Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (16 page)

“No one was conning you, Sally,” Roxanne stood up. “I did arrive alone and had been alone on the road and here for almost a month. Let’s just say that I obtained a divorce ZA style along the way. Right now the issue is Ed and that only Caleb is left on the wall.”

“Mutt is with him,” Morgan said, “but I think we should probably go.”

Everyone including Randy climbed the wall to look down on Ed who was waiting by his car. ‘This is getting good’, Randy thought. ‘These people still have real lives with normal issues.’

Ed stepped away from the car and yelled up to Roxanne. “Roxie, you gotta’ let me in!”

She looked down at him. “And why should I do that Ed?”

“Because you run this place. You own this place! It’s yours and they know it. Come on Roxie! Tell them to let me in!”

Suddenly Lucky grabbed Cami’s arm and whispered, “The back gate! Damn it! He’s a decoy. Let’s hustle.” He motioned to Brandon to follow them. “Let’s get the car. It’s too far to run and they’re probably already working on the chain and lock.” Gene overheard them and nodded his agreement to the plan.

“OK, Roxie!” Ed continued to divert their attention. “If you won’t let me in then come out and join me. We made a good team. We’ll hit the road again and find a better place.”

They ran to the truck and each threw in a satchel equipped with ammo for the weapons they carried. While Lucky drove, Cami and Brandon began putting additional ammo in their clothing in case they could not get back to the truck for more. “They don’t know the layout of the park, which is in our favor,” Lucky said as he drove without the headlights on. “I’ll pull up to the bike trail tunnel and we’ll go by foot through that. It will bring us out at the petting zoo and we’ll get a clear view of the gate. Fan out when we come out of the tunnel, don’t stay in a group. Use the high grass and sheds as cover.”

“Maybe this is the group that Randy was talking about,” Brandon said as they got out of the truck to run through the tunnel.”

“Maybe,” Lucky said. “But depending on how many there are I’d like to take one alive so we can question him as to whether more are camped out in the vicinity.”

They came out of the tunnel to see that the gate had already been cut and that a truck was driving through. Lucky ran ahead through the tall grass with Cami fanning to his left and Brandon to his right. Lucky knew he couldn’t let that truck get further into the park and jeopardize a battle with the rest of the group. He could see two men in the cab of the truck and one in the bed behind a machine gun that was mounted on the frame. He threw himself to the ground to avoid being seen by the headlights as the truck swung around to follow the service road, and then took aim at the driver who had his window down.

The sound echoed throughout the countryside when Lucky pulled the trigger, followed by rapid gunfire from the mounted machine gun. Gene had kept Ed busy talking so he wouldn’t notice that part of the group was missing from the entrance but there was no mistaking that a gun battle was taking place. Roxanne made a dash for the ladder but Gene grabbed her arm and stopped her. “No, they could be trying to draw us away from the entrance, knowing that we would all rush to gunfire. Let’s wait and see if headlights appear on the highway below.”

“Jesus Gene,” Roxanne said trying to pull her arm away as she continued to hear gun fire. “That’s a heavy gun fight going on back there. Let me go.”

“Car coming!” Morgan shouted. “Caleb, you and Randy go to the shed below for rifles and ammo and bring them up. Then I want Caleb to go the Admin Bldg. and wait for me there.” “No, dad. I want to stay and fight” Caleb objected.

Gene interjected, “Morgan, if I may? Caleb, after you bring up the weapons I want you to go down and make sure no one comes through that bus. You know what we had planned. You know where the cord is that we strung the grenades on. If anyone comes through on that bus it means we were no longer able to defend it. Do you understand me?” Caleb was wide eyed with the implication, but he nodded agreement. “You blow it then you take your dirt bike and go through that portion of the fence that Ed had been clearing. Use the dirt trail and get as far away as you can.

“Shit” Morgan said. “Make that two vehicles coming in.” At that moment Ed jumped in the car and released the trunk latch, allowing two men to jump out.

The truck slowly rolled to a stop after Lucky shot the driver but the man at the machine gun hardly paused before opening fire. Cami and Brandon flattened out in the tall grass as bullets whipped through the area around them. The man in the passenger seat jumped out and fired a few shots over the hood into the darkness not knowing where the shooter was. Another man not previously seen jumped out of the truck bed and hid behind the fender yelling out, “Hold up. We don’t know what we’re shooting at. Lenny, keep using the machine gun as cover fire as we fan out.”

Since Brandon had moved to the right he was closest to the open gate when he saw movement, nothing more than shadows, along the chain links. It was a second group of what looked like four more men dressed in black, very silent and very quick. Brandon decided to concentrate on those four while Cami and Lucky took care of the truck. If this second group was undetected by them then Cami and Lucky could easily be surrounded. He quickly took out one man with his rifle but the other three immediately flattened into the grass and were lost from sight. Brandon crouched and ran to a small shed where he could stand up and get a better view. He studied the grass in the moonlight until he saw one section swaying, coming directly toward him. He calculated and took aim to where a person’s head would be if lying down in the grass before he pulled off another shot. The grass stopped moving, but he could not see the same pattern elsewhere and became concerned that the other two were creeping up on Lucky. He moved to the other side of the shed to get a better view of Lucky’s position.

When Cami heard the man’s order given to lay down cover fire she immediately sprayed a round of bullets into the body of the truck, forcing the men to hide behind it again. Unfortunately that brought her position to the attention of the machine gunner and bullets began to wiz all around her. She heard a couple of rapid shots from Lucky’s direction and took the opportunity to crawl behind a shed for more cover. Each time Lucky drew fire she would roll out from behind the shed and lay down more fire at the machine gunner until she finally saw him topple over. That left the two men behind the truck, that is if they were still there and had not moved off into the woods. She reloaded then came out running to her left to swing a wide circle around the truck.

Lucky saw Cami make an assault on the truck after taking down the gunner. Not knowing where Brandon was he made the same wide circle to the right of the truck, looking for the man who had previously given orders. Lucky was just coming out of the tall grass and onto the asphalt road when he heard the crunch of gravel behind him. He swung around to see a hooded man in black raising his arm to stab him when a shot rang out, tearing through the man’s throat. He looked up to see Brandon in the distance frantically pointing toward Cami. Another man in black was approaching her from behind but was upon her before Lucky could fire. Cami must have felt his approach at the last moment because she turned in time to throw up her gun and block his arm, then hit him in the face with the butt of her rifle. The man went down behind the tall grass and Lucky saw Cami continue to pound the butt of her gun into what he assumed was the guy’s face.

Brandon caught up with Lucky and they both ran over to Cami. “There are still two,” Lucky said. “These two were not in the truck.”

“No,” Brandon said, “They were outside the fence and came in when you and Cami were laying down fire on the truck. There’s been gunfire at the front gate for a long time too.” At that point they heard screams in the woods nearby and single shots rang out. Brandon turned to look back at the gate and saw that zombies were starting to come through. “Lucky, come with me to hold off the zombies while Cami backs their truck up to the gate. It is only a temporary solution, but we need to get back to the front entrance. I don’t think we need to worry about those other two right now.”

The plan was for Gene to shoot out the window of the car as it entered the circle and when the occupants abandoned the vehicle that Sally, Roxanne and Morgan would pick off the stragglers. But they hadn’t expected a machine gun to be mounted on the cab of a truck, nor at the speed in which it approached. As the truck came into the circle it turned so the machine gun could take out all the windows in the bus. The night was filled with the sound of breaking glass; of bullets hitting metal and everyone flattened into the grass before being able to fire off a single shot.

The driver did not see Ed’s car in time to stop and smashed into it, scattering the two armed men who Ed had released from the trunk. Their confusion temporally gave the group their advantage back. They poured lead into the truck before anyone could get out but had to duck again as the second truck burst into view. It stopped before entering the circle to lay rapid fire back at them. Two men got out of the first vehicle and also began shooting at them. Dirt and pebbles kept flying up into their faces and it was becoming difficult to see. Sally cried out and Roxanne turned to see that blood was streaming down Sally’s cheek.

Gene knew that they were attempting to keep them hunkered down so that some of them could enter the bus and gain access to the other side. If that happened then Caleb would blow the bus which could take down the tunnel and them with it. But by lying in the grass their view was restricted to the outer portion of the parking lot and he had no idea if anyone had approached the bus or how close they were to the fence-line. The rapid gunfire was keeping him from crawling further out so he could see what was happening below him.

Caleb was kneeling behind a cement barrier thirty feet outside of the tunnel with his hand on the cord that would set off the grenades. He was so afraid that he trembled. No matter how many zombies he had killed, how many times he had hidden or run he still became mad at himself for being afraid. He thought he would have been over it by now since it had been a way of life for him for the last year. He knew what Gene was indicating, that if anyone came out of the bus and through the tunnel that it meant everyone in his group was dead. The thought of being alone in a ZA world frightened him even more. He looked at the cord in his hand and wondered why he was holding it instead of his crossbow. Then it occurred to him that Gene had not expected the windows of the bus to be blown out and just because someone came through the tunnel it did not mean that everyone was dead.

He dropped the cord and pulled his crossbow to him instead, then ran to the mouth of the tunnel and stood behind one of the pillars, keeping his eye on the door of the bus. The inside of the tunnel was dark but he should be able to see the silhouette of anyone who came through the bus and he wanted to be prepared for them. To comfort himself on his inability in the past to make a head shot he reminded himself that this was a human and any arrow that made contact would have an effect.

At that moment he saw movement on the bus. Someone was walking down the aisle to the front of the bus. He told himself to remember his lessons, take the stance, and position yourself. It is just a target and doesn’t need to be a bulls-eye. Just hit the target. He let out his breath because his heart was beating so fast and knew that in a short period of time his legs would become wobbly on him again. He took aim at the center of the doorframe and when the shadow stepped down he released the arrow. ‘Thump’ and a scream followed. “Yes,” Caleb whispered. He quickly put another arrow in the shaft.