“He’s just unconscious,” Tom informed us, placing his fingers on Tank’s neck and checking for a pulse.
I picked up the gun and handed it to Tom. “Cover him,” I managed to croak out through my swollen throat, “while I go through his pockets. If he moves at all, go ahead and shoot him.”
““What happened?” Benji inquired as I fished out Tank’s car keys.
“It was a trap. The girl who was helping us is actually his daughter. They planned on killing us all and telling John we were spies for the other side.”
“That’s crazy,” Tom said. He seemed to be finding his grip on reality again now that it looked like we were going to escape.
“It gets worse,” I went on. “The road out of town is actually on the New Lompoc side. Which means John was trying to trick us into staying and fighting in his war. We never needed to go to the border in the first place.”
“So what happens now?” Tom stared at me.
“I guess we head south and leave town,” Benji suggested. “And pray they don’t have a trap waiting for us there too?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “We promised Tom we’d find Joel. I know we didn’t exactly get along like best friends but we can’t leave without finding out what happened to him.”
“Thanks,” Tom said. “You’re a good man.”
“How are we going to get out of the house without raising an alarm?” Benji asked.
“We march right out the front door,” I said darkly, retrieving my sword from Tank along with another pistol. I checked the blade to make sure it was still in pristine condition. The small sliver of light coming in the window danced across the steel. “God help anyone who tries to get in our way.”
“We’d better hurry before one of them comes around,” Tom prodded.
We rushed down the hallway, taking the steps two at a time. When we got to the front door, Tom stopped and waited for my response. I drew my blade and nodded. He held his pistol tight with one hand and yanked opened the door with the other, but there was no one outside.
The Jeep was parked by the curb. Suddenly, a loud yell rang out upstairs and lights flashed on in the kitchen.
“Let’s go,” I cried out, rushing outside.
Benji and Tom were right behind me. We climbed over the side of the Jeep and I hopped in the driver’s seat. I had the keys in the ignition and the engine running in just a heartbeat.
Tom and Benji pointed their guns at the front door. The short man we’d ambushed at the secret room came running out with his gun drawn. Benji and Tom both let off several shots that seemed to explode over his head, forcing him to run back into the house for cover.
I peeled out, racing up the street and turning onto Ocean toward the direction of the border. I wasn’t exactly clear on how we had gotten where we were. The last thing I wanted to do was go by the gas station and ask for directions. They’d be after us now in no time. The plan was getting more screwed up by the second.
“Turn left up here,” Tom advised, pointing at an intersection with a strip mall. “I’m pretty sure John took us this way on our personal tour the first morning before you arrived.”
“You got it,” I replied, glad to have a distraction.
We drove past armed patrols, but they didn’t even turn their heads as we went by. No one had sounded the alarm yet.
Tank was obviously going rogue, I thought as I rubbed my sore throat. I could still feel his arm crushing my windpipe.
“Turn right up here,” Tom directed. We rounded the corner and I could see the barricade in the distance coming up fast.
“What are we going to tell them?” Benji asked.
“We’ll think of something,” I lied.
One of the armed guards held his hand up as we approached and I slowed to meet him.
“Let me do the talking,” I insisted. Tom and Benji nodded. I stopped to meet the guard.
“What are you doing out here this time of night?” He didn’t seem upset or alarmed by our presence, just curious.
“Tank sent us out,” I said calmly. “Said we’d have a better chance of looking for his brother Joel at night since zoms slow down after dark.”
“I wish that were true,” the man replied. “I’m Harvey. Park over there.” He pointed to a line of vehicles. Benji shook his head no but I pulled over and parked anyway.
“What are we doing?”
“We’re finding Joel and getting the hell out of here,” I whispered. “Just do what I do.”
“We’re going to get caught,” Benji said.
“No,” Tom said in his normal, relaxed voice. “Everything is going to be fine.”
“No one would suspect in a million years that we would come back here,” I suggested. “They probably think we made it out of town already. Tank’s going to have a lot to explain to John.”
We got out of the car and walked over to Harvey.
“How’s Peter?” I asked.
“He’s had better days,” Harvey admitted wearily. “I didn’t see it but I hear it was like he was consumed by a giant fireball. Most of the skin was burned off his body. He’s still alive but he’s in serious shock.”
“Jesus,” Tom gasped.
“We got some medical supplies and they are doing what they can for him,” Harvey said. “Bunch of animals those Unity Gang creeps are. It’s bad enough we have to fight off the zombies. The last thing we need is to fight with each other.”
“Amen to that, brother,” I agreed, slapping him on the back and walking toward the line of cars. “What happened?”
“You should know,” Harvey said raising an eyebrow in surprise. “I heard you were here but John rushed you away to keep you all safe.”
Yeah, I thought. That’s one version of what happened.
“I meant after the attack,” I corrected myself, not skipping a beat or contradicting his story. “When the zombies swarmed.”
“I got called in about an hour later,” Harvey explained. “The official report is that they pushed back the zombies and held the line, but just barely.” He turned to Tom. “After the fighting was done, they looked for your brother but didn’t find him. There was no body. Either the Unity Gang came back for him or the zombies turned him. Sorry kid.”
“Let’s hope it’s the first then,” Tom groaned.
“I hear you,” Harvey replied. “Zombie ate my wife right in front of me. Nothing I could do but watch her scream in unfathomable pain as they ripped her arms and stomach apart with their bare teeth. We were leaving town, heading south, when some jerk in a truck broadsided us and left us for dead. I was pinned in. She got out to look for help. I couldn’t do a thing.”
“That’s terrible,” I offered.
“It gets worse,” he cautioned us before plunging further into his twisted tale of woe. “Hours went by and eventually the zombies were drawn to a new kill zone by the smell of fresh meat. They left me there. I got to see my dead wife reanimate before my eyes. Can you imagine?”
“No,” Tom practically shouted, shaking his head from side to side.
“Later, when John’s men found and freed me, I hunted her down,” he said. “I was the one who killed her.”
“I’m so sorry,” I sympathized.
“Don’t be,” Harvey explained. “It brought me a lot of comfort to be the one who did it, to know that she is at peace now and not walking the earth looking for people to eat. I would want her to do the same for me if our roles had been reversed.”
“I never thought about it like that,” I admitted. It sounded horrible no matter how you looked at it.
“I hear people tell stories all the time about how they lost one of their friends or family members under similar circumstances,” he continued. “The story goes that they couldn’t bring themselves to kill their loved ones, so they got eaten instead. I am proud to say I didn’t hesitate when I saw my Suzie. I put her out of her misery with a single shot to the head. I did the Lord’s work here on Earth during his last days. I know sh
e is smiling down on me, that I will see her again at the right hand of Christ when he returns to rule over this world.”
“I appreciate your kind words” Tom told Harvey, “but I am going to find my brother. I can feel it.”
“I wish you luck,” Harvey sincerely replied.
“There he is,” Benji shouted, pointing to the middle of the road past the barricade. Sure enough, Joel was limping slowly across the intersection. His clothes were torn and his skin looked ashy and gray. There were bite marks visible up and down his arms. He had been turned. He was already gone.
Tom didn’t hesitate. He turned and jogged toward Joel, calling out to him.
“Son, don’t!” Harvey yelled. Armed guards trained their weapons on them but Harvey called for them to stand down.
“What is he doing?” Benji asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, “but it doesn’t look good.”
The walkie talkie on Harvey’s hip began to chirp and I heard Tank’s voice coming over it. We were out of time. Soon it would be too late to make a run for it and get out of town. We’d be stuck here forever as John’s slaves or worse—target practice for Tank’s goon squad.
“Get back to the Jeep,” I ordered Benji.
“What about Tom?”
“I don’t think he’s coming with us,” I said, turning and walking back as fast as I could without drawing attention to myself.
Harvey held up his walkie talkie to his mouth. He looked confused by what he had just heard.
“Say that again?”
“Those kids are Unity Gang spies,” Tank screeched. “They’ve already killed two guards and stolen top secret intel from John’s house. Don’t let them get away.”
I didn’t wait to hear Harvey’s response. I fired up the Jeep and started to pull away. Looking in my rearview mirror, I saw Harvey pull his gun out and point it in our direction. Behind him Tom screamed as Joel began to bite his neck. Gunfire rang out as the armed patrol shot them both dead. Harvey turned to see what had happened, but Benji and I took off.
“Well,” Benji said, “at least you kept your word. Even if it was totally crazy for you to do that.”
I drove along a series of side streets, down by where the map showed the cemetery, hoping to avoid getting caught or running into that dead end. I kept an eye out for any off road opportunities we might come across to slip out of town. Having a Jeep meant we could easily make our own path, but the last thing we needed was to get stuck out in the middle of Unity Gang territory or surrounded by zombies in a muddy field without even a tree to climb up.
After fifteen minutes I found a small dirt road behind some track houses that looked like it ran along the highway as a fire route. We drove along, passing a cluster of wild cows, and eventually came up onto the highway itself. There was not another car in sight. I drove around a corner feeling elated that we’d managed to sneak out of town, until I saw the row of cars blocking the highway ahead. In the center was John’s truck. He was standing in front of it with his arms folded. The expression on his face was pure rage. Next to him was Tank with his right hand bandaged. I stopped the car in the middle of the road.
“What do we do?” Benji said in a panicked voice.
I looked in the mirror and saw a row of lights heading our way, blocking our escape. They had chosen this point in the highway for good reason. There were hills on either side of us that prevented our escape even in a Jeep. We were in the lowest point of the road. The only way out was forward.
“I don’t know,” I conceded.
“Can we ram them?”
“I don’t think so. More than likely they’ll blow holes through the Jeep if we try and we’ll bleed to death.”
“What are we gonna do?”
“Our only hope is to try to reason with them,” I concluded at last. “Maybe we can convince John of our innocence, tell him Tank was trying to kill us.”
Benji looked white with fear. He was trembling all over. I had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach like I had just swallowed poison. Slowly, I pulled the Jeep up.
“That’s far enough,” John yelled through cupped hands. “Shut off the engine and throw out the keys.”
I did what he told me to do.
“Step out of the vehicle with your hands up.”
Benji and I exited the Jeep and stood there. I still had the handgun tucked into the front of my jeans and my katana on my back.
“Throw down your weapons,” he insisted.
“No,” I shouted back.
“Excuse me?” John looked genuinely puzzled.
“Tank tried to strangle me to death earlier,” I yelled. “He told me he was going to kill me like he’d killed the last visitors you had, then tell you we were spies.”
“Sounds like something a spy would say,” Tank retorted.
“We didn’t kill anyone,” I explained. “We trusted you and now two of our friends are dead.”
“Put down your weapons or we will be forced to shoot,” John demanded again.
“Then shoot,” I hollered back. “All we want is to be on our way. If you are not going to let us go, then you’re going to have to kill us. We are not going to surrender and have Tank finish us off later when you’re not looking.”
“You heard him,” Tank roared. “They are traitors. Shoot them!”
“Hold your fire,” John said turning to Tank.
“Oh come on!” Tank screamed. “You saw what they did to my hand! They came here with one purpose and one purpose only, to get information to take back to the Unity Gang.”
“Then why didn’t they cross over when they got to the border?” John asked. “If they are working for Unity, why would they take the road that leads away from the biker hideout?”
“You’re not serious, are you?” Tank puffed out his chest. “They’re just trying to mess with your head. For all we know, this is an ambush and Unity Gang riders will be all over us any minute now. Think about it!”
I unsheathed my sword and held it out in front of me.
“Lower your weapons,” John said in a calm voice. “I need to have a word with you before you go. I promise you will leave here unharmed.”
Tank seethed with anger. He turned and punched his huge fist into the side of John’s truck, denting the door.
Cautiously, I inched forward. I kept my blade out but I left it at my side. Benji got behind me. Armed guards pointed their guns at us. If they were going to kill us, it wouldn’t take much.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Benji said.
“Me too, kid,” I replied.
John walked out and met me between the cars.
“This is a real mess,” he said. “You gotta understand how this looks from my side.”
“It looks like the neo Nazi you put in charge as your first command tried to murder me and my friends, from where I’m standing.”
“Tank’s a good guy,” he insisted. “You don’t know what we’ve been through. He’s got trust issues. That’s all.”
“And now thanks to him, so do I,” I fired back. “Look, this doesn’t have to be complicated. Tell your men to stand down and let us go. You’ll never have to see us again. End of story.”
“I wish it were that simple,” he said, scratching his head.
“It is that simple,” I flatly pointed out.
“Maybe if you left the kid,” John said. “As a sign of good faith. That might work.”
Benji grabbed the back of my shirt and buried his head.
“What’s the matter?” John asked, looking down at him. “I thought you liked it here? You can have all the video games and comic books your little heart desires.”
“No way,” I said. “It’s not gonna happen. Benji is my responsibility and I am not leaving him behind.”
“There now,” John said with admiration in his eyes, pointing at me and smiling. “Can you see why I need your help? You are the perfect balance of warrior and philosopher, loyal to the bitter end. No wonder Ta
nk is intimidated by you. You stick around and I will make you my second in command. Tank will have to answer to you!”
I looked over at Tank. A murderous rage was visible in his face. As tempting as it might be to take John up on his offer, I knew that it was just a matter of time before that man finished me off.
“That is a tempting offer,” I lied.
“Isn’t it?” John flashed us that sly grin, as if to say he knew he’d already won when he hadn’t. “I’ll tell you what . . .”
He cocked his head to the side like he was listening for something. Then I heard it too. A low growling, like a herd of wild animals shuffling toward us off in the distance. Only it wasn’t livestock we were hearing. The unmistakable smell came downwind toward us. John and I both realized it at the same time.
“Zombies,” he said right before one of his men let out a high pitched scream that tore our attention away.
Chapter Twelve
The next thing I knew, there was wild gunfire going off in every direction. A zombie horde, just like the one that had taken over Vandenberg, had come up from the south and taken John’s lynch mob completely by surprise. The men were so focused on our discussion they hadn’t seen the monsters sneaking up on them. Several unlucky souls were torn apart before they could even get a shot off.
John wasted no time. He ran as fast as he could past us toward the Jeep. He climbed in the driver’s side and started the engine. I thought he might use the open topped vehicle to try to save some of his loyal subjects, but instead he quickly turned around and took off back toward New Lompoc. I watched the red of his taillights disappear in the darkness in stunned silence.
The coward just ditched his own men!
I turned back to see Tank had a zombie by the throat and was holding him off the ground. The undead monster snapped and lunged at his face but couldn’t reach him.
“What do we do?” Benji pleaded.
Once again, I didn’t know the answer. The cars behind us were backing away, following John’s pitiable example of retreat. In no time, the zombies would be past the line of vehicles and heading toward us.
We need to take one of those cars, I thought. Plain and simple. We can’t go back to town now. There is no other way.
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