by Mark Tufo
The Book of Riley - Part 2
The Book of Riley: PT 2
My Name is Riley
Mark Tufo
This book is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places and events are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual names, characters and places are entirely coincidental. The reproduction of this work in full or part is forbidden without written consent from the author.
Copyright 2012 Mark Tufo
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Edited by:
TW Brown
Cover Art:
Cover Art by Shaed Studios, shaedstudios.com
Electronic Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Dedications:
To the missus, thank you for all that you do. (Especially when I injure myself in a variety of new and unusual ways)
To Katherine Coynor, your input and attention to detail is always appreciated.
To Paul Erickson, thank you. (I could go into a long and detailed explanation but he’d probably get embarrassed.)
To Max Heron, be well little one.
To the men and women of the armed forces, my unflagging gratitude for your sacrifices.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Epilogue
My Name is Riley - From the Book of Riley - Volume 2
Part 2 continues the saga of Riley and her pack, picking up exactly where part 1 ended.
CHAPTER ONE
We got back into Jess’ car. Her hands were shaking as she placed the janglers into their resting spot. Water leaked from her eyes, splashing off the steering wheel. Ben-Ben was licking it up.
“It’s salty like bacon. Do you want me to save you some?” Ben-Ben asked me.
“You thought him worth saving?” Patches asked me as she sighed from the back seat.
I turned my head to the side, which I think is near the same as when a human shrugs their shoulders. “He has his good parts,” I told her.
“Let me know when they show, get the girl moving,” Patches told me.
“You are a bossy little thing,” I snarled at her.
“I’m a cat and I’m female, I fully expect others to do my bidding.”
“Shouldn’t we allow her to rest?” I asked Patches. “She just watched two of her own die.”
“More will be coming. I cannot imagine you with that preposterously large nose not being able to smell them,” Patches said.
Ben-Ben’s water slurping was not allowing me to think clearly. “Sit down!” I barked at him.
“I just wanted some bacon,” he whined. “I miss Santa, and the Alphas, even Alpha-cub,” he whined softly.
I missed them, too, and I felt for Ben-Ben; but we needed to leave. Survival was all that mattered. Instincts that had been muted my entire life were now coming to the fore. I barked to get Jessie’s attention and again when she didn’t respond.
“Riley, what?” she asked with a pained expression.
I barked through the front viewer.
“I don’t see anything,” Jessie said, peering.
“She really needs to learn animal-speak, this is as bad as Lassie,” Patches said.
“Who’s Lassie?” Ben-Ben and I asked.
“If you two stopped playing tug-of-war with your tails you’d know,” Patches said snidely.
I turned to the front when the four-wheeler awoke.
“Again you guys saved me,” Jessie said, stroking the side of my face. Ben-Ben nudged me away so that his face was now in contact with Jess’ front paw. “Oh, Ben-Ben,” Jess said as more water flowed from her eyes.
“Think she could fill a bowl with that?” Ben-Ben asked me. “I’m very thirsty. I ate the casing the bacon came in.”
“Dumb dog,” Patches chimed in.
“What? Faye threw it in the giant dog bowl…I figured it was mine to eat!” Ben-Ben exclaimed.
“That’s the trash,” I said, shaking my head back and forth.
“Yum! It’s all the same to me!” Ben-Ben said excitedly, his tail wagging furiously.
“I have got to start thinking on my own,” Jess said to us. “I have Zachary to think of. It’s just us now,” she said as she snuggled up to my face. My whiskers tickled as she did so; I sneezed in her face. “Why thank you for that!” Jess said, pulling back a bit.
She put Zach in his special seat. I could tell from the smells that were leaking from him that he was in desperate need of elimination. I have yet to figure out why the two-leggers make their young keep the waste in their fake skins. Even the lowly cat doesn’t walk around with offal in its coat. When I was a summer younger I thought it might just be my Alphas that did that, and then I went to the kid zoo—or they may have called it the park, I can’t remember—but all the little ones there had fake skins on, and more than seven had waste tucked in with them. Two-leggers are a funny animal. And then I remember Ben-Ben when I think sometimes that we dogs are the superior being; he brings it all back. Patches might have it right, not that I’m going to let her know it. The only thing we have in common is that we’re both females.
The wheeler was moving, and just in time, I saw zombies coming from around Winke’s house.
“Something is wrong with Santa!” Ben-Ben howled.
I turned; my fur bristled as I saw him standing at the window. He looked to be eating a particularly large hunk of meat, it was not bacon, of that I was sure. Jess did not see, and I was thankful for that, she would have just leaked more eye water.
“I need to get to Justin,” Jess said aloud. I could sense the desperation in her voice. “Until then, though, I’m going to start doing what it takes to keep us alive,” she said with some determination; not much, but at least it was there.
“Finally, now I can take this burden off my back,” Patches said as she puddled her tail around her body.
“As if,” I snorted at her, she paid me no attention. “Typical cat, do nothing and take all the credit.”
“I’m sleeping, dog, why don’t you be a good second-class animal and shut up,” she told me.
If I thought I could get into the back without hurting Zachary, I may have done so. I wouldn’t hurt her, mostly. Maybe just fit her whole body in my mouth and give her a shake or two, let her know who was boss. I drifted off to sleep with that image in my mind; one of the better sleep thoughts I’d ever had.
“Nevada!” Was what I heard Jessie shout as she took me out of my sleep; good thing, too. I had been chasing a fat squirrel, and then when I got close, he stopped and turned towards me. His eyes lost the fear of the pursued; they turned as black as the night my pack died. And then he started to run towards me! A squirrel started to chase me! I would have been embarrassed if any of my dog friends had seen. Like sometimes during the autumn months when the two-leggers would parade me and Ben-Ben around in fake skins like theirs. Ben-Ben loved when they dressed him up. Last time he had looked like an orange toy ball, the
y kept calling him a pumpkin, but he sure didn’t smell like one.
They put some frilly scratchy thing on me, said I was a ballerina, whatever that is. I tried my best to get away from the two-legger tether, but they offered a peanut butter cookie, and I’d do just about anything for a peanut butter cookie. Walked around the whole neighborhood with the Alphas, Zachary, and Daniel. They made sure to go to every house, kept saying something about ‘tricks or treats’ it was alright at some of the houses as the two-leggers that lived there would give me and Ben-Ben something. And then it got bad when that big Siberian Husky, Duke, saw me. He was howling in laughter. I made sure to mark his fence. He couldn’t get past it to get to me. He was soooo angry!
“We’re in Nevada!” Jessie shouted again.
“Cat, what is Nevada?” I asked. I hated to, but what choice did I have.
“We crossed an imaginary line in the dirt the humans created to mark their territory. We left what they call California and are now in Nevada,” she answered.
I didn’t have a clue what ‘imaginary’ meant, but I didn’t want her to think I didn’t. “So we’ve almost completed the big move?” I asked, trying to sound smarter than her.
“Dogs had to team up with humans or you would have never made it,” she said, curling back up to go to sleep.
I looked around trying to figure out what made Nevada any different than California; I couldn’t see anything besides dirt and rocks. Yup pretty much looked the same…except for the change in Jess. She seemed happy once we crossed that funny line. I would be happy with her; I just wished I knew how many more funny lines we would need to cross to see the pheromone boy.
“I think we’ll go to Las Vegas,” Jess said as we were driving along.
As long as they had food I would go willingly. We stopped once so that Zachary could get a new set of fake skins. I gladly got out and relieved myself behind the wheeler, I made Ben-Ben get up too and go outside. He would have been just as happy to go on the back seat. Patches hopped down and walked right under me, her tail smacking into my nose. I had visions of grabbing her by that offensive tail and sending her for a little ‘fetch’ ride.
Zachary was screaming; I went over to sniff him while Jess was busy digging the fake skins out. His bottom was the same color, Jess’ skin had been this summer when she fell asleep outside. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be, he was sitting in his filth and he had no fur to protect himself. I smelled something else, too, the baby cub was sick. I could smell it in his breath. It wasn’t bad yet, but it would be. I could only hope that this ‘Las Vegas’ would offer some help.
***
Zachary had been full-throated screaming since we left our relief station. The wheeler was traveling faster as maybe Jess realized something was wrong and was trying to get some help. If she was merely trying to outpace the noise, she wasn’t doing such a good job.
“Shit!” Jess said, slamming her hands against the wheel. “We need gas.”
I thought that was actually pretty good since we were just about to pass one of the smelly liquid dispensers. That was until I saw the dead ones walking around the pumps.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Jess said. “We need gas or we’re going to be walking.” She looked over at the three dead ones who were now approaching, as she pulled in.
I alternated between looking at Jess and the dead ones. Jess was alternating between looking at them and looking down at the number gauges on the wheeler. She reached behind the back seat and took out a metal stick, and then she got out of the car. She almost slammed my head in the heavy door as I tried to follow her.
“You watch out for Zach,” she told me. I barked furiously at her.
“Cat, what is she doing?” I kept barking.
“This is bad,” Ben-Ben said as he piddled.
“And that’s going to help?” Patches said as she jumped into the front with me to get away from the stench and flow of Ben-Ben.
“I wish Santa was here,” Ben-Ben said as he watched Jess.
“She’s going to try and kill the zombies,” Patches said.
“She’s a fool!” I growled.
“Get me out of the wheeler, cat, NOW!” I was barking so loud I was actually making the baby cub stop his screaming as he looked in wonder at something that was actually complaining louder than he was.
Patches moved her paw to a button on the door. I heard something click on all four doors.
“Wrong button,” Patches said, looking down at her paw. “I think I locked the doors.”
The zombies were getting closer to Jess as she had come to my side of the car. She started to wildly swing the hooked metal stick. “They’re going to kill her, cat. Get me out of this thing!” I was howling.
I heard a whirring sound as the window in the back on the driver’s side began to go down. I had already jumped into the back seat and into Ben-Ben’s urine when the other windows began to go down. The triumphant words of Patches were cut short as I dove through the opening.
“A thanks would be nice,” I thought I heard her say as I came to a skidding halt when I landed.
I yelped a moment when I felt something in my paw tear. I turned my body and started to run around to the front. Jess had just hit the first zombie on the shoulder with her stick. It had no effect; his hands were reaching out and were about to close on her neck as I launched off the ground, my momentum taking us all to the ground.
I saw Jess’ look of surprise and relief as I wrapped my muzzle around the creature’s neck. Skin practically sloughed off in my mouth as I dug my paws into the ground pulling the monster off of her. She scrambled and got out from under us; she stood back up as I was shaking back and forth violently. I wasn’t satisfied until I heard the bones in its neck begin to snap, and still the thing tried to bite at me.
“Back!” Jess screamed loudly.
I had just let go as she brought the metal stick down on the top of its skull. The splintering of its head was loud. Finally, it lay still. Jess was heaving from the exertion and the stress; I turned to face the remaining two.
“Oh God!” Jess bawled.
Unlike the Alphas’ home, these zombies were much more interested in me than they had been. I knew what was happening. They were hungrier now, I might not be the favorite food choice for them, kind of like my kibble, but they’d eat me in a pinch. I darted to the side. One of the zombies turned to follow me, but she was slow, even slower than the fat Alpha-cub. I got behind her and snapped at the small fleshy tendon behind her ankle. She went down face first, a few of her two-legger fangs cracking as she hit the fake ground.
I wanted to finish her off, but Jess was looking like she had lost her will to fight. She had the metal stick pressed up against the third zombie’s forehead and was merely trying to keep him at bay. I didn’t think her tactic was going to work.
I barked at her. “Swing!” I yelled over and over. She looked at me pleadingly for help. I barked again, she needed to kill it on her own or she would begin to doubt her ability to survive; next she would be fear urinating like Ben-Ben. This wasn’t a funny time, but it was a funny thought, and I planned on thinking about it later when we were safe.
“Riley!” Patches admonished me from behind the clear viewer. “She needs your help!”
“Then maybe you should get out here!” I yelled to the cat. She shut up after that.
I kept barking at Jess until something in her finally released; she let reason and higher thought go as she reached into the depths of her being and pulled out instinct. Survival took over. She realized this thing wanted to take what was most precious to us all: Life. She swung the stick much like I had seen on the picture viewer when Alpha watched a game he called baseball. The game made absolutely no sense, but the balls were delicious whenever I could get a hold of one.
When I was a puppy they had talked about sending me to puppy prison when I got a hold of one of the round, cow tasting things. He had kept screaming that a baby had signed it and that it was priceless. I still don�
��t know what ‘signing’ is, or who Baby Ruth was, but I sure was glad She-alpha had told him in no uncertain terms that I was staying and that maybe he should put things out of reach of puppies. Although, in all fairness, I had jumped up on his chair and onto his desk and pushed the clear viewer material out of the way so that I could get to it. Seemed like such a waste to have the fun ball under clear viewer material.
Her first hit seemed to stun the monster but did not put him down. The second one split through his hairline. Vile smelling liquid began to ooze down its side. Jess gagged, but she struck again. I watched as the side of the head where she hit indented, the oozing became a gushing. The thing wasn’t moving forward, but it still hadn’t gone down. I thought Jess was done…until she brought the stick one more time against it. This time his head seemed to swallow the stick, a wet sucking sound ensued as the thing fell. The stick was pulled violently from Jess’ hands. She let it go as she winced from the pain.
She was sobbing uncontrollably; much like she had been when she got off the plastic talking box at the house one time. She had told She-alpha that Bobby DiCarlo had broken up with her. I didn’t know how the plastic talking box knew, but that wasn’t important. I made sure that I was within petting distance for the next two days as she watered her eyes. There was a time and a place to be sad, this wasn’t one of them. There were no zombies around us right now, but they were nearby, I could smell them. And if more than seven came, we would be in trouble.
“Do you need my help?” Ben-Ben was barking from the clear viewer on our side.
The dog was so dense, I bet he didn’t even realize there was a way to get out and help. That was unfair, he had proved his reliability more than once; humans weren’t the only ones that suffered from stress.
“Just look for more of them,” I answered.
He seemed to like that answer.
I felt like I had to add this next part. “And let us know if you see any of them.” There was more than a fair chance he would spot some and leave it at that.