shook his head. “If we are unable to get back out or are overcome by Z’s, I don’t want him to see me go down.”
Lucky suggested that they drive up to the back entrance of the store and go up the fire escape from the bed of the truck but the rest decided that the chances that the truck would be surrounded by Z’s by the time they wanted to leave would be too great. It was agreeable that they would park three blocks from the back entrance of the bookstore and go in #5 again for more surveillance.
At first they tried walking up the street that Roxanne had taken when she fled with them in the back of the truck, but they found that many of the Z’s used that street to circle around the block and go back to the mansion. They quickly cut through an alley to the next street, the same street that Mary kept backing away from to allow Z’s to pass, but that also seemed to be heavily occupied. “I don’t think the zombies have settled down at all,” Brandon whispered. “If we are to get to the alley behind the bookstore the Z’s need to be directed back to the fence at the mansion and we don’t have any way to do that.”
Lucky looked at the wood fence that they were up against. “Maybe we will need to enter the stores on this street from their back entrance, go through the building to the front entrance and out to cross over the street and so on until we reach our destination.”
“I think we should go back,” Morgan said. “Roxanne miscalculated on how long it would take for the zombies to settle back down. That, or she didn’t have intentions of going back this soon until she knew that we were anxious to get back to the mill and then she pushed the plan up.”
“I’m sorry, Dad.” Caleb said. “That’s my fault. I shouldn’t have mentioned it to her.” He fished something out of his pocket. “Brandon, could a flare go over two blocks? Maybe if you shoot it toward the mansion they will turn back that way and we can get to the alley.”
“What are you doing with that?” Morgan bristled. “We always leave that on Jenny to signal for help.”
Caleb looked embarrassed. “I know that Roxanne said that we were on our own and that we would not see her if we were in trouble again, but we don’t have Mutt this time to get word to her. I thought if she saw a flare she would know that we needed her and that she wouldn’t refuse to help. But now it may come in handy to divert the zombies.”
They flattened against the wall as a group of five zombies shuffled past the alley without looking their way. “Get it out of your head that Roxanne is some sort of Superwoman, Caleb,” Lucky whispered. “She is human like the rest of us. She can be bitten, she can die and she fears zombies the same as we do. She wants food, water and shelter, the same as we do.”
“Shut up!” Brandon hissed at Lucky while taking the flare gun from Caleb. “I think you may have a good idea Caleb, but let’s see if any of these gates open into a back yard so we will have somewhere to hide after I shoot off the flare.”
None of the gates were unlocked but a cable box outside one part of the fence allowed Lucky to stand on it and look over into the back yard to see that it was clear of zombies. He climbed over the fence and opened the gate for the rest of the group. Since the back only allowed room for the store’s trash bins to be dragged into the alley for pick up, the room to shoot off a flare gun was limited. Brandon went back outside the gate and crossed the alley to gain as much room between him and the buildings as he could. He shot off the flare and ran back inside the gate to latch it behind him. “I think it cleared the buildings for the next two blocks, or at least will come down to hit the road in front of the mansion. Let’s see if this store is safe to go through, but be quiet about it in case any Z’s divert to the alley behind us.”
Roxanne and Mary had driven to the street where she had killed Jim Bob and were checking the cars for gas when they spotted the flare. Mary gasped but Roxanne remained calm. “Screw it. I’m not going after them again,” she said as she watched the flare come down and calculated that it would be near the mansion. “I told them to become familiar with the area, not to get into trouble again. They have survived in a ZA all this time, they can do it without me.”
“But what if Caleb is with them this time?” Mary asked. “What if they didn’t leave him back at the boat?”
The group managed to break into the back door of the store with minimal noise but a few zombies were already banging on the fence at the back. There was a small 2-drawer file cabinet in the room and Lucky quickly slid it over against the door. Morgan and Brandon stood at the doorway to the main store and listened for movement or moans but the place appeared to be empty. They waited, then motioned Lucky and Caleb to follow them. They stepped into a card shop and it gave Morgan the sensation of going into a Twilight Zone when he saw how neatly this town had been abandoned. Nothing was out of place, no chairs or tables overturned, none of the shelving had broken and every card was still in its slot. Caleb went behind the counter and began to throw handfuls of paper into his satchel and Morgan felt saddened. That was the one thing that Caleb hated the most when they were traveling alone across Tennessee, the lack of dry paper to start a fire. That, and being soaking wet under a tarp. It was a hard time for the child and Caleb used his anger to improve his skills on the crossbow to kill squirrels.
They went to the front of the store and looked out onto the street, being careful not to be seen. If they could cross the street and get into another store then they would finally exit to the alley behind the bookstore. “It looks like the zombies are using the two streets bordering us to go back to the mansion and not using this street,” Lucky said. But at that moment they heard banging at the back door and the small file cabinet began to inch across the floor. They could hear the frenzy of zombies outside. “We need to kill these zombies before they bring on more. Caleb, get at the front of the store and take down the first one that comes into the main room from the back. We will stand aside until you take your shot.” He looked at Brandon and stood on one side of the doorway leading to the back, “You ready?”
Morgan stood beside Caleb to let him take his shot. He planned to step forward to help Lucky and Brandon with the Z’s that followed after Caleb took his zombie down. They did not know how many there would be but he calculated that it would have taken seven to ten of them to break down the back gate, unless in his haste Brandon hadn’t latched it fully. They heard the file cabinet move again and then the shuffling of rotting feet cross the floor followed by moans. The moans soon turned to growls as the Z’s caught the scent of humans nearby. Caleb took his stance and slowly let out his breath but then they heard a ruckus in the storeroom as if a fight had broken out. A zombie came into view and Caleb pulled the trigger trying not to let the noise distract him. He hit the zombie in the eye socket and it immediately fell to the floor. Another zombie came to the doorway but as Lucky reached up to grab its hair someone’s hand appeared out of nowhere to stab the zombie in the side of the neck. Lucky yanked his hand back and looked down as another zombie fell at his feet. He stomped on the zombie’s head and then looked up at Brandon who was in total confusion. Suddenly a zombie’s body went flying through the air to land at Caleb’s feet but the body was so dry-rotted that the skeleton broke into pieces that scattered across the floor. The head tried to bite Caleb’s ankle but he kicked it like a football and it flew into the air to shatter against the wall above Brandon’s head. Bra
ndon began to shake his shirt and head free of bone particles and dust.
The place suddenly went quiet but they could hear heavy breathing in the next room, followed by low whispering. They heard claws tapping across the tile floor and then Mutt appeared in the doorway. The dog stood for a moment and after quickly taking in the scene he went over to Caleb who grinned and began to pet Mutt. Next in the doorway was Mary with her knife drawn. She looked left and right to see Brandon and Lucky standing on each side of the doorway, then walked forward toward Caleb. “She didn’t want to come,” Mary said. “I made her.”
Roxanne came to the doorway with her hand on her holster and her staff at her side. “What the hell have you fools gotten yourselves into this time? Leaving a gate open behind you? Haven’t you learned to not box yourself in? You’re a waste of my time and I’m sorry I ever put the idea of the mansion before you.”
“We didn’t use the flare to signal you,” Lucky said with sarcasm. “We used it to draw the Z’s back to the mansion. You were wrong on your calculations and they are still very active. Either that or you were wrong about them circling every few blocks to rotate back to the mansion.”
Roxanne’s eyes bore a hole through Lucky’s head, “You are within the two block zone. This is their territory. You should know where you are at all times.”
Morgan quickly stepped forward. “Nevertheless, we are here. We were going to the bookstore by cutting through the stores of each block until we reached the alley. But that flare has probably burned out by now. Shall we go back, gentlemen?”
“No, we have come this far,” Lucky said. “It’s only one more store, one more street and then we will be on the alley. I say we go forward.” Everyone was quiet, not wanting to interfere with Roxanne and Lucky who always seemed to be going in different directions.
“There’s an apartment upstairs,” Roxanne finally said. “From there we may find access to the roof or attic where we can assess the situation.” She turned and went into the back of the store, stepping over zombie bodies as she went. She opened a door to see wooden stairs and began to climb them. Morgan and Caleb immediately followed with Mary behind them but Lucky and Brandon looked at each other and hesitated.
“One of us should stay down here and guard the door,” Brandon said. But at that moment Mutt came through and went outside the broken door to sit on the back step watching the yard. As Brandon and Lucky stepped over the bodies they counted four. With the two that fell through the doorway and the one that flew at Caleb that would make a total of seven Z’s. Caleb had taken down one which meant that Mary and Roxanne had taken on six Z’s.
Brandon looked up from the bodies with wide eyes. “She came in from behind,” Lucky said, knowing what Brandon was thinking. “The zombies were intent on our smell and never knew that Roxanne and Mary were there. It was easy pickings.” He looked out the door to see that the gate was closed and could see the top of Roxanne’s red truck parked against it. They went up the stairs to join the group and saw that it had a neatly intact apartment. At the same time they caught a glimpse of Roxanne stepping out onto a fire escape.
She looked up and took hold of the railing. “I think that we can get on the roof from here.”
Lucky quickly reached out and grabbed her arm, “Hold on there. Let Brandon and I go up. No reason for you to.” Roxanne really didn’t want to attempt to climb the railing so she stepped aside to let Brandon and Lucky come out the window.
“Do you have a scope with you?” she asked and handed hers over with a sigh when they said that they did not. Then she went back inside and Morgan asked if she had searched the apartment. “No. I haven’t been here before but if you see anything that you need you can search while they are on the roof.”
Morgan looked puzzled. “Then how did you know that there was an apartment up here?”
“By the old smell of cooked food and I noticed that there wasn’t a microwave downstairs,” Roxanne said as she picked up a small statue of an angel with a dog at her feet. She smiled as it was the first useless trinket that had captured her attention since finding the ring. This she would not trade off. This she would always take with her.
There was a scuffle as Brandon and Lucky climbed off the roof and came in through the window by the fire escape, excited about something. “You won’t believe this,” Brandon said, “but someone is leaning out the upper window of the mansion waving a white t-shirt at us.”
CHAPTER 8
“That’s impossible,” Mary said. “We have been checking the place for a couple of weeks now and never saw any movement.”
“It must have been the flare,” Morgan said. “He could have seen the gate open a few times when you were testing the remote, but he never saw you.”
“Well he saw us on the roof. Maybe he thought the flare was a signal to him and stayed at the window longer this time,” Brandon said. “He was definitely signaling to us and took a chance by waving that white shirt out the window.”
“We don’t know how many there are,” Roxanne said as she turned from the window after checking the street for zombies. “This changes things, somewhat. There could be women and children or there could be a gang of thugs but the fact that we have not seen any movement leads me to believe that it would be a small group.”
“It could be a trap,” Lucky said.
Roxanne slowly shook her head while in deep thought. “I don’t feel a trap here.”
“We have walked into traps before, Roxanne,” Lucky said. Roxanne quickly looked up and studied Lucky. She felt a prickling on her skin that always warned her of danger. What did that remark mean? Was he giving himself away, dropping clues that he knew of her condition well before they met her at the plantation? Was he a part of that trap that she fell into, if that is what had happened? She did not trust his story that she had been taken by bandits who wanted to take revenge on him. They would have wanted him to see what was done to her, and instead they had released her by floating her downstream in a canoe where she was found by Shoes. How did she know that it wasn’t Lucky himself who had done this, away from the others and then made up the story about bandits. She always felt this warning, this suspicion around Lucky and it made her uncomfortable. She knew her reactions well enough that something was a lie about Lucky. He was hiding something.
She realized that others were speaking and drew her gaze away from Lucky. “It’s too late to do anything today,” Brandon was saying. “The plan of two vehicles is still a good one, with Roxanne blocking the gate with her truck and then following us on foot behind our car. Now that we know someone is in there perhaps they’ll meet us at the back door and we won’t need the Delivery Key.”
“Key?” Roxanne questioned raising her eyebrows.
“Yes, I found it in the house next to Lance’s place,” Lucky said. “That’s where I got the car. It didn’t appear as if you had searched the place so I looked around after I got the car started.”
“No, I hadn’t searched those places other than knowing that the one house had a zombie, the one that Brandon killed. I planned on using those places to house any stragglers that I happen to meet and who needed a safe house. When were you going to tell me about the key?”
“Could we talk about this at some other place?” Mary asked. “We are too surrounded by Z’s to my liking and I’d like to move on. We will take you to your car and we can all meet back at Jenny.” Roxanne looked over to see that Mary’s backpack was bulging and that she was carrying a pillowcase with more items. Caleb had done the same while everyone was distracted.
Without further discussion they all went downstairs to see that Mutt was still sitting at the door. They stopped and listened but all was quiet. “The truck is up against the gate. You open the gate and the truck door will open into the yard, protecting those that get in the cab,” Roxanne said. “ I suggest that me, Mary, Mutt and Caleb get in the cab and I will pull the truck forward so the rest of you can jump in the back. I’m low on gas. We were searching for more when we
saw the flare, but I have enough to get us out of this area.” She walked over to the gate and turned to the two teens. “It’s going to be crowded. Someone will need to hold Mutt while I drive.”
Everything went according to plan with Roxanne moving the truck away from the fence to give them room to jump in. Brandon and Lucky automatically reached down to help Morgan since climbing was difficult for him after he had broken his leg in the well. They were thankful that Roxanne had added a mattress to the truck bed since she hit and ran over a few zombies when she turned the corner.
The truck was just starting to sputter when they reached the Bait Shop. Morgan exchanged Roxanne’s empty gas can for a full one after making sure that they had enough for their own vehicle. Roxanne suggested that Mary ride with the four of them during the next day’s raid on the mansion but Morgan said that Caleb would not be going with them. “Caleb will take Jenny back to the paper mill if anything should go wrong,” Morgan said looking at Caleb’s disappointment. “I know it will be hard on you son to pilot Jenny alone and you may make a few mistakes but I have confidence in you.” Caleb was not happy with that decision and intended on convincing his father otherwise once they were back on Jenny and out of Mary’s hearing. He did not like how his father had just embarrassed him in front of everyone.