by Diane Butler
Roxanne looked away. “I will admit that there are times when someone or something seems familiar. When Brandon turned the staff over to me it felt natural that it be there in my hands, that it was mine. That it was something from the past. Once, I had a brief glimpse of Caleb and I walking together. I do not know the time or place, but it was from the past. Fighting a zombie is familiar although I have never fought one in the bayou.” She smiled. “Perhaps traveling on Jenny will also feel right.”
***
It was as Morgan predicted and Lucky elected to stay behind in Mamou. He and Karen had moved the sailboat to the dock in town where they would continue to work on it. Lance, Gretchen and Larry accompanied Morgan, Caleb and Brandon. Mary and Roxanne met the riverboat and had both the pirogue and power boat tied up to Jenny’s sides. Roxanne had a big smile as she joined Brandon in the pilothouse. “Welcome Aboard,” he said and returned the smile. It was so nice having her there standing beside him again. He looked at her and became flustered, not knowing what further to say so he kept quiet leaving Roxanne to her own thoughts. Perhaps she would remember something, he hoped. After thirty minutes of Roxanne standing there in silence Gretchen and Larry entered the bridge and introduced themselves but Roxanne appeared to become shy and looked away with a barely whispered “hello” in return. Brandon had not seen this action from her before and became confused. He looked at Gretchen and Larry who also appeared to be uncomfortable and nodded for them to leave the bridge.
“Is there something wrong, Roxanne?” he asked.
“I am not comfortable around strangers. I don’t know how to make ‘small talk’.”
“Would you like to try Jenny and take the wheel?” Brandon asked, changing the subject. She shook her head. “No, I have been watching you pilot her. In truth, I am comfortable here on deck. It feels right, it feels…familiar.” And for the next three days that is where Roxanne stayed, by Brandon’s side on the bridge, sometimes taking the helm sometimes going out on the bow and removing the braid out of her hair to let the wind blow through it. Brandon would watch her standing there like a nautical figurehead carved into the bow and he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms.
Roxanne was so engrossed in Jenny that she abandoned Mary’s care to Morgan and Caleb. The only attention she gave was to her two canines which stayed by her side. She made sure they were fed and watered and both slept on the floor of her cabin when she went to her lower bunk at night. Mary had taken the top bunk and Roxanne knew she did not need to worry about Caleb and Mary slipping off to be alone. Roxanne would forget to eat and relied on Brandon to remind her that they needed a break or Gretchen would bring them food to the bridge.
Finally Morgan drew Mary aside. “What is going on with Roxanne?” he asked. “I have never seen her like this before. She is so silent and preoccupied with her own thoughts. She barely notices Lance or Gretchen and Larry. Hell, barely notices that the three of us are here,” he nodded to Mary and Caleb as they all sat together in the lounge. “Has she said anything to you at night when the two of you are alone?”
Mary shook her head, “No. She talks to her dogs, soothing them at night before she retires. I just assumed that she was tired from training on the bridge. She is usually very bossy of me, giving me instructions or information all the time to keep me trained on survival. But I guess she is out of her element without her herbs or hunting. She was always pointing out effective plants or how to trap an animal or what to beware of. None of that has happened since we boarded Jenny and I assumed that Roxanne was learning everything. Roxanne always wants to know as much as she can when in a different place. She never wants to let her guard down or to feel helpless so I thought she was just gathering as much information as she could from Brandon.”
That night Mary woke to see the door of their cabin open silently for Roxanne to quietly slip in. This was surprising since the two of them had gone to bed together and she had not heard Roxanne get up. Mary watched as Roxanne pulled their duffle bags from under the lower bunk. She could not see what Roxanne was doing so she reached up to turn on the lamp. “No, don’t do that,” Roxanne whispered.
“What are you doing?” Mary whispered in return. Roxanne stood up so she could talk in a low tone to Mary in the upper bunk. “Something’s wrong. I could feel it in Brandon today late this afternoon and he dropped anchor earlier than usual. He didn’t say anything but I could see and feel it in him. Something has changed or caught his eye although I looked over the landscape carefully and I couldn’t see anything alarming. But he has been this route before and I have not. It is all new to me. Perhaps he is unsure and that is why he didn’t tell me. Perhaps he did not want to worry me, but I want to be prepared. I went to the galley and took some extra food items that I put into our duffle bags. When it is my shift tonight I will put one bag in the pirogue and one in the motor boat. I suggest you keep your knife on you at all times in case we need to abandon ship and cut the boats loose.”
Mary was alarmed and sat up. “What do you think it is?” Roxanne shook her head, “I don’t know. I’m not even sure that Brandon knows. It was a feeling that started to come over him and I could see that he was confused and trying to figure it out. Perhaps he’s just lost and doesn’t know how he made the wrong turn. But I don’t leave my fate to others and I wanted us to be prepared. Had you noticed any difference in Morgan or Caleb tonight?”
Mary shook her head, “No. In fact Morgan was wondering why you have been so quiet these last days. Have you been remembering anything?”
Roxanne was quiet and for a moment she put her head down. “I knew the layout of Jenny,” she said as if sharing a confidence, a secret that she had just discovered. “I knew where our rooms would be and knew each cupboard on the bridge and what they would hold. I have not been below to the engine room but I’m sure it will all be familiar to me too. I think it was Brandon who once told me that I had discovered Jenny and I feel that he is telling the truth in that. Jenny is….special and this is the only place other than the bayou that feels like home to me. It must have been a good home, a good place because I feel happy here.”
Mary reached out and put her hand over Roxanne’s in the dark. “I’m happy for you, Roxanne,” she whispered. “I’m glad that the memory was a good one and we weren’t running for the boats to get off. I like it here too. I feel safe here and we are with good people.”
After breakfast the next morning they weren’t on the river more than a half hour when Brandon turned and asked Roxanne if she would send Morgan to the bridge. She hesitated then said, “Something has been wrong since late afternoon yesterday, Brandon. Why won’t you share it with me?”
He turned to her, surprised that she had picked up the vibes then he wondered why he was surprised because it was just like Roxanne to see through him. What was it that Mary once said? She knows everything and Caleb long ago reminded him that Roxanne heard things before others did. Why was it that the children saw these traits in Roxanne while adults thought that they could still con her?
He turned away from her again so she couldn’t see his face. “I’m not sure Roxanne, but Morgan was here with me last and he can confirm whether or not that I’m seeing things.”
Not only did Morgan come to the bridge but he was followed by Mary and Caleb who had become curious. Mary did not tell Caleb of the conversation she had with Roxanne the previous night but she felt that if Brandon was calling Morgan to the bridge then Roxanne would want her to hear what was happening.
“Morgan,” Brandon said. “Look at the waterline. There’s something wrong here. See that mansion on top of that hill?” he gestured. “We talked about that the last time we were here and that we would raid it for supplies on our next trip. I remember a long rolling lawn down to the river with a pier at the end. But now the water is two-thirds up the hill and the pier is gone, underwater probably. Is that how you remember it?”
Morgan studied the house, “Yes I remember it the way you describe.” He shrugged h
is shoulders, “There has been some flooding, that all.”
“But the water isn’t receding,” Brandon said. “I started noticing it yesterday with other places. We should see a higher waterline where the water had been if it was receding.”
“Do you feel any pull on Jenny? An undertow or current?” Morgan asked. Brandon shook his head. “No, it’s completely calm almost like a lake instead of a river.”
Morgan was quiet, rubbing his chin. “I remember some overpasses on the map further down river. Perhaps one of them collapsed and fell in creating a beaver-like dam and blocked the flow of water. Let’s proceed further down river but stay in the middle since we don’t know where the previous river banks are.”
By late morning they came to the restaurant and the area where Lance had caught the wild pigs. By then Lance, Gretchen and Larry were at the bow watching the shoreline. But all they could see was the sign and roof of the restaurant as the rest was underwater. The water went far beyond the restaurant and the area where the pigs had fed was flooded for a far as they could see. “I don’t like this,” Brandon said. “Since we did not explore past this point I’m afraid that Jenny will hit something submerged and damage her paddlewheel or put a hole in her hull. I’m turning her around.”
Everyone was quiet as Brandon concentrated on the river while turning Jenny until Caleb said, “Maybe the earth is sinking and the rivers are rising because of it. Maybe the Ice Cap is melting.”
Shaken, everyone turned to him. “Why would you think of such a thing, son?” Morgan asked.
Caleb shrugged his shoulders. “Well, look at some of the things that we can’t explain. The Z’s are going from east to west and no one knows why. Perhaps the east coast is already slipping underwater. Karen said they should have reached Florida in two days on her sailboat, but they never saw land and she ended up in Louisiana. And that guy in the bunker in Florida that she lost contact with disappeared six months ago. He could be underwater or had to abandon the place because of flooding.”
Everyone was stunned. “I…don’t…think that you need to worry about the Ice Cap, son,” Morgan said. “We would have been notified by the authorities.”
“But would we?” Caleb said. “If it started happening at the same time as the zombie breakout they may have planned to tell us after they got a handle on what was causing the undead to rise again. That news alone was devastating, remember Dad? Every day there were promises that a cure would be found, that the cause would be found. And then the news was filled with cautionary methods to protect ourselves, then notices of where to go to be safe. There was a mass exodus and I’m sure the government wouldn’t have said, ‘Oh, by the way. The Ice Cap is melting.’”
“You’re getting yourself worked up, son,” Morgan said. “We have some flooding here, that’s all.”
There was an awkward silence and finally everyone left the bridge except for Brandon and Roxanne. She stood behind him with her arms crossed and leaned against the cabinets, studying Brandon’s body language. He was still tense and his face had gone pale. A bead of sweat began to form on his forehead. “You do not accept Morgan’s explanation?” she asked.
Brandon jumped, having forgotten that Roxanne was still on deck. He turned to look at her and realized that he had been holding his breath. “No,” he exhaled and returned to his navigation. Roxanne waited and then came forward to stand beside him. “I think Caleb may be closer to the truth,” he said. “The river has been strange for weeks and I kept telling myself that it was my imagination. I even thought that perhaps I was finally losing it in the ZA. When we were rebuilding the pier at the plantation I told everyone that the debris in the river was from a storm on the gulf. But the debris was flowing upriver. Not possible,” he looked over at her. “At times I had vertigo because the river was going the wrong way….the wrong way! I would recognize the shoreline, knew where I was, but the river told me differently. There was no explanation for it unless I was going crazy but apparently Caleb was way ahead of me in noticing the same things and was better at analyzing it. Something is happening to the earth, Roxanne. I didn’t want to frighten anyone and, although Morgan gave an explanation for the current flooding, I think Caleb is closer to being right.”
“A volcanic eruption on the ocean floor?” Roxanne asked.
“Possibly,” Brandon said. “I don’t think it’s the result of nuclear activators exploding or we would have had a nuclear winter for several years. I hate not having communication.”
The discussion was interrupted when Roxanne heard the screech of a hawk in the distance and walked outside the pilothouse to look up at the sky. She watched the hawk for a while and noticed that it was lowering with each circle over Jenny. She grabbed a shirt that someone had thrown over the railing and went down to the bow where she asked Gretchen, Larry and Lance to leave the deck and go inside. She wrapped the shirt around her arm and stood alone while Mary explained to everyone to stay inside while Roxanne worked her magic. Roxanne held out her arm and kept her eye on the hawk as it swiftly zoomed across the deck twice as if checking for danger. Finally it fluttered above her and landed on her protected arm. They watched as they could see Roxanne’s lips moving while she cooed to the hawk although they could not hear her voice. Then Roxanne put her face to the hawk’s feathers and after stroking it a few times she put her arm out for it to fly away.
She took the shirt off her arm as she came into the pilothouse and said in a matter-of-fact tone, “I think we should get back to Mamou. There’s been a fire. I could smell smoke on the hawk’s feathers and she had become familiar with my house.”
***
Maria kept Earl Jr hidden from the community while she attempted to bring his fever down. Her husband said it was just a childhood illness and nothing to be worried about, but she had seen the panic and fear that possessed a neighborhood if they thought someone had the zombie virus. Homes would be burned, whole families killed if it was suspected that a member was ill. One poor woman with morning sickness had been shot down in her front yard as she picked up her morning paper. The government tried to control the rioting, the burnings and the random killings telling citizens that they did not have the facts or a basis for their actions. They were making assumptions based on fear and not logic. But it hadn’t helped. The killings continued and more people turned.
“I wish that Roxanne was here” Maria said to her husband. “Perhaps she would have a potion for fevers since the cold compress doesn’t seem to help.” “Let me get Louise,” Earl said. “You can’t handle this by yourself and perhaps she will have another idea.” But Maria refused and when people asked about Junior’s absence she said that she was home schooling him.
Late in the afternoon on the second day Earl Jr stopped breathing. Earl had not come home yet and Maria was alone with her tears and grief. She did not scream or wail but gathered her child in her arms to hold him close and cried over him. She would let Earl finalize the death but was confident that she had at least an hour with her son before he would turn. But she was wrong. Within twenty seconds Earl Jr turned and being held so close to Maria’s neck he immediately ripped out her throat. When Earl arrived home and opened the back door Maria attacked him with such force that she knocked him out into the yard. As Earl Jr had done she went for his throat and he immediately died. But she did not consume him. Once he was dead the zombie Maria was no longer interested and got up to turn to the sound of laughter in the next yard.
Earl Jr rushed out of the house and together he and Maria advanced toward their neighbors. Within seconds, her husband got up and followed. They were fast and they were strong and the neighbors only had moments to realize that the family they had known for months was not approaching them in a friendly manner. Startled, they froze in place thinking that the three had been injured. Then Maria let out a high-pitched piercing scream like none that they had heard before. They reached for their weapons, but it was too late.
Louise heard the scream and came out on her porch. Rache
l was standing in the street and turned to Louise, “Did you hear that? It sounds as if someone is in trouble. We better alert the working crew. Perhaps a stray zombie has come through the woods.” Louise went back inside to get her gun and join Rachel, leaving the door open. Rachel had her back turned to the houses across the street and never saw the zombies approaching her. Louise turned after retrieving her gun to be confronted by zombies, not by Rachel.
The crew working on the fence began to hear the ear-shattering screams that did not seem human and put goose-bumps on their skin. They looked at one another and grabbed up their weapons to run through the woods toward their residential street. Lucky and Karen were on her sailboat making repairs when Lucky heard gunshots and thought that he could smell smoke. He grabbed his rifle and told Karen to untie the boat while he checked on the community. But Karen objected and grabbed his arm. “No! Stay here with me. Wait for a report.”
“That’s not how we do things here Karen,” Lucky said as he jumped off the boat. “Untie the boat and be ready to sail.” As he was running up the dock Richard came around the street at a full run. When he saw Lucky he began to yell and wave his arms. “Get your boat ready! Get your boat ready!”