Roxanne's Story (Book 1): Survival in the Zombie Apocalypse (18 page)

Everyone was running on adrenalin without any sleep since the battle. The assault had taken place that night, everyone had been patched up, the fences secured, the zombies killed and now that dawn was breaking they were preparing to hike up the mountainside. In addition to their gun bags Randy took grenades, Cami the Rocket launcher, Gene the grenade launcher, Lucky the submachine gun, Brandon the semi-automatic 12 gauge and Roxanne the AA-12 combat shotgun. They knew that this could not be a hand-to-hand combat situation if they were outnumbered and that they needed to take the place out undetected if possible. No one felt guilty about not giving them a fair fight. They needed to destroy them, and do it quickly.

“Before we leave I need to make sure that no one here objects to killing an unarmed man,” Lucky said. “Randy?” Randy shook his head, “No, I’m in it with you. Those guys who attacked my brother didn’t give him a fair fight. If we don’t kill them, they’ll come after us. You can count on me.”

Morgan, Caleb and Sally filled the room under the stage trap door with supplies and sleeping gear along with as much ammo they felt they could carry if forced to leave on foot. The goodbyes were tearful since everyone realized that Chen Le could have already sent his own forces to attack the Park a second time. Roxanne led them through the now shattered bus and to the left of the gate toward the mountainside, passing Ed’s body along the way. She glanced down at it, but did not stop or say anything.

It didn’t take long for them to realize that Roxanne was right about walking uphill with all their equipment and that it would probably be late afternoon or early evening before they found Chen Le’s settlement. They had to stop three times to catch their breath and take a break to drink water. They ate while climbing, not wanting to lose any additional time. No one spoke the whole time, each consumed in their own thoughts of survival and concern for those who they had left behind and the uncertainty of their own future. Randy never suggested that they should turn back or that they were making the wrong decision. Once committed, he was determined to earn his worth as a member of the group and he was confident that he could throw the grenades in effective areas at the right time. He knew he would be an asset to them.

At about 3 o’clock they could see the highway that Roxanne used but they stayed in the foliage to avoid any detection by possible scouts that Chen Le could have positioned along the road. He would be expecting them to travel by car or truck, whether they decided to attack or to flee, but Lucky and Roxanne were going by the theory that Chen Le felt they were a bunch of amateurs who got lucky last night and were still at the Park.

Roxanne took off her gear, “I need to see if my car is up there and if we came out at the right spot. I need to get my bearings and see if anything looks familiar. We should be going right along the road unless I led you too far across the mountainside. It’s been a couple of months and things have grown up a lot more.”

She got down on her belly and crawled toward the highway, hoping to keep her head in the bushes and tall grass to be able to see down the road without exposing herself too much.

Everyone knelt down and watched her with baited breath until she crawled backwards and, still hunched down she trotted over to meet them. “The car is there,” she whispered. “But a guy is sitting on top of it as a look out with a shotgun across his knees. He has a motorcycle with him but I wonder if he has a walkie-talkie with him too.”

That’s a possibility,” Lucky said. “If he does then we don’t want to take him out, even silently. They could call for him and get suspicious if he doesn’t answer. Roxanne, how far down the road is the farmhouse?”

“About a mile. I say we back down into the heavier part of the woods but try to keep the road in our sight. It will be tough walking because of the tilt downwards on this side, but the land will even out a little further up. I remember seeing houses built on this side of the road too because the land was level. The farmhouse we want is on the opposite side of the road. I only hope that we see activity outside of the house because we would need to wait until it gets dark to cross the open road to get a look inside the houses.”

After another half mile the land evened out and was level with the road. Their legs were being tested walking on the slope and the previous night’s battle was catching up to them. They were all exhausted and were now practically dragging their equipment rather than carrying it when they finally saw a break in the foliage and could see the houses. “Jesus,” Cami said dropping on her butt and taking a drink of water. “If I don’t get a chance to use this Rocket Launcher I will use it on myself.”

“Cami, Randy and Gene,” Lucky said, “since you three are carrying explosive devices try not to take out all the vehicles. We need one or two to make a quick get-a-way and get back to the Park. If you see someone get in a vehicle, let him start it. One of us will take him out with a bullet then it will be ready for us to jump into. I would like for the whole thing to go down with explosives but we’ve got to be sure that this is the main group and that Chen Le is using this as his headquarters. We can go in and take out the stragglers but I want one alive so I can question him. I don’t want anyone trying to be a hero, especially you Cami or you Roxanne. I know neither of you want to leave the park, but I don’t want this to be your last stand.”

They crept up to the bushes so they could watch the two houses across the street for any activity. There were three men sitting on the porch of the farm house with two trucks parked facing outward toward the road. The brick rambler had its windows and door open to catch a breeze but they caught sight of only one shadow as someone passed the window. They could not hear the conversation of the men on the porch to know whether they were discussing last night’s raid.

“But how do we know it’s them,” Randy whispered, “and not just a group seeking shelter?’ At that moment a man came out of the rambler with a bandage on his head and arm to join the men on the porch. “This is it,” Cami said. “That guy was in the passenger seat of the truck and bailed when Lucky shot the driver. Later we heard screaming in the forest and assumed two of them were attacked by Ze’s. He must have found his way back here.”

“But why are they so casual after last night,” Gene asked. “Why aren’t they gearing up?”

“Perhaps they already sent a group ahead to the park and these remained behind,” Roxanne suggested.

Lucky shook his head, “No, I think others may be on an ammo run. They lost a lot of weapons and three vehicles in that fight when their men didn’t return. I think they’ve depleted their supply down to rifles and hand guns. Neither of the trucks across the street has mounted machine guns, but we don’t know what other vehicles they have. It’ll be getting dark soon so they should be back shortly. I don’t want a second fight with the leftovers that arrive later. I say we wait and make sure we get them all.”

Randy noticed that they were hiding behind blueberry bushes bearing fruit so he settled down to eat some. “Stop it!” Lucky ordered. “I don’t want them to see that bush moving and come out here to investigate. Cami when I give the signal use the rocket launcher on the brick rambler and then the barn, so get into position to be able hit the barn in the background too. Gene you use the grenade launcher on the house. That should rush everyone toward the cars where we can pick them off with gunfire. There’s no room for any more cars in the driveway so if a second team arrives they will need to park on the road which could block your view of the buildings. You two spread out and take a position where you can still see the house if a truck parks in front of it, but be careful not to be seen. When they pull up, wait for my signal. I want to see if anyone calls out Chen Le’s name.”

They didn’t have long to wait when a station wagon pulled up and parked in front of the rambler. Lucky looked over at Cami and saw her move further over to her left to allow for a better shot. When the station wagon arrived a man dressed in black came out on the porch of the farmhouse to greet them. Four men got of the car which now put the count up to nine men against their six but Lucky was counting on the explosion to take out a couple of them on the porch and anyone who could still be in the rambler. He took note of the driver of the car so he would know which body to find the keys on.

As the men started to unload the station wagon one of them addressed the man who had come out on the porch, “We didn’t find much Chen Le. Pickin’s were slim this time.”

Lucky gave the signal to Cami and the woman had been so anxious to use her weapon that the rambler exploded before he could lower his hand. Debris flew everywhere and the men dropped their boxes and ducked. Another signal from Lucky and Gene used the grenade launcher, exploding the farm house which sent two men flying off the porch. Chen Le had already stepped down to greet his men and was thrown to the ground but not badly hurt. There was pandemonium as no one knew where the attack was coming from. Some ran for the vehicles while others ran toward the barn. Chen Le gave out orders which no one appeared to be listening to. The barn suddenly exploded sending everyone back to the vehicles. They were now boxed in as the buildings were on fire and their only cover or escape was by their cars. No one had drawn a weapon until Chen Le started pointing to the bushes and yelling at his men.

Rifle fire came from the bushes as Lucky, Roxanne and Brandon started to pick off the survivors as they tried to take shelter behind the cars. Two men on fire ran screaming out of the rambler and Cami took them out with her rifle. Chen Le jumped in the lead truck and pulled out while under a hail of gunfire from Roxanne but he managed to make a right while keeping his head down and floored it going down the road. Gene knew that Lucky wanted to question Chen Le but he wanted revenge for putting his wife in danger. He stood up knowing that he could be sighted but managed to get off a quick shot from the launcher while his group gave him cover. The truck exploded and swerved off the road, hitting a tree.

Lucky signaled for them to stop shooting so he could hear if there was return gun fire, but there was silence except for the burning building. “Is that all of them?” he asked. “No,” Brandon said, “I think two are hiding behind that last truck.” In the silence they could hear a motorcycle coming and knew the look-out was responding to the noise back at camp. “Let him go in,” Lucky said, “and see if anyone answers him. If he keeps going, Brandon you take him out before he gets away.”

The motorcycle pulled up and stopped on the road in front of the farmhouse. They could hear the rider say, “Jesus” several times as he surveyed the damage. He got off the motorcycle and began walking toward the house calling “Chen Le, Shaun, anyone here?” A guy glanced out from behind the last truck and said, “Get down, get down, they’re across the road.” The man quickly ran behind the truck and joined him.

“Gene,” Lucky said, “Go down the road and make sure Chen Le doesn’t get away if he’s still alive. Randy come with me, the rest of you stay here,” he ran at a crouch to where Cami was. “Cami and I are going to use the station wagon as cover and go across the road. They won’t see us approach at that angle. But first, Randy do you think you can lob one of those great grenade shots of yours behind the truck, but not close enough to kill them? I just want to flush them out toward the rambler so Cami and I can pick them off. Randy nodded, “Sure, no problem.”

The first throw that Randy tossed was too far away from the truck. “Damn, what the hell?” they heard one of the men say, “What are we gonna do? Where do we go?” Another voice said “the best way outta’ this would be behind the rambler then make for the woods. Wish I had driven my motorcycle back here instead of leaving it on the road.”

Lucky nodded at Randy who tossed another grenade, this one closer spraying dirt and pebbles on the men. “Next one’s gonna hit us. We gotta’ make a break for it.” Cami and Lucky ran across the road to the station wagon as the three men made a break to the back of the rambler firing random shots as cover. Lucky shot one of them but Cami’s shot hit the side of the rambler and two of them disappeared from sight.

Randy moved up to join them at the car. Lucky motioned for Cami and Randy to run to the left while Lucky ran to the right and checked behind the truck to make sure no one was hiding there. He glanced up to see two men running for the woods. Lucky motioned to Cami and then stepped out into full view, “I got the one on the right,” he said and Cami took the one out on the left. “Be careful. We don’t know if there are more inside the houses”. The fires had been more of a burst of flame when the rockets hit and were starting to go out in the rambler. The barn was in full flames and the farmhouse was in more of a crumbled, shattered condition from the grenades. He signaled to Brandon & Roxanne to come over and had them search through what was left. Cami went out into the field to finish off the guys and get their guns.

Lucky found the keys on the driver of the station wagon and tossed them to Roxanne. “Get everything you can find into the car and then drive down to pick up me and Gene. I’m going to run down there and see about Chen Le.” Chen Le was not in good condition. Most of his skin and hair had been peeled off by the blast. They could smell burnt flesh but he was still alive. “You get anything out of him?” Lucky asked.

Gene shook his head, “Nope, all I get back is a fuck you.”