Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (6 page)

The day had started when Roxanne came upon an argument between Ed and Morgan which had probably lingered from Ed’s remark of the previous day. “How are we supposed to fix this place up if we don’t know what we have for tools?” Morgan was yelling. She intervened and asked what was going on.

“Ed won’t let me inside the mechanic bay,” Morgan said. Ed glared at Roxanne silently asking her to take his side.

“That is Ed’s home, Morgan. He lives there, bunks there. You can’t ask someone if you can search their home. If you need something just tell Ed and he will let you know if we have such a tool, right Ed?” She glared back but Ed looked away. “Right Ed!” Ed mumbled compliance and shuffled away.

Later Cami approached Roxanne and asked what sections of the park had been left unsearched. Not wanting Cami to know of the back entrance she pointed in the opposite direction and said, “We haven’t searched the pavilion, the concert hall, the music hall or the entertainment section. We know there aren’t any Ze’s because they would have heard us by now, unless they are locked in somewhere.” Cami said she would get some help and check it out.

“Oh Roxanne”, Sally hailed. “Could I ask you to show me the cafeteria and what you have in the pantry? I’m a good cook and it will be nice to cook with propane again.” She must have seen Roxanne’s look of concern. Pantry or not, food still needed to be rationed. “Oh, we will be contributing” Sally added. “The men are good at hunting.”

She met Brandon on the path coming from the bus where he had retrieved more items from their vehicles. “Roxanne, why did you jamb the bus into the tunnel rather than park it outside the tunnel where you could move it out of the way to bring in vehicles? Then move it back against the tunnel when you want to secure the place again. The way you have it now, you’ve cornered yourself in here with no way out.”

Roxanne could feel the exhaustion starting to creep up and her patience wearing thin. “Because I was alone Brandon, without a running vehicle, with only a dog to guide me and I did the best I could.” She turned and walked away with Brandon staring after her.

Unknown to her Brandon spoke to Gene and Morgan of this conversation. “I don’t think Roxanne likes the idea of taking us in.”

Gene put his hand on Brandon’s shoulder, “This was their home Brandon, and right now I’m sure that they feel we are guests here. Let’s walk softly until they get to know us.”

Morgan objected, “We can contribute and I can’t say that they did a very good job of securing this place.”

“Let’s not tell them that Morgan. There is only the three of them and let’s face it, they’ve had to deal with Ed.” They started laughing but cut it short when Ed walked by.

Lucky walked up to Roxanne’s porch and took a seat on the bench beside her rocker, “Very productive day, don’t you think?” Roxanne cut her eyes at him but did not give an answer. “OK, this will make you feel better” as he pulled two bottles from his satchel and put them before her. “Gin and Tonic, your favorite. And it hasn’t been opened so we won’t get sick from gut rot.”

“Where on earth did you find those?” she asked.

“At the Entertainment Section” he got up to get two glasses from the cabin. “Cami and I checked it out and the bar hasn’t been touched.”

Morgan realized why Roxanne and Lucky had kept Ed around when Ed managed to start the bus. He had been working on it for two days but only grumbled when anyone asked him about his progress. There had been a group meeting and everyone agreed that the entrance could not be permanently blocked, thus impeding a speedy exit if necessary. The bus loudly backfired amongst a cloud of smoke and Morgan could hear Ed stripping the gears trying to get the transmission to cooperate. Everyone held their breath as the bus moved a foot, then another and finally they cheered as Ed managed to catch a gear to back the bus out of the tunnel. Morgan couldn’t help himself and gave Ed a thumbs-up as he went past. Ed was beaming with his own success and nodded back to Morgan.

Ed waited until everyone drove their car into the park and was about to move the bus across the entrance when Morgan pounded on the door, “Let me in. I’ll ride with you and help guide the bus against the wall.”

Ed opened the doors but didn’t move the bus any further. “I don’t know if this is a good idea Morgan. This bus is in bad shape. The clutch is stripped and once I park it we may not be able to move it again. The clutch isn’t something they would have parts for in the park. They would have taken the bus into town for something that big.”

“Well” Morgan replied, “We can’t leave the entrance open. Let’s just follow the instructions we were given and let the group know tonight what your suspicions are.” Later that day Morgan saw Gene and gave him a heads-up on the potential problem with the bus.

“There must be another entrance” Gene said. “A place this big would have a separate road for deliveries.”

“Well, didn’t you say that you found Ed clearing out brush to access a road?” Morgan asked.

“Yeah, but that was just a dirt road and not much of one. Was probably used for utility purposes like the power lines. Could even be a logging trail or a dirt bike trail. Not something I would want the cars on. We’ll bring it up at council tonight.”

Roxanne was directing the cars into places inside their barrier when she saw Ed coming back from parking the bus. “That was a good job you did Ed. Made me proud.”

Ed told her of the condition of the bus. “They are gonna’ bring it up at the council tonight. They’re gonna’ look for another way out.”

Roxanne stopped in her tracks, “What?”

“Yeah, I heard Morgan tell Gene about it. Gene said there must be a service road. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that instead of cutting brush to some dirt trail. Why didn’t you think of that Roxanne?”

Roxanne caught up with Lucky before the council meeting and pulled him aside. Those meetings had been awkward since they were conducted by Gene and she did not feel part of their group. She would let Gene conduct his meeting and would give out an answer only when he directed a question to her. Lucky was more comfortable with them but Roxanne had too many secrets to hide including her burning desire in the past to kill Ed. Only Lucky knew of the car outside the gate and Ed was not aware that Lucky knew of his own secret car.

She pulled Lucky aside and said, “I’m feeling boxed in here. How far do we go withholding information or giving misinformation?”

Lucky gave her a confused look, “what do you mean? I haven’t been withholding information, have you? Although I noticed that you are rather withdrawn from the conversation at the meetings.”

“Ed overheard Morgan and Gene talking about finding a service road, a back entrance and we haven’t told them of the car that we have stashed outside the gates. Also, I’ve been sheltering Ed from them finding out about his car” Roxanne said.

“I’d completely forgotten about our car with all the excitement around here so I don’t think it will come across as hiding anything from them. If they ask us about a back entrance we tell them the truth. In fact we could use their help if the road needs to be cleared. We haven’t checked and if any trees are down or portions of the road have washed away we will need extra hands to clear it. As far as Ed’s car, they have plenty of their own so I don’t think there is a need to mention it. If they discover it I’ll act just as surprised as they since Ed thinks he has been successful in hiding it from me. Are you worried as to Ed’s reaction when the subject comes up about a back entrance?” Lucky asked.

Roxanne shook her head, “He never asked me what happened back in that town when I disappeared and he never told you that he had been traveling with a wife. He has seen that I have changed but I wouldn’t want to air our dirty laundry in front of the council”.

“Roxanne everyone is beginning a new life in this unknown world. Why start out with lies and deceptions?” Lucky questioned.

She smiled, “That’s the point Lucky. People can be whoever they want to be, whatever they want to be. And I choose not to be Roxanne Carter, wife of Eddie Carter and right now they don’t know that we are married.”

Lucky’s face lit up in a big grin, “OK, I can understand that. And I know that they will find it curious that you are not sharing quarters with him or that I am spending a lot of time on your front porch at night.” He reached out for her hand and she was surprised at how comfortable she felt in putting her hand in his. “If the subject of a back exit comes up we tell them of the service road and our car. To hell with Ed. I would say that you gave yourself a ZA divorce a long time ago.”

They turned and walked back toward the compound. When they were out of sight the bushes along the path trembled and KC stepped out onto the path. She stared after them with a smile and an evil gleam in her eye. “Lucky”, she repeated over and over again.

There never was a problem at the meeting that night since neither Ed nor KC appeared. Attendance at the meetings was not mandatory and since the group consisted of only ten people communication was not a problem. But it was an opportunity to gather and exchange ideas and to be among other people as a pretense that the world was normal.

When Gene asked about a back entrance Roxanne openly admitted that she had it locked and that the key was with her. She offered to show him the proper path to access it the next day and volunteered the information that she had a car parked at a distance outside. On that statement Brandon wrinkled his brow and asked, “Outside? Wouldn’t it have been better to keep the car inside in case of being overrun by zombies? How do you know that the distance between the gate and the car wouldn’t also be filled with Ze’s?”

“I had it inside the gate at one time” Roxanne answered. “It wasn’t the Ze’s I was concerned about. It was other…other humans. If I thought of this place as a possible shelter, so could others. And humans want what other humans have. If my biggest fear came from that direction then hopefully I could escape to a car that they were unaware of, but if the car was on the grounds they could easily find it.”

Brandon nodded, “I see” but he was not satisfied with her answer.

They spoke of sightings of Ze’s, that they were still manageable but they had noticed an increase and all agreed that it was probably the Ferris wheel that Ed had started which had attracted those in the near vicinity. Hopefully the Ze’s would start to thin out again. They spoke of taking the Ferris wheel apart and stacking the steel seats as part of the barrier. They could use the steel frame on the fence as stakes if Ed could take it apart.

Although Lucky had a room in the Admin Building he always walked Roxanne back to her cabin after a meeting, which left the group alone to talk about them. “Did anyone notice that Roxanne always uses the word
humans
instead of
people
?” Brandon asked.

“Yeah, I caught that,” Morgan answered. “Not just this time, but in the past too.”

“So what’s the problem?” Cami asked.

“The problem” Brandon replied, “is that she doesn’t see us as people, she sees us as a species. If the ZA has drained her of all emotion toward mankind then she could see any one of us as expendable.” He looked at Sally and Cami, “Have either one of you had a personal talk with Roxanne to get some insight into her inner depth?” They both shook their head.

“I’m not the girl talk kind,” Cami said. “I’m not the one to try to get inside Roxanne’s head. I think she doesn’t trust us yet, probably doesn’t trust anyone. She got here alone, began building the place alone, has survived alone and we don’t know what she experienced along the way. Hell, we’ve all been that route, have our own stories. Personally, I don’t care to hear any more of them and perhaps Roxanne is the same way. ‘Get over it and get on with your life’ type of attitude.”

Sally got up and sighed, “I’ll see if I can approach her, but I’m not picking up any hostility from her. Withdrawn yes, but depending on how long she’s been alone it may just be that she’s trying to adapt to having people around again. By the way, anyone know where KC is?”