Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (9 page)

“Caleb, come here and sit beside me for a minute” she asked while patting the bench.

Shit
, he thought,
another adult lecture. You can do it, blah, blah, blah
. He plopped down on the bench as if he had just been told that he couldn’t have his PlayStation that night.

Roxanne rested her elbows on her knees and looked off into the distance. “Do you know why I sent the others away?” He shook his head glad that she wasn’t looking him in the eye. “There were so many times I would go into a hardware store or sports store while scavenging and see a crossbow. All I had was a pickaxe which meant I needed to get up close and personal to kill a zombie. I was so scared, Caleb.” This startled Caleb to hear. He became very still and stopped fidgeting. He couldn’t believe that Roxanne had ever been afraid.

“I would see those crossbows but never took one because I didn’t know how to use it. I starved so many times because I couldn’t get close enough to kill a rabbit or squirrel with a pickax and I could see wildlife all around me yet I was useless.” She finally looked over at him but still didn’t straighten up. “I wanted to stay behind with you because I’d like for you to teach me how to use a crossbow. I don’t ever want to be that hungry again.”

“But this is a Junior Crossbow,” Caleb said, “and I’d been taking classes for a year before…..before” he let the sentence trail off. “I was good too and it was the first thing I grabbed when we had to evacuate. But I found shooting a moving target was completely different especially when the target wants to kill you. I know you need to shoot them in the head to kill them but when they’re coming at you I…..I guess I panic and either I miss or I hit them in the chest. Dad says to stop beating myself up because I’m only twelve.”

Roxanne straightened up and looked at the zombies still at the fence, “You’re not twelve, you are more like fourteen.” She looked back at Caleb, “because a twelve year old would not go out into the night with the threat of Ze’s to bring back a rabbit.”

Caleb went red all over and felt his heart drop. “You saw that?”

She nodded. “You teach me to use the crossbow and I won’t tell your father but only this once Caleb. If I see you out there again the deal is off. I won’t be taken advantage of Caleb. During training I’m your pupil but I won’t cover for you like a kid who has slipped out on his parents and wants to use me as an alibi. Do we understand each other?”

He nodded, “Yes. Is the training a secret?” Roxanne smiled. It was the first time he had seen her smile. She was becoming more human to him after their talk and he found he was more comfortable around her now.

“No, Caleb the training isn’t a secret. I don’t care how many people know even if I suck at it. What if we set up some targets, maybe paint something on the side of my cabin and meet for an hour after dinner every night?” The thought excited Caleb. “OK, then let’s see what you can do with the last five Ze’s and then we’ll retrieve the two you already used. They’ll be wondering about us soon.”

CHAPTER 3

K
C stood at a distance watching Sally who was washing her hair. Sally had put a wooden bucket that may have been designed to churn butter next to the well. She filled the bucket with water from the well, washed her hair and was now pouring more water over it to rinse out the soap.

KC had a pair of scissors in her hand and was tapping them against her thigh while she watched Sally. This was a big step for KC but she knew it was the right thing. Sally had been cutting hair for most of the group except for Lucky and Brandon who both wanted to keep their long hair tied back. Roxanne had her black hair cut into a short Egyptian style just below the chin with bangs. Later Roxanne said that she regretted the bangs because they made her face sweat so she began to wear a piece of rawhide around her head. Now she looked more like a native Indian and this was what KC wanted. She was smitten with Lucky but knew that Roxanne was her competition. KC knew she could fight Ze’s as well as Roxanne and felt she was just as pretty so why didn’t Lucky notice her? She couldn’t talk to Lucky, didn’t know how to approach him so that he would take an interest in her. She decided to clean up a little and look more like a woman than a teenager who had been trapped in K-mart and afraid to move.

Once Sally began to dry her hair KC came out of the bushes and approached her. She held the scissors out and said just one word, “Cut”.

Sally was startled. KC seldom said anything and if necessary it would be one or two words, but she had never let anyone touch her wild hair, nor had she bathed since they met her. Sally was delighted and said, “Well, why don’t we wash it first since it will be easier for me to cut it into a style? Have you decided what style you want? How short?”

KC nodded, “Roxanne” was the only word she spoke.

“Oh”, Sally smiled “Are we looking to catch us a boyfriend” she teased.

“You shut up!” KC yelled, her body stiffening. With the scissors still in her hand she took a menacing step toward Sally. Sally gasped at the unexpected anger and took a step backwards, her hand going to her throat.

“KC what’s gotten into you? I was only joking.” They stared in silence at one another, Sally feeling threatened by this girl who they knew very little about and KC hesitant about her decision to have approached Sally for help. Finally KC put the scissors on the well, turned her back to Sally and sat down on the bench. “Cut”, she repeated.

Sally quickly picked up the scissors to get them out of KC’s reach and said, “I’ll do the best I can KC, but you do understand that it won’t look exactly like Roxanne’s because her hair is straight and yours is frizzy.” KC did not answer and with a shaking hand Sally reached out to touch KC on her shoulder, “Do you understand KC?” but she received the same answer of “Cut”.

Sally decided that she was going to have Gene put something up against their door at night. When she told him what happened at the well Gene said, “I always thought she was bat-shit crazy.”

“I thought she was traumatized by being left alone and we don’t know how long she was in that K-Mart,” Sally said. “I thought she would come around eventually. We don’t know who she was with or how they treated her.” She sighed, “Whatever it was it has left a permanent mark. Before this I was concerned for her, now I’m afraid of her.”

Gene put his arms around his wife, “Sweetheart, some people aren’t given the time to heal when we face death every day in this nightmare that we are forced to live in.”

Lucky stopped and chuckled when he saw what Morgan was doing to Roxanne’s cabin. “I hope you aren’t using florescent paint,” he said. “I don’t want to get the fright of my life while making rounds tonight.” Instead of painting a bulls-eye target for Caleb’s crossbow practice Morgan had painted a thin outline of a man and next to that he had painted two heads.

Morgan stepped back to view his work and smiled. “Think they’ll like it?”

Lucky walked up and shook his head, “I don’t know why Roxanne wants to do this. I’ve seen her fight using a staff and using a knife. I haven’t seen her shoot yet so maybe she’s more comfortable with a weapon that doesn’t kick back.”

“I really don’t care if her motives are self-serving, Lucky,” Morgan said as he dabbed paint on the wall to represent an eye on the target. “I have seen a change in Caleb’s confidence. He is so proud that I can see the old strut coming back,” he laughed. “I didn’t know how to help him Lucky,” Morgan became serious. “We were always running, always looking for food and I could see his confidence ebbing each time he missed killing a zombie and was forced to run instead. But there was always another threat and no time for more training. Now Roxanne has come up with this idea, well two ideas really, that include Caleb and it just……” his voice broke up and he had to compose himself, “it just fills my heart to see Caleb happy and excited about something normal again.”

Lucky patted Morgan on the shoulder and said, “We may still need to bail them out in the mornings though. That was a pretty bold pitch she made to the council asking if she and Caleb could go to the fence-line alone in the mornings to kill zombies.”

“Oh, did you see that as a request?” Morgan asked. “Sounded more like orders, telling us what she was going to do from now on. If I hadn’t seen the pride in Caleb’s face and the fact that Roxanne would send Mutt back for help if a problem occurred I’m not too sure I would have let him do it.

There were two zombies left and since Caleb had used all his arrows Roxanne decided to let him kill the last two with her staff. “I did better this time,” Caleb said, “but seven arrows just isn’t enough. Wish we could make a run to a sports shop somewhere.”

“All in due time Caleb, but you aren’t through yet,” Roxanne handed him her staff. “We need to get you trained in how to use other weapons. I can use the knife, staff, pickaxe and gun, and now I’m learning the crossbow.”

Caleb looked up at her in a confused state and took the staff, “You…..you want me to kill them with your staff?”

“Does the thought turn your stomach? Turns mine every time” Roxanne said. “They’re horrible, horrible things but that’s all they are, things. Don’t think of them as people when you get closer, Caleb. Is that what’s bothering you?”

Caleb nodded, “It’s different when you’re further away.”

“OK, I won’t push you into anything you aren’t ready for but I’ll give you a few tips and then you can decide.” She took the staff back and approached the zombies who became agitated with the desire to feed. “For your height you will need to hold the staff above your head and then lunge forward one step, but only one step so if you lose your balance you won’t fall into them. The other method we found which is effective is that you can kill them in the neck if you plunge the staff upward toward the back of their head. This would probably be the most effective for you. Do you want to just hold the staff and tell me which is more comfortable to you?”

Caleb tried both stances and found he had more strength if he stood sideways and plunged the staff upward. “Just lay the tip on the fence and let the zombie come to you rather than chase him around through the links,” Roxanne advised. Caleb did as she instructed and was able to kill a zombie by plunging it through the neck. But as the zombie dropped Caleb let go of the staff and stood there rubbing his hands against his jeans, unable to take his eyes off the zombie.

Roxanne could see that Caleb was close to tears so she came over and pulled the staff out of the zombie and back through the fence. She thought that Morgan would probably come after her if he found out that she had upset Caleb but she hadn’t expected this reaction. “The first kill is always bad,” she said and stabbed the last remaining zombie in the head. Mutt came up and started licking Caleb’s hand as if in sympathy. It also brought Caleb out of his trance and he started scratching Mutt behind the ears.

Roxanne touched Caleb on the shoulder and said they had better get back. The two of them walked in silence until she asked, “By the way, do you know how to drive a car?” Morgan heard the laughter from the trail long before he saw them come into view and was comforted by it.

Roxanne and Lucky sat on her porch which had become a habit between them at the end of their day. “What’s up with Cami?” Roxanne asked. “She carries enough ammo to take out a small country and I was told that she is an excellent fighter, but all she does is walk the fence. I haven’t seen her help with anything. Even when they were ransacking the other buildings for cots to create their living quarters I saw her sitting outside the doors with her rifle across her knees.”

Lucky shrugged, “I don’t know and I’m not going to interfere with anyone under Gene’s control. Maybe they use her as a spotter. I’ve seen her come to lunch covered in cobwebs and dirt so I assume she is still exploring the park.”

At that moment they heard a door slam, “Well then I wish she would find where that sound is coming from,” Roxanne said. “Been driving me crazy since I got here.” There was a pause as Roxanne rocked and Lucky leaned back to put his feet up on the railing. “I would like to go toward Pigeon Falls tomorrow and scavenge for some things” Roxanne continued. “Caleb only has seven arrows and I’d like to find him a dirt bike.”

Lucky was stunned for a moment and then started laughing, “A dirt bike? What on earth have you two been up to?”

KC watched them on the porch although she could not hear what was being said. She did hear Lucky laugh and that really got her goat. Lucky had noticed her at dinner and had complimented her on her new haircut. He actually smiled at her which gave her a strange sensation that she mistook for love and romance. But to her Roxanne was the enemy. She needed to get rid of Roxanne. KC watched her as often as she could to learn her habits, her faults or any oversights Roxanne might have. She didn’t know how she would get rid of Roxanne, but with Ze’s around there could always be an accident. A zombie could get inside the fence and be led to Roxanne’s cabin late at night and no one would suspect anything.

At that moment she heard a twig snap behind her and quickly turned to see a man’s silhouette standing in the darkness. Her hand immediately went to the knife on her belt. She backed up against the bushes to try to hide her presence.

“So that’s what you want, huh KC? It’s Lucky you’re after.” She recognized Ed’s voice. “Well, no problem there. I can help you with that because a man understands another man better than a woman would.” He took a step forward and the moonlight illuminated his skinny face. “And I can tell you right now that Lucky is the kind of man who wants a woman, not a rookie teen.”

KC, not liking the criticism, drew her knife and hissed at Ed. “Don’t worry child,” Ed continued. “I traveled with Lucky and we met many women along the way. So I know not only what he wants but how he likes it. Roxanne doesn’t know that about Lucky so you can get a heads up on her. I can teach you, train you, advise you on how to get Lucky to fall into your open arms and he will never know that you trapped him. Hehe.”

KC was silent and Ed took that as a sign that he was getting through to the crazy bitch. “You think on it KC, just remember that each night Lucky spends on that porch with Roxanne that she is dragging him further in and pretty soon he will be out of your reach altogether. Just how much time do you have and how badly do you want him? When you decide, you know where I live.” He turned and left as silently as he had appeared.