by Flacco, Jack
He smiled knowing she would never leave him again.
The sound of a motor coming from the outside shook Jon to his feet. He woke the others as the floorboards squeaked underneath his shoes to the door. He spied through one of the cracks of the boarded windows to the parking lot, but the lot had nothing except a few broken vehicles and bodies of the undead. He slipped to the other side of the wall near the water. Rubbing his eyes, he thought he had seen something appear from out a dream.
“Ranger’s back!” He jumped into the air, pumping his fists. He turned to Matty, Randy and the others who had risen to their feet and said, “We have to go see him.”
“Hold on there, buddy.” Silver rose and plopped his hand on the kid’s shoulder. “We don’t even know if all those gut churners are dead or not.”
“They’re dead.” Matty said.
“How do you know?”
“Trust me. They’re all dead.”
The door to the maintenance building opened. From within the structure, the kids carefully sneaked outside, first, Randy, then the others. As they left the building, their eyes focused on the dead lying in dried blood on the ground. Matty hadn’t seen so much blood since the first time she, Ranger and Randy had an encounter with zombies in the back of a delivery truck. She held her knife close to her, but as she passed the corpses, she pointed it at them just in case she was wrong about them being dead.
Abigail followed Jon while Silver held the rear. After having been together for so long, they had grown familiar with the formation. With Matty and Randy as the natural leaders of the group, Silver didn’t mind following. As long as the leaders led the group to safety, he would support them, which is more than anyone could say to what happened with his friends that he had held company with before meeting the others.
Once the boat docked with the pier, Jon vanished from the group, trotted toward the yacht, his footsteps on the boardwalk sounding like small drums beating at a steady rhythm.
Matty and Randy exchanged glances, but it didn’t bother them to see the boy’s enthusiasm at work. He deserved happiness in his life. The anticipation of meeting others like him carried the boy forward. After all, that was the point why Ranger had gone to the island in the first place—to rescue the children that Josh and his cohorts had kidnapped to brainwash wanting them to become the future master race.
When the motor had shut, Ranger emerged from the top of the yacht sporting bandaged wounds. It didn’t seem to slow him down any. He climbed the ladder and dropped to the boardwalk without as much as a wince.
Jon hit him with a strong embrace then said, “I missed you!”
“Missed you too, little guy.”
As his hero walked from the yacht toward the group several meters away, his shotgun tucked neatly in its holster and his knife at the ready on the other side, Jon stood in one spot looking back on the boat. No one else had emerged. He didn’t hear the sound of children’s voices nor did he hear a shuffle. The boy then watched Ranger carefully. Perhaps he would return, he thought. Perhaps he had forgotten he had passengers in the boat. But no mistaking it, there was no one else that would emerge providing Jon another set of friends to talk to during those lonely nights of silence and boredom.
Just as well, Abigail needed a friend more than anything and Jon was happy to be that friend. He still wanted to know what happened.
He dashed to Ranger’s side and as they strolled on the boardwalk heading to meet the group, he asked, “What about the others, Ranger? Where are they?”
“There’s no one else.” Ranger simply answered. He couldn’t tell the eight year-old that the other children his age were part of a feeding frenzy in the jail. He wouldn’t know what the boy’s reaction would be. He thought it best that he kept that information to himself until such a time he felt Jon could handle it. Until then, he remained focused and wanted to get out of that godforsaken parking lot polluted with the corpses of the undead.
Matty and the other teens stopped halfway the distance from the maintenance building to the yacht standing on the boardwalk. As Ranger approached them, Matty couldn’t hold on any longer. She dashed with open arms to hop on the zombie slayer and hug him like she had never hugged him before.
Ranger spun Matty around several times, as relief for having arrived safely washed over him. Whatever anger he felt for the undead had melted holding her in his arms and having seen the other kids standing without a scratch on them. He held her for a long time, her feet dangling, tears soaking his shoulder. He didn’t want to let her go. It was the only human contact he had had in a while and wanted to make it count before all the emotional walls returned to protect them from the tragedies of the zombie apocalypse.
A shot ripped through the air and sunk into the back of its intended victim.
Matty said, “Ranger?”
Still holding her in his arms, Ranger’s hand became wet. When he saw blood dribbling between his fingers, a howl escaped him from the depths of his soul, “No! No!”
The others stood frozen on the boardwalk in shock watching Ranger collapse with Matty to his knees. Jon’s jaw became loose as he stared at his hero cradling his sister next to his chest.
Confusion settled on everyone’s faces.
Another shot tore across the parking lot and crashed into its next victim in a puff of red. Abigail screamed as the spray hit her face. Without thinking, Silver thought Abigail was the one hit. He yanked her between the parked cars and examined her, but he didn’t find any wounds.
“Silver, your shoulder.” Abigail pointed.
He gazed at it, tore his shirt then slid his back on the wheel of the parked car. “I’m good. It’s just a nick. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Shivers spiked behind Ranger’s neck. Whatever was happening was happening too fast.
Jon’s hands landed on Ranger’s shoulders and towed him from his knees. “C’mon!”
Ranger gazed at the boy and quickly shook away the confusion. He realized that if he didn’t do something, they’d all be dead. He carefully lifted Matty and rushed her into Randy’s arms. All Randy could do was to hold her as Jon pushed them to where Silver and Abigail hid between the parked cars.
“I told you that I was going to take away everything you loved.” A voice emerged from the deck of the yacht. “Didn’t I say I’d hunt you and your loved ones down until there was nothing left?”
As Matty’s blood dripped from Ranger’s hand to the boardwalk, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Josh had traveled all that way with him without making a sound as a means to exact revenge.
There was more to it than that. Back at the prison, while Ranger bombed Josh’s cell, destroying all his personal belongings, Josh limped his way from his dead wife’s body to the yacht. He had hid himself in the same storage area Ranger and Lenny had hid when they were in the midst of taking over Paradise. From there, once Ranger had disembarked, he crawled from his hiding place and set atop the deck in a perfect sniper position.
When Ranger saw Matty safe in Randy’s arms, fury fueled every cell in his body. A rotten scowl covered his face and he shook as his innards tossed and twisted. Once the words “Matty, stay with me” from Randy’s mouth drifted into his head, he wasn’t thinking anymore. He stepped forward not realizing the next bullet from Josh’s gun could have been the one that would have ended his life. But he didn’t care. He was going to finish it.
Every step Ranger took toward the yacht, he didn’t know if he’d survive. All he knew was if no one stopped Josh, then all the kids would end up dead.
The next shot hit Ranger in the right thigh. It easily took him down like a wounded animal in a hunt.
“Now we’re even. I have a broken foot. You have a shot leg.” Josh said.
Ranger ignored the taunts. The sweat from his brow dripped on the boardwalk, and as he rose from his temporary grave, he left a handprint with Matty’s blood on one of the boards.
Ten feet from the yacht, Ranger dropped his shotgun to the
ground.
Five feet from the yacht, Ranger dropped his knife to the ground.
When he reached the boat’s ladder, he wasn’t sure if he’d make it all the way up. His hands trembled from the pain in his leg, but it didn’t stop him from grabbing the rung and climbing. The thought of tearing Josh piece by piece with his bare hands comforted him. Getting rid of the weapons was his way of telling Josh he was coming for him. Nothing would stand in his way.
In the meantime, between the parked cars where the kids sought refuge from the gunfire, Randy cradled Matty while pressing the wound on her back with his left hand.
Jon crouched next to her. He said, “Matty, when we get out of this, can we go home? I’m getting tired now. I don’t like fighting zombies anymore. Can we just go home?”
Jon was deceiving himself if he believed Boston was safe again, but the words were a comfort to Matty. She smiled. She said, “Sure, Jon. We can go home. I miss my bed.”
Once Ranger boarded the boat with his feet firmly planted on the deck, he saw where Josh had crawled to in the corner, a blood trail leading to where he hid. Ranger could only assume what had happened to the young man. His wife must have punctured a vein in his neck when she had gnawed at his collarbone back at the prison. Josh had lost a lot of blood.
Then the thought hit Ranger. Had he not gone back to help Josh, Matty wouldn’t have been struggling for her life. In part, he began to blame himself for Matty’s wound. It was all his fault.
About three feet away, Ranger wrung his hands ready to end Josh’s life. Yet after seeing the man, and how he lay strewn over the deck, Ranger had second thoughts. Maybe he didn’t have to kill him after all. Maybe all he had to do was wait.
“Didn’t I say to you I’d take away everything you loved?” Josh threw his gun on the deck and laid his head on the bannister leading to the galley. “You killed my wife.”
Ranger’s stomach settled as he watched Josh’s life slowly disappear before him. With a flag he had found waving on deck, he tore a piece and wrapped it around his leg to stop the bleeding from where Josh had shot him. Whatever anger he may have had toward Paradise’s former leader had disappeared with the sight of him losing his life.
Josh pulled himself up to relieve his lungs of the pressure from his gasps.
Then Ranger did something he thought he wouldn’t do. He picked up Josh’s gun, loaded the chamber and pointed it at the man who had shot the one person in this world who he considered his daughter.
“You don’t have to do anything.” Josh said through a gurgle. “You just have to wait. I’ll be dead soon.”
“Yeah,” Ranger patted the sweat from his face with his free hand, “But then you’d die under your terms. I can’t let that happen. I need closure.”
Josh’s face turned to terror.
As the waves lapped against the boat, Silver placed his hands on Jon and Abigail’s shoulders to comfort them. They watched Randy as he held Matty in his arms.
The shot rang out from the boat and startled them. Of all the kids, the shot’s impact hit Jon the most. He closed his eyes wishing it would all go away. He knew right there that for the first time his hero had shot a man.
While the kids looked on, Randy pushed his left hand into view from Matty’s back. He saw the blood and quickly hid it again. Water soaked his cheeks. He thought how beautiful she looked. He slipped a strand of her hair from her face behind her ear. Her striking red hair had always brought him a smile. It also reflected her fiery temper. How could he forget how it seemed to catch fire when she’d have one of her mood swings? Her skin was as milk. He caressed her cheek. So soft.
“Randy?” She opened her eyes. “Take care of Jon.”
“Don’t you dare, Matty. You’re going to be fine. You’re not going anywhere. Stay with me.”
“Make sure he brushes his teeth before he goes to bed.”
“Stop it. Okay. Just stop it. Ranger will be here soon and we’ll fix you right up.”
Although Abigail knew Matty for a short time, she remembered how Matty had held her when her mother had died. It helped her get right with accepting the brutality of the world they now lived in. She watched as Matty’s breathing became shallower.
“Randy?” Matty licked her lips as her gaze locked with his. “I love you. I really do love you.”
She had never said that to him before. His breath caught and he allowed the words to linger in his head for a short time. Then, his words came just as quickly. “I love you, too.”
Ranger had appeared over Silver’s shoulder. He didn’t say a word. He hovered. He listened. He saw the blood that had soaked the boardwalk. He wanted to say something to Matty, but Randy was doing a better job of it. She didn’t need him to interrupt.
“I’m cold.” Matty began to shiver.
Randy couldn’t do anything but hold her hand. It felt like ice. “Don’t leave me, Matty. I don’t want you to go. I won’t know what to do without you. My life will not be the same. Please, stay.”
A delicate smile floated on Matty’s face. She closed her eyes. The smile left her.
“Matty?” Randy’s chest grew rapid. He shook her. “Matty?”
Matty didn’t move.
Randy held on, rocking back and forth, wailing. All the memories of them flooded his brain, but couldn’t take away the new memory of her telling him she loved him. He would always remember how those words sounded coming from her lips, and how his heart imploded from seeing her not move ever again.
Chapter 33
Matty’s burial was a quick one. They had gathered in the woods that same morning she died. Ranger had used her knife she had killed hundreds of the undead as a marker for her grave. They had buried her next to a tree where they thought she’d enjoy the view of the sky during those sunny days when the light would peak over the clouds.
After a few words, Ranger and the other kids left Randy and Jon alone at the grave. Ranger still blamed himself for Matty’s death and couldn’t forgive himself. He thought it best they’d go their separate ways. He waited for them against the Humvee, stuck in the ditch by the side of the road.
Randy emerged from the woods, leaving Jon alone.
At the grave, Jon couldn’t stand there without saying something. “You were a good sister to me, Matty. When Dad would come home drunk, and beat on Mom, you held me in bed until I’d fall asleep. You made sure I knew you loved me no matter what happened around us. You thought if you protected me, I wouldn’t know what he did to her. I knew, but because of you, I don’t have the bad memories you had.”
Jon bowed his head and kneeled beside the grave. He scooped a handful of dirt from the top and studied it. He sank the contents of his hand into his pocket. He thought if he could keep the dirt, it would remind him of her.
“I should have known once you lost your gun in that place called Paradise that we wouldn’t be safe. It should have never happened. We would have been better off staying in Las Vegas. I don’t know why we came here. I really don’t.”
He placed his hand on the grave. “I’ll miss you, Matty.”
* * *
Sometime later, Randy approached Ranger who was waiting by the side of the road. As Randy came face to face with the former truck driver, Silver and Abigail stood nearby watching. They weren’t sure if he blamed Ranger for what happened with Matty or if Randy stood there waiting for a word from Ranger.
Randy broke the silence, “I forgive you, Ranger.”
Ranger stood listening.
“You’ve been good to us and you care about others too much for me to be angry with you. I wish we could go back in time to when Matty was still alive. I could have saved her. But I know that’s impossible, otherwise I would have wanted to go back to when this whole thing with the chewers first started.” He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, but he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I trusted you, Ranger! Hadn’t we done what you wanted, Matty would still be alive today.”
Steadying himself, Ranger knew Randy had a po
int. How could he argue with him? He couldn’t. He agreed with the teen. He stared at one spot on the ground without a word.
But Randy wasn’t going to let him get away with it. “Say something!”
“What did you want me to say? You’re right? I know you’re right. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me. Don’t you think I know that?”
The words fell on Randy’s ears as if it were a song.
“But y’all knew the risk. I’ll take the blame, but y’all knew there was a chance we wouldn’t come out alive.”
Jon slipped from the woods carrying the knife Ranger used for marking Matty’s grave. He carried it with a blank stare and walked straight for Ranger, not deviating to the left or to the right.
When he stopped and stood next to Randy, he stared at Ranger. His sister was no longer there, but his sister’s boyfriend was. Jon wanted answers, and he couldn’t bring himself to do anything else except grip the knife tighter.
Ranger’s focus landed on the weapon. Was Jon going to stab him with it as revenge for Matty’s death? He didn’t know. He propped himself and waited for the little boy to do something.
Silver and Abigail watched. Again, that was all anyone could do.
In seconds, Jon dropped the knife, his face crumpled, and he crashed into Ranger’s arms in an embrace. He said, “Don’t leave us. Matty loved you and she wouldn’t have wanted you to leave me. Stay with us.”
The front of Ranger’s shirt became wet from Jon’s sorrow. Without anyone saying anything to him, Randy joined in the embrace. Soon after, Abigail and Silver spread their arms around Ranger.
Whatever had happened, and whatever blame Ranger had felt the others had placed on him vanished. He knew they had forgiven him.
As he stared into the woods, he realized he needed to do one more thing—and that was to forgive himself.
Ranger closed his eyes, held the kids tight and nodded with the feeling of redemption coursing through his body.
* * *
Hours later, the Humvee sped down the highway with the sun shining on the road ahead. Whatever adventures awaited the zombie slayer and his team of young tagalongs only time would reveal. For now, the highway was their home and their appetite to rid the world of the undead their goal.