The Book Of Riley ~ A Zombie Tale

by Mark Tufo

  ***

  This time when I awoke I was on a soft floor, Ben-Ben was not more than an inch or two from my face.

  “You okay, Riley, huh?” he asked at least seven times.

  “Ben-Ben, let her be,” Jessie said as she walked across the room to come sit by me. She wrapped an arm around each of us and held tight. It was dog heaven.

  I went to lick her arm but it hurt to move my jaw, I just lay there contentedly as she rubbed my back.

  “Where are we, Ben-Ben? And where’s the baby cub?”

  “They have meat snacks here Riley, can we stay?” Ben-Ben asked excitedly.

  “Where is here, Ben-Ben?”

  “It’s the place with the meat snacks,” he answered sincerely and with some confusion why I hadn’t figured that out. “Are you okay? The snack givers said you might have hurt your head.”

  “I’m fine if you were wondering,” Patches said from the windowsill above me.

  I craned my neck to see her; I was not at all pleased to have her peering down at me.

  I was somewhat glad the cat was alright but I didn’t see the need to tell her that. “Besides being able to get meat snacks, can you tell me where we are, Cat?”

  “Do you want the whole story?” she asked.

  “Sure, it doesn’t look like we’re in any rush at the moment, but first, how is the cub?”

  “He yet lives, but it is tenuous,” she said.

  I didn’t know what ‘tenuous’ meant but it didn’t sound good.

  “After you crushed the head of the zombie, Jessie was losing her battle with the other one. I jumped out of the car and onto his leg; I ran up his leg and clawed out his eyes. After he was blinded, Jessie was able to figure out how to make the rifle shoot and the zombie died.”

  I had some doubts about the cat jumping out to save Jessie, but maybe if she thought Jessie was going to die and she wouldn’t have a ride or anybody to open the cans of food she might. Maybe; it still seemed a stretch.

  “The girl started crying and was getting back into the car when I ran over to the zombie that had landed on you, I bit down on his shoulder and started to pull him off of you.”

  “Really? You did that for me?”

  “Sure, we’re pack mates, you and me.”

  It had been a stretch of truth before she started talking about pulling a large two-legger off of me.

  “Well, I wasn’t able to get him off you by myself, but Jessie did realize she had forgotten about you and then helped. Together we were able to roll him off of you. Then I helped her drag you over to the car and inside. She put you in the back and let me sit up front because now I was her favorite for having helped out and saving her.”

  “Oh, Patches,” I said.

  “It’s okay Riley, she still loves you, it’s just that now I am at the top because of my heroics. It was me who found this home too,” she added triumphantly.

  I didn’t think the cat was lying, I really think this was how she viewed the world, what a funny little cat mind she had. Daniel had said that zombies like to eat brains; I don’t think the cat was in any danger.

  “Thank you, Patches,” I said more for the entertainment value of her story than for actually helping me, but she purred her satisfaction.

  “What am I going to do, Riley?” Jessie asked as she buried her face in my fur. “You saved me again, girl. When am I going to start being able to take care of myself? The lady here said Zach was a day away from dying, said he had a fever of a hundred and two. They are still not sure he’ll be alright.”

  I did the only thing I could, I nuzzled my head in her lap, two-leggers felt better when they were scratching dogs behind their ears, Alpha Female had said as much when she read an article about dogs staying with older two-leggers.

  Ben-Ben was also resting his head on Jessie’s other leg, his eyes were rolling up and he was snoring softly, I was moments away from doing the same when a new two-legger came into the room.

  “He’s much better,” the female two-legger told Jessie.

  Jessie started to leak from her eyes again. “Thank you, Faye,” Jessie said as she gently moved mine and Ben-Ben’s heads so she could stand up, she encircled her arms around the woman, I equated it with sniffing another dog’s genitalia, it was their form of greeting.

  “He was dangerously dehydrated and he has a high temperature from a virus,” Faye said. “And no, not that virus.”

  I did not feel anything threatening from the woman, but Patches’ words had traveled deep. I whimpered as I stood up so I could be next to Jessie.

  “What a good girl you are,” Faye said. “I heard what you’ve done.”

  She was scratching behind my ears and out of a pouch in her fake skins she produced a snack bone. Could this day get any better? I thought as I crunched on the treat, my jaw still twinged but it was worth it.

  Ben-Ben, upon hearing me chew, was immediately up and at my muzzle. “Whatcha got there, Riley? Smells like bacon. Is there any more? I would really like a bacon treat!”

  “Oh, I heard about you too, boy!” Faye said, reaching down and scratching his back. She produced another treat from her magic pouch.

  “Oh, boy!” Ben-Ben said dancing from paw to paw. “Chicken, Riley!” he mumbled around chews.

  I went over to sniff her pouch. There were still treats in it. I would treat this old two-legger nicely until she proved otherwise.

  “I guess I have a new friend,” she said to Jessie and laughed.

  I was still enjoying the different scents of the treats when another two-legger came out of the room behind Faye. I immediately backed up, my hackles rose and I found myself growling even before I had a reason.

  “It’s okay, girl,” Jessie said, coming up to wrap her arms around my neck. I was straining against her embrace, partly to attack and partly to runaway.

  The two-legger that came through the door was enormous, he had to stoop so he did not hit his head on the opening. He had hair on his face that was longer than Ben-Ben’s tail. He laughed when he saw my reaction his full belly shaking up and down.

  “Santa?” Ben-Ben asked, running up to the giant. The huge man gently picked up Ben-Ben in his huge hands; the small dog could have gone for a walk in the man’s grasp. “It is Santa!” Ben-Ben said, eagerly licking the man’s face.

  The man’s laugh was so deep it made the floor tremble slightly.

  “Well, you’re a friendly one,” the man said.

  Ben-Ben may have made up his mind, but I sure hadn’t. I turned to see where Patches was; my back-up was nowhere to be seen. Typical, I thought.

  “Ben-Ben, who is Santa?” I asked.

  “Only the kindest two-legger ever. He brings treats to dogs every year! I saw him more than once on the two-legger picture box.”

  “That is certainly not Santa,” Patches said from on top of the couch over to my left.

  “How come everyone knows who Santa is except me?” I asked.

  “How could you not?” Patches asked snidely. “The pack cubs go on and on about him about this time every year. But I know, if it doesn’t revolve around food you really don’t pay attention.”

  “Be careful cat,” I said.

  “Anyway, that’s not Santa, I heard the old woman call him Winke. And he has a cloud around him too.”

  “Well, aren’t you full of good news,” I said.

  “His isn’t as dark and pressing as Zach’s was. He probably still has a few moons left.”

  “Is he safe?” I asked, still unsure about the giant two-legger.

  “That I cannot tell, but he is a human and they can only be trusted so far. I will eat the food he gives me and I will accept the petting, but I will always have a way to escape.”

  “I haven’t made up my mind about you yet, Cat, but you are smart.”

  “Not that I care too much one way or the other, but your words are agreeable to me.”

  I cautiously walked over to the man; I was low to the ground, hoping he wouldn’t notice m
e as I got closer to smell around his fake skins.

  “You coming around?” the big man said as he leaned down. “Faye, give me one of your treats.”

  My tail started to wag on its own just at the mere mention of a treat.

  “We lost our dog the day the zombies came,” Faye said sadly as she handed a treat to her mate. I could tell by their comingled scents now that I was closer. If the kind woman thought enough of the man to mate with him then he had to be alright.

  “I’m so sorry,” Jessie said.

  “Oh, no, I’m sorry, hon,” Faye replied. “Here I am going on about my dog after all you lost.”

  “It’s okay, Faye,” Winke told his wife, kissing the top of her head. “We haven’t heard from our kids since. We have one in Connecticut and another up in San Francisco. It’s the not knowing that’s difficult.” Faye was crying. “On a good note, your brother, I believe, is going to be fine. I had to put an intravenous in him to get him some much needed fluids and I gave him some antibiotics. He had a nasty case of strep, couple more days and he’ll be right as rain.”

  “I cannot thank you enough,” Jessie fairly sobbed. “When would it be safe for me to travel?”

  Winke and Faye gave each other a silent look; I had seen Alpha male and female do this many times when they sent each other a message without talking.

  “Jessie, I’ve been talking to Winke; why don’t you just stay here?” Faye asked. “We have the room and plenty of food for all of you.”

  “Wet meat?”Ben-Ben asked, looking from face to face for a response.

  Winke spoke up, “It’s not safe out there, we know there’s someone in Colorado you’re trying to get to, but there’s not much out there anymore.”

  “I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all you’ve done, but he’s the closest thing I have to family left,” Jessie said.

  “You have to be realistic—have you heard from him?” Winke asked. “You’ve only been here a short while, but we’ve grown fond of you and your brother and your traveling companions,” Winke said as he rubbed my head vigorously.

  Patches was watching intently but she wasn’t weighing in one way or the other.

  Jessie’s head drooped a bit and then she picked it back up to speak. “See, you don’t understand; his dad is kind of nuts, he’s one of those survivalists. He would always be talking about how zombies were coming and we should be prepared. Come to think of it, I guess he was right.”

  “Our neighbors were world class survivalists, even wrote articles for Hunter of Fortune type magazines,” Winke said.

  “Were?” Jessie asked.

  “We had to shoot them when they tried to come in the kitchen window, they were both zombies,” Winke explained.

  “But Mr. Talbot was a Marine,” Jess countered.

  “My neighbor was Special Forces, his wife was a ground pounder in the Army, they were both in their thirties, peak physical condition, had enough food to last them twenty years and that doesn’t even begin to bring into account the arsenal of weapons I found in their underground bunker.”

  “Mr. Talbot talked about getting an underground bunker but he lived in a townhouse. What am I going to do?”

  “That’s easy, stay here dear,” Faye said putting her arm around Jessie.

  “Can I think on it?”

  “Sure, there’s no time limit.” Winke laughed. “At the very least you should stay a few days until we’re sure the antibiotics we’re giving Zach take hold.”

  “Maybe you could even stay through Christmas?” Faye asked hopefully.

  “Christmas?” Jessie asked. “I guess it is December, I hadn’t even really thought about it.”

  “I told you he was Santa!” Ben-Ben said excitedly, again lapping the man’s face.

  “He likes the idea,” Winke said, putting the small dog down.

  “Thank you,” Jessie said.

  “Sure, dear, come on, I’ll show you your room. It’s Bonnie’s old room,” Faye said wistfully.

  “And what should we do with you all?” Winke asked us.

  I trotted off after Jessie, as did Patches.

  I guess that leaves you and me, Ben-Ben,” Winke said.

  “You and me Santa!” Ben-Ben said excitedly.