Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (30 page)

She tried the ignition but there was dead silence. She didn’t have any reason to but she turned the ignition off and then tried again. This time the car turned over causing both she and Lucky to jump with surprise. Lucky came over and said, “They couldn’t have just arrived here. That zombie was too decomposed.”

“Then someone has been keeping it in good working order.” Roxanne looked down at the gauge and saw that it still had a quarter of a tank of gas. “You didn’t see any signs of someone living inside the house?”

At that moment they heard a “Toot-Toot” from Jenny which was Brandon’s signal that something or someone was approaching. They ran to the end of the driveway so they could see down the road toward the river and saw a small figure standing on the wharf waving at Brandon. Brandon was pointing to the person to look behind her. Once she turned around and saw Lucky and Roxanne at the houses she started walking towards them. She had a fishing rod in one hand and a tackle basket thrown over one shoulder, wearing baggie trousers and a man’s long-sleeve shirt over her T-Shirt. A hat shaded her face but they could see the grey hair escaping from around the brim.

They started walking toward her to shorten the distance when suddenly Mutt bounced out from between them and ran to the woman. She froze, not knowing what to expect, but Mutt ran two circles around her and then stood up on his hind legs to lick her face. She started laughing and almost stumbled from the weight of Mutt’s paws on her shoulders.

“Mutt!” Roxanne yelled. “Mutt Down!”, but she had to physically remove Mutt and hold him to contain his excitement.

“Hi, I’m Martha,” the woman said still chuckling. “Do I know you because your dog definitely seems to know me?”

“I’m Roxanne,” she reached out to shake the woman’s hand. “Mutt’s previous owner was an older woman. I believe he made the association when he saw you and became confused. This is Lucky and the man on the boat tooting the horn is Brandon.”

“Well, we better get inside,” Martha said. “I know he was probably being friendly but your friend probably called in zombies with the noise.” They walked to the home with the car outside and she unlocked the front door. The stench of rotten fish immediately insulted their nostrils, causing Roxanne and Lucky to take a step back. Martha turned to look at them, “Yes I know, but I only do it in this house when the danger of zombies is present. I sleep in the other house.” They walked in to see Martha take a fish out of the trout basket and set it on the window sill. Then she closed all the drapes and sat down. “If we talk in whispers they won’t hear us. The smell confuses them and they won’t pick up our scent.”

“How long have you been here Martha?” Roxanne asked.

“I came in last winter with my granddaughter, her husband and my great-grandson. That’s her husband out there in the shed. He got bit almost right away. Pretty much sent my granddaughter over the edge hearing him out there every day. Last month she and David, my great-grandson went out on the rowboat for fish and didn’t come back. They should have been safe as long as they stayed in the boat but maybe they went ashore for late blackberries. I’ve been afraid every day since then that I will see them as a zombie,” her voice cracked and she looked away.

“Why don’t you come with us Martha?” Lucky asked. “We’re going to Lake Pontchartrain to look for a floating casino to live on.”

Martha was shocked, “Are you fools? The whole Gulf is swamped with Ze’s. Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana; Gulfport and Biloxi in Mississippi they all swarmed together to form a devastating herd, not to mention the Florida beach communities that joined them.” Lucky and Roxanne turned to look at one another, more worried about Lake Pontchartrain every day. “If you want to help me,” Martha continued, “the car still runs and I can’t drive. Attempted to, but when I ran over the mailbox out front I knew I would probably kill myself. There’s a country store about two miles up the road before you get to the major highway. I’d like to make a run and see if there is anything left. My granddaughter was making runs to a closer store about a half mile away, but she cleaned that one out and refused to go any further.

After checking all the windows to make sure the outside was clear of zombies Martha said to wait while she got the extra car key from the other house. “That won’t be necessary, Martha” Roxanne dangled the keys in front of her. Martha looked surprised and then realized that the keys came from the body in the shed. “He’s dead then, is he?” she asked. “For good this time?”

Martha asked if they would take the canoe off the car since it was too heavy for her to do. She said she had won medals for her canoeing skills when she was younger and had continued to enjoy the sport. They drove the car down to the wharf and unloaded the canoe, putting it into the water for her. Brandon was not pleased to hear that they would be leaving him but he declined the invitation to go along, not wanting to leave the boat unattended.

As they began driving away with Martha and Mutt in the back seat, Roxanne was starting to fear that Mutt would not want to leave Martha. Mutt was lying with his head in Martha’s lap while she scratched him under the ears. “You said that Bill was bitten shortly after arriving. And he was in the shed all this time without feeding?” Roxanne was still trying to determine if zombies had a life span.

“Oh, I’m sure he fed on some animals that went into the place looking for shelter or food,” Martha surmised. “Mice, squirrels, raccoons, possum. It’s not like I checked on him or anything.” She looked out the window, “Only thing I worry about is this winter. None of the homes have fireplaces and things got pretty bad last year.”

“Martha I don’t like leaving you here” Lucky said. “There’s an older gentleman on the northern part of the lake by the name of Joe. He’s also alone. He has a wood stove and he’s also a survivor. If you get into trouble could you canoe that far?”

“Don’t worry about me. It’s yourselves that are heading for trouble. But it’s always good to have a back-up plan. What’s this guy’s name again?” They told her of Joe and his approximate location. “I know that area,” Martha said. “If I left in the morning and continued through the night, depending on moonlight I could be there the next day.” Roxanne turned to look at her and Lucky glanced at her in the rear view mirror. When Roxanne told her that they had already spent two days on the lake on Jenny she laughed and said, “In that old thing? I can overtake her any time.”

They passed the store that Martha said her granddaughter had emptied out and saw two zombies hanging around. They began to pass houses and Lucky asked if her granddaughter had checked any of them out. “No, she never went further than the store. And we didn’t check any of them coming in because the car was already full of supplies. Besides, things were pretty scary back then and Bill didn’t have a gun.”

Hearing that last statement surprised Roxanne and she couldn’t understand why Bill had not revealed to his family that he had a gun in the glove compartment, unless…unless he was saving the bullets to kill a member of the family if they were bitten. But why not tell his wife after he was bitten so she didn’t need to hear him in the shed as a zombie the whole time?

They came to a crossroad and saw the store along with a gas station on the corner but there were five Ze’s milling about. “I don’t like this,” Lucky said. “We have no idea how many are in the store.”

“And I don’t have my staff,” Roxanne said. “It was too awkward to put in the car.”

“There are folding fishing rods in the trunk,” Martha said. “I use them to poke their eyes out. I have two at home so didn’t bother getting more out of the trunk.”

Lucky and Roxanne looked at one another, “Not a bad idea, but first let me run this one over with the car,” Lucky said as he gunned the motor. BAM! Lucky hit the first one with the left fender and saw the zombie break apart before he swerved out of the parking lot to the road again. Then he put it into reverse and backed up to hit the next zombie, BAM! It doubled over the trunk and his head smashed against the car.

“Don’t damage the trunk!” Martha yelled out. Lucky pulled down the road and waited to see if any more zombies came out of the building, but only those last three remained standing and were now following the car.

“OK,” he said. “Let me get the fishing rods out and then I’ll drive us back in.”

They found Martha’s method of using the folding fishing rods to poke a zombie’s eye out to be very effective. Once you penetrated one eye it would throw them off balance and when they made a second lunge at you they would miss. It was rather messy however since removing the rod often pulled the eye socket out, along with a gory mess. Lucky was actually able to kill one zombie by pushing the rod so far back into the zombie’s head that it penetrated the brain causing it to die instantly.

The door to the store was open so they weren’t expecting much in the way of supplies. Some shampoos, deodorants, toothpaste was about all that was left but they took those. Lucky noticed that there were two cars parked outside and thought that they could have belonged to the zombies when they were still human. If they were bitten perhaps they had loaded their car with some of the store supplies before they turned. A quick inspection showed that he was right and that the cars provided more than the store did. There were cans of soup, stews, tuna, oysters and various crackers in one car. The other car contained water, soda, juices, paper plates and canned fruit. If forced to go on foot again they could use the paper plates to start a camp fire after a rain and everything was wet.

As Roxanne and Martha were transferring things to her car Lucky walked around the outside of the store to see if he could find motor oil for their guns and to keep Jenny running. He saw a skeleton of someone who had been devoured by zombies and noticed the sun glinting off of something by his hand. He walked over to see a gun on the ground but could tell by the condition that it would be useless. He picked it up to check it for ammo and saw that it had two bullets left which he removed and put into his shirt pocket. After that he started walking the area looking for other weapons in the dried grass. He walked as far as a dead tree that looked like it may have been hit by lightning and had some firewood piled up against it.

Behind the firewood he found another skeleton with a rifle. The rifle proved to be empty of ammo but he saw two boxes of bullets stacked up next to the wood pile. The shooter must have sat out here taking out Ze’s and one must have come up behind him. Lucky grabbed the two boxes and then went to the back of the store where he found a case of motor oil. Suddenly a vision of Roxanne hiding the gun that she found in the car came back to him. He was looking in the window of the house at the time and saw her reflection as she did it, angered that she was still hiding things from him. He took some of the oil cans out of the case and put the boxes of bullets in the bottom, then sat the oil on top of them. As he picked up the case his heart was suddenly heavy with sorrow. What had become of them hiding things from each other? Was Roxanne planning on abandoning him and Brandon using the same technique as when she left Ed? He didn’t know what she was up to but he decided that he couldn’t be deceitful with his team.

As he walked to the front of the store Roxanne was putting the last of the groceries in their car and asked where he had been. “I was looking for motor oil and found two skeletons. It looks as if they were shooting Ze’s when they died. Their guns have been out in the elements too long to be useful, but I did find two boxes of ammo for our rifles.” Roxanne’s face lit up with the news.

On the way back Martha said, “I hope you plan on staying anchored until it rains. You are about to leave the lake and enter the creek. At the current water level Jenny will have her bottom tore out. If I can’t talk you out of going at all, then at least wait until you have a chance to make it.”

“I think it is an excellent idea,” Roxanne said. “Until then you can have dinners with us and maybe sleep on the boat where you will be safe. At least have a couple of good night’s sleep, and we would enjoy your company. Other than Joe, it’s been a long, long time since we met friendly people. I’m surprised that you haven’t been raided by now.”

“Most people don’t know that road and there’s a sign that says ‘Dead End’ so they don’t bother,” Martha said. “But I’ll take you up on your offer. I’ll bring my shaving kit and take that beard off your face Lucky, you and your friend on board. I’m a hell of a good barber.”