Ranger Martin and the Search for Paradise

by Jack Flacco

  “I wanted you rested in case later on we had a fight on our hands.”

  “Okay. I can deal with this.” She placed her fingers on her forehead. “Let me wake up before I pick up my gun and start shooting things in the face.”

  The joke didn’t land well. Everyone except Ranger’s face turned serious. Above the stairs, Sunglow showed up with her hair partly matted.

  “Did you get any sleep at all?” Mark asked.

  One step at a time, Sunglow drifted down the flight of stairs and into the kitchen. She had one thing on her mind. She said, “Coffee.”

  Matty drew next to Ranger and grabbed his cup from the table. The aroma had earlier pulled her from the top of the stairs. Her stomach compelled her to look for something for breakfast. His breakfast would do.

  “I thought you went to bed at the same time like everyone else.” Mark set his cup on the table and fixed his shirttail that was sticking out.

  In the meantime, Jon reached for the cup in Matty’s hand. He wanted to try a swig.

  Too late, Ranger swiped it from him and took a swig. He had almost drained it when Sunglow noticed Matty from the corner of her eye. She didn’t say good morning or anything. She did grunt, though.

  “Got it, you want to keep to yourself this morning. What is it? Everyone’s bad breath? Your dislike for the company we’re keeping? Or is it one of your mood days?” Mark said after having tucked in his shirt. He retrieved his cup from the table and downed a good gulp of the molten brew.

  “You’re leaving?” Sunglow asked their guests.

  “As soon as we can.” Ranger said, and headed to his truck parked in the drive bay.

  “Thank God. Ever since you showed up we’ve had nothing but trouble.”

  Ranger didn’t answer, but opened the door to his truck and yelled out, “Jon, wake up Randy. We’re leaving.”

  “Where are we going?” Jon asked, pulling a candy bar from his pocket, unwrapping it and taking a bite.

  He didn’t answer.

  Matty knew what that meant. She poked Jon to do what Ranger had asked and strolled toward the truck, leaving Mark and Sunglow in the kitchen by themselves. When she approached Ranger, he had his head in the cab while his body stuck out. He was rifling through their belongings searching for something. She ignored him knowing he always had something on his mind, and that morning was no different. She squeezed against him and whispered, “Where are we going?”

  The glove compartment yielded the box of shells he was looking for. Nudging his way out of the truck, he walked to the hood and placed the box there. He opened it revealing the shells, nicely stacked one on top of the other waiting for him to break the symmetry. In the bustle of gathering his weapon’s ammo, he glanced at Matty. He didn’t need to say anything. All he had to do was look at her with his worn, brilliant eyes. His smirk helped convince her.

  She didn’t need to hear the words. She said, “Jon! Let’s get a move on. We want to get out of here before we’re forced out of here.”

  Mark grabbed his coffee and moved it to the operations console where the radar sat idle. The monitor’s trailing green light that scanned their location revealed nothing approaching for miles. As best as Mark knew, he couldn’t see a threat, which made Ranger look like he didn’t know what he was doing.

  However, the kids who knew Ranger learned never to question his instincts.

  After Jon woke Randy, they quickly scooted down the stairs and hauled their backpacks with all their clothes and personal items to the truck. Matty’s backpack lay in the passenger seat of their vehicle, but Jon was kind enough to retrieve her toothbrush and hairbrush from where she slept upstairs. She nodded her thanks and slipped the items into one of the pockets of her backpack.

  As Ranger loaded the shells in his shotgun, his gaze drifted to Mark and Sunglow.

  If Mark didn’t know better, Ranger was trying to communicate with him the gravity of the situation. Three soldiers were dead and the dump truck they were driving had flipped into a ditch a few miles from the silo. No one knew if others were on their way. According to how Mark thought, Ranger and his friends weren’t making a point of taking over the silo, as was their right to have done so. He perceived it as a genuine concern, which made him stare at Sunglow for a little while.

  “What?” Sunglow said.

  “Get Silver, we’re heading out of here.”

  “What are you talking about? You actually believe this guy? For all we know, he wants us to abandon this place, drive us in the middle of the desert and get rid of us so that he and his gang of losers can take over.”

  “Sunglow, there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you.” Mark banked the operations console and stood face to face with her. “How many jams have I gotten us out of? You know I wouldn’t be asking this if I didn’t feel confident we were in trouble.”

  “Yeah, but we don’t know these people.”

  “It doesn’t matter. What matters is what happened last night could happen again, regardless if we prepare ahead of time or not. We’re in a bind here. Do you get that?”

  “I’m trying to. I really am trying here.”

  “Try harder.” Mark rubbed the side of Sunglow’s arm reassuring her of his decision. “Now get Silver. We have to get out of here.”

  Beep.

  Sunglow’s gaze broke from Mark’s and fell on the console. The radar yielded a sound she hoped wouldn’t come again.

  Beep.

  This time, Mark’s attention veered to the console. “Get Silver. Now!”

  Sunglow, matted hair and all, ran up the stairs to the rest area and pushed Silver with both hands to awaken him. He burst from his bed with a gun from under his pillow pointed directly at Sunglow’s face. She put her hands in the air and calmed him with a soothing voice, convincing him to put the gun away. Once he did, and came out of his hibernation, she explained they had to leave. They had to gather what they could and leave the silo if they wanted to live another day.

  Silver and Sunglow raced down the stairs while Mark and the others packed their belongings as the intervals between beeps shortened. Whoever was out there, they didn’t want to know. It could have been the military or it could have been someone or something else. They knew one thing—they didn’t want to hang around to find out.

  Tossing the backpacks in the rear of the SUV, Randy raced to Matty asking her if she needed any help. She shook her head then said to the teen that he needed to worry about himself and not her. She hopped in the passenger seat calling to Ranger and Jon to hurry because here wasn’t much time. Jon followed, throwing his belongings in the truck.

  Ranger handed the box of shells to Matty and asked her to put it back in the glove compartment. Then, he marched toward Mark.

  “Where are you going?” Matty asked. “We have to leave!”

  But Ranger ignored her. He hadn’t holstered his shotgun. He pointed it to the floor when he approached Mark. “Where’s your vehicle?”

  “Outside. In the back.” Mark answered.

  Ranger glanced at a clump of dots beeping on the radar heading to their location. They were in more trouble than he thought. “Listen to me. Differences aside, follow us. I’ll get you out of here. We’ll wait for you outside. Hurry.”

  Mark nodded.

  * * *

  Ranger joined the others in his truck. He started the engine and drove the vehicle into the elevator where they soon rose to the exit at the top. Mark stayed behind to open the gate from the console while his friends argued about locking down the silo.

  Once the gate cracked open, Ranger drove outside from the silo and waited.

  A few minutes later, Mark, Sunglow and Silver appeared at the top of the elevator with their guns drawn. They ran to the back of the silo where a garage housed their vehicle. Mark hadn’t turned the engine on for a few days and worried it wouldn’t start. He didn’t think he’d have a problem, but when the engine didn’t turn over quickly, the others began to fidget in their seats. Silver couldn’
t stop the corner of his mouth from trembling—a nervous tick he picked up soon after the change. He tried to wipe the expression from his face, but his body wouldn’t let him.

  Sunglow, who sat in the passenger seat, tapped on her leg with her open palm.

  Sitting silent in the driver’s seat, Mark waited. He rubbed the key with his finger. One more turn, he thought, one more turn. One more turn was all it took. The engine started. Everyone blew a sigh of relief. Mark pressed on the gas, then shifted the gear to drive and took off.

  As promised, Ranger was waiting for Mark and the others. Once the gray sedan had met with Ranger’s SUV, it followed it into the desert.

  “Where are we going, Ranger?” Matty asked.

  “Just over that hill.” He nodded his direction.

  “Why did you want to take the others with us? Why didn’t you leave them behind where they wanted to stay in the first place? Seems they were happy without our company.”

  “Matty,” Ranger glanced at her, noticing how the sun had caught her eyes. “Always try to help others if you think they need help. Even if they don’t realize it, you can make a difference in their lives. One day, you might need help and you’d wish someone was there for you.”

  Jon had drifted into deep thought, and said, “I’m glad you found us in that gas station, Ranger. If you didn’t come along I think I would have died from listening to my sister’s voice complain every two minutes.”

  Randy smiled then realized Ranger had once saved him, too. “Thanks for picking me up in town. I really wasn’t sure where I was going until you asked me if I wanted to come and kill zombies with you.”

  “All right, all right, stop getting sentimental on me. I don’t need this right now.” Ranger shook his head.

  A grin flashed on Randy’s face. He knew he could make the undead slayer smile.

  Over the hill they went with Mark’s car tagging along. When the vehicles approached a dip on the other side, Ranger stopped his truck and got out. The kids soon followed, wondering what he had in mind. He had taken the binoculars from the glove compartment and climbed an embankment. As soon as Mark’s gray vehicle came to a stop behind Ranger’s truck, the teens spilled from the car wanting to find out if Ranger was wrong about the little dots on the radar heading to intercept the silo. Mark believed Ranger, but Sunglow and Silver didn’t.

  Hidden behind a hill, Ranger lied on his belly and took in the view overlooking the desert. He centered his binoculars on the landscape ahead and likened the scene reminiscent to a painting he once saw in a diner. If he could take back the apocalypse and enjoy the desert, riding through it without worrying about the undead, the military or anyone else getting in the way of his happiness, he’d do it without thinking. His lenses next focused on the silo, then shifted to the left from where he believed the beeps on the radar originated. All he could see was the cactus and the dirt surrounding the plants. Further left, he scanned the distance until he saw them—five military trucks, all in a row, each carrying men in uniform.

  The binoculars in Ranger’s hands fell from his face. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “What do you see, Ranger?” Mark grabbed the binoculars to see for himself what all the fuss was about. “You’re right. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “We’ve got a good head start. Let’s not waste it talkin’. Everyone in the vehicles.”

  “What’s coming, Ranger? What’s coming?” Jon asked while everyone followed the zombie slayer.

  “Five trucks filled with soldiers. We can’t win.” Ranger grabbed the binoculars from Mark and hopped into his truck. “I got you out of there, now it’s up to you. You can follow us or you three can go your own way. Up to you.”

  While Matty, Jon and Randy joined Ranger in his truck, Mark, Silver and Sunglow chatted about the decision to the side of the embankment. They could follow Ranger and his group or take a chance and leave on their own. Mark trusted Ranger, given how Ranger had helped them escape from the silo. He recommended following Ranger, but Sunglow and Silver kept exchanging glances thinking the same thing. They wanted to be out on their own. This made Mark’s face hard as stone, and the anger pushed him to point his finger at them reminding them that if it hadn’t been for Ranger, they would have had to deal with the military taking over the silo—at which point, who knew what would have happened to them.

  For this reason, Sunglow nodded her head in agreement. Silver remained dug in, not wanting to change his mind. Mark didn’t care and told him clearly, pressing his finger on Silver’s chest, they had no choice but to join Ranger and his team as the next step in their quest for survival. He didn’t have a choice because he had the keys to the car. Either he would follow or Mark would leave him in the desert to fend for himself.

  Silver thought he had to do what Mark said. Yet, he still could express his contempt for the decision in the worst of ways. He grabbed the keys to the car and tossed them over Ranger’s truck. There. No one was leaving.

  “What did you do?” Mark screamed, then let loose a punch to Silver’s face, decking him right there in the dirt.

  Silver smiled as blood from the cut on his cheek trickled down his neck.

  Chapter 6

  Five military Humvees followed each other on County Road 3497 from where the lead vehicle peeled into the desert. One of the soldiers who sat in the passenger seat holding a map firmly on his lap pointed outside his window at to the silo ahead.

  When the trucks arrived, and the sun had already begun to heat the morning, the soldiers jumped out holding their weapons close. As they approached the open gate, one of them stopped in the center of the compound staring at the silo. He stood taller above the rest with dark features and a scar on the right side of his neck. His boots had green splatter patterns over them, as did the others in his unit. Other than the sidearm straddled to his hip, his uniform was like that of his men, worn and tattered.

  He studied the silo before he took another step. It was then that he noticed the two piles of charred remains shoveled into the corner of the fencing. He pulled his gun, as did everyone else. There was more to this place than for it being a simple abandoned silo. The bodies didn’t move, so the soldier knew it wasn’t the undead lying waste in the ash heap.

  * * *

  After having found the keys on the other side of the truck, Ranger drove his group while Mark followed with the gray sedan. The passengers in Mark’s car sat gazing out their windows with disinterest in their faces.

  An hour had gone by when the vehicles crossed the Nevada/Arizona border on I-15. Matty passed Jon and Randy a handful of cracker packets from inside her backpack. But Randy had something on his mind. Matty discovered it only after she pulled her sun visor to look at the mirror. She wanted to make sure her brother Jon was doing fine. Instead, she spotted Randy sitting and staring out his window.

  “What are you thinking about?” Matty asked.

  “Nothing. Just wondering when all of this is going to end.” Randy kept his gaze fixed while he nibbled on his crackers.

  “We’re in this for the long haul.”

  “I know. I didn’t say it because I wanted sympathy. I said it because I’m tired of it. Every day is something, whether we’re fighting against the chewers, the military, others—I’m tired of the whole thing and need something more to bring back the humanity I miss in our lives.”

  “You have us. Is there anyone else you wanted?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure anymore. Our time together has been nothing more than a monotonous cycle of running and killing. Right when we think we’ve found a place where we can relax and live like humans again, something else gets in the way. I mean, do we actually know where we’re going now? I thought the silo would be the one place where we didn’t have to worry about anything. No one would find us there. Remember? Instead, we get the same old thing happening.” Randy’s hunger suddenly vanished. He wrapped the rest of his crackers into a buddle and laid them in the center of the backseat.


  While Ranger’s truck fell into silence, Mark’s car had turned into a tennis match.

  “You’re wrong this time, Mark. We should have stayed in the silo and turned on the electrified fence.” Silver said.

  “And once they broke through the fence with their trucks? What then? We wait until someone with the right access card opens the elevator shaft so they could invade our home? Or what about if they couldn’t get in. What makes you think they wouldn’t have thrown a few grenades in the airshafts? You don’t think I hadn’t thought of that?” Mark kept his eyes on the road but the hatred that cramped his stomach for Silver’s actions the night before spilled from his mouth like a river. He hated having to defend every one of his decisions. He hated Silver sitting in the passenger seat laying judgment on him. He had other things on his mind.

  “Where do you think Ranger’s going?” Sunglow asked watching the passing road signs.

  “It looks like he has a plan.” Mark scratched his head. “I just don’t know what it is.”

  Back in the truck ahead, Jon finished his crackers and dumped the wrapper out his window. He then wiped his mouth, coughed, and asked the question on everyone’s mind, “What’s the plan, Ranger?”

  Ranger didn’t answer. Instead, he allowed the silence to linger a little while longer before he cleared his throat and pressed his foot on the gas. A smile floated on his face as he held the wheel with his left hand and dug into his back pant pocket with his right.

  Matty squirmed in her seat noticing Ranger not paying attention to the road. She reached over and grabbed the wheel while Ranger unbuckled his seatbelt and dipped his hand deeper into his pocket. The look on his face said it all, “It’s in here somewhere.”

  “What’s so important that it can’t wait until we get out of the truck, Ranger?” Randy asked.

  Without trying, Ranger pulled the map he had tucked away in his pocket from the morning at the silo. He grabbed the wheel with both hands then gave the map to Matty.