Run_Book 3_Long Road Home

by Rich Restucci

  “Who? Who went missing?”

  “My sister.” Billy folded his arms and sighed. “He took her. He took her after she told me what he did to her. I went to his house to get her back and when I got inside, he was upstairs all dead and stuff. Her bracelet was on his zillion dollar nightstand, so I took it. The cops caught me leaving his driveway because I set off an alarm when I broke in. Now what do you think they believed, that I didn’t do it, or that I not only shaved this guy’s parts off, but I disappeared my sister, too? Yeah, I had her bracelet and she was gone, so I got stuck with that bit of fun, as well.”

  Dave looked mad. “But you didn’t kill the guy?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “And they locked you up anyway.”

  “Yeah, but only for six years. I got out when the end of the world happened. It was a prisoner transfer and I escaped when the transferrers got eaten. Now that you’re all caught up, let’s get the kids. We’re leaving now.”

  Billy and Dave walked up the cement stairs and Billy knocked and recited the secret password. Richie let them in, Tony and Abbey hanging back a little.

  “I knew that guy was crazy as a shit-house rat.”

  “Yeah, Tony, but he’s saved so many people. Especially the kids. I honestly believe he would die for them.”

  “Me too. I also believe he would kill for them.”

  “Is that such a bad thing?”

  Tony harrumphed. “Depends on who he’s killing, I guess.”

  The group reached the classroom the kids were in. True to form, they all ran to Billy and hugged him. “Okay, guys, listen up: we’re getting the duck out of Fodge. I dunno what that means other than that we are leaving. We’re finally going to Alcatraz, where there are soldiers and teachers and other kids to play with. You’ll be safe there. Who’s in?”

  Every child immediately put their hand up.

  “Good. Richie, you get the duffel bags. Dennis, you and Jenny start packing all the food into the three big green duffels that Richie brings. Everybody else, get all the favorite toys and put them in the toy sack. We’re leaving in fifteen minutes.” The kids all ran off smiling.

  ***

  Dave, Tony, and Billy each had a huge, olive drab army-surplus duffel bag filled to the brim with food and drinks over their shoulder. Abbey had the toy sack and each kid carried a stuffed animal. Billy opened the basement door and all the kids, except Richie, got apprehensive. “There’s nothing to be afraid of yet,” Billy told them. “If we see any of the bad people, you can be afraid, but nobody yells, right?” They all nodded. “Everybody hold hands and don’t let go. We have to go back through the tunnel and into a truck that’s parked on the road.”

  Dennis looked into the basement. “I don’t like the tunnel.” A few of the kids nodded in agreement.

  Whether they liked the tunnel or not, they all followed Billy and Dave through the basement, with Abbey and Tony in the rear. Billy cracked nine green chem-lights and hung one on each kid’s neck with the enclosed lanyard. He gave one to Tony and kept one for himself. “That’s all I got, sorry,” he told Dave.

  They moved as a group through the dark tunnel toward the Cadillac. No sounds were made as the survivors climbed through the SUV and emerged into the warm, starry evening. Richie pulled on Billy’s pants and pointed toward the other side of the culvert. A lone creature was standing approximately twenty meters away, with its back to the group. Dave started toward it, hefting his bat, but Billy put a hand on his arm and stopped him. Tony emerged from the Escalade last and they all climbed up the culvert hill and onto the street, making their way quickly to the armored truck.

  The back doors squeaked loudly when Billy opened them. He and the other adults placed the duffels and toy sack into the back and then helped the kids in as well. The infected man from the culvert was staggering across the road toward them moaning and Dave looked at Billy with his eyes raised in question. “Knock your socks off, Dave…uh, or better yet, his head off.” Dave strode to the creature, who immediately picked up its pace and growled. The teenager let go with a terrific swing and the bat impacted the creature’s cranium with a crunch. It fell forward and Dave had to sidestep or it would have hit him on the way down. Dave turned to walk back, but the thing grabbed his pant leg. Dave fell forward, scraping his hands on the street. The monster wasted no time and pulled the struggling boy to its rotten maw.

  Dave kicked frantically, but the infected man was twice his size and pulled him ever closer. It bit down on the youth’s boot. Fear got the better of him and he started yelling. Billy and Abbey were already on their way, but the zombie had decided that boot leather wasn’t very appealing and it began to crawl up the pinned kid for a choicer morsel. Dave fought desperately as the thing got on top of him and he just barely held the creature’s face away from his with both hands, when it latched onto his shirt and began to pull again. It snapped at him and bit through its tongue, the black flap of flesh hitting the teen in the cheek as it fell to the ground.

  A shot rang out and the creature went limp, falling on the hapless kid. Dave was still fighting the re-killed zombie when Billy reached them and pulled the dead thing off him. Dave got up quickly and started to cry a little, but stopped immediately. He wiped his eyes and face as Billy looked him over.

  “You’re alright! C’mon, that shot will draw them all to us!”

  As if on cue, moans and cries broke the silence of the night and the things came from everywhere. The three men reached the truck and Billy and Dave jumped in the back. Tony hopped behind the wheel and Abbey climbed into the passenger side as Billy shut and locked the back doors. Abbey looked out the windows while Tony started the vehicle. “Jesus, where did they all come from?”

  “They must have followed the sound of the truck but couldn’t figure out where the noise was coming from when we stopped.”

  The vehicle lurched forward, but not before headlights came around the corner behind them. A cargo van and a tow truck sped after truck 8081, gunfire erupting from the van. Bullets plinked harmlessly against the side of the armored vehicle, but it was loud inside and some of the kids began to cry. “Don’t worry, guys, nobody can get us in here! Look,” Billy reached into a bag and pulled out two handfuls of twenty dollar bills, “we’re rich!” He threw the money in the air and many little hands reached for it as it floated down.

  In the cab, Tony pointed to undead who lurched into their path as they drove. The vehicle’s headlights cut twin beams of illumination in front of them, the light marred by grotesque figures coming from all directions. The first thump gave Abbey the willies, but the feeling went away quickly as the thumps increased in occurrence. More plinks from the back caused Tony to smile.

  “What the hell could possibly be funny?” demanded Abbey.

  “We’re in an armored car. Unless they got a rocket launcher, they can shoot all day and all they’ll do is waste ammo.”

  “Yeah, but they also bring more of them with every shot!” She pointed at the growing crowd of dead beginning to fill the street in front of them. A small group lurched straight at 8081 from the middle of the road and Tony ran them down, their broken bodies flying away or going under the wheels. The dead that weren’t run down made feeble attempts to grab the truck. Infected began to get thick as they came from seemingly everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

  Just as there was a break in the ever massing dead, 8081’s headlights illuminated two SFPD Crown Victoria police cruisers nose to nose across the street a scant hundred feet away. The cars had probably been there since the onset of the plague in San Francisco, as the tires were flat and the windows were broken out. Dozens of partial skeletons decorated the road and Tony was indiscriminate as to which ones he ran over. A large caliber bullet shattered the driver’s side mirror, prompting him to stomp on the accelerator. “Tell them to hang on to something!”

  Abbey slid a small partition aside and shouted to Billy, Dave, and the kids, telling them what was about to happen. Tony locked his elbow
s and prepared for impact, yelling nothing. Abbey grasped the Jesus Christ handle in a death grip immediately prior to the crash. With a rending of sheet metal, the truck slammed into the front fenders of both police cars, spinning the noses forward. Armored vehicle 8081 suffered little damage, but the fronts of the police cars exploded into dozens of pieces of broken metal and plastic, littering the road behind them. The tow truck didn’t escape the shrapnel and the right front tire of the vehicle exploded, sending it careening into a parked stretch limousine. Three men vacated the tow truck quickly and were picked up by the van behind them.

  Tony stopped the truck for a moment to look in his broken rear view mirror. “What the hell are you doing?” shouted Abbey. “Let’s go!”

  “I told you, unless they have a rocket launcher or a big friggin magnet, we’re okay.” Tony looked into the sky to check for flying electromagnets; Abbey did the same. “Looks like we’re gonna be fine, kiddo. It will take them a few minutes to clear the debris and we’ll be gone by then.”

  A loud WHOOOOSSSHH moved past them quickly and a car in front and to the left exploded, rocking 8081 on its axles. Abbey switched her gaze over to gape at Tony, who floored the accelerator. “What the hell was that now?”

  “A fuckin’ rocket launcher!”

  The armored vehicle sped away toward the docks. Another rocket screamed past them slamming into a store front. The building’s façade collapsed, spilling a modest chunk of the structure directly in front of the truck and Tony had no time to avoid it. He hit the concrete and steel, moving at twenty miles per hour, the truck climbing up on the debris. Tony shook his head and tried to drive away, but the vehicle was stuck. “Shit, get ‘em out! This ride’s over!”

  Tony and Abbey fled the truck, running around to the back. They pounded on the doors and shouted for Billy and Dave to get the kids and get out. The doors flew open, Billy and Dave handing kids and bags to Abbey and Tony. Headlights two hundred feet behind them were approaching slowly.

  “They’re coming,” Abbey pointed. “We should move through the buildings and use them as cover!”

  “Bad plan, Abbey,” Billy said, “unless you want to be a smorgasbord for the dead folks who are in there. Rules have changed. The safest place is usually the middle of the road, not crouched stealthily next to a door or dumpster. No grabsies. If we get surrounded, then we get inside.”

  Tony took quick stock of his surroundings. “We’re two blocks from the boat! We can make it if we go now!” A dead man lurched into his path and he dispatched it with a single-handed swing of his aluminum bat. He wrung out his left hand afterward.

  Billy pointed. “Keep the kids between us and we run! Stick to the center of the street and let me deal with anything that gets in our way.”

  Brakes squealed behind them as the van came to a halt. The sound of the side door sliding open let the group of survivors know that the bad guys couldn’t be far behind. They moved away quickly, their pursuers as relentless as the dead.

  Tony and Billy destroyed several creatures before they simultaneously realized there was no way to elude both the dead and the gangsters chasing them. Billy came to a stop and the kids were grateful as they were all panting heavily. Some dead were on the way, but this section of the city was devoid of swarms for some reason. Abbey picked up a small girl. “We can’t outrun them.”

  “No, we can’t.” Billy pulled his shotgun and walked to the back of the group. “Tony, you know where the boat is, right?”

  “Yeah, it’s right down there,” he pointed down toward the piers, “a couple hundred yards is all.”

  “Get the kids and get back. I’ll slow them down.”

  “Billy,” Richie asked, his eyes beginning to well up, “what?”

  Billy got down on one knee. “Richie, I need you to help get everybody on the boat. Everybody needs you now. You help, okay?”

  Richie nodded, clearly crying. “Everybody listen,” Billy said, standing. “You all have to go with Richie and Dave and get on the boat.” Gunshots came from around the corner, the New Society engaging some stray zombies. All the kids were crying now and the little girl Abbey was holding buried her face in Abbey’s neck.

  “I’ll come visit you guys, I promise!”

  Billy ran back the way they had come. Dave started after him but Richie grabbed his arm. “No. Billy said t’get ever’body to the boat.” He had stopped crying and wiped his nose on his T-shirt sleeve. He started walking in the wrong direction and that got everybody moving. Tony grabbed him and they moved northeast.

  Billy stood in the shadows of the broken door to Vera’s Pizza and Sandwiches. Six thugs were hurriedly arguing over which way their prey had gone and although he couldn’t hear them, Billy saw one of them point in the right direction. He knew that the shotgun might get a few, but not before they got him, so he slung it. Noise in the pizza shop behind him made him turn around and he was face to face with a dead man in a UPS uniform. Billy nodded to it while stepping aside and it strode into the street after the miscreants, dismissing him completely. The dead were getting thicker and the reprobates were getting scared as they came toward the shop from the left, directly to the rear of Tony and the kids. One of the men shot the UPS creature and it crumpled. Billy shook his head and waited.

  “Musta gone this way,” one of the men said in a harsh whisper. Billy thought the whisper was ridiculous after the gunfire and smiled to himself, pulling a round object from his vest. When the last man, who was perilously close to the smashed-in door and windows, slunk past, Billy waited five seconds and stepped out into the street.

  He yanked on the pin and tossed the M67 fragmentation grenade as close to the center of the slinking pack of men as he could. The throw was almost fifty feet and Billy swelled with pride. Not knowing how large the explosion would be, he high-tailed it back into the pizza parlor and dove behind the counter. The men reacted to the sound of the impact of the metal ball on the street, but had no idea what to expect.

  Billy was amazed at how loud the explosion was. It shook the walls of the building he was in and dust rained from the dropped ceiling. Every piece of glass in the vicinity shattered from the overpressure.

  When the 6.5 ounces of composition B exploded, dozens of steel fragments shot out at almost twelve hundred feet per second. Some of the men were killed instantly, but others were just thrown aside, soon to realize they were missing important bits of themselves.

  Then the screaming began and Billy stood and peeked out the door. “Ewww. Several birds with that stone.”

  Forms staggered and lurched in the direction of the screaming men. Billy didn’t wait around for what would happen next. He wanted to see how many men had actually been killed by the grenade but with all the parts and goo, he couldn’t really tell.

  He moved through the back of the store and out into an alley. He followed the alley and came out into a street on the other corner of the block, where he slipped into a small diner to rest a minute.

  He sat down at a small table inside the diner and leaned back, letting out a long breath.

  The unmistakable sound of a striking match and the subsequent flare of light two booths over made him reach for the machete he had just put down.

  “Uh-uh. Now ain’t that just like a crazy man? Brings a knife to a gun fight,” said someone Billy didn’t know. The man had a military rifle. The rifle was pointing at Billy. Another man was sitting in the booth and two more were standing, both with weapons ready. Billy hadn’t seen any of them when he had entered the store.

  “That’s him, right, G? We got him?”

  The man smoking a cigarette looked across to the other, seated man. The bespectacled man leaned forward slightly. “Hello, William.”

  Billy sighed and slumped in his chair. “Hi, Cyrus.” He looked at the ceiling. “I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.”

  ***

  The motor on the small boat reverberated loudly across San Francisco Bay as Tony piloted the overloaded craft t
oward sanctuary. The entire time he was getting the kids in the boat, he expected to feel a bullet enter his back, but it never came. Billy must have done his job and stopped or delayed the bastards long enough for Tony’s group and the kids to make their escape.

  Dave and Richie were talking, but other than some sniffles and quiet crying from the other kids, nobody else said anything.

  “He’ll come, right? He promised.”

  Dave ruffled Richie’s hair as he had seen Billy do. “He will. Have you ever known Billy to lie?”

  Richie smiled a little. “No. Hear that, guys?” he asked the other kids. “Billy will come visit.”

  Dennis looked up from his sniffles. “But what if them bad guys get him?”

  Richie’s smile evaporated, but Dave was quick. “Then we’ll go get him just like we got you guys.”

  “And we can all live on Alc-traz?”

  “Yup.”

  “Can we get a dog?” asked Dennis.

  Every kid looked up at that and Dave had no idea how to respond. Abbey saved him. “Well, we don’t have a dog yet, but we have a cat!”

  “A hero-cat,” Tony added quickly.

  “What’s a hero cat?”

  Tony looked at the mix of well-armed military and police waiting to greet them on the south dock and sighed with relief. “You’ll have to get that story from Sam. She’s one of the kids on the island. Pickles, the hero-cat, came in with her.”

  As the boat pulled up to the dock, Tony glanced behind him towards the corpse of San Francisco. He hoped Billy made it. He didn’t want to go looking for him in that damn dead city.

  Unknown Road, Massachusetts

  Rick and his group moved cautiously down the side of a misty New England road. The asphalt cut through the trees with no end in sight, not that the survivors could see anything. The rain had given way to a dense fog, the soupy air trapped by the woods. On both sides of them, the thick forest was barely evident, the outermost branches of needles the only discernable features of the pines. Visibility was nil.