Ranger Martin and the Search for Paradise

by Jack Flacco

“There are boats at the dock. Can’t we grab one and take it to—what did you call that place?”

  “Alcatraz.”

  “Right. We can grab a boat and ride it over.”

  “You’re as crazy as Ranger.” Randy said, and rose to his feet to clean the table. He didn’t know what else to do. He had to move about in order not to feel as if he had lost control of the situation.

  “You’ve mentioned this Ranger fellow. Who is he?” Toby asked.

  “Ranger?” Jon asked. “Ranger is Ranger. There’s no one like him. He shows up when we need him, he clears the place of zombies, and he carries us to safety.”

  “Sounds like a comic book hero.”

  “You have no idea.” Matty said.

  Stepping from the table, Randy dug his hands into his pockets and walked to the bookshelf. He scanned the book spines. He didn’t intend to read any of them. He needed a moment to understand what was happening. What suddenly was an escape plan, soon turned into a rescue mission. He wasn’t ready for that. Not again. Closing his eyes, he allowed the thought of Matty to soothe his muscles. He thought if Matty wanted to do this then he should help. But it was a crazy idea. Three kids to rescue an island fortress with a small boat didn’t make sense to him. He couldn’t reconcile the thought of doing such a thing without help.

  “Are there others?” Randy asked, swinging around to gaze at Toby from the bookshelf.

  “Others?” Toby asked.

  “Others like you who think Josh is a nutcase?”

  “We don’t have enough for an army, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “We don’t need an army. We need enough to cause a diversion so that the three of us can get on a boat and head toward Alcatraz.”

  Toby laughed. It struck him funny that a young fifteen-year-old boy would even consider heading into the mouth of a lion when the lion hadn’t eaten for days. He said, “I suppose we have enough for a distraction, but you have to explain one thing. Are you seriously thinking you can get near that place? The island is a prison. If anything I know about Josh and his men is that he wouldn’t allow anyone to go in or out of that place without him knowing about it. Much like this place, I’m sure he has sentries patrolling the walls and guard towers. If you want to get in, you’ll need more of a distraction. You will need an army.”

  Randy smiled. “I’m counting on it.”

  * * *

  Their boots slapping against the ground sounded like a band of Irish drummers. One foot after another, they marched in unison carrying tanks on their backs and flamethrowers in their hands. Josh led them to the mouth of the street where the kids had disappeared. It was still morning and the sun hadn’t revealed its full power on the heads of the black-clad armed men.

  A dozen guards flanked Josh, six on one side, six on the other. When they stopped, he inspected the ghettos where in the center once stood a church that had already burnt to the ground. On the left of the church, was a butcher shop, boarded up but still standing. Next to it, a convenience store sat, also boarded up. There was a pizzeria, a barbershop, a car wash, a florist—all closed, with boards running across the doors leading into the buildings. On the right of the church stood a shoemaker, next to that a travel agency, a gift shop, a clothing shop, and an ice cream parlor. Again, like the shops across the street, they sat empty without movement.

  The guards who lugged the tanks on their back shifted from foot to foot. All they needed was for Josh to say the word and they’d get to work. One of the guards’ fingers caressed the trigger to his flamethrower as if wanting to comfort it by saying, “There, there. In a little while you will have your fill.” But the order had yet to come.

  Leaving the guards behind him, Josh ventured to the center of square and spied on all the stores surrounding him. He noticed the boarded up shops, broken windows and torn garments from one of the empty buildings and smiled.

  “We know you’re in there.” Josh said. “You have one chance to come out with your hands up. If you don’t come out with your hands up, we will char this place until there’s nothing left of it. Do you understand?”

  He waited for a response, but no response came.

  “I’ll have to admit, I wasn’t expecting an escape from the three of you. I thought you were nothing more than the rest of the kids I’ve had in those cages. Looks like you’ve proved me wrong. When I see your faces again, I’ll have to offer my congratulations before I place you back where you belong.”

  Again, he waited for a response. His ears stood erect and his gaze scanned the buildings. No response.

  “You don’t think we know you’re in there? There’s no way out. The only way out of this is through this street. Everywhere else is under lockdown. I’m also sure you’re getting hungry. We have plenty of food to share with you. You just have to come out. We’ll feed you and you can then enjoy a life that won’t quite resemble hell. What do you think?”

  He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, but he didn’t get the response he was looking for. In fact, he shook his head at their stubborn attitude. That was until he glanced at the guards who raised their flamethrowers at the ready.

  Behind a building dashed a dog, scrawny and pale. Its ears went down and it had a defeated look as it passed from one side of the street to the other. It then disappeared into an alley behind the florist.

  “Okay,” Josh raised his hands into the air. “If that’s the way you want to play it, then I won’t try to stop any of my men to do what they have to do. I can’t guarantee your safety from this point forward. Do you understand?”

  The guards waited. They’ve been through this before with the others who had taken to running away. They weren’t about to allow the three kids to escape as well. They waited until the final moment when Josh would tell them it’s their turn to deal with the situation.

  Josh lowered his hands and disappeared into the crowd of guards.

  The troop spread from their positions to cover the entire square. Some carried silly smirks on their faces as if waiting for the order from Josh was a relief.

  The flames shot from the throwers and washed the faces of the shops. Liquid destruction poured on the doors, windows and into every crack of open space. The fire had no mercy. The ice cream parlor lit up in waves. Its doorposts crackled at the fierce, all-consuming fire that entered its doors and ate the counters, chairs and tables. The same went for the florist shop. The guards sprayed the face of the shop as if they were power washing the building of dirt, but in this case, the cleansing was permanent.

  Windowpanes that held the glass in place slipped from the edges of the building’s frames and released the transparent fixtures. The glass shattered in pieces on the sidewalks and inside the shops.

  In all of it, though, not a life appeared. As the guards continued to dump their devouring elements on the block, Josh scanned the abandoned stores and shops for life. He crossed his arms thinking no one could have been that strong to resist the devastation. Someone ought to have jetted from the flames and beg for their life. He couldn’t grasp the fact that so far, the small community separated by walls and fences, had since gone empty. He had been so out of touch with what was happening in his own city that he couldn’t see failure rise from the ashes of the destruction.

  “Stop.” Josh tapped Steadman on the shoulder.

  When Steadman eased his flamethrower, the other guards followed his lead. They stepped back from the buildings feeling the searing heat on their faces. Water ran the length of their brows into their uniforms, drenching them with sweat. Their clothes accumulated ash from the wind that blew in their direction. They breathed hot air, which made them all the more restless as they shifted in their spots. The faces of the guards on the end of the line crumpled with concern. They had torched the building and now the flames surrounded them.

  Was it a trap?

  Josh marched between them, grabbed Steadman’s gun he had holstered to his side and shot at windows left standing from the fire. He sprayed one side o
f the street then he did the same for the other. Again, no one ran from the flames begging for their life. Disappointment covered Josh’s face and he slipped the gun back in Steadman’s holster, rattled off a few commands and waved everyone from the area before the firestorm engulfed them, too.

  As the guards disappeared from the ghetto’s square, Josh stayed behind.

  “Are you coming?” Steadman asked.

  Determination filled the leader’s insides and Josh probed deeper into the square. He wasn’t about to leave without one more check of the area.

  He noticed the storefronts’ glass breaking, the plumes of smoke rising from the windows, and the flames chewing the frames to the buildings. His hands landed on his hips as he inspected the area in disbelief. He was sure the kids would have run from the chaos. He was sure they would have surrendered and told him everything he wanted to know. He thought, they had gone somewhere, he just didn’t know where.

  Steadman ran in after Josh with a fury to his pace. “We have to get out of here. This place is going to collapse.”

  But Josh threw Steadman’s hands from his arms and walked closer to the alley where the kids had disappeared. Something caught his interest and he wasn’t about to let it go. Once the pit bull latched on to something, its jaws locked in place. Josh’s gaze locked in place.

  Even Steadman couldn’t escape the fact that there was more to the ghetto than anyone had originally suspected.

  Under the debris and burning fire, Josh spotted a collapsed section of alley with broken lights, planks and ladders. He had once suspected it but he didn’t think it possible. His citizens had another world they lived in and he wasn’t part of it.

  Having seen the tunnels as well, Steadman grabbed Josh by the arm and pulled him away from the alley into the square, and dragged him to safety.

  At the mouth of the entrance to the square, Josh noticed the dog that once had run across the street in order to find cover. It lay on the side of the building dead, its body burning in a heap of flames.

  * * *

  Smoke filled the tunnel and seeped into the crack under the trap door. It slowly rose into the room until Toby’s nostrils filled with the stench of burning wood and plastics. He shifted his head from left to right wondering where it was coming from. The smell passed from Toby to the kids where Matty shot to her feet and pointed at the crack under the trap door from where plumes of smoke filled the room. Toby rose from his chair, spun around and followed the trail.

  Randy ran to the door and felt it with his hand. It wasn’t hot. He thought if it were hot, the fire would have been right behind the door, but they were safe. He reached for the handle.

  “Don’t open it!” Jon dashed to Randy’s side while Matty watched. “If you open it, the whole room will fill with smoke. We need to put a wet towel under the door to prevent the smoke from coming into the room.”

  Although Toby looked old, he didn’t move at a slow pace. He dropped to his knees and rummaged through his pack for a towel he kept with him for safekeeping. He tossed it to Jon. He then pulled a jug from under a pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room and popped it open. When Jon slipped the towel under the door, Toby soaked it with water. He drenched it until the smoke stopped penetrating the room.

  “What’s next? I’m out of ideas.” Jon shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Matty.

  “Is there another way out?” Matty asked.

  “Do you think my home would not have a back way?” Toby capped the jug and slipped it back in its rightful place. He led the kids to the back of the room, then pulled the bookshelf to one side and revealed a small hole leading to the outside. “Follow me.”

  Randy began to breathe heavy, then said, “I can’t. I can’t go in there.”

  He had suffered from the fear of tight spaces ever since he escaped from the prison in Arizona. He couldn’t see inside the darkness without dying first. He would have preferred death than venturing into a cramped tunnel.

  “It’ll be okay.” Matty approached him and gently placed her hand on his arm. The gesture was the kind he loved receiving of which she showed so little. “Follow me and I’ll lead you outside to safety. I promise to not let anything happen to you.”

  Shaking his head, Randy backed away.

  “It’ll be okay.” This time she leaned in and embraced him to settle his trembling. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  They stood locked for what seemed a long time. In fact, Jon picked up Matty’s habit and rolled his eyes at the pair as Toby looked on. They didn’t have time to waste. If a fire was brewing then they’d better think about leaving and leaving quickly.

  Jon cleared his throat hoping they’d hurry it up already.

  Letting Randy go, Matty gazed at his face. They didn’t have to share any words. Their connection was alive and that was all that mattered. They may have had their differences about their relationship, but they knew whatever happened, happened for a reason. They would always be friends no matter how bad things got.

  Without a word, Randy walked to the hole then gazed at Toby.

  Toby led the way.

  Chapter 25

  At the top of the hill, beyond the view of the sentries patrolling Paradise’s walls, Silver sat motionless in the pickup with his foot on the brake and his hands on the wheel. The road ahead led to the entrance of the walled city. Chewers surrounded the city with no chance anyone could enter without armored protection.

  Morning had turned to noon and the roamers hugged the walls never surrendering the perimeter. Bones of their victims lay in pieces under their feet. The sun heated the valley forcing the sentries to enter the towers for relief from the rays. They closed the doors and fanned themselves under the shade. The sweat dripped from their foreheads as if it were flowing water.

  From both sides of the entrance, two towers protected the wall by monitoring the valley for miles. Two guards occupied each tower. In the northeast tower, their attention span proved short as one of them yawned, then leaned against the doorpost to brush the dirt from under his heel. In the other tower, the guards kept their eyes fixed on the horizon where the bushes didn’t reveal their enemy. Once the sun faded, the guards would continue their patrol outside their respective posts later in the afternoon.

  Beyond the guards’ view, Silver hadn’t moved from the road leading to the fortified city. He stared into the distance listening to the truck’s motor hum in the background. Abigail, who sat in the passenger seat, asked Silver if he planned to carry out Ranger’s instructions. Her question met a cold gaze. She wasn’t sure if he had it in him to do what Ranger requested. She then realized why Ranger had asked her to stay with Silver and not Lenny. She was Ranger’s insurance policy. If Silver didn’t carry out his plan, Abigail would.

  Abigail remembered how she had met Ranger in Temple City, Utah when he came to her group asking for help. She refused him once, only because she had a greater interest to maintain. When she met him a second time, her attitude hadn’t changed. She resisted him more than ever.

  Her mother didn’t, and it had costed her mother her life for which she didn’t blame anyone else but herself.

  With her mother having died days before, and Ranger rescuing her from the jaws of the undead, she thought she owed Ranger for his kindness. She may have been eight years old, yet her mind was that of a thirty-year-old. She was always thinking ten steps ahead. When others thought they had gained the upper hand with her, she always had something else on her mind that would prove them wrong.

  At this time, she wasn’t sure about Silver’s behavior. It didn’t concern her, though. She knew how to handle him. “Are we going to do what we promised Ranger we would do?”

  “That’s the thing. Who’s to say Ranger’s right? He’s done nothing but boss us around ever since we met him. I have no guarantee he will pull through for us when we need him. Ever since I met him, all my friends have died a horrible death. I’m not planning to die like them. I’ve learned to trust no one but myself.�
��

  “Is that what you think?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I think.”

  “Okay.” Abigail didn’t bother giving him the respect of looking him in the eye. She was too busy pulling up her socks then tying her shoelaces. Yet with all the distraction she caused, she was also busy thinking of a response. She finally answered. “I’m here, now, because Ranger sent Matty and Randy to get me in the cabin where my mother died. Hadn’t he done that, I would have been eaten alive by those maggot swallowers. Not only did Matty and Randy save me, but also Matty stayed with me while I mourned my mother in the back of this pickup. You should remember, too, that Ranger saved your tail when you sprained your ankle. He carried you that whole way, placed you in the back of this pickup and found a safe place for us to rest and relax before we came here.”

  “This place is not what we expected.”

  “That should surprise you? Nothing in this world is what we come to expect. It doesn’t stop us from helping each other or helping others.”

  Silver shifted the truck to park and turned off the engine. For the first time in their conversation, their eyes met.

  “Matty and Randy saved me. I owe them. Ranger saved you. You owe him.”

  Running his hand over his face to remove the frustration, Silver nodded at the little girl with the big ideas. He couldn’t argue with her. She was right and he had a duty to fulfill to his friends. He owed them his life.

  * * *

  A yacht drifted in the water on its own with no one on deck. It followed the current until it caught sight of Paradise’s docks. It didn’t speed or slow its pace. It simply wafted from the north.

  One of two guards stationed at the dock spotted the yacht with binoculars and waved to the other to investigate. It wasn’t normal to find a boat riding the waves toward them. They weren’t expecting anyone and their last shipment had left hours before. When the second guard arrived, he grabbed the binoculars and pressed the lenses to his face. He studied the craft from bow to stern and noticed ripples coming from the end of its tail. He thought someone had to be on the boat. Someone had to have set it on cruise control to make it appear as if it was drifting.